Period 5 Flashcards
(34 cards)
Manifest Destiny (Late 1840s)
the idea that the United States is destined by God to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent
Manifest Destiny Motivations
-more access to minerals and natural resources
-california gold rush
-New economic and homesteading opportunities
-the government made land cheap so people bought it to farm
-Mormons faced religious persecution so they moved west
Compromise of 1850
-admission of California as a “free state”
-provided for a territorial government for Utah and New Mexico,
-The disputed territory between texas and new mexico becomes new mexican.
-abolition of slave trade in Washington, DC
-Mexican Cession (New territory) was up to popular sovereignty (people decide if they are free or slave states.)
-amended the Fugitive Slave Act. Anyone in the north that found a fugitive/runaway slave is forced to return them back to their master
Northern Democrats
-represented by Stephen Douglas
- Wanted slavery question answered by popular sovereignty
Southern Democrats
-represented by John Breckinridge
- Wanted slavery and new territories protected by a federal slave code
- Once territories became states, then they could decide by popular sovereignty
Republicans
Whig Party
Free Soil Movement
-composed of northern democrats and whigs
-wanted new territories to be the dominion of free laborers (white people should move, free of slavery)
-opportunities of the west should be white only
-prevent the spread of slavery
-contrast members of the party: abolitionists
Mexican American War (1846-48)
- Mexico needed more laborers so they called for American immigrants
- These American immigrants brought slaves, which was against Mexico’s laws.
- There was a war between Texans (Americans in texas) and Mexico because the Texans did not want to give up their slaves.
- Texas became independent and then became annexed by the US
Mexican Cession (1848)
- USA wanted to buy California but Mexico said no
- President James Polk sends troops to the border of Texas and Mexico (Military intimidation)
- A war starts between the US because America provoked it.
- Polk says to congress “american blood was spilled on american soil” to gain support from Congress.
- US gained southwest territory (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona) mexican cession territory
California Gold Rush (1849)
Many people immigrated to the California territory for the gold mining business and the question of slavery or free state was raised. The wanted to be annexed as a free state but he Missouri Compromise line cut it in half .
Nativist Movement (1830s)
There was an anti-catholic nativist movement. (A policy of protecting the interests of native-born people against the interests of immigrants) The Irish faced persecution because they were catholic Christians and not protestant Christians.
Raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
John Brown was an abolitionist. He believed that the only way for America to be free from slavery was a slave uprising. He devised a plan to steal weapons, arm enslaved folk, and ignite an armed rebellion. The Southerners saw the raid as symbolic of what the abolitionist’s real goal was. They thought that northerners wanted to incite a race war in which white southerners would suffer.
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
-split the new territory into Kansas and Nebraska
-popular sovereignty for slave or non-slave states.
-This overturned the compromise of 1820
Bleeding Kansas (1855-1859)
-Voting for whether Kansas would be a slave or free state was taking place and caused animosity.
-Both sides fought each other to gain the upper hand and have the most votes.
-The voting was fraudulent because pro-slavery people from Missouri flooded into the Kansas borders and voted.
Dred Scott Case (1857)
Dred Scott was an enslaved man from Missouri and he was taken by his master to live in Illinois and Wisconsin. He sued his master for freedom because he had been living in nonslave states for two years.
Chief Justice Roger Taney who was a southern democrat, along with the majority of the court decided against Scott’s argument because he was a slave and had no right to sue in federal court. It raised tension because it meant that every state would technically be open to slavery.
Election of 1860
Democrat: Stephen Douglas
Republican: Abe Lincoln (Free soil movement)
Lincoln won the election without a single electoral vote from the Southern States.
Declared the south powerless
December of 1860
South Carolina succeded from the union
Border States
states that had slaves but did not seceed from the union
-Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, & Delaware
Union War Strategies
- blockade cut off of South’s supplies around the southern borders and coasts
- control the Mississippi River and split the south (east and west)
- Union troops gain control of the Confederate capital
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Abraham Lincoln stated that all slaves in states that seceded from the union would become free. This did not free slave states in the union or the Confederacy.
Northern Draft (1863)
In order to gain the upper hand in the Civil War, the North drafted soldiers for the war.
- rich people could pay to be replaced
- Many people didn’t actually care about slavery so they didn’t want to fight and lose their life for it.
Andrew Jackson
- Abraham Lincoln’s vice president
- He encouraged Southern sympathizers to vote for Lincoln and strengthened his campaign
- Once Lincoln was assassinated, he showed his southern roots. He did not believe in racial equality so he vetoed the first civil rights act that made African Americans citizens. Congress overturned his veto and it still passed.
Black Codes
Because Andrew Johnson was lenient as president, southern state governments passed laws to limit the opportunities of African Americans, especially forcing many to only be able to work in the fields.
- arrested for being homeless
- arrested for being unemployed
