● The beginning of Period 5 is when we start to see severe and increased sectionalism in the US, while the end of the period signifies the end of the Reconstruction Period. Why does this matter?
○ 1844 helps to clarify what exactly is building the tension and conflict in the Civil War. 1877 technically signifies the end of any issues involved in the Civil War, but the question of equality is a concept that continues to Period 8.
● Civil War: what led to its occurrence, what the war was about, the results
● Expansionism: what encouraged it, what it resulted in
● Precursor for slavery issue, but at this time, slavery was not the issue YET
○ The Texan Republic considered itself independent from Mexico and applied for statehood in the US. Mexico did not recognize Texas’s independence.
○ Texas was a large territory with slaves, and when Congress discussed the state’s admission, there was tension regarding the power Texas would give to the slave states in Congress.
○ Against the North’s opinions, Texas was admitted as a slave state. Mexico, believing that Texas belonged to them, supposedly attacked American troops in Texas. President Polk quickly declared war with Mexico and won.
○ Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo: Mexico cedes huge amounts of land to the US, known as the Mexican Cession
■ Modern day California, Texas, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and a bit of New Mexico
■ These are lands below the 36°30° line from the Missouri Compromise
○ The possibility of the South’s large mass of power became a serious issue, and tensions between the sections in Congress inflamed
● Wilmot Proviso: bill that prohibited the spread of slavery into lands from the Mexican Cession
○ Never passed by both houses of Congress
○ The Free Soil Party later formed with this the prevention of slavery’s spread as its main goal
● Whig Party: constantly divided on the Texan issue, leading to their party’s destruction
● What was the main effect of the Mexican-American War?
○ Inflamed tensions between North and South
■ Suspected each other of suppressing each other’s economic visions
○ The spread of slavery meant the spread of the Southern way of life - agriculture. If slaves spread into the West, it would not only give Southern states more power in Congress to decide what would be done with American economics, but also prevent the establishment of the North’s industry in the West. Who’s way of life will the government support: industry or agriculture?
● Using compromises as “bandaids”
○ Campaigned by Stephan Douglas
○ The new territories will be populated overtime. When they apply for statehood eventually, their population will vote on whether or not they want to be a slave or free state.
○ Tensions are inflamed once again when California wants to be admitted as a free state.
○ Congress reaches another compromise:
Good for the North
○ California admitted as a free state
○ Abolished D.C. slave trade
Good for the South
○ Popular sovereignty for the rest of the lands in the Mexican Cession
○ Stronger fugitive slave law
○ Involved the Kansas and Nebraska territories (not from the Mexican Cession)
○ Stated that popular sovereignty will decide their free-slave state status
■ These territories are ABOVE the 36°30° line, so this act threw out the Missouri Compromise, which originally ruled that such territories would be free states automatically.
○ Bleeding Kansas: people flooded the territories from other established free and slave states to help turn the vote to their side. People were murdered.
○ Brooks and Sumner Beating: Sumner, an anti-slavery senator, was beaten on the head with a cane by Brooks
○ Tension in both the people and Congress
○ Comprised of Free Soil Party supporters, anti-slavery Whigs, Northern Democrats
○ Supported largely in the North
○ Views:
■ Restrict slavery’s expansion (because it didn’t line up with Northern economics, not because of morality)
■ Build infrastructure
■ Support land distribution
■ Increase protective tariffs
● The last 3 support the North’s way of life: industry
○ Dred Scott’s master traveled with Scott to a free state, and there, his master died suddenly. Scott believed he was a free man, however, the court ruled him as enslaved because “property” is inherited. Scott was now the slave of his master’s relative.
○ Supreme Court rules that Congress had no constitutional right to ban slavery in any territory
○ Explosion of tension, as this meant slavery could expand anywhere, even in established free states
● Difference in economic ideology
○ Static, traditional Southern way vs. diverse, industrial Northern way
● Expansion and federal interference
● Sectional political parties: Republicans up north, Democrats down south
○ Stephen Douglas: ambiguous stance on slavery
○ Abraham Lincoln: skillfully portrayed as neutral; however he was adamant about the spread of slavery (not its existence). He wins.
■ Shortly, South Carolina secedes from the Union (1860)
○ Led by Jefferson Davis
○ Plagued with economic problems
■ Davis tried to stimulate quick market growth to support the South economy, but this led to a severe inflation
■ Davis established high taxes to pay for the need for infrastructure, but the people hated this
○ Plagued with social problems
■ Bread Riots: lots of starvation amongst poor white farmers
■ Conscription: elites were drafted, but could pay a poor white farmer to go in their place
● Class tensions -- Elites were the slave owners to begin with, yet the poorer farmers who couldn’t even afford slaves were fighting in the war
○ Had the material advantage because their infrastructure of railroads and telegraph lines was already established.
○ Economy soared
■ Lincoln issued greenbacks (paper money), different from Jackson’s previous support of hard money
○ Preserving the Union (North), protecting States’ rights (South)
○ Lincoln purposely made it about slavery by passing the Emancipation
Proclamation of 1863
■ No slaves in the Confederacy (slave states still in the Union got to keep their slaves)
■ Barred any anti-slavery Europeans (Britain and France especially) from helping the Confederates
○ Emancipation Proclamation: barred the Confederates from any powerful allies
■ 13th Amendment: all black men in the Confederacy are free, no slavery
○ Confiscation Acts: any escaped slaves from the South became soldiers for the North
■ Slaves were useful to both the South’s economy and military; taking them away was a huge blow to the South
○ Antietam: first Union victory
○ Sherman’s March to the Sea: split the South in half to weaken them, and carefully destroyed outward from the divide
○ The North won.
● Process of readmitting Confederate states back into the Union
○ Very minimal -- ten percent of voters had to pledge loyalty to the Union
○ Lincoln was assassinated before he could enforce it
○ A complete failure
○ Confederate generals went back to their powerful positions
○ Black codes incorporated the new word “freedmen” to replace “slave”
○ Johnson tried to end Reconstruction, but thankfully Congress vetoed Johnson’s vetoes to the entire process
○ Johnson was later impeached (but wasn’t convicted) for violating tenure -- firing members of his Cabinet without consulting Congress
■ Allowed Congress to take the reins on Reconstruction away from the unsupportive president
○ 14th Amendment: Blacks are citizens
○ 15th Amendment: as citizens, black men are now allowed to vote
○ Barred major Confederates from political positions
○ Military Reconstruction Act of 1867: American soldiers stay in the South to ensure that the plan is enforced
○ Corruption and the Panic of 1873 pulled attention away from Reconstruction
○ Compromise of 1877: made a deal with the Democrats in that if they let Hayes win the election, Hayes would end reconstruction and pull out the American soldiers from the South.
○ Allowed democrats to take power again in the South
● One of the main reasons why the Civil War happened
○ With the continued westward movement, America had to choose what kind of nation it would be: industrial or agricultural?
● So what encouraged westward movement?
○ Manifest Destiny: Sense of mission on the part of Americans to extend their democratic ideals to the Western territory
■ God determined that America should reach from sea to sea
○ Population increases
■ High immigration rates
○ Desires for cheap land and a “fresh start”
■ East had a lot of Panics
○ Result: slavery tensions and Native American battles
○ Still don’t have voting rights → continuity
○ White supremacy continued
○ Greatly aided by the Freedmen’s Bureau
○ Sharecropping: farmed another landlord’s land to make money, but had to give some of their crop from their landlord
■ Often had slave-like condition, became a lifetime debt to the landlord
○ Black churches formed
■ An escape from an oppressive white society
○ Many migrated out of the South after Hayes’ election
○ Came from China, Ireland, Germany
○ Settle in heavily ethnic communities
■ These were often labeled as ghettos
○ Negative sentiment against immigrants grew due to the overcrowding and city life
■ Nativism
***Understand how the Civil War is a big centerpiece for any political, economic, and social aspect of the period.