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Final 4/28/16

Prompt:  "How did state regulation of citizenship and slavery inform the social, economic, and political development of the United States of America from the signing of the American Constitution in 1787 to the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865?"

Thesis: The History of citizenship and slavery in the United States origins comes in the foundations of our nation and created a chain reaction of events that resulted in the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery. From the days of the Early Republic to events such as the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott ruling. The question of citizenship and slavery paved the way for many social, economic, and political changes in the United States.

1: The Missouri Compromise

In 1819, the territory of Missouri petitioned to be admitted into the United States. Missouri wanted to be admitted into the Union as a slave state. At the time this would have unbalanced the amount of states that were free and the amount of states that were slave. In 1820, in order to maintain balance Congress constructed a two-part compromise. Missouri would be admitted into the Union as a slave state and Maine would enter the Union as a free state, Congress also passed an amendment that drew a line across the Louisiana Territory which established a boundary between free and slave states. 

http://www.mrvanduyne.com/youngnation/change/misscomp.html

2: The Interstate Slave Trade

In 1808, the international slave trade was over, but in the United States slavery was still widely practiced in the south. In the South slavery was necessary for daily life. Southerners were able to maintain a competitive advantage over the north with the use of slave labor in means of production. With this advantage, the Interstate Slave Trade was born and slaves were bought, sold, and traded across state lines in the South.

http://usslave.blogspot.com/2012/04/forks-of-road-slave-market-at-natchez.html

3: Abolitionism

Abolitionism was the movement to end slavery, whether formal or informal. I 1831 the abolitionist movement began to take hold in the Northern United States. Newspapers and magazines began to publish articles condemning the act of slavery and the call for immediate freedom of all enslaved people. William Lloyd Garrison and John Brown were famous abolitionist from opposite ends of the spectrum. While Garrison proposed abolition through democracy, John Brown wanted to end slavery by any means possible.

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/abolitionist-movement

4: Seneca Falls Convention

July 19, 1848 at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York the first Women’s rights convention in the United States was held. The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The two women met at the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Women’s Suffrage and the abolitionist movement in the United States were closely linked. But the country was only ready for one new social movement at the time. It would only take two decades after the Seneca Falls Convention for slavery to be abolished but women’s suffrage would not be adopted until 1920 with the 19th Amendment.

http://www.historynet.com/seneca-falls-convention

5: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe first published installments of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in an antislavery newspaper, but her book was to be published in 1852 and become an overnight sensation. Uncle Tom’s Cabin depicts slavery and the system of slavery at odds with the ideology of Christianity. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the first Anti-Slavery novels and had profound power on the communities in the north.

https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/utc/

6: Fugitive Slaves:

Fugitive Slaves were runaway slaves that managed to escape to a free state. the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 passed by congress, allowed citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves and it also denied slaves the right to a jury trial and increased the penalty for interfering with the rendition process and $1,000 and six months in jail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slaves_in_the_United_States

7: Compromise of 1850

In order to avert the coming sectional crisis between the North and South, Senator Henry Clay passed a series of resolutions in early 1850. The Compromise of 1850 ended the slave trade in Washington D.C. while creating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, making it easier for southerners to recover any fugitive slaves. The Compromise also addressed the territories that were acquired from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

http://www.history.com/topics/compromise-of-1850

8: Kansas-Nebraska Act

Early in 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas drafted a new bill that divided the land of Missouri into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. As a proponent of popular sovereignty, Douglas argued settlement of the new territories to decide if slavery would be legal there, even though it violated the Missouri Compromise. Settlers from the North moved to Kansas-Nebraska territory to vote opposed to the state becoming a slave state, while southern settlers and citizens of Missouri moved to the Kansas-Nebraska territory to vote in favor of it becoming a slave state. The territory erupted in violence and the seeds of separation were planted.

http://www.history.com/topics/kansas-nebraska-act

9: John Brown

John Brown was a radical abolitionist who believed that slavery was to be destroyed by any means necessary. John Brown believed that slavery should even be overthrown through violence. John Brown was famous for his 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harper Ferry. He and his sons attempted to capture supplies and arms at Harpers Ferry in order to spark a slave rebellion. His attack was a failure, and he was later hung, but in the North he was regarded as a hero and in the south a terrorist.

http://www.history.com/topics/john-brown

10: Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, he served his presidency from March 1861 until his assassination by John Wilkes Booth in April of 1865. Abraham Lincoln was famous for his Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863 and it freed all slaves in the rebellious states during the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for eventual abolition of slavery. Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of the United States greatest Presidents for his ability to reunite the Union and the abolition of slavery.

http://www.biography.com/people/abraham-lincoln-9382540

11: Secession

After the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War was inevitable. Southern States had already begun to seceded from the Union because they feared that with the election of a republican president the southern way of life was at risk. Once South Carolina seceded in December of 1860 before Lincoln had even taken office a domino effect occurred and split the nation in half, sparking the Civil War.

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/secession

12:Sojourner Truth

(p. VII) Plenty of stories are known of the hard cruelty that was found in the South, but Sojourner was one of the few African American slaves, who revealed what life was like as a slave of the North. Similarly to Southern slaves Isabella was separated and sold to another master at the early age of 9. Her life seemed no where near as harsh as other stories appear to be, having once been freed in 1827, she took a case to court in order to have her oldest son returned to New York from Alabama so that he would not have to live his whole life in slavery, since he had been illegally traded south. 

http://thepoliticalgirl.blogspot.com/2011/02/from-sojourner-to-michelle-ten-black.html

13:William Lloyd Garrison

(p. 94)He was the first man to public ally make it know what his stand point was on the idea of slavery. Garrison with many other abolitionists in order to spread the knowledge that slavery was wrong and that African Americans deserved the same freedom he had himself. Not only was he an abolitionist, he was also a feminist, which at the time did not always sit well with other men. 

Source: http://www.accessible-archives.com/2013/09/william-lloyd-garrison-non-resistance/

Conclusion:

The state regulation of slavery and citizenship profoundly changed the United States during the early 19th Century. Slavery was the driving factor for many of the events that happened from the creation of the Missouri Compromise to the development and consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Without slavery these events would not have happened and the Civil War would have never occurred. After researching the early 19th century it is clear that slavery was the driving factor for the secession of southern states sparking the Civil War. The development of the institution of slavery shaped and defined our economy, politics, society, and identity as a nation in the early 19th century and would forever have racial repercussions that continue to divide our nation to this day.

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Class Discussion 4/19/16

Cotton made up the vast majority of the economic income for the “deep” southern states. Mississippi among them had a slave percentage of 55% and the African American community outnumbered the white community and nearly one third of families owned slaves in Mississippi. Because of this Mississippi was one of the first states to secede from the Union. All of the cotton states would soon follow along with the rest of the South within a year. The Souths primary reason for seceding was the fact that they were afraid a recently elected Lincoln would set their slaves free and that in turn would devastate their economy and diminish their wealth.

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Class Discussion 4/14/16

Today in class we discussed the Dred Scott Case. This was a case of a slave who sued the brother of his slave owner for his freedom because he was taken to a free state. First he was shut down because the supreme court says that congress did not have the right to prohibit slavery, a state can but congress could not. Eventually his freedom was purchased and he passed 18 months after being freed. We also talked about the Lincoln Douglas debates, Douglas believed that there was no reason to tell Black Americans what to do and how to live. He believed that he didn’t want anything to do with Blacks but he still felt as though they should go their own way. He also was trying to get his point across on how the North could talk about  the South but they aren’t up to par either. Lincoln was basically saying the same thing but in favor of the North and not the South.

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Chapter 17 ID’s

1.Black Codes

Laws passed by southern states restricted the rights and liberties of former slaves.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h411.html

2.Freedman’s Bureau

Federal agency created in 1865 to supervise newly freed people. It oversaw relations between declaring segregation on buses and in waiting rooms to be unconstitutional.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/freedmens-bureau

3.Carpetbaggers

Northerns who settled in the South during Reconstruction.

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/carpetbaggers-and-scalawags

4.Ku Klux Klan

White terrorists organization in the South originally founded as a fraternal society in 1866. Reborn in 1915, it achieved popularity in the 1920s through its calls for Anglo-Saxon purity, Protestant supremacy, and the subordination of blacks, Catholics, and Jews.

http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/gastudiesimages/Ku%20Klux%20Klan%20Post-Civil%20War%201.htm

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Chapter 16 ID’s 4/18/16

1.Twenty Negro Law

Confederate conscription law that exempted from the draft one white man on every plantation owning 20 or more slaves. The law’s purpose was to exempt overseers or owners who would ensure discipline over the slaves and keep up production but was regarded as discrimination by non-slaveholding families.

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/1861-1865-exhibits/1862.html

2.Commutation Fee

$300 fee that could be paid by a man drafted into the Union Army to exempt him from the current draft call.

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/civil_war_series/3/sec2.htm

3.Copperheads

Term used by some Republicans to describe Peace Democrats to imply that they were traitors to the Union.

http://www.emmitsburg.net/archive_list/articles/history/civil_war/cwcr/copperheads.htm

4.Compensated Emancipation

Idea that the federal government would offer compensation or money to states that voluntarily abolished slavery.

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/spring/dcslavery.html

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Chapter 15 ID’s 4/11/16

1. Fort Sumter: 

The North considered the fort to be the property of the United States government. The people of South Carolina believed it belonged to the new Confederacy. Four months later, the first engagement of the Civil War took place on this disputed soil. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Five days later, 68 federal troops stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, withdrew to Fort Sumter, an island in Charleston Harbor.

http://www.ushistory.org/us/33a.asp

2. Secession: 

The right to secede at will was based upon the fact that each state was sovereign, becoming so by a successful revolt against England.  The treaty of 1783 recognized free, sovereign and independent states.  This sovereignty was also recognized in the Articles of Confederation and under the Constitution.  New states claimed all the rights of the old ones, having been admitted on equal standing.

http://www.teachingushistory.org/lessons/Secession.htm

3. Bushwhackers: 

Were Missourians who fled to the rugged backcountry and forests to live in hiding and resist the Union occupation of the border counties. They fought Union patrols, typically by ambush, in countless small skirmishes, and hit-and-run engagements. These guerrilla fighters harassed, robbed, and sometimes murdered loyal Unionist farmers on both sides of the state line.

http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/content/bushwhackers

4. Robert E. Lee: 

Such early successes made Lee a leading candidate to command Union forces against the South once it decided to secede. Reluctant to engage in a war against the South, Lee turned down an offer of command of the Union forces. On April 18, 1861, the Virginia Secession Convention, made up of the state’s ruling elite, voted to join the Southern states in secession. As practical issues, Lee did not oppose either slavery or secession.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/grant-lee/

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Chapter 12  ID’s 3/21/16

1.Limited liability

Bankers in the 1800′s would produce bank notes with limited liability to protect directors and stockholders from debts incurred by the bank.

2.Common Schools

during the 1850′s and onward the government built schools funded by taxpayers that would become public schools. These schools allowed everyone an opportunity at equal education.

3.Auburn System

A form of imprisonment in which the incarcerated offender would sleep in solitary confinement and walk around in uniforms not allowed to talk to others. This became popularized in the 1800′s as a regular prison system.

4.Abolitionism

Abolitionism was to be against slavery. Many considered slavery as Americas Great National Sin, term coined by William Garrison, Abolitionists would condemn America for its participation in slavery.

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Chapter 13 ID’s 3/28/16

1.Fugitive Slave

it was basically a law that if a slave ran away from a state/owner that owner had the right to bring the slave back. With this act slaves were not allowed escaped because if they were found they were returned to their owner. Slaves that worked outside of states for their owner needed to have passes with them proving that their owner knew. If they did not have passes they would get sent back to their owner.

http://www.american-historama.org/1841-1850-westward-expansion/fugitive-slave-act.htm

2.Personal liberty law

was one of the pre-civil war laws passed. This law helped protect runway slaves and free blacks settled in the north. It prevented the kidnapping of free black slaves. The governments of the northern states were more willing to approve this act unlike the south.

http://www.britannica.com/topic/personal-liberty-laws

3.Underground railroad

it was an organization that helped escape and free the slaves from the south to the northern states. Harriet Tubman and many quakers helped with this organization because they believed slavery was cruel. Underground rail road transported more than 50,000 slaves to freedom.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Underground+Railroad

4.Great American Desert

 the great American desert was a name given to the first half of the 19th century, to the west of the Mississippi river. During this time only native American Indians lived in this area. As people moved to the great plains, the Great American Desert became smaller and smaller which was then referred to “The Great Plains”. 

http://www.historyonthenet.com/american_west/great_american_desert.htm

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Chapter 14 ID’s 4/4/16

Dred Scott:

a slave of an army surgeon, John Emerson. Scott had been taken from Missouri to posts in Illinois and what is now Minnesota for several years in the 1830s, before returning to Missouri. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had declared the area including Minnesota free. In 1846, Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had lived in a free state and a free territory for a prolonged period of time.

http://www.ushistory.org/us/32a.asp

2. Kansas-Nebraska Act

It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36 30. Infuriated many in the North who considered the Missouri Compromise to be a long-standing binding agreement. In the pro-slavery South it was strongly supported.

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/kansas.htm

3. Harpers Ferry

On the evening of October 16, 1859 John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry. Descending upon the town in the early hours of October 17th, Brown and his men captured prominent citizens and seized the federal armory and arsenal.

http://www.civilwar.org/150th-anniversary/john-browns-harpers-ferry.html

4. Jefferson Davis:

Jefferson Davis was born in Christian County, Kentucky, on June 3, 1808. After a distinguished military career, Davis served as a U.S. senator and as Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce before his election as the president of the secessionist Confederate States of America. He was later indicted for treason, though never tried, and remained a symbol of Southern pride until his death in 1889.

http://www.biography.com/people/jefferson-davis-9267899

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Class Discussion 4/7/16

In today’s class, we learned about the rise up of movement’s that occurred in the late 1840’s. These movements were caused by the overwhelming feelings of supression put on minority groups such as immigrants, women, and native americans. Due to these movements many Americans began to fear immigration and therefore try to restrict it.

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Class Discussion 4/21/16

Today in class we went over a little bit of what happened during the Civil War and post Civil War. Many women who stayed home while their husbands left to go fight were very upset with the government not giving them benefits. The government didn’t actually help them at all. Everything was going up in prices. That is when the Richmond Bread Riot started where the women protested in front of the house of confederacy. They later on broke into local shops and stole bread to feed the family.

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Class Discussion 4/12/16

Today in class we learned about sectional conflicts of 1854. Led by northern Democrat, Stephen A. Douglas, Southerners believed that the Nebraska Bill ,supported by popular sovereignty, would decide whether or not the South lost slavery. Northerners were inflamed by the Bill because it allowed slavery into the north and political parties were divided by north and south. Northerners believed the Bill would effectively push slavery back into the entirety of America, instead of just the south.

http://www.history.com/topics/kansas-nebraska-act

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Class Discussion 4/5/16

In today’s class, we talked about the American expansion into Mexican Territory and the Mexican-American War. Texas becomes independent of Mexico in 1830′s. The war started by Mexicans shooting an American scouting group who were sent into disputed territory between Texas & Mexico. Once the war started Americans wished to expand and gain California, Arizona, and New Mexico to increase cotton production. The war ended in 1848 when a treaty was signed for what is now modern day U.S. border and more land was bought later from Santa Ana in 1853.

http://www.history.com/topics/mexican-american-war

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Class Discussion 3/31/16

Today in class we learned about the panic of 1837. The panic of 1837 was a financial crisis that affected both foreign or domestic markets. Great Britain raised interest rates to compensate for loss of money which forced the US to raise its interest rates, Bond prices fell as well as cotton production causing a big hit the the US economy.Not only this but banks called in loans which sunk many loan owners, leading the US to a economic recession.

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Chapter 11 ID’s 3/14/16

Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Compromise was a United States federal statue devised by Henry Clay. The new congress that convened in the winter of 1819-1820 passed the legislative package that became known as the Missouri Compromise. It regulated slavery in the country’s western territories by prohibiting the practice in the former Louisiana Territory, except for the boundaries of Missouri.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/missouri-compromise

Spoils System

the spoil system also known as the Patronage system was an arrangement that promoted government officials who were friends and supporters of the political group. The spoil system fired political enemies and hired political friends as a reward. Jackson believed loyalist were more qualified for the job, because they were known as “his guys”.  

http://www.american-historama.org/1829-1841-jacksonian-era/spoils-system.htm

Indian Removal Act

Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress on May 28, 1830, the president was authorized to negotiate with southern native tribes for their removal from the ancestral homelands for new lands west of the Mississippi river. Many non-natives support this act because they wanted the ancestral land that once belong to this relocating tribes.

http://indianremovalactproject.weebly.com/background-information.html

Civilized Tribes

the civilized tribes where five nations of native American Indians who understood cultural life styles and and customs of white colonist and settlers. They usually had good relationships with their neighbors because they were very understanding. These five tribes where Cherokee. Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole.

http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/history-of-native-americans/five-civilized-tribes.htm

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Chapter 10 ID’s 3/7/16

The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening,beginning in the 1790′s, lasted up until the 1830′s. In early America, was a time of religious revivals. The religions that were prominent at the time were the Congregationalists, the Anglicans, Evangelical Methodism, and the Baptists. The reason the revivals were so popular was in the technique they used to convert people which was often enthusiastic and an upbeat type of preaching. The preachers would also preach to large audience which could exceed 20,000.

http://www.ushistory.org/us/22c.asp

Sarah Josepha Hale 

Sarah Josepha Hale was an American writer and an influential editor. She is the author of the nursery rhyme “ Mary had a little lamb”. Sarah, whose godeys ladys Book was the first mass-circulation magazine for women, acted as an arbiter of taste not only in furniture, clothing, and food, but in sentimental and ideas.

http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/hale1.html

Restorationism

During the 19th century there was a large increase in religious affiliation. Due to this many felt that the New Testament model needed to be “reformed.” Groups that sprung up out of this time are the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Seventh day Adventist. Every one of these groups has different ideals, but all agreed that a restoration of the church is necessary. Many felt that the way church was taught had drifted so far that the use of church was unnecessary.

http://www.gotquestions.org/restorationism.html

Millerites

The people who call themselves Millerites followed what William Miller’s preachings. During 1833 Miller stated that the second coming of Jesus Christ would happen ten years later in 1843. Miller used calculations from his interruption of the bible to come up with an exact date. The area that Miller lived in was called the Burned-over district to the religious hot bed that was the area of New York. Millerites often sold all of their things and went to follow William Miller’s words.

http://www.fact-index.com/m/mi/millerites.html

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Class Discussion 3/29/16

In today’s class, we talked about the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The act essentially was predicated on the Democratic focus of westward expansion. Andrew Jackson, after ignoring the Supreme Court, signed the act that required Native Americans living west of the Mississippi move east of the Mississippi into new lands set aside as independent Indian territories.