-
Jamestown
- The Virginia Company of England wanted to sail to Virginia to begin a new settlement
- It was the 1st British establishment in North America
- John Rolfe imported tobacco seeds, and tobacco became the new cash crop, saving the settlement
- The Headright system was a way of attracting new settlers to the region and address labor shortages; new settlers who paid their way to Virginia received 50 acres of land
-
Pilgrims/Puritans
- Governor John Winthrop stated that Massachusetts Bay Colony stated that "we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us"
- Winthrop said this while upon the Arbella, a ship carrying over a thousand Puritans to Massachusetts, he wanted to be an example for rightful living
- Pilgrims and Puritans often left Europe to escape religious prosecution, once they got to the New World they established settlements with religious tolerance (Massachusetts Bay Colony)
-
Pilgrims/Puritans
- Puritan work ethic emphasizes that hard work, discipline, and frugality are a result of a person's subscription to the values of Protestant faith
- The Mayflower Compact was the first agreement for self-government to be created and enforced in America (1620)
- The Halfway Covenant is a form of partial church membership created within the Congregational churches of colonial New England (1662); promoted by Reverend Stoddard who felt that the people of the English colonies were drifting away
-
Mercantilism/Salutary neglect
- Mercantilism is a national economic policy designed to maximize the trade of a nation, and to maximize the accumulation of gold and silver (16th to 18th century)
- Salutary neglect was Britain's unofficial policy to relax the enforcement of strict regulations, particularly trade laws, imposed on the American colonies (17th and 18th centuries)
-
Bacon's Rebellion
- Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley
- To gain support in the rebellion, both Bacon and Berkeley promised freedom to those slaves and servants who would join their cause
- Bacon had a much larger following than Berkeley
- In September of 1676 Bacon and his men set fire to Jamestown
- Bacon's Rebellion demonstrated that poor whites and poor blacks could be united in a cause
-
The Great Awakening
- The Great Awakening is a term that refers to a number of periods of religious revival in American Christian history
- The First Great Awakening swept Protestant Europe and British America in the 1730's and 1740's
- The colonists realized that religious power resided in their own hands, rather than in the hands of the Church of England, or any other religious authority
- The revivalism in the Great Awakening taught people that they could be bold when confronting religious authority
-
Deism
- Deism is a philosophical position that posits that a god does not interfere directly with the world
- It is a form of monotheism in which it is believed that only one God exists
- Deism includes a range of people from anti-Christian to non-Christian theists
- Deism rejects the supernatural aspects of religion, such as the belief in the revelation of the Bible, and stresses the importance of ethical conduct
- Deism flourished in England between 1690 and 1740
-
French and Indian War effects
- Even though the British won the French and Indian War they were still left with a lot of debt, in order to pay the war debt Britain ended their policy of salutary neglect in the colonies (1755-1763)
- The Proclamation of 1763 forbade all colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains; King George hoped to placate Native Americans who sided against him in the 7 Years War
- The Stamp Act imposed a tax on all colonists and required them to pay a tax on all printed paper (March 22, 1765)
-
French and Indian War effects
- The Sugar Acts, also known as the American Revenue Act, was a revenue-raising act passed by the British parliament of Great Britain (April 1764)
- The Intolerable Acts, also called the Coercive Acts, were harsh laws that were meant to punish the American colonists for the Boston Tea Party and other protests (1774)
- The Townshend Acts imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea imported into the colonies (1767)
-
Revolutionary War
- The Revolutionary War was a global war that began as a conflict between Great Britain and the thirteen colonies which declared independence (April 19, 1775 - Sept 3, 1783)
- The alliance that the colonies made with the French was the single most important diplomatic success of the colonists during the war for independence
- The French sided with the colonists because they had a common enemy, Britain; also the American victory at the battle of Saratoga gave French assurance that they would win
-
The Declaration of Independence
- The Declaration of Independence is an assertion by a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state
- It states that all men are created equal and there are certain unalienable rights that the government should never violate; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
- It includes that if government fails to protect those rights it is the peoples duty to overthrow the government
- The Declaration explained to foreign nations why the colonies separated from Britain
-
Hamilton's Economic Policies
-Hamilton's financial plan consisted of three parts to improve the nation's finances: Paying off all war debts, raising government revenues, and creating a national bank
-He proposed that the government assume the entire debt of the federal government and states
-He wanted to retire the depreciated obligations by borrowing new money at a lower interest rate
-Thomas Jefferson believed that a national bank was unconstitutional since the Constitution did not give Congress the power to create a bank -
Articles of Confederation
- The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among the 13 states of the United States of America
- The federal government, under the Articles, was too weak to enforce their laws and therefore had no power
- Shay's Rebellion showed the weakness of the Articles when the central government couldn't put down the rebellion
- After this the government gave most powers to the states, and the central government consisted of only legislature
- Its weakness was its biggest flaw, it had no power
-
British Violations of the Treaty of Paris
-The Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution but granting the U.S. independence and western territory
-The United States claimed land westward by treaty but the British refused to leave the city of Detroit and other western forts and they encouraged allied tribes to attack the settlers
-Britain was supposed to return any "Negros or other property" to their American owner when the treaty was signed; Britain violated the treaty by smuggling thousands of Black American ex slaves into Britain -
Land Ordinance of 1785; Land Ordinance of 1787
- The Land Ordinance of 1785 set up a standardized system whereby settlers could purchase title to farmland in the undeveloped west
- Its purpose was to establish orderly and equitable procedures for the settlement and political incorporation of the Northwest territory
- The Ordinance of 1787 established governance for the Northwest territories of Canada, it also established land policies for new territories in the United States of America
-
Constitution
- The Constitution is the supreme law of the United States; it delineates the national frame of government
- It strengthened the federal government by creating an executive branch
- States such as Delaware and New Jersey ratified it, states like Massachusetts opposed the document because it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked protection of basic rights
- The first 10 amendments, the Bill of Rights, includes rights such as freedom of speech, petition, press, and religion
-
Bill of Rights
- The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, and it list the limits on government powers
- The Federalists believed that the Constitution did not need to include a Bill of Rights because the people and the states kept any power that wasn't given to the Federal government
- However, the Anti-Federalists argued that a Bill of Rights was necessary to safeguard individual liberty
-
Founding Fathers Attitude Towards Political Parties
- The Founding Fathers did not desire the existence of political parties, they viewed them as factions dangerous to the public
- The Founding Fathers republican ideology called for subordination of narrow interests to the general welfare of the community
- Under republican ideology, politics were supposed to be rational and collaborative, not competitive
- The first American political parties began to form while Washington was still President
-
Hamilton's Economic Policies
- Jefferson opposed the idea of breaking free from Britain's hold on America because he believed that manufacturing threatened the values of an agrarian way of life
- Jefferson pictured himself as an ardent proponent of republicanism, equality, and economic opportunity, while Hamilton doubted the capacity of common people to govern themselves
- Jeffersons vision of an egalitarian republic of small producers began to attract new voters who began to join a political party led by Jefferson
-
Hamilton's Economic Policies
- Hamilton's wanted to create a Bank of the United States, modeled after the Bank of England
- A national bank would collect taxes, hold government funds, and make loans to the government and borrowers, but Jefferson thought of this as "un-republican"
- High tariffs were designed to protect American industry from foreign competition, government subsidies, and government-financed transportation improvements; by doing this Hamilton hoped to break Britain's manufacturing hold on America
-
Washington's Neutrality Proclamation
- The Proclamation of Neutrality was a formal announcement that declared the nation neutral in the conflict between France and Great Britain
- This Proclamation threatened prosecution to any American providing assistance to any country at war
- The members in Washington's cabinet agreed that neutrality was essential; the nation was too young and its military was too small to risk any engagement with either France or Britain
-
Eli Whitney
- Eli Whitney was an American inventor who created the cotton gin and pushed the “interchangeable parts” mode of production
- Whitney worked to devise a machine that was able to quickly and efficiently clean the cotton using a system of hooks, wires and a rotating brush so that it didn't take hours of manual labor to properly clean the seed and extract the fiber
- The cotton gin created a boom in the production of cotton, but also increased slavery making 1/3 of the Southern population enslaved
-
Washington's Farewell Address
- As Washington was leaving his presidency his farewell address let the citizens know the dangers of divisive party politics
- Washington warned strongly against permanent alliances between the United States and other countries, which he viewed as foreign entanglements
- Washington intended that this address be a guide to future statecraft for the American public and his successors in office
-
Alien and Sedition Act
- The Alien and Sedition Acts consisted of four laws passed by the Federalist-controlled congress as America prepared for war with France
- These four laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote
- The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were passed in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts
- These resolutions argued that the federal government had no authority to exercise power not specifically delegated to it in the Constitution
-
Alien and Sedition Act
- The Virginia Resolution, written by James Madison, said that by enacting the Alien and Sedition Acts Congress was exercising a power not delegated by the Constitution
- The Kentucky Resolution, written by Thomas Jefferson, asserted that states had the power to nullify unconstitutional federal laws
-
Election of 1800
-The election of 1800 between Adams and Jefferson was a hard-fought campaign, each side believed that the others victory would ruin the nation
-This election is considered a turning point in U.S. history because it was the first time that power was peacefully transferred from one political party to another
-In Jeffersons inaugural address he stated that "we are all Republicans, we are all Federalists"
-He promised to govern based on trust in the people to make the right decisions for themselves -
Cult of Domesticity
-Described what historians consider to have been a value system among the upper and middle classes in the U.S. and Britain (19th century)
-Middle and upper class men & women believed that since men were busy working, women should focus on cultivating a home that is supportive and warm
-A True Woman held principles: piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity
-The values of the Cult of Domesticity were reinforced in many magazines that contained articles on general ideas for keeping a good home -
Marbury vs. Madison
- Marbury vs. Madison was a case by the U.S. Supreme Court which formed the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the U.S. under Article III of the Constitution
- Marbury petitioned the Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus ordering Secretary of State Madison to deliver his commission as justice of the peace; therefore, initiating one of the most important cases
- The Court declared that a certain law passed by Congress should not be enforced, because the law opposed the Constitution
-
Louisiana Purchase
-The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France
-The U.S. paid fifty million francs and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs for a total of sixty-eight million francs
-The purchase added 827,000 square miles and doubled the size of the U.S
-It was important important because it gave the U.S. control of the Mississippi River and the port city of New Orleans, both of which were used by farmers to ship their crops and get paid -
War of 1812
- The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allies (1812-1815)
- The War of 1812 was caused by a series of economic sanctions taken by the British and French against the US as part of the Napoleonic Wars
- British impressment of ships outraged Americans, especially after the battle of Chesapeake
- Trade restrictions introduced by Britain to end American trade with France, a country with which Britain was at war, was another cause of the war
-
Hartford Convention
-The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings (1814-1815) where the New England Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War of 1812
-They also discussed the political problems arising from the federal government's increasing power
-The convention discussed removing the three-fifths compromise which gave slave states more power in Congress and requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress for the admission of new states, declarations of war and laws restricting trade -
Lowell System
- The Lowell system was a labor and production model employed in the United States during the early years of the American textile industry (1800's)
- The system allowed farm girls and young women who came to work at the textile factory to be housed in dormitories and provided them with educational and cultural opportunities
- This system was the first hint of the industrial revolution to come in the United States, and with its success came different views of the factories
-
American System/Clay-Whig policies
-The System planned to strengthen and unify the nation; advanced by the Whig Party and a number of leading politicians: Clay, Calhoun and Adams
-Support for a high tariff to protect American industries and generate revenue for the federal government was high
-The System established protective tariffs, created a national bank, and invested in growth that would create new roads, waterways, and other means of transportation
-Canals made it easier and more efficient for goods to be transported -
Missouri Compromise of 1820
- This compromise was passed in an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states
- The compromise resulted in admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state
- The compromise passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was negated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
-
Monroe Doctrine
- The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy of opposing European colonialism in The Americas, it warns European nations that the US would not tolerate further colonization or monarchs
- It was developed because US and Britain were concerned over European expansion in the Americas; Britain feared Spain would attempt to reclaim its former colonies
- The Roosevelt Corollary was an addition to the Doctrine giving the US the police power needed to interfere in the Western Hemisphere when needed
-
Tariff of Abominations/Nullification crisis
-It was a protective tariff designed to protect industry in the northern United States
-South Carolina adopted the ordinance to nullify tariff acts and label them unconstitutional
-Southerners looked to VP Calhoun from SC for leadership against the Tariff
-Issues of nullification and secession had stirred the first rumblings that would eventually lead to the Civil War
-Jackson argued that the justification for state nullification was misguided, unconstitutional, and treasonous to the country -
Andrew Jackson
- The Indian Removal Act authorized the president to negotiate with southern Indian tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands
- His expansion of democracy was limited to Americans of European descent, and voting rights were extended to adult white males only
- Jackson was concerned about the Bank's constitutionality and the general soundness of paper money in place of gold and silver
-
William Lloyd Garrison
- Garrison published an abolitionist newspaper called The Liberator and helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society that called for the immediate emancipation and racial equality for African Americans
- The Liberator was the most influential antislavery periodical in the pre-Civil War period of U.S. history
- When the Civil War broke out, Garrison continued to argue that the Constitution was a pro-slavery document
-
Emerson, Cooper, and other early 19th century authors
-Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American transcendentalist who was against slavery; he stressed self-reliance, optimism, self-improvement, self-confidence and freedom
-James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific American writer who wrote numerous sea-stories and historical novelss known as the the "Leatherstocking Tales" (early 19th century)
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women's rights movement who wrote the Declaration of Sentiments -
Andrew Jackson
- Jackson vetoed the bank recharter bill and ordered the federal government's deposits removed from the Bank of the US and placed in pet banks
- Pet banks were an attempt to eliminate the Bank of the US, it resulted in the rise of seven pet banks, state banks that received deposits of federal money
-
Transcendentalism
- Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that arose as a reaction to or protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time
- It is an idea where people have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel
- Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement
- Other important transcendentalists were Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller
-
Irish Immigration
- The Irish came in multitudes during the Potato Famine, a time when Ireland's main food source completely became rotten
- They didn't come with enough money to buy land, so they remained in the northeastern port cities
- They became a negative influence on Protestant communities who saw the Catholic Irish as a group who were trying to upstart Protestantism and replace it with Catholicism
- The Know-Nothing party emerged from secret societies organized to violently oppose immigration to America
-
Manifest Destiny
-Manifest Destiny was attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion
-It stated that the USnot only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast
-This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico
-Whigs opposed the expansionism proposed in the idea of Manifest Destiny
-Democrats claimed the US was to serve as an example to the rest of the world, and have divine obligation to spread its political system and a way of life -
Mexico
- The presidential election of 1844 saw Democrat James Polk defeat Whig Henry Clay in a close contest that turned on foreign policy, with Polk favoring the annexation of Texas and Clay opposing
- Mexican-American War (1846-1848) = conflict after US annexation of Texas; Mexico still considered Texas its own; the US won and Mexico granted all land from Texas to California in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
-
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
- The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo is the peace treaty signed between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican–American War
- The treaty added an additional 525,000 square miles to US territory, including the land that makes up all or parts of present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming
- Mexico also gave up all claims to Texas and recognized the Rio Grande as America’s southern boundary
-
Seneca Falls Convention
- The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention
- The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London
- Susan B. Anthony managed the business affairs of the women's rights movement while Stanton did most of the writing; together they edited and published a woman's newspaper
- They also formed the National Woman Suffrage Association
-
Compromise of 1850
- Henry Clay introduced the Compromise of 1850 in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South
- As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished
- The South wanted to extend slave territory to Southern California and to the Pacific Coast, but the North did not; Henry Clay's Compromise allowed California to be admitted to the Union, undivided, as a free state
-
Kansas-Nebraska Act
- The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their border
- This Act showed how popular sovereignty played a role in government at this time because the act stated that the people in each state had the right to make a decision about slavery in the state
- The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of the 36°30´ line
-
Popular Sovereignty
- The sovereignty of the peoples' rule states that the authority of a state and its government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives, who are the source of all political power
- Popular sovereignty expresses a concept and does not necessarily reflect or describe a political reality; the people have the final say in government decisions
- Americans founded their Revolution and government on popular sovereignty
-
Dred Scott Case
- The Dred Scott case intensified national divisions over the issue of slavery
- Dred Scott, a slave, had been taken to Illinois, a free state, and then Wisconsin territory, where the Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery
- Scott was ruled a slave because he was not a citizen and had no right to bring forth a lawsuit; he was property
-
Dred Scott Case
- Ruled that the Missouri Compromise, which had declared free all territories west of Missouri and north of latitude 36°30′, was unconstitutional; that all blacks, free or enslaved, could never be United States citizens, and that Congress did not have the right to decide the slavery question in the territories
- The decision added fuel to the sectional controversy and pushed the country closer to civil war
- Northerners and Republicans criticized the decision made in this case
-
John Brown
- The raid on Harper's Ferry was an effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry
- The Southern reaction to the raid was almost completely negative
- The raid caused a great deal of fear in the South because the idea of a slave rebellion caused much alarm
- Brown’s raid made any sort of compromise between the North and South nearly impossible and thus playing an important role in leading up to the Civil War
-
Lincoln/Republican policy on slavery
- The Republican Party's platform of 1860, stated that slavery should not be allowed to expand into any more territories
- During the Civil War, Lincoln used the war powers of the presidency to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863
- The Republican Party was committed to restricting the growth of slavery, its victory in the election of 1860 was the trigger for secession acts by Southern states
-
Civil War
-The Civil War was caused because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states
-Union strengths: larger population, industrial advantage, railroads, navy,
-Confederate strengths: production of food, stronger generals, resourceful, homeland advantage
-Union weaknesses: weaker generals
-Confederate weaknesses: smaller population, 1/9 the industrial capacity, no navy -
Civil War
- The French remained neutral throughout the American Civil War and never recognized the Confederate States of America
- From the perspective of Britain and France, there was good reason to help the Confederacy and intervene in the Civil War
- But the United States of America warned the French that recognition would mean war; France was reluctant to act without British collaboration, and the British rejected intervention
-
Emancipation Proclamation
- The Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to the slaves in the Confederate States if the States did not cease their rebellion and return to the Union by January 1, 1863
- Under this proclamation, freedom would only come to the slaves if the Union won the war
- The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free"
