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Whitney's cotton gin transforms southern economy
I. “Cotton’s is King!”
a. After the cotton gin was invented slavery started to go down
b. The North also transported the cotton to England and the rest of
Europe, so they were in part responsible for the slave trade
c. The south made most of the cotton, England needed them to make cloth
d. Since England needed them they knew they would have support if there were a civil war -
Gabriel slave rebellion in Virginia
Gabriel Prosser, was a literate enslaved blacksmith who planned a large slave rebellion in the Richmond area in the summer of 1800. Information regarding the revolt was leaked prior to its execution, and he and twenty-five followers were taken captive and hanged in punishment. In reaction, Virginia and other state legislatures passed restrictions on free blacks, as well as prohibiting the education, assembly, and hiring out of slaves, to restrict their chances to learn and to plan similar rebell -
Congress outlaws slave trade
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American Colonization Society formed
a. American Colonization Society
i. Founded for the transporting Blacks back to Africa and in 1822, the
Republic of Liberia was founded for Blacks to live
ii. Most Blacks didn’t want to go back because they weren’t use to it
iii. All slaves were African Americans -
Missouri Compromise
i. Stephen A. Douglas- longed to break the North-South deadlock over westward expansion; proposed the Territory of Nebraska be sliced into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska.
1. Their status on slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. Kansas would be presumed to be a slave state, while Nebraska would be a free state.
ii. This Kansas-Nebraska Act ran into the problem of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which forbade slavery in the proposed Nebraska Territory.
iii. Douglas was forced -
Republic of Liberia established
i. Founded for the transporting Blacks back to Africa and in 1822, the
Republic of Liberia was founded for Blacks to live
ii. Most Blacks didn’t want to go back because they weren’t use to it
iii. All slaves were African Americans -
Vesey Slave rebellion
a. Slaves had no self-respect, were illiterate, and had no chance of achieving the “American dream.”
b. They were trouble makers, they would do things that they knew they wouldn’t get a severe punishment for
c. Rebellions were successful
i. Gabriel in Richmond, Virginia
ii. 1822 Charleston rebellion led by Denmark Vesey
iii. 1831 revolt semiliterate preacher Nat Turner -
David Walker- Appeal to the Colored
X. Radical Abolitionism
c. David Walker, a Black abolitionist, wrote Appeal to the Colored
Citizens of the World in 1829 -
William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator
X. Radical Abolitionism
a. On January 1st, 1831, William Lloyd Garrison published the first
edition of The Liberator -
Nat Turner slave rebellion in VA
VIII. The Burdens of Bondage
a. Slaves had no self-respect, were illiterate, and had no chance of achieving the “American dream.”
b. They were trouble makers, they would do things that they knew they wouldn’t get a severe punishment for
iii. 1831 revolt semiliterate preacher Nat Turner -
Period: to
VA legislature debates slavery and emancipation
It was a debate over whether or not to abolish slavery following the Nat Turner Rebellion in the summer of 1831. While Virgina did not abolish slavery, they did tighten restrictions on slaves. For instance, slaves could no longer be taught to read. -
American Anti-slavery society founded
was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, was a key leader of this society and often spoke at its meetings as well. William Wells Brown was a freed slave who often spoke at meetings -
Abolitionist students expelled from Lane Theological seminary
Lane Seminary was founded during a time of rising social, political and religious conflict. The school was at the center of the "Old School" - "New School" debate in both the churches and contemporary politics. While known for his fiery sermons, Beecher's calls for social activism were tempered by a pragmatic desire for mainline support. His opposition of fellow revivalist Charles Finney's views led him also to refuse demands that arose from a group of students led by Theodore Dwight Weld at the -
U.S. Post Office orders destruction of abolitionist mail
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“Broadcloth Mob” attacks Garrison
he "respectable broadcloth mob" failed to find George Thompson, the mob seize and manhandle garrison throughout the streets of Boston -
Gag resolution
c. “gag resolution”
i. required all antislavery appeals to be tabled without debate, which northerners like John Quincy Adams -
Canadian rebellion adn Caroline incident
d. In 1837, a small rebellion in Canada broke out, and Americans furnished arms and supplies.
e. Also in 1837, an American steamer, the Caroline, was attacked in N. and set afire by a British force. -
Mob kills Lovejoy
d. Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy of Alton
i. Illinois, who impugned the chastity of Catholic women, had his printing press destroyed four times and he was killed by a mob in 1837 -
Theodore Dwight Weld - “American Slavery As It Is"
c. Theodore Dwight Weld was antislavery , he preached against slavery and even wrote a pamphlet “American Slavery As It Is -
Antislavery Liberty Party
New York businessmen Arthur and Lewis Tappan organized this political party after they broke with William Lloyd Garrison over issues of abolitionists' involvement in politics and the role of women in the movement. The party nominated James Birney for president in 1840 and 1844, but he garnered few votes. Split Whig (Henry Clay)'s vote. -
Harrison dies
a. The Whig leaders, namely Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, had planned
to control newly elected President William H. Harrison, but their plans
hit a snag when he contracted pneumonia and died—only four weeks
after he came to the White House. -
Tyler assumes presidency
b. The new president was John Tyler, a Virginian gentleman who was a lone wolf.
i. He did not agree with the Whig party, since the Whigs were pro-bank
and pro-protective tariff, and pro-internal improvements, but hailing
from the South, he was not. Tyler was really more of a Democrat. -
Aroostook War
IV. Manipulating the Maine Maps
a. Maine had claimed territory on its northern and eastern border that
was also claimed by England, and there were actually small skirmishes
in the area (the “Aroostook War” of feuding lumberjacks). -
Polk defeats Clay in Manifest destiny election
a. James K. Polk and his expansionist ideas won the election of 1844.
His election was seen as a "mandate for manifest destiny," so the
following year, Texas was formally invited to become the 28th state of
the Union. -
Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
e. The greatest Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who was a great speaker and fought for the Black even though he was beaten and harassed.
i. Douglass looked to politics to solve the slavery problem.
ii. He and others backed the Liberty Party in 1840, the Free Soil Party in 1848, and the Republican Party in the 1850s -
US annexes texas
d. Under Polk, the Oregon border issue was settled.
i. While the Democrats had promoted acquiring all of Oregon during
their campaign, after the annexation of Texas, the Southern Democrats
didn’t much care anymore. -
Walker tariff
b. One of Polk’s acts was to lower the tariff, and his secretary
of the treasury, Robert J. Walker, did so, lowering the tariff from 32%
to 25% despite complaints by the industrialists -
Kearny takes over Santa Fe
b. In the Southwest, U.S. operations led by Stephen W. Kearny (led
1700 troops from Leavenworth to Santa Fe) and John C. Fremont (leader
of the Bear Flag Revolt in California) were successful. -
US settles oregen dispute Britain
ii. England and the U.S. had been bargaining for Oregon land to answer, "Where is the border of Oregon?"
e. So, the British proposed a treaty that would separate British and American claims at the **49th parallel (excluding Vancouver), a proposal that Polk threw to the Senate, and which accepted.
f. The U.S. got the better of the deal since
i. the British second-choice was rejected but the Americans' second-choice was accepted -
US and mexico clash over texas boundry
XI. American Blood on American (?) Soil
a. A frustrated Polk now forced a showdown, and on Jan. 13, 1846, he
ordered 4000 men under Zachary Taylor to march from the Nueces River to
the Rio Grande, provocatively near Mexican troops.
b. As events would have it, on April 25, 1846, news of Mexican troops
crossing the Rio Grande and killing of wounding 16 Americans came to
Washington, and Polk pushed for a declaration of war -
Period: to
Mexican War
was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution. -
Battle of buena vista
Old Rough and Ready” Zachary Taylor, a general, he
fought into Mexico, reaching Buena Vista, and repelled 20,000 Mexicans
with only 5000 men, instantly becoming a hero. -
Free Soil Party organized
ii. The Free Soil Party emerged.
1. It was formed by anti-slavery men of the North, who didn't trust Cass or Taylor.
2. They supported federal aid for internal improvements.
a. They argued that with slavery, wage labor would wither away and with it, the chance for the American worker to own property. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
b. He negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848, which…
i. Gave to America all Mexican territory from Texas to California that
was north of the Rio Grande. This land was called the Mexican Cession
since Mexico ceded it to the U.S.
ii. U.S. only had to pay $15 million to Mexico for it.
iii. $3.5 million in debts from Mexico to the U.S. were absolved as well.
iv. In essence, the U.S. had forced Mexico to "sell" the Mexican Cession lands. -
CA Gold Rush
b. "California Gold" (economic/social)
i. In 1848, gold was discovered in California.
1. The rush of people in search of gold in California brought much violence and disease that the small government in California couldn't handle.
2. Needing protection, the Californians bypassed the territorial stage of a state, drafted their own Constitution (excluding slavery) in 1849, and applied to Congress for admission into the Union.
ii. The southerners objected to California's admission as a free st -
Compromise of 1850, including Fugitive Slave law
ii. The Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850, the Bloodhound Bill, said that fleeing slaves could not testify on their own behalf and they were denied a jury trial.
1. Northerners who aided slaves trying to escape were subject to fines and jail time.
a. This was what the Southern gain from the Compromise of 1850 -
Pierce defeats Scott for presidency
iv. Franklin Pierce won the election of 1852.
1. The election of 1852 marked the end of the Whig party.
2. It died on the issue of the Fugitive-Slave Law.
3. The Whig party had upheld the ideal of the Union through their electoral strength in the South. -
Gadsden Purchase
k. Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase (economic/political)
i. With the acquisition of California and Oregon, the transcontinental railroad was proposed.
1. The question was where to have the railroad began-the North or the South.
ii. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had James Gadsden buy an area of Mexico from Santa Anna for which the railroad would pass.
1. Gadsden negotiated a treaty in 1853 and the Gadsden Purchase area was ceded to the United States for $10 million.
ii -
Ostend Manifesto proposes seizure of Cuba
iv. The secretary of state instructed the American ministers in Spain, England, and France to prepare confidential recommendations for the acquisition of Cuba.
1. This document was known as the Ostend Manifesto.
2. It stated that if Spain didn't allow America to buy Cuba for $120 million, then America would attack Cuba on grounds that Spain's continued ownership of Cuba endangered American interests. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
l. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Scheme (political)
i. Stephen A. Douglas- longed to break the North-South deadlock over westward expansion; proposed the Territory of Nebraska be sliced into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska.
1. Their status on slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. Kansas would be presumed to be a slave state, while Nebraska would be a free state. -
William Walker becomes president of Nicaragua
ii. William Walker installed himself as the President of Nicaragua in July 1856.
1. He legalized slavery, but was overthrown by surrounding Central American countries and killed in 1860