Transcript Antebellum America - Pullman Education Portal

Daniel Kure
(1824-1840)
•
Belief in the common man
-The Jacksonians had great respect for the common sense and
abilities of the common man.
~With this view of thought, all white male citizens had equal
opportunity and ones class does not effect his potential or abilities.
- Andrew Jackson was seen as a common man who represented
the interests of the people.
~People obtained this feeling because of Jacksons participation in the
wars in the south as a hero, and the many other things he did that were
very similar to the average citizen, including the aspect of how someone
can move up in society over time through hard work and effort.
•
Expanded suffrage
- The Jacksonians dramatically expanded white male suffrage.
- During the Federalist Era, Caucuses of party leaders maintained
discipline and selected candidates. During the Jackson administration,
nominating conventions replaced legislative caucuses.
~The expansion of white male suffrage was done by lifting certain
requirements such as property sizes, the expanded suffrage also increased the
amount of people that were allowed to and could vote.
~Jackson encouraged voting which gathered a better overall participation in
elections.
•
Patronage
-The Jacksonians supported patronage- the policy of placing
political supporters in office.
~Out of this patronage emerged the spoils system, which was were
the victorious party or candidate got all the ”spoils” which included
nominating other candidates that would strengthen your party.
-Many Jacksonians believed that victorious candidates had a
duty to reward their supporters and punish their opponents.
~They believed that because they won they had the right to do
whatever they wanted, and often this ended up messy because
although they won the majority, there were still considerable groups
of opposition.
•
Opposition to Privileged Elites
-As champions of the common man, Jacksonians despised the
special privileges of the Eastern elite.
~The debate eventually triggered the Webster-Hayne debate which
was an argument over slowing down the progress of the west as a
way for the East to retain its political and economic power.
-Special privileges were anathemas to a government dedicated
to promoting and protecting the common man.
~The government was highly devoted to the aspect of keeping the
union together and made it a top priority, but part of the WebsterHayne debate was over the national power vs. state power, and
John Calhoun arose as an important figure for the support of
the state`s power.
•
The tariff of Abominations, 1828
-The tariffs passed between 1816 and 1828 were the first tariffs
in American history whose primary purpose was protection.
-The Tariff of Abominations forced John C. Calhoun to
formulate his doctrine of nullification.
~These tariffs were to tax foreign businesses and intended to give the
north an Economic advantage
~These laws were not beneficial for the southern colonies and its
negative effect on their economy led them to call it the tariff of
Abominations.
•
The Doctrine of Nullification
-Developed by John C. Calhoun, the doctrine of nullification
drew heavily on the states’ rights arguments advanced in the
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.
-In the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, Calhoun argued
that a state can refuse to recognize an act of Congress that it considers
unconstitutional.
~Eventually these disagreements led to a compromise devised by
Henry Clay where the tariffs would slowly be lowered and in return
South Carolina would agree to repeal its nullification of the tariffs.
~This proved that one state (S.C.) could not defy government alone.
•
Opposition to Nullification
-In the Webster-Hayne Debate, Daniel Webster forcefully
rejected nullification. Webster concluded with his great exhortation,
“Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”
-Jackson’s opposition to nullification enhanced his reputation
as a strong President.
~Jacksons opposition to nullification was so strong that he proposed
the Force Bill which would authorize the use of the military in making
sure that Acts of congress are obeyed.
~This Document that was created explains much of the reasoning behind why
Jackson did what he did and created the force act. The force act was necessary
in the situation Jackson was in because he had no other option for obtaining
the money from the south since the south would not give it peacefully.
Retrieved from: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Nullification.html
•
Jackson`s Veto
-Jackson vigorously opposed the bill to re-charter the Second
Bank of the United States (BUS)
-Jackson believed that the bank was a bastion of special
privileges. He argues that the BUS was beneficial to advocates of
“hard money” and thus inimical to the interests of the common
people who elected him.
~Biddle and Webster pressured Henry Clay into getting congress to
pass the recharter bill for the Bank, but Jackson vetoed this and
congress was unable to override the veto.
~In the 1832 presidential election Jackson defeated Clay because of
Clay`s defeat on the recharter of the Bank Bill.
•
Consequences
-Jackson supported the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the
United States.
-Jackson’s attack on the BUS caused an expansion of credit and
speculation.
-The number of state banks, each issuing its own paper currency,
increased.
-Jackson’s war on the BUS was an important catalyst for the emergence of
a competitive two-party system. The Whigs hated Jackson and supported Henry
Clay and his American System.
~The transfer of deposits from the federal bank to the state banks, or pet banks,
was initiated when Jackson fired the existing secretary of treasury and replaced
him with Roger Taney, a close ally to Jackson.
~The change in location of money resulted in a small financial problem which was
blamed on Nicholas Biddle, a major opponent of Jackson`s actions, and this defeat
ended the opposition of Jackson`s financial policies.
~The new party of Whigs had a great Triumvirate between Daniel Webster, Henry
Clay, and John Calhoun. However in the 1836 election the party was unable to
agree on a single candidate, and as a result the democrat Van Buren won
presidency.
•
Worcester vs. Georgia, 1831
-The Cherokees differed from other Native American tribes in
that the Cherokees tried to mount a court challenge to a removal
order.
-In the case of Worcester v. Georgia, the United States Supreme
Court upheld the rights of the Cherokee tribe to their tribal lands.
~The removal order was the removal act in which states could
relocate tribes westward through financial negotiations.
~John Marshall ruled these rights to the Cherokee based off the idea
that the natives were a sovereign entity within the United states and
were protected from state laws.(But not federal laws)
•
Jackson and the Cherokees
-Jackson’s antipathy toward Native Americans was well
known. In one speech he declared, “I have long viewed treaties with
American Indians as an absurdity not to be reconciled to the
principles of our government.”
-Jackson refused to recognize the Courts decision, declaring,
“John Marshall has made his decision: now let him enforce it.”
~In 1835 , the federal government made a treaty with a minority
faction of the Cherokee, none of whom were chosen representatives of
the Cherokee nation.
~The treaty ceded tribal lands to Georgia for $5 million and a
reservation west of the Mississippi .
•
The Trail of Tears
-Jackson’s Native American policy resulted in the removal of the
Cherokee from their homeland to settlements across the Mississippi River.
-The trail of
Tears refers to the route
taken by Native
Americans as they were
relocated to the Indian
Territory of Oklahoma.
-Approximately
one-quarter of the
Cherokee people died
on the Trail of Tears.
~The “treaty” that was
signed was not recognized
by the majority of the Cherokee so they refused to leave their homes.
~In response to this refusal, Jackson sent an army of 7000 men under Gen.
Winfield Scott to force them west along the trail of tears.
~The Trail of tears was experienced by the “Five Civilized Tribes”, the
Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, and the Seminoles.
~The greatest resistance to removal was amongst the Seminoles who started
an uprising that lead to the Seminole War lead by Osceola, this war lasted
several years and cost the U.S. Government a multitude of lives and money.
…
…
Retrieved from: http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=004/llsl004.db&recNum=459
~Note that Section 5
states that the President
may aid the Indians in
their removal, however
along the trail of tears
obviously no aid was
given as a large amount
of them died.
~The 5 thousand dollars
mentioned in section 8
does not say who it goes
to specifically, and
although it may have
gone to some of the
Cherokee, certainly not
all of them received a
share to compensate their
troubles.
•
King Cotton
The following factors contributes to making cotton the South’s
most important cash crop:
a.
The invention of the cotton gin, which made it possible and profitable
to harvest short-staple cotton.
~ invented by Eli Whitney
b.
Rich new farm land in the Deep South was opened to the
cultivation of cotton. By 1850, the geographic center of slavery was
moving southward and westward.
c.
The rise of textile manufacturing in England created enormous
demand for cotton.
~Each of these factors made the cotton economy skyrocket in a very short
period of time.
~As the cotton economy thrived, the demand for slaves increased
dramatically with it.
•
Southern Society
-A majority of White adult males were small farmers rather than
wealthy planters.
-The majority of White families in the antebellum South owned no
slaves.
-Nonetheless, a small minority of planters who owned 20 or more
slaves dominated the antebellum South.
-The cost of slave labor rose sharply between 1800 and 1860.
~This world of wealthy landowning planters dominating society is
known as planter aristocracy.
~Part of the increase in slave costs was due to the law prohibiting foreign
slave trade, although there was some smuggling.
~The high costs of slaves made slaves more valuable to their owners and
as a result were treated slightly better…But not always.
•
Slave Society
-Slaves maintained social networks among kindred and friends,
despite forced separations.
-The dramatic increase in the South’s slave labor force was due to the
natural population increase of American-born slaves.
-During the antebellum period, free African Americans were able to
accumulate some property in spite of discrimination.
~Many of these social networks amongst slaves were strengthened through
things such as their religion of mixed Christian and African practices.
~ Many of the American-born slaves were the children of their white masters.
~The majority of the Blacks that accumulated the most property and liberty,
were those who lived in cities, usually in the North.
•
Slave South (continued)
-Although Southern legal codes did not uniformly provide for the
legalization and stability of slave marriage, slaves were generally able to
marry, and the institution of marriage was common on Southern
plantations.
-The majority of slaves adapted to the oppressive conditions
imposed on them by developing a separate African American culture.
-Slave revolts were infrequent. Most Southern slaves resisted their
masters by feigning illness and working as slowly as possible.
~The slave marriages were often encouraged by whites because for them
it meant them having children, and therefore more slaves.
~Of the most significant slave rebellions, Nat Turner the preacher was
the only one who lead a successful rebellion. However others such as
Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey were close in completing their
would have been large scale rebellions, if it wasn’t for the few who
leaked the plot.
•
New Developments
-Completed in 1825, the Erie Canal sparked a
period of canal building that lasted until 1850.
-Steamboats became widely used in the 1820’s
and 1830’s.
-The first Railroad appeared in the United
States in 1828.
~The Eire Canal required enormous amounts of labor and financial
funding, but when it was finished it was a huge success for the economy
such that it replaced New Orleans as the center for western agricultural
goods.
~Railroads and locomotives required major technological innovations in
order to increase the productivity of them fast enough to make them
efficient for use, these innovations included the invention of tracks, steam
powered locomotives, railroad cars for passengers and freight, the use of
heavy iron rails, and many others.
•
Consequences
-The Erie Canal strengthened commercial and political ties between
New York City and the growing cities on the Great Lakes.
-Canals helped open the West to settlement and trade.
-Steamboats dramatically increase river traffic while significantly
lowering the cost of river transportation.
~Because of the high costs and long distances that these projects covered, most
of the time either the federal government or multiple states together would
have to fund and provide labor for their creation, because it was too expensive
for a single group to do it alone.
~These new forms of transportation were much cheaper than before having
them, allowing the market to sprawl out much faster and the connections
between the West and North to become much firmer and more financially
successful for both, the new transportation also allowed easier migration west
and promotion to do so based off of the success that was being had in the West.
•
More consequences
-Like the canals, the railroads enabled farmers in the Midwest
easier access to urban markets in the East.
-Canals, steamboats, and railroads had the least impact on the
South.
~As a result of the high economic boost that the new innovations gave the
north, particularly in working with the west, and the lack of the use of the
innovations in the south, the two worlds became even more separated by
their differences, and the south more isolated from the rest of the country.
~Despite the major benefits and success of these projects, there was also a
considerable amount of failures and incomplete tasks that were unable to
be finished because of financial failures or geographical obstacles such as
mountains.
~Gradually over time the competition between the railroads and canals
grew, and eventually the railroad system prevailed as a more dominant
and efficient system.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL MOVEMENTS
IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA
•
The cult of domesticity/republican motherhood
-American women could not vote, serve on juries, or perform other civic
tasks. These restrictions raised the question of what role women should play in
the new republic.
-The concept of “republican motherhood” advanced the idea that women
did have a vital role to play as wives and mothers. Proponents argued that
women should be educated to rear their children to be virtuous citizens
-The republican mother should be concerned with domestic family, and
religious affairs.
~Although the lifestyle of isolation from the public world had many negative
effects on women it also praised and placed a higher value on “Female Virtues”.
~The domestic wife in a household was seen as keeper of the home to be a refuge
from the harsh competitive world of the marketplace, and this responsibility
included providing moral and religious instruction to their children and to
counterbalance the acquisitive, secular impulses of their husbands.
•
Factory workers in Lowell
-During the first half of the nineteenth century, textile mills in
Lowell, Massachusetts, relied heavily on a labor force of women and
children.
-During the 1820’s and 1830’s, the majority of workers in the
textile mills of Massachusetts were young, unmarried women.
-Prior to the Civil War, Irish immigrants began to replace New
England farm girls in the textile mills.
~In the Lowell or Waltham system labor force, young women would
commonly work for several years in the factories while saving their
wages, then would return home and marry and raise children, therefore
assuming the cult of domesticity.
~Aside from its relatively low wages these factories usually treated its
workers very well in comparison to its European counterparts, the
women working here even had enough free time to write and publish a
monthly magazine called the Lowell Offering.
•
Characteristics of the women's movement:
-The movement was led by middle-class women.
rights.
-It promoted a broad-based platform of legal and educational
-It had close links with the anti-slavery and temperance
movements.
-Followers held conventions in the Northeast and Midwest but
not in the South.
~The women involved in the movement were usually oppressed by
their husband`s use of alcohol and thus started the temperance
movement, which would benefit their families if successful because it
would end many bad and abusive behaviors of their husbands and
would also stop economic loss within the family to alcohol.
•
The Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
-The Seneca Falls Convention was organized and led by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretius Mott.
-The “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” issued by
the Seneca Falls Convention demanded greater rights for women. The
declaration’s first sentence clearly stated this goal: “We hold these
truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.
~Stanton and Mott started this first major arousal of women`s rights
after they were turned away by men at an antislavery convention in
London, in 1840.
~A large number of those involved with the women's movements and
the Seneca Falls Convention were Quakers who`s beliefs encouraged
sexual equality.
•
The Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 (continued)
-The Seneca Falls Convention called for women’s rights in the
following areas:
a.
Women’s suffrage
b.
Women’s right to retain property after marriage
c.
Greater divorce and child custody rights
d.
Equal educational opportunities
~The overall view of the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,
those who constructed it and the convention was to make it known to
the public that “all men and women are created equal”. Concluding
that women no less than men have certain inalienable rights.
~The document was rejected by the nation with the notion that
women should be assigned completely different “spheres” in society.
Whereas, the great precept of nature is conceded to be, "that man shall pursue his own true
and substantial happiness," Blackstone, in his Commentaries, remarks, that this law of
Nature being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in
obligation to any other.1 It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no
human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid, derive all
their force, and all their validity, and all their authority, mediately and immediately, from
this original; Therefore,
Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substantial happiness of
woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and of no validity; for this is "superior
in obligation to any other.
Resolved, That all laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as
her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are
contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.
Resolved, That woman is man's equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the
highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such….
~The document is a list of the injustices that have been placed upon women and
how they feel it society should treat them from then on, as of the completion of
the document.
~It is very important to note the form and style of the document, specifically its
similarity to the form of the Constitution.
Retrieved From: http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/seneca.html
•
Dorothea Dix
-Dorothea Dix worked to reform the treatment of people with
mental and emotional disabilities.
-Dix was not involved in the women’s rights movement.
~Dix provoked the use of penitentiaries rather than asylums in
Massachusetts, which was much more humane.
~Dix also helped certain undeserved things to disappear from society
such as: imprisonment of debtors and paupers, and traditional
practices like legal public hangings.
•
The Second Great Awakening
-The Second Great Awakening was a wave of religious
enthusiasm, led by itinerant preachers such as Charles Finney and Lyman
Beecher.
-Finney achieved his greatest success in central and western New
York. This area became known as the “burned-over district” because of
the fervent prayer meeting held during the Second Great Awakening.
-The Second Great Awakening played an important role in
making Americans aware of the moral issues posed by slavery.
~A major aspect of the new religious outlook was that all people could be
saved even if they were already corrupt, and that a revival of faith did not
depend on a miracle from God; it could be created by individual efforts.
~The “burned-over district” was the same place that the Mormon church
first started through Joseph Smith.
•
American Civilization Society
-The American Colonization Society worked to return freed slaves
to the west coast of Africa.
-The American Colonization Society was primarily led by middle
class men and women.
~The ACS was funded by private charity, state legislatures, and congress in
order to compensate their masters.
~The slaves that were shipped out mostly went to west Africa and founded
Liberia, which obtained independence in 1846.
~There were so many blacks that it was impossible for the ACS to be
completely successful, and they also met much opposition from various
groups even from blacks themselves, also it became increasingly difficult to
liberate blacks because of the booming cotton industry, which made them
extra valuable to their masters.
~Eventually by the 1830`s the ACS was lost its strength in opposing slavery
and died out.
• William Lloyd Garrison
-Garrison was the editor of the radical abolitionist newspaper the
Liberator and one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
-In the first issue of the Liberator, Garrison called for the
“immediate and uncompensated emancipation of the slaves.”
-A famous quote of his published in The Liberator on January 1,
1831: “Let Southern oppressors tremble… I will be as harsh as Truth and as
uncompromising as Justice… I am in earnest- I will not retreat a single
inch- and I WILL BE HEARD!”
-Garrison’s support of women’s rights caused the American AntiSlavery Society to split into rival factions.
~Before starting the Liberator, Garrison was the assistant to Benjamin
Lundy who published another antislavery newspaper called the Genius of
Universal Emancipation.
~Garrison spoke that reformers should not look at the evil influence of
slavery on white society, but rather the damage the system did on blacks.
~The American Anti-slavery Society grew very rapidly due to its similarity
with other reform movements, it grew up to 250,000 members in six years,
1832-1838
•
Fredrick Douglass
-Frederick Douglass was the most prominent Black abolitionist
during the antebellum period.
-Although best known as an abolitionist, Douglass championed
equal rights for women and Native Americans. He often declared, “I
would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”
~Douglas was born a slave in Maryland and escaped to Massachusetts
in 1838.
~He spent some time in England lecturing about antislavery and when
he return to America he purchased his freedom from his Maryland
owner.
~Douglas founded the North Star, an antislavery newspaper in
Rochester N.Y.
~Under the leadership of Fredrick Douglas black abolitionists started
joining forces with white abolitionists.
•
Sarah Moore Grimke
-Grimke was one of the first women to publically support both
abolition and women’s rights.
-“I ask no favor for my sex,” declared Grimke. “I surrender not
our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is that they will take
their feet off our necks.”
~Grimke argued that “whatever is right for a man to do is right for a
woman to do.”
~Her goal was to chafe at restrictions put on women by men and to
press at the boundaries of acceptable female behavior.
•
Transcendentalism
-Transcendentalism is a philosophical and literary movement of the
1800’s that emphasized living a simple life while celebrating the truth found
in nature and in personal emotion and imagination.
-Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were the leading
transcendentalist writers.
~Transcendentalism revolved around a theory of the individual that rested on
distinction between “reason” and “understanding”. They argued that it
should be a persons goal to overcome understanding and cultivate reason.
~Emerson wrote “Nature” along with many other famous essays and poems,
he was centered in Concord Massachusetts and was focused primarily on the
classic expression of the romantic belief in the “divinity” of the individual.
~Thoreau was also centered in Concord, and he wrote Walden which lead him
into deciding to live in the woods for two years so that he could explore the
realm of reason and detach from the rapidly growing industrial world by
freeing himself. He also went to jail because he refused to pay a poll tax to a
government that permitted the existence of slavery, he explained this
resistance in one of his essays-”Resistance to Civil Government”.
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any
neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts,
and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I
am a sojourner in civilized life again.
… Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others
have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who
have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who
feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this
book. In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism,
is the main difference. ... I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew
as well. …Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of
his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send
to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me.
~This passage of Walden demonstrates among other things the transcendentalist
view of the importance of individualism and the aspect of discovering one`s self
through reason rather than understanding.
~The passage also notes how Thoreau spent some time in the woods in a cabin that
he built himself, and he also takes pride in the independence and freedom he
experienced while being separated from society.
Retrieved from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm
•
Utopian Communities
-Utopians shared a faith in perfectionism-that is, the belief that humans
have the capacity to achieve a better life through conscious acts of will.
-The best known utopian communities included Brook Farm, New
Harmony, and the Oneida Community.
~Brook Farm was founded by George Ripley, the community strove to have
equal labor and leisure amongst all its citizens, the central building burned
down in 1847 and the community dissolved. The fire and its liberation to the
people sparked many of Nathaniel Hawthorn`s books.
~New Harmony was founded by Robert Owen with similar equality to Brook
Farm and also aimed to be a “Village of Cooperation”.
~Oneida, founded by John Noyes had the same equality features as New
Harmony and Brook Farm, but there was also an extra emphasis on gender
equality, so much that all citizens were married to each other.
~All of these communities started as experiments.
•
Education
-McGuffey Readers were the best known and most widely used
school books in the nineteenth century. Also known as Eclectic Readers, the
books included stories, poems, essays, and speeches supporting patriotism
and moral values.
-Newspapers flourished during the first half of the nineteenth
century.
-Educational reformers worked to pass compulsory school laws,
create more teacher- training schools, and use state and local taxes to
finance public education.
~Horace Mann worked to increase school funding, and salaries especially
those of female teachers, enrich curriculum, and introduced new methods
of professional training for teachers.
~Gov. William Seward of N.Y. extended public support of schools
throughout the state in the 1840`s, then by 1850 most states had taxsupported elementary schools.
•
The Hudson River School
-The Hudson River School was a group of artists led by
Thomas Cole, who pained landscapes emphasizing America’s natural
beauty.
-The Hudson River School was America’s fist coherent school
of art.
~The views of many of the Hudson river artists coincided closely with
transcendentalism.
~The art created at the school was of nature throughout the Hudson
Valley, and they drew images of the more wild nature rather than the
calm nature that its European counterparts depicted.
~Many of the artists from this school moved out west to get into more
rugged territory so they could capture the wild terrain that gave them
the “sublime” feeling of awe and amazement.