America: Industry, Emigration, Expansion, & Tension

1. America: Industry, Emigration, Expansion, & Tension

2. The Trans-Atlantic Context for Growth • Economic growth in America was linked and influenced by a host of events elsewhere in the world, particularly in England. • The British Industrial Revolution spurred technical innovations that had far-reaching implications. • Population growth and improvements in food production through agricultural science also were factors in European and American growth.

3. Factors Fueling Economic Development • The abundant natural resources of the United States • Increased labor pools, due to immigration from Europe • Improved modes of transportation (canals, railroads)

6. The Advance of Industrialization • Based on the British model, the growth of industrialization in America fueled enormous economic growth in the years before the Civil War. • Organization of production into the separate steps of manufacturing began to replace the age-old process of “putting out.”

7. Environmental Consequences • The impact of the swift economic growth of America had significant environmental repercussions. • Insatiable demands for wood as fuel and building material destroyed forests and promoted soil erosion. • A later shift to coal blanketed the larger cities in pollution.

8. Process of Urbanization • The impact of economic growth was experienced most directly by those living in the nation’s cities, which emerged into three types: • Commercial centers • Mill towns • Transportation hubs

9. Class Structure in Cities • The inequities of wealth and lifestyle in the urban areas reflected social fluidity and the potential for everyone to “make it.” • Americans believed capitalists deserved the profits from the economic expansion of the country. • The growing inequities solidified class lines and led to increased social agitation and labor protests.

10. Middle Class Life and Ideals • The new middle class benefited from the economic growth in antebellum America. • Furnished houses with the latest conveniences were the rule compared to the inadequate housing of the working class. • Genteel behavior and etiquette as well as specific designations for gender.

11. The Black Underclass • In the sixty years before the Civil War, the number of free blacks in America rose dramatically. • Most of these free blacks lived in the large northeastern cities. • They did not enjoy the rewards of the economic expansion of the times. • Black civil rights were repressed everywhere. • Educational opportunities for free blacks were minimal.

12. Frontier Families • After the War of 1812, movement to the Old Northwest began in earnest. • Changes in federal land policy helped stimulate migration. • The Old Northeast was only considered the frontier for thirty years. • Mistaken ideas about agriculture caused farmers to ignore prairies as arable land.

13. International Context for American Expansion • In 1815, save for the Louisiana Purchase, Spain held onto most of the trans-Mississippi west. • Spanish holdings eventually encompassed present-day Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, California and more. Mexican independence in 1821 gave the new country all of Spain’s holdings. • North of California was Oregon Territory, disputed between America and England.

14. Manifest Destiny • Phrase coined in 1845 by John L. O’Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review. • Expressed conviction that the development of a superior system of government and lifestyle dictated a God-given right of Americans to spread their civilization to the four corners of the continent. • Territorial expansion was a mandate of Manifest Destiny.

15. Annexing Texas, 1845 • Mexico feared a hostile takeover of Texas after repeated attempt by the United States to buy the territory. • To strengthen border areas, Mexico offered land for reduced costs requiring only that the settlers become Mexican citizens and Catholics. • Stephen Austin and many other contractors organized parties of settlers into Texas. • Few settlers honored their agreement with Mexico. • Texans won their independence from Mexico in 1836 and were annexed by America nine years later.

17. War with Mexico, 1846-1848 • Mexico severed diplomatic ties with America after its annexation of Texas. • President Polk failed to appreciate the humiliation of the Mexicans and sent American troops to forestall a potential invasion. Hostilities quickly followed. • Debate in Washington simmered as U.S. forces swept into Mexico and took the capital city.

18. The Emigrants • Most emigrants to the far West were white and American by birth. • Some free blacks also make the six-month overland trip. • Most traveled with family and relatives. • Only during the Gold Rush years did large numbers of unmarried men travel West independently.

19. Emigrants Motives • Most emigrants sought wealth in the form of gold and silver. • Other sought to set up businesses as merchants or land speculators. • Some traveled to the warmer climate to restore their health. • Others followed the direction of church leaders for religious or cultural missions.

21. Farming in the West • New arrivals in the West had to stake a claim and clear the land of obstructions. • As they began their farming, the emigrants unconsciously harmed the land by introducing foreign weeds and poor farming techniques.

22. Cities in the West • Some emigrants went west for the express purpose of living in a fast-growing city such as San Francisco or Denver. • Young, single men made up an overwhelming majority of these urban centers’ populations. • Opportunities were always greatest for those who brought significant assets with them from the East.

23. Second Party System • Democrats: had a sounder claim of representation of the common man with a broad base of support across the nation, logic often shaped policy • Whigs (formerly Republicans): represented majority of wealth in America and big businesses, religion often shaped policy

25. Working Class Reform • In America, the institution most in need of reform was the factory. • The reform movement gradually was adapted to the plight of workers and trade unions began to appear. • Skilled workers began to organize to protect their crafts and to negotiate better conditions. • The National Trades Union (1834) was the first attempt at a nation-wide labor organization.

26. Tensions within Antislavery Movement • William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator—America’s first antislavery journal and helped establish the American Anti-Slavery Society. • Garrison’s message was an immediate end to slavery with no conditions. • The majority of abolitionists in America disagreed on how to reform slavery in America; most preferred religious education, political action, boycotts of slave-harvested goods, or downright rebellion.

27. Wilmot Proviso • Amendment added to a congressional appropriations bill prohibiting slavery for ever existing in any territories acquired from Mexico

28. Popular Sovereignty • The idea that individual territories applying for statehood should decide the issue of slavery for themselves.

29. Compromise of 1850 • California entered the Union as a free state • Territorial governments were organized in New Mexico and Utah to apply the principle of popular sovereignty • The slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia • A new Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

31. Consequences of Compromise • Political alignment along party lines grew stronger • Previously unheard, Americans were now discussing ideals of higher law than the Constitution: succession and disunion • Abolitionists stepped up work on the Underground Railroad and several states prohibited elected officials and organizations from participation in slave hunting

32. Kansas-Nebraska Act • Stephen Douglas of the Whig party, introduced a bill organizing the Nebraska Territory (which included Kansas) • Southerners opposed the organization of the territory unless slavery was permitted • Douglas suggested the application of popular sovereignty to the issue as the entire territory fell north of the Missouri Compromise line • Issue inflamed all sides of the slavery issue, dragging the country closer to war.

33. The Know-Nothings • Nativist political action party comprised mostly of former Whigs who were dedicated to staunching the tide of foreign immigrants to the United States • If asked about their affiliation with the group, members were told to respond, “I Know Nothing.”

34. The “Young Americans” • Americans dedicated to the ideals of a nationalistic vision that included slavery and was modeled upon the revolutions of the era in Europe • Specifically interested in the expansion of America into the Latin American continent and the Caribbean

35. “Bleeding Kansas” • On the eve of the Civil War, militant abolitionist John Brown and a few followers crept into a pro slavery settlement outside of Lawrence, Kansas • They dragged five men out of their homes and hacked them to death with swords • This act led to a series of violence in the divided territory

36. Sectional Splits in the Democratic Party • Dred Scott v. Sanford: Supreme Court decision regarding the claims of freedom of a slave that had been transported into a free state. • The constitutional crisis in Kansas: the pro-slavery Lecompton constitution was created without a mandate from majority of settlers of Kansas; it led to an uncertain status for Kansas and divided the Democrats further

38. The Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois: Lincoln’s persuasive debates regarding slavery drew away a substantial chunk of the Democratic party. • John Brown’s Raids: Still on the loose after the Kansas massacre, John Brown hoped to provoke a general uprising of eastern slaves by attacking the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Brown was captured, tried, executed, and eventually became a martyr for the abolitionist/ Unionist cause

39. Secession • On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded form the Union; by February, six other Deep South states had followed her lead. • A week later a delegation met in Montgomery, Alabama to create the Confederacy. • On April 12, shelling of Fort Sumter signaled the start of the American Civil War.