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A Growing Nation

A Growing Nation. America’s Path to Civil War. Setting the stage. After the Constitution is ratified, Americans get down to the business of doing business. The parts of the nation are different, and have different interests Plus, everyone wants the nation to get bigger!

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A Growing Nation

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  1. A Growing Nation America’s Path to Civil War

  2. Setting the stage • After the Constitution is ratified, Americans get down to the business of doing business. • The parts of the nation are different, and have different interests • Plus, everyone wants the nation to get bigger! • But the nation is split evenly: 7 free states, 7 slave states

  3. The North • Mostly settled by English & Dutch • Had small farms with many different crops • Religiously ‘liberal,’ applied equal justice to society • After Industrial Revolution, northerners built up factories and cities. Many moved off farms and into jobs at textile (cloth) factories.

  4. MA farm: Note the crops

  5. MA Textile Mill

  6. Northerners believed they should have the most power because of population, and strength of economy

  7. The South • Mostly settled by Germans & Scots-Irish • Had mostly large, one crop farms focused on tobacco and cotton. Both crops required lots of labor • This is why slavery spread • With cheap labor and demand for cotton from Northern textile factories, farmers grew more reliant on slavery

  8. Cotton fields today

  9. Cotton fields, pre-war

  10. Southerners believed they should have the most power because they had the most land (and, if slaves were counted, quite a few people).

  11. Expanding America • 1803: Louisiana Purchase doubles America’s size. We get MN, IA, MO, OK, NE, KS, ND, SD, MT, ID, WA, OR. • 1812-14: War of 1812 (fought around here) secures OH, MI, PA, WI, MN • 1836: Texan War of Independence. TX leaves Mexico, joins US in 1840 • 1846: Mexican War: US gets NM, AZ, CO, WY, NV, CA, UT

  12. Louisiana Purchase

  13. Texas War gains

  14. Everytime we add territory, we have to decide: Will the state be slave or free? • 1820: Missouri Compromise • MO comes in as a slave state • ME comes in as a free state. • Says that 36’30” N Lat will be dividing line between slave & free states

  15. Compromise of 1850 • Admits CA as free state • Authorizes Fugitive Slave Act, which says any slave captured must be returned • Says other areas gained in MX War get “popular sovereignty” - the right to choose whether to be slave or free

  16. 1854: Kansas Nebraska Act • Says any new state can have a vote on whether it will be slave or free • Means slavery & anti-slavery forces will rush into new states to sway the vote

  17. Effects • All of these laws serve to polarize the nation between those VERY pro-slave and those VERY pro-freedom • Anti-slavery forces form a brand new political party: The Republicans • America is on the edge of falling apart

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