Immigration and Nativist reaction & Social reforms

1. Immigration and Nativist reaction&Social reforms

2. Mass Immigration Begins • Original incentive: to supply cheap labor for the industrialized North. • 700,000 [1820-1840 • 4.2 million [1840-1860] • The Irish: Potato famine, dirt poor, discriminated, urban slums. • The Germans: had some money, artisans, midwest farmers.

3. Mass Immigration • Led to overpopulation in cities. Rich moved to suburban homes. • People from different backgrounds gathered in city centers [festivals, parades, etc]. • Change of working force [factory, wom] • Harsh working conditions • Rise of unions

4. Nativist Reaction • Know-nothing Party: nativist political party with hostility towards immigrants. • When asked about the party/org, members would answer “I know nothing” • “Hurricane”

5. Social Reforms • The system of coverture governed the union of husband of wife. • Based on European medieval system • Women X own X manage property • Husbands took punishments from wife’s crime, and provide necessities • First reformers tried to “change the people’s thought” • Married Women’s Property Act 1848 NY

6. Social Reforms • Movement to make laws available to everyone. [in simple writing]

7. American Renaissance: literary and artistic expressions&Western migration and cultural interactions

12. Manifest Destiny & Mexican American War

13. Tyler and Texas • 1830s and 1840s- The rush of settlers beyond the nation’s borders • President John Tyler: “accidental president” • A proslavery Virginian who believed in states’ rights • Wanted to win the election of 1844 with southern support, so tried to annex Texas to add a additional slave state

14. The Election of 1844 • The future of Texas became the major issue of the campaign • Tyler fails to receive support from either party because his stand wasn’t in line with neither parties • President- James Polk (southerner; favored annexation of Texas and assertion of American claims to all of Oregon) • Vice President- Henry Clay (initially anti-expansionist, but growing popularity of Texas annexation made him to shit his stand) • After the election, people’s mood generally turned in favor of the Texas annexation.

15. Manifest Destiny • John O’Sullivan- gave a justification to the annexation of Texas after the election of 1844 • “It was the manifest destiny of US to expand until it had absorbed all of North America, including Canada and Mexico.” • John O’Sullivan made 3 points: • God was on the side of American expansionism • Free development- the spread of American rule meant “extending the area of freedom” • Population growth required the outlet that territorial acquisitions would provide

16. Polk and the Oregon Question • Oregon Territory- joint US, British claim • 1845-46 US under strong sentiment of going into a war with Great Britain • Treaty of 1846- after the steps that could’ve led to war, US and Britain agrees on the division of Oregon along 49o north latitude • US gains Puget Sound and the strait that led into south of Vancouver Island from the Oregon Territory • The treaty angered Northerners- treaty reduced the possibility of new acquisitions in the Pacific Northwest that they hoped new free states could be created and balance the union.

17. War With Mexico • Mexico rejects to recognize the US claim to the unsettled territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Gande • US and Mexico go to war 1846 • General Zachary Taylor wins campaign in northern Mexico • Colonel Stephen Kearney captured New Mexico and joined John C. Frémont in taking California by early 1847 • September, 1847: General Winfield Scott occupies Mexico City

18. Settlement of the Mexican-American War • US gained 500,000 square miles of territory • Added California, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and parts of Colorado and Wyoming • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: • US pays $15 million to Mexico • Rio Grande becomes the border between Texas and Mexico • Nex Mexico, California goes to US