Agriculture and Industry
The practice of manufacturing and then assembling interchangeable parts. A system that spread quickly across American industries, the use of standardized parts allowed American manufacturers to employ unskilled workers at low wages
What is the American system?
A term coined in 1845 by journalist John L. O'Sullivan to justify American expansion. Claimed that it was the nation's _____ to transport its values and civilization westward.
What is manifest destiny?
A Utopian community organized by John Humphrey Noyes in New York in 1848. Opposed to private property and marriage - embraced sexual and economic communalism
What is the Oneida community?
A surveyor's mark that had established the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania in colonial times. By the 1830s, the boundary divided the free North and slave South.
What is the Mason-Dixon line?
A proposal put forward by a representative of Pennsylvania in August of 1846 to ban slavery in territory acquired from the Mexican-American War. Saw widespread support in the North, but not the south.
What is the Wilmot Proviso?
How did the development of railroads play a significant role in the development of the nation and westward expansion?
- propelled growth of iron and coal industries
- stimulated growth of the telegraph
- Almost all railroads built by private companies
- fast and profitable transit
What is the Oregon Trail?
A declaration issued in 1848 at the first national woman's rights convention in the United States. Adopted the style of the Declaration of Independence to demand equal rights for women and enfranchisement.
What is the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments?
Laws enacted in southern states in the 1820s and 1830s that required the total submission of slaves. Attacks by antislavery activists and by slaves convinced southern legislators that they had to do everything in their power to strengthen the institution of slavery.
What were slave codes?
A term referring to work conducted free from constraint and according to the laborer's own inclinations and will.
What is free labor?
An independent republic that was established by a rebellion of Texans against Mexican rule.
What is the Lone Star Republic?
An organization dedicated to sending freed slaves and other black Americans to Liberia and West Africa.
What was the American Colonization Society?
The theory of slavery that emphasized reciprocal duties and obligations between masters and their slaves, with slaves providing labor and obedience and masters providing basic care and direction.
What is paternalism?
The idea that government is subject to the will of the people. Applied to the territories, it meant that the residents should determine whether to allow or ban slavery.
What is popular sovereignty?
How and why did the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints head west?
- Joseph Smith Jr. founded the church based on the writings of Mormon
- Seen as heretics by peers - faced significant persecution
- Nauvoo, Illinois - plural marriage - murder of Joseph Smith
- Brigham Young embarks on exodus - stops at the Great Salt Lake
How did 'free blacks' pose an ideological dilemma for white Southerners?
- population expanded after the Revolutionary War
- regulations and laws restricted 'free' black life
- fears about inciting slaves to rebel
Laws passed in 1850 mean to resolve the dispute over the spread of slavery in the territories. Key elements included the admission of California as a free state and the Fugitive Slave Act. The compromise quickly unraveled.
What is the compromise of 1850?
How did the concept of paternalism play a role in southern plantation life? What was its purpose?
- "Christian guardianship"
- reciprocal obligations between slave and master
- economic self-interest - make slaves lives better, not out of kindness, but for economic gain
- rationalization of slavery
How did agricultural and land policy shape growing westward expansion for Americans on the frontier and 'back east'?
- encountered fewer forests - less time clearing more time farming - boosted production
- Labor-saving improvements - 'singing plow', mechanical reaper
- Increased agricultural productivity fueled the nations economy
Why and how did the United States go to war with Mexico?
- Texans seek admission to the Union
- Election of 1844 - Henry Clay - opponent of annexation
- James K. Polk in favor of annexation
- Linked annexation of Texas to annexation of Oregon as a free state
- 1845 Congress approved Texas' admission - 15th slave state
- Polk wanted more territory - sent Zachary Taylor to press border
- Mexico attacked in 1846 - congress declared war later
- 1848 - signed treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - generally created modern shape of the U.S.
Why and how did the middle 1800s see reform movements in the United States?
- consequence of the adoption of a free-will theology and free-labor ideology - the individual can shape his/her/their destiny
- Failure of 'rugged individualism' - many poor Americans despite hard work
- Utopian communities develop to meet the 'American Promise'
- equality for women, abolition of slavery
- Large black presence in south played a fundamental role in the development of southern culture
- Leads to white supremacy
- Attacks on slavery caused folks to strengthen it - in order to save
- Fear of that the freeing of slaves would lead to race-mixing
- Utilized many structures to defend - law, history, biblical interpretations, attack the north's economy
- Encouraged southern unification around 'whiteness' as opposed to class
How did the debate over the expansion of slavery affect the election of 1848 and the use of western lands?
- Wilmot proviso
- Issue of slavery not in the constitution
- Congress did not pass legislation regarding slavery by the time the 1848 election rolled into the election
- Party division - formation of the free-soil party
- Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor