American History Key Ideas

PATH American History 2018-2019
Key Ideas
Pre-Columbian Era (Week 01)
Megafauna once roamed North America but, for unknown reasons, died off before (or shortly after) the arrival of
humans in the Americas.
Native Americans in North America started out as hunter-gatherers, but some groups developed agriculture
around 1000AD.
Agriculture allowed Native Americans to supplement their diets and allowed more people to live closer together.
They cultivated crops, including the "Three Sisters" -- corn, beans, and squash. However, most groups relied on
hunting and fishing for protein since they had few domesticated animals and no livestock.
Large cities (like Cahokia, population 20,000+) developed but eventually deforestation, overhunting, climate
change, and social unrest made large cities unsustainable.
Between the 10th and 16th centuries, the Mississippian Culture flourished in the central and southeastern North
America. They could be identified by common characteristics such as the building of mounds, cultivation of
maize (corn), use of seashells to temper their clay pottery, trading extensively with each other, and establishing
a physical and societal hierarchy in their settlements.
Somewhere between 20 million and 100 million Native Americans lived in the Americas at the time of
Columbus’s first journey to America.
Discovery of America (Week 02)

Vikings and possibly other Europeans explored North America as early as 1000AD but did not establish a lasting
presence.
The voyages of Christopher Columbus inspired other European explorers to venture to the New World. At first,
most were still searching for a sea route to Asia, but mapmaker Amergio Vespucci is usually credited for
realizing that the New World were previously unrecognized continents.
The Columbian Exchange (Week 02)

The Columbian Exchange was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations,
technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Diseases unknown to the Native Americas were transferred from the Old World to the Americas by Europeans,
who had developed immunity to these diseases through genetic diversity and centuries of close contact with
livestock.
Native Americans had no immunity to these new diseases since they had neither genetic diversity nor livestock.
As a result, up to 100 million Native Americans (90% of the total) died within 300 years of the first voyage of
Columbus to the New World.
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Age of Exploration (Weeks 02, 03)

The Crusades to the Middle East from the 11th through 13th centuries resulted in greater contact between
Europeans and Asians and increased demand in Europe for goods from those lands.
Early voyages of Europeans to the New World were motivated by a desire to find an easier trade route to the Far
East (India and China).
Columbus was not the first European to arrive at the New World, but his voyages opened the “Age of Discovery”
and he was followed by many more European voyagers, most of whom continued to search for a sea route to
Asia.
The Spanish were the first to explore the interior of the New World, motivated by a God, glory, and gold.
Spanish, Dutch, French and British Colonialism (Week 03)

Spain, France, the Dutch, and England settled different areas of North America and settled in different ways.
Spanish sought gold and to convert Indians to Catholicism. They found little gold and the religious motivation
gave their rivals a morale reason to compete with the Spanish in the New World. Their poor treatment of the
Indians caused their Protestant rivals to label the Spanish "The Black Legend. “
French chose to trade with the Indians (mostly furs) rather than settle in the New World, which would have
caused friction with the Indians and threatened their relationship with them.
The Dutch had sophisticated financial systems, including a lucrative slave trade. After its exploration by Henry
Hudson (who was seeking a northern passage to Asia) they settled New Netherland, now known as New York.
They attempted to deal fairly with the Indians in financial matters but had little understanding of Native cultures.
The patroon system was intended to encourage Dutch emigrants to work the farms but failed to attract enough
laborers, so African slaves were imported.
The British were motivated to settle the New World because they believed it would lead to increased wealth,
rivalry with the Spanish rivalry, and mounting internal social unrest due to lack of affordable land and
employment. The English Protestants claimed to be doing God’s work in saving the Natives from the Spanish
Catholics. Puritans were unhappy with the Church of England and wanted to "purify" their practices and beliefs
in the New World without completely separating from it.
Colonial Period (Week 04)

Changes in the government in England in the 17th century also had an impact on the Colonies. As a result of the
English Civil War (1642-1651) an English monarch could no longer govern without Parliament's consent.
During the Interregnum period, Puritans had little motive to move to the New World, but after the Restoration of
the Crown in 1660, many English Puritans again emigrated to the New World, and brought with them the
republican ideals of the revolution.
In addition to Massachusetts and Virginia (both started as business enterprises for English interests) other
Colonies were established in the 17th and early 18th centuries for a variety of reasons. Maryland was intended to
be haven of religious tolerance for all Christians, and it became the first major Catholic enclave in the New
World. Pennsylvania was founded to become a paradise of religious freedom. Georgia was established to be a
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barrier to Spanish territory and a place where debtors could work off their debts rather than face prison. Ironically,
none of the Colonies were successful in achieving the original objectives of their founders.
Slavery became an increasing part of the American scene, especially in the southern Colonies where, unlike
indentured servants from Europe, Africans were partially immune to malaria. Charleston, South Carolina was
established in 1670 and became the leading entry point for slaves brought from Africa.
Colonists in the New World began to resent political control imposed on them without their representation or
benefit. In 1637-38, Anne Hutchinson was tried for sedition and heresy because she and her followers
challenged the rule of the government and clergy in Massachusetts. Nathaniel Bacon led Virginia settlers in an
armed rebellion in 1676 because they did not feel the Governor of Virginia was doing enough to protect them
from the Native Americans. In the only successful expulsion of European settlers in the history of North America,
Pueblo Indians rose up to overthrow the Spanish in 1680. In 1739, encouraged by the Spanish, slaves rebelled
against their owners in South Carolina in what became known as the Stono Rebellion.
England continued to struggle toward democracy and away from monarchy. The bloodless Glorious Revolution
(1688-89) resulted in Parliament being given more power through the English Bill of Rights and restricted the
monarchy from completely deciding the religion of England.
In the Colonies, the Great Awakening of the mid-18th century was a movement rooted in spiritual growth,
energized by charismatic preachers like the American Jonathan Edwards and the Englishman George
Whitefield. It saw the birth of deep religious convictions in the Colonies, and colonists determined that they
could be bold when confronting religious authority and break away if they were not meeting expectations. As a
result of the Great Awakening, colonists discovered that, just as with religion, political power did not reside with
English Monarchs, but with colonists' self-governance.
The French fur trade flourished in 18th century North America, and they built forts in the Ohio valley and
elsewhere to protect their interests and keep English settlers out. As a result of increasing English encroachment,
war broke out between the French and English in 1754. In North America the conflict was known as the French
and Indian War, but it was in fact part of a global war called The Seven Years' War. The English finally
prevailed in 1763, with the result that French territory and influence in North America greatly diminished, English
land and wealth increased, Native Americans lost even more land, and the colonists began to think of themselves
as "Americans."
Annoyed by the increasing cost of maintaining the Colonies, King George III of England issued the
Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited settlement in North America west of the Appalachian Mountains. He
also increased taxes on the colonists. Both increased resentment against the King, and colonists ignored the
Proclamation and began migrating west.
By 1775, there were thirteen Colonies in North America; Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia.
The American Revolution (Week 05,06)

After the departure of the French after the French and Indian War, Native Americans were unhappy with the
policies of the British, and with colonists were moving on to Indian land. Chief Pontiac encouraged his people
not to make peace with white settlers, and Indians attacked British forts and settlements in the Ohio Valley and
elsewhere. The British responded by giving the Native Americans smallpox-infected blankets during peace talks.
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Already in debt due to financing British forces in North America during the French and Indian War, King George
III sought to recoup some of his expenses by taxing the Colonies. The end of “statutory neglect” was the Sugar
Act of 1764, followed the next year by the Stamp Act. Colonists were very unhappy with being taxed while
having no representation in British Parliament.
The highly unpopular Townshend Acts of 1767 introduced taxes on the import of glass, lead, paper and painters’
colors. But perhaps more importantly, they overhauled the system of collection. Up to this point customs officials
were so corrupt that very little of the money ever reached Britain. So, Townshend set up a new, locally-based
American Board of Customs Commissioners. In effect this was the first-time duties on any commodity had been
properly imposed. It was highly unpopular in America.
On March 5, 1770, Americans were harassing British sentries in the streets of Boston. This led to the Boston
Massacre in which five Colonists were killed, including Crispus Attucks, a person of color. John Adams
defended the soldiers at trial, and they got off with a light sentence. Parliament repealed the Townshend duties, all
except for the tea tax, shortly thereafter.
In the Boston Tea Party of December 17, 1773, Colonists dumped crates of British tea into Boston Harbor to
protest the tax on non-British tea. In response, British Parliament passed the "Intolerable" Acts, which closed
Boston Harbor, forbade town meetings, and required Colonists to quarter British soldiers in unoccupied buildings.
The First Continental Congress met in 1774 as a response to the "Intolerable" Acts. Their objective was to
work with the King to decide how Britain and the Colonies would interact in the future.
King George III rejected American overtures and claimed that America was already represented in Parliament
through "virtual representation." Colonists rejected this claim.
War between Britain and the Colonies finally broke out on April 19, 1774 when American militia clashed with
British troops sent to confiscate arms and powder in Concord. The initially fighting at Lexington and the fighting
retreat of the British were started by the "shot heard 'round the world."
Not all Americans were in favor of separating the Colonies from Britain. They were called Loyalists, or Tories.
Some of them even took up arms against the Patriots, who were people in favor of the revolution.
The Second Continental Congress convened in the summer of 1775 and made a last attempt at reconciliation
with the British. Failing that, they decided to formally separate from Britain and had Thomas Jefferson craft a
document that would enumerate the rights of the Colonists and the grievances against King George III. This
document was the Declaration of Independence. Many of the ideas Jefferson used in this document originated
from British political philosopher John Locke.
Women played an important role in the Revolutionary War. They made clothes for the soldiers at the front,
followed their husbands as camp followers, provided medical help, replaced the absent men in shops and on
farms, and some fought in battles.
After Lexington and Concord in April 1775, American militia laid seige to Boston. Captured British cannons
were transported from Fort Ticonderoga to Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston. The British responded in
June by attacking Americans entrenched on Breed's Hill. The Americans were eventually forced to retreat, but the
British suffered high casualties and the Battle of Bunker Hill became a moral victory for the Americans.
George Washington took control of the Continental Army in July 1775. In December 1776, he led Americans
on a sneak attack on Hessian soldiers at Trenton and gained America's first victory in battle.
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At the Battle of Saratoga in September and October of 1777, the American General Horatio Gates won a
significant victory against the British. As a result, France entered the war on the American side in early 1778.
This is considered the turning point of the American Revolutionary War.
The Seige of Yorktown ended with an American victory in October 1781 and convinced the British that they
could not afford to fight the Americans any longer. The Treaty of Paris (1783) formally ended the American
fight for independence, set many geographic borders (including U.S. and Canada), returned Florida to Spain, and
required that British merchants and American Loyalist be compensated for losses caused by the war.
After the American Revolution (Week 06)

The end of the American Revolution meant the end of mercantilism and dependence on Britain for trade, but the
American economy was in bad shape due to high cost of the war.
States drafted new constitutions that were based on popular sovereignty, the right of the people to govern
themselves.
Despite the declaration that "all men are created equal," the American Revolution did not lead to the abolition of
slavery. However, some Americans freed their slaves to fight in the Revolution and some allowed former slaves
to keep their freedom afterwards.
Native American tribes that had fought on the side of the British now found themselves worse off than ever. In
many ways the beginning of independence for the United States was the beginning of the end of independence
for Native Americans.
The Articles of Confederation were passed by Congress in 1781. It is considered the first constitution of the
United States. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Treaty of Paris (1783) was signed, and the Northwest
Ordinances of 1784, 1785, and 1787 opened large areas to settlement by Americans who wanted to move west.
The Articles of Confederation failed to give federal government the necessary powers to act as a federal
government. Under it, Congress could not raise taxes, regulate foreign or state trade, or enforce laws. Congress
appointed a president who presided over the Congress when it was assembled but had no other executive powers.
Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts (August 1786–June 1787) saw thousands of farmers revolt against aggressive
debt collection policies and attempt to overthrow the state government. The episode highlighted the weaknesses
of the Articles of Confederation and would motivate Americans to draft a second constitution.
A New Nation (Week 07)

The political leaders of the United States in the late 18th century wanted the government to provide an ordered
social system but believed in limited government in that government should not be all-powerful. They also
believed in the concept of representative government—a government that serves the will of the people.
After the end of the American Revolution, the U.S. was faced with many economic and political problems. The
federal government was ineffective under the Articles of Confederation (1781) and could not levy taxes to raise
revenue. States erected trade barriers with each other, and the debts incurred as a result of the war could not be
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paid. Shays's Rebellion demonstrated that the federal government did not have the power to put down an armed
revolt.
In mid-1787, delegates from most of the states met in Philadelphia to solve the shortcomings of the Articles of
Confederation. The greatest of these was the federal government’s inability to levy taxes, and the delegates also
hoped to solve the trade disputes between states. It soon became clear that merely modifying the Articles of
Confederation would not be enough. James Madison proposed the Virginia Plan, which eventually became the
basis for an entirely new document -- the U.S. Constitution.
While the delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed on most things, they disagreed on whether states
should receive equal representation in the legislature, or if the states should be given representation based on their
populations. They finally agreed on the Great Compromise (also known as the Connecticut Compromise) which
called for a Senate in which states were equally represented with two senators each and a House of
Representatives in which states were represented based on their population.
Another major disagreement between the delegates was whether slaves should be counted in the population of
states when allotting representation in Congress. This issue caused a rift between the southern states where many
slaves lived and the northern states. Eventually, the delegates agreed that slaves would count as 3/5ths of a person
each.
The Constitution was signed by the delegates on September 17, 1787, and then went to the states for ratification.
Three of the signers or the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, wrote a series of
articles explaining the Constitution and advocating its ratification. The collection of these became known as the
Federalist Papers. The legislatures of the required nine states voted in favor of the Constitution and it went into
effect on June 21, 1788. Rhode Island was the last state to ratify the Constitution and did so in 1790.
Congress met under the new Constitution for the first time on March 4, 1789. On April 6,1789, Congress
unanimously elected George Washington to be the first U.S. President. Washington was inaugurated on April
30, 1789.
Many had been wary of a strong national government and had approved of the original Constitution only after
being promised that amendments enumerating individual rights would be added. On June 8, 1789 James Madison
introduced nine amendments to the Constitution in the House of Representatives guarantying personal freedoms
and rights, placing clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicitly
declaring that all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or
the people. Ten amendments ratified as additions to the Constitution on December 15, 1791 are known as the Bill
of Rights.
During Washington's two terms, political parties began to form. Alexander Hamilton and others were Federalists
who advocated a strong central government, wanted the federal government to absorb and pay debts incurred by
the states as a result of the war, advocated the use of paper currency, and believed that some powers that are not
specifically prohibited by the Constitution are implied powers.
Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, believed in small, local government, states should be responsible
for their own debt, people don't trust paper money, and the federal government should only use its power when
necessary.
Alexander Hamilton believed that a national bank would aid the government in paying off the debt, coining
money, and collecting taxes. He argued that the Constitution does not prohibit the federal government from
chartering a bank its creation and it would help Congress carry out its duties and stimulate the national economy.
Thomas Jefferson opposed a national bank and believed it would lead to corruption. President Washington
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ultimately agreed with Hamilton and the first national bank was chartered for a period of 20 years on February 25,
1791.
In the summer of 1794, a group of farmers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled against the whiskey tax and staged
the Whiskey Rebellion. One group beat up a tax collector and coated him with tar and feathers. Federal troops,
personally led by George Washington, put down the rebellion and demonstrated that the federal government can
maintain law and order. However, the outcome also resulted in some citizens, especially poor westerners,
deciding that the federal government was their enemy.
John Adams, a Federalist, was elected 2nd president of the U.S. and began serving in 1797. During Adams'
administration, French warships were seizing American ships so they couldn’t trade with England. In what would
become known as the XYZ Affair, American diplomats sent by Adams failed to settle the dispute with France
until they paid a ransom. Adams blamed the affair (and other failings of his administration) on aliens (recent
immigrants) and convinced Congress to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts. These laws made it more difficult for
immigrants to become U.S. citizens and made it illegal to speak out against the U.S. government. Many argued
that they violated the 1st Amendment.
The U.S. fought a Quasi-War with France from 1797 to 1800. This war, fought almost entirely at sea, was over
American rights to trade with Britain, and because the French were angry that the Americans refused to repair
debt owed them dating to the American Revolution.
The election of 1800 resulted in an electoral college tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, with the
incumbent President John Adams placing third. The tie was finally broken by a vote in the U.S. House of
Representatives when Alexander Hamilton convinced the Federalists, who supported Burr, to abstain from voting.
Thomas Jefferson becomes the 3rd U.S. president and a furious Burr becomes vice president.
The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution provides for a separate vote for president and vice president.
The Early Republic (Week 08)

Despite George Washington's admonition to avoid forming political parties, arguments over how the government
should be run and who should run it split Americans into Federalist and Democratic-Republicans.
Thomas Jefferson’s election as the 3rd U.S. president in 1800 is called a “second American Revolution.” The
presidency transfers parties from the Federalist to the Democratic-Republicans, who intended to reverse the trend
toward a strong central government place and return power to the common people.
In his last days as president, John Adams appointed Federalists to many federal courts. These became known as
the "midnight judges." In addition, the Federalist majority in Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801 to
reduce the number of Supreme Court justices from the original six to five, in order to prevent incoming
Democratic-Republican president-elect Jefferson from being able to appoint new justices sympathetic to his party.
President Jefferson believed, as did the framers of the Constitution, that virtue would cause men to do the right
thing for the United States and political parties would lead to the opposite, that a minimal central government
is better than a strong central government, that a society based on agriculture was better than one based on
industry, that banks and other financial institutions would be abused and rife with corruption, and that standing
armed forces were a threat to a democracy and only small military should be maintained. Jefferson was a strict
constructionist and believed that anything not specifically stated in the Constitution was prohibited by it.
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In explaining the 1803 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case Marbury vs. Madison, Justice John Marshall ruled
that it did not have jurisdiction over the case and struck down the provision in the Judiciary Act of 1789 giving
the Supreme Court mandamus. This result established that the U.S. Constitution was law and gave the Supreme
Court the power of judicial review, the power to decide which laws passed by Congress, and what acts by the
President, are Constitutional (legal) or not.
In 1791, Toussaint l’ Ouverture, a free black man, led a slave revolt against the French in Haiti. The Haitian
Revolution was caused, in part, by discrimination on the part of the white-controlled government against free and
slave people of color. Yellow fever and the revolutionary army defeat the French and Haiti becomes the only
country in which black slaves free themselves through a successful armed rebellion.
On July 4, 1803, the federal government announced that it has purchased 825,000 square miles of territory from
the French. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubles the land area of the United States, but President Thomas
Jefferson is criticized by the opposing Federalist party for expanding the power of the executive branch beyond
what is specified in the Constitution.
Jefferson's lack of a strong navy causes problems when pirates in the Mediterranean demand high ransom in
exchange for safe passage for American merchant shipping. A combination of focused military force and a payoff
to the pirates ends the First Barbary War in 1805 and shows that the U.S. is willing to fight for its international
rights.
In the early 1800s Britain and France are at war and both interfere with American shipping intended to deliver
goods to the rival countries. President Jefferson, again implying a loose interpretation of the Constitution, urges
Congress to pass the Embargo Act of 1807 to prohibit any American exports overseas, expecting this action to
force those France and Britain to respect American sovereignty at sea. The result is economic disaster for the
United States and the act is repealed.
British ships stop and board American ships on the high seas and take sailors captive to fight for the British navy.
This impressment of sailors (including American citizens) infuriates Americans and wounds their sense of pride
and honor.
James Madison, former Secretary of state and author of much of the U.S. Constitution, is elected the 4th U.S.
President in 1808. Although he argued in favor of the Constitution in the Federalist Papers, Madison had opposed
the formation of a national bank, believed in limited power for the central government, and, along with Thomas
Jefferson, had founded the Democratic-Republican party.
In the American West, the Shawnee war chief Tecumseh organizes over two-dozen Native American tribes into
an Indian Confederacy that extends from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. They have a common interest
with the British in preventing further western expansion of the United States, and, with British help, fight against
the Americans for their freedom. They gain little but Americans are angered by the British aid to the Native
Americans.
A new generation of Americans in Congress call for war with Britain. These "War Hawks" are too young to
remember the hardships of the American Revolution and want to assert their independence against the British and
avenge the offenses impressment and aid to the Native Americans. In addition, Canada is seen as a logical
extension of American territorial expansion. The War of 1812 is declared, but, after more than two years of
fighting that led to a stalemate, the Treaty of Ghent ends the war in 1814.
Not all Americans supported the second war against Britain. Wealthy New Englanders who made their fortunes
building ships and trading at sea with the British, opposed the conflict. In late 1814, Federals met in Hartford,
Connecticut, to try to end the war and curb the power of the Republican Party. The Hartford Convention creates
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fear over possible secession of New England and President Madison sends troops to assert federal resolve.
Because of American economic and military failures during the war, Madison comes to support a stronger central
government, including a stronger military and national bank.
The fighting of the War of 1812 doesn't end until after the Battle of New Orleans, in which American forces led
by Andrew Jackson defeat British forces trying to capture New Orleans. Many Americans assume that this battle
ended the war, and Jackson becomes a war hero.
The Market Revolution (Week 09)

Up until the early 19th century, most American farmers grew crops and raised livestock raised to maintain
the farmer and his family, leaving little, if any, surplus for sale or trade. This is known as subsistence farming.
In contrast, farming for a profit, where food is produced by advanced technological means for sale in the market,
is known as commercial farming.
For commercial farming to be viable, it requires an efficient and profitable method of production as well as a
reliable and inexpensive means of transportation to market. Neither of these were common in the United States
until the 1800's.
State and federal monies were used to build roads, canals, and railroads in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The first turnpike (toll road) connected Lancaster to Philadelphia and opened in 1792. The Erie Canal opened in
1825 and connected the Hudson River with the Great Lakes. The Cumberland Road, opened in 1811, was
nearly 600 miles long and ran from Maryland to Illinois. By the 1830's, steam-powered locomotives were
replacing horse-drawn carriages.
Immigrants to America generally came from Europe where labor was plentiful, but land was scare, whereas in
America land was plentiful and labor was scarce. The industrial Revolution began in Europe in the late 18th
century because labor was available to run the factories, but the Industrial Revolution came late to America.
Starting in New England, where immigrants provided labor and land was difficult to farm, factories began
springing up and wage earning began replaced farming as the means of support for many families. Most early
factories were textile mills that processes raw cotton grown in the American South.
Factories used division of labor to allow workers to specialize and thereby be more efficient at their respective
tasks. The American factory system could employ unskilled labor to operate machinery rather than rely on
skilled craftsman. Factories took advantage of the economies of scale by producing goods in large quantities. The
centralization of factories meant that expensive raw materials, labor, and equipment could be used continuously
and efficiently. The standardization of interchangeable parts enables the use division of labor and the
assembly line, both of which reduce production costs.
Democracy in America (Week 10)

America’s first political party, the Federalists, effectively ceased to exist after the election of 1816, when James
Monroe defeated Rufus King and became the 6th U.S. president.
By 1819, Florida had become a burden to Spain, which could not afford to send settlers or garrisons. Under
President Monroe, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams negotiated the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 in which
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Spain ceded Florida to the United States in exchange for settling the boundary dispute between U.S. and Spain
along the Sabine River in Spanish Texas.
Expansion into the West resulted in a land boom in which people borrowed money to purchase cheap land,
expecting to repay their loans after later sale at a profit. If they could not, property laws prevented banks from
seizing property from delinquent borrowers.
Congress chartered the Second Bank of the United States in 1816, which tightened credit to states, called in
loans, and demanded repayment in gold. Many banks could not comply and failed, leading to the Panic of 1819.
Many blamed the Second Bank of the U.S. and the economy slowed as a result.
Sectionalism, or placing the interests of a region above the interests of the nation, developed in the North, which
was an industrial economy, the South, which relied on slaves to plant and harvest cotton, and the West, which
were primarily free farmers.
When the Constitution was ratified in 1788, eight of the original thirteen states allowed slavery. By 1800, only
nine out the seventeen states were slave states, and by 1819 there were eleven free and eleven slave states, or
sectional parity. The Senate (where states received equal representation regardless of population) maintained
sectional parity by admitting new states into the U.S. in pairs (one slave, one free). When Missouri applied for
statehood in 1819, the Tallmadge Amendment proposed to eventually eliminate slavery from Missouri.
Congress reached the Missouri Compromise which allowed Missouri (slave) and Maine (free) admission, but
also declared that any new states that formed out of the territory north of 36°30′ parallel would only be admitted if
slavery were prohibited there.
Andrew Jackson (Week 11)

A veteran of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson was popularly known as “Old
Hickory” for his rugged and stubborn ways. He gained national fame when he defeated the British at the Battle of
New Orleans in 1815. American forces led by Jackson wrestled possession of Florida from Spain in 1818, and
Jackson served as governor of the Florida territory from 1821-23. Jackson ran for the U.S. presidency in 1824 as
one of five candidates from the Democratic-Republican Party. Although he received a plurality of electoral
college votes, the House of Representatives selected John Quincy Adams over Jackson. Jackson won the 1828
election as the first candidate of the newly-formed Democratic Party and denied Adams a second term.
As president, Jackson’s efforts to limit the power of the affluent elite led to his reputation for populist
“Jacksonian Democracy” but his administration was also known for a heavy hand when it came to the power of
the executive branch. He was a staunch champion of states’ rights against Federalism, and his administration was
marked by expansion in Texas, wars with the Indians and his rejection of the Bank of the United States. Andrew
Jackson was re-elected in 1832, then followed the example of George Washington and chose not to seek a third
term.
The Market Revolution (cont.) (Week 12)

Factory workers in the early 19th century grew up working on farms in the outdoors, but now worked long hours,
were paid low wages, had few breaks, and were confined to buildings with poor ventilation, inadequate
lightning, no air conditioning and little heating.
Workers were forbidden by law to form unions and strikes were rare.
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Due to the labor shortage in the U.S., many women and children were employed in dangerous and unhealthy
factories where they worked six days a week while earning small wages
As a result of industrialization, towns and cities grew around factories. The labor shortage stimulated
immigration, especially in New England where the first factories opened. Inventions improved productivity in
both factories and on the farm.
The U.S. government domestic policies increasingly supported industry at the expense of agriculture.
Sectionalism continued to grow and divide the cultures, economies, and identities of the people of the North,
South, and West.
The Cotton Revolution, Slavery, and the Rise of Abolitionism (Week 13)
Tobacco had long been a staple crop in the Colonial American. Southern planters used slaves to plant and harvest
this labor-intensive crop. In the mid-seventeenth century, the price of tobacco fluctuated wildly, and the financial
viability of tobacco declined throughout the 1760s and 1770s. By the start of the American Revolution, some
planters had switched to growing food crops, particularly wheat, and tobacco production in Virginia dropped to
less than 25 percent of its annual prewar output. Wheat and other food crops required less labor and by the start of
the 19th century the practice of slavery declined.
Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin made cotton an enormously profitable crop. From 1790 to 1860 cotton
production increased by more than 1,500%. After 1820 cotton represented the majority of U.S. exports. By
1850s, the American South produced more than half the world’s supply of cotton, and countries like England
needed cotton to make cloth. Southerners who had previously been in favor of the elimination of slavery now
became adamant defenders of the "peculiar institution." In 1858, one Southern congressman, James Henry
Hammond, justified slavery based on the mudsill theory, the proposition that there must be a lower class for
the upper classes to rest upon. He also declared "Cotton is king," meaning that the United States must tolerate
slavery because cotton was so important to the American economy.
As the demand for cotton rose so did the demand for slaves, especially in the Deep South. At the same time the
Upper South experienced an agricultural depression, so they in turn sold their slaves “down river” at tremendous
profits. Over 1 million African-Americans were moved from the Upper to the Deep South in what has been called
the "Second Middle Passage."
In the 19th century, land and slaves to work the land were the means to generate wealth. King Cotton created a
planter aristocracy in the South. In 1850 only 0.1% of people in the South owned more than 100 slaves, and
more than 75% of Southerners did not own any slaves at all. By 1860 over 50% of slaves lived in the "Cotton
Belt" (aka "Black Belt") that stretched across the Deep South from Texas to South Carolina.
Free blacks were a sort of "third race" that were not treated as equals in either the North or the South. Some
Northern states prohibited blacks from voting or even entry, and free blacks like Solomon Northup were often
kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South.
Under slavery, African-Americans did not enjoy the social privileges and legal rights of whites. Marriages
between slaves were not legally recognized, slaves were forbidden to learn to read or write, or possess alcohol or
firearms. Slaves required passes from their masters to travel outside of their plantation. They could not vote or
own property.
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Slaves often ran away, and some even attempted to rebel against their white masters. Gabriel's planned rebellion
of 1800 and Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831 were both brutally put down, resulting in the deaths of many
innocent slaves as well as the execution of the participants. The main result of these rebellions was a tightening
of control over slaves, and laws to prevent their education and communication with each other were passed by
state legislatures.
As early as the late 18th century, Quakers protested the inhumanity of “peculiar institution.” Antislavery
societies formed due to a rising abolitionist sentiment in the U.S., and the American Colonization Society
(1817) was formed to aid slaves who chose to voluntarily relocate to Africa. The country of Liberia was founded
in Africa in 1822 but only about 14,000 former slaves moved there.
Northern white people spoke out against slavery, including William Lloyd Garrison who published the anti-
slavery newspaper The Liberator (1831), and Wendell Phillips, a Bostonian who refused to eat cane sugar or
wear cotton cloth, since both were made by slaves. The American Anti-Slavery Society was founded by
Garrison and Phillips in 1833.
Free African-Americans also joined the call for the abolition of slavery. David Walker's Appeal to the Colored
Citizens of World (1829) advocated a violent revolt against slavery. Sojourner Truth fought tirelessly for black
emancipation and women's rights. Martin Delany favored mass recolonization and formation of a former slave
state in Africa. The most eloquent and effective African-American to speak out against slavery was the former
slave Frederick Douglass.
Manifest Destiny (Week 14)

Manifest destiny belief shared by many Americans in the mid-1800s that the United States should expand across
the continent to the Pacific Ocean. Three key themes were usually touched upon by advocates of manifest destiny:
the virtue of the American people and their institutions; the mission to spread these institutions, thereby
redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the United States; the destiny under God to do this work.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 increased the size of the United States by 25%, and Spain ceded Florida to the
U.S. by signing the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819.
Texas was originally part of Mexico, which gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Americans settling in
Texas were unhappy with Mexican rule and rebelled in 1835. Defeat at the Alamo and Goliad was followed by a
victory over the Mexican forces led by Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. Texas joined the U.S.
and became the 28th state in 1845.
In 1820, both the U.S. and Britain claimed the Oregon Country, and in the 1830s and 1840s, thousands of
American pioneers settled there. President Polk wanted all of Oregon to the 54o 50' parallel, but Britain and the
U.S. compromised. In 1846, Oregon was divided at the 49th parallel with the U.S. annexing the territory south of
that line.
In June 1846, thirty-three American immigrants in the Mexican province of Alta California rebelled against the
Mexican authorities and declared the California Republic an independent nation. U.S. Army Captain John C.
Fremont joined the American settlers in their revolt and on July 5, 1846 U.S. naval forces came ashore in
California and claimed California for the United States.
Disagreement over Texas and disputed borders led the U.S. to declare war on Mexico in 1846. During the
Mexican-American War, Zachary Taylor defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista and American
troops under Winfred Scott captured Mexico City. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) ended the war and
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gave the U.S. the territories of California, Nevada and Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of
Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. also claimed Texas north of the Rio Grande.
Between 1843 and 1860, nearly 300,000 Americans travelled west to find land, gold, and freedom to practice the
religion of their choice. Settlers bound for California took a southern route known as the California Trail through
the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Exemplifying the struggles and risks of the western migration, the Donner
Party was trapped in the mountains by a snow storm and many were forced to resort to cannibalizing the dead in
order to survive the winter of 1846-47.
In 1849, about 80,000 gold seekers, known as forty-niners, came to California hoping to strike it rich. New
businesses, industry, and farming transformed California’s economy and it became a state in 1850.
Joseph Smith founded the Mormon religion in 1830, capitalizing on the religious zeal of Second Great
Awakening in the United States (1790-1840).
After being expelled from Missouri the Mormons settled in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1838-39. In 1844 some of Joseph
Smith's most trusted followers broke from him and determined to expose his secret practice of polygamy in the
local newspapers. Smith and his followers were arrested trying to destroy the newspaper office, and a group of
local militiamen stormed the county jail and killed Smith. Most Mormons left Illinois in 1846, led to Utah by
Brigham Young. In 1857 Mormon militiamen besieged a wagon train on its way to California, eventually
murdering 120 non-Mormon in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Historians attribute the massacre to the
Mormon teachings to beware of outsiders.
The Gadsden Purchase of 1853 added the southernmost territory that would one day become Arizona and New
Mexico to the U.S.
Not all Americans were in favor of American expansionism and the concept of Manifest Destiny. The Whig
Party, including Abraham Lincoln, preferred that America serve as an example rather than a conqueror.
The Sectional Crisis (Week 15)

By 1819, parts of the Louisiana Purchase had been settled and in that year the territory of Missouri applied for
statehood. The U.S. Senate (where states received equal representation regardless of population) maintained
sectional parity by admitting new states into the U.S. in pairs (one slave, one free).The expectation was that
Missouri would enter the Union as a slave state, since the area of Missouri on either side of the Missouri River
was known as "Little Dixie" because of the number of slaves used there to grow hemp. Opponents of slavery
wanted to prevent further expansion of slavery into new territories and the states they would become. In 1820,
Congress passed the Missouri Compromise which prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of
the parallel 36°30′ north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. In 1821, Maine was
admitted to the Union as a free state and Missouri was admitted as a slave state. maintaining the balance of free
and slave states at twelve each.
The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in 1852, raised awareness in the
North of the plight of slaves in the South.
Southerners grew increasingly unhappy with the Missouri Compromise after California entered the Union as a
free state in 1850. Since the Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery south of 36o 30,’ only the sparsely-
populated and agriculturally-desolate New Mexico Territory remained open for the expansion of slavery. The
relationship between the people of the slave states and the free states was becoming more and more tense, mostly
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because people in the northern free states began to call for the abolition of slavery entirely from every state in the
Union.
After the Territory of Kansas became an organized territory of the United States in 1854, Stephen A. Douglas of
Illinois promoted popular sovereignty as a middle position on the slavery issue in the new territory. Popular
sovereignty meant that federal government did not have to make the decision, rather the actual residents of
territories should be able to decide by voting whether slavery would be allowed in the territory. Douglas applied
popular sovereignty to Kansas in the Kansas-Nebraska Act which passed Congress in 1854.
By repealing the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was a major boost for the expansion of
slavery. Pro- and anti-slavery elements moved into Kansas with the intention of voting slavery up or down,
leading to a raging civil war known as Bleeding Kansas.
Senator Charles Sumner denounced the Kansas–Nebraska Act in his "Crime against Kansas" speech, delivered
in May 1856. The long speech argued for the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state and went on to
denounce fellow Senators Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Representative
Preston Brooks, Butler's cousin, was infuriated, and beat Sumner severely on the head using a thick cane with a
gold head.
After learning of the attack on Senator Sumner, abolitionist John Brown led the Pottawatomie Massacre in
which five pro-slavery Kansans were brutally murdered. On June 2, 1856 Brown and 29 others fought the battle
of Black Jack against pro-slavery forces. While small in scale, this was the first time two groups of men took to
the field in battle over the cause of slavery and has been called the first battle of the American Civil War. In
August 1856, John Brown and his Free-State followers are defeated at the Battle of Osawatomie, and Brown
leaves Kansas.
Dred Scott was a slave who lived with various masters in Illinois (a free state) and filed a lawsuit to obtain his
freedom. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a slave who had resided in a free state and territory was not
thereby entitled to his freedom, that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States
and that the Missouri Compromise (1820), which had declared free all territories west of Missouri and north of
latitude 36°30′, was unconstitutional. The decision potentially legalized slavery in every state, added fuel to the
sectional controversy, and pushed the country closer to civil war.
The Marais des Cygnes Massacre was the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas. On May 19, 1858,
approximately 30 proslavery men crossed into the Kansas Territory from Missouri. They captured 11 Free-
Staters, led them into a ravine and killed five of them.
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were series of seven debates between the Democratic senator Stephen A.
Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, largely
concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories. Lincoln published his part of the debate in a book
that sold widely in 1860.
In October 1859, John Brown led an abortive slave revolt and attempted to capture the federal arsenal at Harper's
Ferry, Virginia. Federal troops forced the surrender of Brown and his men, and Brown was executed in
December 1859.
The American Civil War (Weeks 16-17)

During the presidential campaign of 1860, Abraham Lincoln pledged to halt the further spread of slavery “as
with a chain of steel.” He also tried to reassure Southerners that a Republican administration would not “directly
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or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves.” To Southerners he was a “black
Republican,” whose election would be a threat to the Southern way of life and livelihood. Lincoln won the 1860
presidential election but without winning the electoral votes of a single Southern state.
Lincoln's election was the final blow to "the cause" of the Southern states, and South Carolina became the first
state to declare its secession in December 1860. Within a few weeks, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas had also left the Union.
In February 1861, delegates from the secessionist states formed the Confederate States of America. Jefferson
Davis of Mississippi was unanimously elected president of the Confederacy.
The Confederacy immediately began taking over federal installations in the state—courthouses, post offices, and
especially military forts. The most important was South Carolina’s Fort Sumter, on an island in Charleston
harbor. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces began bombarding Fort Sumter, which surrendered. The American
Civil War had begun. Expecting a short and decisive war, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve
for three months.
On April 17th, 1861, Virginia, the most heavily populated state in the South and the most industrialized, seceded.
A month later, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina followed Virginia, bringing the number of
Confederate states to 11. The city of Richmond, Virginia, was declared the capital of the Confederacy. The
western counties of Virginia were antislavery, so they left Virginia and were admitted into the Union as West
Virginia in 1863.
The four remaining slave states—Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri—remained in the Union,
although many of the citizens in those states fought for the Confederacy.
Union and Confederate forces first met in large numbers on July 21, 1861 at the Battle of First Bull Run. Morale
in the South soared as a result of the Confederate victory, but both sides were shocked by the number of men
killed and wounded in the battle.
Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, invaded Union soil in September 1862, but
was defeated by Union forces at the Battle of Antietam. More Americans (26,134) died on a single day in that
battle on the fields outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland than any other day in American military history.
The Union victory at Antietam provide an opportunity for President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation
Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in states that had declared secession from the Union were free when
the Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure
issued by Lincoln by his power as commander-in-chief and Congress did not vote on it. Not everyone in the North
approved of the Emancipation Proclamation. Northern Democrats claimed that it would only prolong the war by
antagonizing the South. Many Union soldiers had no love for abolitionists or slaves, but they supported
emancipation if it helped reunify the nation. Many in the North believed Lincoln intended to incite a race war or
slave revolt in the South. Confederates predictably reacted to the Proclamation with outrage.
Lee attempted to invade the North again in July 1863 and fought Union forces in and around the town of
Gettysburg for three days. After attempting to turn the Union right flank on the first day, then the left flank on the
second day, Lee ordered his corps commander Gen. James Longstreet to launch an attack at the middle of the
Union lines. The attack, later to become known as Pickett's Charge, failed and Lee was forced to retreat. Lee
would continue to lead his men brilliantly in the next two years of the war, but neither he nor the Confederacy
would ever recover from the loss of the Battle of Gettysburg.
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On the same day that Lee began his retreat from Gettysburg, the Mississippi river port of Vicksburg, Mississippi
fell to Union forces under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Vicksburg was of vital strategic importance
to the South, and its surrender effectively cut the Confederacy in two.
Four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the
dedication of a new cemetery near the battlefield. In the many generations that have passed since the Address, it
has remained among the most famous speeches in American history.
Many African Americans, mostly in the North, fought as soldiers in the American Civil War. However, blacks
could not rise above the rank of captain and were commanded by white officers. While white military privates
earned $13.00 a month, plus a $3.50 clothing allowance, black privates earned only $10.00 a month, with no
clothing allowance. Not until 1864 did Congress finally equalized the pay of white and African American.
Women, while prohibited from joining the U.S. or Confederate armies, nevertheless contribute to their respective
sides during the war. Clara Barton was considered the "Angel of the Battlefield" for her work in providing
comfort and medical aid to wounded Union soldiers. Dorothea Dix became the nation’s first Superintendent of
Army Nurses. More than 3,000 women served as nurses in Union hospitals, but some women, for various reasons,
disguised themselves as men and fought in combat, side-by-side with other soldiers, on both sides of the conflict.
During the war, prisoners of war on both sides lived in horrendous conditions, and many died. The most notorious
of the prison camps was the Confederate camp near Andersonville, George. There, Union prisoners had no
shelter from the broiling sun or chilling rain except what prisoners made themselves by rigging primitive tents of
blankets and sticks. Prisoners drank from the same stream that served as their sewer. Of the approximately 45,000
Union prisoners held at the Andersonville camp during the war, nearly 13,000 died from scurvy, diarrhea,
malnutrition and dysentery. Conditions in Northern prisons were somewhat better, but thousands of Confederates,
housed in quarters with little or no heat, contracted pneumonia and died. Historians estimate that 15% of Union
prisoners in Southern prisons died, while 12% of Confederate prisoners died in Northern prisoners.
As war progressed, the morale on the Confederacy’s home front deteriorated. Farmers were facing huge taxes
because of food shortages. The Confederacy was out of food, ammunition, and even clothing. Many soldiers
deserted and returned home to work on their farms.
As the 1864 presidential election approached, Lincoln faced heavy opposition in his bid for re-election. Many
Democrats, dismayed at the war’s length, its high casualty rates, and recent Union losses, nominated George
McClellan on a platform of an immediate armistice. To attract Democrats, Lincoln’s chose Andrew Johnson, a
pro-Union Democrat from Tennessee, as his running mate. Lincoln won re-election because of the support of the
abolitionists, recent major Union victories in the war, a Southern Democrat as his vice-presidential running mate.
By late March 1865, it was clear that the end of the Confederacy was near. Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant and
Philip Sheridan were approaching Richmond from the west, while William T. Sherman was approaching from
the south. On April 2nd—in response to news that Lee and his troops had been overcome by Grant’s forces at
Petersburg—President Davis and his government abandoned their capital, setting it afire to keep the Northerners
from taking it. Two days later, President Lincoln toured Richmond, hoping unsuccessfully to hear the South had
capitulated while there.
On April 9th, 1865, General Grant met General Lee to arrange a surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in
a Virginia village called Appomattox Court House. At Lincoln’s request, the surrender terms were generous.
Grant paroled Lee’s soldiers and sent them home with their personal possessions, horses, and there days’ rations,
and officers were permitted to keep their side arms.
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Abraham Lincoln was shot by the assassin John Wilkes Booth while attending the play "My American Cousin"
at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865. He died the next day, and his vice-president Andrew Johnson was sworn in as
the 17th president of the United States. Booth was eventually killed by Union troops, and eight of his co-
conspirators were hanged (including Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the U.S. government) on July 7,
1865.
On April 26, in North Carolina, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the 90,000 soldiers of the
Army of Tennessee. Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor, the son of President Zachary Taylor, surrendered his army of
10,000 in Alabama on May 4, followed several days later by Nathan Bedford Forrest surrender of his cavalry
corps. In Texas on May 12, a force of 350 Confederates defeated 800 Union troops in the Battle of Palmito
Ranch, the last land battle of the Civil War. Within another month all other remaining Confederate resistance
collapsed. After four long years, at tremendous human and economic costs, the American Civil War was over.
Barbara Fritchie (Week 18)
Reconstruction (Weeks 19-20)

At the close of the American Civil War, the formerly prosperous Southern states were destitute. Much of their
infrastructure -- railroad, bridges, port facilities, roads -- were destroyed, and many private homes and commercial
buildings had been burned or reduced to rubble. Union troops occupied the defeat South in order to prevent a
recurrence of the insurrection and to enforce Federal law. Added to this economic disaster was the social upheaval
resulting from the emancipation of four million former slaves by the 13th Amendment.
Reconstruction was a period during and following the Civil War in which Congress passed laws intended to
rebuild the country, bring the Southern states back into the Union, and grant rights to former slaves. In 1863,
anticipating a Union victory in the war, President Abraham Lincoln suggested the Ten Percent Plan in which
10% of voters in the seceded states must swear loyalty under oath to the Union, and must end slavery in their
state, before their state can re-admitted to the Union.
Moderate Republicans dominated Congress when the American Civil War began. At the end of the war wanted
to quickly restore the economic prosperity of the Southern states so that the North could do business with the
South. They wanted to abolish slavery but didn’t necessarily believe free slaves could be effective citizens.
In 1864, Radical Republicans in Congress proposed the Wade-Davis Bill which would require that a majority of
white men from formerly-Confederate states swear loyalty to the United States, those states must abolish slavery,
and any former Confederate soldiers or volunteers were barred from holding office or voting in elections. Lincoln
pocket-vetoed the bill. By 1866, Radical Republicans would dominate Congress.
As a result of the assassination of President Lincoln in April 1865, Andrew Johnson became the 17th U.S.
President. Lincoln had picked Johnson, a Democrat and Southerner who had remained loyal to the Union, as his
running mate in the 1864 election in order to win votes from the South. Johnson hated the plantation aristocracy
that had arisen in the Deep South because it placed non-slave owning farmers at a disadvantage. He wanted to
restructure the South, but he was ambivalent on the issue of slavery during the war and on the rights of freed
slaves during Reconstruction. He was also a strict constructionist and believed that the individual states should
decide on suffrage for African Americans.
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Congress, in control of the Radical Republicans, did not want states to have the power to decide whether freed
slaves should have the same rights as whites. In 1866, the 14th Amendment was proposed and, in 1868 it became
part of the U.S. Constitution. It made citizens of all people born or naturalized in the U.S. (except Native
Americans), guaranteed citizens who had equal protection under the law and made it illegal for states to pass laws
that “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” It also banned former
Confederate officials from holding state or federal offices. Furthermore, the 14th Amendment gave federal courts
the power to review laws passed by individual states and gave Congress the power to pass any laws needed to
enforce any part of amendment.
Radical Republicans realized that the end of slavery meant that free slaves would no longer be counted as three-
fifths of a person for purposes of representation in Congress according to population. This meant that the former
slave states would now have greater representation in Congress, but African Americans would only be
represented if they could vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment gave African American men in United States the
right to vote.
The Freedmen's Bureau, formally known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, was
established in 1865 by Congress to help millions of former black slaves and poor whites in the South in the
aftermath of the Civil War. It was administered by the U.S. Army and provided food, clothing, legal services,
medical care, and employment to those in need.
Southern state governments invented ways to prevent blacks from voting, including requiring a literacy test or
paying a poll tax. Such measures often disfranchised poor whites as well.
Radical Republicans in Congress believed that President Johnson was trying to thwart Reconstruction efforts and
decided take control of Reconstruction. In 1867 and 1868 they passed the Military Reconstruction Act through
Congress. This act divides the South into five military districts in the South, each commanded by a general to
serve as the acting government for the region. It required that each state draft a new state constitution, ratify
the Fourteenth Amendment, and grant voting rights to black men. President Andrew Johnson's vetoes of these
measures were overridden by Congress.
Despite Federal laws to the contrary, African Americans in Southern states are treated as inferior to whites and
many began to leave the South. Those that remained faced discrimination. The Civil Rights Act of 1875
guaranteed African Americans equal rights in public places like theaters and public transportation and made it
illegal for individuals or businesses to discriminate based on race.
The Constitution allows for removal of a President if found guilty of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors." In 1868 the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Johnson for violating the
Tenure of Office Act (1867). The act was a minor and unimportant law, but Radical Republicans used it to try to
remove Johnson from office. The Senate vote was one vote short in favor of removal and Johnson served out his
term.
In the election of 1868, the Republicans nominated Ulysses S. Grant because he was a hero of the war and he
would get votes from African-American voters in the South. Grant won the election and became the 18th
president, but his administration was frequently accused of graft and corruption. Nevertheless, Grant was elected
to a second term in 1872.
During Reconstruction, only Mississippi elected African Americans to the Senate, but several from the South
were elected to the House of Representatives. Blacks were elected to national office also from Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. All of these Reconstruction-era black senators and
representatives were members of the Republican Party.
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Resistance to attempts to grant equal rights to African Americans in the South came in different forms. The
Redeemers a conservative, pro-business faction in the Democratic Party, were generally were led by the rich
landowners, businessmen and professionals who sought to return the South to the status quo ante bellum. The Ku
Klux Klan and other loosely-knit white supremacist groups used terror and violence to prevent African
Americans from voting or running for political office.
By Grant's second term as president, support for Reconstruction was waning in the North. Concern over the
economy, bank crises, westward expansion, and wars with Native Americans diverted attention away from
the South. As military governments were replaced by state governments comprised of Redeemers, rights for
African Americans were slowly and quietly reduced nearly to those of slaves.
After the results of the election of 1876 were disputed, an Electoral Commission voted in favor of Rutherford B.
Hayes, a Republican, as 19th president of the United States. In the Compromise of 1877, Democrats and
Republicans had agreed that the Commission would vote in favor of Hayes if all remaining Federal troops were
withdrawn from Southern states and the South could deal with African Americans without interference from the
federal government. The Compromise of 1877 effectively ended Reconstruction, which became an "unfinished
revolution."
Conquering the West (Week 21)

By the end of the American Civil War, territory claimed by the United States reached the approximate limits that
exist today. However, America's population was increasing rapidly due to natural growth and immigration.
Increasingly, American's looked to the Great Plains for a place to live and raise a family.
Geography plays a major part in the climate of the Great Plains. Prevailing winds from the Pacific Ocean drop
their moisture on the western side of the Rocky Mountains, resulting in a rain shadow and a very low annual
rainfall on the Great Plains east of the Rockies. Because of this, in 1866, most of the Great Plains were sparsely
populated and remained territories rather than states.
That began to change after the construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad. While few private investors
saw any reason to construct railroads beyond the limits of civilization, the Federal government realized that coast-
to-coast rail lines would bolster America's economy. Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 which
awarded huge loans and grants to railroads to build a railroad across the continent. Building eastward from
Sacramento, the Central Pacific Railroad employed thousands of laborers, including many Chinese
immigrants. The Union Pacific Railroad employed many Irish immigrants in the construction westward from
Omaha. On May 10, 1869, the two rail lines met at Promontory Point, Utah. Whereas it taken months of
travelling on foot to reach California from the St. Louis, railroad passengers could make the same trip, seated on a
padded chair, in less than a week.
The railroads provided an opportunity for cattle ranchers in the Great Plains to reach markets in the East. The
Texas Longhorn breed were well adapted to the climate of the plains, and the Cowboy played a vital role in
moving herds of cattle from their grazing lands in Texas to the stockyards of the booming cow towns situated on
the rail lines of Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, and Wyoming. About 25% of Cowboys were African-American and
10% were Hispanic. Brands were used to mark cattle by their owners, but this didn't always prevent theft.
While violent crime was not as common in the boomtowns of the West as is depicted in most films, gunfights did
occur. One notable shoot out was at the OK Corral in Tombstone, New Mexico.
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By the late 1880's, the increased use of barbed wire to contain herds, and the construction of additional rail lines
in the South, spelled the end of the Cowboy era.
Even before the American Civil War ended, the U.S. Congress passed legislation to encourage settlement of the
West. The Homestead Act of 1862 granted land to individuals as long as they agreed to cultivate it, the Morrill
Land Grant Act of 1862 generated funding for universities specializing in agriculture. The Hatch Act of 1887
built agricultural research stations to make farming improvements such as grain that was able to survive in
droughts.
While women were a minority in the West, many worked side-by-side with men to help settle the land while
others took on the more traditional role of taking care of a family.
Improvements in farming technology made the land more productive. These included inventions by John Deere
(cast-steel plow in 1837, known as the "plow that broke the plains") and Cyrus McCormick (reaping machine
in 1847), the steam tractor (1870), seed drills and barbed wire. However, the need to purchase expensive
equipment would cast many farmers into debt.
While crops grown in the South and East (cotton, tobacco) could not grow in the dry Great Plains, Russian
immigrants brought the hard red winter wheat variety (Turkey Red) to Kansas around 1874.
The common interests and plights of the farmer led many of them to organize into cooperatives such as the
National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (1867) and even political parties such as the People’s Party of
the 1890's.
The settlement of the American West, and the subsequent improvements in transportation and agriculture,
transformed the Great Plains into a rich and abundant source of food for America. Fewer and fewer farmers fed
more and more people, and today the United States exports more agricultural products than any other nation in
the world.
By the middle of the 19th century, the Great Plains was the last great area of land still occupied and largely
controlled by Native Americans. The introduction of the horse into North America by the Spanish changed the
way of life of the Native Americans, including how they hunted buffalo and fought amongst each other and, later,
against the white settlers.
As settlers moved west and stake claims in Indian land, conflict was inevitable. Early legislation such as the first
Treaty of Laramie (1851) attempted to honor Native American claims to the West and prevent conflict.
Gradually, however, encroachment into Indian territory, caused the Natives to fight back. Chief Little Crow of the
Dakota led his warriors in an U.S./Dakota Conflict of 1862 that killed 400-800 settlers in Minnesota and ended
with the hanging of 38 Dakota. While the U.S. Army put down this first real outbreak of violence on the Great
Plains, events such as the Sand Creek Massacre (1864), the Fetterman Massacre (1866), Battle of the
Washita River (1868) and the Red River War (1874-1875) would cost the lives of hundreds of whites and
Native Americans.
The U.S. government applied a policy of assimilation of the Plains Indians starting with the second Treaty of
Fort Laramie (1868). The treaty also formed reservations on which the Native Americans would be protected
from encroachment and free to continue their traditional way of life if they so choose.
In 1876, Sioux and Cheyenne defiantly left their reservations and gathered in the upper Great Plains. The U.S.
Army sent three columns against them including one led by Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. On June 25,
1876, Custer's command was wiped out by more than 2,500 warriors at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This
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battle, although a victory for the Native Americans, only led to further attempts to contain or assimilate Native
Americans into white society.
The Dawes Act of 1887 confiscated Indian lands and parceled them out to Natives and white settlers. When
Natives failed to settle their parcels, the land could be sold to whites. This effectively removed control of
traditional lands from Native Americans for good.
Followers of the Ghost Dance religion believed that Native American dead would rise to vanquish the whites
from Indian lands. When settlers became alarmed as this apparent insurgency, U.S. troops attempted to disarm a
large group of Native Americans but fighting broke out and more than 250 Natives and 25 soldiers were killed at
the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. This conflict was the last major clash between Native Americans and
the U.S. government.
The legendary "Wild West" became cemented in the minds of Americans, and people throughout the world,
largely as a result of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. He was the first to bring together all of the elements of the
West -- Indian warriors and villagers, buffalo, U.S. cavalry, cowboys, frontiersman, ranchers, and farmers -- into
large spectacles for entertainment purposes. Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows toured the country for decade, well
into the 20th century.
The Rise of Industry (Week 22)

After the close of the American Civil War, the population of the United States continued to become more urban
and less rural -- a trend that would continue in the 21st century. Improvements in agriculture meant fewer people
were needed to run farms, while an increase in industry meant people would concentrate in towns and cities, near
factories and shops.
Daily life for Americans changed more in the fifty years after the American Civil War than any other time in
history. Inventions that made communication faster and cheaper include the first successful transatlantic cable
(1865), and the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The efficiency of offices improved
with the invention of the typewriter (1867), the cash register (1879), and the adding machine (1888). George
Eastman's Kodak camera brought photography to the masses beginning in 1888 and the first modern motion
pictures were shown in 1900. Electrification began in cities and made possible the electric incandescent light
bulb (1879) and the phonograph (1888). Transportation improved with the introduction of safe bicycles (1890),
the automobile (1886), and the airplane (1903). Widespread installation of indoor plumbing, and inventions
such as the flush toilet (1891), milk delivered in glass bottles (1874) and the vacuum cleaner (1899) made life at
home more comfortable and healthier.
In order to create demand for new goods and services, advertising became ubiquitous in American life. Sears
Roebuck (1888) and Montgomery Ward (1872) distributed catalogs which sold anything from drugs to houses.
Retail stores that put more and more goods on display and available for purchase included those owned by R.H.
Macy in New York City (1858) and Marshall Field in Chicago (1852), and Frank Woolworth began to open
Five and Ten Cent Stores in 1878.
A consumer culture, in which people spent their money on material goods to achieve a higher standard of
living, emerged in America. Lack of government regulation allowed many Americans to fall victim to false
advertising.
In the early 1800's, factories producing textiles, clothing, and leather products resulted from the First Industrial
Revolution. In the late 19th century, the United States continued to shift from an agrarian to an industrial
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economy. This Second Industrial Revolution included the rise of heavy industry such as steel, petroleum,
electric power, and industrial machinery.
Corporations in which (generally) several people have invested were able to do things for the public good
(build roads, bridges, railroads, etc.) that no single investor could. To encourage investment, governments granted
limited liability to corporate investors and allowed free incorporation and a simple registration process.
Investments in corporations could be bought and sold (liquidity) by the investors, the corporation is “immortal”
in that it does not depend upon any one owner, and corporations were granted at least some of the legal rights
and responsibilities enjoyed by natural persons (physical humans).
The English social philosopher Herbert Spencer believed that the theory of natural selection should be applied
to the marketplace, and that the concentration of wealth should be held by the “fit.” William Graham Sumner
of Yale argued that help for the poor would interfere with the laws of nature. Economist Adam Smith argued
that business should not be regulated, but supply and demand should be the determining economic forces.
Conservative economic theories held that competition will regulate the marketplace and produce the best goods
and services at the lowest price.
However, as corporations in America grew as a result of improved manufacturing technology and a growing
demand, many of those who ran them became powerful enough to interfere with competition. These included
Andrew Carnegie, who made his fortune in steel and eventually developed a monopoly by gaining complete
control over steel industry’s production, wages, and prices. Financier and banker J.P. Morgan formed a holding
company that did nothing but buy out stock of other companies and eventually formed U.S. Steel in 1903, at the
time the world's largest corporation. Standard Oil Company controlled 90% of all U.S. oil production by 1881,
leveraging control of railroads to keep costs low, driving competitors out of business by temporarily lowing
prices, and by forming a trust in which several corporations made an agreement to be run by one executive board
that ran the trust like one big company.
Eventually it became clear that, without government regulation, corporations would not always act in the best
interests of the public and the nation. The Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) prohibited any “contract, combination,
in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce.” However, its wording was
vague, it was challenged as unconstitutional, and it failed to result in many convictions. Not until the Clayton Act
of 1914 and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 were government regulations successful in restricting
the formation of monopolies and cartels or allowing mergers and acquisitions that could substantially lessen
competition. Further government control over financing and business resulted from the Panic of 1893 in which
railroads went bankrupt, the stock market lost value, 15,000 businesses and 500 banks collapsed, 3 million people
lost their jobs and unemployment climbed to 20%.
Demand for labor rose as more and more factories opened, but labor was plentiful due to the influx of Americans
from the rural areas to the cities as well as increasing immigration from overseas. By 1900, most factory
workers worked ten hours a day, six days a week to earn wages that were barely above subsistence level. The
average American family needed to earn about $800 annually to survive, but most factory workers only earned
half that much and women and children went to work to make up the difference. Unskilled labor was assigned
monotonous jobs, exposed to chemicals and pollutants, and received no retirement plans, health care,
unemployment insurance or other benefits. Employment was determined by supply and demand, and factories that
overproduced would cut costs by laying off workers, knowing that they could easily be rehired when needed.
Labor discontent resulted in attempts to empower workers by organizing them into a National Labor Union
(1868-1873), the Knights of Labor (1869-1949), and the American Federation of Labor (1886). Workers who
went on strike were frequently met with armed force supplied by the factory management or the state or federal
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government. Strikes often led to violence and deaths, such as the eight killed in the Haymarket Square Riot
(1886), ten killed during the Homestead Strike (1892), and at least thirty deaths during the Pullman Strike
(1892).
By 1900, 1 out of every 5 women were working in textile, garment, and food-processing industries or were
employed as secretaries, bookkeepers, typists, and telephone operators. Most were young and single and many
were recent immigrants. Working conditions were frequently unhealthy and sometimes unsafe, as they were at
the Triangle Shirtwaist Company shop in New York, which caught fire in 1911 and cost the lives of deaths of
146 garment workers. This tragedy spurred legislative reforms on a national level and encouraged the growth of
organized labor, including those unions for women such as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
(1900) and the National Women's Trade Union League (1903).
The growth of corporations in America generated a need for white-collar workers such as accountants ,
salesmen, file clerks, secretaries, purchasing agents, and middle management. The improved standard of living of
this middle class slowly became the “norm” for Americans of the early 20th century.
The Federal government was not immune to abuse of power and corruption during the Second Industrial
Revolution. The patronage or spoils system, in which elected officials often awarded friends and political party
workers by giving them government jobs, was commonplace and often resulted in incompetent and overpaid
government employees. President James Garfield is shot on July 2, 1881 by a disappointed office seeker and
dies on September 15, 1881. In 1883 President Chester Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act to
attempt to end the spoils system by Creating the Civil Service Commission which required appointed government
officials to pass the Civil Service Exam to base jobs on merit instead of friendship, made it illegal to force Federal
employees to contribute to campaign funds, and prevented Federal employees from being fired for political
reasons.
American Imperialism (Week 23)

By the late 19th century, European powers had been securing territories and establishing colonies for over 400
years. Overseas expansion provided new and larger markets for the surplus of goods that began flooding from
European factories as a result of the Industrial Revolution, providing jobs for labor and filling the coffers of the
European nations with gold.
After its establishment as a colony in North America and a subsequent successful bid for independence, the
United States embarked on expansion as well. Rather than going overseas, by the end of the American Civil War,
America had obtained territory by conquest or purchase that spanned from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.
Having expanded to fill most of the continent, the United States had to decide whether or not to join the European
nations in imperialism, or to remain isolated and neutral as advocated by George Washington in his Farewell
Address.
The United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2M in what was called Seward's Folly, a
reference to what was believed by some to be, at the time, a huge expenditure on worthless territory by U.S.
Secretary of State William H. Seward.
American business interests in Hawaii grew in the 19th century and U.S. citizens on the islands conspired to
wrest control from the monarchy and form the Republic of Hawaii in 1894. Despite the opposition of most native
Hawaiians, the Newlands Resolution was used to annex the Territory of Hawaii in 1898. In 1900, Hawaii was
granted self-governance but despite several attempts to become a state, Hawaii remained a territory for 60 years.
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The resolution of the issue of American imperialism was forced by the events of the Spanish-American War of
1898. Spanish control of Cuba was being contested by Cuban nationalists, and news of the suffering of the Cuban
people (some real, some exaggerated or fabricated by the yellow journalism of the American press) inflamed the
emotions of many Americans. The accidental sinking of the U.S.S Maine in Havana Harbor was used as a pretext
to declare war on Spain. While ostensibly a mission of humanitarian intervention to relieve the Cuban people
from the abuses of the Spanish, the protection of American investments in Cuba (including sugar and tobacco
plantations) was also a motivating factor. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt sends U.S. Navy
to the Philippines where they destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Pacific at the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1,
1898, and the Spanish fleet in the Caribbean is defeated at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3, 1898. The
USS Charleston and captured the island of Guam from the Spanish on June 20-21, 1898. Roosevelt resigned his
cabinet position to personally lead troops in battle in Cuba, most notably the American victory at the Battle of
San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898. Roosevelt's stature in the eyes of the American public is second only to that of
Admiral George Dewey, hero of the defeat of the Spanish in Manila Bay.
The war lasts from April to August 1898, and while only 460 Americans die in battle, over 5,200 Americans die
of diseases contract in the tropical climates of the Caribbean and Pacific. A defeated Spain signed the Treaty of
Paris (1898) and ceded control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States in
exchange for $20M.
Cuba is granted independence from the U.S. in 1902, but the Platt Amendment (1903) made Cuba a virtual
protectorate of the United States. Under its terms, Cuban government, finances, and foreign relations (including
treaties) were under the supervision of the U.S., and Cuba must lease Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. for use as a
naval and coaling station.
Even before the war with Spain, many Americans spoke out against expansionism. Anti-imperialists like
Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the name of Mark Twain, and former U.S. president Grover Cleveland,
were vehemently opposed to America involvement in overseas conflict and the acquisition of territory by force.
They believed the Atlantic Ocean provides isolation against European powers, a large military is a threat to
democracy, and colonialism is morally repugnant and hypocritical of a free country.
Imperialists, led by Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge knew that Spain was a declining world power
and they believed more powerful European countries like Germany, England, and France would take control of
Spanish colonies if the U.S. did not get to them first. Influenced by Alfred Thayer Mahan and his theory that
national security and economic strength depend on a powerful, global navy, imperialists believed that naval bases
in the Caribbean and in the Pacific, where ships could take on fuel and other supplies, were essential to America's
future. Roosevelt believed that a victory in war would boost national pride and unity, and American businessmen
knew that overseas territories under U.S. control would give them access to additional resources and new
markets for selling surplus products.
In the Philippines, insurrectos under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo were also fighting for independence for
Spain. The Anti-Imperialist League forms in 1898 to campaign against annexation of the Philippines by the
United States. To encourage American involvement in the Philippines, British poet Rudyard Kipling published
"The White Man's Burden" in 1899 in which he opines that the "white race" is morally obligated to rule the
"non-white" peoples of planet Earth, and to encourage their progress (economic, social, and cultural) through
colonialism. Although the insurrectos are initially cooperative with the American effort in defeating the Spanish
in the Philippines, distrust and disagreement over who should govern led to the Philippine-American War
(1899-1902). The U.S. would grant independence to the Philippines in 1946.
Theodore Roosevelt returns a hero to New York and is elected governor in 1898. George Dewey ponders running
for U.S. president in 1900 but declines. Roosevelt runs for the office of Vice President on the ticket with
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presidential candidate William McKinley and both are elected. When McKinley is assassinated in 1901,
Roosevelt becomes the 26th U.S. president. At age 42, he is the youngest American to ever hold that office.
In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt issues the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the
United States will intervene in conflicts between the European countries and Latin American countries to enforce
legitimate claims of the European powers, rather than having the Europeans press their claims directly. This
policy becomes known by a favorite proverb frequently recited by Roosevelt: "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
The "Big Stick" policy leads to U.S. support of the independence of Panama from Colombia (1903), U.S.
government of Cuba (1906 to 1909), U.S.-backing rebels to depose their president and U.S. Marines occupying
cities in Nicaragua to provide stabilization to their government (1912 to 1933), border conflicts with Mexico and
the Pancho Villa Expedition (1914 to 1917), U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915 to 1934) and the Dominican
Republic (1916 to 1924).
As America developed into a world power, President Roosevelt used more subtle forms of diplomacy as well. In
a demonstration of U.S. power at sea, in late 1907 dispatched 16 U.S. Navy battleships of the Atlantic Fleet --
The Great White Fleet -- on a voyage around the world that lasted fifteen months and stopped in several major
foreign ports.
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PATH American History 2018-2019

Discovery of America (Week 02)

The Columbian Exchange (Week 02)

Age of Exploration (Weeks 02, 03)

Spanish, Dutch, French and British Colonialism (Week 03)

Colonial Period (Week 04)

The American Revolution (Week 05,06)

After the American Revolution (Week 06)

A New Nation (Week 07)

The Early Republic (Week 08)

The Market Revolution (Week 09)

Democracy in America (Week 10)

Andrew Jackson (Week 11)

The Market Revolution (cont.) (Week 12)

Manifest Destiny (Week 14)

The Sectional Crisis (Week 15)

The American Civil War (Weeks 16-17)

Barbara Fritchie (Week 18)

Reconstruction (Weeks 19-20)

Conquering the West (Week 21)

The Rise of Industry (Week 22)

American Imperialism (Week 23)

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