REVIEW OF A FIRST RATE COTTON PLANTATION (1845), FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEAD - DOCUMENT OVERVIEW

Southerners certainly wrote about their world, extolling their culture and defending their peculiar institution, but many other people, such as Northerners and foreign visitors, journeyed to the South to see and comment on it for themselves. To them such a trip was a combination of exotic adventure and reformist crusade, for southern lands and ways fascinated, confused, and in some instances, repelled them. The South embodied such powerful dichotomies under its strong sun and shielding shade trees—beauty versus ugliness, good against evil—that the stories about it, fictional and factual, could not help but reflect that.

The tales were many and varied as the witnesses to the society and slavery of the South each saw or experienced different aspects of the culture. Slaves, and many free blacks, looked at southern society from the bottom up: from the bottom of the cotton and tobacco rows, the receiving end of the whip, and the rough floors of their quarters. Slaveowners saw it from quite a different perspective as they surveyed their fields from horseback or carriage, labored over the financial equation of provisions versus profits, and tried to establish or maintain comfortable, if not always gentile lifestyles. Their non-slaveowner neighbors wrestled with desire and distress: many desired to own their own laborers and thereupon build their estates, but some were distressed at the cost—both financial and moral. Visiting diarists and reporters often brought with them preconceived notions by which to interpret this southern scene, while the readers of their publications added their own interpretations. Thus, whether from different regions of America or from Europe, observers added their stories to that of the South.

That observers came from abroad, and that their accounts and those of Americans were published overseas as well as in the United States, indicates that southern society and the growing conflict between North and South, captivated and concerned foreign as well as domestic audiences. Slavery was an international issue. As the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society noted in 1839, slavery existed in "British India, in the colonies of several of the nations of Europe, in the United States of America, in Texas, and in the Empire of Brazil." Anti-slavery organizations reached out to one another in attempts to end it in all of these places. Such international agitation and cooperation did serve to contain, though not eradicate, the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the early nineteenth century, but such activism faced greater resistance within nations. Although England abolished slavery in the British isles by the late eighteenth century, outlawed its slave trade in 1807, and then used its navy to police against illegal slaving on the oceans, some in England did not want the issue to interfere with other strategic and economic interests. Across the ocean, in accordance with a constitutional provision, Congress abolished the external slave trade in America in 1808, but smuggling, often via Cuban traders, continued. Furthermore, when foreign reformers condemned the institution as it existed within the states, slavery proponents and even some abolitionists decried outside intervention in the country's internal affairs.

Antislavery sentiment had appeared with the introduction of slavery in the colonial era, but the creation of a formal organization against the institution did not occur until the Revolution. As Americans debated and fought for liberty and freedom, some saw the inherent contradiction of slavery. That perception, especially when added to certain religious beliefs, led to antislavery activism. Quakers founded the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery in 1775. The society was essentially inactive during the war years, but in 1785 and especially 1787 when constitutional debate led to hopes of reform, the society vigorously pushed for abolition. It did not get what it wanted in the new Constitution, but at that time, even in the South, many agreed that slavery's days were numbered; the fact that manumission was on the rise seemed to give proof to that. Due to no sense of urgency, abolitionism languished. But when planters moved out into the rich lands of the Old Southwest, and after the cotton gin made the processing of that crop easier, slavery grew—and that growth spurred the development of a new abolitionist movement.

Advocates on both sides of this great struggle presented their basic premises in the 1830s and then rehashed them again and again throughout the 1840s and 1850s until they threw away the words to pick up arms. Slavery may not have been the only cause of the Civil War, but as a physical presence and ideological issue it helped dig the grave of, if not bury, the early union. Attacked and defended culturally, socially, politically, and religiously, the South's peculiar institution became America's particular problem.

Many nations of the Atlantic world and beyond contended with the issue of slavery in the nineteenth century. As part of their internal reforms and international relations, these countries sometimes struggled to define and implement notions of citizenship and universal human rights. Yet although slavery was an international problem, it was a distinct American tragedy. In the United States, it contributed to a particularly bloody internal war and illuminated discrepancies between ideology and practice in the republic that was supposed to stand as an enlightened example to the rest of the world.

PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.

2. For what audience was the document written?

Expression

3. What do you find interesting or important about this document?

4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising?

Connection

5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written?

Chapter 12

Religion, Romanticism, And Reform

• 
  I. Rational religion
  
  • 
    A. The concept of mission in the American character
    
  • 
    B. The development of Deism
    

• 
  1. Roots in rationalism and Calvinism
  
• 
  2. Nature of the beliefs
  
• 
  C. The development of Unitarianism
  
  • 
    1. Nature of the beliefs
    
  • 
    2. Role of William Ellery Channing
    
  • 
    3. Creation of American Unitarian Association
    
• 
  D. The development of Universalism
  
  • 
    1. Role of John Murray
    
  • 
    2. Nature of the beliefs
    
  • 
    3. Comparison with Unitarianism
    
• 
  II. The Second Great Awakening
  
  • 
    A. Origins of the revival movement
    
    • 
      1. Fears of secularism
      
  • 
    B. The frontier phase of revivalism
    
    • 
      1. Frontier reception of the revivals
      
    • 
      2. Emergence of the Presbyterians
      
    • 
      3. Role of the Baptists
      
    • 
      4. The Methodists’ impact
      
    • 
      5. Appeal to African Americans
      
    • 
      6. Spread of revivals on the frontier
      
    • 
      7. The camp meeting
      
    • 
      8. Women and revivalism
      
  • 
    C. Revivals in upstate New York
    
    • 
      1. Role of Charles Grandison Finney
      
    • 
      2. Connection to Oberlin College
      
  • 
    D. The rise of the Mormons
    
    • 
      1. Role of Joseph Smith
      
    • 
      2. Characteristics of the church and its members
      
    • 
      3. Persecution of Mormons
      
    • 
      4. Role of Brigham Young
      
    • 
      5. The move to Utah
      
• 
  III. Romanticism in America
  
  • 
    A. Nature of the Romantic revolt
    
  • 
    B. Transcendentalism as a Romantic expression
    
    • 
      1. Nature of transcendentalism
      
    • 
      2. The Transcendental Club and its members
      
    • 
      3. Ralph Waldo Emerson
      
    • 
      4. Henry David Thoreau
      
    • 
      5. The impact of transcendentalism
      
• 
  IV. The flowering of American literature
  
  • 
    A. Nathaniel Hawthorne
    
  • 
    B. Emily Dickinson
    
  • 
    C. Edgar Allan Poe
    
  • 
    D. Herman Melville
    
  • 
    E. Walt Whitman
    
  • 
    F. The popular press
    
    • 
      1. Impact of advances in printing technology
      
    • 
      2. Proliferation of newspapers
      
• 
  V. Education
  
  • 
    A. Level of literacy
    
  • 
    B. Early public schools
    
    • 
      1. Rising demand for public schools in the 1830s
      
    • 
      2. Role of Horace Mann in Massachusetts
      
    • 
      3. Leadership of North Carolina in the South
      
    • 
      4. Limited progress before the Civil War
      
  • 
    C. Developments in higher education
    
    • 
      1. Post-Revolutionary surge in college formation
      
    • 
      2. State vs. religious colleges
      

• 
  a. Conflicts over funding and curriculum
  
• 
  3. Slow growth of technical education
  
• 
  D. Education for women
  
• 
  VI. Movements for reform
  
  • 
    A. Roots of reform
    
  • 
    B. Temperance
    
    • 
      1. Heavy consumption of alcohol in the United States
      
    • 
      2. Arguments for temperance
      
    • 
      3. Early efforts at reform
      
    • 
      4. The American Temperance Union
      
  • 
    C. Prison reform
    
    • 
      1. Growth of public institutions to treat social ills
      
    • 
      2. Prevention and rehabilitation versus punishment for crime
      
    • 
      3. Auburn prison system
      
  • 
    D. Reform in treatment of the insane
    
    • 
      1. Early state institutions for the insane
      
    • 
      2. Work of Dorothea Dix
      
  • 
    E. Crusade for women’s rights
    
    • 
      1. Catharine Beecher and the cult of domesticity
      
    • 
      2. Development of domestic role for women
      
    • 
      3. Subordinate status of women in the antebellum period
      
    • 
      4. Seneca Falls (1848) and subsequent conventions
      
    • 
      5. Limited successes
      
    • 
      6. Limited job opportunities for educated women
      
  • 
    F. Utopian communities
    
    • 
      1. Proliferation of utopian communities
      
    • 
      2. Nature of the Shaker communities
      
    • 
      3. Development and contributions of the Oneida Community
      
    • 
      4. Robert Owen and New Harmony
      
    • 
      5. The importance of Brook Farm
      
    • 
      6. The decline of utopia
      
• 
  VII. Anti-slavery movements
  
  • 
    A. Early opposition to slavery
    
    • 
      1. Establishment of the American Colonization Society
      
    • 
      2. Establishment of Liberia
      
  • 
    B. The movement toward abolition
    
    • 
      1. William Lloyd Garrison’s call for immediate emancipation
      
    • 
      2. The Liberator
      
  • 
    C. Creation of the American Anti-Slavery Society
    
  • 
    D. The anti-slavery movement split
    
    • 
      1. Garrison and the radical wing demand comprehensive societal reforms
      
    • 
      2. Others want to focus only on slavery
      
    • 
      3. Showdown in 1840 over women’s rights
      
    • 
      4. Garrisonians win the right of women to participate
      
    • 
      5. New Yorkers group and Liberty party break away
      
  • 
    E. Black anti-slavery advocates
    
    • 
      1. 
Conflicts over the right of blacks to participate in anti-slavery activities
      
    • 
      2. Former slaves who became public speakers
      
      • 
        a. Frederick Douglass
        
      • 
        b. Sojourner Truth
        
• 
  VIII. Reactions to abolitionism
  
  • 
    A. Pro-slavery mob kills Elijah Lovejoy
    
  • 
    B. The “gag rule“ in Congress
    
  • 
    C. Development of the Liberty party (1840)
    
  • 
    D. Defenses of slavery
    
    • 
      1. Biblical arguments
      
    • 
      2. Inferiority of blacks
      
    • 
      3. Practical considerations
      
    • 
      4. George Fitzhugh’s comparison to northern wage slavery
      

Focus Questions

1. What were the main changes in the practice of religion in America during the early nineteenth century?

2. What were the distinguishing characteristics of American literature during the antebellum period?

3. What were the goals of the social-reform movement?

4. What was the status of women during this period?

5. How and where did opposition to slavery emerge?

DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS AND RESOLUTIONS (1848), SENECA FALLS CONVENTION

Please read this document and answer the following questions.

Margaret Fuller's voice was but one among many, thus when she left America for Europe in 1846 the call for woman's rights was far from extinguished. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) became active in woman's rights issues, as did many other women, by way of her involvement in the antislavery movement. After living in Boston in the mid 1840s and there enjoying the stimulating company of other reformers, the Stantons moved to Seneca Falls, New York, where Henry practiced law and Elizabeth continued her activism. Stanton wanted full legal equality as well as educational, political, and economic opportunities for women. In July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary McClintock, and Martha C. Wright organized a woman's rights convention that was held at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls. On the agenda was a Declaration of Sentiments and various resolutions calling for change. Stanton, who drafted the Declaration of Sentiments using another, earlier, and revered American declaration as her model, also submitted a resolution calling for suffrage—the vote—for women. The fight for suffrage and equal rights would continue beyond her lifetime.

Declaration of Sentiments

* * *

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.

He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.

He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men—both natives and foreigners.

Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.

He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.

He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.

He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master—the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.

He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women—the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.

After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.

He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.

He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.

He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church.

He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in man.

He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God.

He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.

Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation—in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.

In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and National legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions embracing every part of the country.

The following resolutions . . . were adopted:

* * *

Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature and of no validity, for this is "superior in obligation to any other."

Resolved, That woman is man's equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such.

Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want.

Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral superiority, it is pre-eminently his duty to encourage her to speak and teach, as she has an opportunity, in all religious assemblies.

Resolved, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior that is required of woman in the social state, should also be required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman.

Resolved, That the objection of indelicacy and impropriety, which is so often brought against woman when she addresses a public audience, comes with a very ill-grace from those who encourage, by their attendance, her appearance on the stage, in the concert, or in feats of the circus.

Resolved, That woman has too long rested satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her.

Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.

Resolved, That the equality of human rights results necessarily from the fact of the identity of the race in capabilities and responsibilities.

Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth growing out of the divinely implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to be regarded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with mankind.

* * *

Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal participation with men in the various trades, professions, and commerce.

PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.

Click here for sample answers | Read the document again

Observation

1. What type of document is this? (Ex. Newspaper, telegram, map, letter, memorandum, congressional record)

2. For what audience was the document written?

Expression

3. What do you find interesting or important about this document?

4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising?

Connection

5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written?

ADDRESS TO THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION (1851), SOJOURNER TRUTH

Please read this document and answer the following questions.

Enslaved people, of course, had no rights, but among the free people of color, black women faced double discrimination based on race and gender. One black woman named Isabella (1797–1883), who was born a slave to a master of Dutch descent in the state of New York, served a number of masters before gaining her freedom in 1827. She then moved to New York City, worked as a house servant, and became involved in evangelical activities. In 1843 she experienced a mystical conversation with God in which she was told to "travel up and down the land" preaching the sins of slavery and the need for conversion. After changing her name to Sojourner Truth, she began crisscrossing the nation, exhorting audiences to be born again and take up the cause of abolitionism. Although unable to read or write, she was a woman of rare intelligence and uncommon courage. During the late 1840s she began promoting the woman's rights movement and in 1851 attended the convention in Akron, Ohio. There she discovered that many participants objected to her presence for fear that her abolitionist sentiments would deflect attention from women's issues. Hisses greeted the tall, gaunt woman as she rose to speak: "Woman's rights and niggers!" "Go it, darkey!" "Don't let her speak!" By the time she finished, however, the audience gave her a standing ovation.

* * *

"Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best place!" . . . "And a'n't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! . . . I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And a'n't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear de lash as well! And a'n't I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen 'em mos' all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And a'n't I a woman?

"Den dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head; what dis dey call it?" ("Intellect," whispered some one near.) "Dat's it, honey. What's dat got to do wid womin's rights or nigger's rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?" And she pointed her significant finger, and sent a keen glance at the minister who had made the argument. The cheering was long and loud.

"Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wan't a woman! Whar did your Christ come from?" Rolling thunder couldn't have stilled that crowd, as did those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with outstretched arms and eyes of fire. Raising her voice still louder, she repeated, "Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin' to do wid Him." Oh, what a rebuke that was to that little man.

Turning again to another objector, she took up the defense of Mother Eve. I can not follow her through it all. It was pointed, and witty, and solemn; eliciting at almost every sentence deafening applause; and she ended by asserting: "If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder (and she glanced her eye over the platform) ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now dey is asking to do it, de men better let 'em." Long-continued cheering greeted this. "'Bleeged to ye for hearin' on me, and now ole Sojourner han't got nothin' more to say."

* * *

PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.

Observation

1. What type of document is this? (Ex. Newspaper, telegram, map, letter, memorandum, congressional record)

2. For what audience was the document written?

Expression

3. What do you find interesting or important about this document?

4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising?

Connection

5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written?

Chapter 13

An Empire In The West

• 
  I. The Tyler years
  
  • 
    A. Harrison’s brief term
    
  • 
    B. Tyler’s background and views
    

• 
  1. Southerner and renegade Democrat
  
• 
  2. No allegiance to Whig party despite being on Whig ticket
  
• 
  C. Domestic affairs
  
  • 
    1. Failure of Clay’s program
    
  • 
    2. Tyler left without a party
    
• 
  D. Foreign affairs
  
  • 
    1. Problems with Britain needing solution
    

• 
  a. Suppression of African slave trade
  
• 
  2. Compromises of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
  
  • 
    a. Joint patrols of Africa
    
  • 
    b. Canada–U.S. borders settled
    
• 
  II. The western frontier
  
  • 
    A. The idea of manifest destiny
    
    • 
      1. John L. O’Sullivan coins the term
      
    • 
      2. A moral justification for territorial expansion
      
  • 
    B. The western Indians
    
    • 
      1. Plains Indians
      
    • 
      2. Tribes to the north of the Plains
      
    • 
      3. Tribes of the Pacific Northwest
      
    • 
      4. Pressures from white expansion
      
  • 
    C. The Spanish west
    
    • 
      1. American attitudes toward area and its peoples
      
    • 
      2. Spanish colonization less successful in Arizona and Texas
      
    • 
      3. Spanish colonization more successful in New Mexico and Florida
      
  • 
    D. Mexican Independence
    
    • 
      1. Movements for independence
      
    • 
      2. Independence achieved in 1821
      
    • 
      3. Opened northern Mexico to American expansion
      
  • 
    E. Fur trappers in the Rockies
    
    • 
      1. “Rendezvous system“
      
    • 
      2. “Mountain men“
      
  • 
    F. Move to Oregon Country
    
    • 
      1. Joint occupation with Britain
      
    • 
      2. Mass migration of Americans by 1843
      
  • 
    G. Settling California under Spanish and Mexican rule
    
    • 
      1. Beginnings of Spanish settlement
      
    • 
      2. Franciscan missions
      
      • 
        a. Objectives
        
      • 
        b. Results
        
    • 
      3. The rancheros displace the missions after Mexican independence
      
    • 
      4. Expansion of ship trading with the area
      
    • 
      5. Sutter’s colony
      
  • 
    H. The Santa Fe Trail
    
    • 
      1. Opportunities
      
    • 
      2. Dangers
      
    • 
      3. Statistics
      
  • 
    I. Life on the Overland Trails
    
    • 
      1. Statistics
      
    • 
      2. Indians rarely attacked
      
    • 
      3. Difficulties
      
    • 
      4. Gender roles
      
    • 
      5. Great Plains ecology
      
    • 
      6. The Donner party
      
  • 
    J. Frémont’s mapping activities
    
  • 
    K. Efforts to acquire California
    
• 
  III. Annexing Texas
  
  • 
    A. American settlements
    
    • 
      1. Role of Stephen F. Austin
      
    • 
      2. Mexican edict against immigration
      
  • 
    B. Rebellion in Texas
    
    • 
      1. Santa Anna’s reaction
      
    • 
      2. Fighting erupts
      
  • 
    C. War for Texas independence
    
    • 
      1. Battle of the Alamo
      
    • 
      2. Role of Sam Houston
      
    • 
      3. Mexican Army and Santa Anna defeated in 1836
      
    • 
      4. Independent “Republic of Texas“ declared
      
  • 
    D. The Republic of Texas
    
    • 
      1. President Sam Houston
      
    • 
      2. Efforts for annexation
      
      • 
        a. Jackson’s delayed recognition
        
      • 
        b. Calhoun’s treaty rejected
        
• 
  IV. The Presidency of James Polk
  
  • 
    A. The election of 1844 and Polk’s nomination
    
    • 
      1. Desire to keep the Texas issue out of the campaign
      
    • 
      2. Clay’s evasion on Texas
      
    • 
      3. Democrats nominate a dark horse—James K. Polk
      
    • 
      4. The 1844 campaign
      
    • 
      5. Polk’s victory
      
  • 
    B. Polk as president
    
    • 
      1. Polk’s background
      
    • 
      2. Polk’s program
      
    • 
      3. Confirms annexation of Texas by Tyler
      
    • 
      4. Oregon demands
      
      • 
        a. British hesitancy about war
        
      • 
        b. Compromise treaty
        
• 
  V. Mexican War
  
  • 
    A. Failed negotiations with Mexico
    
  • 
    B. U.S. provocations
    
  • 
    C. The request for war
    
  • 
    D. Opposition to the war
    
    • 
      1. In the Mississippi Valley and Illinois
      
    • 
      2. In New England
      
  • 
    E. Preparation for war
    
    • 
      1. U.S. troops vs. Mexican troops
      
    • 
      2. Comparisons of other factors
      
  • 
    F. Selection of a commander
    
    • 
      1. Winfield Scott passed over
      
    • 
      2. Zachary Taylor emerges
      
      • 
        a. Taylor’s conquest of northern Mexico
        
  • 
    G. Annexation of California
    
    • 
      1. Frémont’s efforts
      
    • 
      2. Bear Flag Republic
      
    • 
      3. Stockton’s claim of governorship
      
    • 
      4. Kearny’s move to California
      
  • 
    H. Taylor’s battles
    
    • 
      1. Victory at Monterrey
      
    • 
      2. Santa Anna’s return to power
      
    • 
      3. Battle of Buena Vista
      
    • 
      4. Taylor granted leave and returns home
      
  • 
    I. Scott’s move to Mexico City
    
    • 
      1. Amphibious attack on Veracruz
      
    • 
      2. Attacks on Mexico City
      
  • 
    J. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
    
    • 
      1. Terms of the treaty
      
    • 
      2. Ratification
      
  • 
    K. The war’s legacy
    
    • 
      1. U.S. casualties
      
    • 
      2. U.S. acquires territory from Mexico
      
    • 
      3. Significance of the war for the U.S.
      
    • 
      4. The war in American memory
      
    • 
      5. Debate over slavery
      

Focus Questions

1. What were the dominant issues in national politics in the 1840s?

2. Why did settlers migrate west, and what conditions did they face?

3. Why did Texas declare independence from Mexico in 1836, and why were many Americans reluctant to accept it as a new state in the Union?

4. What were the causes of the Mexican War?

5. What territories did the United States gain from the Mexican War, and what controversial issue consequently arose?

REPRESENTATIVE ABRAHAM LINCOLN DISAGREES WITH PRESIDENT POLK (1846)

Please read this document and answer the following questions.

Polk's statement on the start of the war continued to be a matter of dispute between defenders of the war and its opponents. A young congressional representative from Illinois who opposed the war challenged the president's version of events. Excerpted below are passages from a speech by Abraham Lincoln on January 12, 1848. Note that this material comes from the Congressional Globe, which paraphrased the statements of members of congress instead of directly quoting them. Thus the frequent use of "he" in the passage refers to Lincoln. Read Lincoln's remarks carefully and compare them with Polk's comments.

First, as to the declaration that the Rio Grande was the western boundary of Louisiana, as purchased by France. All knew that purchase was in 1803; and the President himself told us that by the treaty of 1819 we sold the land east of the Rio Grande — to the Sabine, he believed — to Spain. He wanted to make but a single remark upon this point. How the line that divided your land and mine still remains the dividing line after I have sold my land to you, was to him past all comprehension. And how a man, with the honest purpose of telling "the truth, and nothing but the truth," could have ever thought of introducing such a piece of "proof" was equally incomprehensible.

The next point was, the declaration that the Republic of Texas always claimed the Rio Grande as her western boundary. That was not true in point of fact. She did not "always" claim it. she did claim it, but not always. The constitution by which she was admitted into the Union — which, being her last act as a Republic, might be said to be her "last will and testament," "revoking all others" — made no such claim. But suppose it were true that she had always claimed it, had not Mexico always claimed that it was not so? If Texas had always claimed that the Rio Grande was her western boundary, had not Mexico always claimed directly the reverse? So that it was nothing but claim against claim, and there was nothing proved until you got behind the claims, and saw which stood upon the best foundation. And what he here said in reference to these claims of his was equally applicable to all the President said about Texas, under her republican constitution, having always claimed to the Rio Grande; and her laying out her congressional districts, towns, counties, &c., all stood on the same ground. You might just as well say I could get a valid title to your land by writing a deed and signing it as to say that Texas could get the land of another by, at home, including within her boundary, upon paper, a certain piece of territory, when it was itself where she dare not go. The thing was preposterous!

Next came the declaration that Santa Anna, by his treaty with the Republic of Texas, recognized the Rio Grande as the western boundary of Texas. . . . The fact was, it was nothing more or less than an article of agreement, and it was so called on its own face, entered into by Santa Anna, by which to get his liberty. He stipulated he would not himself take up arms, nor encourage the Mexican people to do so, during the existing war, leaving it expressly understood that there was no termination of the war. Nobody supposed it was a treaty, because it was well known, as it has many times been stated, that Santa Anna, being a prisoner of war at the time, could not have made a treaty, if he had tried to do so. but he never intended to make — he never made — any such thing. There was no mark, no characteristic about it of a treaty at all.

He next came to notice the declaration of the President, that Texas before annexation, and the United States since annexation, had exercised jurisdiction over the country between the two rivers — the Nueces and the Rio Grande. . . . He did not understand that exercising jurisdiction over territory between two rivers necessarily implied the exercise of jurisdiction over the whole territory between them . . . . He knew, then, from actual experience, that it was possible [a laugh] to exercise jurisdiction over a piece of land between two rivers without owning the whole country between then. And when you come to examine this declaration, this was just the amount of it.

[From Congressional Globe, 30th Congress, 1st Session, p. 64.]

Bartolomeo de Las Casas was a Spanish cleric who became an early defender of the Indians in the New World. He was one of the first to argue that the Indians were civilized and worthy of the same respect as other humans. What follows is an excerpt from his History of the Indies, in which he describes the cruelty inflicted by the Spanish when they overran Cuba.

They [the Spaniards] arrived at the town of Caonao in the evening. Here they found many people, who had prepared a great deal of food consisting of cassava bread and fish, because they had a large river close by and also were near the sea. In a little square were 2,000 Indians, all squatting because they have this custom, all staring, frightened, at the mares. Nearby was a large bohio, or large house, in which were more than 500 other Indians, close-packed and fearful, who did not dare come out.

When some of the domestic Indians the Spaniards were taking with them as servants (who were more than 1,000 souls . . . ) wished to enter the large house, the Cuban Indians had chickens ready and said to them: "Take these�do not enter here." For they already knew that the Indians who served the Spaniards were not apt to perform any other deeds than those of their masters.

There was a custom among the Spaniards that one person, appointed by the captain, should be in charge of distributing to each Spaniard the food and other things the Indians gave. And while the Captain was thus on his mare and the others mounted on theirs, and the father himself was observing how the bread and fish were distributed, a Spaniard, in whom the devil is thought to have clothed himself, suddenly drew his sword. Then the whole hundred drew theirs and began to rip open the bellies and, to cut and kill those lambs�men, women, children, and old folk, all of whom were seated, off guard and frightened, watching the mares and the Spaniards. And within two credos, not a man of all of them there remains alive.

The Spaniards enter the large house nearby, for this was happening at its door, and in the same way, with cuts and stabs, begin to kill as many as they found there, so that a stream of blood was running, as if a great number of cows had perished. Some of the Indians who could make haste climbed up the poles and woodwork of the house to the top, and thus escaped.

The cleric had withdrawn shortly before this massacre to where another small square of the town was formed, near where they had lodged him . . .

The cleric, moved to wrath, opposes and rebukes them harshly to prevent them, and having some respect for him, they stopped what they were going to do, so the forty were left alive. The five go to kill where the others were killing. And as the cleric had been detained in hindering the slaying of the forty carriers, when he went he found a heap of dead, which the Spaniards had made among the Indians, which they thought was a horrible sight.

When Narvaez, the captain, saw him he said: "How does Your Honor like what these our Spaniards have done?"

Seeing so many cut to pieces before him, and very upset at such a cruel event, the cleric replied: "That I command you and them to the devil!" . . . Then the cleric leaves him, and goes elsewhere through some groves seeking Spaniards to stop them from killing. For they were passing through the groves looking for someone to kill, sparing neither boy, child, woman, nor old person. And they did more, in that certain Spaniards went to the road to the river, which was nearby. Then all the Indians who had escaped with wounds, stabs, and cuts�all who could not flee to throw themselves into the river to save themselves�met with the Spaniards who finished them.

[From George Sanderlin (ed. and trans.), Bartolom� de las Casas: A Selection of His Writings (New York: Knopf, 1971), pp. 63-65.]

Click here for sample answers | Read the document again

Observation

1. What type of document is this? (Ex. Newspaper, telegram, map, letter, memorandum, congressional record)

2. For what audience was the document written?

Expression

3. What do you find interesting or important about this document?

4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising?

Connection

5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written?

Observation

1. Which individual items within the image are drawn to your attention?

2. List the characters, objects, and / or action.

Expression

3. What is your overall impression of this image?

4. What is this image attempting to convey to the viewer?

Connection

5. What does this image tell you about this period in America History?

Chapter14

The Gathering Storm

Chapter Study Outline

• 
  I. Slavery in the territories
  
  • 
    A. The Wilmot Proviso
    
  • 
    B. Calhoun’s resolutions in reaction to the Proviso
    
  • 
    C. Other proposals addressing slavery in the territories
    

• 
  1. Extension of the Missouri Compromise line
  
• 
  2. Popular, or squatter, sovereignty
  

• 
  a. Controversy over admission of Oregon as a free territory
  
• 
  D. Slavery debate and the 1848 presidential election
  
  • 
    1. Cass for popular sovereignty
    
  • 
    2. Whigs shun Clay for Taylor
    
  • 
    3. Formation of Free-Soil party
    
    • 
      a. Three elements form the coalition
      

• 
  (1) rebellious Northern Democrats
  
• 
  (2) anti-slavery Whigs
  
• 
  (3) Liberty party
  
• 
  b. “Cotton“ vs. “Conscience“ Whigs
  
• 
  c. Van Buren nominated
  
• 
  4. Victory for Taylor in close race
  
• 
  II. The push for California statehood
  
  • 
    A. California gold rush
    
  • 
    B. The mining frontier
    
  • 
    C. Zachary Taylor’s motives and California statehood
    
  • 
    D. Taylor calls for admission of California as a free state
    
• 
  III. The Compromise of 1850
  
  • 
    A. Southern outrage and secession threats
    
  • 
    B. Clay presents compromise package of eight resolutions
    
  • 
    C. Calhoun’s response
    
  • 
    D. Webster’s plea for union
    
  • 
    E. Seward’s response for the abolitionists
    
  • 
    F. Taylor’s opposition and Whig divisions
    
  • 
    G. Taylor’s unexpected death
    
  • 
    H. Fillmore supports the Clay compromise
    
  • 
    I. Douglas’s “comprehensive“ strategy for compromise
    
  • 
    J. Terms of the Compromise
    
  • 
    K. Reaction to the Fugitive Slave Act
    
    • 
      1. Terms of the law
      
    • 
      2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
      
• 
  IV. The election of 1852
  
  • 
    A. The Democrats turn to Franklin Pierce
    
  • 
    B. Free-Soilers promote John P. Hale
    
  • 
    C. Whigs turn to Winfield Scott
    
  • 
    D. Pierce is the victor
    
• 
  V. The Kansas-Nebraska crisis
  
  • 
    A. Development
    
    • 
      1. Ideas for a transcontinental railroad reopen slavery issue
      
    • 
      2. Douglas’s “popular sovereignty“ bill leads to repeal of the Missouri Compromise
      
      • 
        a. Proposed bill permits slavery expansion into new territories on basis of popular sovereignty
        
    • 
      3. Douglas’s unclear motives
      
    • 
      4. Congress passes “Kansas-Nebraska Act“ despite growing anti-slavery sentiment
      
  • 
    B. Consequences of passage
    
    • 
      1. Growing opposition to “Fugitive Slave Act“
      
      • 
        a. Trial and return to slavery of Anthony Burns
        
    • 
      2. Break-up of the Whigs
      
      • 
        a. Formation of the Republican Party
        
    • 
      3. The “battle“ for Kansas
      
      • 
        a. Free-Soilers vs. pro-slavery forces compete to settle Kansas
        
      • 
        b. Fraudulent vote established official pro-slavery government
        
      • 
        c. “Free state“ counter-government established in Topeka
        
      • 
        d. Violence in Lawrence and Pottawatomie
        
      • 
        e. The Sumner-Butler-Brooks clash in Congress
        
• 
  VI. The election of 1856
  
  • 
    A. The American and Whig parties nominate Fillmore
    
  • 
    B. The Republicans choose John Frémont as their first presidential candidate
    
  • 
    C. The Democrats nominate James Buchanan
    
  • 
    D. The campaign and Buchanan’s election
    
  • 
    E. Buchanan’s background and perspective
    
• 
  VII. The Dred Scott decision
  
  • 
    A. Nature of the case: Dred Scott tries to get freedom based on his residency in non-slave states
    
  • 
    B. Analysis of the court’s decision
    
    • 
      1. Decided against Scott on basis he lacked legal standing
      
    • 
      2. Denied the right of Congress to exclude slavery from a territory
      
  • 
    C. Consequence: Sectional divisions inflamed
    
    • 
      1. Anti-slavery advocates infuriated
      
    • 
      2. Emboldened Southerners demand a federal slave code
      
• 
  VIII. Movements for Kansas statehood
  
  • 
    A. Governor Walker’s pro-Union efforts
    
  • 
    B. The pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution
    
  • 
    C. Buchanan’s support for Lecompton
    
  • 
    D. Popular vote in Kansas rejects Lecompton constitution
    
  • 
    E. Postponement of statehood for Kansas, now in anti-slavery hands
    
• 
  IX. Panic of 1857
  
  • 
    A. Causes and nature of the economic reversal
    
  • 
    B. Sectional reactions to the economic problems
    
    • 
      1. Northern businessmen blame Democratic Tariff of 1857
      
    • 
      2. Less-affected South emboldened and convinced of cotton’s importance
      
  • 
    C. Hard times inspire “prayer-meeting“ revivals from 1857–1859
    
• 
  X. The Lincoln-Douglas 1858 senatorial contest in Illinois
  
  • 
    A. The candidates and their situation
    
    • 
      1. Democrat Douglas was weakened by his earlier role in rising sectional crisis
      
    • 
      2. Republican Lincoln opposed to slavery but not an abolitionist
      
  • 
    B. National significance of the Illinois race and debates
    
  • 
    C. The Freeport Doctrine and popular sovereignty
    
  • 
    D. Candidates’ differences on the moral question of slavery
    
  • 
    E. Douglas defeats Lincoln in Illinois
    
    • 
      1. But Democrats fare poorly elsewhere in the nation
      
    • 
      2. Power shifting to the Republicans
      
• 
  XI. Sectional divide increases, 1858–1860
  
  • 
    A. John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry
    
  • 
    B. The effects of Brown’s raid and martyrdom
    
    • 
      1. Martyr for the anti-slavery cause in the North
      
    • 
      2. Inspired tremendous fear in the South
      
• 
  XII. The election of 1860
  
  • 
    A. Democrats split
    
    • 
      1. Democratic convention eventually nominates Douglas
      
      • 
        a. He promises to defend slavery where it exists but does not support its expansion
        
    • 
      2. Southern Democrats secede from main party and nominate ardently pro-slavery Breckenridge
      
  • 
    B. Republican convention nominates Lincoln
    
    • 
      1. Adopts a platform restating its resistance to expansion of slavery and pledging to support measures that promoted national economic expansion
      
  • 
    C. Constitutional Union party formed by former Whigs to support Bell and preservation of the Union
    
  • 
    D. Nature of the campaign
    
    • 
      1. No candidate had a national following
      
    • 
      2. Sensing defeat, Douglas goes south to try to save the Union
      
  • 
    E. Victory for Lincoln
    
    • 
      1. Clear electoral majority
      
    • 
      2. Smallest plurality ever
      
• 
  XIII. Secession begins
  
  • 
    A. South Carolina is first to secede
    
  • 
    B. Six more Deep South states leave the Union by early 1861
    
  • 
    C. Buchanan’s non-reaction to secession
    
  • 
    D. Secessionists seize federal property in the South
    
  • 
    E. Last failed efforts to compromise
    
    • 
      1. Crittenden’s proposal
      
    • 
      2. Proposed thirteenth amendment to the Constitution protecting slavery in existing areas passes both Houses of Congress
      
      • 
        a. States never had the chance to ratify it
        
    • 
      3. Lincoln takes office with nation on edge of self-destruction
      

1. Who were the members of the free-soil coalition, and what arguments did they use to demand that slavery not spread to the territories?

2. Why did the issue of statehood for California precipitate a crisis for the Union?

3. What were the major elements of the Compromise of 1850?

4. How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act initiate the collapse of the second party system?

5. Why did the southern states secede?