Chapter #16: The South and the Slavery Controversy Big Picture Themes 1.

. Cotton ran the South before the Civil War it was "King Cotton." The entire southern economy was based on cotton. 2. The South had developed a pyramid-like social structure. From top-to-bottom: planter aristocrats, small farmers, the white majority (who owned no slaves), free blacks, slaves. 3. Life as a slave could be wildly variedsome slave owners were kind toward their slaves, some were immensely cruel. In all situations, slaves were not free to do as they pleased. 4. Abolition (move to abolish slavery) began with the Quakers. Frederick Douglass became the main spokesman against slavery. And William Lloyd Garrison printed "The Liberator", a radical abolition newspaper. 5. Southerners countered that northern workers were treated even worse than slaves. Slave owners, they said, had a vested interest in their slaves. Northern factory workers exploited then fired their workers. IDENTIFICATIONS: Nat Turner He was a semiliterate visionary black preacher who led an uprising in 1831 that slaughtered about sixty Virginians, mostly women and children. His rebellion sent a wave of hysteria seeping over the snowy cotton fields, and planters in growing numbers slept with pistols by their pillows. Sojourner Truth She was also known simply as Isabella, and held audiences spellbound with her deep, resonant voice and the religious passion, with which she condemned the sin of slavery. She was a freed black woman in New York who fought for black emancipation and womens rights. Theodore Dwight Weld A prominent abolitionist inflamed by the religious spirit of the Second Great Awakening. He had been evangelized by Charles Grandison Finney in New Yorks Burned-Over District in the 1820s. Selfeducated and simple in manner and speech, Weld appealed with special power and directness to his rural audiences of untutored farmers. Harriet Beecher Stowe She was a novelist and daughter of the formidable Lyman Beecher, who presided over the Lane Theological Seminary. Greatly influenced by Welds pamphlet, American Slavery as It Is, Stowe wrote the well known novel, Uncle Toms Cabin. William Lloyd Garrison Garrison was a mild-looking reformer who published in the Boston the first issue of his antislavery newspaper, The Liberator. With this broadside Garrison triggered a 30-year war of words and in a sense fired one of the opening barrages of the Civil War. His words were very forceful and deeply rooted. Him and other dedicated abolitionists founded the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. David Walker An African American abolitionist who published the Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, which advocated a bloody end to white supremacy. He was able to distinguish himself as a living monument to the cause of the blacks freedom.

GUIDED READING QUESTIONS: "Cotton is King!" Know: Eli Whitney, Cotton Gin 1. What is meant by "Cotton is King?" How did its sovereignty extend beyond the South? What implications did its rule have? The Cotton Kingdom developed into a huge agricultural factory, and quick profits drew planters to the bottomlands of the Gulf States. Northern shippers reaped a large part of the profits from the cotton trade. They would load bales of cotton at southern ports, transport them to England, sell their cargo for pounds sterling, and buy needed manufacture goods for sale in the United States. Cotton accounted for half the value of all American exports after 1840. About 75% of Britains supply of fiber came from the South. Southern leaders firmly believed that Britains dependence on their cotton would g ive then a heady sense of power and British support, especially when there is a conflict with the North. The Planter "Aristocracy" Know: Chivalry 2. In what ways was the south "basically undemocratic?" The South was heavily influenced by a planter aristocracy. In 1850, only 1,733 families owned more than 100 slaves each, and this select group provided the political and social leadership of the section and nation. The planter aristocrats enjoyed a large share of southern wealth and could educate their children in the finest schools, often in the North or abroad. The dominance by a favored aristocracy was basically undemocratic, and widened the gap between the rich and poor. Slaves and the Slave System Know: One crop economy 3. What were the weaknesses of the South's dependence on cotton? Plantation agriculture was wasteful, largely because cotton despoiled the good earth. Quick profits led to excessive cultivation, or land butchery, which in turn cause d a heavy leakage of population to the west and Northwest. The economic structure of the South became very monopolistic, and many small farmers sold their holdings to more prosperous neighbors and went north or west. There was also financial instability, because the temptation to over speculate land and slaves caused many planters to plunge in beyond their depth. This dominance led to a dangerous dependence on a one-crop economy, whose price level was at the mercy of world conditions. The White Majority Know: Yeoman Farmer, hillbilly 4. Why did many whites who did not own slaves support slavery? Many whites who did not own slaves supported slavery because they had hopes to buy a slave or two to climb up the social ladder. They also took fierce pride in their presumed racial superiority, which would be watered down if the slaves were freed. Many of the poorer whites were hardly better off economically than the slaves; some indeed, were not so well-off. But even the most wretched whites could take perverse comfort from the knowledge that they outranked someone in status. Free Blacks: Slaves Without Masters Know: Emancipate, mulattoes 5. Would it have been better to be a free Black in the North or in the South? Explain. It would have been better to be a free Black in the South, because most of these free blacks were mulattoes, or freed children of a white planter and his black mistress. Some of these freed men were slaves who purchased their freedom with earnings from labor after hours. Also, these free blacks owned property, especially in New Orleans, where a sizable mulatto community prospered. However, in the

North, free blacks were often severely mistreated and had to compete with Irish immigrants for gruesome and often menial jobs. Also, the anti-black feeling was often stronger in the North than in the South. Plantation Slavery Know: Chattel, natural increase, Harriet Beecher Stowe 6. "...planters regarded slaves as investments [like a mule]...." Explain what was positive and what was negative about this situation for slaves. Many plantation owners regarded slaves as high investments. This was somewhat positive for slaves because they were very valuable to the plantation owners, so the planters did not assign very dangerous tasks to their slaves. If a neck was going to be broken, the master preferred it to be that of a wageearning Irish laborer rather than that of a salve, worth $1,800. However, that meant that in order to gain the full value of their slaves, plantation owners tried to breed the best choice of their slaves and have them breed. Women who bore thirteen or fourteen babies were prized as rattlin good breeders, and some of these fecund females were promised their freedom when they had produced ten. Life Under the Lash Know: Overseer, breaker, Old South, Deep South 7. Give evidence to show that slaves developed a separate, unique culture. What circumstances made this possible? Continuity of family identity across generations was evidenced in the widespread practice of naming children for grandparents or adopting the surname not of a current master, but of a forebears master. Blacks in slavery also molded their own distinctive religious forms from a mixture of Christian and African elements. African practices also persisted in the responsorial style of preaching, in which the congregation frequently punctuated the ministers remarks with assents and amensan adaptation of the give-and-take between caller and dancers in the African ring shout dance The Burdens of Bondage Know: Peculiar institution, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner 8. Thomas Jefferson once said that having slaves was like holding a wolf by the ears, you didn't like it but you couldn't let go. How does this section help to explain this statement? Victims of the peculiar institution devised countless ways to throw sand in its gears. When workers are not voluntarily hired and adequately compensated, they can hardly be expected to work alacrity. Accordingly, slaves often slowed the pace of their labor to the barest minimum that would spare them the lash, thus fostering the myth of black laziness. The dark tint of slavery also left its mark on the whites. It fostered the brutality of the whip, the bloodhound, and the branding iron. White southerners increasingly lived in a state of imagined siege, surrounded by potentially rebellious black inflamed by abolitionist propaganda from the North.

Early Abolitionism Know: Abolition, The American Colonization Society, Theodore Weld, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Harriet Beecher Stowe 9. Describe some of the early abolitionists. Abolitionist sentiment first stirred at the time of the Revolution, especially among Quakers. Because of the widespread loathing of blacks, some of the earliest abolitionist efforts focused on transporting blacks bodily back to Africa. The American Colonization Society was founded for this purpose in 1817, and in 1822 the Republic of Liberia. Theodore Dwight Weld was self-educated and simple in manner and speech, Weld appealed with special power and directness to his rural audiences of untutored farmers. Harriet

Beecher Stowe, daughter of Lyman Beecher, who presided over the Lane Theological Seminary, wrote an abolitionist novel called Uncle Toms Cabin. Radical Abolitionism Know: William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, David Walker, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass 10. How were the attitudes of William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass different? When dealing with an issue that is moral and political, how rigid should a person be? Douglass was as flexibly practical as Garrison was stubbornly principled; Garrison often appeared to be more interested in his own righteousness than in the substance of the slavery evil itself; he repeatedly demanded that the North secede from the South. However, Garrison didnt explain how the creation of an independent slave republic would bring an end to the damning crime of slavery. Instead, renounc ing politics, in 1854, on Independence Day, he publicly burned a copy of the Constitution as a covenant with death and hell. Douglass, in the other hand, increasingly looked into politics to end the blight of slavery. When dealing with an issue that is moral and political, one should be firm, however somewhat flexible to possible political solutions. The South Lashes Back 11. How did the South defend itself against the attacks of abolitionists? Proslavery whites responded by launching a massive defense of slavery as a positive good. In doing so, they forgot their own sections previous doubts about the morality of the peculiar institution. Slavery, they claimed, was supported by the authority of the Bible and the wisdom of Aristotle. It was good for the Africans, who were lifted from the barbarism of the jungle and clothed with the blessings of Christian civilization. Slave masters strongly encouraged religion in the slave quarters. They also pointed out that master-slave relationships really resembled those of a family. Southern whites also were quick to contrast the happy lot of their servants with that of the over-worked northern wage slaves, including sweated women and stunted children. The Abolitionist Impact in the North 12. How did Northerners view abolitionists? Did they have any success? The Northerners did not highly favor abolitionists. Northerners had been brought up to revere the Constitution and to regard the clauses on slavery as a lasting bargain. The ideal of Union, hammered home by the thundering eloquence of Daniel Webster and others, had taken deep root, and Garrisons wild talk of secession grated harshly on Northern ears. The North also had a heavy economic stake if the southern planters lost their slavers. Yet, by the 1850s the abolitionist outcry had made a deep dent in the northern mind. Many citizens had come to see the South as the land of the unfree and the home of hateful institution. Few northerners were prepared to abolish slavery outright, but a growing number opposed extending it to the western territories.

Chapter #17: Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy Big Picture Themes 1. A boundary dispute with England over Maine was settled peacably. In the long run, the U.S. likely got the better end of the deal. 2. Texas finally joined the U.S. Since the Texas revolution, itd been hanging in the balance. American lawmakers finally decided it was too good of a prize to let slip by, so it was annexed in 1845 3. Oregon was next on the list of lands to seal up. It was shared land, mainly between the U.S. and England. After some negotiating over the border, the 49th parallel was agreed upon. Again, the U.S. likely got the better. 4. The election of 1844 saw James K. Polk run on a Manifest Destiny platform. Americans liked the idea, voted him in, and he went after California. 5. When the Mexican-American war was over, the prize of California that Polk had wanted, was obtained. So was all of the modern American Southwest. IDENTIFICATIONS: John Tyler Six feet tall, slender, blue-eyed, and fair-haired, with classical features and a high forehead, John Tyler was a Virginia gentleman of the old schoolgracious and kindly, yet stubbornly attached to principle. He had earlier resigned from the Senate, quite unnecessarily, rather than accept distasteful instructions from the Virginia legislature. He had forsaken Jacksonian Democratic fold for that of the Whigs, largely because he could not stomach the dictatorial tactics of Jackson. He became the president when President Harrison had died. Slidells Mission Once Polk heard the rumors that Britain was planning to buy or seize California a grab that Americans could not tolerate under the Monroe Doctrine, he dispatched John Slidell to Mexico City as minister late in 1845. The new envoy, among other alternatives, was instructed to offer a maximum of $25 million for California and territory to the east. But the proud Mexican people would not even permit Slidell to present his insulting proposition. John C. Fremont He was a captain, and a dashing explorer, who just happened to be at California with several dozen well-armed men when General Stephen W. Kearny was sent to capture the state in 1846. In helping to overthrow Mexican rule in 1846, he collaborated with American naval officers and with the local Americans, who had hoisted the banner of the short-lived California Bear Flag Republic. Manifest Destiny This was an American idea that the nation had the right to, and furthermore was obligated to, explore the rest of the land and territory that rightfully belonged to them. It was used in the 19th century to designate the belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean, sea to shining sea. James K. Polk Polk became the eleventh president of the United States, and his idea of western expansionism, inspired by Andrew Jackson, led to the Mexican War and the annexation of California and much of the surrounding territory in the south west. In order to acquire California, which would give the nation ports on each side of the continent, Polk strongly pushed the American troops to the border of Texas, kindling the first attack by the Mexicans.

Webster-Ashburton Treaty After an explosive controversy of the early 1840s involving the Maine boundary dispute, Secretary of the State Daniel Webster and conciliatory financier Lord Ashburton made and signed a treaty on August 9, 1842, resolving several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies, especially the brawl that broke out near the Maine and New Brunswick border. Spot Resolution Illinois senator offered this resolution in the United States House of Representatives on December 22, 1847, after the first attack from Mexico. The resolutions requested President Polk to pinpoint and provide Congress with the exact location, or the exact spot, upon which American blood was spilled on American soil, as Polk had claimed in 1846 when asking Congress to declare war on Mexico. The Tariff of 1842 Also known as the Black Tariff, the tariff of 1842 was a protectionist tariff schedule adopted in the United States to reverse the effects of the Compromise Tariff of 1833. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The treaty was signed on February 2, 1848 to end the American-Mexican war. The treaty confirmed the American title to Texas and yielded the enormous area stretching westward to Oregon and the ocean and embracing California. This total expanse, including Texas, was about one half of Mexico. The US agreed to pay $15 million for the land and to assume the claims of its citizens again Mexico in the amount of $3,250,000. Wilmot Proviso After Polk requested an appropriation of $2 million with which to buy a peace, Senator David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, introduced an amendment that stipulated that slavery should never exist in any of the territory to be wrested from Mexico. The disruptive Wilmot amendment twice passed the House, but not the Senate. Antislavery men, in Congress and out, battled no less bitterly for the exclusion of slaves. The Wilmot Proviso never became federal law, but it was eventually endorsed by the legislatures of all but one of the free states. GUIDED READING QUESTIONS: The Accession of "Tyler Too" Know: William Henry Harrison, John Tyler 1. "Yet Tyler...should never have consented to run on the ticket." Explain this quote from your text. Although the dominant Clay-Webster group had published no platform, every alert politician knew that the unpublished platform contained. And on virtually every major issue, the obstinate Tyler was at odds with the majority of his adoptive Whig party, which was pro-bank, pro-protective tariff, and pro-internal improvements. John Tyler: A President Without a Party Know: "His Accidency," Henry Clay 2. What proof can you give of Tyler's unpopularity? What did Tyler do that made Whigs so angry with him? Tylers hostility to a centralized bank was notorious and when the bank bill reached the presidential desk, Tyler flatly vetoed it on both practical and constitutional grounds. A drunken mob then gathered late at night near the White House and shouted insultingly, Huzza for Clay! A Bank! A Bank! Down with the Veto! Whig extremists condemned Tyler as His Accidency and as an Executive Ass.

A War of Words with England Know: Caroline, Creole 3. Explain at least four causes of tension between the US and Great Britain in the 1830's and 1840's. First cause was the bitter past of the two Anglo-American wars, and also the death of the pro-British Federalists and the rise of the boisterous Jacksonian Democrats. British travelers wrote acidly of American tobacco spitting, slave auctioneering, and other unsavory features of the republic. A short lived insurrection erupted in Canada in 1837. In this hundreds of Americans furnished military suppliesor volunteered for armed service. There was another incident in 1837, in which an American steamer, the Caroline, was carrying supplies to the insurgents and was attacked by a determined British force. In 1840, a Canadian named McLeod was arrested and indicted for murder, and the London Foreign Office made it clear that his execution would mean war. Manipulating the Maine Maps Know: Aroostook War, Lord Ashburton, Daniel Webster 4. What was the result of the Ashburton-Webster Treaty? The Americans were to retain some 7,000 square miles of the 12,000 square miles of wilderness in dispute. The British got less land but won the desired Halifax-Quebec route. During the negotiations the Caroline affair, malingering since 1837, was patched up by an exchange of diplomatic notes. The British ended up surrendering 6,500 square miles, in which later was found to contain the priceless Mesabi iron ore of Minnesota. The Lone Star of Texas Shines Alone Know: Lone Star Republic 5. How did Mexico view Texas from 1836 to 1845? Although Texas had gained its independence from Mexico, Mexico viewed Texas as still part of the country. It just regarded the Lone Star Republic as a province in revolt, to be re-conquered in the future. Mexican officials loudly threatened war if the Americans eagle would ever gather the fledgling republic under its protective wings. The Belated Texas Nuptials Know: Conscience Whigs 6. Why did some hesitate to annex Texas? Why was it finally admitted to the Union? Some hesitated to annex Texas, because conscience Whigs feared that Texas in the Union would be red meat to nourish the lusty slave power. It was finally admitted to the Union first because of the fears aroused by British schemers, and the adamant Americans who cried Texas or Disunion. Oregon Fever Populates Oregon Know: 54 40', Willamette Valley, Oregon Trail 7 What change with Oregon from 1819 to 1844 caused the British to become more willing to negotiate a final boundary? In the years leading up to the Oregon Treaty, northern Americans were aggressively settling in the Oregon Country (which, today, includes Oregon, Washington, and other areas in the Pac Northwest and was referred to as "Columbia" by the British) to counter the expected annexation of Texas as a slave state. For non-slave states of the North, there was a need to settle northern country west to maintain a balance of slave and non-slave states. As time went on, the British and the Americans were not inclined to fight a third war against each other in 70 years and therefore settled peacefully by granting Americans all land south of the current Canadian border and leaving the area north to the British (present day British Columbia).

A Mandate (?) for Manifest Destiny Know: James K. Polk, Dark Horse 8. What part did Manifest Destiny play in the 1844 election? The campaign of 1844 was in part an expression of the mighty emotional upsurge known as Manifest Destiny. The Whigs, as noisemakers, took no backseat. They countered with such slogans such as Hooray for Clay and Polk, Slavery and Texas, or Clay, Union, and Liberty. Expansionist Democrats were strongly swayed by the intoxicating spell of Manifest Destiny. They came out flat-footedly in their platform for the Re-annexation of Texas and the Reoccupation of Oregon. Polk the Purposeful 9. What were Polk's four goals? Assess his degree of success. First was a lowered tariff; second was restoration of the independent treasury; third and fourth were the acquisition of California and the settlement of the Oregon dispute. Concerning the acquisition of all of Oregon, Polk, despite all the campaign bluster, got neither fifty-four forty nor a fight. But he did get something that in the long run was better: a reasonable compromise with a rifle being raised. Misunderstandings with Mexico Know: John Slidell, Nueces River 10. What were the sources of the strained relationship between the U.S. and Mexico? Among other friction points, the United States had claims against the Mexicans for some $3 million in damages to American citizens and their property. The revolution-riddle regime in Mexico had formally agreed to assume most of this debt but had been forced to default on its payments. Also the Mexican government, after threatening war if the US should acquire the Lone Star Republic, had recalled its minister from Washington following annexation. American Blood on American (?) Soil Know: Zachary Taylor, Spot Resolutions 11. Explain some of the reasons Congress declared war on Mexico. Despite all [their] efforts to avoid a clash, hostilities had been forced upon the country by the shedding of American blood upon the American soil. Congress declared war mainly to acquire the land that they have so eagerly desired, however the senators were overwhelmingly enthusiastic for war because the Mexican army had attacked the Americans first. The Mastering of Mexico Know: Stephen Kearney, John C. Fremont, Bear Flag Republic, Winfield Scott 12. What battles were fought to defeat Mexico? A battle in California led by John C. Fremont and several American naval officers, was able to take over the Mexican territory before Stephen Kearney, who was officially sent to the area, could even reach California. General Zachary Taylor fought his way across the Rio Grande into Mexico and after several victories, he reach Buena Vista, where his small force was able to defeat the twenty thousand troops under Santa Anna. General Scott then succeeded in battling his way up to Mexico City by September 1847 despite all odds and severe handicaps. Fighting Mexico for Peace Know: Nicholas P. Trist, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 13. Why did some people oppose the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo? Some people opposed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, because they had initially went again the Mexican American war. The anti-slavery Whigs in Congress were denouncing this damnable war with increasing

heat. Having secured control of the House in 1847, they were even threatening to vote down supplies for the armies in the field. People also condemned it because they wanted all of Mexico, and some wanted none of it. Profit and Loss in Mexico Know: Wilmot Proviso 14. What positive and negative outcomes resulted for the United States from the Mexican-American War? Americas total expanse, already cast, was increased by about one thirdan addition even greater than that of the Louisiana Purchase. Campaigns provided priceless field experience for most of the officers destined to become leading generals in the forthcoming conflict, including Captain Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant. However, the war also marked an ugly turning point in the relations between the US and Latin America as a whole. Hitherto, Uncle Sam had been regarded with some complacency, even friendliness. The war also re-aroused the snarling dog of the slavery issue, and the beast did not stop yelping until drowned in the blood of the Civil War.