Term
| Three historical processes unleashed by the Revolution accelerated after the War of 1812. What were they? |
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Definition
After the War of 1812, the following processes accelerated:
1) The market revolution
2) Westward expansion
3) The growth of political democracy |
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Term
| The "Market Revolution" refers to an economic transformation that took place in America during the first half of the 19th century (early 1800's). What was it? |
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Definition
| A market based economy developed, based on the manufacturing and export of goods, which led to significant social changes in America. |
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Term
| A series of innovations in transportation and communication were the catalysts for the market revolution. What were these innovations? |
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Definition
Innovations in transportation and communication were:
1) Steamboats
2) Canals
3) Railroads
4) Telegraph |
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Term
| Why were interchangeable parts important to economic growth? |
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Definition
| Interchangeable parts gave rise to factory production as opposed to the personal efforts of skilled tradesman. This meant cheap labor could be used to product more goods, leading to higher profits. |
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Term
| Why was mechanization (the shift from personal handiwork to machine production) important? |
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Definition
| Mechanization began with powered looms for weaving, meaning more textiles (clothes, sheets, curtains, etc.) could be produced faster. This meant new markets were needed to export these goods, and it meant more raw materials (cotton) were needed to continue at high production levels. |
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Term
| Why did commercial farming grow rapidly during the early 1800s? |
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Definition
| The invention of the McCormick Mechanical Mower-Reaper meant farmers could make more productive use of time, tend to larger plots of land, and produce more than they needed for personal use and local trading. So, they sought new markets to export their goods to, and when they found them, continued to increase production levels to satisfy those market demands. |
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Term
| Why did Northern cities grow between 1820-1860? |
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Definition
| Factories and industry were concentrated largely in the north, so as mechanization reduced the number of farm hands needed, and factory work created new opportunities for wage-based work, people moved away from farms and to the cities. This also included new immigrants arriving in the northeast, who tended to find work and homes in the cities. |
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Term
| Wage labor, which grew more prevalent as a byproduct of the growth in mechanization and factory production, shifted the nature of workers away from skilled tradesman. Who found work doing wage labor jobs? |
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Definition
1) Unskilled workers were able to make enough money to live working as wage laborers.
2) Women and children took wage labor jobs to help their families earn enough money to live on.
3) Trade unions formed to protect the rights of the workers, who were under constant pressure to produce more at lower cost and with fewer benefits due to the profit motive of business owners. |
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Term
| During the early 1800s, from where did most immigrants arrive? |
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Definition
| Mass immigration from Ireland and Germany occurred in the early 1800s. Many people born in America began to resent the new Americans who were taking jobs at lower wages and promoting political and social change, resulting in the growth of the "Nativist" movement |
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Term
| What was the Nativist movement? |
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Definition
| Nativists feared the impact that immigrants would have on American political and social life. They accused immigrants of undercutting native-born skilled laborers by working for so-called "starvation" wages (wages so low, one could barely afford to eat with the money they earned). Employers would pay as little as possible, so if immigrants took lower wages, it mean native-borns could not continue to earn what they had in the past. (Labor itself is a market, based on supply and demand) |
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Term
| Who's 1793 invention made cotton a profitable industry? |
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Definition
| Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, which was a device for rapidly separating the seed from the cotton, a very tedious process when done by hand. The increased use of the cotton gin enabled the growing and selling of cotton on a massive scale. Because of the usefulness of cotton in the production of textiles for northern manufacturers and for sale as exports, the South quickly made cotton its primary crop. |
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Term
| In the south, what were the key effects of the market revolution in the early 1800s? |
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Definition
In the south, the key effects of the market revolution were:
1) The southern economy remained agricultural-based (as opposed to manufacturing/factory oriented)
2) The slave trade increased (more cheap laborers were needed as the demand for southern cotton and other crops grew)
3) Slavery expanded in the South and West (As cotton production expanded in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, slavery followed, as a method for employing cheap labor)
4) The existing plantation based social hierarchy was reinforced, meaning social changes and social mobility were not happening in the south as they were in the north |
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Term
| How did the invention of the mechanical reaper affect farming in the North and West? |
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Definition
| Invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831, tens of thousands of mechanical reapers were in use by the 1860s, because they greatly increased the amount of wheat that a farmer could harvest. Wheat production tripled as a result. |
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Term
| How did the market revolution heighten North/South differences? |
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Definition
| As the market revolution took hold, the South's entire economy focused on producing more cotton for national and international markets, keeping the south an agricultural economy and maintaining the existing social hierarchy, whereas in the North, the market revolution along with westward expansion transformed the region into an integrated economy of commercial farms and manufacturing cities, which in turn brought about social changes and social mobility for workers. |
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Term
| How did changes during the market revolution move America away from the ideals promoted by Jefferson? |
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Definition
| Thomas Jefferson had believed that European demand for American grain would be key to the nation's economic growth and would ensure the small farmer's independence. But as the southern economy expanded westward, it was cotton produced on slave plantations, not grain grown by small farmers, that became the linchpin of southern development and by far the most important export of the United States. So even though the selling of exports to Europe was thriving, it was not furthering Jefferson's vision of helping to secure independence for more Americans. |
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Term
| Manifest Destiny (Who? What? Where? When? Why? Significance of?) |
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Definition
Manifest Destiny:
Who: John O'Sullivan coined the term
When: 1845
What: The concept was that the American experiment in granting freedom to its citizens was such a noble cause that the nation had the divine mission of expanding to include all of North America.
Where: "From sea to shining sea." (expanding from the East coast all the way to the West coast)
Why: By characterizing the growth of the country as a mission (the will of God), Americans could use this "destiny" as justification for expansion, even though it included oppression and arguably genocide in the removal of the Native Americans from western lands.
Significance of: With population and the price of land rising dramatically in the older states and young men's prospects for acquiring a farm or setting up an independent artisan shop declining, the West still held out the chance to achieve economic independence, the social condition of freedom. |
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Term
| The Louisiana Purchase (Who? What? Where? When? Why? Significance of?) |
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Definition
The Louisiana Purchase:
Who: President Thomas Jefferson seized a sudden opportunity to purchase North American land from France who needed funds desperately to finance its ongoing war.
What: The U.S. paid just $15 million for all of the French territories west of the Mississippi River, including the critical port of New Orleans.
When: 1803
Why: To provide room for westward expansion and to secure the port of New Orleans, which connected the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, in order to promote transportation of goods to European markets
Significance of: This single purchase doubled the size of the United States. Jefferson encouraged Native Americans occupying land east of the Mississippi to move west of the Mississippi to allow room for the U.S.'s growing population. |
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Term
| The Emancipation Proclamation (Who? What? Where? When? Why? Significance of?) |
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Definition
The Emancipation Proclamation:
Who: President Abraham Lincoln
What: Proclaimed (declared) slaves emancipated (freed) from their masters without any offer of compensation to the owners, and made an end to slavery an explicit goal of the Civil War, which had previously been about restoring the rebelling states to the union. Lincoln was able to use the Southern owners' insistence that slaves were property against them by declaring the seizing of this property as spoils of war.
Where: Issued by the President in Washington, it pertained only to those slaves in the states then in rebellion, which meant it would eventually apply to 3 million of the 4 million slaves then in the country.
When: January 1, 1863 (in the midst of the Civil War)
Why: Lincoln used his war powers as Commander-In-Chief to issue the proclamation as an Executive Order, rather than as a law passed by the legislature, because he recognized that that would not be politically manageable. This limit on his authority meant that only those slaves in states then in rebellion were subject to the proclamation. A small number of slaves were immediately freed, but others had to wait until Union troops marched through their area, or they escaped their Confederate owners. The Proclamation required that Union Army and Navy forces respect and protect the freedom of any former slaves, and even allowed slaves to enlist in the Army as soldiers, giving Union forces marching through the South access to substantial reinforcements as they advanced deeper into Confederate territory.
Significance of: Set in motion the events that would soon bring an end to slavery nationwide, as well as accelerate an end to the Civil War. It did not, however, confer full rights to freed slaves, many of whom remained subject to laws in former slave territories that kept them subordinate to whites (Jim Crow laws) for generations longer. |
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Term
| The 15th Amendment to the Constitution (Who? What? Where? When? Why? Significance of?) |
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Definition
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution:
Who: Passed by Congress, applied to non-whites (most notably African Americans)
What: Prohibited federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Where: Passed in Washington, but applied to the nation as a whole.
When: 1870 (It was the last of the three Reconstruction Amendments)
Why: Because the Republican Party (Lincoln's party) had freed the slaves, giving them the right to vote was sure to help Republicans continue to hold onto political power for some time afterward, so there was political motivation to eliminate any state or local laws that continued to prevent former slaves and other African-Americans from voting.
Significance of: In the short-term, states and local governments simply came up with new obstacles to prevent African-Americans from voting, such as poll taxes (fees required in order to vote that were forgiven for whites who had previously had voting rights already, so only blacks were subject to these new taxes, and often could not afford to pay them, and thus did not vote) and discriminatory literacy tests that few freedmen could pass, since teaching slaves to read and write had been an illegal practice prior to emancipation. Thus, the former slaves were "unqualified" to vote, supposedly, although this was blatant racist discrimination. |
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Term
| What key advantages did the North have in the Civil War? |
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Definition
The North had the following advantages in the Civil War:
1) Larger population
2) More industrialized
3) Better railway network
4) Navy and dockyards |
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Term
| What key advantages did the South have in the Civil War? |
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Definition
The South had the following key advantages in the Civil War:
1) Better military leaders
2) Had the sense of mission that comes from defending one's territory |
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Term
| What key disadvantages did the North have in the Civil War? |
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Definition
Key disadvantages of the North in the Civil War included:
1) less effective military leadership
2) Lacked the organizing mission of defending their territory that united the Confederacy in a clear and common cause |
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Term
| What key disadvantages did the South have in the Civil War? |
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Definition
The South had the following key disadvantages in the Civil War:
1) Smaller population
2) Less industrialized
3) Poor railway network
4) Smaller Navy |
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Term
| Describe the key transformations brought about by the Civil War. |
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Definition
The key transformations brought about by the Civil War were:
1) Increased power of the federal government (due to the need to fight the war and later to address the reunification of the country, the federal government took a much larger role in national affairs. In particular, the government promoted economic development through things like the Homestead Act, grants to Railroads and by issuing federal currency and the banking system)
2) Accelerated modernization of the Northern economy (this led to a second Industrial Revolution)
3) Ended slavery (13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude... shall exist within the United States." (Since the war was over, this included all of the former Confederate states and those slave-holding states that never left the Union but were not legally bound by Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation)
4) The Republican Party (the Party of Lincoln) wanted to a more activist party agenda, while the Democratic Party moved toward a more conservative agenda, attempting to restore and maintain the second class status of former slaves in particular. |
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Term
| For African-Americans in the South, what were the consequences of the end of the Reconstruction? |
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Definition
The end of the Reconstruction had the following consequences for African-Americans in the South:
1) The Democrats, the party that had resisted freeing the slaves, returned to power in the South
2) African-Americans in South, though free in the eyes of the federal government, were disenfranchised at the state and local level through techniques such as:
A) Poll taxes that made it hard for poor freedmen to vote
B) Literacy tests that made it hard for poor, typically illiterate freedmen to vote
C) Grandfather clause only permitted African-Americans to vote if their grandfather had voted, which essentially denied two generations of freedmen the right to vote.
D) Segregation - enforced the perception that freedmen were not full citizens equal to white men. |
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Term
| Did Maryland remain in the Union during the Civil War? |
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Definition
| Yes. However, some Marylanders fought for the Union and others for the Confederacy during the War. |
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Term
| Why was Maryland of such strategic importance in the war? |
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Definition
| Maryland was a border state, touching both the North and the South, and was strategically located adjacent to the Union capital in Washington, D.C. as well. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in Maryland by Executive Order, in a very controversial move, in order to detain or imprison, without due process of law, anyone deemed a threat to the Union cause. It is conceivable that this prevented Maryland's secession from the Union, which would have resulted in the Union capitol being surrounded by Confederate states. |
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Term
| Which areas of Maryland supported the Confederacy and why? |
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Definition
| Did not find an answer in the slides... Notes? Textbook? |
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Term
| Describe segregation in Maryland from the 1870s to the 1950s |
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Definition
| It appears that following the ratification of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, Maryland remained segregated until the 1950s. School desegregation was not widespread in Maryland until the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1956. To this day, some schools still have high concentrations of white or African-American students that suggest that "integration" (the opposite of segregation) has still not been fully achieved. |
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