Term
| Who were the ‘War Hawks’ of the War of 1812? |
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Definition
• The 1810 election brought a new group of western/southern Republicans to Congress.
• These "War Hawks" pointed to British presence on American soil and attacks on US commerce as reasons for a stronger foreign policy.
• While they urged territorial expansion north into Canada and south into Florida, they were most concerned with preservation of American honor. |
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Term
| • What was the Treaty of Ghent (1814)? |
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Definition
• The Treaty of Ghent of 1814 ended the war but resolved almost nothing, for it ignored impressment, blockades, neutral rights, and American access to Canadian fisheries.
• England did agree to evacuate the western posts, and several commissions were called for to deal with remaining disputes. |
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Term
| • What was the Monroe Doctrine (1823)? |
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Definition
• A new Latin American policy
• Monroe asserted four principles: the
(1) American continents were closed to new European colonization;
(2) political systems of the Americas were separate from those of Europe;
(3) United States would oppose attempts to extend Europe's political influence into the Western Hemisphere; and,
(4) US would neither interfere with existing colonies in the New World nor meddle in the internal affairs of Europe.
• Monroe's doctrine was little more than a statement of principles, as the United States had neither the economic nor military power to enforce it at the time |
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Term
| • In 1816, what nationalistic policies did President Madison recommend? |
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Definition
• The principle of exclusive judicial review was established
• Congress passed the non-importation act that prohibited the importation of most English goods and Britain responded with a blockade of the European coast
• Asked congress in 1812 for a declaration of war
• Madison also recommended a federally subsidized network of roads and canals to aid economic development and increase national security, but ultimately vetoed such a measure because he believed it unconstitutional. |
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Term
| • What was the Missouri Compromise (1820)? |
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Definition
• The Missouri crisis of 1819 1820 revealed the depth of sectional conflict.
• Missouri's application for admission to the Union raised the question of slavery expansion into the territories west of the Mississippi.
• A proposal for Missouri to prohibit slavery before entering the Union triggered a fierce debate between southerners determined to maintain the Senate's balance between slave and free states and northerners who wished to keep the West open to free labor.
• Ultimately, a compromise was arranged.
• Missouri entered the Union as a slave state while Maine came in as a free state, and a line was drawn west from Missouri to the Rocky Mountains at latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes, dividing free lands to the north from slave lands to the south. |
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Term
| • In the early nineteenth century, what new style of American politics emerged? |
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Definition
• Voters flocked to the polls in record numbers in the 1820s. This was the result of the:
-- removal of property restrictions on voting,
-- growing strength of democratic beliefs,
-- increased activity of state governments,
-- drive of the lower classes to claim political power, and
-- appearance of new political leaders who accepted party activity and were skilled in mass political techniques such as campaigning.
• The gentry dominated politics of a generation before was now a thing of the past.
• New style=democrats |
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Term
| • As the 19th-century began, what can be said about the patterns of wealth/poverty in America? |
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Definition
• The gap between rich and poor in the cities widened, and a class structure of wealthy merchants, middle class professionals, and poor laborers and the unemployed became clearly defined.
• Women and blacks held far less property than men.
• Class structure was also sharply drawn in port cities.
• While there was a more even distribution of property on the frontier, as settlement progressed, differences in wealth appeared there, too.
• In 1800, there was not a large, destitute underclass as in Europe.
• Yet, poverty was increasing (in the South among slaves, poor whites in the backcountry, and in the Northern port cities) as the poor struggled to survive recurring recessions.
• Even in rural New England and southeastern Pennsylvania, a lower class of transient and property-less people was growing.
• Old Revolutionary War veterans, women, and children also suffered from poverty in disproportionate numbers.
• The depression of 1819 1821 showed the vulnerability of many Americans to hard times.
• One goal of the social reformers was to alleviate poverty.
• They offered relief to the "worthy poor," respectable people who were the victims of circumstance, but they believed the "idle" or "vicious poor," who lacked character, deserved their fate. |
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Term
| • What can be said about the federal government’s Indian policies from 1796-1830? |
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Definition
• In 1790, in an effort to prevent fraud and cement peaceful relations, Congress initiated a system of government trading posts, or "factories," where Indians could come for fair treatment, but the system never worked well.
• A third objective of federal Indian policy was to civilize and Christianize the Native Americans and ultimately assimilate them into white society.
• Americans in the West regarded Indians as "savages" unsuited for citizenship and best moved out of the way.
• Easterners believed Indians might be assimilated and admired them for their bravery, independence, and simplicity qualities valued by republicans. But, Indians would have to adopt white ways first.
• Assimilationists showed little appreciation of Indian culture.
• By 1819, the churches had gained full responsibility for Indian education.
• Education/Christianization were necessary for assimilation, so groups sent missionaries to live among the Indians, preach the gospel, and teach the benefits of white civilization. |
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Term
| • By the early 1800's, what can be said about the education of women in America? |
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Definition
• Changes also occurred in education as women were seen as keepers of public morality and nurturers of future citizens; hence if the republic was to fulfill its destiny, women had to be prepared for the responsibilities of motherhood.
• Between 1790-1820, a number of female academies were established.
• The women's curriculum was less demanding than the men's because many felt intellect would cause them to abandon their proper sphere as mothers and wives. |
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Term
| • What can be said about American economic growth (including industry, national infrastructure, and personal wealth) between 1820-1860? |
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Definition
• Between 1820-1860, per capita income doubled as the economy moved away from agriculture towards industry/technology. But, though expanding and becoming national in scale, the economy was unstable, moving cyclically from periods of boom to bust.
• Between 1820-1860, economic transformation in the old Northeast and the new Northwest (Ohio River Valley) reshaped economic, social, cultural, and political life.
• Although most Americans continued to live in rural areas rather than the new western cities and factory towns, economic growth and new industrial means of production nevertheless affected them through new goods, business and job opportunities, and markets.
• In the urban communities and factory towns, the new economic order ushered in new types of work, new class arrangements, and new forms of social strife.
• Economic growth between 1820-1860 resulted from the reorganization of production. |
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Term
| • How did education (and especially education for women) evolve between 1820-1860? |
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Definition
• The belief education aided economic growth fostered support for public education.
• Most prominent Americans believed education promoted inventiveness and produced disciplined, reliable, and productive workers.
• Americans also believed public schools could mold character and promote good habits, thus education had social as well as economic value.
• Teaching methods stressed discipline and concentration, and schoolbooks reinforced good habits by moral messages.
• Education was a way to ward off the disintegrating effects of change by teaching students to be deferential, obedient, and punctual.
• The widespread concern about 'unsettling' change caused people to emphasize middle class virtues such as diligence, punctuality, temperance, and thrift as the means to success. |
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Term
| • Why was the Erie Canal (1825) important? |
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Definition
| • With the Erie Canal, New York became the nation's largest import export center. |
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Term
| • How did women's role in society change from 1820-1860? |
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Definition
• Women created a clean, wholesome, and private setting for family life and served as the moral and cultural guardians of the family.
• Wives preserved values and helped husbands cope with the temptations and tensions of the new economic order.
• This physical separation of male and female worlds and shift in women's status often meant women sought female friendships as a source of comfort, security, and happiness.
• As they were no longer domestic producers, women now sought to achieve new standards of beauty, order, and cleanliness in their homes.
• This concept of domesticity, while seeming to confine women to the home, prompted women to take on activities in the outside world in fulfilling their function as guardians of public morality.
• Women at first engaged in charitable and religious works, but, by the 1830s, added concerns like abolition of slavery to their efforts.
• Ultimately, the new feminine ideal influenced rural women and urban working women and discouraged married women from entering the work force. |
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Term
| • How did women's role in the work place develop between 1820-1860? |
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Definition
• Most of its work force was young, single women recruited from New England farms.
• Young women came to the mills for a variety of reasons (e.g., the decline of home manufacture that deprived many of them of their traditional productive role).
• They sought economic independence, good wages, and a new social environment.
• Mill work was regimented and exhausting and once they married, most left mill work forever.
• Women labored long hours in poor working conditions and single females had to live in boardinghouses under strict rules where little personal privacy was possible.
• While mill work offered better wages than other jobs open to women, female workers were barred from holding higher paying supervisory positions.
• Protests by women met with very limited success because most women only worked a limited time in the mills, permanent labor organizations were difficult to form, and protests in hard times usually failed because owners could easily replace striking workers.
• Owners found immigrants, desperate for jobs, would work for lower wages, and the Irish began to replace Yankee women in the mills.
• New England women gradually left the mills, the boardinghouses disappeared, and a permanent work force emerged. |
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Term
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Definition
• Horace Mann, who led the Massachusetts struggle for common schools, was typical as he blended idealism with a practical sense of how to institutionalize improvements.
• A leader from Massachusetts who was a model for school reformers |
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Term
| • What was the leading industry in America between 1820-1860? |
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Definition
| • Textile manufacturing. FACTORIES IN THE FRONTIER!! |
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Term
| • How did women and labor respond when young women entered the American work force? |
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Definition
• They sought economic independence, good wages, and a new social environment.
• Mill work was regimented and exhausting and once they married, most left mill work forever.
• Women labored long hours in poor working conditions and single females had to live in boardinghouses under strict rules where little personal privacy was possible.
• While mill work offered better wages than other jobs open to women, female workers were barred from holding higher paying supervisory positions. |
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Term
| • The 1830s in America were very active with which 'social' events (religious revivalism, for example)? |
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Definition
• By the 1830s, revivalism had shifted to upstate New York and the Old Northwest, where profound economic/social change occurred due to the spread of industry and commerce.
• With economic growth, the gap between owners and workers widened, saloons and unions appeared in working class neighborhoods, and workers became more transient.
• Revivalism swept the nation in the first half of the nineteenth century and led to the growth of evangelical sects.
• Preachers reached the masses by stressing emotion rather than doctrine and by emphasizing individual salvation, good works, and eradication of sin to perfect society. |
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Term
| • What were some aspects of “Jacksonian Democracy” (for example, the rise of political parties)? |
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Definition
• During the Jacksonian era, the old system of deferential politics based on elite coalitions was replaced by a competitive party system.
• To win, parties had to establish state and local organizations; involve voters through rallies, parades, and conventions; and cater to popular emotions and prejudices.
• His coalition (Democratic party) included politicians of diverse views from all sections.
• He took vague positions on controversial issues such as tariffs, currency, and banks, but advocated the reform of government to eliminate corruption and privileged interests.
• Jacksonians believed in majority rule, a limited national government, and the government's responsibility to protect the average man against the power of the wealthy. |
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Term
| • What were some aspects of the Whig Party just before and during the Jacksonian era (they were, for example, the political opponents to the Jacksonian Democrats)? |
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Definition
| • The Whigs, supported by northern businessmen, called for strong, central government, Clay's American System, and moral reform. |
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Term
| • What were some of the early 19th-century social movements in America (for example, the women's right movement in the 1840s fought for the vote, free speech, and better working conditions)? |
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Definition
• Anti slavery movement
• World anti slavery convention of 1840
• Seneca falls meeting of 1848
• Anti slavery society 1832
• Liberty party
• National negro convention unit |
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Term
| • When did the modern two-party system start to emerge? |
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Definition
| • By the mid 1830s, a new two party system had emerged. |
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Term
| • Into what two camps did the temperance movement split? |
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Definition
By 1840, disagreements over goals and methods had split the temperance movement into separate organizations.
• Washingtonians believed alcoholism was a disease rather than a moral failure. They encouraged people to take the "teetotal" pledge.
• The movement shifted away from individual moral persuasion to political action.
• Temperance advocates sought local option laws (16 states before the Civil War); but, the ultimate objective was not reached until the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.
• Some saw temperance as a way for the Protestant middle classes to exercise control over laborers, immigrants, and Catholics.
• For perfectionists, abstinence was practicing self control and reaching moral perfection.
• For women, it was a way to control the behavior of men. For young men, the movement provided fellowship and contacts to help their careers.
• In temperance societies, Americans found purpose, support, and relief from the uncertainty of a changing world.
• Women vs. abolition |
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Term
| • What were the two primary causes for the reform movement in the 1830s? |
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Definition
| • Slavery and women’s rights were the main ones who wanted to reform because weren’t given any rights |
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Term
| • What were the shortcomings which caused most utopian movements to ultimately fail? |
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Definition
• These utopias ultimately failed as Americans adapted poorly to communal living and sharing.
• Demands for celibacy, financial bickering, unstable leadership, indiscriminate admission of members, local hostility, inability to confront the individualistic impulse of human nature, and waning enthusiasm contributed to the downfall of utopian experiments. |
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Term
| • What were some major factors contributing to the reform impulse in America during the 1830s? |
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Definition
• Reformers faced the question of which to change first, behavior or institutions. The first relied on education, the second politics
• In addition reformers had to decide whether to:
• Accept some cange or insist on perfection
• Use force or be willing to compramise
• Keep pure their own principles r cooperate with others |
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Term
| • What are the following? |
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Definition
• Transcendentalism: a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century
• Communitarianism: to development of a community and the way of which they live (ex. Utopian of the puritains)
• Spiritualism: belief that the dead manifest their presence to people usually through a clairoyat or medium; also the doctrine and practices of those people who so believe
• Perfectionalism: the perfectionist thrust to revivalism reflected the US view of itself as a redeemer nation chosen by god to reform the entire world |
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Term
| • What is “nullification”? |
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Definition
| • To get rid of or abolish laws that were put into place that were unfair or unsuccessful |
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Term
| • What can be said about slavery and the antebellum South? |
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Definition
• There were many intricate and subtle ways in which the lives of slaves and masters were tied together in the antebellum South where blacks achieved varied degrees of freedom through resistance, revolt, and free status.
• The ideal of slave ownership permeated all classes in the South and determined the hierarchical character of the southern social structure.
• The planter aristocracy - families who held more than 50 slaves dominated the South.
• Below them were small planters who held from 10 to 50 slaves.
• Mid level farm families (less than 10 slaves) comprised 70 percent of all slave owners.
• The average slaveholder, then, held less than 10 slaves, but the average slave actually worked with 20 or more slaves on a plantation.
• Ownership of slaves determined upward economic mobility, social prestige, and political influence, so white southerners supported slavery whether they owned slaves or not.
• Slavery gave them a sense of superiority over at least one group and a sense of kinship with other whites. |
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Term
| • How did the South justify slavery? |
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Definition
• Whether they acted humanely or not, slave owners were increasingly attacked as immoral and thus felt compelled to justify their institution.
• Until the 1830s, they defended slavery as a "necessary evil," but after the rise of the abolitionist movement, they defended slavery as a "positive good," using biblical, historical, constitutional, scientific, and sociological arguments.
• Biblical justification was based in part on the curse placed upon Ham and in part on biblical admonitions that servants obey their masters and accept their earthly lot.
• Southern apologists also argued slavery had existed throughout history and the greatest civilizations had built their strength and grandeur on slave labor.
• Southerners also pointed out the Constitution did not forbid slavery but implied its constitutionality in the Three fifths Clause, the section protecting the overseas slave trade for 20 years, and in mandating the return of runaways.
• By the 1830s, white southerners argued Africans had been created separately and were an inherently inferior race, destined to serve the superior Caucasians.
• A sociological defense of slavery argued blacks needed the paternal guidance, restraint, and protection of white masters. If that were lacking, chaos would result.
• George Fitzhugh compared the treatment of southern slaves to that of free blacks and white laborers in northern factories and found that "wage slaves" there worked as hard as slaves but lacked necessities, while southern masters took care of slaves' needs.
• The defense of slavery ran counter to the main ideological directions of nineteenth-century American society: the expansion of individual liberty, mobility, economic opportunity, and democratic political participation. So, the defense of slavery had to appeal to the 75 percent of southern whites who owned no slaves.
• Planters avoided the potential for class antagonisms by maintaining all whites were superior to all blacks but equal to one another; thus, the theory of democratic equality among whites was made consistent with racism and slaveholding.
• But, the underlying motive of these justifications was that slavery was profitable. |
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Term
| • How did slaves resist slavery? |
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Definition
• Some escaped slavery and achieved what limited autonomy possible for free blacks.
• Slaves protested their condition in day to day acts of resistance that ranged from work slow-downs to poisoning masters.
• Favorite ploys were to pretend sickness during rush periods or to misplace tools.
• When slaves were unwilling to work for an overseer, often the master ended such conflicts by replacing the overseer, sometimes with black drivers.
• Slave drivers had to get the master's work done without alienating fellow slaves, and, while some drivers were brutal, many were leaders and role models for other slaves.
• Slaves also resisted by running away.
• Often they hid in a nearby wood or swamps and went to the quarters at night for food.
• Many ultimately returned to the plantation.
• Others formed colonies of runaways in the swamps and mountains, especially in Florida, where the Seminoles befriended them.
• Some escaped via the underground railroad. But, the number who escaped via the underground railroad was small, largely due to nightly patrols by whites.
• Slaves also sought freedom through petitions to legislatures, suits against masters, pleas for emancipation in wills, or by purchasing their freedom.
• While slaves committed individual acts of revolt, most plans fell through due to loss of will, betrayal, spies, and severe reprisals. |
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Term
| • What can be said about African-Americans and their culture? |
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Definition
• Black Christianity grew enormously as a result of the revivals of the nineteenth century.
• Independent black Baptist and Methodist churches grew up, especially in cities, to serve free blacks and slaves, while on plantations, masters often established churches.
• Masters often tried to direct black religion to their own ends by emphasizing the importance of work, obedience, honesty, and respect for the master's property.
• There were limits to this paternalistic control, and slaves often gathered to hold services at night away from white supervision where they would dance, sing, shout, and pray.
• Although the forms of expression were often African, the message was the Christian theme of suffering and deliverance from bondage.
• Jobs such as barbering, shoemaking, and plastering were reserved for black men, while black women worked as cooks, laundresses, and domestics.
• The church was central to the urban black community. In addition to performing religious functions and guarding moral discipline and community values, it provided and promoted education, social insurance, fraternal associations, and recreation.
• Besides the church, black community identity revolved around the African schools and burial and benevolent societies for self help and protection against poverty, illness, and other disasters |
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Term
| • What can be said about the southern economy between 1820-1860? |
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Definition
• The South's economy grew even faster than the North's between 1840-1860, largely due to the invention of the cotton gin.
• The cotton gin allowed farmers to replace "long staple" cotton with the "short staple" variety that could be grown across the South and thus tied the southern economy to cotton production.
• As cotton cultivation moved west, more slave labor was needed and slavery became more deeply entrenched in southern life.
• While more acres of corn were actually grown in the South, cotton was the largest cash crop, and, after 1820, the South was the world's largest producer of cotton.
• After 1815, cotton represented more than half of all American exports.
• Northern merchants gained by shipping, insuring, and marketing cotton, while western farmers marketed much of their foodstuffs in the cotton kingdom.
• Between 1817-1860, cotton production jumped over tenfold, and peaked in the latter year at 4.8 million bales.
• This rapid growth was stimulated by world demand, especially from English
• New lands, slave labor, and steamboat transportation kept cotton "king." |
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Term
| • Why are the following dates important in regard to slavery in the United States? |
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Definition
o 1787: the constitution adopted with pro slavery provisions
• 1808: Congress ended the external slave trade in 1808, so slaves were smuggled into the US.
o 1830’s: southerners argued Afrcians had been created separately and were an inherently inferior race, destined to serve the superior caucasiains. A sociological defence f slavery argued blacks needed the patnernal guidance
o 1831: Nat Turner's revolt, the South tightened the slave system. The laws prohibiting manumission were passed, nad slaves expectation of freedom other than by revolt or escape vanished.
o 1852: free black population doubled |
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Term
| Why are the following dates important in regard to cotton production in the United States? |
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Definition
• 1796: cotton gin was patteneded
• 1820: the south was the world’s largest producer of cotton
• 1840's: the south’s economy grew faster than the north’s
• 1850's:the south’s economy grew faster than the north’s
• 1860: the south’s economy grew faster than the north’s |
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Term
| • What was the Second Great Awakening? |
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Definition
• By the 1830s, revivalism had shifted to upstate New York and the Old Northwest, where profound economic/social change occurred due to the spread of industry and commerce.
• With economic growth, the gap between owners and workers widened, saloons and unions appeared in working class neighborhoods, and workers became more transient.
• Revivalism swept the nation in the first half of the nineteenth century and led to the growth of evangelical sects.
• Preachers reached the masses by stressing emotion rather than doctrine and by emphasizing individual salvation, good works, and eradication of sin to perfect society. |
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Term
| • Who was Andrew Jackson and what did he accomplish? |
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Definition
• Jackson began as a successful lawyer in the West, became a substantial landowner, and gained a national reputation for his victories over the Creeks and then the British.
• Politics brought him a US Senate seat and a presidential nomination in 1824.
• In 1824, Jackson won a plurality of popular and electoral votes, but lost to John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives when Henry Clay, the Speaker, threw his support to Adams.
• Clay was named secretary of state, and Jackson, claiming a "corrupt bargain" had been struck, began preparing for the 1828 contest.
• Aided by John Calhoun in the South and Martin Van Buren in New York, Jackson established local committees and newspapers in many states.
• His coalition (Democratic party) included politicians of diverse views from all sections.
• He took vague positions on controversial issues such as tariffs, currency, and banks, but advocated the reform of government to eliminate corruption and privileged interests.
• Defended slavery and ordered removal of indians west of the Mississippi
• During his term the richer got richer and most farmers did not prosper
• He didn’t believe in a national bank and supported states printing their own money |
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Term
| • What was Jackson's ‘Indian’ policy? |
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Definition
• Jackson's policy of Indian removal to the West defined American Indian policy until 1900.
• Jackson believed Indian removal was necessary in the interests of both Indians and whites and held state laws took precedence over the claims of either the Indians or the federal government.
• In 1832, the Supreme Court in Worcester v. Georgia upheld Cherokee sovereignty.
• But, Georgia defied the court with Jackson's blessing, and the US Army herded the Cherokee west in 1837 1838 in a deadly forced march known as the "Trail of Tears."
• Other tribes shared their fate, and guarantees these western lands would forever belong to the Indians were broken within a generation. |
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Term
| • Which groups tried to reform or perfect American society? |
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Definition
| • Millerites, mormons, puritans, shakers and Perfectionalists |
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