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| a series of mills in a Massachusetts town, which accounted for all aspects of textile production. Based on British factories. Spurred by technological innovations such as the power loom. Many female workers. Women were cheaper, unskilled workers. |
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| Factory Girls Association |
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| Formed by women at the Lowell factories in response to a hike in rent. The women wanted better wages and working conditions. Created divide between management and workers. |
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| Sought state legislation to improve their working conditions. More violent than strikes of the FGA. |
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| Huge influx of Irish immigrants due to Potato Famine. America’s first large refugee group. Mostly Catholics (which caused nationalists backlash amongst some Protestants). Industries needed willing workers. Replaced farmwomen in Lowell. Worked cheaper than women. Essential to completion of Erie Canal. Remained in cities due to lack of money. Desolate living conditions. |
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| In the 1830s, General Trade Unions (made of different craft groups) sprang up all over the nation, starting in New York, ultimately resulted in the National Trades Union in 1834. Even though GTUs collapsed, they were a visible sign of a class-based community of interest among works. They believed that by banding together they could improve their conditions. |
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| It was a part of the separate spheres philosophy. The ideal woman was supposed to live a domestic, private life. Women who had to go to work in factories were seen as unfeminine. Very popular in the Northeast. Amplified class distinctions and led to the creation of feminine culture (literature, fashion, etc.) |
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| After the invention of the Cotton Gin, cotton became easier to clean. Cotton had always been seen as a crop ideally suited to southern soils and growing conditions. Led to the “second middle passage” because many people from the northern portion of the South moved to deep south in order to plant cotton and brought slaves. Also increased southern dependency on the slave system. By the time of the Civil War, cotton was the United States’ top export. Led to southern dependency on northern manufacturing and shipping. |
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| Before the gin, it took an entire day to clean one pound of cotton. The gin could clean more than 50 pounds of cotton in a day. Led to the profitability of cotton production and mass migration of southerners into the black belt of the south. Invention of the gin came right at the time that Britain and the U.S. were industrializing (and thus had a much higher demand for cotton). |
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| DeBow's Commercial Review |
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| Magazine popular in the South. Included agricultural information and political opinion. Very Pro-Southern and advocated southern economic independence (and eventually secession). Started by James DeBow of New Orleans. |
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| Only a small portion of Southerners actually owned slaves. Those who owned many slaves lived in large mansions on plantations. Many were first generation landowners, which shows how profitable cotton was. Many affluent planters lived in relative modesty because their wealth was tied up in their business. Patriarchal society with women centered around the home and rarely leaving it. Claimed to be more concerned with grace and refinement and to have a separate value system from their northern contemporaries. |
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| Lived in Appalachians and Ozarks and practiced subsistence agriculture and owned no slaves and often expressed animosity towards the cotton growing elites. When they could not find food, the poorest of the poor would resort to eating clay. While they had nothing to do with the plantation system, they were united with wealthy white southerners by an ideal of white supremacy. |
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| Common language among slaves that retained some African words but drew heavily on English. Increased unity and a sense of community among slaves. |
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| If a person had even the smallest trace of black ancestry, then that person would be considered black. Caused many white masters to impregnate female slaves. |
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| Characterized African Americans as ignorant, shuffling around, happy-go-lucky, unable to take care of themselves, and dirty. The Sambo mode of behavior that whites did see was a façade that blacks would take on because their white masters expected it of them. |
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| Conspiracy that all slaves involved would rise up and kill their masters. Its goal was to temporarily liberate Charleston. It was put down before it could truly break out. |
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| 1831 rebellion led by lay preacher Nat Turner. Nearly 60 white men, women and children were murdered. Rebellion was put down by federal troops and many rebels were executed. Caused fear for white slave owners because Turner was educated and treated well. |
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| An informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. Chance of escape was slim and potential punishment was severe. One of the many ways blacks rebelled against slavery. Contrary to abolitionist legend, it was free African Americans such as Harriett Tubman who played the major part in helping fugitive slaves. |
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| Each plantation was a “family” with the master and the head. The master supposedly treated all members of this “family” with humanity and provided for their needs. In return, slaves were to work properly and do as they were told. Masters were convinced of their own benevolence. This was far from the reality of the situation, but it was used as a justification for slavery. |
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| Put in place to prevent slave uprisings. The codes forbade slaves from owning property, carrying firearms, or going out after dark. A black person could not strike a white person even in self-defense. Slave codes also prohibited whites from teaching slaves to read and write. Slaves could not have legal marriages of divorces, but still had religious marriages. This is indicative of how masters kept slaves under control. If an owner killed a slave in punishment it was not considered a crime. Slaves however faced death penalty if they resisted their master. |
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| He was considered the first great American novelist. He wrote Last of the Mohicans. He wrote about the West and expressed his love of nature. Very concerned with the human/nature relationship in an industrializing society. |
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| The first American writer to be clearly connected with the Romantic Movement. Celebrated democracy and sensualist tendencies. He wanted to liberate people form restrictive conventions. His homosexuality probably contributed to this. |
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| One of the most famous American writers in his time period. Wrote Moby Dick. Concerned with sexual issues. |
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| Famous for his sad and somber tones. His writing portrayed individuals rising above the narrow confines of the intellect and experiencing painful and horrifying emotions. More famous in Europe than in the U.S. |
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| Influential philosophers of the nineteenth century. Included Emerson and Thoreau. Believed that man and nature were inherently good but became corrupted by society. Believed that man was at his best when he was truly independent. Movement started, not coincidentally, during industrialization. |
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| A former Unitarian preacher who believed that the individual rested between reason and understanding. Reason was about the individual’s ability to grasp beauty and truth. Understanding was the use of the intellect in the narrow ways society dictated. Devoted to writing about nature. Also a Northern Whig opposed to expansionism (specifically concerning Mexico). |
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| Henry David Thoreau and Walden |
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| He believed that individuals should resist society’s pressure to conform and respond to their own personal instincts. Critiqued the government. Walden detailed Thoreau’s experiences living in a cabin he built in the woods. It was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy. Wrote the classic essay “Civil Disobedience” which would serve as a model for future protesters such as Gandhi. |
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| The Second Great Awakening |
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| Evangelical Christians embraced the belief that every individual was capable of salvation, and people soon began to believe that they could also save the world around them. Developed into an impulse to improve society. |
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| After the Second Great Awakening, people felt that they were capable of saving the world around them. This belief manifested itself in reforms such as Temperance. Mostly women led the movement. It, along with the Panic of 1837 and the change in jobs caused by the market revolution, was a contributing factor to alcohol consumption dropping by more than half in the 1840s. |
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| The belief that the shape of a person’s skull could indicate a person’s innate talents and characteristics. Believed a person’s station in life could be determined by the shape and size of their head. |
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| American Colonization Society |
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| Took the gradualist approach to abolition. It was formed in 1817. Consisted mostly of Quakers. It was remarkably ineffective. It sent black people to the colony of Liberia in West Africa (though very few, proportionally). Met resistance from some blacks because, although they hated slavery, they felt that forced migration was unfair. |
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| Colony in western Africa founded by the American Colonization Society. It became its own independent black nation. |
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| Revolutionary abolitionist paper established by William Lloyd Garrison. It expressed his philosophy that opponents of slavery shouldn’t talk about the evil influence of slavery on whites but instead about its damaging effects to blacks. Garrison wanted everyone to acknowledge the immorality of slavery and demanded immediate abolition. Electrified the antislavery movement. |
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| American Antislavery Society |
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| Organized by William Lloyd Garrison. It had the same ideals as The Liberator. A division was created in the society when Garrison stated that women should be able to join as equal members. |
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| A free black in Boston who wrote pamphlets encouraging slaver rebellion. He urged slaves to rise up and kill their masters. |
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| An ex slave who emerges as an eloquent advocate for both abolition and the women’s movement. Gave firsthand accounts of slavery. |
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| Considered the most influential abolitionist. The accounts of ex slaves like Douglass and Truth provided insight into the realities of slavery and helped to bring abolition from a social movement to a political one. |
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| Enslaved Africans broke free and killed the ship’s crewmembers. In attempting to turn the ship around, they were apprehended by the U.S. Navy and arrested. The case went to the Supreme Court with John Quincy Adams arguing the antislavery position. It was the abolitionists’ one undoubted victory of the time period. |
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| The Free Soil party was born out of response to the uncompromising Liberty party, and it believed in the concept of “free soil.” It was the idea that slavery should be kept out of places were it did not already exist (i.e. the Western Territories). It was a calculated adjustment of abolitionist principles to practical politics. Many free-soilers were anti-black and antislavery, which William Lloyd Garrison pointed out. The formation of the Liberty Party and the Free-Soil party as a response was the abolitionist movement’s first major step into politics. |
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| Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It had vivid details of slavery that were inspired by firsthand accounts from escaped slaves. It brought the message of abolition to an enormous new audience and sparked the retaliation of “plantation literature.” Lincoln even joked that Stowe started the Civil War. |
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| The Battle of San Jacinto |
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| 1836 battle during the Texas Revolution in which Santa Anna was defeated by Houston and his men. This is where “Remember the Alamo!” was shouted for the first time. The Texans won an overwhelming victory. |
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| Both Great Britain and the U.S. claimed the Oregon area, but in the Convention of 1818, the two nations agreed to occupy it jointly. Joint occupation continued until 1846. The issue was resolved peacefully during Polk’s presidency in a treaty that established the 49th parallel as the U.S.-Canada border. |
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| Overland trails were the primary route by which Americans traveled to the West until the construction of the transcontinental railroad. The trail took several months to travel and many settlers died along the way because of disease and lack of food. The Oregon Trail was instrumental in making American occupancy dominant during joint occupation. |
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| In 1846, Americans in California banded together declaring independence from Mexico. This takeover was not confirmed however until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. |
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| The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo |
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| Signed in 1848, Mexico ceded its northern provinces of California and New Mexico and accepted the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas. Polk was furious with this treaty, which indicates that Polk truly desired to conquer all of Mexico. The U.S. also had to pay Mexico for damages. Created Mexican-American citizenry in the U.S. which made Mexican-Americans practically a colonized people (they were losing land rapidly because they did not understand the language and legal system). |
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| Stephen Douglas introduced the Act in order to open those lands that had been the northern part of Indian Territory to American settlers under the principle of popular sovereignty. In doing so, he reopened the question of slavery in the territories. Its goal was to further the construction of a transcontinental railroad. By allowing the possibility of slavery in the new territories, the bill in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Division between Northern and Southern Whigs in voting on the bill created an irreconcilable split in the party. |
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| Took its followers from the Know-Nothings and the Northern Whigs and the Free-Soilers. Also included many northern reformers who were concerned about Catholicism and temperance. Maintained the economic core of the old Whig party. It was a sectional party. Southerners viewed it as a threat to their vital interests, and thus its rapid growth was a threat to national unity. |
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| The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had no right to interfere with the free movement of property throughout the territories and then dismissed the case on the grounds that only citizens could bring suits before federal courts. |
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| John Brown (antislavery) and his sons killed five unarmed proslavery settlers. Initiated a wave of violence. |
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| The Lincoln-Douglas Debates |
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| Lincoln challenged Douglass to a series of debates in order to gain national visibility. Lincoln called Douglass out for not taking a firm stance on slavery. Gave Lincoln the opportunity to express his views and consequently those of the Republican party |
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| Proslavery people from Missouri claimed land in the new Kansas territory. People came from New England to start a Free Soil town. The result was that Kansas became a bloody battleground as the two factions struggled to secure the mandate of popular sovereignty. Open warfare between antislavery and proslavery people. Representative of the feelings of the nation as a whole. |
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| It embodied three separate compromises. First, California was admitted as a free state, but the status of the remaining form Mexican possessions was to be decided by popular sovereignty when they applied for statehood. Second, Texas was required to cede land to New Mexico Territory in return for the federal government paying off some of Texas’ debt. Third, the slave trade was ended in the District of Columbia, but a stronger fugitive slave law was to be enacted and enforced in all states. |
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| Its aim was to ban slavery in all territories acquired from Mexico. In the debate and voting that followed, the division was between Northerners and Southerners (as opposed to Democrats and Whigs). This was the first breakdown of the party system and sectional interest triumphed over party loyalty. |
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| Chosen by the Montgomery convention in Alabama to be President of the Confederacy. Known to be a moderate. They chose a moderate to make secession appear to be normal, responsible, and respectable. |
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| First national draft law in the U.S. I caused people to feel that the government was out of control. It even caused violent outbreaks. Because people were allowed to buy their way out of the draft (for $300), many people (especially Northern Democrats) felt that the law was “aristocratic legislation.” |
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| Proposed extending the Missouri Compromise line through all the new territory acquired by Mexico. Southerners liked this proposal, but Republican Northerners refused to compromise. |
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| Passed in 1861. Gave Union soldiers the right to confiscate any property of Confederate soldiers (thus freeing their slaves). This was an early indication of the momentum behind emancipation. |
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| Emancipation Proclamation |
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| Issued by Lincoln in 1863. It freed slaves in any state in rebellion to the Union (if they did not rejoin by 1863). This did not however free slaves in Union slave states. Lincoln did not have the power to free Union slaves because doing so was an act of marshal law. The Emancipation Proclamation was a clear sign that the war was truly being fought over slavery. |
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| Its significance is that it spurred the settlement of the west to new heights. It gave any person who wanted to settle a plot of land in the west 160 acres, and if at the end of five years they had improved the land, that person could purchase it for very cheap. |
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| Transferred part of the public domain to the states so that the states could sell the land and create public state universities that would offer education in practical skills such as agriculture, engineering, and military science. |
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| The First Battle of Bull Run |
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| Major victory for the Confederacy. It was a sobering point in the war. It revealed to both Northerners and Southerners that the war would not be a quick one, as expected. It also revealed to Northerners that the South was true competition and that casualties of the war would be high. |
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| Split from Virginia to become a free state in 1863. |
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| Large ironclad ships used in naval warfare. These, along with other advancements in military technology, signified the beginning of modern warfare and resulted in the bloodiest war in American history. |
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| Considered the most notable military leader of the Confederacy. He was a much more celebrated figure of the Confederacy than its president Davis. |
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| Another prominent military leader of the Confederacy. He died in battle amidst a Confederate victory. |
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| Led the Army of the Potomac and ran against Lincoln for president during the war. Lincoln removed McClellan from his position after failing to deliver a deathblow to the Confederacy. |
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| Appointed by Lincoln to be general-in-chief of all the Union forces. Along with Sherman, Grant devised a successful plan of strangulation and annihilation in the South. Grant faced Lee in the north part of Virginia. Grant was responsible for the takeover of Petersburg (and thus Richmond). |
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| Sherman’s aim was to inflict maximum damage on the fabric of Southern life, forcing the South to surrender rather than face total destruction. Sherman and his men marched nearly 300 miles through Georgia living off of the land and destroying everything in his path. His military purpose was to cut off Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia from the rest of the Confederacy (and thus tighten the noose around Lee in Virginia). He wanted to make war so terrible that it would utterly crush the spirit of the South. He told his men to seize, burn, or destroy everything in their path, with the exception of civilians. |
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| The site of Lee’s surrender to Grant (after the fall of Petersburg and Richmond). Signified the end of the Civil War. |
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| It was a day when people would remember the dead and all the fighting. Consistent with the reconciliation view, it was essentially an attempt to get past all of the horrible things that had happened. It initially only recognized Union troops. |
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| Southern writer who wrote fictional histories of the Old South. He bemoaned the loss of the Confederacy, sugarcoated slavery, and beautified the South. He wanted to celebrate the past, but he also wanted to move forward (reconciliation). |
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| Civil War veteran who wrote about the horrors of war (blood and carnage) as opposed to using the flowery language of other writers during the time. He felt that the war served no purpose and spoke contemptuously of it. Despite his mode of writing, he supported reconciliation. |
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| Ku Klux Klan and Rifle Clubs |
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| White supremacist groups whose aim was to prevent blacks from participating in government through violence and intimidation. They were initially very successful. |
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| The Civil Rights Amendments (13th, 14th, 15th) |
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| Together, they prohibited slavery in the U.S., granted citizenship to all persons born in the U.S., and prohibited the denial of suffrage because of race. |
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| Laws in Southern states that led to the notion of “separate but equal.” In reality, these laws actually brought about the inferior treatment of blacks. |
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| The "Lost Cause" of the Confederacy |
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| The myth that Southerners had been fighting for liberty against Northern tyranny. Jefferson Davis was a visible proponent of this ideology. |
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| Celebrated on January 1st with parades and parties. This celebration demonstrated that emancipation was the most important result of the war for blacks. |
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