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annexation of Texas (initiated by Tyler) and desire to take Mexican territories like New Mexico and California heightened tensions US and Mexico had conflicting borders, so Polk's sending of Zachary Taylor and troops into disputed land, led to the killing of 11 Americans, kicking off the war Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo O Established Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas, gave New Mexico, California and Texas to US for 15 million O Wilmot Proviso O ● Gadsden Purchase: America buys more territory for construction of transcontinental railroad, Mexico has now lost half its land Impact of Mexican War on the expansion of slavery ● Sectionalism increases as North fears the creation of new slave states Run Up To Civil War Proposed any lands gained in the war be off-limits to expansion to slavery, struck down to maintain balance in Congress Free Soilers ● Mostly Northerners opposing slavery's expansion Some were abolitionists who wanted to ban slavery for moral reasons, others wanted land to be for small farmers and homesteading free of competing plantations ● Popular Sovereignty ● Compromise of 1850 California to be admitted as free state, Utah and New Mexico to be decided by popular sovereignty Slave trade banned in DC Stricter Fugitive Slave Law People living in new territories decide whether to ban slavery Only increased tension as neither side had compatible ideas Fugitive Slave Law set penalties for anyone who aided runaway slaves and required states to return runaway slaves, drawing previously passive Northerners into the issue, broadening anti-slavery sentiments ● Captured blacks had no right to fair trial Encouraged slave catchers to fetch random blacks in the North and bring them into slavery Northern legislatures pass Personal Liberty Laws to try and curb impact Kansas Nebraska Act ● Northern part of Louisiana was above the 36-30 line and should've been free Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed dividing this area into Kansas and Nebraska and deciding whether they were slave or free states via popular sovereignty, overturning the Missouri Compromise and enraging North ● Bleeding Kansas Thousands of pro-slavery Missourians and anti slavery groups went to Kansas for a few months to cast fraudulent votes in popular sovreignty Two rival state legislatures established, fraudulent pro-slavery one recognized by president Franklin Pierce Violence breaks out ● Pro-slavery militia sack city of Larence Lecompton Constitution ● John Brown (role in Kansas & Harper's Ferry) After settling in Kansas, John Brown defended town of Osawatomie and killed 5 proslavery men in retribution for Missourian attacks on Lawrence ● Drafted by pro-slavery Kansas legislature, allowing slavery in Kansas Rejected by US House of Representatives Kansas ends up admitted as a free state in 1861 Led sons and supporters to take Union armory in Harpers Ferry and spark a slave rebellion, but got defeated and hanged, making him a martyr Southerners saw his violent plans and association with other abolitionists as proof of the threat Northern anti-slavery sentiments posed Brooks Beats the Sh*t Out of Sumner Abolitionist Senator Sumner insults South and slavery, gets attacked by Representative Brooks (an action many Southeners support) ● Symbolized the growing divide between South and North Dred Scott v. Sandford ● Enslaved Dred Scott was taken to free state and sued his master for freedom SCOTUS held that Blacks were property and could not be citizens therefore, they could not sue someone ● Slave owners could not be deprived of property anywhere(essentially allowing slavery in free states) ● Ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional Congress possessed no power to determine whether a territory like WI was free or slave Antebellum Politics Reform Movements ● Know Nothings & Nativists Europeans (mainly German and Irish) flooded into North, populating poor urban slums Nativists hate immigrants and their Catholic religion, and sought to protect white native-born interests ● ● ● ● ● Demise of the Whigs Whigs split into pro-slavery(cotton) and anti-slavery(Conscience) whigs over Kansas-Nebraska Act Abolition, temperance(anti-alcohol), women's rights and suffrage movement, education reform, asylum and mental health reform, prison reform ● Formation of the Republican Party In 1854, new Republican party forms to oppose Democrats, Kansas-Nebraska Act, and expansion of slavery, drawing members from Conscience Whigs, Know-Nothings, abolitionists, free soilers, etc. Mostly Northerners form the Know-Nothing party to limit political interests of immigrants, ended up winning many seats in Congress and going for the presidency in 1856 Dissolved into the Union during the civil war ● Election of 1856 ● Central issue: slavery Democrat James Buchanan defeats Republic John C. Fremont and Know Nothing Millard Filmore Lincoln Douglas Debates Stephen Douglas(proposer of Kansas-Nebraska) debates Lincoln 7 times on slavery ● Lincoln emphasized that he wouldn't abolish slavery where it already existed, but would not support its expansion because it was morally wrong and those like Douglas were ignoring fundamental human rights Clarified that he supported equal opportunity, not social/political equality(holding office, voting, serving on juries, interracial marriage) Election of 1860 Northern Democrats nominate Stephen Douglas(proposer of Kansas-Nebraska) for 1860, favoring popular sovereignty to answer slavery question Southern Democrats and John Breckenridge more pro-slavery, favoring federal slave code to protect slavery in new territories until they became states, then popular sovereignty ● Divided Democrats contribute to Lincoln winning with no Southern electoral votes ● Democrats threatened by fact that all their votes couldn't stop Northern interests South Carolina secedes before Lincoln's nomination, followed by other Southern states Civil War (1861-1865) Lincoln's View on Slavery Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong, but didn't believe the races were equal or should have equal political/social rights Position on slavery depended on how advantageous it was to his first priority of preserving the Union ● ● ● Antietam Significance CSA objectives: make war too costly for North, get slave state Maryland to join CSA(putting DC in Southern territory), and win support/recognition of Britain and France CSA gets less support from Marylanders than expected and fails to achieve objectives, but no clear victor emerges With northward offensives repelled and no international support, L South eventually loses due to smaller population, less infrastructure and industry, and Union blockades and offensives cutting it in half ● ● ● Issued Emancipation Proclamation as a military tactic, freeing slaves in Confederate states while leaving border slave states untouched to keep them in the Union Reframes ending slavery as goal of war and fulfillment of American ideals in Gettysburg Address Makes the war a moral fight and Britain (which ended slavery) even less inclined to support South Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln delayed issuing this until Antietam as the North had been losing and he didn't want it to seem like a desperate last measure ● Freed all slaves in South(Union states were allowed slavery because he didn't want to alienate Union slave states like Maryland), transforming Civil War into war about freedom and morals African Americans in the War African Americans initially weren't allowed in the Union military due to 1792 law, but with the Emancipation Proclamation, many joined and soon comprised 10% of Union Army ● Confederacy used slave labor in support roles such as construction to free up soldiers Reconstruction (1865-1877) Lincoln's Plan ● Believed harshly treating South would reignite tensions, proposes 10% Plan: if a Southern state wants to rejoin Union, 10% of 1860 electorate must pledge loyalty to Union and it must ratify the 13th amendment(abolish slavery) ● Johnson's Plan ● ● ● Radical Reconstruction Proclamation of Amnesty offered pardon to all rebels who took oath of loyalty ● Following Lincoln's assassination, VP Johnson carries out Lincoln's plan As a Southerner, he opposed reconstruction programs, emboldened Southerners with sweeping amnesty plans pardoning Confederates, and let them create racist, almost pre-war state govts Dislike of rich Southerners meant that those with 20,000$+ often had to petition him for pardon Wade Davis Bill Radical Republicans hated Johnson's leniency, wanted stronger protection of African American rights and punishment of South ● Drafted legislation like Wade-Davis Bill, 14th and 15th amendments, Civil Rights Act of 1866 Reconstruction Acts of 1867: South divided into 5 military districts governed by generals and occupied by Union troops until they had acceptable legislatures, Congressionally approved Constitutions, and ratified the 14th amendment, upon which they rejoined the Union First attempt to extend Freedmen's Bureau was vetoed and not overridden but a more moderate bill was passed by Radical Republicans and Johnson's veto was overridden Freedmen's Bureau ● Required majority of white males in states to take Ironclad Oath(oathtaker never had and never will support the Confederacy) before it could be readmitted, pocket-vetoed by Lincoln Black Codes Agency set up to help newly freed Blacks in education and legal matters and giving social aid and welfare(food, clothes, reuniting families etc.) 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments White supremacy codified into law by Southern legislatures Generally restricted Black Americans from borrowing money to get land, testifying against Whites in court, and voting 13th: slavery(except as punishment for crime) banned 14th: those born in US were citizens and states could not deprive them of equal protection of the law 15th: no interference w/ right to vote on basis of race O Didn't include gender, dividing women's rights movements (National Woman Suffrage Association didn't support 15th, American WSA did) Civil Rights Act 1866 ● Protected citizenship for African Americans and equal protection under the laws ● Sharecropping Blacks and some poor Whites short on land work on plantations in exchange for share of crop Lack of options, oppressive Black Codes, increasingly restrictive contracts re-bound African Americans to plantations, allowing South to continue slavery-like agricultural economy Related crop-lien system saw poor Whites and Blacks who needed to borrow money pledging their crop as collateral (to be seized if they couldn't pay off debt) and getting trapped in poverty ● Johnson's Impeachment Johnson became powerless after midterms as radical Republicans gain supermajority and pass Tenure of Office Act to make it illegal for him to fire members of cabinet without Congress Johnson does so anyway, ends up impeached by House One Radical Republican votes against impeachment in the Senate to avoid a crisis(Johnson had no VP to succeed him) ● ● White Supremacy & KKK ● ● Johnson vetoes Act, gets overturned by 2/3rds of Congress Reconstruction Governments (scalawags, carpetbaggers) African American rights fell into state govt hands Scalawags: Southern Whites Republicans, viewed as traitors Carpetbaggers: Northerners who moved South, seen as taking advantage of devastated South Accomplishments of Reconstruction ● All Confederate states reintegrated into the Union Freedmen bureau helped many former slaves and established 3000 schools ● With universal male suffrage and abolition, African Americans became more politically active ● Southerners continued to see Whites as superior Klan forms in 1867, burning buildings and controlling politics by intimidating newly freed African Americans and perpetuating lynching Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 by Congress quelled the KKK by using military force to protect African Americans ● ● Reconstruction govts repaired war damage, built infrastructure in the South, drew up democratic state constitutions, expanded women's rights, provided debt relief, and established the first state-funded Southern schools 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments add equal rights and abolition to the Constitution Failures of Reconstruction Sharecropping system practically re-establishes slavery, employing/harming Blacks and poor Whites following war's economic devastation White supremacy, racist local govts and Black Codes develop despite military occupation, society remains segregated and unequal long after reconstruction's end ● Reconstruction gains lost after military pulls out Republican/Grant's corruption drive many away from Republicans Election of 1876 Panic of 1873 and Grant's scandals reduce Republican popularity and draws attention to economic woes, away from Reconstruction Samuel Tilden(Democrat) vs. Rutherford Hayes(Republican) ● Tilden wins popular vote, neither wins electoral vote Special electoral commission declares contested states for Hayes Compromise of 1877: Democrats accept Hayes presidency in exchange for Republicans pulling troops out of South, ending reconstruction