APUSH HOME
Chapter 16
The South and the Slavery Controversy
1793-1860
Chapter Summary
The South and the Slavery Controversy, 1793–1860
Whitney’s cotton gin made cotton production hugely profitable, and created an ever-increasing demand for slave labor. Southern dependence on cotton production tied it economically to the plantation system and racially to white supremacy. The plantation aristocracy’s cultural gentility and political domination concealed slavery’s social and economic costs for whites as well as blacks.
Most slaves were held by a few large planters, but most slave-owners had few slaves, and most southern whites had no slaves at all. Yet except for some mountaineers, most southern whites strongly supported slavery and racial supremacy because they hoped to own slaves themselves, and because of a sense of superiority to blacks.
Treatment of economically valuable slaves varied considerably. Within a cruel system, slaves yearned for freedom and struggled to maintain both humanity and family life.
The older black colonization movement gave way in the 1830s to Garrison’s radical, [i-mee-dee-uh-tizt] abolitionism /[ab-uh-lish-uh-niz-uhm]. Along with Nat Turner’s rebellion, abolitionism caused a strong backlash in the South, which increasingly defended slavery as a positive good, and rejected liberal Northern political and social ideals.
Most northerners rejected radical abolitionism, respecting Constitutional protection of slavery where it existed. But many also began to view the South as a land of oppression, and any attempt to extend slavery as a threat to free society.
Learning Objectives
After mastering this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Describe the economic strengths and weaknesses of the Cotton Kingdom and its central role in the prosperity of Britain as well as the United States.
2. Outline the hierarchical social structure of the South, from the planter aristocracy to African American slaves.
3. Describe the nonslaveholding white majority of the South, and explain why most poorer whites supported slavery even though they owned no slaves.
4. Describe the workings of the peculiar institution of slavery, including the role of the domestic slave trade after the outlawing of international slave trading.
5. Describe African American life under slavery, including the role of the family and religion.
6. Describe the rise of abolitionism in both the United States and Britain, and explain why it was initially so unpopular in the North.
7. Describe the fierce southern resistance to abolitionism, and explain why southerners increasingly portrayed slavery as a positive good.
Key Names and Terms
American Anti-Slavery Society (1833-1870)
Abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. By 1838, the organization had more than 250,000 members across 1,350 chapters. (387)
American Colonization Society
Reflecting the focus of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West-African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves. (384)
Amistad (1839)
Spanish slave ship dramatically seized off the coast of Cuba by the enslaved Africans aboard. The ship was driven ashore in Long Island and the slaves were put on trial. Former president John Quincy Adams argued their case before the Supreme Court, securing their eventual release. (384)
Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829)
Incendiary abolitionist track advocating the violent overthrow of slavery. Published by David Walker, a Southern-born free black. (387)
black belt
Region of the Deep South with the highest concentration of slaves. The “Black belt” emerged in the nineteenth century as cotton production became more profitable and slavery expanded south and west. (381)
breakers
Slave drivers who employed the lash to brutally “break” the souls of strong-willed slaves. (381)
Gag Resolution
Prohibited debate or action on antislavery appeals. Driven through the House by pro-slavery Southerners, the gag resolution passed every year for eight years, eventually overturned with the help of John Quincy Adams. (391)
Liberia
West-African nation founded in 1822 as a haven for freed blacks, fifteen thousand of whom made their way back across the Atlantic by the 1860s. (384)
Mason-Dixon Line
Originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 1760s, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery. (391)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
Vivid autobiography of the escaped slave and renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass. (387)
Nat Turner’s rebellion (1831)
Virginia slave revolt that resulted in the deaths of sixty whites and raised fears among white Southerners of further uprisings. (384)
responsorial
Call and response style of preaching that melded Christian and African traditions. Practiced by African slaves in the South. (383)
The Liberator (1831-1865)
Antislavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, who called for the immediate emancipation of all slaves. (386)
West Africa Squadron (established 1808)
British Royal Navy force formed to enforce the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. It intercepted hundreds of slave ships and freed thousands of Africans. (379)
Slave Memories Part 1 Part 2
Chapter 17: Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy,
1841-1848
Chapter Summary
As Tyler succeeded President Harrison, the United States became engaged in a series of disputes with Britain. The Maine boundary conflict was resolved, but British involvement in Texas revived U.S. plans to annex the Lone Star Republic.
The 1844 campaign hinged on the Texas and Oregon questions, as Democrats nominated and elected the militantly expansionist Polk [pohk]. After Texas’ annexation, conflicts with Mexico over California and the Texas boundary erupted into war in 1846.
American forces quickly conquered California and New Mexico. Invasions of Mexico by Winfield Scott and Zachary /[zak-uh-ree] Taylor were also successful, and the peace treaty gave the U.S. large new territories.
Besides adding California, New Mexico, and Utah, the U.S. trained a new generation of military leaders in the Mexican War and aroused long-term Latin American resentment. Most important, the war and the Wilmot [wil-muht] Proviso forced the slavery controversy to the center of national debate.
Learning Objectives
1. Explain the spirit and meaning of the Manifest Destiny that inspired American expansionism in the 1840s.
2. Outline the major conflicts between Britain and the United States over debts, Maine, Canada, Texas, Oregon, and growing British hostility to slavery.
3. Explain why the U.S. government increasingly saw the independent Texas Republic as a threat and sought to pursue annexation.
4. Indicate how the issues of Oregon and Texas became central in the election of 1844 and why Polk’s victory was seen as a mandate for Manifest Destiny.
5. Explain how President Polk’s goals for his administration, especially the acquisition of California, led to the Texas boundary crisis and war with Mexico.
6. Describe how the dramatic American victory in the Mexican War led to the breathtaking territorial acquisition of the whole Southwest.
7. Describe the consequences of the Mexican War, and especially how the Mexican territorial acquisitions explosively opened the slavery question.
Important Terms and Names
Aroostook War (began 1839)
Series of clashes between American and Canadian lumberjacks in the disputed territory of northern Maine, resolved when a permanent boundary was agreed upon in 1842. (399)
Buena Vista, Battle of (1847)
Key American victory against Mexican forces in the Mexican-American War. Elevated General Zachary Taylor to national prominence and helped secure his success in the 1848 presidential election. (409)
California Bear Flag Republic (1846)
Short-lived California republic, established by local American settlers who revolted against Mexico. Once news of the war with Mexico reached the Americans, they abandoned the Republic in favor of joining the United States. (409)
Caroline (1837)
Diplomatic row between the United States and Britain. Developed after British troops set fire to an American steamer carrying supplies across the Niagara River to Canadian insurgents, during Canada’s short-lived insurrection. (399)
Conscience Whigs (1840s and 1850s)
Northern Whigs who opposed slavery on moral grounds. Conscience Whigs sought to prevent the annexation of Texas as a slave state, fearing that the new slave territory would only serve to buttress the Southern “slave power”. (411)
Creole (1841)
American ship captured by a group of rebelling Virginia slaves. The slaves successfully sought asylum in the Bahamas, raising fears among Southern planters that the British West Indies would become a safe haven for runaway slaves. (399)
“Fifty-four forty or fight” (1846)
Slogan adopted by mid-nineteenth century expansionists who advocated the occupation of Oregon territory, jointly held by Britain and the United States. Though President Polk had pledged to seize all of Oregon, to 54° 40', he settled on the forty-ninth parallel as a compromise with the British. (403)
Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty of (1848)
Ended the war with Mexico. Mexico agreed to cede territory reaching northwest from Texas to Oregon in exchange for $18.25 million in cash and assumed debts. (410)
Liberty party (1840-1848)
Antislavery party that ran candidates in the 1840 and 1844 elections before merging with the Free Soil party. Supporters of the Liberty party sought the eventual abolition of slavery, but in the short term hoped to halt the expansion of slavery into the territories and abolish the domestic slave trade. (404)
Manifest Destiny (1840s and 1850s)
Belief that the United States was destined by God to spread its “empire of liberty” across North America. Served as a justification for mid-nineteenth century expansionism. (403)
spot resolutions (1846)
Measures introduced by Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln, questioning President James K. Polk’s justification for war with Mexico. Lincoln requested that Polk clarify precisely where Mexican forces had attacked American troops. (408)
Tariff of 1842
Protective measure passed by Congressional Whigs, raising tariffs to pre-Compromise of 1833 rates. (397)
Walker Tariff (1846)
Revenue-enhancing measure that lowered tariffs from 1842 levels thereby fueling trade and increasing Treasury receipts. (405)
Wilmot Proviso (1846)
Amendment that sought to prohibit slavery from territories acquired from Mexico. Introduced by Pennsylvania congressman David Wilmot, the failed amendment ratcheted up tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery. (414)
A Check of the Reading
#1-13 (pages 396 -404)
- Who or what is "Providence"? p.396
- War with Mexico resulted in huge territorial gains for the U.S. However, what thorny issue did victory bring forth? p.396a
- How did John Tyler become president?
- Why was Tyler considered a "president without a party"?
- How did Whigs and Tyler differ on the bank issue?
- What were some of the sources of tension between the U.S. and Britain in the 1830s and '40s?
- Explain the Aroostook War of 1842.
- How was this "lumberjack clash" resolved?
- Describe the various reasons why Britain welcomed an independent Texas? p. 400
- When was Texas finally annexed by the U.S.?
- Though Mexico was angry about this, why were they partly to blame? p. 401b
- What four countries, at one time or another, claimed ownership of the Oregon Territory?
- Explain the belief of Manifest Destiny.
The following questions come from Ch. 17 pages 404-414
- What in the world kind of deal did Polk make with exiled Mexican dictator, Santa Anna? Holy Criminy!!
- What deal was worked out in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
- Check out that proverb on the top of P.411, column b. Wow!...Do you agree with it?
- What were a few of the immediate results of the war with Mexico? p.411, b, 412a
- What was the Wilmot Proviso? p.414a/b
- Reread the last paragraph of ch.17. Double-WoW! So well written and TRUE!
Chapter 17 Online Test (have the results emailed to me at: coonenk@w-csd.org)
Chapter 18: Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848-1854
Chapter Summary
The acquisition of Mexican territory created new dilemmas over slavery’s expansion for the two major parties, which had long evaded the issue. The antislavery Free Soil party injected the issue into the election of 1848. Gold-rich California’s application for admission to the Union forced the controversy into the Senate, which fiercely debated slavery and the Union.
After President Taylor’s death cleared the way for a settlement, Congress passed the accomodationist Compromise of 1850, which temporarily eased sectional tension despite Northern opposition to the Fugitive/ [fyoo-ji-tiv] Slave Law.
As the Whig party died, proslavery expansionists dominated Pierce’s pliant Democratic administration. Controversy over Nicaragua [nik-uh-rah-gwuh], Cuba, and the Gadsden [gadz-duhn] Purchase showed that slavery drove expansionism.
Stephen Douglas’s desire for a northern railroad route led him to ram the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress in 1854. Because it repealed the Missouri /[mi-zoor-ee] Compromise and subjected the new territory to popular sovereignty on slavery, this act aroused Northern fury, engendered the Republican Party, and anticipated the Civil War.
Learning Objectives
1. Explain how the issue of slavery in the territories acquired from Mexico disrupted American politics from 1848 to1850.
2. Point out the major terms of the Compromise of 1850 and indicate how this agreement attempted to defuse the sectional crisis over slavery.
3. Explain why the Fugitive Slave Law included in the Compromise of 1850 stirred moral outrage and fueled antislavery agitation in the North.
4. Indicate how the Whig party’s disintegration over slavery signaled the end of nonsectional political parties.
5. Describe how the Pierce administration, as well as private American adventurers, pursued numerous overseas and expansionist ventures primarily designed to expand slavery.
6. Describe Americans’ first ventures into China and Japan in the 1850s and their diplomatic, economic, cultural, and religious consequences.
7. Describe the nature and purpose of Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act, and explain why it fiercely rekindled the slavery controversy that the Compromise of 1850 had been designed to settle.
Key Names and Terms
California gold rush (beginning in 1849)
Inflow of thousands of miners to Northern California after news reports of the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in January of 1848 had spread around the world by the end of that year. The onslaught of migrants prompted Californians to organize a government and apply for statehood in 1849. (419)
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850)
Signed by Great Britain and the United States, it provided that the two nations would jointly protect the neutrality of Central America and that neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control any future isthmian waterway. Later revoked by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which gave the United States control of the Panama Canal. (428)
Compromise of 1850
Admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law. Widely opposed in both the North and South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery. (423)
Free Soil party (1848-1854)
Antislavery party in the 1848 and 1852 elections that opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, arguing that the presence of slavery would limit opportunities for free laborers. (417)
Fugitive Slave Law (1850)
Passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, it set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways. Strengthened the antislavery cause in the North. (425)
Gadsden Purchase (1853)
Acquired additional land from Mexico for $10 million to facilitate the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad. (432)
Kanagawa, Treaty of (1854)
Ended Japan’s two-hundred year period of economic isolation, establishing an American consulate in Japan and securing American coaling rights in Japanese ports. (431)
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
Proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska territories, thus revoking the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Introduced by Stephen Douglass in an effort to bring Nebraska into the Union and pave the way for a northern transcontinental railroad. (434)
Opium War (1839-1842)
War between Britain and China over trading rights, particularly Britain’s desire to continue selling opium to Chinese traders. The resulting trade agreement prompted Americans to seek similar concessions from the Chinese. (430)
Ostend Manifesto (1854)
Secret Franklin Pierce administration proposal to purchase or, that failing, to wrest militarily Cuba from Spain. Once leaked, it was quickly abandoned due to vehement opposition from the North. (430)
popular sovereignty
(in the context of the slavery debate) Notion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery. Seemingly a compromise, it was largely opposed by Northern abolitionists who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories. (417)
Seventh of March speech (1850)
Daniel Webster's impassioned address urging the North to support of the Compromise of 1850. Webster argued that topography and climate would keep slavery from becoming entrenched in Mexican Cession territory and urged Northerners to make all reasonable concessions to prevent disunion. (422)
Underground Railroad
Informal network of volunteers that helped runaway slaves escape from the South and reach free-soil Canada. Seeking to halt the flow of runaway slaves to the North, Southern planters and congressmen pushed for a stronger fugitive slave law. (420)
Wanghia, Treaty of (1844)
Signed by the U.S. and China, it assured the United States the same trading concessions granted to other powers, greatly expanding America’s trade with the Chinese. (430)
Wisconsinites Free Joshua Glover, a fugitive slave
Wikipedia
Wisconsin Historical Society
Chapter 18 Online Test (have the results emailed to me at: coonenk@w-csd.org)
Chapter 19: Drifting Toward Disunion,
1854-1861
Chapter Summary
Successive confrontations punctuated the 1850s, which deepened sectional hostility and precipitated the Civil War.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin fanned northern antislavery feeling. In Kansas, proslavery and antislavery forces fought a bloody microcosm of the Civil War. Buchanan’s /[byoo-kan-uhnz] support of the proslavery Lecompton Constitution alienated moderate northern Democrats like Douglas. Congressman Brooks’s beating of Senator Sumner inflamed both sections.
The 1856 election signaled the rise of the sectional Republican Party. The Dred Scott case delighted the South, but enraged defiant Republicans. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 deepened the national slavery controversy, while Brown’s Harpers Ferry raid earned Northern support, but made outraged southerners fear a slave uprising.
The Democrats split along sectional lines, allowing Lincoln to win the four-way 1860 election. Seven southern states quickly seceded and organized the Confederate [kuhn-fed-er-it] States of America.
As optimistic southerners spurned the hated North, lame-duck President Buchanan wavered, and Lincoln opposed the doomed, last-minute Crittenden Compromise.
Learning Objectives
1. Enumerate the sequence of major crises, beginning with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, that led up to secession, and explain the significance of each event.
2. Explain how and why the territory of bleeding Kansas became the scene of a dress rehearsal for the Civil War.
3. Trace the growing power of the Republican party in the 1850s and the increasing domination of the Democratic party by its militantly proslavery wing.
4. Explain how the Dred Scott decision and John Brown’s Harpers Ferry raid deepened sectional antagonism.
5. Trace the rise of Lincoln as a Republican spokesman, and explain why his senatorial campaign debates with Stephen Douglas made him a major national figure despite losing the election.
6. Analyze the election of 1860, including the split in the Democratic party, the four-way campaign, the sharp sectional divisions, and Lincoln’s northern-based minority victory.
7. Describe the secession of seven southern states following Lincoln’s victory, the formation of the Confederacy, and the failure of the last compromise effort.
Key Names and Terms
Bleeding Kansas (1856-1861)
Civil war in Kansas over the issue of slavery in the territory, fought intermittently until 1861, when it merged with the wider national Civil War. (442)
Confederate States of America (1861-1865)
Government established after seven Southern states seceded from the Union. Later joined by four more states from the Upper South. (455)
Constitutional Union party (1860)
Formed by moderate Whigs and Know-Nothings in an effort to elect a compromise candidate and avert a sectional crisis. (452)
Crittenden amendments (1860)
Proposed in an attempt to appease the South, the failed Constitutional amendments would have given federal protection for slavery in all territories south of 36°30’ where slavery was supported by popular sovereignty. (456)
Dred Scott v. Stanford (1857)
Supreme Court decision that extended federal protection to slavery by ruling that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory. Also declared that slaves, as property, were not citizens of the United States. (445)
Freeport Doctrine (1858)
Declared that since slavery could not exist without laws to protect it, territorial legislatures, not the Supreme Court, would have the final say on the slavery question. First argued by Stephen Douglass in 1858 in response to Abraham Lincoln’s “Freeport Question”. (449)
Freeport question (1858)
Raised during one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates by Abraham Lincoln, who asked whether the Court or the people should decide the future of slavery in the territories. (449)
Harpers Ferry
Federal arsenal in Virginia seized by abolitionist John Brown in 1859. Though Brown was later captured and executed, his raid alarmed Southerners who believed that Northerners shared in Brown’s extremism. (450)
Lecompton Constitution (1857)
Proposed Kansas constitution, whose ratification was unfairly rigged so as to guarantee slavery in the territory. Initially ratified by proslavery forces, it was later voted down when Congress required that the entire constitution be put up for a vote. (441)
Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858)
Series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass during the U.S. Senate race in Illinois. Douglass won the election but Lincoln gained national prominence and emerged as the leading candidate for the 1860 Republican nomination. (448)
New England Emigrant Aid Company (founded 1854)
Organization created to facilitate the migration of free laborers to Kansas in order to prevent the establishment of slavery in the territory. (440)
panic of 1857
Financial crash brought on by gold-fueled inflation, overspeculation and excess grain production. Raised calls in the North for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western public lands. (446)
Tariff of 1857
Lowered duties on imports in response to a high Treasury surplus and pressure from Southern farmers. (447)
The Impending Crisis of the South (1857)
Antislavery tract, written by white Southerner Hinton R. Helper, arguing that nonslaveholding whites actually suffered most in a slave economy. (439)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s widely read novel that dramatized the horrors of slavery. It heightened Northern support for abolition and escalated the sectional conflict. (437)
Chapter 19 Online Test (have the results emailed to me at: coonenk@w-csd.org)
Chapter 20
Girding for War: The North and the South
1861-1865
Chapter Summary
South Carolina’s attack on Fort Sumter/ [suhm-ter] aroused the North for war. Lincoln’s call for troops to suppress the rebellion drove four upper South states into the Confederacy /[kuhn-fed-er-uh-see], but his combination of political persuasion and force kept the deeply divided Border States in the Union.
Confederate advantages included upper-class European support, military leadership, and a defensive position on its own soil. Northern advantages included lower-class European support, industrial and population resources, and political leadership.
Britain’s upper classes sympathized with the South and aided Confederate naval efforts, but effective diplomacy and Union military success kept both Britain and France neutral.
Lincoln effectively mobilized the North for war, despite political opposition and resistance to his infringement on civil liberties. The North eventually mobilized its larger troop resources with an unpopular and unfair draft system.
Economic and financial strengths advantaged the North over the less-industrialized South. Societal changes opened new opportunities for women, who supported the war effort in both the North and South. Waging war on Southern soil left the South devastated.
Learning Objectives
1. Explain how the South’s firing on Fort Sumter galvanized the North and how Lincoln’s call for troops prompted four more states to join the Confederacy.
2. Explain why the slaveholding Border States were so critical to both sides and how Lincoln maneuvered to keep them in the Union.
3. Indicate the strengths and weaknesses of both sides at the onset of the war, what strategies each pursued, and why the North’s strengths could be brought to bear as the war dragged on.
4. Describe the contest for European political support and intervention, and explain why Britain and France finally refused to recognize the Confederacy.
5. Compare Lincoln’s and Davis’s political leadership during the war.
6. Describe Lincoln’s policies on civil liberties and how both sides mobilized the military manpower to fight the war.
7. Analyze the economic and social consequences of the war for both sides.
Key Terms and Names
Alabama (1862-1864)
British-built and manned Confederate warship that raided Union shipping during the Civil War. One of many built by the British for the Confederacy, despite Union protests. (473)
Border States
Five slave states–Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia–that did not secede during the Civil War. To keep the states in the Union, Abraham Lincoln insisted that the war was not about abolishing slavery but rather protecting the Union. (463)
Dominion of Canada (established 1867)
Unified Canadian government created by Britain to bolster Canadians against potential attacks or overtures from the United States. (474)
Fort Sumter
South Carolina location where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April of 1861, after Union forces attempted to provision the fort. (463)
greenbacks
Paper currency issued by the Union Treasury during the Civil War. Inadequately supported by gold, Greenbacks fluctuated in value throughout the war, reaching a low of 39 cents on the dollar. (477)
Homestead Act (1862)
A federal law that gave settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for five years and improved it by, for instance, building a house on it. The act helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers, but many people also found disappointment when their land was infertile or they saw speculators grabbing up the best land. (479)
Laird rams (1863)
Two well-armed ironclad warships constructed for the Confederacy by a British firm. Seeking to avoid war with the United States, the British government purchased the two ships for its Royal Navy instead. (473)
Morrill Tariff Act (1861)
Increased duties back up to 1846 levels to raise revenue for the Civil War. (476)
National Banking System (1863)
Network of member banks that could issue currency against purchased government bonds. Created during the Civil War to establish a stable national currency and stimulate the sale of war bonds. (477)
New York draft riots (1863)
Uprising, mostly of working-class Irish-Americans, in protest of the draft. Rioters were particularly incensed by the ability of the rich to hire substitutes or purchase exemptions. (475)
Trent affair (1861)
Diplomatic row that threatened to bring the British into the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, after a Union warship stopped a British steamer and arrested two Confederate diplomats on board. (472)
U.S. Sanitary Commission (established 1861)
Founded with the help of Elizabeth Blackwell, the government agency trained nurses, collected medical supplies and equipped hospitals in an effort to help the Union Army. The commission helped professionalize nursing and gave many women the confidence and organizational skills to propel the women’s movement in the postwar years. (479)
West Virginia (admitted to the Union 1863)
Mountainous region that broke away from Virginia in 1861 to form its own state after Virginia seceded from the Union. Most of the residents of West Virginia were independent farmers and miners who did not own slaves and thus opposed the Confederate cause. (464)
writ of habeas corpus
Petition requiring law enforcement officers to present detained individuals before the court to examine the legality of the arrest. Protects individuals from arbitrary state action. Suspended by Lincoln during the Civil War. (475)
Chapter 21
The Furnace of Civil War,
1861-1865
The Killing Fields of Antietam, September 1862
Chapter Summary
Northern complacency about a quick victory ended with its defeat at Bull Run. Early Union generals like George McClellan/[muh-klel-uhn] were unable to defeat Lee’s tactically brilliant Confederate armies, but the Union naval blockade slowly devastated the South.
The war’s political and diplomatic dimensions became critical. Lincoln initially downplayed emancipation in order to retain the Border States, but winning the 1862 Battle of Antietam /[an-tee-tuhm] prevented foreign intervention and allowed him to turn the struggle into a war against slavery. Blacks and abolitionists embraced a war for emancipation, but Lincoln suffered politically from northern, white resentment.
Union victories at Vicksburg [viks-burg] in the West and Gettysburg [get-iz-burg] in the East finally turned the military tide against the South. Southern resistance remained strong, but the Union victories at Atlanta and Mobile/ [moh-beel] assured Lincoln’s re-election in 1864 and ended the last Confederate hopes. The war ended the issues of disunion and slavery, but at a tremendous cost to both North and South.
Learning Objectives
1. Describe the consequences for both sides of the North’s defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
2. Outline Union’s original military strategy and how Lincoln was forced to adjust it during the course of the War.
3. Explain the critical importance of the failed Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam in changing the Civil War from a limited war for the Union into a total war against slavery.
4. Describe the role that African Americans played during the war.
5. Explain why the battles of Gettysburg in the East and Vicksburg in the West decisively turned the tide toward Union victory and Confederate defeat.
6. Describe the politics of the War in both North and South, and the end of the South’s hope for winning independence through a defeat of Lincoln in the election of 1864.
7. Describe the end of the war and list its final consequences.
Key Terms and Names
Antietam, Battle of (September 1862)
Landmark battle in the Civil War that essentially ended in a draw but demonstrated the prowess of the Union army, forestalling foreign intervention and giving Lincoln the “victory” he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. (487)
Appomattox Courthouse
Site where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865 after almost a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the “Wilderness Campaign”. (503)
Bull Run (Manassas Junction), Battle of (July 1861)
First major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South, it dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory. (481)
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War (1861-1865)
Established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs. Largely under the control of Radical Republicans, the committee agitated for a more vigorous war effort and actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation. (499)
Copperheads
Northern Democrats who obstructed the war effort attacking Abraham Lincoln, the draft and, after 1863, emancipation. (499)
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States. The Proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines. (487)
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Battle of (February 1862)
Key victory for Union General Ulysses S. Grant, it secured the North’s hold on Kentucky and paved the way for Grant’s attacks deeper into Tennessee. (495)
Fredericksburg, Battle of (December 1862)
Decisive victory in Virginia for Confederate Robert E. Lee, who successfully repelled a Union attack on his lines. (492)
Gettysburg Address (1863)
Abraham Lincoln’s oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty. (494)
Gettysburg, Battle of (July 1863)
Civil War battle in Pennsylvania that ended in Union victory, spelling doom for the Confederacy, which never again managed to invade the North. Site of General George Pickett’s daring but doomed charge on the Northern lines. (492)
Merrimack and Monitor (1862)
Confederate and Union ironclads, respectively, whose successes against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warships. They fought an historic, though inconsequential battle in 1862. (486)
Monitor
See Merrimack. (486)
Peninsula Campaign (1862)
Union General George B. McClellan’s failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate Capital. Had McClellan taken Richmond and toppled the Confederacy, slavery would have most likely survived in the South for some time. (483)
Reform Bill of 1867
Granted suffrage to all male British citizens, dramatically expanding the electorate. The success of the American democratic experiment, reinforced by the Union victory in the Civil War, was used as one of the arguments in favor of the Bill. (509)
Second Battle of Bull Run (August 1862)
Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push further into the North. (487)
Sherman’s march (1864-1865)
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s destructive march through Georgia. An early instance of “total war,” purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate war effort. (497)
Shiloh, Battle of (April 1862)
Bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that resulted in the deaths of more than 23,000 soldiers and ended in a marginal Union victory. (495)
The Man Without a Country (1863)
Edward Everett Hale’s fictional account of a treasonous soldier’s journeys in exile. The book was widely read in the North, inspiring greater devotion to the Union. (500)
Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Former Confederate States were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union. (489)
Union party (1864)
A coalition party of pro-war Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat anti-war Northern Democrats. (500)
Vicksburg, siege of (1863)
Two and half month siege of a Confederate fort on the Mississippi River in Tennessee. Vicksburg finally fell to Ulysses S. Grant in July of 1863, giving the Union Army control of the Mississippi River and splitting the South in two. (495)
Wilderness Campaign (1864-1865)
A series of brutal clashes between Ulysses S. Grant’s and Robert E. Lee’s armies in Virginia, leading up to Grant’s capture of Richmond in April of 1865. Having lost Richmond, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. (502)
Chapter 22
The Ordeal of Reconstruction
1865-1877
Chapter Summary
After the Civil War, the nation faced the problems of rebuilding the South, assisting freed slaves, reintegrating Southern states into the Union, and deciding who would direct the Reconstruction /[ree-kuhn-struhk-shuhn].
An economically devastated South was socially revolutionized by emancipation [/i-man-suh-pey-shuhn]. Slave-owners reluctantly confronted the end of slave labor, while blacks began to shape their own destiny with the help of black churches and freedmen’s schools.
New President Andrew Johnson was politically inept and personally contentious. His moderate Reconstruction plan attempted to follow Lincoln’s, but fell victim to Southern whites’ severe treatment of blacks and his own political blunders.
After dramatic gains in the 1866 congressional elections, Republicans imposed harsh military Reconstruction on the South. Southern states reentered the Union with radical governments supported by newly enfranchised blacks and some sectors of southern society. Some regimes were corrupt, but they also implemented important reforms. Divisions between moderate and radical Republicans limited and confused Reconstruction’s aims, despite the important Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
Embittered whites hated these radical governments and mobilized reactionary terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to restore white supremacy. Congress impeached [ĭm-pēch'd] Johnson but narrowly failed to convict him. The poorly conceived Reconstruction policy was a disastrous failure.
Learning Objectives
1. Define the major problems facing the nation and the South after the Civil War.
2. Describe the responses of both whites and African Americans to the end of slavery.
3. Analyze the differences between the presidential and congressional approaches to Reconstruction.
4. Explain how the blunders of President Johnson and the resistance of the white South opened the door to the Republicans’ radical Reconstruction.
5. Describe the intentions and the actual effects of radical Reconstruction in the South.
6. Indicate how militant southern white opposition and growing northern weariness with military Reconstruction gradually undermined Republican attempt to empower Southern blacks.
7. Explain why the radical Republicans impeached Johnson but failed to convict him.
8. Explain the legacy of Reconstruction, and assess its successes and failures.
Key Names and Terms
“10 percent” Reconstruction plan (1863)
Introduced by President Lincoln, it proposed that a state be readmitted to the Union once 10 percent of its voters had pledged loyalty to the United States and promised to honor emancipation. (519)
Black Codes (1865-1866)
Laws passed throughout the South to restrict the rights of emancipated blacks, particularly with respect to negotiating labor contracts. Increased Northerners’ criticisms of President Andrew Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction policies. (521)
carpetbaggers
Pejorative used by Southern whites to describe Northern businessmen and politicians who came to the South after the Civil War to work on Reconstruction projects or invest in Southern infrastructure. (528)
Civil Rights Bill (1866)
Passed over Andrew Johnson’s veto, the bill aimed to counteract the Black Codes by conferring citizenship on African Americans and making it a crime to deprive blacks of their rights to sue, testify in court, or hold property. (522)
Ex parte Milligan (1866)
Civil War Era case in which the Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals could not be used to try civilians if civil courts were open. (526)
Fifteenth Amendment (ratified 1870)
Prohibited states from denying citizens the franchise on account of race. It disappointed feminists who wanted the Amendment to include guarantees for women’s suffrage. (526)
Force Acts (1870-1871)
Passed by Congress following a wave of Ku Klux Klan violence, the acts banned clan membership, prohibited the use of intimidation to prevent blacks from voting, and gave the U.S. military the authority to enforce the acts. (530)
Fourteenth Amendment (ratified 1868)
Constitutional amendment that extended civil rights to freedmen and prohibited States from taking away such rights without due process. (523)
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865-1872)
Created to aid newly emancipated slaves by providing food, clothing, medical care, education and legal support. Its achievements were uneven and depended largely on the quality of local administrators. (518)
Ku Klux Klan (founded 1866)
White paramilitary organization whose members, cloaked in sheets to conceal their identities, terrorized freedmen and sympathetic whites throughout the South after the Civil War. By the 1890s, Klan-style violence and Democratic legislation succeeded in virtually disenfranchising all Southern blacks. (529)
Pacific Railroad Act (1862)
Helped fund the construction of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad with the use of land grants and government bonds. (522)
Reconstruction Act (1867)
Passed by the newly-elected Republican Congress, it divided the South into five military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required that Southern states both ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and write state constitutions guaranteeing freedmen the franchise before gaining readmission to the Union. (525)
Redeemers
Southern Democratic politicians who sought to wrest control from Republican regimes in the South after Reconstruction. (527)
scalawags
Derogatory term for pro-Union Southerners whom Southern Democrats accused of plundering the resources of the South in collusion with Republican governments after the Civil War. (528)
Seward’s Folly (1867)
Popular term for Secretary of State William Seward’s purchase of Alaska from Russia. The derisive term reflected the anti-expansionist sentiments of most Americans immediately after the Civil War. (532)
Tenure of Office Act (1867)
Required the President to seek approval from the Senate before removing appointees. When Andrew Johnson removed his secretary of war in violation of the act, he was impeached by the house but remained in office when the Senate fell one vote short of removing him. (531)
Union League
Reconstruction-Era African American organization that worked to educate Southern blacks about civic life, built black schools and churches, and represented African American interests before government and employers. It also campaigned on behalf of Republican candidates and recruited local militias to protect blacks from white intimidation. (527)
Wade-Davis Bill
Passed by Congressional Republicans in response to Abraham Lincoln’s “10 percent plan”, it required that 50 percent of a state’s voters pledge allegiance to the Union, and set stronger safeguards for emancipation. Reflected divisions between Congress and the President, and between radical and moderate Republicans, over the treatment of the defeated South. (519)
Woman’s Loyal League (1863-1865)
Women’s organization formed to help bring about an end to the Civil War and encourage Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibiting slavery. (527)
Coonen wounded in the Civil War - Wisconsin newspaper
Richard Coonen struck in right shoulder
Wisconsin Civil War Roster
Wisconsin in the Civil War
Wisconsin in the Civil War
Civil War - Wisconsin
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.