Growth and Reform1800-1850

This chapter will identify the ways in which the United States grew between 1800 and 1850. It will focus on ways in which American life changed as reform movements swept across the nation.

Chapter Introduction

• Section 1: Democracy, Nationalism, and Sectionalism

• Section 2: Religion and Reform

• Section 3: The Antislavery Movement

• Section 4: The Women’s Movement

• Section 5: Manifest Destiny

• Explain how the rise of Andrew Jackson was linked to expanding democratic rights.

• Trace the causes and effects of Indian removal.

• Analyze Jackson’s policies with regard to nullification and the national bank.

Objectives

Terms and People

• Andrew Jackson – a military hero who became President of the United States in 1828 as American democracy expanded

• Jacksonian democracy – a trend in which politics became increasingly democratic, with more voters

• spoils system – the use of political jobs to reward party loyalty

• Indian Removal Act – a law passed in 1830 that sought to exchange Indian lands in the South for land in present-day Oklahoma

Terms and People (continued)

• Trail of Tears – route taken by Cherokee forced from their land in the Southeast to Oklahoma, along which thousands died of disease and hunger

• John C. Calhoun – Jackson’s Vice President who championed nullification

• nullification – the concept that states could nullify, or void, and federal law they deemed unconstitutional

• Panic of 1837 – the nation’s worst economic depression to that time

During the 1820s, there was a political shift in America toward expanded democracy.

This shift resulted in the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency, and some policies that caused long-term political conflicts.

What changes did Andrew Jackson bring to American political life?

Jackson became President in the 1820s, a time when democracy expanded, a trend called Jacksonian democracy.

• States chose presidential electors by popular vote instead of state legislatures.

• States abolished property requirements for voting.

• Participation in elections grew, and Jackson presented himself as a common man

J. Q. Adams A. Jackson

Henry Clay W. Crawford

In 1828, Jackson and the Democratic Party were very organized, and won the race.

Jackson lost the presidential race in 1824 to John Quincy Adams despite winning the popular vote, because there was no electoral vote majority.

Once Andrew Jackson became president, he replaced hundreds of government workers with people from the Democratic Party.

This practicewas called the spoils system.

Party in the White house upon Jackson’s inauguration as President

Instead, he urged Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Southern voters expected Jackson to remove Indians living in the region.

• Native Americans owned private property and went to court to defend their rights.

• In 1832, the Supreme Court ruled that Georgia’s seizure of Indian lands was unconstitutional but Jackson refused to act on the ruling.

The act led to the forcible removal of Creeks, Seminoles, and Cherokee from their land.

In 1838, federal troops made 15,000 Cherokee journey from the Southeast to Oklahoma.

At least 4,000 people died on this Trail of Tears.

Native American Removal, 1830-1840

In 1828, Congress adopted an especially high tariff, or tax on imported goods.

Despite Calhoun’s and other southerners’ objections, Jackson signed a tariff into law.

• Jackson’s VP John C. Calhoun opposed it.

• He favored nullification, the idea states could void federal laws they deemed unconstitutional on the ruling.

John C. Calhoun of South Carolina: Jackson’s VP and defender of slavery, state’s rights and the theory of nullification

Calhoun resigned the vice presidency and South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union.

The crisis passed when Congress reduced the tariff, though the question of nullification and secession had only been postponed.

Jackson vowed “The Union will be preserved.”

Jackson disliked the Second Bank of the United States.

• Jackson vetoed the renewal of the Bank’s charter in 1832.

• Supporters of the Bank founded the Whig Party.

• Jackson won a landslide victory against the Whigs and used his public support to weaken the Bank.

Martin Van Buren was elected in 1836, and soon after the Panic of 1837 occurred.

• This economic depression was caused in part by Jackson’s decision to stop accepting paper money for the purchase of federal land.

• There was a drop in land values and sales.

The troubled economy led to a Whig resurgence.

William Henry Harrison became President in 1841, but died a month after taking office.

VP John Tyler took office and rejected Whig policies.

• Explain the impact of the Second Great Awakening.

• Describe the forms of discrimination that some religious groups faced.

• Analyze the various social reform movements that arose in the mid-1800s.

Objectives

Terms and People

• Second Great Awakening – a powerful religious movement led by Protestant preachers that spread through America in the early 1800s

• Charles Grandison Finney – a religious revivalist who gave passionate sermons urging people to reform their lives

• Joseph Smith – organizer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830

Terms and People (continued)

• Dorothea Dix – a reformer who turned her religious ideals into actions by campaigning to build humane hospitals for the mentally ill

• temperance movement – the campaign to curb alcohol use

• public schools – free, tax-supported schools for all American children

• Horace Mann – the most influential leader of the public school movement

A religious revival known as the Great Awakening spread across America during the colonial era. In the early 1800s, it happened again.

This Second Great Awakening led people to work to put their religious ideals into reforming parts of American life.

How did the Second Great Awakening affect life in the United States?

than

The Second Great Awakening began on the Kentucky frontier in the early 1800s and spread.

• One of the most influential preachers was Charles Grandison Finney, who gave passionate sermons urging people to reform their lives.

• Outdoor services lasted as long as a week and included good food and lively music.

Finney believed that this would lead to a better society.

Church membership increased.

This fervor led to a wide variety of social reforms. Including: women’s rights, abolitionism, education, temperance, treatment of the mentally ill, prison reform

• The Unitarian Church

• African American churches, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church

• The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, organized by Joseph Smith in 1830.

This new religious awareness led to the formation of new religious groups.

• They isolated themselves, allowed men to have more than one wife, and voted as a group.

• As a result, Mormon communities were chased out of Ohio and Missouri.

• Mormons went west to Utah and thrived.

Some Americans became suspicious of the rapid growth of the Mormon Church.

Members of other minority religious groups faced discrimination as well.

Roman Catholics were resented because they were poor and would work for low wages.

Americans began to debate the role of government in religion.

Some felt that

government should support religion.

Others thought there

should be separation of church and state.

The Second Great Awakening led many, such as Dorothea Dix, to work for reforms.

• Dix taught Sunday school in a prison and learned the mentally ill were housed with criminals.

• She campaigned across the nation to change this.

• Her efforts led to the creation of the first modern mental hospitals.

Groups distributed pamphlets and held meetings urging people to refrain from drinking alcohol.

The movement won some changes in the law.

The temperance movement campaigned to curb the use of alcohol.

Some reformers worked to improve education and wanted to establish public schools.

A leader of the public school movement, Horace Mann, worked to establish:

• state oversight of local schools

• standardized school calendars

• teacher training

The percentage of children attending school doubled due to the efforts of Mann and other school reformers.

Women played important roles in the school reform.

A school room in the early 1800s.

• Describe the lives of enslaved people.

• Identify the leaders and activities of the abolitionist movement.

• Explain why many Americans opposed the abolition of slavery.

Objectives

Terms and People

• Nat Turner – leader of the best-known slave revolt against owners in the first half of the 1800s

• underground railroad – a secret organized network of people who hid runaway slaves as they headed North

• Harriet Tubman – a courageous “conductor” of the underground railroad who led hundreds of slaves to freedom

• abolitionists – people who spoke out to end slavery

Terms and People (continued)

• William Lloyd Garrison – the most influential abolitionist who published a newspaper called The Liberator

• Frederick Douglass – an escaped slave who became an eloquent speaker at abolitionist meetings

• Angelina and Sarah Grimké – daughters of a southern slaveholder who became vocal abolitionists

• Henry David Thoreau – a writer and abolitionist who went to jail for refusing to pay a tax he felt supported slavery

• civil disobedience – the right of individuals to refuse to obey laws that they feel are unjust

Terms and People (continued)

As reformers tried to improve American life in the mid-1800s, some turned their attention to exploited and enslaved African Americans.

The efforts of these reformers led to increasing division between the North and the South.

What methods did Americans use to oppose slavery?

Slavery ended completely in the North during the 1800s.

It remained an institution in the South.

• Two million Africans and African Americans were held as slaves in the South.

• They worked at backbreaking tasks and could be beaten at any time. Families were separated.

• Some enslaved people gave up hope; others found comfort in family and religion.

There was some resistance from slaves against their oppressors.

There were 200 slave revolts during the first half of the 1800s.

The most significant was led by Nat Turner in 1831.

• It was made up of a loose network of “conductors” that hid runaway slaves.

• One of the best known conductors was Harriet Tubman.

The underground railroad developed to help slaves escape to freedom.

This is a map of the underground railroad routes from slave states to free.

A growing number of Americans wanted to end slavery. They were called abolitionists.

• William Lloyd Garrison published an antislavery newspaper called The Liberator.

• Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery, escaped and spoke out eloquently against it.

• Angelina and Sarah Grimké moved north and became outspoken abolitionists.

• Henry David Thoreau refused to pay a tax he believed supported slavery.

Civil disobedience was defined by Thoreau as the right of people to refuse to obey laws that they find unjust.

Abolitionists became organized, holding meetings and giving lectures across the country.

Many people were against abolishing slavery. Southerners argued it formed the foundation of their economy.

• The abolition movement was small but vocal. It faced resistance in the North and the South.

• A Gag Rule passed by Congress prohibited debates on the subject.

• The issue still widened differences between the North and South.

The slavery issue divided America.

• Identify the limits faced by American women in the early 1800s.

• Describe how women began playing an increasing role in political and economic life.

• Trace the development of the women’s rights movement.

Objectives

Terms and People

• Sojourner Truth – a powerful abolitionist lecturer who was a former slave from New York

• Lucretia Mott – a Quaker who helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society and along with Stanton helped organize the first Women’s Rights Convention

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton – an abolitionist who helped organize the nation’s first Women’s Rights Convention

Terms and People (continued)

• Seneca Falls Convention – the nation’s first Women’s Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848

• Declaration of Sentiments – a declaration formed at the Seneca Falls Convention that called for greater rights for women

• women’s rights movement – the campaign for equal rights for women

Terms and People (continued)

• Susan B. Anthony – a reformer who passionately worked for over 50 years to gain suffrage for women

• suffrage – the right to vote

Women took active roles in several reform movements during the 1800s. Soon, some of these reformers decided to work to gain equality for women.

This laid the groundwork for a long struggle, especially to gain the right to vote.

What steps did American women take to advance their rights in the mid-1800s?

Women lacked many basic rights in the early 1800s.

NO Property Ownership

NO Voting Rights

NO Election to Public Office

FEW Educational Opportunities

The reform movements brought about by the Second Great Awakening attracted many thoughtful women.

One prominent female abolitionist was Sojourner Truth, who spoke powerfully against slavery.

The reform movements gave women leadership roles and connections outside of the home.

Another change in the lives of women occurred due to industrialization.

Factories needed workers. Many women went to work in them and developed a degree of economic independence and new friendships.

Two historical trends led to the beginning of real progress for women’s rights.

1Middle class women in urban areas hired poor women to do their housework, leaving them more time to think about social issues.

2Women became involved in the abolitionist movement and began to compare their own situations to that of the slaves.

1

Abolitionist women disagreed over how prominent a role females should play in the movement to end slavery.

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were not allowed to speak at an antislavery conference.

This inspired them to take new steps to advance women’s rights.

Stanton and Mott organized the nation’s first Women’s Rights Convention, called the Seneca Falls Convention, in New York in 1848.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The delegates adopted a Declaration of Sentiments, which called for greater rights and opportunities for women.

The Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of the women’s rights movement.

Anthony concentrated her efforts for the next 50 years on gaining suffrage for women—the right to vote.

It inspired a generation of leaders including Susan B. Anthony.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal…”Declaration of Sentiments, adopted Seneca Falls

The Causes and Effects of the Women’s Rights Movement

Women could not vote, own property, or divorce abusive husbands

Many abolitionists believed that women also deserved equal rights

Women were denied equal education opportunities

Suffragist movement demanded that women get the right to vote.

States passed laws that protected women’s property rights.

Private schools for women opened, and some colleges accepted women students.

Causes Effects

• Explain why and how Americans migrated westward in the mid-1800s.

• Analyze the causes and results of the Texas war for independence.

• Trace the effects of the Mexican-American War and the California Gold Rush on the United States.

Objectives

Terms and People

• expansionists – Americans who favored territorial growth

• Manifest Destiny – the idea that the United States was destined to own most of all of North America

• Oregon Trail – route taken to Oregon by westward settlers through the Rockies’ South Pass

• Alamo – a battle at a small former mission in San Antonio in which Mexican troops killed all of its defenders

Terms and People (continued)

• James K. Polk – an expansionist Democrat elected President in 1844

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – treaty signed in 1848 ending the Mexican-American War; gave the U.S. New Mexico and California, and secured the Rio Grande as the border of Texas

• Gadsden Purchase – 29,640 square miles purchased by the United States from Mexico in 1853

• California Gold Rush – a mass migration of Americans who hoped to find gold in California

Americans had a long history of looking westward for opportunity. By the 1840s, many had gone all the way to Oregon and California.

This growth led to prosperity as well as war with Mexico and increasing sectional tensions.

What were the causes and effects of territorial expansion?

In 1830, America included the east coast states, the Louisiana Purchase and Florida.

• Manifest Destiny stood for the belief that the U.S. was destined to own most or all of North America.

• Expansion would come at the expense of Native Americans and Mexicans.

Those who wanted to add New Mexico, Texas and California were known as expansionists.

People began moving westward on different trails over the Rockies.

One of the best known trails for westward bound families was the Oregon Trail.

The Oregon Trail

Over a quarter million Americans settled on the West Coast between 1840 and 1860.

Native Americans were bound by the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie to avoid the wagon train trails.

This rule interfered with their practice of pursuing buffalo.

They completed this dangerous five-month journey in wagon trains.

A war with Mexico began with a conflict in Texas.

Tensions arose and in 1836, Texas declared its independence.

Mexican forces attacked a Texan garrison at the Alamo, and killed all of its defenders.

Americans moved to Texas starting in the 1820s and agreed to be Mexican citizens for cheap land.

The rallying cry “remember the Alamo!” helped Texan forces defeat Santa Anna’s army at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Despite the victory, a border war went on between Mexico and Texas for many years.

Sam Houston was elected President of the Republic of Texas and asked the U.S. to annex it.

James K. Polk was elected president in 1844 and favored annexing Texas.

It entered the Union in 1845. Polk stood behind the Texan claim to land up to the Rio Grande. This angered Mexico.

Polk sent troops to occupy the contested border and violence broke out.

Congress declared war with Mexico in 1846.

The U.S. won every major battle in the one-sided war.

When the U.S. Army marched 200 miles and captured Mexico City in 1847, the war ended with a complete American victory.

• Peace was declared with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

• The Rio Grande became the southern boundary of Texas.

• More land was added to the U.S. in the 1853 Gadsden Purchase from Mexico.

49ers Gold Fever California Gold Rush

Water route is offered over the overland route

San Francisco Bay early stages of the California Gold Rush

In early 1848, gold was discovered in California.

News spread and 80,000 Americans headed west as part of the California Gold Rush.

Another 25,000 people migrated from China to California.

Large scale mining operations with machinery overtook the rougher by-hand methods.

The gold rush caused many Native Americans to be killed or to lose their land.

Mexican Americans also lost their land.

Miners had a hard life in California. They used picks, pans, and shovels.

California applied for statehood in 1849. It wanted to enter the Union as a free state in which slavery was banned.

The admission of California would tip the balance of 15 free and 15 slave states.

In this way, the U.S. victory over Mexico led to growing conflict between North and South.

Chapter Summary

Section 1: Democracy, Nationalism, and Sectionalism

Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States as the nation was becoming more democratic. During his years in office, he pursued a policy of Indian removal, dealt with the nullification crisis, and weakened the national bank.

Section 2: Religion and Reform

A religious revival called the Second Great Awakening swept across America in the early 1800s. This revival led to many social reform movements like the temperance movement and the push to create public schools.

Chapter Summary (continued)

Section 3: The Antislavery Movement

Enslaved people in America had difficult lives and their plight attracted the attention of reformers who wanted to end slavery. These reformers, called abolitionists, organized and worked to change the minds of those who opposed abolition.

Section 4: The Women’s Movement

Women living in the United States in the early 1800s faced many limits. Due to industrialization and the reform movements, some women began playing a bigger role in political and economic life. As a result, the women’s rights movement developed in the mid-1800s.

Chapter Summary (continued)

Section 5: Manifest Destiny

Americans migrated west in large numbers during the mid-1800s in search of better economic opportunity. Many believed in Manifest Destiny, that the U.S. would own most of North America. This expansion led to both the Texas war for independence and the Mexican-American War.