U.S. History Chapter 11

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Chapter 11


Age of Reform - Antebellum America

The Transcendentalists
Man is born to be reformer... a renouncer of lies;
a restorer of truth and good....

Emerson



Women Rights
Abolitionist > Worked together
Temperance



Women's Rights

From the Colonial Period
The Republican Woman


*The Hegemony
-Morally superior to men
-The strength of their families
-motherhood, sacred occupation

Pre-Civil War
1. Mothers
2. Domestics
3. Inferior Labor

*Coverture -
A married woman's identity was
covered or absorbed into her husbands

By law, a husband might spend his wife's property, punish her physically.

He could also regulate her food, clothing and shelter




*Sarah & Angelina Grimke'
Vehemently spoke out vs slavery
Preached racial equality in North

A New England minister wrote them a letter stating that a women's heart is pure and sacred and a model for men. When she speaks out society will suffer!!

The Grimkes' were shocked and wrote back condemning the double standard and stating that women were subjects of God....not men!!

"Men and women are created equal, they both are accountable beings. What is good for men to do is OK for women."


Civil War ended
Slavery ended, but women still did not have the right to vote.

The Suffragists broke away from the Abolitionists




** Early Reformers
recognized that true equality = to right to vote

Susan B. Anthony
Elisabeth Cady Stanton
Lucretia Mott

Seneca Falls Convention
Declaration of Sentiments 1848

**

The Abolitionists- anti-slavery because of the moral issues

Radical opposition to slavery
(they even advocated divorcing the
wicked south from the union)

William Lloyd Garrison- The Liberator

Sojourner Truth

Frederick Douglass

The "gag rule"
-implemented in the House preventing the debate of slavery because of the abolitionist letters and protests


Later, this was successfully questioned and repealed as an obstruction of freedom of speech by John Quincy Adams

**

Manifest Destiny
The fate if the US was to stretch westward to the Pacific and south to the Rio Grande


Oregon

Many attempts (by ship) to occupy the Oregon Territory

-Trapping, mountain men

1832-Nanthaniel Wyeth "Oregon Trail"
By 1846, thousands came and settled
They began to organize, worrying the
British


*Texas - center of Manifest Destiny*



Stephen Austin obtained permission from Mexican Government and founded an American colony in 1821

Americans, mainly Southerners poured into region bringing slaves. Eventually Mexico banned slavery and future immigration

General Santa Anna helped Mexico gain its independence from Spain and in 1834, became military dictator
- Texas became a military district

Texans revolted and declared their independence

Battle of the Alamo -
Davey Crockett, Jim Bowie, Col.Travis

Battle of San Jacinto - Sam Houston destroys the Mexican Army and force Santa Anna to sign a treaty granting Texas its independence

Sam Houston creates the Republic of Texas - Lone Star State and asks his old friend Andy Jackson to annex Texas
Problem - Mexico and Slavery!

US recognizes the Republic of Texas as a separate nation, Jackson and Van Buren refuse to bring Texas into the Union

**
John Tyler became President upon Harrison's death
- man without a Party
- very Jeffersonian concerning states' rights
- actually at odds with Whig Party,
ironically becomes President
- at odds with Henry Clay

Anti-British sentiment gaining ground in the US.

America portrayed as inhospitable low class heathens

British were worried about American expansion and wanted to cut deal with Texas, checking American Manifest Destiny and of course Southern Cotton supply

Tyler tries to negotiate a treaty
to bring Texas into the Union.

Rejected- Slavery and War with Mexico

Election of 1844 - Clay v Polk
Issue - Expansion

Clay does not mention expansion
in campaign or in his platform

Polk wants to annex Texas and occupy the Oregon Territory

Polk wins but before Tyler leaves office he annexes Texas

Polk's Problem - Oregon and Texas
Two possible Wars

Oregon - 54'40 was the people's cry
Finally settled at the 49th Parallel
Avoiding war with Great Britain

-This extended the US Canadian Border to the Pacific

Polk's choice,
war with Mexico to gain New Mexico and California

Territory Problem - US wanted the Rio Grande to be border, not Neuces River


Polk sends navy into California ports anticipating war

Sends Zachary Taylor into region to
"protect American interests"

Mexicans order Taylor out of Mexican Territory;
he refuses; they attack.

US declares war
Taylor is successful,
later replaced by General Winfield Scott

Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago
Southern Boundary of Texas-Rio Grande
California and New Mexico to the US for 15 Million Dollars

Polks's Scorecard:
Powerful President
Doubled the size of the US

**

The Wilmot Proviso

Polk initiated a bill for the organization of the new territory


-David Wilmot sponsored an addition to the bill

It passes in the House and is defeated in the Senate

-created bitter sectional disputes
Proposal that there would be a ban on slavery in the acquired Mexican Lands

The East - Congress had the power to exclude slavery from new territories

The South - Congress should be concerned with the protection of people's property and the question of slavery be answered by at the time of statehood

The West -
"popular sovereignty"