Ch. 10-13 Review

Question 1

Manifest Destiny

Answer 1

Belief that the United States was intended by God to rule the entirety of North America. Fulfilling this mission was the end goal of the American government during the first half of the 1800s.

Question 2

Utopia

Answer 2

Utopia is a state of perfect society on Earth. During the 1840s, there were several attempts to create utopian communes, including Brook Farm (where Nathaniel Hawthorne resided for a short period), the Oneida Community in New York, and Iowa’s Amana Community.

Question 3

Walden

Answer 3

A record of Henry David Thoreau’s experience living by himself in a small cabin on Walden Pond. Thoreau describes his attempts to use his observations about the natural world to discover essential truths about life.

Question 4

Civil Disobedience

Answer 4

By Henry David Thoreaus. Contended that individuals have a duty to disobey when the government enacts laws that violate one’s conscience. Primarily motivated by the injustice of slavery and his own opposition to the Mexican-American War. Civil Disobedience influenced figures such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Question 5

Oneida Community

Answer 5

The Oneida Community was a commune in upstate New York founded in 1848. Believed that children should be raised by the community, rather than by individual parents. Practice of open marriage and free love were considered scandalous.

Question 6

Dorothea Dix

Answer 6

Reformer dedicated to treatment of the mentally ill. Dix advocated for human treatment and separate asylums, rather thanimprisoned with with criminals.

Question 7

The prominent prison reform took place during the antebellum period

Answer 7

Change in focus from punishment of the criminal to rehabilitation. The first prison focused on reform was Auburn, built in New York in 1821

Question 8

How did newly arrived Catholic immigrants respond to efforts to establish free public schools?

Answer 8

Concerned that the free public schools started by reformers such as Horace Mann would be used to proselytize their children with anti-Catholic teachings, German and Irish Catholics created their own schools.

Question 9

Seneca Falls Convention

Answer 9

The first organized women’s rights conference. Called in 1848 by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Every prominent women’s rights advocate (and quite a few men, including Frederick Douglass) attended.

Question 10

What did the Seneca Falls Convention propose?

Answer 10

Prominent feminists, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, proposed equality for women, including legal, property, and voting rights. Though the Seneca Falls Convention and the women’s movement were overshadowed by abolitionism, the Convention marked the beginning of the women’s rights movement.

Question 11

Why did Mexico invite Americans to settle Texas’ northern frontier after it won independence from Spain in 1823?

Answer 11

The Mexican government had neither the troops nor funds to protect the state from raids by the Comanche Indian Tribe. Mexico hoped that a strong group of settlers along the northern frontier would protect the state.

Question 12

What was the response to Mexico’s invitation to Americans to settle in Texas?

Answer 12

By 1830, Americans in Texas outnumbered Mexicans by 3 to 1. Many Americans arrived from the South and brought their enslaved people with them.

Question 13

In the 1830s, Mexico enacted three laws that enraged American settlers. What were they?

Answer 13

1) Mexico banned further American immigration to Texas; 2) Mexico required anyone already living within Mexican territory to convert to Roman Catholicism; 3) Mexico passed legislation banning the enslavement of people. Americans simply ignored both laws.

Question 14

Seized power of the Mexican government in 1834

Answer 14

Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, declared himself dictator in 1834. Intercepted a letter that Austin had sent to the government in Texas, urging them to separate and form their own state. Santa Anna considered this request treasonous and had Austin arrested.

Question 15

What happened to Stephen F. Austin and Santa Anna, after Austin’s arrest?

Answer 15

After spending 1.5 years in jail, Stephen F. Austin went back to Texas. Suspecting the Texans would rebel once more, Santa Anna marched northwards to Texas with an army of 6,000 men to destroy the suspected insurrection against the Mexican government.

Question 16

Explain the significance of the Alamo.

Answer 16

In present-day San Antonio, an old missionary called the Alamo was attacked by Santa Anna and his 6,000 troops since they refused to abandon the city to the Mexican army. Although it was a technical defeat for the Texans, it was also a moral victory for them, since it unified them in their desire for an independent country, a country that would allow for slavery and Protestantism.

Question 17

Following the Battle of San Jacinto, General Santa Anna recognized Texas as an independent nation. How did the Mexican government respond?

Answer 17

The Mexicans deposed Santa Anna, and continued to consider Texas an official part of Mexico. This unsettled state would prevent the American annexation for years, and contribute to the Mexican-American War.

Question 18

Why did both Andrew Jackson and Martin van Buren deny requests for annexation from Texas?

Answer 18

Both Presidents were concerned that annexation of the Republic of Texas would lead to war with Mexico. Further, Texas was such a large territory that it was anticipated that the territory would be separated, meaning five separate slave states would come into the Union, engendering fierce political opposition. A Southerner, President John Tyler had an annexation bill introduced to the Congress, which was rejected despite concerns about growing British influence in the region.

Question 19

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

Answer 19

In Maine, Canadian and American lumbermen fought over the proper border between Maine and British Canada, an event known as the Aroostook War. In 1842, Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton signed a treaty in Washington, fixing the border dispute by signing the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.

Question 20

The slogan of those who sought to annex the entire Oregon Territory

Answer 20

54-40 or fight. referred to the parallel 54°40′ North, Russian America’s southern border, and significantly farther north than today’s border with Canada. Seizing this territory would have resulted in a war with the British.

Question 21

James K. Polk

Answer 21

Jacksonian Democrat elected president in 1844. Strongly in favor of Oregon’s boundary being at 54°40′, and Texas annexation, appealing to those who supported Manifest Destiny.

Question 22

Before Polk could assume office, what action did outgoing President John Tyler take on the Texas annexation issue?

Answer 22

Had the entire Congress pass a joint resolution for annexation, which required fewer votes than a Senate measure. This joint resolution was a shortcut to annexing Texas. Once Texas was annexed, all the incoming President Polk had to do was settle the boundary dispute with Great Britain/England over the Oregon Territory.

Question 23

What did the Oregon Treaty do?

Answer 23

A boundary was set at the 49th parallel, a compromise position. There was some dispute in the Senate over whether to ratify the Oregon Treaty. Still, war with Mexico threatened to break out at any moment, and few had a desire to fight two countries simultaneously, so they ratified the treaty to focus on a war with Mexico.

Question 24

After he became President, James Polk dispatched diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to negotiate with the Mexican government. Which two issues was Slidell empowered to discuss?

Answer 24

1) Attempt to buy 1/3 of all of Mexico’s land; 2) Negotiate with Mexico over Texas’ southern boundary.

Question 25

While John Slidell negotiated prior to the Mexican-American War, Polk backed up his diplomatic initiative with a military display of force. What action did Polk take?

Answer 25

Ordered General Zachary Taylor to lead an army into the disputed area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande River. A minor skirmish with a Mexican patrol led to the death of 11 U.S. soldiers. Claiming that American lives had been shed on American soil, Polk asked Congress for a declaration of war, which Congress quickly approved.

Question 26

The Bear Flag Republic

Answer 26

In June 1846, shortly before the American declaration of war against Mexico, a small group of American settlers near Sacramento proclaimed their own republic, which bore a picture of a grizzly bear on its flag.

Question 27

John C. Frémont

Answer 27

An officier in the Army Corps of Engineers. In June 1846, he was surveying overland routes through the Sierra Nevada mountains. Once word reached California of the American declaration of war on Mexico, Frémont took command of the small Bear Flag forces.

Question 28

the Wilmot Proviso

Answer 28

A measure introduced in the House of Representatives, which attempted to ban slavery from any territory conquered from Mexico. It never became a law, since the Senate refused to pass it.

Question 29

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Answer 29

Ended the Mexican-American War. The US government, after forcing Mexico to sign the Treaty, gave them 15 million dollars in exchange for 1/3 of the entire country of Mexico. Mexico would also recognize the Rio Grande River as Texas’ southern border, which was the initial American demand before the war.

Question 30

the Ostend Manifesto

Answer 30

A diplomatic correspondence in 1854, relating to the possible purchase of Cuba from Spain, and conveyed a threat of war if Spain refused. Southerners had long coveted Cuba as a further slave state, and the Ostend Manifesto was one in a long line of attempts to purchase the island. When it was leaked to the public, the Northern Congressman were outraged and the attempt failed.

Question 31

Why did Franklin Pierce make the Gadsden Purchase?

Answer 31

It was hoped that a Southern transcontinental railroad would be built through the area.

Question 32

Mexican Cession

Answer 32

The vast Western territory ceded to the United States by virtue of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In the post-Mexican War period, an overarching political question was how slavery would apply to the new Mexican Cession territories.

Question 33

How did moderate Southerners view the Mexican Cession territories?

Answer 33

Most moderate Southerners simply favored extending the Missouri Compromise line of 36°30’ westward, and allowing slavery below the line. A few “fire-eaters” (pro-slavery radicals) did propose opening the entirety of the Mexican Cession to slavery.

Question 34

Why did Free Soilers wanted to ban all Black Americans from the Mexican Cession?

Answer 34

With their slogan of “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men,” many Free Soilers hoped to keep the Mexican Cession free of Blacks so that whites could provide the labor force on small farms, known as homesteads, sold to them by the federal government.

Question 35

Where did Martin Van Buren draw his support when he ran as a Free-Soil candidate in 1848?

Answer 35

1) Conscience Whigs, so called because they believed an extension of slavery violated their conscience; 2) Antislavery Democrats, known as “barnburners,”

Question 36

Why was California’s request for admission to the Union as a free state in 1849 such a divisive issue?

Answer 36

California’s admission as a free state would upset the balance of power in the Senate, which had an equal number of Senators from free states and slave states. Matters became even more heated when President Taylor proposed admitting New Mexico as a free state at the same time.

Question 37

What were the key components to the Compromise of 1850?

Answer 37

1) California would be admitted as a free state; 2) Popular sovereignty would decide the slavery issue in the Mexican Cession territories; 3) A Fugitive Slave Act would require the federal government to help force freedmen back into enslavement.

Question 38

What event ensured the passage of the Compromise of 1850?

Answer 38

On July 9, 1850, President Taylor, who had been opposed to the Compromise, died of diarrhea. Millard Fillmore, his Vice President, assumed the office and signed each piece of the Compromise as it came before him.

Question 39

What argument did Senator William Seward adopt in speaking against the Compromise of 1850?

Answer 39

Seward spoke against the Compromise as being a violation of a “higher law than the Constitution.” Seward argued that slavery was immoral regardless of what the Constitution said, and his speech marked him as a radical abolitionist.

Question 40

What was Stephen Douglas’s role in the Compromise of 1850?

Answer 40

With the Congress unable to agree to the Compromise as a whole, Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois engineered coalitions that passed individual parts of the Compromise, and presented them to the President, one at a time, for signature. Douglas, known as the Little Giant, earned a reputation as a compromising Northerner who could find common ground with the South.

Question 41

What was the intent of the Fugitive Slave Law (1850)?

Answer 41

To bring comfort to the Southern enslavers by forcing the government to hunt down freed Black people and return them to their enslavement, and sometimes, even face their own death.

Question 42

What did the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 specifically do?

Answer 42

1) empowered special commissioners to detain Black people; 2) held trials in federal – rather than state – court to determine their enslaved status; 3) denied jury trials to determine their enslaved status; 4) Those caught liberating enslaved people, or attempting to help them in any way, would face severe fines and penalties.

Question 43

Which religious groups supported slavery in the South?

Answer 43

Methodists and Baptists supported slavery, citing Biblical support for the peculiar institution; as a result, their numbers grew. Unitarians challenged slavery as an institution, and their membership dropped as a consequence. Catholics and Episcopalians, present only in negligible numbers in the South, remained neutral over the issue.

Question 44

What book did Harriet Beecher Stowe write?

Answer 44

Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe’s 1852 work illustrated the cruelties of plantation life and the harsh workings of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Banned in the South, Stowe’s work convinced many Northerners of slavery’s intrinsic evil.

Question 45

Which state banned liquor in 1851?

Answer 45

Maine. Although 13 other states followed Maine’s lead, the temperance movement was largely overshadowed by the crusade against slavery.

Question 46

Which two immigrant groups opposed the efforts of the temperance movement?

Answer 46

The Germans and the Irish. They viewed the temperance movement as anti-immigrant, and resented efforts to ban wine and liquor.

Question 47

In 1800 approximately 5% of the population of the North was urban. What percentage was urban by 1850?

Answer 47

About 15% of the population was urban by 1850. This rapid urbanization brought with it many problems, from the growth of slums and disease, to crime and inadequate sanitation.

Question 48

Between 1845 and 1852, a million immigrants fled Ireland due to what cause?

Answer 48

the Irish Potato Famine. Most of the immigration between 1845 and 1852 can be attributed to the Irish Potato Famine. The potato was an Irish dietary staple, and another million inhabitants of Ireland died of starvation.

Question 49

Besides the potato famine in Ireland, what other factors contributed to the substantial increase in European immigration in the 1850s?

Answer 49

In 1848, revolutions broke out throughout Europe. Germany was particularly troubled, and many Germans came to the United States for refuge. The United States had a growing reputation as a place where hard work would be rewarded. In addition, ocean transport was improving, both in speed and comfort, and several shipping lines specialized in transporting immigrants across the Atlantic.

Question 50

Antebellum nativists

Answer 50

Antebellum nativists were suspicious of the new German and Irish immigrants. Most of the German immigrants, and almost all of the Irish ones, were Catholic. Protestant nativists feared that both groups could undermine American culture and take American jobs. Anti-immigrant fervor would reach its height in the 1850s, with the formation of the Know-Nothing Party.

Question 51

Why did the South see little immigration?

Answer 51

Since the South had a small manufacturing base, most low-level jobs were agricultural, and centered on the plantation economy. These jobs were held by slaves, and there simply were not enough free labor jobs to support large-scale immigration to the region.

Question 52

Where did the South export most of its cotton?

Answer 52

Most cotton was sent in bales to Britain. There, the British turned the cotton into finished cloth. At the time of the Civil War, many in the South predicted British intervention due to Britain’s dependence on Southern cotton.

Question 53

What changes in shipping took place between 1820 and 1850?

Answer 53

1) Clipper ships were introduced, drastically cutting sailing times; 2) Shipping lines began operating regular schedules with set departure times. This significantly increased the ease of doing business internationally.

Question 54

U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry forcibly opened which country to American trade in 1853?

Answer 54

Japan; U.S. actions in Japan were part of a long-running effort to extend American trade and to find new markets for American goods.

Question 55

What changes did the factory system experience from 1820 to 1850?

Answer 55

In the 1820s, factories had primarily been used for the textile industry, while other professions, such as shoemaking and clothesmaking, had been done by artisans at home. By the 1850s, most artisans had been shunted aside and factories mass-produced goods, ranging from boots to firearms, with the use of unskilled labor. Factories were able to expand due to the rapid influx of cheap labor, mainly Irish and German immigrants.

Question 56

How did intellectuals in the South respond to Northern critiques of slavery?

Answer 56

Most Southerners argued slavery was Biblically based; Hoping to provide further intellectual support for the Peculiar Institution, books such as Sociology of the South, written by George Fitzhugh and published in 1854, contended that slaves were better treated than laborers in Northern factories.

Question 57

In 1854, Stephen A. Douglas proposed a bill organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. What was the main purpose of trying to organize these territories?

Answer 57

The bill was so that a midwestern transcontinental railroad could begin building towards California. To make the new road profitable, it needed customers along its lines. Customers meant settlers, and for settlers to own land, the territory needed to be organized.

Question 58

How did Stephen Douglas propose to resolve the issue of slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories?

Answer 58

1) Douglas added a popular sovereignty provision to the Kansas-Nebraska Act; 2) This meant that people would be able to decide, in their own states, whether they would be “free” or “slave”; 3) He hoped that by allowing the new territories to vote themselves, he would not need to take a position on slavery and hinder his chances to become President.

Question 59

What were the effects within Kansas of the popular sovereignty bill?

Answer 59

From Missouri and the Southern states, pro-slavery men arrived, determined to make the state a slave state. They were countered by immigrants from the North, determined to halt slavery’s spread. Organizations such as the New England Emigrant Aid Society funded anti-slavery immigration into the territory. The state quickly turned violent, which is where the name “Bleeding Kansas” comes from.

Question 60

In October, 1856, a force of 800 pro-slavery forces attacked ________, Kansas.

Answer 60

Lawrence; the headquarters of several anti-slavery newspapers. The attackers threw the newspaper presses into the Kansas River and burned the hotel .

Question 61

In revenge for the pro-slavery attack on Lawrence, abolitionist John Brown led an attack on pro-slavery forces located at __________ _________ .

Answer 61

Pottawatomie Creek

Question 62

When Senator Charles Sumner gave a speech on the floor of the Senate called, “The Crimes Against Kansas”, what happened to him?

Answer 62

Sumner was physically assaulted on stage; Convinced that Sumner’s anti-slavery speech impunged the honor of his uncle, Representative Preston Brooks stormed the floor of the Senate and beat Senator Sumner fiercely with a cane.

Question 63

Know-Nothing Party

Answer 63

With a strong presence in New York City and the Border States, the American Party, commonly known as the Know-Nothings, was a nativist party, with membership limited to Protestants of British-American ancestry, that sought to bar further immigration.

Question 64

Who was Dred Scott?

Answer 64

Dred Scott was an enslaved person in Missouri whose enslaver took him to Wisconsin and then returned with him to Missouri. Contending that once he had crossed into a state where slavery was illegal he had become liberated, Scott sued for his freedom.

Question 65

How did the Supreme Court resolve Dred Scott’s petition for his freedom?

Answer 65

In the 1857 Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Court held that Scott was not free, finding that: 1) Scott has no standing to sue because, as a Black man, he was not a citizen; 2) he was the physical property of his enslaver; Slaves being property, a white citizen could not be deprived of his Black property without due process of law; 3) The Compromise of 1820, Compromise of 1850, and “Popular Sovereignty” all deprived citizens of their property without due process and was repealed. As a result, slavery could not be made illegal in any state.

Question 66

How did Republicans view the Dred Scott decision?

Answer 66

Republicans denounced the Dred Scott decision as the “greatest crime” in American history, for allowing slavery to expand to the Western territories.

Question 67

Explain the difference between the reactions in Southern Democrats and Northern Democrats at the Dred Scott v Sandford verdict.

Answer 67

For Northern Democrats who supported popular sovereignty, such as Douglas, the decision was difficult to defend, as the Court’s decision held popular sovereignty, something Northern Democrats had fought hard for, on slavery unconstitutional. Southern Democrats who supported slavery were delighted by the Supreme Court’s ruling, and felt vindicated.

Question 68

In October 1859, John Brown launched another anti-slavery attack, this time in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. What was Brown’s plan?

Answer 68

Brown seized a federal armory, hoping to distribute the guns stored there to slaves and induce an uprising. The plan failed. Virginia state militia under the control of Robert E. Lee captured Brown and his followers, and they were hung after a short trial.

Question 69

How did Southerners view John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry?

Answer 69

Although condemnation of Brown’s actions appeared throughout the North, Southerners viewed John Brown’s raid as the fault of abolitionists, who were bent on causing a slave revolt and destroying the South.

Question 70

What happened to the Democratic Party during the 1860 election?

Answer 70

While the Northern Democrats endorsed Stephen Douglas, the Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky.

Question 71

Why did the Republican Party deny the 1860 nomination to William Seward, the proverbial frontrunner?

Answer 71

Seward was deemed too ardent against slavery and likely to alienate more moderate voters; Although a number of prominent Republicans vied for the nomination, the party eventually chose Abraham Lincoln.

Question 72

Although Lincoln failed to win the popular vote (he won 39.2%), he won a majority of the Electoral College. How did the South react?

Answer 72

1) Carrying out their threat, the states of the Deep South began to secede. South Carolina did so in December 1860, and six other states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana) followed; 2) In February 1861, the representatives of the seceding states met in Montgomery, Alabama, and formed the Confederate States of America.

Question 73

How did the Confederate Constitution adopted at Montgomery, Alabama differ from the U.S. Constitution?

Answer 73

The Confederate Constitution did not differ significantly from the U.S. Constitution, a testament to the strength of the original document. Among the minor changes, the Confederate Constitution: 1) limited the President to one six-year term; 2) gave the President a line item veto; 3) barred any limits on slavery’s extension; 4) included limits on national tariffs

Question 74

Who was elected as President of the Confederacy at Montgomery?

Answer 74

Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. Davis was a former Senator, Secretary of War, and Mexican-American War soldier.