Chapter 9: Sectionalism Flashcards
Commonwealth v. Hunt
Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that “peaceful union” had the right to negotiate labor contracts with employers
~Allowed for minor improvements in the labor industry
Old Northwest
Consisted of six states west of the Alleghenies that were admitted into the Union prior to 1860
~Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Wisconsin (1848), and Minnesota (1858)
~Came from territories formed by land ceded to the national government
Cyrus McCormick
Created a mechanical reaper
~Allowed for farm families to be more efficient and plant more acres
~Only needed to supplement its labor with a few hired workers at harvest time
John Deere
Invented the steel plow
~Allowed for farm families to be more efficient and plant more acres
~Only needed to supplement its labor with a few hired workers at harvest time
Nativists
A group who strongly objected to foreigners
~Mostly Protestants who distrusted the Roman Catholicism practiced by the Irish and Germans
~Feared that the new immigrants would take their jobs and the Anglo culture
Order of the Star Spangled Banner
A secret anti-foreign society
~Opposition to immigrants led to sporadic rioting in the big cities
~Led by the nativists
American/Know-Nothing Party
A political party started by the Order of the Star Spangled Banner
~Strong anti-foreign riots
Cotton Gin
Invented by Eli Whitney
~Revolutionized production of cotton in the South
~Made cotton the “king crop”
Denmark Vesey
A man who led a slave rebellion in 1822
~Ultimately unsuccessful
~Squandered before it even began
~He was executed
Nat Turner
A man who led a slave rebellion in 1822
~Killed 52 Virginians
~Caught and tried
~Ultimately put to death
Planter Aristocracy
The South’s small elite group of wealthy planters
~Owned at least 100 slaves and at least 1,000 acres
~Maintained political power by dominating state legislatures of the South
~Did this by enacting laws that benefited the large landowner’s intrests
Southern White Farmers
Produced the bulk of the cotton crops
~Owned fewer than 20 slaves
~Typically worked the fields with them
~Owned several hundred acres, but lived modestly like Northern farmers
Southern Poor Whites
Made up 3/4 of the South’s white population
~Owned no slaves and could not afford the rich river-bottom farmland controlled by the planters
~Many lived in the hills as subsistence farmers
~Known as “hillbilles” or “poor white trash” by the planters
~Defended slave system with the dream that one day they too could own slaves and that they were at least better than someone on the social scale
Mountain People
A number of small farmers
~Lived in frontier conditions and were isolated from the rest of the South
~Lived in the Appalachians and Ozarks
~Despised planters and their slaves
~Remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War
Code of Chivalry
The method of conduct Southern gentlemen strove to achieve. Code includes:
~Strong sense of personal honor
~Defense of womanhood
~Paternalistic treatment of all who were deemed inferior, particularly slaves
