Unit V Terms

Question 1

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Answer 1

Turner was a Virginian slave, was convinced he was a prophet, and became a preacher. Claiming he’s seen a vision of spirits telling him social hierarchy must be reversed, on the 21st August 1831, he and 6 other slaves killed their master and continued on to other houses (w/ 75 slaves). Killed a total of 51 white people.

Many slaves (innocent) accused of participating. South came to fear slaves and justified further brutality. Gave further cause and motivation for the abolitionist cause – fuelled it.

Question 2

Forms of Resistance to Slavery

Answer 2

Forming families – refuge and source of dignity. Religion – focusing on story of exodus and biblical heroes. Learned to read and write. Running away (although sometimes returned). Armed rebellion.

Question 3

Underground Railroads

Answer 3

Very lose, illegal network helping slave runaways to escape to the North. Slaves mostly escaped out of courage and strength, though.

Question 4

Second Great Awakening

Answer 4

Clergy members sought to revive fading religious sentiment. “Camp meetings” movement began. Told the individual that salvation was in their hands – righteous living, self-control and strong moral compass. Cold help create perfect society.

Spoke to women, farmers, merchants (those affected by market revolution).

Question 5

Charles Finney

Answer 5

Was a minister, behind/leader of the Second Great Awakening.

Question 6

Mormonism

Answer 6

Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Was murdered.
Encouraged small, insular communities. Unorthodox teaching – no holy trinity, allowed polygamy. Rejected by mainstream Protestants.

Question 7

Temperance Movement

Answer 7

Goal was to limit or ban production of alcoholic beverages. Encouraged self-control. Movement was mainly backed by women (who suffered from verbal and physical abuse by drunk husbands). Formation of the American Temperance Society.

Question 8

Asylums and Penitentiaries

Answer 8

Mentally ill were treated as criminals (often locked up in cells). Main backers were abolitionists (many women), fought for asylums (Dorothea Dix).

Question 9

Public Education

Answer 9

Large campaign in 1840s and 1850s for free public education. Horace Mann was the strongest advocate, served in the House and as Education Secretary in Massachusetts.

Question 10

Utopian Communities

Answer 10

Brook Farm: community where all residents shared labour and leisure equally, started by transcendentalist George Ripley.

Shakers: believed in celibacy, gender equality, started by Mother Ann Lee.

Question 11

Women’s Rights

Answer 11

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Stanton: abolitionist activists, barred from anti-slavery convention in London because they were women. Led group of women in the Seneca Falls Convention.

Seneca Falls Convention: raised issue of women’s suffrage, property rights, education, wages, child custody, legal status. Declaration of sentiments (grievances, “all men and women created equal..”)

Question 12

Transcendentalism

Answer 12

Literary Movement: critical of materialist direction the US was taking. Encouraged separation from mainstream society and the cultivation of self.

ie. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville.

Question 13

Romanticism

Answer 13

Reaction against the rationalism and empirical thinking of the Enlightenment. Increased emphasis on emotion and perspective of the individual. Reverence for spiritual powers of nature.

Question 14

Hudson River School

Answer 14

Artistic movement comprised of landscape artists. Primary theme was nature – its power and beauty.

ie. Thomas Cole and Asher Durand.

Question 15

Abolitionism: David Walker

Answer 15

Important figure in movement. Wrote pamphlet encouraging slaves’ self-defence, to resist slavery by all means necessary.

Question 16

Abolitionism: William Lloyd Garrison

Answer 16

American Anti-Slavery Society. White abolitionist, advocated immediate, uncompensated abolition of slavery.

Question 17

Abolitionism: Frederick Douglass

Answer 17

Born into slavery, escaped to the North in 1838. Best selling autobiography. Speech to Rockerfeller Anti-Slavery Society (1852).

Question 18

Abolitionism: American Colonisation Society

Answer 18

Either thought African Americans should escape racism in the US or should not receive equal treatment. Wanted to make them return to Africa in an America colony.

Question 19

Manifest Destiny

Answer 19

American belied in the God-given right and duty to expand westward, spread civilisation.

Question 20

Texas Independence

Answer 20

A few Mexicans and many Americans immigrated to Texas. By the 1830s, relationships between Mexican government and American settlers deteriorated. Mexican President sent forces to enforce authority, texans rebelled in 1836 under leadership of Sam Houston. battle of the Alamo – rebels were killed, inspired further pro-independence (“Remember the Alamo!”). Next battle, won independence.

Question 21

Texas Annexation

Answer 21

Many Texans wanted to become part of the US, petitioning in 1837. Raised issue over slavery and imbalance of slave v. free states. Pres. Jackson and Van Buren avoided annexation. Independent for 9 years.

Question 22

Oregon: Immigration

Answer 22

Until 1830s, only fur trappers were in Oregon territory. Settlers looked to the fertile lands, 1840-60, around 400,000 people travelled the Oregon Trail. Migration put pressure on US and GB to find a solution to boundary dispute.

Question 23

Oregon: Boundary Dispute and Treaty

Answer 23

American settlers adopted battle cry: “54º40 or fight!”

Neither side wanted to go to war, 1846 reached agreement on the 49th parallel.

Question 24

California’s Gold Rush

Answer 24

Mexican state. Late 1840s, very few Americans. 1848, discovery of Gold created influx of Americans – thousands hurried westwards. Most did not get rich, enslaved Native Americans causing decline (85%) of their population. Influx of Chinese immigrants.

Question 25

Mexican-American War: Causes

Answer 25

Annexation of Texas – Mexico threatened war if Texas was annexed. Polk in 1844 wanted to go through with it, and wanted even more Mexican territory. When purchase was declined, Polk sent in troops.

Question 26

Mexican-American War: Results

Answer 26

After battle/attack by Mexicans, US accused them of being on US soil and killing US citizens, therefore American tolerance had dissolved. Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848 ended the war. Rio Grande is the Mexican Border. California and other Northern territories sold to US, Texas is annexed.

Question 27

Wilmo Proviso

Answer 27

Cause: Acquisition of Mexican territory, 1846.
Proposed that all territory gained from Mexico shall not have slavery or indentured servitude. Preserve free white labour (never actually passed).
Why? No southerner would ever agree to it (Calhoun said it would destroy the union). Did not search to abolish slavery (was for the Free-Soilers).

Result: Southerners became very defensive of slavery, claiming it was in the Bible and above moral criticism. Claimed 5th Amendment gave them the right to bring slaves to any state. Raised question of state sovereignty.

Question 28

Compromise of 1850

Answer 28

Cause:
Failure of Wilmot Proviso. California wanted to be admitted as a free state (which interfered with the Missouri Compromise).
Fugitive State Law of 1793, and the North’s failure to uphold it.
3/5 Compromise in the Constitution, end of slave trade in 1808 (international, not national).

Results:
Fugitive Slave Act more heavily enforced.
Slave trade abolished in district of Columbia.
New Mexico and Utah organised in popular sovereignty.
Texan boundary set as present limit.
California admitted as a free state.
Everyone rushing to new territories to influence the results (slave vs. free).

Question 29

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Answer 29

Causes:
Missouri Compromise dismissed, Kansas and Nebraska applying for statehood.
Compromise of 1850.
As issue is debated, Senator Sumner verbally attacks Butler (South Carolina’s Senator), gets beaten over the head with a cane.
South/North see each other as savages, believe compromise is impossible.

Purpose: to determine whether Kansas and Nebraska would be free or slave states.

Results:
Kansas and Nebraska as popular sovereignty. Everyone rushing to Kansas to sway results: “Bleeding Kansas”.
Even less effort by North to uphold the Compromise of 1850.

Question 30

Election of 1852

Answer 30

Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce vs. Whig Candidate General Winfield Scott. Whig’s lost, dissolved the party. Pierce was a strong supporter for the Compromise of 1850.

Question 31

Emergence of Republican Party

Answer 31

Response to K-N Act, antislavery whigs and democrats, Free soilers and other reformers formed the new party, primarily focused on keeping slavery out of the territories.
Believed slavery was cancer to the republic, won huge victories in 1854 election, captured majority of the Northern House seats.

Question 32

Bleeding Kansas

Answer 32

Conflict between Free-soilers/Abolitionists and proslavery southerners sent to defend land for slavery. Proslavery people invaded poles in 1855 to secure legalisation of slavery, Free soilers created secret government in response.

Question 33

Election of 1856

Answer 33

Extreme polarisation. Democrats stayed away from nominees with views on territory that would draw controversy, nominated James Buchanan, won due to southern support.

Republicans nominated Frémont, won majority of Free states, Know-Nothings fell apart after this election.

Question 34

Dred Scott

Answer 34

Cause: State sovereignty, 5th Amendment. Dred Scott sued for freedom, had lived in free states w/ master, so argued he should be free.

Purpose/Question: Was he a US citizen and entitled to sue in a federal court? Did living in a free state make him free? Did Congress have power to prohibit or promote slavery?

Result: North was outraged, passed personal liberty acts in direct violation of federal law (Fugitive Slave Act). North believed the decision disregarded state’s rights, threatened white labour. South believed it was only right, all blacks are entitled to and designed for nothing but slavery.

Question 35

Election of 1860

Answer 35

Partisan fury. Democratic Convention of 1860 resulted in split of the party between North and South. John Brown’s raid, increasing distrust and suspicion of conspiracies. All previous compromises lead to this election.
Would determine the future of the country. South would secede if Lincoln won. North said it is time to stop being ruled by the minority (the South), should not accept threats.

Lincoln wins. South Carolina immediately secedes.

Question 36

Secession

Answer 36

Winter of 1860-61, Senator of Kentucky proposed the two sections divide the territories between them at Missouri Compromise Line. Lincoln ruled it out, so effort failed.

S.C passed ordinance of secession, union dissolved. Most secessionists were slave holders. First states to secede were in the Deep South. Deeply divided sentiment in the Upper South.

Question 37

Fort Sumter

Answer 37

April 1861, Charleston Harbour, Lincoln was sending supplies to the fort, Montgomery government chose to attack the fort. After two days of heavy bombing, federal garrison surrendered. Beginning of the Civil War.

Question 38

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Answer 38

Harriet Beecher Stowe
Conveyed agonies faced by slave families, the evil effects on slaveholders and complicity of northerners. Hugely popular, white southerners felt very threatened by it.

Question 39

John Brown’s Raid

Answer 39

1859, Brown raised religious, in an anti-slavery family, believed in “eye for an eye” justice.

October 1859, led a band of 18 whites and free blacks in an attack on federal arsenal in Virginia, hoping to trigger a slave rebellion. Failed. Had received financial backing from abolitionists, Southern outrage intensified.

Question 40

Political Parties

Answer 40

Whigs: southern “cotton” whigs who drifted to Dem. Party, northern whigs drifted to new parties.

American Party: nativist party based on opposition to immigration, pro temperance, absorbed into Republican Party after 1856.

Free-Soil Party: not abolitionist but anti-expansion of slavery in territories. Lost support in 1852 when candidate refuted the 1850 Compromise.

Republican Party: Free labour, opposed to extension of slavery, middle ground. By 1860, decidedly opposed to slavery.

Question 41

Democrats vs. Republicans

Answer 41

Repub.: opposed slavery, favoured homestead act, protective tariffs and transportation improvements.

Dem.: Northern Dems. opposed Congressional interference with slavery. Southern Dems. appealed to racism, argued that society would collapse without the inferiority of slaves.