Antebellum America – The United States before the Civil War
In the decades before the American Civil War, the United States experienced a time of unprecedented growth. The geographic boundaries of the country expanded at the same time as the population of the country skyrocketed. During the 1840s and 1850s, the United States industrialized and changed the landscape of the country. Politicians fought over issues of expansion, slavery, immigration and conflict. All of this expansion and growth set the stage for the Civil War.
At no other time in American history did the United States experience as large a population growth as it did during the 1840s and 1850s. However, this was not because more people in the United States were having children. The large increase in population had to do with immigration. In particular, there was a large influx of Irish immigrants due to the potato famine that swept through that country in the early 1840s. European immigrants were willing to take a chance on moving to a country that had a large supply of resources, but had a labor shortage – this meant more opportunities for jobs even for people with little training. Many Irish immigrants were able to get jobs as unskilled laborers in factories in the North. At the same time, many German immigrants made their way to the United States. They too settled in the North, but most German immigrants found work as skilled laborers or farmers.
The large increase in the immigrant population caused a wave of nativism to sweep through the North. This discrimination against people born outside of the United States was directed mostly at Irish Catholics. In fact, many Protestant immigrants joined the nativist movement against Catholic immigrants. The controversy over nativism became associated with different political parties. Most Irish and Catholic immigrants sided with Democrats who were more willing to accept Catholics into to their party because the two groups held many other similar political beliefs. However, most Protestant, Northern European immigrants and nativists sided with the Whigs (and later Republicans) because the religious beliefs of Protestants tended to agree with the reform beliefs of most Whigs.
In part to counter balance the rapid population growth of the North, Southerners continued to push for geographical expansion of the United States. The pre-war period saw a vast expansion of the territorial boundaries of the United States, mostly at the expense of Mexico. Continued westward expansion pushed Native Americans from their lands, and turned violent with the Mexican American War. Southern Presidents and Southern Congressional leaders, hoping to increase the slave territories of the United States, supported all of these territorial gains.
Additionally, Southern “filibusters” (from the Spanish word meaning pirate) were attempting violent, and mostly illegal, expansion of slave territories by conquering Latin American nations. The first attempt to increase the size of the United States was aimed at Cuba where filibusters attempted to invade the island and stage a coup on several occasions. All of these attempts failed, but it did not discourage Southern attempts to gain more land in Latin America. The next, and slightly more successful, attempt to gain land was directed at Nicaragua. In 1855, William Walker invaded Nicaragua and attempted to set up his own government in the colony. In order to get more Southern support, he re-instituted slavery, which had been abolished for more than twenty years in Nicaragua. Walker’s government lasted only two years, and then his supporters were driven out of the country, or killed by disease. Walker himself was tried and executed by a firing squad for his crimes against Nicaragua.
At this same time, a religious revival was taking shape across the United States. The Second Great Awakening ushered in a time of changing religious beliefs that, in turn, led to changes in how cultural and societal norms were viewed. More and more, people began to question why a country founded on the belief that “all men are created equal” could allow the institution of slavery, discriminate against immigrants, and give no voice whatsoever to women. Reform movements began to take root in the North encouraging the abolition of slavery, equality for women, and other social reforms.
Slowly, these territorial and cultural changes taking place within the United States split the country into sections. The North seemed to be moving forward – increasing its population, expanding its industrial base, and reforming culture and society. By contrast, the South appeared to be at a standstill, or even moving backward – continuing to rely on slave labor for its economic base, refusing to industrialize and using expansion and violence to achieve its political goals. Sectionalism divided the country into North versus South, slave versus free.
Unfortunately, the landscape of political parties in the United States continually changed during this time, and mirrored the nation’s sectional divisions. For most of the early to middle 1800s, the two major political parties were the Whigs and the Democrats. Most Whigs at this time tended to favor a strong central government, industrialization, commerce and banking, and internal improvements within the United States instead of continued westward expansion. On the other hand, most Democrats tended to favor states’ rights, agricultural economies, and continued, aggressive expansion of the country. The two parties tended to have sectional differences, but most of the time agreed on enough issues to stay united as political parties.
However, by the end of the 1850s, the parties had split into several smaller groups. The Whigs were completely gone, and in their place were Republicans, which primarily represented anti-slavery people in the North. The Democrats had absorbed all of the Whigs in the South. Groups from both Democrats and Whigs who did not fit into either party mold formed the American party.
Thus, not only was the United States changing and evolving internally, the country was attempting to expand externally as well. All of these changes in the country set the stage for conflict over the rights of states. Throughout this time Southerners became increasingly afraid that the North would become more powerful that the South. If the North became more powerful, Southerners feared that Northern politicians would end slavery in the United States. Therefore, the South continually made threats to secede and created organizations to help maintain the “Southern Way of Life.” All of the events of the 1840s and 1850s created a situation that was highly volatile. The United States was heading for civil war.