Booker T. Washington

·  He was born into slavery

·  He founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama

·  He wrote Up From Slavery, an autobiography

·  Believed that African Americans should first concentrate their efforts on trying to achieve economic independence before seeking full social equality

·  Believed economic prosperity could best be achieved by vocational training or job-related education

·  He wanted young African Americans to develop skills and attitudes that would help them to survive in an environment of increasing violence and discrimination

·  Booker T. Washington believed that the most immediate means for African Americans to achieve equality was to expand their opportunities for vocational education

Evidence of the Failure of Reconstruction

·  “Although important strides were made, Reconstruction failed to provide lasting guarantees of the civil rights of the freedmen.”

·  Reconstruction refers to the period in American History after the Civil War; it was a time when the Confederate states were brought back into the Union and freed slaves were given rights

·  The passage of Jim Crow laws, however, in the latter part of the 19th century is evidence of the failure of Reconstruction

·  Segregation of the races was NOT equality

·  In addition, poll taxes and literacy tests prevented African Americans from voting

·  And because freed slaves were not given economic compensation like land or money, many were forced to become sharecroppers and farm the lands of former masters at high rents

Conflict between Andrew Johnson and Congress during Reconstruction

·  The Radical Republicans in Congress accused President Andrew Johnson of blocking their Reconstruction plan

·  The Radical Republicans wanted harsh punishments of Confederates and full political and social equality of African Americans

·  The Radical Republicans did not support Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction

·  Johnson like Lincoln wanted a fair and generous peace; he did not want harsh punishments

·  This, unfortunately, allowed white Southerners to create societies that were still racist and unjust for African Americans

·  But for Lincoln and Johnson, the Union was to be restored as quickly as possible

·  The dispute between President Andrew Johnson and Congress during the Reconstruction Era illustrates the constitutional principle of separation of powers – neither Congress nor the President had unlimited power to make all decisions

The “Solid South” and the Democratic Party

·  White Southern voters usually hated the Republican Party in the late 1800s

·  For white Southerners, the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln, the Union, and the defeat of the Confederacy

·  For nearly one hundred years after the Civil War, white Southerners voted for the Democrats

·  The label “Solid South” was applied to the former Confederate States after Reconstruction because white Southerners consistently supported the Democratic Party

·  The South was even referred to as the “Solid South” in that it solidly or always voted for the Democrats

·  Poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses prevented African Americans from voting – so, it really was only white Southerners in this “Solid South” and that was unjust

·  During the late 1800s, Southern voters solidly supported the Democratic Party primarily because Democrats disliked the Reconstruction programs of the Republicans

Manifest Destiny

·  The passage of the Homestead Act and the completion of the transcontinental railroad helped to fulfill the United States commitment to manifest destiny

·  Manifest Destiny was the idea that the United States should stretch from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast

·  It was the idea that God have given Americans all of the land from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast

·  The Homestead Act gave settlers free land in the Great Plains

·  The Homestead Act encouraged westward expansion and thus, Manifest Destiny

·  The Transcontinental railroad or a railroad connecting the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast made movement across the continent easier and therefore encouraged westward expansion too

The Homestead Act

·  Passed on May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act accelerated the settlement of the western territory by granting adult heads of families 160 acres of surveyed public land for a minimal filing fee and 5 years of continuous residence on that land

·  The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land

·  Claimants were required to “improve” the plot by building a dwelling and cultivating the land

·  After 5 years on the land, the original filer was entitled to the property, free and clear, except for a small registration fee

·  After the Civil War, Union soldiers could deduct the time they had served from the residency requirements

·  The passage of the Homestead Act and the completion of the transcontinental railroad helped to fulfill the United States commitment to Manifest Destiny but at the expense of the Native American Indians

The Granting of Land to Railroad Companies by the US government

·  Building a railroad is expensive and building a railroad that connects the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast is even more expensive

·  Plus, it can take years for the owner of the railroad to make back all the money spent building the railroad

·  Thus, to encourage capitalists to build railroads, the U.S. government gave free land to companies that built railroads

·  Free land encouraged investors to invest in railroad-building by decreasing the cost of building railroads and thereby increasing the profits from railroad-building

·  A transcontinental railroad also benefitted the government for it encouraged westward expansion and the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny

The Dawes Act

·  The Dawes Act split up reservations held communally by Native American tribes into smaller units and distributed these units to individuals within the tribe

·  Also called the General Allotment Act, the law changed the legal status of Native Americans from tribal members to individuals subject to federal laws and dissolved many tribal affiliations

·  The goal of the Dawes Act was to encourage Native Americans to integrate into American culture

·  The passage of the Dawes Act in 1887 was primarily an attempt by the United States government to encourage Native American Indians to give up their traditional cultures and assimilate

·  The aim of the Dawes Act of 1887 was to assimilate Native American Indians into American culture

The Fugitive Slave Act

·  It was part of the Compromise of 1850

·  In this compromise over the extension of slavery, California entered the Union as a free state and the Fugitive Slave Act was created

·  The Fugitive Slave Act stated that a runaway slave had to be returned to his master in the South

·  Because of the Fugitive Slave Act, the underground railroad or secret route to help escaped slaves run North now ended in Canada

·  Runaway slaves had to run to Canada because the Fugitive Slave Act kept them at risk in the United States

·  In the 1850s, runaway slaves had to go to Canada in order to not be forcibly returned to their masters

President Abraham Lincoln’s View of the Union

·  Lincoln believed that the Union was a union of the people not the states

·  The Constitution begins with these wonderful words: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…”

·  Thus, Lincoln believed that states could not secede or leave the Union

·  President Abraham Lincoln’s argument against the secession of the Southern States was that the government was a union of people and not of states

Why the Civil War benefitted Northern Factories

·  The North’s rapid economic growth during the Civil War was stimulated by increased government demand for many products

·  During the Civil War, the Union army needed guns, boots, and other military supplies

·  Northern factories could increase production of these goods knowing that the government would purchase these goods

·  Thus, the Civil War helped Northern factories grow and when the war was over, the North was even more industrialized than the agricultural South

President Lincoln’s Reason for the Civil War

·  To preserve the Union

·  Lincoln believed that he had taken an oath to preserve the Union when he became President and he took his oath seriously

·  Indeed as the Civil War began, President Abraham Lincoln stated that his primary goal was to preserve the Union

Reasons for Sectional Differences in the US

·  Geographic differences

·  New England: Rocky soil, harbors, forests

·  South: Long growing season and fertile soil

·  North: More industrialized

·  South: Greater reliance on agriculture

·  Geographic differences led to economic differences

·  North: Factories and farms

·  South: Plantations

·  Sectional differences developed in the United States largely because economic conditions and interests in each region varied

The Underground Railroad and Abolitionists

·  The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad

·  It got its name because its activities had to be carried out in secret, using darkness or disguise, and because railway terms were used by those involved with system to describe how it worked

·  Various routes were lines, stopping places were called stations, those who aided along the way were conductors and their charges were known as packages or freight

·  The network of routes extended through 14 Northern states and “the promised land” of Canada – beyond the reach of fugitive-slave hunters

·  Those who most actively assisted slaves to escape by way of the “railroad” were members of the free black community (including former slaves like Harriet Tubman), Northern abolitionists, philanthropists and church leaders like Quaker Thomas Garrett

·  Harriet Beecher Stowe, famous for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, gained firsthand knowledge of the plight of fugitive slaves through contacts with the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati, Ohio

·  Prior to the Civil War, abolitionists reacted to Fugitive Slave Act by supporting the Underground Railroad

Reason for Protective Tariffs

·  At times, the United States Government has passed protective tariffs to help the nation’s manufacturers

·  A tariff is a tax on an imported good

·  A tariff raises the prices of foreign goods

·  When foreign goods are more expensive, consumers buy domestic goods or goods manufactured in the nation

·  Tariffs help new domestic industries because even if the goods produced are not as good as the foreign goods, they are more likely to be purchased due to the lower prices of the goods

·  At times, the United States Government has passed protective tariffs to help the nation’s manufacturers

Reason for the Monroe Doctrine

·  The nations of Central and South America gained independence from Spain and Portugal in the early 1800s

·  As Latin America is neighbor to the U.S.A., Americans feared that other European nations might try to conquer their newly independent neighbors

·  If their newly independent neighbors were conquered by new nations, the United States might be in danger too

·  Thus, the U.S.A. issued the Monroe Doctrine which stated that the Americas were closed to future colonization

·  A major reason for the issuance of the Monroe Doctrine (1823) was to prevent further European colonization in the Caribbean region

·  The Americas are closed to conquest

What Lincoln meant by a “House Divided”

·  “A house divided against itself cannot stand…I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other…” ~ Abraham Lincoln, 1858

·  In this passage, Lincoln is referring to slavery in the United States; how half of the states are slave states and half of the states are free states

·  Lincoln is saying that this division cannot last – the nation must be all one thing as in all free or all slave

·  Yes, the house is divided over slavery

Andrew Jackson and the Spoils System

·  Andrew Jackson was elected President as a representative of the “Common Man”

·  Jackson wanted more Americans to work in government

·  He wanted to make American government more representative of the American people or at least, white male Americans of different socioeconomic classes

·  Thus, he created the Spoils System

·  In the Spoils System, supporters of Jackson were awarded government jobs

·  These new government workers replaced workers who were often from one class in American society

·  Yes, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the spoils system resulted in elected officials rewarding their supporters with government jobs

Nullification

·  It is the idea that states can ignore or not obey federal laws

·  It is the idea that states can nullify or invalidate federal laws

·  That state’s rights are more important than federal laws

·  Before the Civil War, South Carolina threatened nullification of a federal tariff that benefitted the North but harmed the South

·  Andrew Jackson threatened to send troops to South Carolina to make South Carolinians obey the law

·  The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1798) and the South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification (1832) are similar is that each claimed that individual states have the right to interpret federal laws

New Orleans and the Mississippi River

·  The port of New Orleans and full control of the Mississippi River were gained by the Louisiana Purchase as well as the Great Plains

·  The Mississippi River is an important river for trade and it connects to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the port of New Orleans

·  So, the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans go together in a good way that benefitted farmers transporting their goods to new markets

The Erie Canal

·  The Erie Canal connects the Hudson River to Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes

·  It connects New York City to the Great Lakes as New York City is on the Hudson River

·  It allowed farmers in the Midwest to sell goods to Eastern Markets