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This is a survey course that provides students with an investigation of important political, economic, and social developments in American history from the pre-colonial time period to the present day. Students will be engaged in activities that call upon their skills as historians (i.e. recognizing cause and effect relationships, various forms of research, expository and persuasive writing, reading of primary and secondary sources, comparing and contrasting important ideas and events).
I. Definitions
A. Series of reforms – altering federal government and bringing vote to people
B. Andrew Jackson and Democratic Party running country
C. Contradiction – period of slavery and horrible treatment of Native Americans – Jackson also develops “monarchical” attributes
D. Attractive candidate - Andrew Jackson attractive – war hero, man’s man, self-made wealth, westerner – “old hickory” “man of the people”
Creating an American Culture – 1790-1860
I. Religion – by 1850 ¾ claim to be religious, but not most far from Puritan form
A. Deism – God is great clockmaker – founding fathers
B. Unitarianism – God is loving creator, father figure, people control destiny
C. Second Great Awakening – attempt to return to conservative religious practice
1. Effects – more converted, some churches destroyed, others created
a. Methodists/Baptists – poor attracted/non-traditional
I. 17th and 18th Century - disease
A. New England – lived separate – Squanto interpret saved > Thanksgiving
1. King Phillip > relative Squanto’s tribe > unites New England
2. Pennsylvania/William Penn & Rhode Island/Roger Williams buy land
3. 1704 Deerfield Massacre – raid/tomahawk/kidnap
4. Albany Plan of Union – Franklin – union 1754 w/ Iroquois against other tribes
B. Virginia – “starving time” > stealing > Indian Raids
The South – low immigration, huge income disparity, replicated Medieval Europe
A. Cotton Kingdom – 1788 – South dying, overworked land, unmarketable products
a. Slavery increased – Eli Whitney – Cotton Gin
i. Increased labor also improved Northern shipping industry
b. ½ cotton in world from the South, England 75% from South
i. England economy depended on Southern cotton
I. Gradual Expansion of Frontier – Each addition adds to slavery issue, moves frontier, Indian problems
A. Proclamation of 1763 – Colonists not west of Appalachians – annoys colonists
B. Treaty of 1783 – Britain gives US land to Mississippi
C. 1803 - Louisiana Purchase – Napoleon realizes he can’t keep French empire - $15 mil
i. Brings up issue of constitutionality of president purchasing land
I. Slavery – not on the minds of Northern soldiers when war started, but clearly an issue that pervaded all of the social, political and economic causes
a. Would there have been a split without slavery – no – root of all conflicts
b. Conflicts existed from birth of nation
II. Economic – two competing industries – industrial north vs. agrarian south – free labor vs. slave labor
a. Tariff battle for almost a century – south wants low, north high
I. The Union Homefront
A. Mobilization and Finance
1. First conscription – can buy way out, Lincoln asks for more troops before Congress meets
2. Increased tariffs, income tax, sold bonds, printed currency “greenbacks”
3. War profiteers – industry/manufacturing make a lot of money – some corrupt
B. Suspension of Civil Liberties/Ignoring the Constitution
1. Lincoln thought better to save United States than follow Constitution
I. Presidential Plans – tough to be successful with Radical Republicans demanding revenge
A. Lincoln – if lived – impeached like Johnson or more sensitive to the South?
1. Believed South never legally withdrawn – 10% plan + create new state gov’t
2. Congressional fear that South would return to aristocracy and re-enslave blacks
a. Wade-Davis Plan – 50% sign oath + emancipation guarantees
1. Lincoln pocket vetoes and allows states to choose either plan
I. Industrial Growth in America - Reasons
A. Natural Resources – coal, oil, iron
B. Immigration – steady flow both Asia and Europe
C. Capitalist mentality supported by laissez faire government
D. Ingenuity – 440,000 patents in 1800s – inventions – Edison’s invention factory
E. Railroads – 1865 – 35,000 Miles > 1900 – 200,000 miles
A. Land claiming – railroad companies given land claims – size of Texas
A. Cities – offer jobs, entertainment, plumbing, electricity, phones, department stores, architecture
1. Immigration – antiforeignism – Nativistist Movement – Know-Nothing Party
A. Pre 1880 – immigrants came from Germany, British Isles – high literacy
B. Post 1880 – New Immigrant – Mediterranean, Slavic – poor literacy, arrive impoverished
C. Reasons for leaving – population explosion, persecution, exaggerated letters – streets paved with gold
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