🗽US History Unit 14 – Troubled Times – the Tumultuous 1850s

Key Events and Timeline

• 1850 Compromise of 1850 passed by Congress aimed to ease tensions between North and South (included admission of California as a free state, stronger Fugitive Slave Act, and popular sovereignty for New Mexico and Utah territories)
• 1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin published by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a novel that highlighted the cruelties of slavery and galvanized the abolitionist movement
• 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act passed, allowing popular sovereignty to determine whether new territories would allow slavery, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise
  • Led to violent conflict known as "Bleeding Kansas" as pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers clashed
• 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision ruled that African Americans were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in the territories
• 1859 John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, an attempt to incite a slave rebellion that ended in his capture and execution, further inflaming tensions
• 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold the office
  • His election prompted the secession of seven Southern states before his inauguration

Political Tensions and Debates

• Wilmot Proviso proposed to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico, but failed to pass Congress, highlighting the growing divide over slavery's expansion
• Compromise of 1850 attempted to balance interests of North and South, but ultimately failed to resolve underlying conflicts
• Emergence of the Republican Party in 1854, founded on the principle of opposing the expansion of slavery into new territories
• Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, focusing on the issue of slavery's expansion and the nature of the Union
  • Douglas advocated for popular sovereignty, while Lincoln argued that slavery was a moral wrong and should not be allowed to expand
• Freeport Doctrine articulated by Douglas during the debates, asserting that territories could effectively exclude slavery despite the Dred Scott decision by not passing laws to protect it
• Crittenden Compromise proposed in 1860 to resolve secession crisis by extending the Missouri Compromise line and guaranteeing slavery's existence, but was rejected

Slavery and Abolitionist Movement

• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves and denied captured individuals a jury trial, crystallizing Northern opposition to slavery
• Underground Railroad network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved people to escape to free states and Canada, with notable figures like Harriet Tubman
• Abolitionist movement gained momentum in the 1850s, with prominent figures like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Sojourner Truth speaking out against slavery
  • Garrison published The Liberator, an influential abolitionist newspaper
  • Douglass, a former slave, was a powerful orator and writer who argued for the humanity and rights of African Americans
• American Colonization Society proposed resettling freed slaves in Africa (Liberia), but was opposed by many abolitionists who sought equality within the United States
• Bleeding Kansas saw pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" and anti-slavery "Free-Staters" engage in violent confrontations over the territory's status
• Dred Scott decision asserted that African Americans were not citizens and had no standing to sue in federal court, and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories

Economic and Social Changes

• Industrial Revolution accelerated in the 1850s, with advancements in transportation (railroads), manufacturing, and communication (telegraph)
  • Railroads expanded rapidly, connecting cities, facilitating trade, and opening up new markets
  • Factory system expanded, with increasing mechanization and a shift towards wage labor
• Urbanization increased as people moved to cities for factory jobs and other economic opportunities, leading to growth of cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia
• Immigration surged in the 1850s, particularly from Ireland and Germany, leading to cultural tensions and nativist backlash (Know-Nothing Party)
  • Irish immigrants often faced discrimination and were relegated to low-paying, dangerous jobs
• Rise of labor unions and worker activism in response to poor working conditions, low wages, and lack of protections
  • Strikes and protests became more common, such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• Panic of 1857 a financial crisis triggered by declining international trade and over-speculation in railroads and land, leading to widespread unemployment and economic distress

Westward Expansion and Its Impact

• California Gold Rush (1848-1855) drew thousands of migrants to the West in search of fortune, leading to rapid population growth and development
• Homestead Act of 1862 provided 160 acres of public land to settlers who improved the land and lived there for five years, encouraging westward migration
• Transcontinental Railroad completed in 1869, linking the East and West coasts and facilitating trade, travel, and settlement
• Indian Removal and conflicts intensified as settlers encroached on Native American lands
  • Sand Creek Massacre (1864) saw U.S. troops kill over 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, mostly women and children
  • Wounded Knee Massacre (1890) marked the end of the Indian Wars and the subjugation of the Plains tribes
• Environmental impact of westward expansion included deforestation, overhunting of bison, and displacement of Native American tribes
• Manifest Destiny the belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent, used to justify territorial acquisition and removal of Native Americans

Cultural Shifts and Intellectual Movements

• Second Great Awakening a religious revival movement that emphasized personal salvation and moral reform, spurring social movements like abolition and temperance
• Transcendentalism an intellectual and literary movement that emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and the divinity of nature (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau)
  • Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" advocated for non-violent resistance to unjust laws and inspired future activists like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
• Seneca Falls Convention (1848) the first women's rights convention, which issued the Declaration of Sentiments calling for equal rights and suffrage for women
  • Key figures included Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott
• Romanticism an artistic and literary movement that emphasized emotion, imagination, and the beauty of nature (Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe)
• Hudson River School a group of American landscape painters who celebrated the natural beauty and grandeur of the American wilderness (Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church)
• Rise of popular entertainment, including minstrel shows, vaudeville, and circuses (P.T. Barnum)

International Relations and Foreign Policy

• Monroe Doctrine (1823) declared the Americas closed to further European colonization and asserted U.S. opposition to European interference in the Western Hemisphere
• Mexican-American War (1846-1848) resulted in U.S. acquisition of vast territories in the Southwest, including California and New Mexico
  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war and established the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico
• Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) between the U.S. and Britain agreed that neither country would seek exclusive control over a proposed canal across Central America
• Gadsden Purchase (1853) the U.S. acquired a strip of land from Mexico for $10 million, securing a southern route for a transcontinental railroad
• Opening of Japan (1854) Commodore Matthew Perry led a U.S. naval expedition that forced Japan to open its ports to American trade, ending centuries of Japanese isolation
• Ostend Manifesto (1854) U.S. diplomats issued a document calling for the annexation of Cuba, either through purchase or force, but it was rejected by the Pierce administration

Legacy and Historical Significance

• The 1850s laid the groundwork for the Civil War, as tensions over slavery, states' rights, and the nature of the Union reached a breaking point
  • The failure of compromises and the increasing polarization of North and South made conflict increasingly likely
• The decade saw the rise of key figures who would shape the course of the Civil War and American history, including Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee
• The Dred Scott decision and the Fugitive Slave Act galvanized the abolitionist movement and hardened Northern opposition to slavery
• Westward expansion and the displacement of Native Americans had lasting consequences for the American West and the nation as a whole
  • The idea of Manifest Destiny shaped American identity and foreign policy for generations
• The industrial and economic changes of the 1850s set the stage for the United States' emergence as a global economic power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• The cultural and intellectual movements of the era, including Transcendentalism and the women's rights movement, had enduring influences on American literature, politics, and social reform.