Student+Summaries+1830-1861

=BLOCK E and BLOCK G=

=SLAVERY= ===-Some americans didnt like slavery ever since even before the country was founded. these people started organizing action supporting abolition, or getting rid of slavery forever. Abolitionists had different reasons for their views, such as religious views of all men created equally, or the Declaration of Independence which gave the American promise of all men equal. However, they sometimes had different opinions of how much freedom the African Americans should have. Abolitionists had many means of spreading their actions. William Lloyd Garrison published a newspaper for he cause, the Liberator, and later founded the American Anti-Slavery society, an organization which wanted immediate emancipation and racial equality for all African Americans. For all of this support came from free African Americans. Many of the former slaves became active in the abolitionist cause. Fredrick Douglass escaped when he was young and became a very important African American abolitionist leader of the 1800s. He knew how to read and write and gave important speeches all over the nation and in Europe. Douglass also published another antislavery newspaper and wrote several autobiographies. Another former slave, Sojourner Truth, was also very contributing to this cause, saying she had a calling from God to speak out against slavery. She traveled around the U.S. There were also many other publications, works, like Uncle Toms Cabin. Underground railroad: the organization was not a really a railroad but in reality a network of people who helped transport fugitive runaway slaves to the the North, away from slavery. They would go to the free states or Canada. They managed to achieve huge results. Traveling by night, groups of fugitives would be going on trails led by conductors, guided by the mere stars. their stops were called stations often places like barns, homes of abolitionists, and hidden places in old houses. Harriet Tubman was a famous conductor. She escaped from slavery early in 1849, and with the drive to bring with her family whom she left behind, she kept coming back to the South and bringing other fugitives to the north. She set 300 others free, as well as her family. She was heavily wanted for running away and harboring slaves in the SOUTH.===

=GOLD RUSH=

In 1830s and 1840s, Americans started traveling to the west and formed the ‘Oregon Trail’. Some went to Idaho and some went to California, and formed the ‘California Trail’. Although many Americans traveled along the California Trail, few actually settled in California. American merchants were usually more interested in trading goods made in factories than in establishing settlements. They traded for gold and silver coins, hides, and tallow from Mexico. California became a meeting ground for traders from Mexico and the United States. In 1848, when James.W.Marshall found gold in California, the California Gold Rush began. Miners and people started moving to California. The miners built camps to search for gold in the river, and formed a special culture in the camp. Miners in the camps came from many cultures and backgrounds. Most miners were young, unmarried men in search of adventure. Only around 5 percent of gold-rush immigrants were women or children. The hardworking women generally made good money by cooking meals, washing clothes, and operating boardinghouses. The news about the gold in California attracted miners from around the world to come to America. About 24000 Chinese people came to California for gold and a new better life. Chinese immigrants soon discovered that many Americans did not welcome them, however. In 1852, California placed a high monthly tax on all foreign miners. Chinese miners had no choice but to pay this tax if they wanted to prospect for gold in California. Some Chinese workers were the targets of violent attacks. If the Chinese miners dared to protest the attacks, the legal system favored Americans over immigrants. Soon, the Chinese immigrants started other businesses such as ploughmen, laundrymen, place miners, woolen spinners and weavers, domestic servants, cigar makers, and shoemakers. Soon 20000 immigrants from all over the world also moved to America and searched for gold and started their businesses. California’s developed because of the rapid population growth for gold. New businesses and industries ran California’s economy. However, the state was isolated from other parts of the country. They finally solved this problem after 20 years by building the transcontinental railroad. The transcontinental railroad made the state’s

=TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES= During 1800s there had been many technological advances in the United States. This hugely changed and made people’s lives easier.

To start with, there had been an outstanding development of the transportation in the United States. In 1830 Peter Cooper built a small but powerful locomotive called the Tom Thumb. However, the victory of Cooper spoiled when Tom Thumb broke down and lost a race with a horse. Then, railroad fever soon spread. By 1860 about 30,000 miles of railroad linked almost every major city in the eastern United States. As the railroad system grew, manufacturers and farmers could send their goods to distant markets and the economy surged forward. However, it was quite dangerous because if it runs too fast, it flies off the tracks. Passengers accepted such risks because the railroads reduced travel time dramatically.

As the railroads developed, a new fuel was discovered: coal. Coal replaced the wood and the demand fro coal grew more and more, which eventually led to creating several coal-mining industries. Coal was popular not only for faster trains, but also for heating homes. However, in the 1870s, the demand for steel grew more than the demand for coal. Steel was used to build factories and the machines they produced. It was also used to make the rails. As the demand for steel increased, the need for railroads increased too. Before, the railroads transported coals, but now they transported steel and also crops. The railroads also played a role in the growth of other businesses such as the logging industry. Also, some cities like Chicago grew thanks to the railroads.

Another big change occurred was the telegraph which shortened the time for people to communicate each other. In 1832, Samuel F.B. Morse invented the telegraph- a device that could send information over wires across great distances. A short click was called a dot, and a long click was called a dash. Alfred Lewis Vail, who was Morse’s partner, developed a system known as Morse code- different combinations of dots and dashes that represent each letter of the alphabet. In 1844 Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, the telegraph successfully sent the news of the presidential candidate’s nomination to politicians in Washington. After that, telegraphs were soon sending and receiving information for businesses, the government, newspapers, and private citizens. The telegraph grew with the railroad. Telegraph companies strung their wires on poles along railroads and they established telegraph offices in many train stations. By the time Morse died in 1872, Morse was famous across the U.S.

In addition, factories had some changes in their running sources. At the start of the Industrial Revolution, most factories ran on waterpower. However, factory owners began using steam power instead. It was then able for the factories to be built in most areas that the factory owners began to build their factories closer to cities and transportation centers. This provided easier access to workers, allowing businesses to lower wages.

=MORMONS=

The Mormons were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in western New York, which was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith. Smith claimed he had found and translated a set of golden tablets containing religious teachings. The writings were called the Book of Mormon. Membership of the Mormon church quickly increased, but some practices and beliefs caused Mormons to be persecuted, such as the practice of polygamy, or marrying more than one woman. In the early 1830’s, Smith and his growing number of converts left New York to spread their religion to the West, forming communities in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. All three communities failed in the end, however. The governor of Missouri issued an extermination order against all Mormons living in the state, forcing them to flee. In 1844, when Smith and his followers were in Carthage, Illinois, an anti-Mormon mob killed Smith, and the Mormons were forced out of Illinois, without a place to stay. Brigham Young became the new head of the Mormon Church after Smith’s death. After personally reviewing all available information about the Great Salt Lake Valley and the Great Basin by consulting with nearby mountain men and trappers, he chose this region, located in present-day Utah, as the new home for the Mormons. This was due to the fact that this region was not inhabited and wanted by anyone, yet it provided the Mormons with many advantages. Afterwards, thousands of Mormons living in the East took the Mormon Trail on wagons, handcarts, or sometimes on foot, to the new Mormon community in Utah. There, the Mormon community prospered; by 1860, about 40,000 Mormons were living in Utah. =COTTON=

Before the Industrial Revolution, cotton was not a very profitable crop. This was because cotton, before it could be sold to mills, the seeds in the cotton had to be removed first. As this had to be done by hand and required a lot of time, cotton production was slow and costly. The demand for cotton was growing as the textile mills in England required more raw cotton as their own production had increased due to the industrial revolution. In 1793, Eli Whitney, who had proposed the idea of mass producing guns with same replacement parts in the past, invented the cotton gin, which was a machine that could remove seeds more efficiently with the turn of a crank. It was much more efficient than normal, and a man could do 10 times the work he would have done in the same period of time with the cotton gin. This revolutionized the cotton industry as mass production of cotton was possible. Planters, large-scale farmers with more than 20 slaves, built cotton gins that could process tons of more cotton than would have been possible before. The invention made cotton very profitable, as the textile industry was also revolutionizing its production with new machines and so the demand for raw cotton was very high. Due to the new popularity of cotton, most southern farmers changed their crop to cotton due to its high profitability. Also, since cotton leached nutrients from the soil, farmers had to move every few years. This led to a rapid expansion of cotton farming, stretching west as far as Texas. This area of high cotton production was called the cotton belt. And since growing and harvesting cotton required lots of manual labor, southern farmers began to use cheap slaves instead of hired workers. This firmly established the tradition of slavery in the South, as the economy depended on cotton, and without slaves cotton production would be devastated. The textile mills in England and in the North bought the raw cotton to produce into fabric. Due to the transportation of cotton, many port cities in the South grew, such as Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans. Crop brokers called factors managed the trade. Southerners believed that cotton was “king” and that it was one of the most valuable resources in the world. Since the North had the advantage in industrial goods, the South remained largely agricultural, with slaves, who worked in the cotton plantations, being a vital part of the economy. The North did not need slaves as the land was unsuitable for farming and were mostly industrial, and so the two would clash again and again on the issue of slavery.

=MEXICAN -AMERICAN WAR=

Manifest Destiny-Americans thought it was there destiny to expand toward the west to the Pacific Ocean. They thought it was their duty to spread democracy.

In the 1820’s, Russia and Spain had given up the Oregon territory. Britain and America decided to share the territory. However, as the people of America started to spread more to the west, they wanted the Oregon Territory to become part of their territory. Both countries were trying to decide where to divide the land, and America was demanding Britain to accept the fifty-four forty north latitude or either have war with them. Both sides didn’t really want war, so they just decided to divide the land with the fifty-four forty line. After this, Texas came into the territory of America after declaring independence from Mexico. Mexico got angry, saying that America had stole their land. The first conflict between the two countries was because of the territory border. Each stated that they had more land than what the other said, and this later lead to the war. The first army from America was sent to Mexico on 1845. They tried to buy New Mexico for $30 million, but they refused to speak. Later on, Mexico sent it’s troops up to the border, and told the Americans to get off their land. America refused, and there was a small conflict. Several US soldiers were killed, and President Polk declared war on Mexico. When the war started, America had better weapons and had more volunteers than expected. While General Taylor led his troops to Mexico and won several battles, the Americans were debating against each other, whether the war was necessary or not. America went to California and demanded it to surrender, but it refused to do so. The Bear Flag Revolt failed to make them surrender, but the Americans didn’t give up. After the towns were all defeated, they finally surrendered. After this, the two armies fought in Buena Vista in 1847. Both had serious damage, and finally the Mexican army retreated. That way, America won the war. As you see, this war later made America’s territory expand more toward the west.