...Essay The essay gives you the opportunity to go in-depth into an issue in American culture. Your three possible topics are: (1) relations between blacks and whites; (2) the status of women; and (3) relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world. You pick one of these topics and, using only our textbook, write 1800-2000 words on how you have seen that topic throughout the course, from the beginnings to the present. How has it changed? What were the big events or people involved in it? What analysis can you bring to the topic, in order to assess it critically? The essay is to be critical and not just a summary of sections in which your topic is mentioned in the textbook. The essay should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins, and a 12-point font. Frequent citations (probably one or two per paragraph) to the textbook are essential for each point you find from the textbook. Use Turabian or MLA for your citation format and be exact in your citations, including page numbers for each one. No title page or works cited page are needed. In the beginning of the African American history, there were many obstacles and struggles that the colored people had to face. They were being mistreated, sometimes even less than a white man’s dog. It all began in 1619, the first African slaves were brought to Virginia. Once a person becomes a slave, they were slaves for life and so were the next generation. The majority of the slaves worked in rice or tobacco plantations in dangerous...
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...During the first big immigration waves from 1845-1849 which consisted primarily of Central, Eastern and Southern European groups, the United States of America grew at a rapid pace. Harriet Truman stated, “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” However, there was a bitter domestic disagreement about the practice of slavery, which was endorsed by the Southern states but was highly disagreed upon by the Northern states. The United States was equally divided on the issue of slavery. In 1849, Henry L. Benning who was a Georgia politician and the future Confederate general wrote to Howell Cobb, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1849-51) and...
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...of whom had not taken part. In the aftermath of the rebellion slaves codes through the country were significantly strengthened (as we saw in the Slave Code Presentations). The Mexican American War (1846-1847) The United States’s victory in the Mexican American war only exacerbated its internal problems. Although the territory wasn’t yet important politically, it inflamed tensions by pushing the issue of new states and territory to forefront of political discussion. It was especially significant because the conquered land was below the line drawn by the Missouri Act of 1820. Abolitionists, who had previously thought slavery was going to be contained, now had to deal with the possibility of more slave states. The Compromise of 1850 The compromise of 1850 calmed many of the tensions brought on by victory...
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...American Nation A History of the United States Angelica Johnson The Civil war was a very long and tedious battle that separated a country that had worked so hard to achieve its liberation from Europe and religious persecution. The new America had fought against many different enemies to achieve its own freedom. When the Mayflower set sail to rid itself of religious persecution, they found an uncharted territory to live free. Years later almost everyone forgot that they fought so hard to not persecute people for their beliefs. This would be a grave mistake for the Civil war between the Northern and South would only set our times back to the days when the Europeans persecuted people because of their beliefs. The political settlement between the North and South that Henry Clay designed in 1850 would only last four years. Americans continued to migrate westward by the thousands, and as long as slaveholders could empower the black slaves they could harvest crops at almost no cost to pay farmhands. Many slaves seeked redemption in the north because the north didn’t have the crop harvest the south had but mainly factories and industries. The federal Slave act of 1850, which imposed fines for hiding or rescuing slaves from southern slave owners could not guarantee their capture and return. Between 1819 and 1860, the critical issue that divided the North and South was the extension of slavery in the...
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...The American Civil War was Unavoidable The bloodiest time in history for America was during The American Civil War; a time when Americans fought against themselves for their own rights in which they believed they were entitled to. To many it would be considered shocking and absurd to say the Civil War was something that could have been avoided – and they’re right. The Civil War was an unavoidable and ultimately inevitable conflict that was essential to the evolution of our nation. The differences between the North and the South, economically, geographically, and politically, were major players on why the two divided halves of the America could not prosper together at that time; that and the fact that the previous attempts to compromise on slavery had reached an unavoidable end also made the Civil War an inevitable and undeniable conclusion to the problems brewing between the two sides. There was simply no further room for compromise. There were many differences between the North and the South. The most obvious of which is that the North was, for the most part, industrial; while the South on the other hand was economically dependent of the production of staple crops (primarily cotton). The production of cotton in the South with the advent of the cotton gin soared, causing an increase of labor required; this lead to an increased dependency on slave labor in the south. Slavery was something the North often looked down upon and also held little or no value to them. How could...
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...Virginia Plan). 4. Northwest Ordinance of 1787- was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States, passed July 13, 1787. The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory, the first organized territory of the United States, from lands south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River. 5. Nullification- in United States constitutional history, is a legal theory that a state has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional. 6. Oklahoma/Indian Country- are used to describe an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas who held Aboriginal title to their land. In general, the tribes ceded...
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...Sectional Issues in American Society (1844-1860) Sectional issues in America have been deep rooted, even extending into the colonial era, where various colonies tried to outsmart one another in regards to survival, and more importantly, profit. However, in the era of 1844-1860, larger issues were at stake in the nation. The key issue that separated Americans was the concept of equality. Specifically, who exactly was meant to be equal to whom. The Northern Americans thought that everyone was meant to be free and disagreed that slavery was a perfectly ethical institution. Contrary to that, the Southern Americans thought that slavery was a normal practice that would not only benefitting society but benefitting southern economy. The two sections...
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...relationships between the Spanish and Portuguese, and their respective American colonies as a result of rebellion, modernizing reforms and wars in Europe. Despite the liberalization of the trade monopoly, and the subsequent prosperity in most of these colonies, the local people did not benefit much. The Royalists insisted that all the money goes to them, mainly the Iberian monarchies, and the wealthy Spanish landowners. The Royalist ideas of anti-clerical regalism of the reformers from both Spain and Portugal had eroded the traditions of the Iberian Catholic monarchies, yet the ideas of Enlightenment and political alternatives to royal sovereignty could be found. The conservative anti-government outlook of the South was thus created as Latin America chose independence over living under monarchal rule. The same applied to the Scot-Irish people who always felt that they had left Ireland against their will, as they had no choice at all. They were mainly Protestant residents from Scotland, who had been settled on land seized from native Irish. They were also discriminated against by the Irish parliament because of their Presbyterian religion instead of following the Irish dominated Anglican Church. The Puritans were a group of religious reformists who had the aim of “purifying” the Anglican Church. This started in the 16th century with John Calvin and began leaving England in 1608. They formed the larger group among the settlers, and were wealthy. By the 1640s, their population had grown...
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...Eddie Bjarko Apush Chapter 13 November 23rd, 2014 Expansion War and Sectional Crisis What ideas did the term Manifest Digest reflect? Did it cause historical events such as the new political supports for territorial expansion, or was it merely a description of events? * In 1845, John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase Manifest Destiny; he felt that Americans had a right to develop the entire continent as they saw fit, which implied a sense of cultural and racial superiority. It was an idea that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. This led to “Oregon fever” The Oregon country stretched along the Pacific coast from the border with Mexican California to the border with Russian Alaska and was claimed by both Great Britain and the United States. “Oregon fever” raged in 1843 as thousands, lured by reports of fine harbors, mild climate, and fertile soil, journeyed for months across the continent to the Willamette Valley. 250,000 Americans had braved the Oregon Trail by 1860; many died en route from disease and exposure, although relatively few died from Indian attacks. Some of those pioneers veered off and went down to California, namely Sacramento River. To promote California’s development, the Mexican government took over the California missions and liberated the 20,000 Indians who worked on them, many of whom intermarried with mestizos and worked as laborers and cowboys on large cattle ranches. The rise of cattle ranching created a new society...
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...the only cause. Wars are complicated and there causes are not simple understandable. In this research paper we will discuss causes what started the Civil War. A war that separated the nations, ruined harvests, towns, and railroad lines. Many issues embarked the nation into disorder in 1861. Key administrative foundations contain the slow collapse of the Whig Party, the establishment of the Democrat Party and, the 1860’s voting of Abraham Lincoln as president. Religious disagreement to slavery also increased, braced by ministers and protestors such as “William Lloyd Garrison”. Ecological struggle over the extent of slavery into western lands and states grew. Administrative agreements, such as the “Missouri Compromise in 1820, Compromise of 1850, and Supreme Court rulings” were some causes that allocated the country even further. These division were enormous compare to the Cotton and economic issues. The essential story about industrial revolution, begins with the...
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...Introduction The Senate Campaign of 1858 was called the one of greatest Campaign of the century. In the summer of 1858, two candidates campaigned across the state of Illinois for a seat in the United States Senate. That belonged to Stephen Douglas from the Democratic Party. He was seeking reelection. His opponent was a lawyer from the newly established Republican Party. His name was Abraham Lincoln. Out of this great campaign birth the Lincoln-Douglas debates which was a series of formal political debates in 1858 between the two candidates, but also received national importance. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a defining moment in American political history, affording Abraham Lincoln a major opportunity to create an image for himself on the wider public stage. Stephen Douglas was an established political figure and had distinguished himself in numerous congressional battles, while Lincoln was not known in this arena. Discussion In 1832, Lincoln decided to run for the Illinois State Legislature. Lincoln was to campaign for local improvements such as better roads and canals. However, a war with the Black Hawk Indians broke out before Lincoln’s campaign could get started, in response he joined the Army. After his short wartime, Lincoln returned to politics and lost the race of Illinois Legislature. In 1834 Lincoln made a second attempt to maintain a seat in the state legislature, which he was successful in winning the seat. Lincoln was elected in 1834, 1836, 1838, and...
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...lecture and power-point notes compare and contrast the compromises of 1820 and 1850. Slavery came about in America in 1619 (RN). It lasted through the American Revolution, even after Thomas Jefferson scripted his famous lines in the Declaration of Independence, "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Clearly, slaves were not part of this included in Jefferson's words. When it came time to write the Constitution, the word "slavery" was never used. Instead, the framers chose to use the term "other people." These other people were counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in Congress according to the Three-Fifths Compromise (RN). This compromise kept slavery in the United States unharmed. The framers also decided not to do anything about the issue of slavery for twenty years. Prior to the American Civil War, many different compromises were made in an attempt to hinder the growing disagreements. However, this only extended the unavoidable events that would occur. The differences between North and South were far to great and compromise did not stand a chance at preventing the imminent conflict. This was most clearly shown in the ways in which the two main compromises: the Compromise of 1820, also known as the Missouri Compromise, and the Compromise of 1850 failed. In 1820 Missouri wanted to join the Union as a slave state. Prior...
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...childhood and young adulthood as a slave; her escape from the persecution of her lascivious master Dr. James Norcom (renamed Dr. Flint in the book); years of hiding in a small space in her grandmother's shed; her travels to the north and her residence there; and her eventual freedom. The main purpose of Incidents in Life of a Slave Girl is to give the reader information about her situations with slavery. She is informing the reader of things that has happened to her and her family during the 1850’s, which is also in the slave era. Jacobs states many issues about slavery, corruption, religion and how family is important. Some of the most important parts of the book tell how Jacobs and her family lived during this time period. “Reader, I draw no imaginary pictures of southern homes. I am telling you the plain truth. Yet when victims make their escape from the wild beast of Slavery, northerners consent to act the part of...
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...After the American Revolution, the North and South developed different views of life. The North developed busy cities, embraced technology and industry, and built factories run by paid workers. The South had remained an agricultural society. The Southern economy and way of life was based on the cotton crop. The South relied on the work of enslaved African Americans to do the work out in the fields. When it came to Americas expansion you had to decide if the new territories were going to be slave or free states. Many northerners wanted to end slavery all together, but the south relied on them, and wanted to keep them. The Compromise of 1850 was s series of compromises to help relieve tensions in the states. It made it so that California would be admitted as a free state. The people of the territories of New Mexico and Utah would decide the slavery question by popular sovereignty. The slave trade, but not slavery, would be ended in Washington D.C. Congress would pass new a strict new fugitive slave law. Texas would give up its claims in New Mexico for $10 million. The Fugitive Slave Act allowed people from the South to go up into the Northern free states, and take back fugitive slaves. The Southern slave owners could now go up north and get the escaped slaves back from the North. It also allowed for them to take some free African Americans, and save they were escaped. Free African Americans had to worry about people from the south coming up, and claiming that they were escaped...
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...History Homework Name: Course title: Institution: Instructor: Submission date: The American Civil War An increase in the American population during the 1800s bore dissatisfaction among the white settlers with regards to the land they owned. As a result, they began exploring land in the west of the Mississippi River, thus marking the Westward expansion. The exploration also included the acquisition of lands from Mexico and Louisiana, exploitation of California, and invasion of Texas. Although this activity propelled America onto a new stage and position, it also caused more conflict within the country that became one of the causes that led to the American Civil War. The annexation of Texas, movement of immigrants to the West and the settlement in Oregon led to the formation of a new region that later became states. At this point, there was a conflict of interest as to whether or not to make regions Free states (Brinkey, 2004). Meanwhile, Congress was seeking ways in which they could strike a balance between Free states and slaves. The westward expansion elicited views and debates on granting western territories permission to become states on the basis of their view of slavery. Subsequently, the state was split into two; abolitionist union and pro-slave Confederacy (Bartleby.com, 2014). A significant number of settlers had relocated to south into the Missouri by 1818. At that time, it was still in the process of being made a state while the same problem emerged...
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