19th Century US History

The Jeffersonian Republican Era

19th Century
- Britain had the greatest impact at that time
o Colonies
- de Tocqueville: the idea of democracy
o America: democracy = self-government, the rule of the people
o White male suffrage: uniquely in the US
o Who can vote? Who can elect? – important problem
 Restriction based on race, age, gender, money, property → problem
o Tocqueville identified America as the place with the widest franchise, with the
most rights (compared to other countries at that time)
o Property qualifications still existed
o The democracy of the majority → Americans argued that it is the majority who
should rule
- Not a period we would associate with America
- BUT: the democracy of the majority makes the US stand out & important at that time
The 13 American states
- The Declaration of Independence made them states (1776)
- Before that, they were colonies
o They were depending on England
o Goods, soldiers, trade → controlled
o Markets for England
- The colonies:
 New Hampshire  Maryland
 Massachusetts  Delaware
 Rhode Island  Virginia
 Connecticut  North Carolina
 New York  South Carolina
 New Jersey  Georgia
 Pennsylvania

- The US Constitution
o Stronger union between the states
o The making of stronger nationalities
th
- 19 century: westward expansion
o By mid-century, this growth reaches the west coast

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

- Connects the two centuries
- One of the writers of the Declaration of Independence
- Various political positions
- He was from Virginia
- Lawyer
19th Century US History

- Slaveholder
- Elected President for two terms (1800-1808)
o The 19th century is influenced by his presidency
- He was born in the century of Enlightenment
o Emphasized the laws of Nature
o If we understand laws, we can interfere, we can make things better → religion
is not important (no direct interference)
o Knowledge is important
o Strong practical side
o Certain values:
 People are not equal → they should be
 Reducing wars and conflicts
 Designing efficient governments
 The balance of powers → came from Physics (Newton)
 Human relations are controlled by distance and proximity
 The world of humans is very similar to the physical world
- Jefferson believed in these ideas and was trying to implement them
o He invented some of them
- Jefferson was interested in improving things
- Colonies: agriculture was a major economic factor
- He came to become President in Washington
o Democratic Republican Party (Jeffersonian) vs the Federalist Party → this was
the first party system
- Jefferson’s program
o Minimal / small state
o Let the people deal with their own problems
o Minimalize governmental interference
o Reduced army and navy → save money for the people
o The reduction of national debt → he managed to do that by 50%
o To make the US a friendly place for foreigners
o Change naturalization
 People had to live in the country for 14 years in order to become US
citizens
 Jefferson wanted to change that
 Reduced it to 5 years
o Hated the ideal aristocracy
o Jefferson believed in reason and education
o Self-government can only happen if people are educated enough and have
certain knowledge
o Europe: feudalism → a privileged few ruling over the people
- Tocqueville criticized American democracy → some kind of distinction should be
implemented
o Jefferson: leaders should be educated at universities
o People will defend democracies from the leaders
- Jefferson believed in the importance of agriculture
19th Century US History

o No industrialization in America
o Agriculture is good for the nation → morality, ensures independence
o Later, he changed his mind and also included manufacturing
- He was against too much modernisation
- Checks and balances
o He believed the Supreme Court had too much power
o Judicial review
o Jefferson wanted a change
o The Louisiana Purchase
 Bought from Napoleon Bonaparte (1803)
 Doubled size of the US
 $15 million
 Rich in natural resources
 Boundaries: Mississippi River, The Rocky Mountains
 Jefferson’s purpose with it
 To control the river
 Free trade
 Napoleon gave up the ambition to control North America → not worth
it + money
o The President didn’t have the power to buy land from a foreign nation
(according to the law)
 BUT: Jefferson believed it was good for the nation → agricultural and
economic growth → re-election
o Jefferson was happy with the purchase → Louisiana facilitated his plans
o Jefferson believed that Europe was in decline because of the rise of
industrialization
- Embargo of 1807
o Napoleonic wars in Europe
o The British wanted to restrict American trade → embargo
o The French almost did the same
o Affected American maritime trade very negatively
o No imported goods should come to the US
o Isolating America
o Harsh consequences
 Merchants suffered damages
 Financial damages
 Economic crisis
- Retaliation – Impressment
o The British were kidnapping US sailors and citizens
o Jefferson found this as an insult
- 1809: Jefferson suspended the embargo (“dambargo”)
- Benefits of the embargo:
o Providing for themselves
o Building manufactures
o The beginning of American industrial revolution
19th Century US History

- Jefferson was followed by Madison

The presidency of Madison
- British: kept kidnapping Americans
- Indian uprising
- 1812: Madison declared war on Britain
o America was not prepared for the war
o They attacked Canada (British possession)
o Financially unprepared – no national bank
o By 1814: the British reached the coast
o They burnt the White House
- December 1814: The Hartford Convention
o Nullification: right of the state to nullify
o The new President should come from another state (not Virginia)
o Making more difficult for states to join the US
- 1814: peace treaty
o The war was still going on in New Orleans
o A. Jackson
o January: battle, great victory → it didn’t really affect the outcome of the war
o They weren’t aware of the treaty
- New factories were built
- Boosted American nationalism: the anthem was created during the war
- Jackson – national hero
- Finally, America confirmed its independence
- The Federalist party disappeared (they were traitors)
James Monroe (1816-24)
- Republican Party
o Priority: defence
o Spending money on government
- Introduced the idea of the ‘American System’
o The government should regulate the economy
o Tariff duties – protecting national economy
- Self-sufficiency
- Second Bank of the United States in Philadelphia
o Model: Bank of England
 Finance national debt (public debt)
o Hamilton: first Head of the bank
o Regulation
o Meant to be a temporary institution
o Charter: expire in 1832
- Expansive foreign policy
- Monroe Doctrine (1823)
o Excluding Europeans
o “America belongs to the Americans”
19th Century US History

o No more colonies in America

o Aimed against Spain (no coming back)
o Discourage the Russians (Oregon)
- Economic crisis of 1819
o Panic
o Symptoms of future economic crises
- The Missouri Crisis (1819-21)
o Slave state
o Burning issue
o 2 sections: slave-holding and free-states
o Balanced number: 11-11
o Slave states would be the majority with Missouri
o Break the balance
o Another concern: Senator Tallmadge
 Gradual emancipation of slavery
 Others wanted Missouri to join
o Solution: new free state should be created – Maine
o 36°30’: below that line, slavers could exist, but above it, they can’t

Next: John Quincy Adams (1824-28)

Society and Culture in the Antebellum USA

Important and turbulent period – religious movements
The Second Great Awakening
- Predestination rejected
o Being a righteous person is the answer → you decide about that
o Good morals are important
o People should repent
o Becoming a better person is important
o Living in sin is wrong → you end up in hell
o People should be converts & become Christians → important
o Adam gave in to sin → no free will anymore → can’t choose between good
and bad → man’s depravity
 Calvinist argument for predestination
o American believe in the ability of becoming better
o You need God’s assistance for that through the Holy Spirit
o Salvation becomes available for everyone
o Church attendance rose → literacy increased
- New denominations: Baptists, Methodists
- Camp meetings: important events that provided opportunities to convert
- New sects also appeared: Mormons, 7th Day Adventists
- Moral perfectionism started with the Great Awakening
o You are responsible not only for yourself but for others
o Community is important
19th Century US History

- Temperance
Utopian Societies
- The Shakers
o Established in 1774
o Pious lives
o Celibacy was important
o No private property
o Hard to maintain
o Very good at handcrafts
- Germans in Pennsylvania
o Harmony Society
o Brotherly love
o Shared property
- The Oneida Community
o In New York State
o Leader: J. H. Noyes
o Based on the idea of complex marriage
 Every woman was the wife of every man and vice versa
 The children belonged to everyone
o Noyes was attacked
o The community didn’t survive
- New Harmony, Indiana
o Established in 1825 by Robert Owen
o Brotherly love
o Broke up after 2 years
- Brock Farm, Massachusetts
o Destroyed by fire
- Ideas of organizing human life
More successful reforms
- The prison reforms
o Eastern State Penitentiary, Pennsylvania
o Punishment + teaching
o In prison, they learn bad things from their inmates
o The aim is to make inmates better people
 Reform their personality
o How you set up a prison matters
o J. Bentham: panopticon
 Inmates were watched
o Solitary confinement: no communication → nervous breakdowns
o Auburn State Prison, NY (1821) → better
- Reform for the handicapped
o Samuel Gridley Howe
 First institution for the deafmutes
19th Century US History

o New England Institution for the Blind

o Dorothea Dix: first lunatic asylum in Boston
 Inmates kept in inhumane conditions → Dorothea wrote a petition
Education
- “Sola Scriptura” & “Sola Fide”
o Bible: the source of Salvation
o Literacy is crucial
- School reform in the North and Middle – free public education
o Demanded by working-class people
o The elite also promoted this idea → to control these kids
o New England and New York
- These schools should be outside the revenue of the state
- Critiques of the reform:
o Why pay tax for the education of other people?
- Horace Mann: Massachusetts
o Teachers should be better paid
o Schools should be better equipped
o Wanted to raise the quality of schools
o Separating school time from work time
o Salaries increased
- By 1850, most states provided free public education
o Illiteracy rate went down
 New England: 0,54%
 Middle A. H.: 3%
 South: 20%
- High schools: uncommon, private academies
- Higher education:
o University of Virginia
o 500 universities → many didn’t survive
o Not high standard
o Small
o Poor quality
o Adult education – The Lyceum Movement
- Free public libraries
Temperance Movement:
- Traits of Victorian Culture
- Self-restraint
- Ethos developing
o Work ethic
o Restrain all energies
o Background: alcohol consumption rose
 Many misconceptions (e.g. it can cure illnesses, you can work harder
when you drink alcohol)
19th Century US History

 → People got drunk → this lead to accidents

- Americans launched the movement to tackle the problem of alcoholism
- Abstinence
- Modest way of life
- Established in Boston
- 1834: 1 million members of this society
- Why?
o Alcohol leads to crimes
o Poverty → people spent their money on alcohol
- Becoming a morally better person
- Other forms: Washington Temperance
o Small portions aren’t okay either
o Total abstinence
o Groups for alcoholics to share their experiences
- Cold water army of children
o To advocate abstinence
- In order to join, people had to sign a pledge and make an oath
- Publishing literature
o Ten Nights in a Bar Room
- Radical temperance – prohibition
Women’s Movement
- Elizabeth Cody Stanton
- Separation of gender roles
- H. B. Slove: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Children’s literature
- Angelina and Sarah Grimké
o Evolutionists
o Given the chance to speak in public
- World Anti-Slavery Conference in London
- Lucretia Mott
o 1848 July 4: meeting at Seneca Falls, New York – Declaration of Sentiments
 All men and women are created equal
 Major document for the women’s rights movement
- Amelia Bloomer
o Started a newspaper called the “Lily”
o Bloomer in the Bloomers
o Started to wear trousers
- 1860s: property rights for women
Slavery Issue
- It was believed that slavery will disappear in America
- 18th century: revival of slavery
- Slavery = labour force, integral part
- Founding fathers were against slavery
- Abolitionism: northern states started to emancipate slavery
19th Century US History

o 1817: American Colonization Society

 Racist
 Slaves should go back to Africa
 1822: Liberia, Monrovia (after Monroe)
 Criticized by many
o William Lloyd Garrison
 set an example
 gradual abolition
 to ensure that the children of slaves would be emancipated legally
before they reach adulthood
 then: immediate emancipation → slavery was a sin → have to get rid of
it
 The Liberator
- Lewis Tappan: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833
o Slavery should be abolished
o Literature abolitionist
o Table petitions
o “gag rule”
- Underground
o Related to runaway slaves
- Americans believed that abolitionists were anarchists
- South: slavery is positive
- 2 groups
- Polarizing American Society

Antebellum economic development

Economic Changes and Westward Expansion
- 19th century is about immense economic growth
- By the end of the century, it was bigger than Britain’s
- At the beginning of the century, there wasn’t a great economy
- Louisiana Purchase
- The population doubled every 25 years
o 1860: 31 million
o States: from 18 to 33
- 1830: capitalist economy → capital = money to develop infrastructure (e.g. to build a
factory) → mass production → supply-demand; free market → no government
intervention, except for e.g. railroad building
- → Push of desire to make more money
- Producing for far away markets
- Factory workers:
o 1st: farmer girls + children
 Child labour: children didn’t have to go to school → factories, mines
nd
o 2 : immigrants
o → problem of the labour force solved
- Mass immigration started
19th Century US History

- Industrial development: new phase

- Growth factors:
o transport revolution → creation of infrastructure
 Cumberland National Road
 Maryland – West-Virginia
 1818
 Made the movement of people and goods really easy
 First phase of transportation revolution
 Steam boats (paddle-wheels)
 No roads-vibes
 Clermont, Hudson River
 Popular
 1830: 200 steam boats on the waters
 1878: 400 steam boats
 Carried everything
 Accidents
 Erie Canal (1828)
 Midwest connected to the East
 Baltimore-Ohio railroad (1830)
 1840: 3000 miles
 1860: 30 000 miles
 Renting free land
 Locomotive
 Chicago: 11 lines meet
 Significance: speed, transportation of everything
Major export products of the US:
- Cotton, wheat, tobacco
- 1825-1860: value of foreign trade 67 million – 333 million dollars
- Carried by American ships
Westward expansion
- Stage coaches and stage wagons → wild West films → real life of western people
- Frontier: separates the civilized and the unsettled ones
o 1814: Mississippi River
- At the price of deportation of Natives
o e.g. Cherokees in 1830 – Georgia to Oklahoma
- Northwest: centre of agricultural production
o Corn, cattle, sheep, etc.
- Agriculture is different in the North and South
o Commercialization of agricultural capitalism, machines, specialization
o Slaves, specialization
- John Deere’s steel plow →people could cultivate hard soil with it (“Mr. Cornick’s
reaper”) → The Cotton Kingdom – South
o Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, and St. Louis benefited from it
19th Century US History

- Territorial growth
o 1840s: number of people who lived in cities ~ 3 million (before, it was 2
million)
o North East: most urbanized area
o More than 1/3 by 1860s vs. less than 10% in the South
o NY became the most important port (North Atlantic trade)
 Merchants controlled the “cotton triangle”
South
- Economy based on slavery was booming → “Cotton Kingdom”
- Britain was targeted by the cotton traders → textile industry
- Cotton gin → removing the seeds by the cotton ball
- Mississippi became the leading cotton producer
- Tobacco was important + rice (South East) + sugar (Louisiana)
- Not interested in machinery → slaves → more effective than machines
- Task system vs. gang system (labourers on farms - more profit)
o Task for each slave or for a whole group of slaves
- Black codes: drew a strong line between slaves and free people
o E.g. cannot bear arms, cannot defend yourself in a court case, cannot marry,
cannot leave the plantation, forbidden to learn to read
- Northern banks lent money for plantation owners → credit went to them
- Disadvantages: soil exhaustion + no development
o More west to find new lands + new slaves
Manufacturing
- Embargo:
o No imported goods
o USA had to improve industrial production
o Domestic market
- Textile mill producing fabric from cotton
- These factories were not as big as their European counterparts
- Capital had to be gathered
New concept: Ltd. (Limited liability)
- Shareholders lose only the amount of money they invested in case of bankruptcy
- Corporation → definition
- Investor
- Debt
- A new business elite emerges
Trade unions:
- Started in England
- Adopted in America
- They protected workers’ interests
- In America, they didn’t survive
- Panic of 1837: killed trade unions
19th Century US History

- Instead of trade unions, self-made protectors emerged

- Better working conditions → middle-class reformers
Immigration
- Highest number in New England, Midwest and Northwest
- Lowest number: South
- Boston: major Irish centre
- 1840s: massive increase in immigration
- 1850s: over 300.000 / year
- 1815-60: 5 million immigrants
o Ireland, Germany, Britain → agricultural societies → small producers were
pushed out because of large-scale agriculture
o Germans: Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin
o Irish: New York City
- Anti-Catholicism tended to emerge (e.g. Know Nothing Party)
o New Catholic immigrants
 “posed a threat” on American values
o Didn’t last very long

Jacksonian Democracy
Andrew Jackson
- Hero in the battle of New Orleans
- Democracy: government = the people governing themselves through their
representatives
- Democratic republic → different from Europe (no democracy)
o e.g. Britain = monarchy (“the man’s rule”)
- Americans saw themselves as a distinct nation
- BUT: only white adult males could vote → women and minorities were excluded +
property qualifications

Jacksonian Democracy
- Eliminating property qualifications
o Other restrictions remained there
o Europeans admired this system
- Cultural aspect:
o Americans were all the same
o Europeans were different
o No social distinctions
o Relatively homogenous society
o Only difference between American people: money, wealth
- Travel: interesting activity
- Universal adult, white male franchise
- Office holders
o Many officers were elected by the electors of the people
o Before: elected not by the people
19th Century US History

o Jackson brought it closer to the people

o The founding fathers didn’t trust the people because they thought that with
power in their hands, they would become tyrants
- Presidential candidates were chosen by caucus
- Modern political campaigns → appealing to the public
- “lame duck”, “logrolling”, “gerrymandering”
- Elbridge Gerry: redrawing election districts in order to favour the party in power
John Quincy Adams:
- Peculiar election
- Came from an older generation and from Massachusetts
- Emphasized the role of the federal government
- Planned to establish an American University → not successful
- Emphasized central rule
- Agriculture
- Ideas not welcomed by the Congress → not realized
- National republican
- → Jackson came after him
- Martin van Buren: party organization; national newspapers; “OK”
- Election of 1827: highest number of votes
- Adams’ followers said that Jackson was only a military power
- Spoils system
Andrew Jackson
- President of the people
- He pocket vetoed many laws
- The President embodied the will of the people
- The objective was not to spend people’s money on luxury projects
o Local projects
 Nashville Road Bill (1830)
 Congress passed it, but Jackson vetoed it (not a federal project)
o Projects = internal improvements
o Supported state projects:
 1832 Georgia
 The Cherokees lived there
 Gold was found there
 The Supreme Court didn’t let it pass
 Jackson did it anyway → Natives had to go, and many of them
died in the Trail of Tears
 1827: new tariff duties
 Southerners began to complain
 Imported, foreign goods
 South Carolina: free trade
 Against the US constitution
19th Century US History

 South Carolina: if government doesn’t cancel these tariff rules,

South Carolina will nullify
 1828-33: Nullification Crisis
 One state challenging the federal government
 South Carolina called the militia of the state
 Civil war: first shot in South Carolina
 They claimed for states’ rights
Bank war of 1832
- Hamilton: took the Bank of England as an example → Bank of the United States →
expired → no national bank
- Second national bank:
o Nicholas Biddle: President of the Bank of the United States
o He issued bonds to get money
o Funds of the government
o Issue national currency
o Regulatory role within the banking sector
o → people criticized strict policies (farmers wanted easier loans)
o Rate of dollar was fluctuating
o State banks wanted to loosen policies
o Jackson didn’t like banks in general
 BUS = “a threat” to the liberty of the people
 speech about the bank
o Presidential campaign purposes
o Charter of the bank about to expire
o Banks represented foreign, aristocratic values
o Against equality and social mobility
o Supported moneyed interest
o He won the campaign
- 1837: second economic crisis (next President) → reason: the national bank couldn’t
regulate the banking sector
The second party system
- Democrats vs Whigs
- Institutions
- Modern parties
- Infrastructure, newspapers, connections
- Party apparatuses
- Campaigning became more personal
- Democrats:
o Farmers, artisans, wage labourers, immigrants
- Whigs
o Strong government needed
o Happy to finance local projects with federal money
o Involvement of federal government in economic development
19th Century US History

o Conservative in many ways

o Nativism
- Martin van Buren
o Old Kinderhook (O.K.)
o The Whigs beat the Democrats
o “Hard Cider” candidate – William Henry Harrison
o Van Buren: womanly figure
o Harrison beat him in 1840
o Harrison: only 1 month in office; he died in pneumonia (caught it during his
inauguration); longest speech ever
 Followed by his Vice President John Tyler
 Whig, but took Southern interests into consideration → conflicts
 Texan → slavery
- Sectionalism appeared: support was different in various states
19th Century US History

The Road to Disunion

Mason-Dixon line
- Surveyors drew the line
- Mason and Dixon were surveyors
- Later, this line became the border of North and South
- Separated free and slave world
- Missouri → changed the line at 36°30’ latitude (Missouri Compromise)
- Since 1819
- Maine was created to keep the balance → essential
- Seats in the Senate are given by state → 2 seats per state
- By the 1850s, sectionalism became more and more widespread
- South: separate from North, slavery kept
- West: open to expansion
- Population of the South is less than of the North
o 20 million vs 9 million
o → Democracy of the majority
o → Southerners started to worry (minority position)
- Industry in the North
- South: agriculture
- Wealth of North was more concentrated
- Southern society: more hierarchical; ethos of being a planter; excluded new ideas;
dwelling

The Civil War (1861-65)

The North (The Union)
- The Union was divided during the war
o A lot of people were against the war → determines military actions later on
o Opposition within the Republican Party → Lincoln was in a precarious
position → he had to make balance
o Problems with the four border states → Lincoln also had to deal with that
 Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware
 Slave states who were still in the Union
 Lincoln had to be cautious about the issue of slavery not to lose these
states
- Homestead Act of 1862
o The West should be closed off from slavery
o BUT: free land should be available for cultivation
o Generous measure from the Federal Government
o Beneficial: more producers on the West
o Major measure
o Available even for immigrants
- Morrill Land Act of 1862
o Agricultural colleges → bases of state colleges
19th Century US History

- Morrill Tariff Act of 1861

o In order to protect Northern industry, prices of foreign goods were risen
o Against free trade
o Economic boom
- Pacific Railroad Act of 1862
o Resulted in an intercontinental line
o Boosted transportation within the nation
o Midwest to West
- → Economic development
o Woolen and leather industries profited from the war
o War was beneficial for the agricultural production, too
o The North was not really affected by the war (apart from the economic boom)
- Martial law:
o Mars = the god of war
o Individual rights were suspended
o Habeas corpus → one could be arrested without legal procedures
o Lincoln’s purpose was to threaten people with this measure
The South (Confederacy)
- The war affected it the opposite way: shortage of food, clothes, coffee, and boot polish
- President of the Confederate States of America: Jefferson Davis
o Coordination became a problem
o Suspicions towards Davis and power
- Slavery was acknowledged and protected by the constitution
o E.g. protecting tariffs for slave trade
- Davis: elected for 6 years; weak president
- Stephens:
o Vice President to Davis
o Davis was concentrated too much power → consolidation
- Confederacy:
o Not well-organized
o State sovereignty = major impediment
o Army: states provided soldiers for it
o Lack of centralization

The War
- 1st phase: July 1861-Sept 1862
o Antietum
o There were several plans
 Lincoln wanted to avoid bloodshed
 Confederacy should be broken by starvation
 The Anaconda Plan
 To isolate the South
 Sea blockade
 Didn’t work → many years’ time needed
19th Century US History

 Change of plans: capturing the capital city, Richmond

o Eastern war theatre:
 General Robert E. Lee → big role in defending Richmond
 General Irvin McDowell → Lincoln appointed him major general
 First major battle: Richmond
 McDowell replaced by George B. McClellan
 Started building up the Union Army by training them
 Reluctant to lead them into battle → avoided confrontation
 Perfectionist
 Exaggerated difficulties → criticized
o Western war theatre
 General George H. Thomas & General Ulysses Grant
 Key to final victory of the Union forces
 April 1862, Shiloh
 Union troops could move more south
 Cut west and east
 Control Missouri River Valley
 Weaken Confederacy
 Isolation of Confederacy
 Sept 1862, Maryland → Union victory
 Lee wanted to attack Pennsylvania
 McClellan won
 BUT: he could have captured Lee’s army, but he didn’t →
dismissed by Lincoln
- The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
o Emancipation of slaves in territories in rebellion (Southern states) → BUT: not
in the four border states of the Union
o East:
 Lee successful in several battles
 Union army trying to get Richmond
 Pennsylvania, Gettysburg (November 1863)
 3 days
 About 50,000 people killed
o West:
 Grant active → promoted Commander in Chief
 Complete control over the Mississippi River
 Sherman:
 greatest role
 eastward movement
 Georgia
 1864: Atlanta, Georgia destroyed just before the next
Presidential election
- 1864: Lincoln (Republican) vs. McClellan (Democrat)
o McClellan wanted to make peace by negotiations
- Lee could no longer get resources from South
19th Century US History

- April 1865, Appomatox Court House: Lee’s surrender to Grant

o Official ending
o 5 days later, Lincoln was assassinated
- The importance of the Civil War:
o Bloodiest war in the USA
o The nation could be reunited
o Economic and political development weren’t really broken
Reconstruction after the War
- Reintegration of the South
- Revolving around the issue of slavery, rights, officers, blacks
- Confederacy’s integration into the Union
- Confederacy’s main political state taken away → couldn’t govern itself
- South should accept the conditions of the North
- By the end, the South could govern itself, restore white supremacy
- North: came out prosperous
- South: devastated; slave property of 2 million dollars lost; disease, starvation
- The Federal Government didn’t really want to deal with these issues
o The only measure was Freedman’s Bureau helping the slaves

New phase: Civil Rights Act of 1866

- Provided citizenship for blacks + suffrage for black men
- Formal confederate states didn’t have to pay back anything
- Developed out from the 14th Amendment
- Blacks were happy because of the suffrage and equality coming from the citizenship
- Whites didn’t like it
- Congress 66 change: beginning of the radical phase of reconstruction
- Tennessee accepted → reintegrated to the union, rest of the confederacy states refused
- 5 military districts were organized
- Conditions:
o accept black suffrage
o disenfranchise formal confederacy officials
o ratify the 14th Amendment
- ’67 Grant: President – Republican Party
o Majority of votes: 700,000 blacks voted
o Inefficient presidency → scandals
- Northern politicians appeared in the South
- Reforms by the Republicans
o Black votes
o Imprisonment for death abolished
o Universal public education introduced
- BUT:
o still high taxes
o fraud
o corruption
19th Century US History

- Tenant and sharecropping agriculture

o Hire a piece of land
- Republican Party could survive only because of the black vote + military presence
(US army)
- Black vote: threat for white supremacy
- KKK – Ku Klux Klan – outlawed in 1871
- North began to turn away from Southern politics
- 1876: only Louisiana and South Carolina had Republican majority
- Rutherford B. Hays: 1877 – end of Republican supremacy
o segregation
- Jim Crow Laws
- Plessy vs Ferguson (1896)

Exploiting the West

- Trappers, gold miners
- Indian tribes
- Wild West
o Inhabiting cities happened really slowly
 It was different there to cultivate crops, so people didn’t want to go
there
 Midwest: nice soil, rich – unlike the West
1st people appearing: trappers, hunting → GOLD MINERS (e.g. Nevada)
o Comstock Laws: 1st gold myth → gold, silver, copper
o 2nd wave of the myth:1850s
- → Gold mines: $350 million of old
- → Towns, cities developed
o Very unruly, no order
o Bank, hotels, bars, gambling houses
o Own law enforcement, other safety providing institutes
- Comstock Lode mining settlement
- Then larger area for mining → Mining as big business
- Silver and gold followed by copper
o Copper was above gold the soil
o Used for electric cables and wires
2nd wave of people: COWBOYS – Cattle Industry
- Longhorn cattle, bull
- Food industry
- End of the Civil War, 5 million cattle
- You don’t necessarily own the ranch
- Cattle trails: long drive
o 2 months from Texas to the North
o Trains: e.g. Chicago
o “Cowtown”
19th Century US History

o Trails moved Westward, direction the same

o North, then Chicago
o Ranch system moved Westward & North
nd
- 2 half of the century: Americans became beef eaters
- Associations to protect the ranchers
- Sheep holders arrived
- Epidemic: many killed + very severe winter → individual ranches replaced by
corporates → cattlemen became cowboys working at somebody else’s business
Plains Indians
- Subjugation of the Plains
- Consisted of many tribes: Comanche, Blackfoot, Cheyenne
- Special lifestyle based on the buffalo
o Buffalo hunting
- Tribes were rivals, they couldn’t join forces
- Tribes were slowly defeated
- In the 1860s, government tried a more peaceful way: reservations in Oklahoma and
South Dakota
o Tried to push Indians there → Indians didn’t want to go there → more trouble
- Gold found → white settlers → resistance
o Gen Custler, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse
o Little Big Horn → major victory for the Sioux Indians – 256 white soldiers
were killed
- Lack of supply: ammunition, arms, etc.
- Apache: last 10 resisted
o Geronimo
- 3 million buffalo …
- New concept of dealing with Native Americans:
o Military control → re-assimilated to society – e.g. boarding schools + tribal
system destroyed
Transportation Revolution
- 1. The stagecoach
o No railroads yet
o South Carolina lines: 1st in 1857 – 2 times a week, 25 days long journey: St.
Louis – San Francisco
- 2. Transcendental telegraphs
- 3. Transcontinental railroads
o Nebraska, Sacramento…
o Union pac., Central pac.
o Lot of problems during their construction
o Loans
o Companies who built it overcharged it
o Lands
- 4 more lines
19th Century US History

- Programs by the Federal Government

Farming in the West
- In the West – larger unit of land needed to survive
- European people – realized they needed special tools: steel, plow, steel, windmills
- No funds
- Population grew, but predominantly male
- BUT: some women and children, too → schools, churches
- Simply territories, not states
s
- West started to disappear → how to keep it?
o Because treated as an infinite deposit, natural resources
o Species disappeared
- G.P. March: 1st drew attention to deforestation
- Interest developed in forest management → restrictions
- Act: preserving, protecting nature to supply timber for the future as well
- John W. Powell: Grand Canyon
- National Reclamation Act (1902)
o Immigration project started
o Water
o Drought
o 1940: 1 million acres were “made”

National Parks
- Disappearance of the West would be bad, too civilized
- If no nature → let’s conserve it
- Yellowstone National Park
- National Park Service (1916)

Economy after the Civil War

Industry
- Time of massive industrialization, shift from agriculture to industry
- 2 billion dollars → 13 billion dollars between 1860-1900 – value of industrial
production
- 1/3 of the world’s industrial production happens in the USA – USA takes over from
Britain
- Civil War created new business opportunities and a new banking system
- Exploration of natural resources
- Self-sufficiency
- Large domestic market to receive the goods
- Immigration
- Cultural values: hard working
- Changes in the business culture: bigger, larger companies, holding major forces of
business stocks
19th Century US History

- New inventions
o Typewriter – administration
o cash register
o Transatlantic cable
o Bell: telephone (1876)
o Edison: electronic light bulb
 Concept of research laboratory
 Phonograph
 Battery
 Motion picture projector
 Power station
o Tesla – electric motor
- Railroad
o 1890: companies over 1 billion dollars and twice the size than the Federal
Government
- Time zones were standardized (Eastern + Central + Mountain + Western)
o Airbreak
o Higher prices for short distances (+ vice versa)
- 1887: Interstate Commerce Act
o Regulate railroads around the country
- Major areas of US industry + economy
o Iron became a major raw material
o Pittsburgh: iron and steel
 Andrew Carnegie (from Scotland) → Symbol of American Dream
 United Steel Company
 Invented the practice of vertical business structure
 Not only the factory he owned but the mines, too
 47 million dollars’ fortune
 Used his money for philanthropic courses
o Oil: fossil fuel for lamps (kerosene)
 John D. Rockefeller: he began to build his company – Standard Oil
 Systematic markets + distribution
 Used industrious ways to eliminate competitors
 1st billionaire
o Banking
 J. P. Morgan: concept of investment banking (banker himself)
 Provide loans to control them (e.g. railroads)
- Immigration:
o Immigrants settled down in cities
o 1880s and early 1900s (85% came in this period)
o Heavy industry jobs (mine / factory workers)
 High safety hazard
o Ethnic enclaves / neighbourhoods
 Why isolations felt different (didn’t want to mix)
 Individual institutions (schools, churches)
19th Century US History

 Fraternal societies (paid a membership → get it back in need)

o Anti-immigration sentiment grew in Americans
 Threat to democracy + Catholics
 Antisemitism
 Immigration restrictions league to protect the Anglo-Saxon elements
 1882: Immigration Law (convicts, popers, lunatics excluded)
 1882 : Chinese Exclusion Act (no Chinese allowed)
19th Century US History

Urbanization
- Cities in the East + Midwest benefited from immigrants
- Concern: homes, transportation, streets were paved
- Transportation: omnibus, elevated steam railway, electric trolley, subway system
- Electric lightning: safety, 24 hour work shifts
- Shops, department stores, specific shops, shopping malls → rise of consumer culture
- Mail order / parcel post service – Sears Tower in Chicago
o Order items from all over the states
- Chain store
- With shops, advertising rose → persuasion became important
o Setting trends, values for Americans
- Housing became a problem with immigration
o Tenement houses for immigrants
o Low-living conditions, high death rates in certain districts

Society and Culture in Postbellum USA

Urbanization
- Developments
o Transportation
o Homes
o Bridges
o Streets paved covered with asphalt or bucks
o Omnibuses down by houses NYC special
o Electric trolley
o Skyscrapers: first in Chicago, NY
o Subway system: London, Bp, US: Boston, NY
o Electric lighting: safety, 24 hour workdays, longer open time
o Shops, restaurants, businesses in general
o Department store – Chicago Marshall Fields
o Parcel – post service = mail order
o Chain store – 1st : Great Atlantic Pacific Tea Company
o Advertising
 Rather persuasion becomes important
 Mass Advertising
 Trend setter device: what values are important, behavior
o Ethnic enclaves (Lower East Side, NYC)
 Immigrants occupying “rich” areas
 Also: housing problem → living in rundown areas
 Tenement houses: bad conditions, crowded
 Death rates high
 Slums: today ghetto
 Mainstream Americans were worried
 Settlement houses: recreational facilities
 Jane Addams
19th Century US History

 Social services
Class
- Time when the differences between the poorest and the richest grew the biggest
- Rich
o Country clubs → separating from the rest of the society
o Fifth Avenue Mansion, NYC
o Private schools
o Exclusive social clubs, societies, e.g. Daughters of the American Revolution,
Sons of the Revolution, Society of the Mayflower Descendants
- Social mobility was not significant
- Occupational mobility was available through education
o Unskilled → semi-skilled → skilled
- Free public education, especially in the North
Women
- More working women
- Legal status changing – no longer dependent on husbands
- Right to make contracts
- Working
o 1870: 2 million
o 1910: 8 million
o Increase of job opportunities for women (linked to economic growth)
- Factory workers, business administration, teachers, telephone operators, bookkeepers,
librarians
- Marriage age increased → less children
- Many stayed unmarried
- Divorce rates increased
How Americans lived
- Began to enjoy the benefits of modernity
- Home: safe, comfortable
- Better food (e.g. icebox, canned food)
- Telephone, gramophone
- Fountain pen by Waterman
- Safety razor blade – Gillette
- Kodak camera
- Mass entertainment usage
o Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
 Circus, white men
 Europe tour, too
 Popular because of nostalgia (Wild West is gone)
o Theatre companies
o Public transport system important
o First US film
 The Great Train Robbing (1903) – Edison supported it
19th Century US History

o Hollywood
o 3 million people went to the movies every day
o Baseball: spectator
 Became mainstream
 Professional teams
o Horse racing
 Kentucky derby
o Automobile appears
 1893: production begins
 Detroit
 Henry Ford, Model T, “Volkswagen of Americans”
 Wanted to produce cars for people who were not rich
 Possible because of mass consumption
 Assembly line
 1909: 20 000 Model Ts produced
 1950: 25 million cars
Religion
- Affected by the social and economic changes
- Immigrants with various religious and different cultures
- Own churches and schools in slums
- Growing secularization: earned more money, carols less about God
- New churches, books, publications
- 1. Darwinism
o Evolution theory
o Natural selection of species: some disappear, some evolve
o God didn’t create the world, the world simply evolved, species are results of
development
o Humans are the result of development, too
o Response:
 Liberals: evolution doesn’t contradict
 Fundamentalist: denying evolution, literal reading of the Bible – still
believed in miracles, resurrection of Christ
- 2. Gap between the churches and urban people
o Protestants: reform movement
o Social evils are the result of individual sin
o 1880: new reform movement
o Social gospel
o Washington Gadden: minister from Ohio
o Social problems are not because of individual sins, you cannot have the
individual alone → the church has a responsibility of people
o Water Rauschenbusch: theory of the social gospel → socialist principles
o Fundamentalist side
o Debright L.Moody
o Evangelism to young and people who don’t know what to do with religion
19th Century US History

o YMCA: 1857 → dealing with youth & education

o YWMCA: 1858 → study gospels, etc., concepts
o Salvation theory 1880: missionaries in slums – help them, money raising
- Catholic church
o 3.5 to 16 million, mainly because of the immigrants

Education
- What to do with poor people living in cities, how to assimilate them
- Idea of free education for all Americans by 1900: except for the South, free public
education
o 7 million to 18 million from 1870 to 1910 → drop of illiteracy
- Country schools
- Teachers not well paid, bad conditions - 90% women
- Higher education
- Women could participate - coeducation