IV. 1790-1861
(AP Historic Periods 3-5)
In this next phase of American history, the Nation is destined to expand and spread from sea to sea. But it will be "as the man swallows the arsenic"--expansion will "poison" the American union, as the issue of slavery's expansion confronts the founding principles, nearly destroying the nation.
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TIME PERIODS
AP Period/Unit 3 (1754-1800)
AP Period/Unit 4 (1800-1848) AP Period/Unit 5 (1844-1877) ADVANCED PLACEMENT CHAPTERS
Chapter 15. The Ferment of Reform and Culture, 1790-1860 Chapter 16. The South and the Slave Controversy, 1793-1860 Chapter 17. Manifest Destiny and its Legacy, 1841-1848 Chapter 18. Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848-1854 Chapter 19. Drifting Toward Disunion, 1854-1861 _ College Prep. Chapters 3 & 4 POLITICAL TIMELINE
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READING GUIDE DOCUMENT
OTHER LINKS |
AP Tools for Success
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Themes (Use these to tie evidence together across time periods for easy "complex thinking." TIP-Choose one with which to focus for the year.):
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Historical Thinking Skills (Use these to practice the skills graders are looking for on AP Rubrics.):
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Document Analysis Acronym (Use this when analyzing documents to add the words--actually use the words in responses-- and skills graders are looking for on AP Rubrics.):
C-Context (This is often used as 'H' for Historical Situation.)
A-Audience
P-Point of View (POV)
P-Purpose
A-Audience
P-Point of View (POV)
P-Purpose
Growth Explosion
The United States was growing at an incredible rate in the first half of the 19th century. Watch the video to see the explosion. Incredible! Our first stage, that of expansion is realized. Next will come internal and external growth. What stage of growth are we in now?
The United States was growing at an incredible rate in the first half of the 19th century. Watch the video to see the explosion. Incredible! Our first stage, that of expansion is realized. Next will come internal and external growth. What stage of growth are we in now?
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Antebellum Reform
Jacksonian Era Reforms: The Age of the Common Man and Reform
This project always engages students by assigning them responsibility for specific reform-minded individuals from the time period, while trying to tie together the multi-faceted aspects of the Reform Era.
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“The common man gained control of the nation’s political institutions and benefited economically from the opportunity provided by the Market and Transportation Revolutions in the early 1800s. With this power he found himself able to reshape America’s social life and thought to his own needs. Why not, he asked himself, use this new power to stamp out the last relics of aristocracy inherited from the colonial past, recasting religion in a more democratic mold, rewrite literature and produce art in terms understandable to all, launch humanitarian crusades to improve conditions, and provide opportunities for labor improvement that would allow the humblest commoner to scale the highest social peaks? With this as their goal, the ordinary people of the United States launched a social and intellectual revolution of more lasting importance than the political revolution (Jacksonian Democracy) of that same era.” -Billington
Check out the outline below! Also see the charts . . . |
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IVa. Analyzing and Comparing Documents/SAQ Practice
From the Cengage Learning Teacher's Resource Guide
The Nature of Antebellum Reform Movements
From the Cengage Learning Teacher's Resource Guide
The Nature of Antebellum Reform Movements
EXCERPTS
David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (1956).
“In these plebeian days they could not be successful in politics; family tradition and education prohibited idleness; and agitation allowed the only chance for personal and social self-fulfillment. . .. What they did question, and what they did rue, was the transfer of leadership to the wrong groups in society, and their appeal for reform was a strident call for their own class to re-exert its former social dominance. . . . Leadership of humanitarian reform may have been influenced by revivalism or by British precedent, but its true origin lay in the drastic dislocation of Northern society.”
Nancy Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: “Women’s Sphere” in New England, 1780–1835 (1977).
“Women who joined maternal associations thus asserted their formative power over their children’s lives, took up evangelical goals, and complemented the private job of child rearing by approaching their occupation cooperatively with their peers. Women joined moral reform societies to accomplish different immediate aims, but with similar reasoning. . .. Like maternal associations, moral reform societies focused women’s energies on the family arena in order to solve social problems.”
QUESTIONS
David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (1956).
“In these plebeian days they could not be successful in politics; family tradition and education prohibited idleness; and agitation allowed the only chance for personal and social self-fulfillment. . .. What they did question, and what they did rue, was the transfer of leadership to the wrong groups in society, and their appeal for reform was a strident call for their own class to re-exert its former social dominance. . . . Leadership of humanitarian reform may have been influenced by revivalism or by British precedent, but its true origin lay in the drastic dislocation of Northern society.”
Nancy Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: “Women’s Sphere” in New England, 1780–1835 (1977).
“Women who joined maternal associations thus asserted their formative power over their children’s lives, took up evangelical goals, and complemented the private job of child rearing by approaching their occupation cooperatively with their peers. Women joined moral reform societies to accomplish different immediate aims, but with similar reasoning. . .. Like maternal associations, moral reform societies focused women’s energies on the family arena in order to solve social problems.”
QUESTIONS
- How do the proponents of these two viewpoints each explain the relationship between the reformers’ backgrounds and their reform activities?
- How might these different views of reformers’ motives affect our judgments about the value of social reform?
- How might each of these historians interpret the temperance movement or the career of Dorothea Dix?
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Slavery & The
Abolition
Movement
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La Amistad
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"In July of 1839, about fifty Africans who were being held captive aboard the Spanish ship La Amistad broke free and murdered all but two of their captors. They left them alive because they knew that these men could potentially help them get back to their homeland. They were deceived by the Spaniards however and instead ended up off the coast of Long Island where they were intercepted by the U.S. Navy. What ensued was one of the most important cases of the 1800's concerning the three main principles upon which the United States were founded: Life, Liberty, and Property.
The case started as a simple issue of property: who owned these slaves? It then transformed into an issue of the liberty of these people: should they be set free? It finally ended up challenging slavery and the very way of life practiced by many across America and was instrumental in the events leading up to the American Civil War. The slaves' journey began in West Africa, where they members of a peaceful tribe called the Mende. They were captured by fellow Africans who had struck a deal with the operators of the infamous Lomboko Slave Fortress and thrust into captivity. The Mende were then forced aboard the Portuguese transatlantic slave ship, The Tecora, where they endured unimaginable and inhuman conditions. The Tecora's crew had no respect whatsoever for the lives of the Africans onboard and routinely lashed them, raped them, and threw them overboard. When the Tecora finally reached its destination in Havana, Cuba, the Mende were sold to the Spaniards Pedro Montez and Jose Ruiz, operators of La Amistad." -History.com |
A favorite movie of mine, Amistad is an incredible experience, even if it is not entirely accurate. I saw this one in the theater with my dad--I remember an inclusion at the end of the movie informing the audience that the hero of the film, Cinqué, went back to Africa and participated in the slave trade! This inclusion is no longer seen at the end of the movie. The movie was adapted from Howard Jones' 1987 book, "Mutiny on the Amistad."
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Amazing Grace
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The most famous hymn to come out of the Second Great Awakening!
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"Although it had its roots in England, 'Amazing Grace' became an integral part of the Christian tapestry in the United States. The greatest influences in the 19th century that propelled "Amazing Grace" to spread across the US and become a staple of religious services in many denominations and regions were the Second Great Awakening and the development of shape note singing communities. A tremendous religious movement swept the US in the early 19th century, marked by the growth and popularity of churches and religious revivals that got their start on the frontier in Kentucky and Tennessee. Unprecedented gatherings of thousands of people attended camp meetings where they came to experience salvation; preaching was fiery and focused on saving the sinner from temptation and backsliding. Religion was stripped of ornament and ceremony, and made as plain and simple as possible; sermons and songs often used repetition to get across to a rural population of poor and mostly uneducated people the necessity of turning away from sin. Witnessing and testifying became an integral component to these meetings, where a congregation member or stranger would rise and recount his turn from a sinful life to one of piety and peace. "Amazing Grace" was one of many hymns that punctuated fervent sermons."
-Wikipedia |
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Slavery as a "Positive Good" |
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"The 'positive good' speech of February 6, 1837, is vintage Calhoun, an exercise of his conception of the proper role of a statesmen placed in the highest deliberative body of the Union. That role was to look beyond the present clamour and clatter of routine politics and discern the deeper forces at work and what present choices and trends meant for the future.
As Andrew Lytle said in his essay on Calhoun, the role of a statesmen is to define clearly for a people the alternatives before them. This Calhoun sought to practice not only in regard to abolitionism, but with all big issues. This is why thoughtful people of the North as well as the South for forty years gave serious attention to what he had to say. This is why, alone among the American public figures of his time, he is still studied as a thinker." |
The cartoon below is good source for visual document analysis practice.
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SOURCE: From The Abbeville Institute Scholars’ 2008 Conference, ” “Northern Anti-Slavery Rhetoric.”
Slavery and the Making of America
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"The first were brought in 1619. The last freed in 1865. In the intervening 250 years, slaves labored to make America what it is today." Explore this incredible PBS site (2005) by clicking the button below! PBS no longer "actively maintains" this site, unfortunately. The Timeline is still amazing.
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SIMULATION!You are Josiah Green, c. 1831. Can you live as a slave? Let's see how your decision-making stands up to the test of time.
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IVb. Analyzing and Comparing Documents/SAQ Practice
From the Cengage Learning Teacher's Resource Guide
The Effect of Slavery on African-Americans
From the Cengage Learning Teacher's Resource Guide
The Effect of Slavery on African-Americans
EXCERPTS
Stanley Elkins, Slavery (1959).
"Both [the Nazi concentration camp and slavery] were closed systems from which all standards based on prior connections had been effectively detached. A working adjustment to either system required a childlike conformity, a limited choice of ‘significant others.’...Absolute power for [the master] meant absolute dependency for the slave—the dependency not of the developing child but of the perpetual child.... The result would be something resembling ‘Sambo.’"
Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll (1972).
"Thus, the slaves, by accepting a paternalistic ethos and legitimizing class rule, developed their most powerful defense against the dehumanization implicit in slavery. Southern paternalism may have reinforced racism as well as class exploitation, but it also unwittingly invited its victims to fashion their own interpretation of the social order it was intended to justify. And the slaves, drawing on a religion that was supposed to assure their compliance and docility, rejected the essence of slavery by projecting their own rights and value as human beings."
SAQ-STYLE QUESTIONS
Use the two documents to answer all parts of the questions that follow.
a) Briefly explain ONE major difference in the interpretations of slavery
presented by Elkins and Genovese.
b) Briefly explain ONE specific historical example or development that
supports Elkins’ argument.
c) Briefly explain ONE specific historical example or development that
supports Genovese’s argument.
EXTENSION QUESTIONS
SUMMARY
Elkins-A view of slavery as a totalitarian system that destroyed blacks' personalities
Genovese-A view of slavery as a paternalistic system within which blacks could maintain their humanity
SAQ Sample Student Response (3/3 Points)
a) One major difference is that Elkins argues slavery infantilized and completely dehumanized slaves, creating a submissive “Sambo” personality, whereas Genovese emphasizes that slaves actively resisted oppression and maintained a sense of autonomy through religion and cultural adaptation. Essentially, Elkins sees slavery as total domination, while Genovese sees room for agency within the system.
b) One historical example supporting Elkins is the use of the gang labor system on large cotton plantations in the Deep South, where slaves were subjected to rigid schedules, harsh punishments, and constant supervision, which limited their autonomy and reinforced dependency on masters.
c) One historical example supporting Genovese is the development of the “invisible institution,” in which enslaved African Americans practiced Christianity in ways that emphasized personal salvation, communal support, and spiritual equality, allowing them to resist the psychological control intended by the planter class.
Notes (Why This Earns 3/3)
Other Examples:
Examples Supporting Elkins (Slavery as Dehumanizing / “Sambo” Personality)
Examples Supporting Genovese (Slaves’ Agency and Resistance within Paternalism)
Stanley Elkins, Slavery (1959).
"Both [the Nazi concentration camp and slavery] were closed systems from which all standards based on prior connections had been effectively detached. A working adjustment to either system required a childlike conformity, a limited choice of ‘significant others.’...Absolute power for [the master] meant absolute dependency for the slave—the dependency not of the developing child but of the perpetual child.... The result would be something resembling ‘Sambo.’"
Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll (1972).
"Thus, the slaves, by accepting a paternalistic ethos and legitimizing class rule, developed their most powerful defense against the dehumanization implicit in slavery. Southern paternalism may have reinforced racism as well as class exploitation, but it also unwittingly invited its victims to fashion their own interpretation of the social order it was intended to justify. And the slaves, drawing on a religion that was supposed to assure their compliance and docility, rejected the essence of slavery by projecting their own rights and value as human beings."
SAQ-STYLE QUESTIONS
Use the two documents to answer all parts of the questions that follow.
a) Briefly explain ONE major difference in the interpretations of slavery
presented by Elkins and Genovese.
b) Briefly explain ONE specific historical example or development that
supports Elkins’ argument.
c) Briefly explain ONE specific historical example or development that
supports Genovese’s argument.
EXTENSION QUESTIONS
- How does the holder of each of these viewpoints see the relationship between masters and slaves?
- How does each of these historians connect the nature of slavery with its effect on blacks?
- What might each of these historians say about the long-term effects of slavery on African Americans?
SUMMARY
Elkins-A view of slavery as a totalitarian system that destroyed blacks' personalities
Genovese-A view of slavery as a paternalistic system within which blacks could maintain their humanity
SAQ Sample Student Response (3/3 Points)
a) One major difference is that Elkins argues slavery infantilized and completely dehumanized slaves, creating a submissive “Sambo” personality, whereas Genovese emphasizes that slaves actively resisted oppression and maintained a sense of autonomy through religion and cultural adaptation. Essentially, Elkins sees slavery as total domination, while Genovese sees room for agency within the system.
b) One historical example supporting Elkins is the use of the gang labor system on large cotton plantations in the Deep South, where slaves were subjected to rigid schedules, harsh punishments, and constant supervision, which limited their autonomy and reinforced dependency on masters.
c) One historical example supporting Genovese is the development of the “invisible institution,” in which enslaved African Americans practiced Christianity in ways that emphasized personal salvation, communal support, and spiritual equality, allowing them to resist the psychological control intended by the planter class.
Notes (Why This Earns 3/3)
- (a) Identifies a clear difference in interpretation, not just a summary.
- (b) Uses specific historical evidence consistent with Elkins’ argument (rigid control, dehumanization).
- (c) Uses specific historical evidence consistent with Genovese’s argument (religious/spiritual resistance, cultural autonomy).
Other Examples:
Examples Supporting Elkins (Slavery as Dehumanizing / “Sambo” Personality)
- Chattel Slavery and Total Control. The legal status of slaves as property in Southern states’ slave codes (e.g., 1740 South Carolina Code) limited all autonomy, forbade literacy, and made punishment absolute. Enforced sexual exploitation by masters reinforced total power and dependency.
- Brutal Punishments. Whippings, branding, or confinement were common for “disobedient” slaves, reinforcing fear and dependency. Example: The Stono Rebellion (1739, SC) aftermath included executions and harsh laws to instill obedience.
- Gang Labor / Work Systems. On cotton and sugar plantations, long, regimented workdays under overseers made slaves completely dependent on the master for survival and guidance. Limits on family autonomy (e.g., selling children away) contributed to infantilization.
- Psychological Control. Masters imposed strict hierarchical social structures, emphasizing obedience and discouraging independent thought, leading to what Elkins calls “perpetual child” dependency.
Examples Supporting Genovese (Slaves’ Agency and Resistance within Paternalism)
- Religious Autonomy. The “invisible institution”: enslaved people held secret religious meetings, emphasizing spiritual freedom and hope. Use of spirituals to communicate resistance and hope, e.g., “Steal Away to Jesus” or coded messages for escape.
- Everyday Resistance. Work slowdowns, feigned illness, breaking tools, or sabotage—subtle methods to resist labor without direct confrontation. Example: Sabotaging the cotton press or plow to assert some control over work conditions.
- Maintaining Family and Community. Slaves built kinship networks, cared for children communally, and passed down traditions, maintaining culture and humanity despite paternalism.
- Negotiating Paternalistic Relationships. Slaves sometimes leveraged “loyalty” or compliance to gain small privileges, such as better rations, time off, or protection, showing they could interpret and manipulate the system.
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The Mexican War
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"In the years preceding the U.S.-Mexican War, the United States and Mexico were two nations headed in opposite directions. The United States, fueled by new technological breakthroughs and inspired by the concept of "Manifest Destiny," confidently expanded its territories westward. The young country was regarded as a "go-ahead" nation, looking forward to a future of seemingly endless possibilities for itself and its people. Meanwhile, Mexico struggled to maintain control over the vast expanses of land it had inherited from Spain following its long war for independence. Lacking the resources to settle much of its territory and suffering from deep internal political divisions, Mexico looked to the past for its sense of meaning, back to a time when "New Spain" had once promised to be the continental power of the New World." Click below for a great experience from PBS. |
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SIMULATION!You are General Zachary Taylor, c. 1846. Can you defeat the Mexican Army at Monterrey? Let's see how your decision-making stands up to the test of time.
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Henry Clay:
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Henry Clay of Kentucky (1777-1852) enjoyed a distinguished political career, even though he never attained his greatest desire—the presidency. A pivotal Senate leader during the antebellum era, a period in Senate history marked by heated debates over slavery and territorial expansion, Clay first entered politics in Kentucky’s state house of representatives in 1803. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1806, even though he had not yet reached the constitutionally required age of 30. Following two non-consecutive terms in the Senate, Clay was elected to the House of Representatives, where he quickly rose to become Speaker. From 1825 to 1829 he served as secretary of state under President John Quincy Adams, then returned to the Senate in 1831 and again in 1849, serving a total of 16 years as senator. Throughout his career, as senator, Speaker of the House, and secretary of state, Clay helped guide a fragile Union through several critical impasses. As senator, he forged the Compromise of 1850 to maintain the Union, but such compromises could not settle the fractious issues that ultimately resulted in Civil War. Clay earned titles such as "The Great Compromiser" and "The Great Pacificator," but he was also a shrewd and ambitious politician who gained some powerful enemies, notably President Andrew Jackson. In 1833 Clay orchestrated Jackson's censure. When Clay died in 1852, a great Senate voice was silenced. Henry Clay was the first person honored by a funeral ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.
-The US Senate
-The US Senate
His Personal Sacrifices for the Country . . . Under Construction
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Lecture:
Expansion and Slavery |
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The Story of the United States Told In 141 Maps
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Michael Porath visually explains the growth of the United States in such a comprehensive and explanatory way. Click the link below. "Manifest Destiny was the concept that the United States had a God-given right to take over territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The phrase 'Manifest Destiny' was created in 1845 by a newspaper writer named John L. O'Sullivan."
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The
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Healthy on left, blighted on right
The lowly potato was an agricultural marvel, but staking the lives of an entire population on it was enormously risky. Sporadic potato crop failures had plagued Ireland in the 1700s and early 1800s. In the mid-1840s, a blight caused by a fungus struck potato plants across all of Ireland. The failure of essentially the entire potato crop for several years led to unprecedented disaster. Both Ireland and America would be changed forever.
The Irish Potato Famine, which in Ireland became known as "The Great Hunger," was a turning point in Irish history. It changed Irish society forever, most strikingly by greatly reducing the population. In 1841, Ireland's population was more than eight million. It has been estimated that at least one million died of starvation and disease in the late 1840s, and at least another one million immigrated during the famine. Famine hardened resentment toward the British who ruled Ireland. Nationalist movements in Ireland, which had always ended in failure, would now have a powerful new component: sympathetic Irish immigrants living in America.
Scientific Causes
The botanical cause of the Great Famine was a virulent fungus (Phytophthora infestans), spread by the wind, that first appeared on the leaves of potato plants in September and October of 1845. The diseased plants withered with shocking speed. When the potatoes were dug up for harvest, they were found to be rotting. Poor farmers discovered the potatoes they could normally store and use as provisions for six months had turned inedible. Modern potato farmers spray plants to prevent blight. But in the 1840s, the blight was not well understood, and unfounded theories spread as rumors. Panic set in. The failure of the potato harvest in 1845 was repeated the following year, and again in 1847.
Social Causes
In the early 1800s, a large part of the Irish population lived as impoverished tenant farmers, generally in debt to British landlords. The need to survive on small plots of rented land created the perilous situation where vast numbers of people depended on the potato crop for survival. Historians have long noted that while Irish peasants were forced to subsist on potatoes, other crops were being grown in Ireland, and food was exported for market in England and elsewhere. Beef cattle raised in Ireland were also exported for English tables.
British Government Reaction
The response of the British government to the calamity in Ireland has long been a focus of controversy. Government relief efforts were launched, but they were largely ineffective. More modern commentators have noted that economic doctrine in 1840s Britain generally accepted that poor people were bound to suffer and government intervention was not warranted. The issue of English culpability in the catastrophe in Ireland made headlines in the 1990s, during commemorations marking the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine. Britain's then-Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed regret over England's role during commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the famine. The "New York Times" reported at the time that "Mr. Blair stopped short of making a full apology on behalf of his country."
Devastation
It is impossible to determine precise numbers of the dead from starvation and disease during the Potato Famine. Many victims were buried in mass graves, their names unrecorded. It has been estimated that at least half a million Irish tenants were evicted during the famine years. In some places, particularly in the west of Ireland, entire communities simply ceased to exist. The residents either died, were driven off the land, or chose to find a better life in America.
Leaving Ireland
Irish immigration to America proceeded at a modest pace in the decades before the Great Famine. It has been estimated that only 5,000 Irish immigrants per year arrived in the United States prior to 1830. The Great Famine increased those numbers astronomically. Documented arrivals during the famine years are well over half a million. It is assumed that many more arrived undocumented, perhaps by landing first in Canada and walking into the United States. By 1850, the population of New York City was said to be 26 percent Irish. An article titled "Ireland in America" in the "New York Times" on April 2, 1852, recounted the continuing arrivals: On Sunday last three thousand emigrants arrived at this port. On Monday there were over two thousand. On Tuesday over five thousand arrived. On Wednesday the number was over two thousand. Thus in four days twelve thousand persons were landed for the first time upon American shores. A population greater than that of some of the largest and most flourishing villages of this State was thus added to the City of New York within ninety-six hours.
Irish in a New World
The flood of Irish into the United States had a profound effect, especially in urban centers where the Irish exerted political influence and got involved in municipal government, most notably in the police and fire departments. In the Civil War, entire regiments were composed of Irish troops, such as those of New York's famed Irish Brigade. In 1858, the Irish community in New York City had demonstrated that it was in America to stay. Led by a politically powerful immigrant, Archbishop John Hughes, the Irish began building the largest church in New York City. They called it St. Patrick's Cathedral, and it would replace a modest cathedral, also named for Ireland's patron saint, in lower Manhattan. Construction was halted during the Civil War, but the enormous cathedral was finally finished in 1878. Thirty years after the Great Famine, the twin spires of St. Patrick's dominated the skyline of New York City. And on the docks of lower Manhattan, the Irish kept arriving.
Sources
By Robert McNamara
Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, and the Chicago Times. Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets.
"Ireland in America." The New York TImes, April 2, 1852.
Lyall, Sarah. "Past as Prologue: Blair Faults Britain in Irish Potato Blight." The New York Times, June 3, 1997.
The Irish Potato Famine, which in Ireland became known as "The Great Hunger," was a turning point in Irish history. It changed Irish society forever, most strikingly by greatly reducing the population. In 1841, Ireland's population was more than eight million. It has been estimated that at least one million died of starvation and disease in the late 1840s, and at least another one million immigrated during the famine. Famine hardened resentment toward the British who ruled Ireland. Nationalist movements in Ireland, which had always ended in failure, would now have a powerful new component: sympathetic Irish immigrants living in America.
Scientific Causes
The botanical cause of the Great Famine was a virulent fungus (Phytophthora infestans), spread by the wind, that first appeared on the leaves of potato plants in September and October of 1845. The diseased plants withered with shocking speed. When the potatoes were dug up for harvest, they were found to be rotting. Poor farmers discovered the potatoes they could normally store and use as provisions for six months had turned inedible. Modern potato farmers spray plants to prevent blight. But in the 1840s, the blight was not well understood, and unfounded theories spread as rumors. Panic set in. The failure of the potato harvest in 1845 was repeated the following year, and again in 1847.
Social Causes
In the early 1800s, a large part of the Irish population lived as impoverished tenant farmers, generally in debt to British landlords. The need to survive on small plots of rented land created the perilous situation where vast numbers of people depended on the potato crop for survival. Historians have long noted that while Irish peasants were forced to subsist on potatoes, other crops were being grown in Ireland, and food was exported for market in England and elsewhere. Beef cattle raised in Ireland were also exported for English tables.
British Government Reaction
The response of the British government to the calamity in Ireland has long been a focus of controversy. Government relief efforts were launched, but they were largely ineffective. More modern commentators have noted that economic doctrine in 1840s Britain generally accepted that poor people were bound to suffer and government intervention was not warranted. The issue of English culpability in the catastrophe in Ireland made headlines in the 1990s, during commemorations marking the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine. Britain's then-Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed regret over England's role during commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the famine. The "New York Times" reported at the time that "Mr. Blair stopped short of making a full apology on behalf of his country."
Devastation
It is impossible to determine precise numbers of the dead from starvation and disease during the Potato Famine. Many victims were buried in mass graves, their names unrecorded. It has been estimated that at least half a million Irish tenants were evicted during the famine years. In some places, particularly in the west of Ireland, entire communities simply ceased to exist. The residents either died, were driven off the land, or chose to find a better life in America.
Leaving Ireland
Irish immigration to America proceeded at a modest pace in the decades before the Great Famine. It has been estimated that only 5,000 Irish immigrants per year arrived in the United States prior to 1830. The Great Famine increased those numbers astronomically. Documented arrivals during the famine years are well over half a million. It is assumed that many more arrived undocumented, perhaps by landing first in Canada and walking into the United States. By 1850, the population of New York City was said to be 26 percent Irish. An article titled "Ireland in America" in the "New York Times" on April 2, 1852, recounted the continuing arrivals: On Sunday last three thousand emigrants arrived at this port. On Monday there were over two thousand. On Tuesday over five thousand arrived. On Wednesday the number was over two thousand. Thus in four days twelve thousand persons were landed for the first time upon American shores. A population greater than that of some of the largest and most flourishing villages of this State was thus added to the City of New York within ninety-six hours.
Irish in a New World
The flood of Irish into the United States had a profound effect, especially in urban centers where the Irish exerted political influence and got involved in municipal government, most notably in the police and fire departments. In the Civil War, entire regiments were composed of Irish troops, such as those of New York's famed Irish Brigade. In 1858, the Irish community in New York City had demonstrated that it was in America to stay. Led by a politically powerful immigrant, Archbishop John Hughes, the Irish began building the largest church in New York City. They called it St. Patrick's Cathedral, and it would replace a modest cathedral, also named for Ireland's patron saint, in lower Manhattan. Construction was halted during the Civil War, but the enormous cathedral was finally finished in 1878. Thirty years after the Great Famine, the twin spires of St. Patrick's dominated the skyline of New York City. And on the docks of lower Manhattan, the Irish kept arriving.
Sources
By Robert McNamara
Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, and the Chicago Times. Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets.
"Ireland in America." The New York TImes, April 2, 1852.
Lyall, Sarah. "Past as Prologue: Blair Faults Britain in Irish Potato Blight." The New York Times, June 3, 1997.
Max Miller
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Lecture:
Decade of Controversy |
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The Underground Railroad
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Perhaps there is no more poignant response to slavery than the efforts ordinary Americans took to resistant it, helping the enslaved find freedom. The Amazon series is enlightening and well done. It is based on Colson Whitehead's book of the same name. It is a Golden Globe and Peabody award winner. From 2021.
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Congressional Blood and
the Slavery Issue Professor Freeman's book follows her great work, Affairs of Honor. Both are very informative, shocking, and entertaining. This work helped inspire the Compromises of 1850 simulation, "Antebellum Compromise". It is a great read! Hopefully, the simulation can be published as a boardgame.
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SIMULATION!
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You are a Senator, c. 1850. Can you keep the Nation together through compromise, and secure the goals of your faction? Let's see how your decision-making stands up to the test of time.
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IVc. Analyzing and Comparing Documents/SAQ/MINI-DBQ Practice
From the Cengage Learning Teacher's Resource Guide
Did slavery cause the Civil War?
IVc. Analyzing and Comparing Documents/SAQ/MINI-DBQ Practice
From the Cengage Learning Teacher's Resource Guide
Did slavery cause the Civil War?
EXCERPTS
1. Charles and Mary Beard, The Rise of American Civilization (1927).
“At bottom, the so-called Civil War…was a social war, ending in the unquestioned establishment of a new power in the government, making vast changes in the arrangement of class, in the accumulation and distribution of wealth, in the course of industrial development, and in the Constitution inherited from the Fathers….If the series of acts by which the bourgeoisie and peasants of France overthrew the king, nobility, and clergy is to be called the French Revolution, then accuracy compels us to characterize by the same term the social cataclysm in which the capitalists, laborers, and farmers of the North and West drove from power in the national government the planting aristocracy of the South….The so-called civil war was in reality a Second American Revolution, and in a strict sense, the First.”
2. David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (1976).
“Thus slavery suddenly emerged as a transcendent sectional issue in its own right, and as a catalyst of all sectional antagonisms, political, economic, and cultural….The slavery question became the sectional question, the sectional question became the slavery question, and both became the territorial question….From the sultry August night in 1846 when Wilmot caught the chairman’s eye, the slavery question steadily widened the sectional rift until an April dawn in 1861 when the batteries along the Charleston waterfront opened fire on Fort Sumter….”
3. Michael Holt, Forging a Majority: The Formation of the Republican Party in Pittsburgh, 1848–1860 (1969).
“Politics did not revolve around [slavery and the South] just as politics today does not revolve around communism, although most people dislike it. Instead, social, ethnic, and religious considerations often determined who voted for whom between 1848 and 1861. Divisions between native-born Americans and immigrants and between Protestants and Catholics, rather than differences of opinion about the tariff or the morality of slavery, distinguished Whigs and Republicans from Democrats…. Interpreting the rise of the Republican party in the North solely in terms of hostility to slavery or economic issues is, therefore, too simplified.”
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE “VARYING VIEWPOINTS”
1. Charles and Mary Beard, The Rise of American Civilization (1927).
“At bottom, the so-called Civil War…was a social war, ending in the unquestioned establishment of a new power in the government, making vast changes in the arrangement of class, in the accumulation and distribution of wealth, in the course of industrial development, and in the Constitution inherited from the Fathers….If the series of acts by which the bourgeoisie and peasants of France overthrew the king, nobility, and clergy is to be called the French Revolution, then accuracy compels us to characterize by the same term the social cataclysm in which the capitalists, laborers, and farmers of the North and West drove from power in the national government the planting aristocracy of the South….The so-called civil war was in reality a Second American Revolution, and in a strict sense, the First.”
2. David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (1976).
“Thus slavery suddenly emerged as a transcendent sectional issue in its own right, and as a catalyst of all sectional antagonisms, political, economic, and cultural….The slavery question became the sectional question, the sectional question became the slavery question, and both became the territorial question….From the sultry August night in 1846 when Wilmot caught the chairman’s eye, the slavery question steadily widened the sectional rift until an April dawn in 1861 when the batteries along the Charleston waterfront opened fire on Fort Sumter….”
3. Michael Holt, Forging a Majority: The Formation of the Republican Party in Pittsburgh, 1848–1860 (1969).
“Politics did not revolve around [slavery and the South] just as politics today does not revolve around communism, although most people dislike it. Instead, social, ethnic, and religious considerations often determined who voted for whom between 1848 and 1861. Divisions between native-born Americans and immigrants and between Protestants and Catholics, rather than differences of opinion about the tariff or the morality of slavery, distinguished Whigs and Republicans from Democrats…. Interpreting the rise of the Republican party in the North solely in terms of hostility to slavery or economic issues is, therefore, too simplified.”
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE “VARYING VIEWPOINTS”
- How does each of these views see the relationship between slavery and sectional feeling?
- What does each of these views see as the relationship between slavery and other issues in the 1850s?
- How would each of these historians view the demise of the Whig party and the rise of the Republicans?
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