American Heritage 100 :: Fall 2006 [/\\] BYU

my student notes and resources from amh 100 at byu. i can make mistakes, so corrections are welcome.

use 'search this blog' above to search through my notes.

as an international student, i don't know much about american heritage either.

Nov 6, 2006

Announcements
2nd Midterm
Monday to Thursday
Wednesday and Thurs are late days


OUTLINE
A House Divided 
Day 1

I. Unfinished Business of the Founding
A. Slavery
B. Federalism
1. Do states have the right to secede?

II. North vs South
A. Contrasting labor systems
1. Wage labor
2. Plantation slavery
B. Contrasting ideologies
1. Abolitionism vs Pro-slavery

III. Moving toward Disunion
A. The Expansion of Slavery
B. John Brown
C. The Election of 1860

IV. The Civil War, 1861-1865


LECTURE NOTES

We jump forward today to the 1860s, This is the Abraham Lincoln (president of the united states at the time)

Today we will discuss the civil war in the 1860s which came about because of 2 things left unresolved from the 1790s, slavery and federalism.

MEDIA CLIP: jefferson and slavery
-Jefferson owned 200 slaves
-he describes himself as a father, slaves as his children [paternalism]
-1774 jefferson said:"slavery is an insult to the rights of human nature"
-he knew that end of the slade trade would collapse the economies of the southern states
-he never took a strong public stand against slavery in the usa

MEDIA CLIP: Amistad (recent movie)
-some slaves had staged a mutiny in the middle of the atlantic ocean
-they took over the ship and sailed it to freedom in connecticut
-court case, should they be free
-John Quincy Adams (former president of the usa) arguing the case

Issue 2: Federalism
-do states have a right to secede (separate from the usa)

AUDIO CLIP: Lincoln inaugural address
-secession is not acceptable
-"The union of these states is perpetual"
-No federal government had a paragraph in their law to allow states to leave (constitution didn't allow for states to leave)
-In order to disolve the usa, shouldn't all the states agree to disolve, in order for the disolve the usa

A number of states (the south) left the USA in the 1860s over the issue of slavery, and started the 'confederacy'.

Jefferson Davis (president of the confederacy)
-thought that the government had fallen into the hands of a factional minority
-made their own country
-thinks they are just living up to the principles of the constitution and rights

The North and South had different labor system
North labor system
-shift to mass production
-huge influx of immigrant laborers

South labor system
-agricultural labor (heavy use of slavery)

MEDIA CLIP: on plantation slavery
-1800 there were 1 million black slaves in the south
-previous slavery was household slavery 1 or 2
-here it was plantation slavery 100s of slaves
-they had laws against teaching slaves to read and write
-conditions on the plantation were horrible
-the overseer always abused their slavers because there were so many slaves they could revolt unless there was a strong show of force
-some people couldn't care less about killing a dog or a slave

Paternalism
-some people thought that slavery was a beneficial institution
-they were treated like a part of the family
-assumes people enjoy being treated like an infant for their whole lives
-they felt northern wage slavery is a greater evil

"the negro slaves are the happiest and in some sense the freest people in the world" George Fitzburgh (because they thought the slaves were free of the troubles to worry about feeding themselves, etc)

Slavery expanded in the 1800s due to the industrial revolution, and the cotten gin
-Cotten Gin is a machine that cleans cotton, created large demand for cotton
-Without the cotton gin, it took a person 1 day to clean 5 pounds of cotton
-With the cotton gin, it took a person 1 day to clean 50 pounds of cotton

Missouri compromise 1820
-Each state was defined as a slave state, or a non-slave states
-Restricted slavery to the southern states only

The Compromise of 1850
-Allowed some slavery in new states as they joined the usa

The Kansas/Nebraska Act 1854
-Establish popular sovereignty
-Every state should have the right to decide for itself whether or not to allow slavery

The Dred Scot Case, 1857
-Declared Missouri compromise unconstitutional
-Supreme court was full of southerners
-a slave lived as a free man, moved back to the south and sued to get his freedom
-the slave (dred scot) lost

John Brown: Angel or Devil?
-He took over some military places owned my slaveowners in the south
-In the north, people thought he was a hero, was killed defending slaves
-He freed slaves, by force
-in the south they thought he was bad, a terrorist
-he was a martyr

Pottawatomie Massacre, May 24, 1856
Harper's Ferry Raid, Oct 16-18, 1859
Execution, Dec 1859

John Brown knew that be was being hung and we would become a martyr and that this would help

Election of 1860
-before Abraham Lincoln was even elected, the country has started falling apart

Civil War 1861-1865
-620,000 people died
-360,000 Union (north) soldiers, 35% of those who served died
-260,000 Confederate soldier, 61% of those who served
-Total = 8% of men ages 13-43

Cause of death
-Disease: 2/3 of army deaths from disease: typhoid, dysentry, pneumonia, scurvy
-Combat: clash of improved weaponry with old tactics

Gettysburg, a place where 50,000 people died

Both the north and south used black soldiers at some point in the war.

MEDIA CLIP: from movie Gettysburg
-images only, no sound
-shows civil war re-enacters
-guns had better accuracy than previous wars
-yet still lining up and marching (old tactics)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home