White supremacy
White supremacy continued to dominate. Secret societies continued to terrorize African Americans (and Catholics, jews, and immigrants)
Americans believed they had a God-given right to have a nation from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
Election of 1844
James k. Polk was a big believer in manifest destiny. He got the Oregon territory and started the Mexican-American River.
Republican party formed
A coalition of free soilers and whigs and northern democrats who's goal was to stop the spread of slavery.
Black codes
Kansas-Nebraska act
divided Nebraska territory into 2 sections, Kansas and Nebraska. Put slavery to a vote in each new state. Effectively overturned the Missouri compromise!
Election of 1860
Civil rights act of 1866
All African Americans were citizens of the United States
Texan independence
15th amendment
Protected voting rights of former slaves (in theory)
Bleeding Kansas
Fighting broke out between the pro and anti-slavery factions
Tenure of Office Act
Stopped the president from removing a member of their cabinet without congressional approval (Johnson had tried to remove his secretary of war, who was a radical Republican)
Formed by abolitionists who wanted to ban slavery everywhere
Compromise of 1850
California and New Mexico wanted to enter the union as free states.
Henry Clay created compromise: New Mexico and Utah would vote on slavery, California would be admitted as a free state, Slavery would be banned in Washington D.C., and there would be a new fugitive slave act
Gold was discovered in California, population skyrocketed
Battle of Vicksburg
Granted the Union control of the entire Mississippi River. Cut the confederacy in half
Positions on expansion of slavery
Reconstruction acts
Divided the south into 5 zones under military occupation. Increased requirements for rejoining (also ratify 14th amendment and have universal suffrage)
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
John Brown
Mexican-American war
Disputes over the Texas border sparked the conflict. American troops made it all the way to Mexico city.
Plan to completely cut off the south by blockading southern ports and eventually the Mississippi river
Compromise of 1877
The contested election was decided by a Republican-leaning committee the obv chose the Republican candidate. Democrats threatened to filibuster
A slave in Missouri was taken to live in free Wisconsin, for two years, and he sued for his freedom. The Supreme Court ruled that slaves aren't citizens, and they are property so nobody can be deprived of their property without due process.
Johnson impeached
Pres. Johnson violated the tenure of office act, and impeachment failed by one vote
Wilmot Proviso
An amendment to a law in congress that stipulated that any land gained in the Mexican-American war wouldn't be ineligible for the spread of slavery. Symbolized the growing tension over westward expansion and slavery.
Many northerners opposed the expansion of slavery, and abolitionists despised the law. There were often riots when Southerners would try to bring back a runaway slave.
Radical Republicans
