Georgia and the American Experience

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Georgia and the American Experience

• Chapter 7
• The Antebellum Era, 1838-1860
• Study Presentation

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Georgia and the American Experience

• Section 1 Manifest Destiny
• Section 2 Deepening Divisions
• Section 3 Slavery as a Way of Life
• Section 4 Antebellum Georgia
• Section 5 The Election of 1860

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Section 1 Manifest Destiny

• Essential Question
• How did Americans apply the concept of manifest
  destiny during the Antebellum period?

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Section 1 Manifest Destiny

• What words do I need to know?
• Manifest Destiny
• annex
• skirmish

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Manifest Destiny

• A Northern journalist (1845) wrote that the
  manifest destiny of the U.S. was to overspread
  the continent allotted by Providence for the free
  descendants of our yearly multiplying millions
• The countrys leaders steadily increased
  territory and fought to protect its citizens
  across the continent

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The Nation Grows

• Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836
  annexed as the 28th state in 1845
• The U.S. declared war on Mexico to secure Rio
  Grande as the Mexican/U.S. border
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) gave the U.S.
  the territory encompassing California, Nevada,
  Utah, Arizona, most of New Mexico, and parts of
  Wyoming and Colorado.
• Gadsden Purchase (1853) bought the southern part
  of New Mexico

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Oregon Territory and Western Migration

• Area west of the Rocky Mountains and north of
  California
• In 1818 treaty, the U.S. and Great Britain set
  boundary between the U.S. and Canada at the 49th
  parallel
• The Oregon and Santa Fe trails were the favored
  routes west by settlers
• Between 1848 and 1850, the population of
  California increased tenfold most of these
  settlers were seeking gold

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Section 2 Deepening Divisions

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
• How did the North and South differ before the
  Civil War?

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Section 2Deepening Divisions

• What words do I need to know?
• states rights
• Missouri Compromise
• sectionalism
• Compromise of 1850
• Kansas-Nebraska Act

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States Rights

• States rights Belief that the states interests
  take precedence over interests of national
  government
• Northern states believed that all states should
  abide by laws made by the national government
• Southern states believed that states had right to
  govern themselves and decide what would be best
  for their own situation

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Differences North and South

• Class Structure North generally based on wealth
  South based on wealth and being born into the
  right family
• Slavery North wanted it abolished South
  supported it
• Southern planter system consisted of large and
  small categories the wealthiest had the most
  land and the most slaves
• Economy Northern based on mining, industry,
  banks, stores, and railroads Southern based on
  agriculture, including cotton, rice, and indigo
• Southerners resented tariffs, which raised import
  prices the South imported more than the North

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Freed Blacks and Slaves

• 500,000 freed blacks only 6 percent lived in
  South (mostly Virginia and Maryland)
• By 1860, 11.5 percent of nations 4 million
  slaves lived in Georgia
• 3,500 freed blacks lived in Georgia by 1860
• Slaves in the lower South cultivated King
  Cotton, which accounted for 50 of Americas
  exports

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The Abolitionists

• Led the movement to do away with slavery
• Many northern whites, some southern
• and free blacks were involved
• Made speeches, wrote books and articles, and
  offered their homes as safe houses for runaway
  slaves
• Uncle Toms Cabin (1852), by Harriet Beecher
  Stowe, portrayed slaverys evils the book sold
  more than 1 million copies
• North Star and The Abolitionist were anti-slavery
  newspapers

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The Missouri Compromise

• Approved in 1820 Maine entered the Union as a
  free state, and Missouri entered as a slave state
• 11 states allowed slavery and 11 states did not
• Prohibited slavery north of 3620' latitude (the
  southern border of Missouri), and included
  Louisiana Territory lands west of Missouri
• Temporarily solved slavery controversy between
  the states

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The Dred Scott Decision

• Supreme Court ruling in 1857
• A slave filed suit after he lived in free states
  with his owner but was returned to slave state
• Court ruled that slaves were not citizens and
  could not file lawsuits
• Court also ruled that Congress could not stop
  slavery in the territories
• Decision further separated the North and South

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The Compromise of 1850

• California would enter Union as a free state
• New Mexico territory would not become part of
  Texas or a guaranteed slave state
• The District of Columbia would no longer trade
  slaves, but slave owners there could keep their
  slaves
• Runaway slaves could be returned to their owners
  in slave states
• Utah and New Mexico territories could decide if
  they wanted to allow slaves or not

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska
• Those territories had right of popular
  sovereignty
• Popular sovereignty When a territory asked for
  statehood, the people could vote on slavery
• Freesoilers in those territories fought against
  Abolitionists and proslavery supporters

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Section 3 Slavery as a Way of Life

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
• What was life like for Georgia slaves during the
  Antebellum period?

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Section 3 Slavery as a Way of Life

• What words do I need to know?
• driver
• slave code
• arsenal
• Underground Railroad

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Hard work, Simple living

• Slaves worked long hours in swampy rice fields or
  tobacco and cotton fields
• Work began at sunup and continued until sundown
  overseers punished slaves who did not harvest
  enough
• Drivers, older slaves trusted by the plantation
  owner, also supervised the field hands
• Slave children, as young as five, also worked
  hard on the plantations and farms
• Slave cabins were small, very simply furnished,
  and crudely built foods were basic

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Slave Family Life

• Slave families sometimes became separated
• Owners encouraged marriage slave children became
  property of the mothers owner
• Religion was important black preachers spoke of
  freedom and justice
• Spiritual songs encouraged slaves throughout
  their lives
• Education was nearly nonexistent, although
  minimal reading and writing skills were permitted
  by some slave owners

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Slave Rebellions

• 1831 - Nat Turner led bloody rebellion in
  Virginia between 57 and 85 people died Turner
  was hanged
• Nat Turners Rebellion and other unsuccessful
  rebellions prompted strict laws across the South
  designed to curtail slave movements, meetings,
  and efforts to learn to read and write
• These laws applied to both slaves and freed
  blacks

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Slave Codes

• Took away nearly all rights of slaves
• Slaves could not carry weapons, make any contact
  with white people
• People who tried to teach people of color were
  punished slaves could not work any job involving
  reading and writing
• Slaves had little time to talk together

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John Brown

• White abolitionist led a raid on federal arsenal
  (arms storehouse) at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
• Brown wanted ammunition to lead a rebellion to
  free the Souths slaves
• He was captured and hanged for treason
• The Brown raid added to fear and distrust,
  especially in the South to many Northerners,
  Brown became a hero

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The Underground Railroad

• Network of roads, houses, river crossings, boats,
  wagons, woods, and streams operated by blacks and
  whites
• Provided a trail of flight for runaway slaves
  seeking freedom in Canada or the Northern states
• Safe stops along the way called stations
• Ex-slave Harriet Tubman personally helped more
  than 300 slaves escape to freedom

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Section 4 Antebellum Georgia

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
• What was Georgia like before the Civil War?

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Section 4Antebellum Georgia

• What words do I need to know?
• Know-Nothing Party
• Great Revival Movement
• Milledgeville

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Georgias Pre-War Economy

• 68,000 farms by 1860 cotton was chief crop
• 500 plantations (500 acres or more) most farms
  were less than 100 acres
• 60 percent of Georgians owned no slaves only 236
  had 100 or more slaves
• Half of Georgias total wealth was in slaves
  (400 million)
• 1,890 factories in Georgia by 1860 about 11
  million in value

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Education

• Most Georgians had little education
• 20 percent of Georgians were illiterate in 1850
• 100,000 allotted in 1858 to begin free schools
  the outbreak of the Civil War delayed these plans
  
• Georgias first law school founded in 1859
• Slaves were not given educational opportunities

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Religion

• Georgians involved in the Great Revival Movement
  of the early 1800s
• Camp meetings popular, especially among
  Methodists
• By 1860, Georgia second only to Virginia in the
  South in number of churches
• Methodists and Baptists most common denominations
  

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Antebellum Georgia Politics

• Democrats and Whigs were two major political
  parties
• Democrats supported states rights took strong
  stand for slavery
• Whigs mainly from upper social classes favored
  moderate protective tariff and federal help for
  the South
• Most governors were Whigs most legislators were
  Democrats

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Know-Nothing Party

• Leading Georgians formed two new political
  parties one party favored the Compromise of 1850
  while the other did not
• A secret party, the Know-Nothing party, did not
  want immigrants to become citizens or anyone not
  born in the United States to hold political
  office
• Members answered all questions, I dont know 
• By 1856, Democrats were dominant party Dem.
  Joseph E. Brown, elected governor in 1856, served
  during the Civil War                 

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Section 5 The Election of 1860

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
• What steps led to Georgias secession from the
  Union in 1861?

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Section 5The Election of 1860

• What words do I need to know?
• Republican Party
• secession
• platform
• ordinance
• Confederate States of America

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The Republican Party

• Republican Party formed in 1854 in free states
• Antislavery Whigs and Democrats joined
• Nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois as their
  candidate in 1860
• Southern and Northern Democrats split over
  slavery issues and nominated separate candidates
• Southerners angrily viewed the plans of the
  Republicans as non-beneficial to the South

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Georgia and Lincolns Election

• Georgians were, for the most part, for the Union
  however, they were strongly for states rights
• Despite lawmakers strong debates for and against
  secession, a Secession convention began in
  January 1861 in Milledgeville, the capital
• A secession ordinance (bill) passed 208-89
• The Southern states who seceded met in
  Montgomery, Alabama in February, 1861 they
  formed the Confederate States of America

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Georgians in Leadership

• Robert Toombs named Secretary of State of the
  Confederate States of American (CSA)
• Alexander H. Stephens named Vice-President
• Governor Joseph E. Brown favored secession and
  used his terms as governor to prepare Georgia for
  war   

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