Period 5 (1844-1877)

Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion

The idea of Manifest Destiny — the belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand across the North American continent — drove westward expansion in the 1840s and intensified sectional conflict over the expansion of slavery.

Key Events

• Oregon Trail: Over 350,000 settlers travelled west between 1840 and 1860, facing disease, starvation, and harsh conditions
• Texas Annexation (1845): Congress admitted Texas as a slave state, angering Mexico (which still claimed Texas) and Northerners who feared the expansion of slavery
• Oregon Boundary Dispute: Settled by treaty in 1846, establishing the 49th parallel as the boundary between the US and British North America
• Mexican-American War (1846-1848): Sparked by disputes over the Texas-Mexico border after annexation; “Spot Resolutions” by Abraham Lincoln challenged Polk’s justification; US forces captured Mexico City
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848): Mexico ceded California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming to the US for $15 million; Rio Grande established as the Texas border
• Gadsden Purchase (1853): Acquired additional land in present-day Arizona and New Mexico for a southern transcontinental railroad route

Impact on Native Americans

• Westward expansion displaced numerous Native American tribes from their ancestral lands
• Indian Removal continued throughout the period, with tribes forced onto reservations in the Great Plains and other areas
• California Gold Rush (1849) brought massive migration and conflict with Native Californian populations

Sectionalism and the Road to Civil War

The Slavery Debate Intensifies

• Wilmot Proviso (1846): Proposed banning slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico; passed the House but failed in the Senate, revealing sectional divisions
• Free Soil Party (1848): Opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories; drew support from Northern Democrats and Whigs
• Compromise of 1850: California admitted as a free state; popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico territories; a stronger Fugitive Slave Act requiring citizens to assist in the capture of enslaved people; slave trade (but not slavery) abolished in the District of Columbia
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852): Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel depicted the horrors of slavery and became the best-selling novel of the 19th century, galvanising Northern opposition to slavery
• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): Senator Stephen Douglas proposed allowing popular sovereignty to decide the slavery question in the Kansas and Nebraska territories, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise (1820)
• Bleeding Kansas (1854-1856): Violent conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas; John Brown’s Pottawatomie Massacre (1856)
• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857): The Supreme Court ruled that African Americans were not citizens, Congress could not ban slavery in the territories, and the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. This galvanised the Republican Party and outraged Northerners.
• Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858): Seven debates for the Illinois Senate seat; Lincoln argued against the expansion of slavery while Douglas defended popular sovereignty; Lincoln gained national prominence despite losing the election
• John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859): Abolitionist John Brown attempted to spark a slave revolt by seizing the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia; captured, tried, and executed; became a martyr to abolitionists and a symbol of Northern aggression to Southerners
• Election of 1860: Abraham Lincoln (Republican) won without carrying a single Southern state; South Carolina seceded in December 1860, followed by six more states before Lincoln’s inauguration

The Confederacy

• Seven Deep South states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America (1861); Jefferson Davis elected president
• Four more states seceded after Fort Sumter (April 1861)

The Civil War (1861-1865)

Comparison of North and South

Factor	Union (North)	Confederacy (South)
Population	22 million	9 million (3.5 million enslaved)
Manufacturing	Vast industrial capacity	Limited industrialisation
Railroads	Extensive network	Limited network
Military leadership	Initially weaker	Strong (Lee, Jackson)
Strategy	Anaconda Plan, total war	Defensive, seek foreign recognition
Goals	Preserve the Union; later abolish slavery	Preserve slavery and states’ rights

Key Events and Turning Points

• Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861): Confederate attack on the federal fort in Charleston Harbour; Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, prompting four more states to secede
• First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) (July 1861): Confederate victory; showed the war would be long and difficult
• Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863): Lincoln declared all enslaved people in rebel-held territory to be free; transformed the war’s purpose from merely preserving the Union to abolishing slavery; allowed Black soldiers to serve in the Union Army (over 180,000 served)
• Battle of Antietam (September 1862): Bloodiest single day in American military history; Lee’s first invasion of the North was repulsed; gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation
• Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863): Three-day battle in Pennsylvania; Lee’s second invasion of the North was defeated; turning point of the war; Gettysburg Address (November 1863) redefined the war as a struggle for liberty and equality
• Vicksburg (July 1863): Grant captured Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and splitting the Confederacy
• Sherman’s March to the Sea (1864): Total war strategy; destroyed infrastructure, crops, and civilian property across Georgia to break Confederate morale
• Appomattox Court House (April 9, 1865): Lee surrendered to Grant; the last major Confederate army surrendered by May 1865

The Home Front

• North: Industrial production increased dramatically; women entered the workforce in large numbers; draft riots (New York City Draft Riots, 1863); Lincoln suspended habeas corpus
• South: Severe shortages of food, clothing, and medicine; inflation devastated the economy; bread riots in Richmond (1863); enslaved people increasingly resisted and fled toward Union lines
• African Americans: Served in the Union military (54th Massachusetts Regiment); laboured as contrabands and freedmen; pressed for emancipation and equal rights

Reconstruction (1865-1877)

Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867)

• Lincoln’s 10% Plan: A state could rejoin the Union when 10% of its 1860 voters pledged allegiance
• Wade-Davis Bill (1864): Required 50%; Lincoln pocket-vetoed it
• Andrew Johnson’s plan: Offered pardons to former Confederates who took an oath of loyalty; required states to ratify the 13th Amendment
• Black Codes: Southern states passed laws restricting African American freedom (vagrancy laws, labour contracts, restrictions on property ownership)
• 13th Amendment (1865): Abolished slavery (except as punishment for a crime)

Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction (1867-1877)

• Republicans in Congress opposed Johnson’s lenient approach
• Reconstruction Acts (1867): Divided the South into five military districts; required states to draft new constitutions guaranteeing African American male suffrage; states had to ratify the 14th Amendment
• 14th Amendment (1868): Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalised in the US; guaranteed equal protection under the law and due process; prohibited states from depriving citizens of life, liberty, or property without due process
• 15th Amendment (1870): Prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, colour, or previous condition of servitude (did not eliminate literacy tests, poll taxes, or grandfather clauses)
• Johnson was impeached (1868) for violating the Tenure of Office Act; acquitted by one vote in the Senate

Reconstruction Achievements and Failures

Achievements:

• African Americans voted and held office at local, state, and federal levels (Hiram Revels, first Black senator, 1870)
• Public school systems established in the South
• Infrastructure rebuilt (railroads, bridges)
• Freedmen’s Bureau (1865-1872) provided food, education, and legal assistance

Failures:

• Sharecropping and tenant farming replaced slavery as a system of labour exploitation
• White supremacist violence (KKK, founded 1866) intimidated Black voters and officeholders
• Enforcement Acts (1870-1871) aimed to suppress Klan violence but were unevenly enforced
• Northern commitment to Reconstruction waned amid economic depression (Panic of 1873) and political scandals
• Compromise of 1877: The disputed election of 1876 was resolved by withdrawing federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction and allowing white Democrats (“Redeemers”) to regain control

Key Terms

Manifest Destiny, Wilmot Proviso, Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott, Fort Sumter, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg, Anaconda Plan, 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment, Sharecropping, Freedmen’s Bureau, Compromise of 1877, Ku Klux Klan, Radical Reconstruction

Exam Tips

• Explain how westward expansion intensified the slavery debate
• Analyse the causes and consequences of the Civil War from multiple perspectives
• Compare Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction
• Evaluate the successes and failures of Reconstruction
• Connect the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to ongoing struggles for civil rights