UNIT 4 (1800-1848)
Welcome to Unit 4 of APUSH! This unit covers the time period from 1800-1848! During this unit, we will be covering everything from the Jeffersonian Era to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War. We will first go over the rise of political parties, the Era of Jefferson, the fall of the Federalist party, and then going deeper into the topic of politics and regional interests. We will go over the Market Revolution and the expansion of democracy, along with several more presidents before we get to Andrew Jackson’s presidency. Afterwards, we will talk about his relationship with federal power, the development of an American culture during this time, the rise of reform movements advocating for change, the role of women, and then ending with life in the South and the institution of slavery.
Key People, Terms, and Events
People
Terms
Events
Balance of Free and Slave: A balance between the amount of free and slaves states was very important, especially for the South, because while the North had the majority in the House of Representatives due to their larger population, the South could stop any legislation that threatened slavery in the Senate because there, states were represented equally by number so there would be a 50/50 split in the vote
Monroe Doctrine: Created by James Monroe which had three key points:
America would not get involved in European wars unless directly impacted
European nations were not welcome in the West and were not allowed to make any new colonies or take back former colonies in the Americas
Anything that happened in the Americas was the responsibility of the U.S. and therefore, any attempt of European influence in the Americas would be considered as an “unfriendly act”
Market Revolution: The linking of northern industries with western and southern farms. During this period, the different regions of America became more connected and united economically and this marked a transition from an agrarian (farming) economy to a capitalist economy focused on producing goods for sale, led to the creation of a middle class
Factory System: In factories, workers would mass-produce identical parts of an item and then put them together to be shipped to distant markets instead of creating a whole product all by themselves. This flooded the markets with a lot of more new goods and meant that now, the production of goods could be done by unskilled laborers instead of skilled artisans
Nativists: People who feared that immigrants would take their jobs and ruin their culture, spread stereotypes against Catholics and Jews, portraying Catholics as religious spies and Jews as greedy scammers, believed that protecting the interests of native-born people (non-immigrants) was the most important thing of all. For example, the Nativists hated that the Irish were Catholic and not Protestants. Some Nativists would later create the Know-Nothing Party. Later in the 20th Century, nativists feared immigration would take their jobs, lower wages, and harm the white face.
Cult of Domesticity: An idea that suggested that the job of women was to have babies, raise good children, and make their home a haven from the outside world, while the job of men was to go out and do real work
Era of the Common Man: A period of expanding democracy in the United States from 1800 to 1848 which led to political parties realigning and changing, and included:
Universal suffrage for men
Creation of Political Nominating Conventions: Established the ways that candidates for offices would be nominated
Use of the Popular Election: Now, voters got to choose their electoral college electors based on a majority vote, instead of state legislature controlling it
National Republicans (Whigs): Split from the Democratic-Republicans: Had a more expansive view of federal power, and thought that the Constitution should be interpreted loosely, an idea known as loose constructionism, favored urban interests and large industries
Democrats: Split from the Democratic-Republicans, continued to be like the original Democratic-Republicans and supported both limited federal power and strict constructionism, meaning that the Constitution should be followed very strictly and literally, supported limited federal power, free trade, local rule, and rural and agricultural interests
Trail of Tears: The forced westward migration of natives from the South and Southeast to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi where a third died of disease or starvation
Romanticism: A way of thinking that emphasized warmth, emotion, human taste, and a belief in perfectionism
Abolitionism: The movement to end slavery
Emperor Napoleon: Emperor of France after the French Revolution, sold French Louisiana (828,000 square miles of land) to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase for just fifteen million dollars because France didn’t have easy access to the territory anymore
John Marshall: 4th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, played a very important role in expanding the power of both the court and the federal government, ruled Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland
Henry Clay: Speaker of the House; proposed his American System to fix the problems of America; suggested the Missouri Compromise/Compromise of 1820; when no candidate won a majority in the electoral college in the Election of 1824, Clay convinced his allies in the House to vote for John Quincy Adams and get him elected as president instead of Andrew Jackson, who had won the most popular votes and electoral votes; was JQA’s Secretary of State, proposed the Compromise of 1850
Tecumseh: Leader of the Shawnee people and led them during Tecumseh’s War, a war between them and William Henry Harrison, who was at the time the first governor of Indiana
John C. Calhoun: Jackson’s first vice president, from South Carolina, called the Tariff of 1828 the “Tariff of Abominations” and saw it as too harmful to exist and as an overreach of federal power, wrote the South Carolina Exposition & Protest, supported slavery
Henry David Thoreau: Wrote a book called Walden which was a reflection on life after he decided to live in a cabin in the woods on his own with a simple lifestyle for two years
Charles Grandison Finney: A Second Great Awakening preacher that preached using emotional and simple metaphors that anybody could understand. Finney preached that sin was a choice and that people had the power to live perfect lives free of sin.
Joseph Smith: A man from New York who declared that the Church had strayed from the true teachings of Christ and that it was his job to be God’s appointed prophet and bring the Church back to its true form. He wrote down his discoveries in the Book of Mormon, and began preaching to the people of New York. Over time though, he started spreading the message of polygamy, and was subsequently lynched as a result in 1844.
William Lloyd Garrison: Abolitionist who published a newspaper called the Liberator, established the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1883 and while he did argue for standing against slavery through moral persuasion, he also publicly burned a copy of the Constitution, claiming that it was a pro-slavery document
Frederick Douglass: An escaped slave and abolitionist who taught himself to read and write, wrote a book called Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass where he described the dehumanization that the institution of slavery perpetuated. He also went on tours to describe his first-hand experience with slavery to the populace, also an orator who gave many anti-slavery speeches
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Leader of the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848
Nat Turner: A Virginian slave, led a group of slaves to kill over 50 white people in 1831 in Nat Turner’s Rebellion before being stopped by the Virginia militia the next day. He and 55 others were hanged and because of this rebellion, planters throughout Virginia went into a panic and started a mass torture of their other slaves.
1803: The Louisiana Purchase occurs
1812: The War of 1812 starts
1819: McCulloch v. Maryland is ruled, declaring that national law trumps state law whenever they contradict
1820s: The Market Revolution begins and the factory system is born
1820: The Missouri Compromise is passed, establishing the 36° 30’ line as the boundary for determining slave and free states
1823: James Monroe creates the Monroe Doctrine
1824: The Election of 1824 occurs, in which four candidates were up for voting and while Andrew Jackson won most of the votes, none of them won a majority so the House of Representatives decided the presidency, leading to Henry Clay getting all of his allies to vote for John Quincy Adams in what became known as the “corrupt bargain”
1830: The Indian Removal Act of 1830 is passed and Mormonism is founded
1831: Nat Turner’s Rebellion occurs, a slave revolt that leads to a mass panic and mass torture of slaves
1838: The forced removal of the Cherokee from their lands occur
1848: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott hold the Seneca Falls Convention
1848: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the Mexican-American War and outlining the Mexican Cession
Fast Summary
During the presidency of Thomas Jefferson (1800-1808), the country experienced a period of growth and expansion. Jefferson purchased Louisiana from France, nearly doubling the size of the country. He also implemented his vision of a small federal government with limited powers, as outlined in the Democratic-Republican party platform. Meanwhile, tensions rose between the North and South over issues such as tariffs and states' rights.
In the War of 1812, the United States declared war against Britain in an effort to protect American shipping rights and to gain respect on the world stage. The war ended with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, which resulted in no significant territorial gains for either side.
After the war, the country experienced an era of good feelings, characterized by a sense of national unity and a lack of major political conflicts. This was short-lived, however, as the issue of slavery and states' rights once again divided the North and South. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 attempted to resolve the conflict by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30' latitude.
In the 1820s and 1830s, the country experienced significant economic growth, with the expansion of industry and agriculture. This growth was largely due to innovations in transportation, such as the steamboat and the railroad, which made it easier to move goods and people. However, the growth was not evenly distributed, and many people, particularly in the South, struggled to make ends meet.
The election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 marked the beginning of the Jacksonian era, characterized by Jackson's populist policies and the expansion of democracy. Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced thousands of Native Americans to leave their ancestral lands and move to reservations in the West.
In the late 1830s, the country was once again divided over the issue of slavery. The controversy over whether new territories would be slave or free states reached a boiling point with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which required Northerners to assist in the capture and return of runaway slaves. The act fueled the already growing abolitionist movement and sparked outrage in the North. The stage was set for the American Civil War, which would begin just over a decade later.