The Civil War

Tuesday, 1/22: the Civil War I; Read pages 434-447.
1. How did each side finance the war? Is there anything problematic with these methods? In what ways were they similar?
2. How did each side raise their armies? Is there anything problematic with these methods? In what ways were they similar?
3. Why did the South need and expect help from Great Britain and France? Why did they fail to gain help?
4. Did Lincoln violate the Constitution to win the war? Was he right to do so?
5. What advantages did each side have at the outbreak of war? Who should have won?
6. What was different about the Civil War? What new technologies were used and what effects did they have on the war?

Wednesday, 1/23: Civil War II; Read 448-463.
1. Who had the upper hand in the first two years of the war? Why?
2. Why was the Battle of Antietam important?
3. What were the US policies towards slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation? What did the Proclamation do for slaves? Why did Lincoln choose that moment to change his policies? Were the proclamation and its timing wise?
4. What was life like for African-Americans during the war? What effect did African-Americans have on the war’s outcome?

Thursday, 1/14: Civil War III; Read 464-478.
1. What was the turning point of the war? Why do historians consider this to be the turning point?
2. Why was the siege of Vicksburg important?
3. Why was Grant a successful general when so many earlier generals were unsuccessful?
4. What was the effect of Sherman’s “March to the Sea” on the South?
5. Why did Lincoln almost loose the election of 1864? Who opposed him? Why did Lincoln win?
6. How did Grant finally defeat Lee? What was his treatment of Lee and the Confederate soldiers like? Why did he treat his adversaries that way?

Know the significance of the following:
Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, Salmon Chase, William Seward, Andrew Johnson, Conscription Act, 20-Negro Law, Trent affair, the Alabama, Laird Rams, Confiscation Act, Emancipation Proclamation, Copperheads, Peace Democrats, New York Draft Riot,Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Battle of Antietam, Battle of Fredericksburg, Anaconda Plan, blockade, border states, Invasion of New Orleans, Siege of Vicksburg, Battle of Gettysburg, Sherman’s March to the Sea, Appomattox Courthouse, USS Monitor, CSS Virginia (Merrimack), Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, George B. McClellan, George G. Meade, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Admiral David Farragut, John Wilkes Booth, Gettysburg Address

Slavery in 2013

Slavery is alive and well in the world today. Estimates are that there are somewhere between 10 to 30 million people enslaved around the world today, including the United States. US State Department estimates that up to 17,000 people are "trafficked" into the United States every year to serve as slaves. They are a population hidden from view who are forced into prostitution, farm work, or domestic servitude against their will and without compensation, freedom or rights. To learn more about the tragedy of modern slavery and to take action to end slavery, visit the following sites or view the documentary below which stars the rapper Common.

The Frederick Douglass Family Foundation
CNN Freedom Project
Free The Slaves
"The Girls Next Door" (groundbreaking article about sex slavery in America)
10 Quick Shocking (but not verified by me)Facts About Slavery

Causes of the Civil War

For Tuesday, 1/8: The Limits of "Compromise" in the 1850s. Read ages 390-408.
1. How did the territory gained in the US-Mexico War help lead to the Civil War?
2. Why did Taylor invite California to join the union as a free state? Why did this create a crisis?
3. Why couldn’t Henry Clay broker a compromise this time? Who was able to get the compromise passed? Why was he able to pass it?
4. Was it really a compromise? Why?
5. What was the Fugitive Slave Act and why did it cause problems in both the North and the South?
6. What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act? Why did Douglas call for it? Why was it controversial?
7. What was the Free Soil Party? What was their ideology?
8. Why did the Republican Party organize and become so popular so quickly? Who made up the party?
Know the significance of the following: Wilmot Proviso, Zachary Taylor, free soil, popular sovereignty, Omnibus Bill, Millard Fillmore, William Seward, Stephen Douglas, Fugitive Slave Law, personal liberty laws, Franklin Pierce, Gadsden Purchase, Ostend Manifesto, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Republican Party.

For Wednesday, 1/9: The Crisis Escalates in Kansas and the Court. Read 409-418.
1. What affect did Uncle Tom’s Cabin have on the nation?
2. What was “bleeding Kansas?” Why did it happen? What effects did it have on the rest of the country?
3. Was the Republican Party responsible for the widening the gap between North and South? Why?
4. Why did the Dred Scott Case scare northerners so much?
Know the significance of the following: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “Bleeding Kansas”, Lawrence, KS, Pottawatamie Creek, John Brown, “Beecher’s bibles”, John C. Fremont, James Buchanan. Dred Scott v Sandford, Roger B. Taney, Lecompton Constitution

For Thursday, 1/10: The Secession Crisis. Read 419-432
1. What was the long-term importance of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates? In what ways did Douglas both win and lose because of the debates?
2. What affect did John Brown have on the South? What did northerners think of him?
3. Why did Lincoln’s election cause southern states to secede?
4. How did Lincoln respond to southern states’ secession?
Know the significance of the following: Lincoln-Douglas Debates, “Freeport doctrine”, raid on Harper’s Ferry, election of 1860, Jefferson Davis, Ft. Sumter, Crittenden Compromise

Slavery

For Monday 1/7: Read pages 348-370 (Chapter 16).1. How did the development of the cotton economy change the South? Consider the economy and demographics.
2. What effect did it have on slavery? What effect might this have had on national politics and the political priorities in the South?
3. Describe the distinct classes that made up white society. How was this social system different from the North’s society?
4. What was slavery like for the average African American in the 1800s?
5. What was life like for free African Americans?
6. Why were there so few slave rebellions in America? How did slaves resist slavery?
7. How did slave culture evolve to help African Americans adapt to and survive the brutality of slavery?
8. How was African American language, music, religion and family different from those of the whites around them? Did these cultural institutions affect America in the long term?
9. What were the first abolitionists like (American Colonization Society)? Why did they not succeed?
10. What was different about William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator? What affect did they have on the South?
11. Did the North accept the new abolitionists? Why?
12. How did the South defend slavery?
Know the significance of the following: Upper South, Deep South, “Black Belt”, “cavaliers”, planters, Nat Turner, American Colonization Society, William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, Elijah Lovejoy, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth

The Jacksonian Age

Thursday, 11/29. The rise of Jackson and mass democracy. Read pages 256-264.
1. What changes in American Democracy had occurred between 1800 and 1828?
2. What is Jacksonian Democracy?
3. Was Jackson in favor of a strong or weak central government?
4. Explain the nullification crisis.
5. How did Jackson change American politics and the presidency (why is he such a big deal in American history?
Know the significance of the following: Jacksonian democracy, silent ballot, extension of franchise, end of caucus, direct elections, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun, Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, National Republicans, Peggy Eaton affair, Maysville Road veto, Nullification Crisis, South Carolina Expositionand Protest, Force Bill, Tariff of 1833

Monday, 12/3. Jackson re-evaluated. Read pages 264-275.  Jackson Memorial Assignment due.

1. Understand the important Supreme Court cases leading to Cherokee removal.
2. Explain the removal of the Cherokees.
3. Explain the causes of the Panic of 1837. Who was to blame. Who was blamed.
Know the significance of the following: Indian Removal, “Five Civilized Tribes”, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia(1831), Worcester v. Georgia(1832), Treaty of New Echota (1835), Trail of Tears, National Bank veto, “pet banks”, Nicholas Biddle, election of 1832, Whigs, Democrats,

Wednesday, 12/5. Martin Van Buren and the rise of the Second Party System. Read pages 275-286.

1. What was Van Buren’s view of political parties?
2. Why and how did Americans come to settle in Texas? What was the result of the Texan revolution? Why did Texas not become part of the United States in 1837?
3. Who were the Whigs? How and why were they organized?
4. What was the long-term affect of Jackson amd Van Buren on American politics?
Know the significance of the following: election of 1836, Independent Treasury, election of 1840, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”.

Thursday, 12/6. Demographics of the new national economy. Read pages 287-297.
1. How did the demography of America change in the early 1800s? How did this affect our culture?
2. How did immigration change in the early 1800s? How did Americans reacty to these changes? What effect did this have on American culture and politics?

Friday, 12/7. Mechanics of the new national economy. Read pages 297-318.
1. What were the most important technological innovations in this period? How did technological innovations affect farming, the economy of the South and slavery?
2. Trace the development of industry from homes to factories. Trace the development of the form of business from the individual proprietor to the corporation.
3. What improvements in technology and changes in law enabled these developments? How did changes in transportation change the Mid-west, the Northeast, and the South?
4. Who were the first groups to work in these new industrial factories, and how were they recruited?
5. How effective were workers in controlling the conditions of their work?
6. How did the workplace, the lives of women and nature of families change due to working in industrial factories?
7. What is the significance of the Supreme Court cases Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge (1837) and Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)? (These will be covered in class)
Know the significance of the following: Nativism, “Know-Nothings”, Erie Canal, De Witt Clinton, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, general incorporation laws, Lowell system, Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge (1837), Commonwealth v Hunt(1842)

Tuesday, 12/10. Religious revivalism and the reform movement. Read pages 320-332.
1. What was the Second Great Awakening? What caused it? What were the short and long-term results of the movement?
2. How is the Second Great Awakening related to Jacksonian Democracy?
3. Why were there so many reform movements in this era? What did they have in common?
4. Were these movements trying to make society more free or more controlled? What were the effects of this movement on the people it tried to help, on politics and society, and on women in particular?
5 How are these movements related to Jacksonian Democracy?
Know the significance of the following: Second Great Awakening, Charles G. Finney, Revivals, Unitarians, Mormons, Shakers, public school reform
Horace Mann, McGuffey Reader, penitentiary reform, asylum reform, Dorothea Dix, abolition, temperance , women’s rights, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Seneca Falls Convention, “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments” (1848)


Wednesdat, 12/11. Arts and letters in Jacksonian America. Read pages 332-347.
1. What was Transcendentalism? Does it fit in the general culture of Jacksonian America? Did Transcendentalists challenge or celebrate American society and culture?
2. How did the art and literature of this period in general fit into Jacksonian America?
Know the significance of the following: Hudson River school
Thomas Cole, romanticism, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, “Civil Disobedience", Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Herman Melville, Moby Dick


Thursday, 12/12. Manifest Destiny. Read pages 371-380.
1. What is Manifest Destiny? How did race and religion figure into the concept of Manifest Destiny? Was Manifest Destiny moral and/or proper?
2. Who owned Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California? What difficulties did they have settling and governing the area?
3. How did Americans first begin to immigrate to Texas? What problems did this create for Mexico and the American immigrants?
4. Why did the Texans rebel? How did the Texans win their independence?
5. Who owned the Oregon Territory? Why? Why were immigrants coming there?
6. Why was the United States able to obtain Oregon without going to war with Great Britain?
Know the significance of the following: Manifest Destiny, John L. O’Sullivan, Oregon & California, Transcontinental Treaty, Adams-Onis Treaty, “54°,40’ Or Fight”, Sutter’s Mill, ‘49ers


Friday, 12/13. The US-Mexico War. Review your pervious notes on Texas and read pages 381-389.

1. Why did Texas not become part of the United States rights away?
2. How did Tyler add Texas to the United States?
3. Why did the United States go to war with Mexico?
4. Did Polk force war with Mexico?
5. Was our war with Mexico a moral and/or wise war?
6. What were the results of the war?
Know the significance of the following: Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Santa Anna, the Alamo, Goliad, San Jacinto, Lone Star Republic, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Tyler, James K. Polk, Nueces River, Rio Grande, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, Santa Anna, Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Gadsden Purchase

Good Documentary on the US-Mexico War:


Below is a phenomenal song about the US-Mexico War, by the Irish band The Chieftans and a number of Mexican musicians. It is about the San Patricios, a group of Irish immigrants in the US Army who switched sides in the middle of the war and chose to fight for Mexico against the United States.



An article on the San Patricios can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Patricios

Jeffersonian Democracy

For Thursday, 11/ 15: Thomas Jefferson, Read 211-225
1. How was Thomas Jefferson different from the two previous presidents?
2. Jefferson has been described as a man of the people, an aristocratic hypocrite, a frenzied radical, a philosopher, a scientist, a pragmatic politician, and a high-minded idealist. Which was he?
3. What was Jefferson’s vision of what America should be? Was he successful in achieving his vision?
4. What was the significance of the Marbury v. Madison case.
5. Why were we able to purchase Louisiana? Did Jefferson violate his principles in purchasing Louisiana? Why did he do it?
Know the significance of the following: Election of 1800,Aaron Burr, James Madison, Monticello, University of Virginia, Albert Gallatin, Marbury v. Madison (1801), judicial review, Louisiana Purchase (1803), Toussant L’Ouverture, Napoleon Bonaparte, William Clark, Meriwether Lewis, Sacjawea


For Friday, 11/16: James Madison, Read 225-232
1. Why did the U.S. get into conflict with Great Britain and France?
2. How did Jefferson react to these abridgements of our sovereignty and our citizens’ rights? What were the results?
3. How did Madison react? What were the results?
4. Why did we go to war with England instead of France?
Know the significance of the following: James Madison, Rule of 1756, Impressment, Leopard v. Chesapeake, Embargo Act (1807), Non-Intercourse Act (1809), Orders in Council (1809), Milan Decree (1809), Macon’s Bill #2 (1810), “war hawks”, John Calhoun , Henry Clay


For Monday11/26: War of 1812, Read 233-240.
1. Who should have won the war? What were the most important battles?
2. Why did the war end? Who won?
3. What were the results of the war for the U.S.? What were the results of the war for American Indians? What were the results of the war for the Federalists?
Know the significance of the following: Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), Tecumseh, William Henry Harrison, Battle of Tippecanoe (1811), Battle of Put-In-Bay (1813), Battle of the Thames (1813), Battle of New Orleans (1815), Treaty of Ghent (1814), Hartford Convention (1814)

Interesting documentary that shows the conflict over the MidWest from the eyes of Tecumseh



For Wednesday11/20: Monroe, Sectionalism and Nationalism in Era of Good Feelings, Read 242-255
1. Why was this era called the Era of Good Feelings.
2. What caused the Panic of 1819? What effect did it have?
3. What did the Missouri Compromise decide? Why was it so important?
4. What effect did John Marshall have on the Supreme Court?
5. How did the United States acquire Florida?
6. What was the Monroe Doctrine? Why was it so important?
7. Was John Quincy Adams an able diplomat? Why?
Know the significance of the following: James Monroe, Panic of 1819, Missouri Compromise, John Quincy Adams, Adams-Onis Treaty, Monroe Doctrine, John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison (1801), Dartmouth College v.Woodward (1819), McCullough v. Maryland(1819)

Election Resources

A site that allows you to take a quiz that matches your views with the views of the candidates can be found here.

The website procon.org also has a great site that shows each candidates positions (through their own statements) on may different issues.

A good site that allows you to plot diffeernt election day scenarios is 270 to Win

The best, most up-to-date analysis of polls and election predictions is the blog Five Thirty Eight