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Part I – Identifications
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) who was born in poverty became a rising young politician and earned the title of a national military hero during the war between the US and Britain. After losing the 1824 presidential election he returned with winning the 1829 presidential elections. With the development of the American Political Party System, he became the leader of the new Democratic Party. The center of political power transferred from East to West when he became the first frontier president and his elections were the turning point of American politics.
Trail of Tears
Nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on the land in Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee that had been occupied by their ancestors and were cultivated for generations. After the invention of the cotton gin the white settlers wished to grow cotton on the lands of Indians. Therefore, the federal government forced them to leave their native lands across the Mississippi River. This was, however, a deadly journey in which thousands of Cherokees died. This incident is known as the ‘trail of tears’ story.
John Brown
John Brown is known as a man action who cannot be deterred from his mission of the abolishment of slavery. On 16th October 1859, he had a raid of the federal arsenal at Harper Ferry along with 21 men. His plan was to arm the slaves with weapons but most of his men either died or captured. Brown failed to emerge as a significant figure despite his contributions to abolish slavery.
Frederick Douglass
Prior to becoming a public speaker, author, and activist, Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave. He was the leader of the abolitionist movement that ended the practice of slavery. He continued his human rights and civil rights even after the abolishment of slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation. Moreover, the was the practitioner of the women’s rights particularly the women's right to vote and was an inspiration to the civil rights movement.
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was also an escaped slave and later she worked as a conductor on the railroad. Prior to the Civil War, she was leading the slaves to freedom, and she was also a supporter of women suffrage, a Union spy and a nurse. She was one of the most recognized women in US history and legacy inspired many people with different backgrounds. She found new ways to fight slavery when the Civil War broke out.
Bleeding Kansas
The term Bleeding Kansas is used to describe the violence that happened while settling the Kansas territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 overturned the use of Missouri Compromise as the boundary between free territory and slave. The settlers of Free-state and Proslavery flooded into Kansas so that they could influence the decision. As a result, violence erupted between the two factions.
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg is believed to be the most significant engagement of the Civil War that started from 1st to 3rd July 1863. General E. Lee, after a great victory over Union forces, marched his army into Pennsylvania. At the crossroads town of Gettysburg, the advancing Confederates conflicted with the Army of Union lead by G. G. G Meade. There was even severe fighting the next day because the Confederated attacked the Federals. This resulted in thousands of rebel casualties.
Grimke Sisters
Grimke Sisters were prominent activists for women rights and abolition, Angelina Grimke Weld (1792-1873) and Sarah Grimke (1792-1873) who were growing in the cradle of slavery. They became virtual outcasts in the South after their conversation to Quakerism. The sisters were not only known as proponents of women rights but also as abolitionists. Even though, they had not attended the Seneca Falls convention in 1848.
Mexican American War
The war between the US and Mexico helped in completing the “manifest destiny” of America from 1846 to 1848 for expanding its territory across North America. The border skirmishes followed by a series of victors for the US. After the war, one-third of the territory was lost by Mexico along with contemporary California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The reason for the war was that the US wanted to purchase the land from Texas to the Pacific Ocean, but Mexico wanted to have a vast area.
Monroe Doctrine
President James Monroe, on 2nd December 1823 used his annual message to the Congress and become the cornerstone of the US foreign policy. He proclaimed that both the Old and New World have different systems and needs to remain in different spheres. There were four basic points of the Monroe Doctrine: the US will not interfere in the internal affairs of Europe, the US will not interfere in the existing colonies and recognizes them, the Western Hemisphere will be closed for future colonization and any movement of the European powers towards Western Hemispheres will be considered as an active war against the US.
Part II – Essay
Introduction
The ideals of the revolution failed to affect the lives of blacks. However, Equality of all citizens is one of the basic tenets of democracy and that is the foundation of American political structure. It was, however, hypocritical for many American to demand liberty and equality while they had held blacks in bondage. The liberty of an oppressed class started after the revolution. However, they had various conflicting ideas about liberty but were lacking its understanding. This eventually grappled with issues related to state practices.
Discussion
This notion made the people of the north more pervasive to abolish slavery and to end the racial discrimination and segregation. Moreover, the abolitionist wanted to achieve immediate emancipation of slaves. These goals made them distinguished from the political opposition. However, during the revolution, the abolitionists had strong feelings end slavery, but did not confront the militant crusades till the 1830s. They viewed that it was each person’s moral responsibility to abolish slavery and uphold the rule of law. The north flooded with petitions, agents, and antislavery literature that demanded Congress to end slavery. When the Southerners bothered to giver reason, they called slavery a natural phenomenon, for example, they viewed that the whites are superior over blacks in various ways such as the capacity to fight, technological prowess, knowledge, morality, and intelligence. Nonetheless, this notion persuaded the people in the north as it involved moral and legal concerns.
Moreover, Lincoln’s leadership further made northern more pervasive to abolish slavery. As he had always said that slavery will be considered wrong. However, his views on slavery were at odds with the leading racist fillings of Illinois citizens. For Lincoln, the complete antebellum debate came down to the question of whether the slaves are human beings are not. If they are human beings, then they should be in the proposition that all individuals have equal rights. For example, the life to right, the life to marry, the right to divorce and the right to work. But the southern was claiming that every society on needs have a slave population because there are various kinds of works that are degrading or too difficult, and slave would do these jobs. The northern viewed this notion as utopian because if they included in that proposition, then it will be against the law of nature and against the constitution that every individual ought to be free. Moreover, the abolishment of slavery advanced the interests of northern because they had not owned slaves. For that reason, they added a strong ideology to the antislavery movement. As their essential proposition was that the nation was devoted to free the slaves. In this regard, Republicans asserted that Congress possessed the duty and power to abolish slavery from the states. Moreover, the north maintained that racial prejudice was not a monopoly of the south. The southern insisting of going to impose the inner opinion on the people, the result of many men in the North and the coming of the Civil War, concluded hopes of Lincoln for a kind of patient emancipation (Geyl & P, 1951).
Because of numerous dissimilarities between the north and south, the Civil War was inevitable concerning social development, slavery, and governments. Moreover, the leavers of south refused to consider proposals to compensate for slave-owners free labor, the evolution of their plantations and the loss of their slaves. (Towers, & F. 2011). However, during and before the turning of the Civil War, Lincoln tried to persuade slave states, in fact, the states that were not in rebellion such as Delaware. However, they denied the compensated emancipation because the idea was expressed in religious terms. Eventually, no compensation was ever paid to the slaves or slave-owners except when the Columbia was made free territory. Racism, on the other hand, played a vital role in why the south chooses to fight the war that they never win. The south bears the complete responsibility of the break out of the controversy into a Civil War. (Towers, & F. 2011). As a result, the intricacy of US civilization increased accurately after the war because of the restoration of slavery as a workable economic system. A powerful and peculiar interest was started in the South about slavery, an interest that endeavored after expansion. It is, however, known to everyone that this interest was the only cause of the Civil War (Towers, & F. 2011). Neither party expected the duration and magnitude of the war which it had already attained. Both were looking for an easier win, and effect less astounding and fundamental.
Reconstruction brought fundamental social, political and economic changes. The overthrow of Reconstruction left the coming nation the upsetting of racial justice. The Civil War was to breathe full meaning into their newly attained freedom. While it as central to Reconstruction that they claim their rights as citizens. In fact, they were actively participating in determining Reconstruction. Northern victory in the war decided the fate of slavery and the Union but brought various challenges such as reuniting the nation, the system of labor and above all the status of the former slaves. For many of this century, Reconstruction was significantly viewed as an era of misgovernment and corruption that allowed blacks to take part in the social political and economic affairs of the country. This interpretation helped in justifying the segregation in the South. While historians view the Reconstruction with a different perspective of genuine progress for the south in general and former slaves in particular. The post-war period also witnessed the establishment of white vigilante groups, for example, Ku Klux Klan that tried to bring back the white supremacist status quo through intimidation and violence. No doubt, the northern triumph in the Civil War can be perceived as a sign of victory of freedom and democracy. It was beyond America that encouraged reforms in Europe like in France people contrasted the repressive measure in the second half of the nineteenth century that led to the proposal for a gift of the statue for the nation. With the victory of Union, the status of the former slaves in the reunited nation turns out to be the central point of postwar Reconstruction politics. Political participation becomes a vital aspect of freedom in society (Geyl & P, 1951). While the right to vote was one of the desires of the former slaves along with autonomy. In the South, the former slaves came together and organized their ‘freedom ballots'. While in the North, former slaves were supported by the Radical Republicans as an act of justice and prevented Confederated from dominating the politics of the South.
Conclusion
The American nation needs to carefully consider the notion of liberty with political traditions. However, the American has been holding various interlocking but different notions of the term. Liberty, either be regarded as protection of natural rights or denoted as self-governance of a local group or community (Scott, C. E. 2014). But essentially, the decade of Reconstruction and the Civil War raised many questions that remain essential to the nation's understanding of itself as a nation. What needs to be the balance of power between state and or national government practices? Who is entitled to US citizenship and what are the meanings of liberty, freedom, and equality in the US. Today, these question still remain controversial in the US political arena. That is to say, yet, the Civil War is not ended. Today, the sacrificed made during and after the Civil War are considered worthy in international politics. With no denying the fact, the Unionist had strong sentiments in the North after the conflict had broken out and established the sense of sacred obligation (Geyl & P, 1951). From the beginning, Lincoln comprehended that an appeal to this belief will have a reuniting effect on the opinions of Northern, and possibly had an impression in the South.
References
Geyl, P. (1951). The American Civil War and the problem of inevitability. New England Quarterly, 147-168.
Scott, C. E. (2014). The five conceptions of American liberty. National Affairs, 20, 164-183.
Towers, F. (2011). Partisans, New History, and Modernization: The Historiography of the Civil War's Causes, 1861–2011. journal of the civil war era, 1(2), 237-264.
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