Chapter 16, The South and the Slavery Controversy 1793-1860

Chapter 17, Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy 1841-1848

Chapter 18, Renewing the Sectional Struggle 1848-1854
Objectives: Students will be able to
1. point out the economic strengths and weaknesses of the “Cotton Kingdom”
2. describe the southern planter aristocracy and identify its strengths and
weaknesses
3. describe the nonslaveholding white majority of the South and explain its
relations with both the planter elite and the black slaves
4. describe the nature of African American life, both free and slave, before the
Civil War
5. describe the effects of the “peculiar institution” of slavery on both blacks and
whites
6. explain why abolitionism was at first unpopular in the North and describe how it
gradually gained strength
7. describe the fierce southern response to abolitionism and the growing defense of
slavery as a “positive good”
8. explain the spirit of “Manifest Destiny” that inspired American expansionism in
the 1840’s
9. outline the major conflicts between Britain and the United States over debts,
Maine, Canada, Texas, Oregon, and growing British hostility to slavery
10. explain why the movement to annex Texas gained new momentum and why the
issue aroused such controversy
11. indicate how the issues of Oregon and Texas became central in the election of
1844 and why Polk’s victory was seen as a mandate for “Manifest Destiny”
12. describe how the issues of California and the Texas boundary created conflict
and war with Mexico
13. describe how the dramatic American victory in the Mexican War led to the
breathtaking territorial acquisition of the whole Southwest
14. describe the consequences of the Mexican War, especially its effect on the
slavery question
15. explain how the issue of slavery in the territories acquired from Mexico
disrupted American politics from 1848-1850
16. point out the major terms of the Compromise of 1850 and indicate how this
agreement attempted to deal with the issue of slavery
17. indicate how the Whig party disintegrated and disappeared because of its
divisions over slavery
18. describe how the Pierce administration as well as private American adven-
turers pursued numerous overseas and expansionist ventures primarily
designed to expand slavery
19. describe Americans’ first ventures into China and Japan in the 1850s and their
diplomatic, economic, cultural, and religious consequences
20. describe Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act and explain why it stirred the
sectional controversy to new heights
Key people/terms/concepts

John Tyler
John Slidell Winfield Scott
Zachary Taylor Nicholas P. Trist James K. Polk
Stephen W. Kearny David Wilmot Robert Gray
John C. Fremont Santa Anna
Joint resolution
spot resolutions
Conscience Whigs Bear Flag revolt
Hudson Bay Company Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo Californios
Walker Tariff Whigs
Oregon fever Rio Grande Lewis Cass
Stephen A. Douglas Matthew C. Perry Harriet Tubman
William H. Seward James Gadsden Millard Fillmore
Popular sovereignty filibustering Free Soil party
Fugitive Slave law personal liberty laws Underground RR
Compromise of 1850 fire eaters higher law
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty Ostend Manifesto Gadsden
Kansas-Nebraska Act

Possible readings:
Zinn, We Take Nothing By Conquest; Slavery Without Submission
Frederick Douglass, Narrative
Spirit, The South and the Slavery Controversy, pp. 351-368
Spirit, The Debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, p. 411