A Review of American History Up to the Civil War

By Andrew Lee and Nathan Mayes

A REVIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY UP TO THE CIVIL WAR

Chapter 1: Manifest Destiny 

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Before 1803, the United States stretched just to the Mississippi River.

Population was increasing and people begun to get crowded.

1803 President Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 15 million dollars. This put the United States borders even closer to the Pacific ocean.

Many criticized Jefferson’s purchase, saying there was no need. Others disagreed, citing the new unclaimed farmland, land, and natural resources. Also many believed the country was safer now since they could fight off invasions from the west.

All the positive aspects of this became known as “Manifest destiny.” which means obvious fate. Many Americans believed that it was the United States’ destiny to rule sea from shining sea.

Many migrated west to swipe the cheap land for themselves, to start a new life, or to even search for gold. Sadly though, this maenad all Native Americans had to migrate as well to stay away from the travelers.

Chapter 2: Industrialization 

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First, industrialization means the transformation from producing goods by hand to producing goods by machine. This didn’t begin in the United States till 1789; where Samuel Slater’s mill made its debut. The mill spun cotton fiber into thread.

Many other inventors begun to tinker around with their inventions. In 1793, Eli Whitney created the cotton gin, which cleaned 50 pounds of cotton in the time it took to clean one pound by hand.

Whitney birthed a new idea of interchangeable parts. He showed how identical parts for a machine could be produced in quantity and can be used on other machines. This paved the way for mass production.

Factories flourished with the revolution of these new machines. Factories now needed people to work to help produce the goods; thus giving more people jobs.

This changed the economy completely, with more people buying goods.

To connect all these economies, roads, canals, and railways were built to deliver goods anywhere in the country. This developed the economy even more by giving people jobs, and allowing companies to push their products in other regions now.

Chapter 3: Kansas-Nebraska Act  Slavery often stayed in the south, but with new

territories out west becoming states a question arose: Should slavery be allowed in these new states?  Congress passed a bill that became known as the Missouri Compromise, which outlawed slavery in most of the Great Plains.  The Kansas-Nebraska Act was different though, it allowed popular sovereignty for slavery. This angered many northerners, and pleased many southerners.

Chapter 4: Dred Scott Case  Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri that sued

for his and his wife’s freedom.  In 1856, the Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, a black man, was not a citizen therefore not granting him the liberties of the Constitution  This case convinced northerners and other slaves that slavery would never be outlawed legally, and it inspired many to try to force change in a different way.

Chapter 5: Union/Confederacy  The Union consisted of 20 states. There were

16 in the northeast part of the country and there were 4 in the western part  The Confederacy consisted of 11 states. They were all located in the south  There were four border states that had citizens that fought on either side of the war  The Union won the war and the Confederacy lost

Chapter 6: Anaconda Plan  The Anaconda plan was the Union’s strategy

to winning the civil war.  The north would “cut off” the south from the rest of the world. They would form a navel blockade, effectively shutting all of the south’s shipping ports.  Also the north would shut off the Mississippi river; splitting Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the south. Now the north would have a starting point to invade the south.

Chapter 7: Emancipation Proclamation  After the confederate states left the Union,

Abraham Lincoln told them to join the Union by January 1, 1863 or he would free their slaves  The Confederacy ignored his warning and Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves  The Emancipation Proclamation was an edict issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, to free the slaves in Confederate states

Chapter 8: General Grant  General Grant was the leader of the Union’s

army  He helped the Union gain control of the Mississippi River by laying siege to Vicksburg, Mississippi  He negotiated with the leader of the Confederacy army’s leader and ended the war with the Union coming out as the winner

Chapter 9: Robert E. Lee  Robert E. Lee was the top general of the

Confederacy  He tried to turn the tables on the Union many times, one such time being when he tried to invade Union territory by crossing into Maryland  He engaged in, and lost, the Battle of Antietam. This was a turning point in the war and gave Lincoln the chance to change the course of the war

Chapter 10: Black Soldiers in the Civil War  After the Emancipation Proclamation was

issued the slaves weren’t immediately freed, but it caused African Americans to rejoice  The most famous black unit was the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. They were the first entirely African American regiment in the Union Army  Even though they fought in the war, they still were discriminated against after the war was over