Lecture Outline for History 105: History of the United States to 1877 / Dr. Baum
I. Analyzing History: The Task of Historians
II. The New World Encounters the Old World
A. Forces that Impelled Europe to Exploration and World Conquest
1. Trade with the Far East, Merchants (“Bourgeoisie”) & the Growth of Cities
2. Alliances between Kings & Merchants
3. Revolution in Thought and Communication: the Renaissance & Humanism
4. New Technology: Ship Design, Cannons, Compass & Astrolabe
B. Native American Peoples at the Time of Columbus
1. Concept of “Indian” as an Intellectual Weapon
2. Problems of Studying Indian Societies
3. Remarkable Diversity of Indian Cultures
a. Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas
b. North American Indians: Attitudes toward Religion, Property, & Gender
c. The Demographic Disaster and the Columbian Exchange
C. Background of English Colonization: Points of Contrast with Spain
1. The Enclosure Movement and a “Surplus” Population
2. Motives for Colonization: Trade, National Power & Religious Rivalry
3. The Protestant Reformation: Problem of British Religious Dissenters
4. Sir Walter Raleigh and Roanoke Island {1585}
5. Joint Stock Companies: Pooling Financial Resources
6. British Experience in Ireland versus “La Reconquista” of Spain
III. Beginnings of English America
A. Chesapeake Bay: Jamestown
1. Squalor and Struggle: Captain John Smith
2. 1609-1618: Restoration & Economic Failure
3. Headrights, Subcolonies, House of Burgesses {1619}, & the Powhatán Confederacy’s Retaliation {1622}
4. 1624: The Royal Colony of Virginia: New Leaders, Tobacco (“A Noxious Weed”) & Indentured Servitude
B. Massachusetts Bay: The Puritans and the New England Way
1. Pilgrims and Puritans: Separating and Non-separating Congregationalists
Roman Catholics à Anglicans, Congregationalists & Presbyterians à Quakers
[Rituals & priests] [No rituals & no priests]
What the church can do for all Every man or woman tends
in the quest for salvation to become his or her own church
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>toward a more direct experience with God >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
2. John Winthrop’s “City Upon a Hill”
3. Nature of the Puritan Settlements
4. Roger Williams and Thomas Hooker: Rhode Island & Connecticut
5. Anne Hutchinson versus the Puritan Establishment
a. Justification rather than Sanctification
b. Were the Ministers under a Covenant of Works?
c. The Political Nature of Her Trial
d. The Insoluble Dilemma: Anne Hutchinson as “a Perfect Puritan”
e. Antinomianism as an Anti-Climax
C. Virginia: The Making of a Colonial Slaveholding Society
1. Evolution of the “Slave Codes”
2. Traditional Slavery versus Racial, Chattel, and Permanent Slavery
3. Factors Driving Africans into a New Form of Bondage
D. Maryland: A Refuge for Catholics (The Calvert Family)
E. The Carolinas: Men from Barbados & Slavery at the Outset
F. Pennsylvania: A “Holy Experiment” (William Penn)
G. Georgia: Defense and Philanthropy (James Oglethorpe)
H. Non-English Settlements: New Delaware & New Netherland
IV. Colonial America during the Late 17th Century
A. Demographic Characteristics:
1. A Mobile and Youthful Lower Working-Class Population
2. Low Death Rates, High Growth Rates & Altered Sex Ratios
B. Economic Instability
1. Competitive and Erratic Atlantic “Triangular Trades”
2. Consignment System of Marketing Tobacco
C. Religious Instability
1. Debasement of the Anglican Clergy in Virginia
2. The Half-way Covenant in Puritan Massachusetts
3. Salem Witchcraft Trials {1692}
D. Social Instability
1. The Massachusetts Sumptuary Law of 1651
2. Rise of Native or Local Wealthy Elites: Social Stress & Strain
a. Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia {1676}
b. Rebellion against Andros and his Dominion of New England {1687}
c. The Maryland Uprising {1689}
d. Leisler’s Rebellion in New York {1689}
V. Colonial America during the Early 18th Century
A. The New Population
1. Africans: The Stono Rebellion {1739} & Personality Disguises
2. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians (“Ulstermen”)
3. Germans (“Rhinelanders”)
B. The Economy: Widespread Freehold Tenure
C. Religious Life: The Great Awakening
D. Politics and Government:
1. The Colonists’ Beliefs: The British “Balanced Constitution”
Theoretical Reason for British Political Stability in the 18th Century:
Monarchy -> power King -> tyranny
Aristocracy -> good judgment House of Lords -> oligarchy
Democracy -> liberty House of Commons -> mob rule
2. Actual Reasons for England’s Political Stability
a. Resolved Issues: Extent of Crown’s Authority and Church & State
b. The “Private” or Invisible Constitution: “Rotten Boroughs,” Restricted Electorate, and the King’s Patronage
3. Instability of Colonial Governments: Absence of Stabilizing Factors Resulting in “Endemic Discord” & “Brawling Factionalism”
A Mistaken Analogy On the Part of the American Colonists:
Colonial Governors = King
Lower Assemblies = Parliament
[Colonial “charters” = British “balanced constitution”]
VI. Moving Toward Independence
A. A Long Tradition of “Salutary Neglect”
1. Mercantilism
2. Trade and Navigation Acts
B. Latent Problems in the Substratum of Anglo-American Life
1. Long-Ignored Economic Issues
a. Paying Off Trade Debts: Molasses Act of 1733
b. Restrictions on Colonial Manufacturing: Iron Act of 1750
c. Absence of Specie: Currency Act of 1751
2. Colonial Self-Consciousness
a. The Age of Reason: The American Enlightenment
b. Benjamin Franklin & the Symbolic Importance of Pennsylvania
3. Antagonisms Generated by Common War Efforts
a. War of Jenkins’ Ear: Debacle at Cartagena
b. King George’s War: Return of Louisburg
c. The Seven Years’ War: William Pitt, Huge War Debts & “Writs of Assistance”
C. Colonial Social Structure on the Eve of the Revolution
1. “Gentle” versus “Simple” People
2. Giving Respect and Deference to One’s “Betters”
3. Loyalty and Influence in a “Patronage” Society
D. Costs and Benefits of the Empire before 1763
VII. Why Did the American Colonists Rebel?
A. British Efforts to Re-organize the Empire after the End of the Seven Years’ War
1. George Grenville’s Ministry
a. Proclamation Line of 1763
b. Sugar Act
c. Stamp Act
d. Quartering Acts & Currency Act of 1764
e. Declaratory Act {1766}
2. The Townshend Crisis: Townshend (or Revenue) Acts of 1767
3. Patriot Ideology: “A Conspiracy against Liberty”
a. Dissenting English Political Thought: Radical “Whig” Publicists
b. Natural Rights Philosophy: John Locke & the Right to Rebel
4. The Boston Massacre
5. Tea Act: British East India Company
6. Intolerable Acts {or Coercive Acts}
7. Quebec Act
B. The First Continental Congress {1774}
1. The Suffolk Resolves
2. The Continental Association & Committees of Safety
C. Lexington and Concord
VIII. The American Revolution
A. The
Revolutionary War {1775-1783}
1. The Balance of Forces
2. The Second Continental Congress {1775}
3. Early Battles: Bunker Hill, Fort Ticonderoga & William Howe
4. Turning Points
a. Independence Declared: Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
b. Saratoga {1777} & the French Alliance
5. The Military Nadir: Valley Forge
6. The Articles of Confederation: “A Firm League of Friendship”
7. War in the South {1778-1781} & Victory at Yorktown
8. The Treaty of 1783
B. How “Revolutionary” was the American Revolution?
1. The Revolution Within
a. Class War?
b. Redistribution of Property?
2. Increased Concern for Human Rights
a. Gradual Abolishment of Slavery in the North
b. Better Treatment of Lawbreakers
3. The New Politics
a. Drafting of State Constitutions
b. Calling of Constitutional Conventions
c. “Republicanism” & Representative Democracy
4. The Hopes of Women & “Republican Motherhood”
5. Separation of Church and State & Attack on Legal Privileges
a. Disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Virginia
b. Entail, Primogeniture & Royal Restrictions on Land
IX. Founding a Nation: The Origins of the Constitution
A. Accomplishments of the Confederation Government
1. Land Ordinance of 1785
2. Northwest Ordinance of 1787
B. Domestic Postwar Problems and Complaints
1. Agriculture
a. Loss of Markets & Falling Prices
b. Mississippi River Controlled by Spain
2. Commerce, Industry & Finance
a. Decline in Per Capita Exports
b. Foreign Domination of Costal Trade
c. Trade Wars among the States
d. Public and Private Creditors
C. Heightened Nationalist Consciousness
D. Sad State of Confederation Finances & Feebleness of U.S. in Foreign Affairs
1. Congress Defaulting on Its Debts
2. Britain, Spain & the Barbary States
E. The Philadelphia Constitutional Convention
1. Daniel Shays' Rebellion
2. The Framers and Their Task: A Bundle of Compromises
a. The Great Compromise
b. The “Three-Fifths” Compromise
3. Enlargement of the Powers of the National Government
G. Ratification
1. "Federalists" versus "Anti-Federalists"
2. The Federalist Papers
3. The Bill of Rights
H. Indians and Slaves in the New Nation
X. Securing the Republic: 1790-1815
A. Federalists ("Hamiltonians") versus Democratic-Republicans ("Jeffersonians" or "Republicans")
1. Alexander Hamilton's Plans for a Powerful Commercial Republic
a. Establishing Federal Credit Worthiness and a National Bank
b. Taxing Producers of Whiskey and Supporting Domestic Manufacturers
2. Thomas Jefferson's Goal of a Republic of Independent Farmers
a. Fear of a Re-creation of a Patronage Society
b. Distrust of a Strong Centralized Government Allied to Commercial Capitalists
c. The Roles of Religion, Slavery, and Sectionalism
3. The French Revolution, "Citizen" Genêt, and the Jay Treaty
4. The Whiskey Rebellion: The Pinckney Treaty (or Treaty of San Lorenzo)
5. The XYZ Affair, Alien and Sedition Acts, and Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
6. Jefferson's Election: The "Revolution of 1800"
B. The Jeffersonians in Office: How Did Power Affect Republican Ideas and Principles?
1. President Thomas Jefferson
a. "Informal" Government, Federalist Legislation Repealed, and Attack on Federalist Officeholders
b. Marbury v. Madison: John Marshall and Judicial Review
c. The Louisiana Purchase {1803} and Lewis & Clark
d. Neutral Rights Once More: USS Chesapeake and the Embargo Act of 1807
2. President James Madison
a. Western Troubles: Tecumseh
b. The War of 1812: Treaty of Ghent {1814}
c. Andrew Jackson's Victory at the Battle of New Orleans
d. The Hartford Convention and the Demise of the Federalist Party
XI. The Market Revolution: What Made the American "Economic Miracle" Possible?
A. Factors of Production
1. Natural Resources and Labor
2. Education, Skill, and Technology
3. Growing Markets and "Economies of Scale"
4. Capital and Future Preference
5. Role of the Government
a. Banks and "General Incorporation Laws"
b. Patent Laws and "Social Overhead Capital"
B. The Inter-Regional Pattern of Trade
1. Law of Comparative Advantage
2. SOUTHERN (Slave) States: "King Cotton"
a. Demand for Cotton Cloth & Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin
b. Cotton as the Major Expansive Force in the U.S. Economy
3. WESTERN (Midwestern) States: Grainfields and Foodstuffs
a. Cyrus McCormick's Reaper
b. John Deere's Steel Plow
4. NORTHEAST (New England and Mid-Atlantic) States: Manufacturing, Banking, and Industry
a. Francis Cabot Lowell's Textile Mills
b. The "Mill Girls"
C. Dramatic Improvements in Transportation
1. Steamboats and Roads
3. Canals and Railroads
D. The Social Impact of Economic Growth
1. The Frontier and Freedom: A Popular Belief in Social and Economic Egalitarianism
2. The Limits of Prosperity and Freedom in the Northern (Non-Slave) States
a. Immigrants, Free Blacks, and Women: Nativism, Racism, and the Cult of Domesticity
b. Economic Inequality: The Gini Index
c. The Early Labor Movement: Realities and Expectations
XII. Democracy in America, 1815-1840
A. The "Era of Good Feelings"
1. Domestic Politics
a. John Marshall's Court: Fletcher v. Peck and McCulloch v. Maryland
b. "A Fire Bell in the Night": The Missouri Compromise {1820}
2. Foreign Affairs
a. Acquisition of Florida: The Adams-Onís Treaty
b. The Monroe Doctrine {1822}
B. Andrew Jackson's Rise to Power
1. Democratic Reforms in the States
2. The Election of 1824: Allegations of a "Corrupt Bargain"
3. Martin Van Buren: Political Parties as an Antidote for Sectionalism
C. "King Andrew" and His Whig Opponents
1. The "Spoils System"
2. South Carolina's Ordinance of Nullification: John C. Calhoun's Concerns
3. Indian Policy: Worcester v. Georgia and The Trail of Tears
4. Attack on the Bank of the United States: The Panic of 1837
D. The Second Party System Takes Shape
1. Effect of Van Buren's Candidacy in 1836
2. The Whig Opposition Victory of 1840
3. Whigs Versus Democrats
a. Similarities: Truly National, Non-ideological, Well-Organized, Mass Followings
b. NORTH: Religious and Ethnic Antagonisms & Negative Reference Groups
c. SOUTH: Cosmopolitanism Versus Localism
The Pietistic-Liturgical Continuum in the North
Catholics à Episcopalians, Lutherans, Jews, Mormons, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Congregationalists, Unitarians à Quakers
[Formalistic Religion: Rituals, Doctrines, Liturgy and Rules] [Unceremonious Religion: Piety, Good Works and Prayer]
Emphasis on CORRECT BELIEF Emphasis on CORRECT BEHAVIOR
Laissez-fare in religion and morals as well as economic affairs Determination to police the public's personal habits and morals
DEMOCRATS WHIGS
XIII. The Antebellum South and Its "Peculiar Institution"
A. An Unexpected Diversity: Southern Agriculture & Industry
B. Profitability & Efficiency of Slavery
C. The Social Structure of the White South
1. Large, Median and Small Slaveholders: The Rarity of the Great Planter
2. Nonslaveholders: Yeoman Farmers and Poor Whites
Slaveholders: One-fourth of white southern families in 1860 owned slaves:
The Planter Elite (100 or more slaves) = 1%
Large slaveholders (20 - 99 slaves) = 4%
Medium slaveholders (10-19 slaves) = 25%
Small slaveholders (1-9 slaves) = 70%
Plain Folk: Three-fourths of white southern families in 1860 owned no slaves:
Yeoman farmers
"Hillbillies" and "Poor Whites"
D. Life Under Slavery
1. Gang labor and Task Labor
2. Material and Psychological Conditions
3. Slavery and the Law
E. The Southern Mentality
1. Fear of Slave Revolts
2. The Proslavery Arguments: George Fitzhugh's Sociological Defense
3. Flights of Fantasy: Romance and Culture & the Creation of an Intellectual Backwater
4. Southern Ideology: John C. Calhoun's Anti-Democratic Doctrines
IX: A House Divided, 1840-1861
A. The Mexican War and Expansionism: Greed, Manifest Destiny and Inevitability
1. The Texas Revolution & the Texas Republic
2. Tyler-Walker "Secret Plan" and the Defeat of the Texas Annexation Treaty
3. The 1844 Presidential Election: "Dark Horse" Candidate James K. Polk
4. "The Re-occupation of Oregon and the Re-annexation of Texas"
5. Compromise with England & Annexation of Texas by Joint Resolution {1845}
6. Victory in Mexico: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo {1848}
B. The Dilemma of Territorial Growth
1. The Wilmot Proviso {1846}
2. The Free Soil Party and the 1848 Presidential Election
3. Escaping Disunion By Finding Common Ground: The Compromise of 1850
a. Utah and New Mexico Territories: "Popular Sovereignty"
b. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act
National Politicization of the Slavery Issue in the Late Antebellum Period
LEFT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------RIGHT
REVOLUTION..............................((( COMMON GROUND
)))..........................COUNTER- REVOLUTION
C. The Rise of the Republican Party
1. The Kansas-Nebraska Act {1854}
2. Break-up of the Whig Party and the Know-Nothing Interlude
3. "Bleeding Kansas": Guerrilla War in Kansas Territory
4. The Brooks-Sumner Incident
5. The 1856 Presidential Election
D. President James Buchanan's Policies
1. The Dred Scott Case
2. The Lecompton Constitution
E. The Emergence of Abraham Lincoln & the Anti-slavery Ideology of the Republican Party
1. A "Slave Power" Conspiracy
2. Intent of the Framers
3. Defense of Northern Society
F. The Secessionist Movement in the South
1. John Brown's Raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry {1859}
2. Break-up of the Democratic Party and the Election of Lincoln {1860}
3. Secession Convention Elections: Political Re-alignment in the South, 1860-1861
4. Secession as "Pre-emptive Counter-Revolution"
X. The Civil War, 1861-1865
A. The Balance of Forces and the Outset of War
1. Confederate Attack on Fort Sumter
2. Bull Run: An Antidote to Northern Confidence
B. Lincoln's Early Commanders: McClellan and Grant
4. Union War Strategy
a. "On To Richmond"
b. The Anaconda Plan
c. A War of Attrition
C. The Diplomatic War
D. Increases in the Power of the Federal Government
1. Conscription (the Draft)
2. Taxation, Banking, and Currency
3. Transportation: Pacific Railroad Act of 1862
4. Government Becomes "Big Business"
5. Government and Agriculture: Department of Agriculture, Morrill Land Grant College Act, and Homestead Act
E. The Third (or Civil War) Party System
1. The Four Great Issues of the Civil War
a. A Government Controlled Currency: "Greenbacks"
b. The Draft
c. Direct Taxation: Internal Revenue Service
d. Emancipation
F. Factors that Caused the South's Defeat
1. Failure of "Cotton Diplomacy"
2. The Union Naval Blockade
3. Financial Problems of the Richmond Government
4. Black Soldiers in the Union Army
G. Wartime Politics in the North
1. Lincoln's 10% Plan
2. The Wade-Davis Bill
3. The
Election of 1864: Lincoln versus McClellan
Overview of Post-Civil War Political Polarization over the Status of the Ex-slaves
LEFT ........................ Republicans
............................................................... Democrats
................................. RIGHT
Extensive Political and Economic
Reconstruction..............versus.............Self-Reconstruction [based on the principle of
white supremacy]
REVOLUTION..............................((( COMMON GROUND )))..........................COUNTER- REVOLUTION
XI. Reconstruction, 1865-1877
A. Presidential ("Johnsonian") Reconstruction {1865-1867}
1. Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction as Reconciliation
2. The "Black Codes"
3. White Reactionaries and Conservatives in Control
4. Northern Disillusionment with Johnson
B. Congressional ("Radical") Reconstruction {1867-1877}
1. Congress versus Johnson
a. The Freedmen's Bureau
b. Civil Rights Act of 1866
c. The Fourteenth Amendment
d. The 1866 "off-year" Elections and the New Orleans Massacre
C. The First Reconstruction Act of 1867
1. Unsuccessful Impeachment
2. The Experience of Congressional Reconstruction
a. The Enduring Myth of "Black Reconstruction"
b. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
c. Accomplishments of the Southern Republican Governments
Civil and Political Rights for African-Americans
Ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments
Free Tax-supported Public Schools {Establishment of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (1871)}
Re-districting, Women's Rights, Internal Improvements, and Other Reforms
D. The White Conservative Counter-Revolution Against Congressional Reconstruction
1. White Terrorism: Ku Klux Klan
2. The Mississippi Plan of Redemption: Physical Intimidation, Economic Coercion, and Social Ostracism
3. The Liberal Republicans and the 1872 Presidential Election
4. Triumph of the Redeemers and the Bargain of 1877
E. Reflections on the End of Reconstruction: Limits to Change
1. Laissez-faire Economics
2. Separation of Powers or "Constitutionalism"
3. Republican Party Factionalism
4. Racism
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