AP US History Unit 5 Lecture Notes

Overview

• Time Period Covered: 1844 to 1877
• Main Themes: Expansion, Civil War, and Reconstruction.

Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion

• Manifest Destiny: Belief that Americans were destined to expand across the continent.
  • Motivations: Land equaled opportunity (fertile soil, gold, religious freedom).
• Trails and Acts:
  • Oregon Trail: Thousands risked their lives moving west.
  • Homestead Act: Provided free land to settlers.
  • Pacific Railroad Act: Facilitated railroad construction.
• Transnational Expansion:
  • Treaties with China and Japan opened trade.

Mexican-American War

• President James K. Polk: Focused on westward expansion.
• Conflict with Mexico:
  • Border dispute led to war (Rio Grande vs. Nueces River).
  • Outcome: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) – US gained Mexican Cession.
• Impact on Slavery:
  • Wilmot Proviso attempted to ban slavery in new territories (failed).
  • Compromise of 1850 tried to balance interests of free and slave states.

Sectional Tensions and Compromises

• Compromise of 1850:
  • California became a free state.
  • Utah and New Mexico decided on slavery by vote.
  • Slave trade banned in Washington D.C.
  • Stricter Fugitive Slave Act angered the North.
• Immigration:
  • Influx of Irish and German immigrants in Northern cities.
• Abolitionists:
  • Figures like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman played key roles.

Prelude to Civil War

• Kansas-Nebraska Act: Allowed states to vote on slavery, led to "Bleeding Kansas."
• Emergence of Republican Party (1854): Anti-slavery platform.
• Dred Scott Decision: Ruled that slaves weren't citizens, inflamed tensions.
• Election of 1860:
  • Candidates: Abraham Lincoln (Republican), Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat), John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democrat), John Bell (Constitutional Union).
  • Lincoln's victory led to Southern secession.

The Civil War (1861-1865)

• Initial Conflicts:
  • Fort Sumter: First shots fired.
  • Battle of Bull Run: Union defeat.
• Strategies:
  • Union: Anaconda Plan (blockade and control Mississippi).
  • Confederacy: Defensive strategy, hope for European intervention.
• Major Battles:
  • Gettysburg and Vicksburg: Turning points in favor of the Union.
  • Sherman's "March to the Sea": Demonstrated total war strategy.
• Emancipation Proclamation (1863):
  • Freed slaves in Confederate territories.
  • Reframed war as fight against slavery.
• Union Victory: Lee's surrender in 1865.

Reconstruction Era

• Plans and Amendments:
  • Lincoln's 10% Plan vs. Radical Republican Reconstruction.
  • Key Amendments: 13th (abolished slavery), 14th (citizenship and equal protection), 15th (voting rights for Black men).
• Failures of Reconstruction:
  • Rise of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws.
  • White supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
  • Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction prematurely.

Legacy

• Reconstruction failed to protect African American rights but laid groundwork for future civil rights movements.
• Unit 5 concludes with the realization of the continued struggle for equality and unity in America.