National Expansion and Reform, 1815 - 1880
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
v During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation
became the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With
wider suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and
demise--of a number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the
American, the Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
During this period, the small republic founded by George Washington's generation became
the world's largest democracy. All adult, white males received the right to vote. With wider
suffrage, politics became hotly contested. The period also saw the emergence--and demise--of a
number of significant political parties, including the Democratic, the Whig, the American, the
Free Soil, and the Republican Parties.
Meanwhile, the young republic expanded geographically from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Stars and Stripes were raised over Texas, Oregon, California, and the Southwest. Expansion,
however, proved to be a mixed blessing for Americans. While many white settlers found new
opportunities to the West, their settlement displaced other groups including Indian tribes and
Mexicans. In addition, territorial expansion gave African-American slavery a new lease on life
and led to increasing conflict between North and South.
Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future.
These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support
social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems,
improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining
equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political
climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South
over the slavery question.
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African Americans had been enslaved in what became the United States since early in the
17th century. Even so, by the time of the American Revolution and eventual adoption of the new
Constitution in 1787, slavery was actually a dying institution. As part of the compromises that
allowed the Constitution to be written and adopted, the founders agreed to end the importation of
slaves into the United States by 1808.
By 1800 or so, however, slavery was once again a thriving institution, especially in the
Southern United States. One of the primary reasons for the reinvigoration of slavery was the
invention and rapid widespread adoption of the cotton gin. This machine allowed Southern
planters to grow a variety of cotton - short staple cotton - that was especially well suited to the
climate of the Deep South. The bottle neck in growing this crop had always been the labor
needed to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers. But Eli Whitney's gin made it much easier
and more economical to do. This fact made cotton production much more profitable and hence
very attractive to planters and farmers in the South. Still, growing cotton was very labor
intensive and cotton growers needed a large supply of labor to tend the fields. Enslaved African
Americans supplied this labor.
It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large
cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for
rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades
as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away
enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had
large free black populations.
A field hand's workday usually began before dawn and ended well after sunset, often with a
two-hour break for the noon meal. Many free farmers in the South (and North) also put in very
long work-days, but the great difference was they were working for themselves and controlled
their own work time. Enslaved workers had no such control and they worked under constant
supervision and the threat of physical punishment by their overseers.
However, despite overall harsh conditions and the absence of freedom, enslaved people
were not just powerless victims of their owners and the system. Their quarters provided one of
the few places where they could be more or less free from constant supervision by overseers; the
community might extend well beyond the family and in many cases beyond the single plantation
or farm. They created a vibrant social and cultural life beyond the reach of slave owners. While
no rational person would wish to be enslaved, they sought to make the best of their
circumstances.
Reformers and Crusaders
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveler who wrote a classic report on American
society,9Democracy in America9(1835), wrote, "in my view, more deserves attention than the
intellectual and moral associations in America." He observed that "Americans of all ages, all
stations of life and all dispositions are forever forming associations. There are not only
commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different
types - religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, very large and very
minute."
What de Tocqueville encountered during his travels to the United States in the 1830s was
the keen desire of many American citizens to come together to eradicate evil from 19th-century
life and perpetuate the evangelical and liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind. Mindful
of their right to act on behalf of their beliefs, citizens from throughout the nation came together
to right perceived wrongs and crusade on behalf of their causes, including observance of the
Sabbath, crime and punishment, hours and conditions of work, poverty, care of the handicapped,
temperance, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and education, to name a few.
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens
that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the
people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed
it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man
has made?"
Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon
country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from
missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements
along the Missouri River.
Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the
emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the
discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland
trails for California.
Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was
difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their
journey.
