Panic and Boom, 1837 1845

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CHAPTER 11

• Panic and Boom, 1837 - 1845

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Economic Crisis and Innovation

• Martin van Buren elected president in 1836
• Panic of 1837 created by foreign and domestic
  economic problems
• In Charles River Bridge case, Supreme Court ruled
  that a state charter did not imply a monopoly
• Railroads become main form of transportation as
  Americans become more connected
• Samuel Morse

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The Growth of Railroads
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Life in the New Slave South

• Most slaves worked in plantation fields, in hemp,
  wheat rice, corn, sugar, tobacco, and cotton
• African American families develop networks of
  fictive kin to counteract pressures of slavery
• Plantation life varied greatly, from benevolence
  to atrocity
• Both Whigs and Democrats support slavery in the
  South, but the parties constituents were vastly
  different

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Paths of the Slave Trade
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Spread of Slavery
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Percentage of Population Enslaved, 1820 and 1840
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Reform Takes Root

• Reform in public education gained support
• Horace Mann
• Movements against alcoholic beverages grew in
  popularity
• The Washingtonians
• Martha Washington Societies
• Abolition remained strongest reform movement
• Grimké sisters
• Liberty Party
• Amistad
• Frederick Douglas

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Development of an American Culture

• Transcendentalism emerges as a new cultural
  movement
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• William Gilmore Simms
• Henry David Thoreau
• American popular culture developed in a great
  variety of mediums
• Artists such as Cole, Audubon, and Powers
• Daguerreotypes
• Writers such as Poe and Melville

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The Transformation of American Politics

• Campaigns become a major part of Americas
  entertainment
• Emphasis on informal issues helped elect William
  Henry Harrison in 1840
• Harrisons death from pneumonia brings John Tyler
  to the presidency
• Tyler alienated his presidency from Whigs and
  Democrats
• Webster-Ashburton Treaty

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Election of 1840
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The Challenge of the West

• California and Oregon become The West, and many
  Americans begin to migrate westward
• Westward migration brings issue of slavery back
  to political forefront
• Manifest Destiny is used to describe Gods plan
  for Americans to inhabit the continent
• James K. Polk elected by narrowest of margins in
  1844
• Turmoil in this period within the United States
  arises from religious schisms and the issue of
  slavery

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Oregon Boundary Dispute
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Population Explosion 1830-1850
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Trails to the West
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Discussion Questions

• Evaluate the presidency of Martin van Buren. How
  does he compare to Andrew Jackson?
• Describe the conditions of slave life on the
  plantation. Did it differ for field slaves to
  house slaves?
• What was the abolitionist movement? What was its
  part in politics in the pre-civil war period?
• What is Manifest Destiny? What part did it play
  in the 1800s? Does it still exist today?