THE UNITED STATES AT MIDCENTURY

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THE UNITED STATES AT MID-CENTURY

• Demographic Trends
• Economic Change
• Political Development
• Reforms of the Times
• A Nation of Sections

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A growing population(in millions, 1820-1860)
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Reduced birthrates - average children per family
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Western world populations
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Inhabitants per square mile, 1850
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A changing population - Immigration (by decade)
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of slaves, total population
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A rural population ( urban,1820-1860)
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A young population (median age, 1820-1860)
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B. Economic Change

• Broad literacy rates
• Gross national product doubling every 15 years

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Transportation revolution
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Travel times from NYC, 1800
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Travel times from NYC, 1857
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Steamboats docked at Cincinnati
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Lowell textile mills (1910)
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Lowell textile mills
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Tredegar Iron Works (1865)
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Jackson and the destruction of the Second Bank of
the U. S. - slays the hydra by removing
government deposits
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Potential economic problems

• Relatively high per capita income, but increasing
  divide between rich and poor
• Capitalism with little restraint
• A complex banking system

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C. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

• Most property requirements for voting and holding
  office abolished
• Relative political equality for white males

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C. Political Development High voter turnout (
of eligible voters)
Presidential elections
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Two national parties

• Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists
• Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans
• The muddle of the 1820s
• Democrats vs. Whigs

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Traditional politics

• Andrew Jackson
• Tariff
• Internal improvements

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The Election of 1848 Whigs vs. Democrats
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Whig formula for winning a presidential election?
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C. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT Traditional leaders
Daniel Webster
Henry Clay
John C. Calhoun
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Henry Clay, 1843

• Painting by John Neagle

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John Calhoun in 1822
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The transformation of John Calhoun protect
slavery through states rights
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C. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT Constitutional
Questions

• Article I, Section 8 necessary and proper
  clause
• vs.
• 10th Amendment (reserves power to the states)

• Right of majority to govern
• vs.
• inalienable rights of minority

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Can slaveowners take their slaves anywhere?
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How do Southerners believe they can best protect
slavery?

• Within the Union or
• Outside of the Union

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D. Reforms of the Times

• Women and Men
• Asylums and the Humanitarian Crusade
• Uplifting Souls

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Seneca Falls, 1848

• Woman suffrage
• Equality of opportunity

Lucretia Mott
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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Stereotypes and realities

• Middle class ideals - true women should be
  angels in the home
• Separate spheres

How many women are truly middle-class?
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Realities of rural life
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Womens public involvement in public policy-
Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin
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Asylums and the Humanitarian Crusade
Dorothea Dix
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Temperance the most visible reform of the
mid-nineteenth century
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• State and local action on temperance

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Anti-slavery movement
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E. A Nation of Sections

• Are the North and South more different than
  alike?
• If they are, does this mean that a Civil War is
  inevitable?

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urban population
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of labor force in agriculture
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Education and literacy

• Illiteracy rate in North 1/3 that of South
• ideology of literacy public education and
  social mobility, more pronounced in North

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Racial composition of the Population, 1860
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More freed blacks live in the South than in the
North
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of agricultural production in slave states, 1860
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Cotton exports as a percentage of all U.S.
exports, 1800-1860
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Edmund Ruffin - scientific farming
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Per capita income, 1860 (in dollars)
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of total U.S. capital invested in manufacturing
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J. D. B. DeBow - DeBows Review (New Orleans)

• Pro-slavery need for economic independence

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Merchant ship capacity (in thousands of tons)
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of white families who own slaves in the South,
1860
Over 20 planter
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Slave ownership patterns in the South, 1860
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The Growth of Slavery
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The Growth of Slavery
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Population growth and cotton production, 1821-1859
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75 of slaves were field hands
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Majority of slaves live on plantations
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Slavery was profitable, at least in the short run
(Texas sample)
of slaves
1860 data
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Slaveowners possess disproportionate share of
wealth and power - the case of Texas
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Southern Society and Slavery

• Slave ownership perceived as a means of achieving
  success
• Fears of social unrest if slavery ended
• Need for expansion

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The quest for room
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Southern Defenses of Slavery
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The South Internal divisions

• Should slavery be the dominant force in Southern
  life?
• Can Southern interests (slavery) best be
  protected by the union, or with secession?

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The North Internal divisions

• Should reaction to slavery be the dominant force
  in Northern life?
• Should Northern interests best be protected by
  conciliating the South?

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Defensiveness

• Siege mentality

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Cassius Clay
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Crackdown on opposition and moderation
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The transformation of John Calhoun protect
slavery through states rights