Period 5 1848-1877
Madeline Williams
Wilmot Proviso
David Wilmot wanted an appropriations bill to be amended that would forbid slavery from spreading to new territories.
The bill was defeated in the Senate.
Manifest Destiny
Western Expansion
By the end of Polk's term, the U.S. had reached the Pacific Ocean.
Indian Removal
As a result of Manifest Destiny, Native Americans were relocated to territories.
War with Mexico
After the U.S. won the war in 1848, Mexican territories in the southwest were gained.
Manifest Destiny
Ostend Manifesto - 1854
President Polk wanted to purchase Cuba from Spain for $100 million, but Spain refused.
After Pierce was elected, three American diplomats were sent to Ostend, Belgium where secret negotiations to buy Spain were taking place.
This was leaked to the U.S. press and angered anti-slavery citizens.
Kansas-Nebraska Act - 1854
With the new Kansas and Nebraska territories entering the U.S., the act stated that the issue of whether or not slavery would be legal in each territory would be decided by popular sovereignty.
Crop-Lien System
With slavery abolished, sharecropping became a new form of servitude for freed slaves and even poor whites.
Sharecroppers were given their own piece of land to work, but still remained dependent on landowners.
Themes
POL-3
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed with intentions to make both pro-slavery and anti-slavery citizens pleased, but it only angered the free-soilers even more and resulted in outbreaks of violence known as "Bleeding Kansas."
WXT-1
The Crop-Lien System became dominant following the abolition of slavery and emerged as the new form of labor system as freed African Americans and whites worked land for a landlord and were given supplies and part of the crop in return.