A White Man’s Country

20% of Americans think doctors and the government want to vaccinate children despite knowing that vaccines cause autism.

33% of Americans think "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."

37% of voters believe global warming is a hoax

13% of voters think Barack Obama is the anti-Christ

• More products• Greater variety• Greater amount• Beginning of mass production• Decline of home production

Growth of Trade

• Growing wheat, corn• Steel plow invented by Cyrus McCormick• Credit• Feeding eastern cities• Eastern farmers focus on dairy, fruits, veggies

Commercial Agriculture

• Urbanization• Greater interconnectedness (canals, railroads)

Westward migration – “Manifest Destiny” (1845)

– Craftsmen lose autonomy– Work split up into smaller tasks– Interchangeable parts– Clocks, guns, tools, shoes, etc.– Mechanization– British technology stolen

Factory System

– Most from Ireland, Germany– Most went to the North– Only Baltimore, New Orleans, and St. Louis got

many immigrants

Immigration

– Why?• Peasants pushed off land• Industrialization costs craft jobs• Steamship, railroad make travel easier

The Marketplace

• New• Atomistic• Anonymous• Disorder• Anxiety for churches and families

Individualism

• Free labor – Your labor is your property– Sell it on the market

• “Self-made man”• Possessive individualism

Conundrum of Jacksonian Democracy

– Expanding democracy– Expanding slavery in the cotton kingdom– Racist Andrew Jackson icon of the era– By 1840, 90% of white men could vote

Big Picture

• Jefferson succeeded by Madison and Monroe– Still from the revolutionary generation– Decolonization in South America• Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, etc. get independence

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Problems with Expansion

– Missouri fiasco splits North and South– Problem of dividing up Louisiana Purchase– Slave or free?– Already slaves there

The Missouri Compromise

– Compromise:• Maine admitted as free state• Missouri as slave• Slavery prohibited in all territory north of 36°30′

latitude

– Guys like Jefferson and John Quincy Adams knew it was a danger to the Union

Enter “Old Hickory”

Andrew Jackson

• Hero of New Orleans/War of 1812• Ran for president in 1824• Won popular vote but failed to win majority in

Electoral College

• Lost to John Quincy Adams– Son of 2nd president– aristocratic New Englander– intellectual– not a very good politician– wanted the govt to do a lot

Jackson Strikes Back

• 1828 victory revolutionizes politics– Well-organized political parties– Founding of Democratic Party– Most white men can vote– Patronage

Jackson’s Ideas

– Limited government– Popular participation in govt for white men– Opportunity for whites, but definitely not Indians

and blacks

Democrats Worry about Inequality

– Industrialization, growing commerce– Suspicion toward bankers, merchants, speculators– Supported by small farmers, aspiring

businessmen, urban workers

New Opposition: the Whig Party

– Believed in progress– Tariff to protect industries– Active federal govt– Supported by rich planters, already-successful

merchants and bankers, Northerners

Battles of the Jackson Era

• Southerners didn’t like tariff, threaten “nullification”

Indian Removal

– Expansion of cotton production– Pushes into Indian lands in the South– Cherokees, Choctaws and other “civilized tribes”

screwed– Georgia expels them

The Trail of Tears

– Supreme Court (1832): removal violates treaties with federal govt

– “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it” – Jackson

– 18,000 Cherokees forced to move in 1838-9– 1/4 die on the way to Oklahoma

Seminoles in FL Keep Fighting

– Second Seminole War (1835-1842)– Indians, escaped slaves join forces– 1,500 US soldiers die– Similar # of Seminoles– Most forced to leave

– First Whig president elected in 1840– Another military hero: William Henry Harrison– Dies in office after thirty days– Total fiasco– His successor disagrees with Whigs on everything

Recap: What the Hell Happened?

• Democratization mostly benefits white men• Economic growth, westward expansion on the

backs of Indians and slaves