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Uncover the history of Antebellum America through the voices of those who lived it.
This book analyzes more than 70 primary documents from the antebellum period of American history, shedding light on various aspects of life in the USA from 1815 to 1861. From these document excerpts, organized into 40 topical sections, readers will come away with a first-hand account of what life was like in a period characterized by growing political, social and economic tensions, through exploring documents relating to society, economy, religion, foreign relations, war, literature and more. Documents are supported by commentary, biographical profiles, a chronology and glossary of terms.
Connecting the glory of the American Revolution/Early National era with the tragedy of the Civil War, the antebellum period often receives less attention in history books than either of these major events. Yet to understand antebellum America is to gain a fuller picture of American history and the significant events that followed it, especially many political and social developments of the early twenty-first century. This is a key resource for students wanting to delve into the history of this period, aided by an expert guide.
Contents
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Evaluating and Interpreting Primary Documents
Chronology of Antebellum America
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
1. "It Has All the Fury of a Chained Panther Biting the Bars of His Cage": The Bank War (1832)
2. "The Country Was Hopelessly Given to the Execution of This Barbarous Enactment": The Compromise of 1850
3. "Americans Must Rule America": The American Party Platform (1856)
4. "I Hope Mr. Lincoln Deems My Answer Satisfactory": Stephen Douglas's Freeport Doctrine (1858)
SOCIETY AND ECONOMY
5. "There Is No Difficulty among Them on Account of Color": Accounts of White and Black Labor in Georgia (1836, 1839, 1858)
6. "I Calculate 'Tain't of Much Account to Have a Woman If She Ain't of No Use": Eliza Farnham Converses with a Prairie Farmer about His New Wife (c. 1836)
7. "She Complained of the Hours for Labor Being Too Many": An Investigation into Labor Conditions in Massachusetts Textile Mills (1845)
8. "Here Is a Large Body of Ignorant Men Brought into Our Community": Antebellum Reactions to Immigrants (1836, 1841, 1852)
LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY
9. "When Once Fairly Excited, Ellen's Passions Were Always Extreme": Works of Northern Writers (1826, 1846, 1850)
10. "The Slaveholders in This Region Are, in the Main, Men of Kind and Humane Tempers": Works of Southern Writers (1832, 1836-37, 1845)
11. "And Now the Days Were Full of Affection and Sunshine": Transcendentalism in Theory and Practice (1841)
12. "You Shall Possess the Origin of All Poems": Walt Whitman and His Critics (1855, 1856)
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY
13. "They Were Expected at Once to Give Up Their Hearts": Religious Revival in Rochester, New York (c. 1830)
14. "In Almost Every Section East of the Ohio and the Mississippi, There Are Railroads Projected, in Progress, or Completed": The American Passion for Railroad Building (c. 1834)
15. "Whoever Joins the Shakers with the Expectation of Relaxation from Toil, Will Be Greatly Mistaken": Descriptions of Visits to a Shaker Community in New York State (1841)
16. "No Invention of the Imagination Is So Exciting as the Revelations of Science": Education Reformer Horace Mann Speaks on Science and Faith (1853)
AMERICA AND FOREIGN NATIONS
17. "There Shall Be a Firm and Inviolable Peace and Sincere Friendship": The Florida Treaty with Spain (1819)
18. "We Should Consider Any Attempt on Their Part to Extend Their System to Any Portion of This Hemisphere as Dangerous to Our Peace and Safety": The Monroe Doctrine (1823)
19. "They Immediately Commenced a Warfare with Muskets, Swords, and Cutlasses": Tensions with British Canada—Descriptions of the Caroline Affair (1838)
20. "An Amicable Compromise of the Rights Mutually Asserted by the Two Parties": Anglo-American Relations in North America (1842, 1846)
AMERICAN EXPANSIONISM
21. "We Are Really a Moving Village": Along the Oregon Trail (1836, 1845)
22. "We Wish to Remain on the Land of Our Fathers": The Removal of Native American Communities (1830, 1838)
23. "Annexation and War with Mexico Are Identical": The Annexation of Texas (1844)
24. "Cuba Is as Necessary to the North American Republic as Any of Its Present Members": Expansion into the Caribbean and Central America (1850, 1854)
THE SOUTH AND SLAVERY
25. "His Negro Houses Are Sheds Not Fit to Stable Beasts In": Fanny Kemble Describes Her Experience on Her Husband's Georgia Plantation (1838-1839)
26. "It Is Impossible Therefore to Suppose that Slavery Is Contrary to the Will of God": Governor James Hammond of South Carolina Defends Slavery in His Correspondence with a British Abolitionist (1845)
27. "Go and Get a Box, and Put Yourself in It": Henry Box Brown Describes His Escape from Slavery (1849)
28. "The Look of the Auctioneer, the Agony of My Mother—I Can Shut My Eyes and See Them All": Buying and Selling Slaves (1858)
SOCIAL REFORM MOVEMENTS
29. "Let All the Enemies of the Persecuted Blacks Tremble": William Lloyd Garrison Launches The Liberator (1831)
30. "Man and Wife Are One, and That One Is the Husband": Marriage and Gender Equality (1837, 1855)
31. "They Know They Are Not Demons, Nor Even the Worst of Men": The Cause of Temperance (1842)
32. "I Have Seen Many Who, Part of the Year, Are Chained or Caged": The Plight of the Mentally Ill and Incarcerated (1843)
THE MEXICAN WAR
33. "The Cup of Forbearance Had Been Exhausted": President James K. Polk's View of the War's Causes and Aims (1846)
34. "They Literally Die like Dogs": Two Mexican War Diaries (1846)
35. "I Do Not Remember Whom I Attacked First": Opposition to the Mexican War (1846)
36. "There Shall Be Firm and Universal Peace": The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
THE SEEDS OF CIVIL WAR
37. "We Have the Wolf by the Ear, and We Can Neither Hold Him, Nor Safely Let Him Go": The Missouri Compromise (1820)
38. "It Is, Sir, the People's Constitution, the People's Government, Made for the People, Made by the People, and Answerable to the People": The Nullification Crisis (1828, 1830, 1832)
39. "It Was Expressly to Avoid Taking Life That I Used an Ordinary Cane": The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner (1856)
40. "I Deny Everything But What I Have All Along Admitted,--the Design on My Part to Free the Slaves": John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry (1859, 1861)
Appendix 1: Biographical Sketches of Important Individuals Mentioned in Text
Appendix 2: Glossary of Terms Mentioned in Text
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
