Cherokee Struggle.

In the 1820s the majority of white people wanted the Native Americans moved west of the Mississippi River. Some wanted them removed so they could have their lands, but others where sympathetic to the Native Americans because they feared Natives would be subject to alcoholism, economic struggles, and would eventually lose all their cultural traits. After the war of 1812, Andrew Jackson took massive amounts of land from the Creeks. Although much of the land was being taken from them, the Natives used the political knowledge they possessed from whites and some of them even lived like whites. James Vann for example, was a Cherokee, who owned slaves and trading posts. Sequoya even invented a way to write the Cherokee language and eventually it led to the Cherokee constitution which was very similar to the United States Constitution. Even with all this effort on the mixed bloods' part, the pure blooded Cherokees were resistant to all the efforts of the mixed bloods, however, they seemed to agree that they didn't want to lose their lands. Sadly, in 1830, President Jackson pushed the Indian Removal Act through Congress and granted land and money in Oklahoma and Kansas. The government would grant them the right to ve in this new land without the threat of whites moving in on their new homes. Tis act would lead to much violence between natives and whites. Eventually removal treaties would force the Cherokee to move with the use of the US military. Perhaps one of the most infamous acts of the US government was the Trail of Tears, in which 14,000 Cherokees were force to march 1,200 miles. It seems that the Cherokee removal was permissible ultimately because the US government said so. At the time, with little to no tolerance on the part of the government, do you think there was any other way for this to be handled? Or considering the state of mind of people like Andrew Jackson, was Indian removal and eventual bloodshed inevitable?

In the early to mid 1800s, America expanded immensely. This was due to the improvements in industrialization and transportation. The US had a huge boom in factories in the 1820s and 30s. America started producing its own goods using mass-production methods with machines and workers, including women and children. Most of these factories were in the East, and the West was in an agricultural boom. This was caused by a major improvement in Americas transportation system. The US spent millions of dollars to build interstate highways, canals, and other ways of transit in the early 1800s. Factories in the East would produce algricultural machinery and other goods, and it would be sent West most likely via steamboat in canals and rivers. The farmers in the West would send their crops and livestock East. This helped the economies of both area greatly, and advanced America's economy as a whole. From this point on, towns and cities started popping up everywhere in America and becoming more populous. This is a sign that America was changing and people's lives were becoming more interconnected. Do you think more industrializtion caused better transportation, or the other way around?

Wage Workers and the Labor Movement

The Industrial Revolution changed the nature of work by giving employees minor control over their working conditions. Wageworkers such as carpenters, stonecutters, and cabinentmakers had specialized skills and worried about their increasing length of their workday. Their employers demanded even longer days during the summer and in result 600 carpenters went on strike in Boston. Although this strike failed, carpenters in Philadelphia won a similar strike and founded the Working Men's Party, which wanted the abolition of banks, equal taxation, and universal public education.
Artisans such as shoesmakers, printers, furniture makers, and weavers, were in danger of unemployment due to industrialization in factories. The new industrial system divided the artisan class into self-employed craftsmen and wage-earning workers. Wage earners merged together to form unions to protest for better working conditions and higher pay. Union leaders proposed a labor theory of value which stated that the price of a good should reflect the labor required to make it and most of the money should go to the producer. Women were equally as active in protesting better wages. By the 1850's, machines produced more and more goods, and the need for employees decreased prompting employers to lay off workers.

The Division of Labor and the Factory

In attempting to keep up with British competition, factories became more modernized. There were more machines doing the work that used to be done by several workers. This made the laborers in America worth much less. The first strategy of the Americans was to make improved replicas of British machines to replace workers, and the second was to find less expensive workers. This resulted in men losing their jobs to machines, and many more to women and children. This gave women a new sense of freedom and autonomy and made American products available at lower costs, taking business from the British market. Overall did the good outweigh the bad in this situation? Was the improvement on the American economy worth the growing division of classes, and was it fair to the American people?

Women and The Second Great Awakening

The second great awakening allowed women to become increasingly prominent in the churches. Women began founding new sects, and charitable foundations (Society of Promoting Christian Knowledge, Relief of Poor Widows). Because women were excluded politically, they evolved in the churches. Some churches consisted of over 70 percent women. This new religious activism created a reliance on women in churches, and preached of female virtue which led to greater moral and self discipline among women.

Many men contested to this new authority women were claiming spiritually. Some Baptist churches began to deny women the right to vote on church dealings, and others claimed that women should have no say in the churches and that their place was taking care of the home.

Women reacted by founding associations that encouraged raising Christian children and publishing popularly read newsletters among women. Emma Willard opened the Middlebury Female Seminary, where girls were able to receive an education. This new development led to women teaching in the schools. Although they accepted a much lower pay than men, this was a huge step for American women and exhibited the gradual rise to power for women.

The Missouri Compromise

With the addition of the land that was added to the United States, allowed for the new territories to become part of the Union. But, because of the differences between the North and South, the opinions of the policies of the new states differed. The north was strongly against slavery, while the south was for it.

The Northern part of the United States was against letting a new slave state into the Union. When Missouri applied to become one, they we blocked out by the House of Representatives. The south fought back with an argument that Congress could not dictate a policy that didn’t apply to other states before them. They also believe that slavery was under state law, and not the Federal government. The north and south came to an agreement thanks to Henry Clay in 1820. He proposed the Missouri compromise which allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave state. The compromise comes into play with Maine entering to, as a non-slave state and the rest of the Louisiana Purchase, north of a certain line of latitude, prohibited from slavery. With the emancipation of slavery in other states, was it alright to let another slave state into the union at that time?

The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening had a major impact on America. For some it gave hope. For others it had a negative effect. For most it meant a new revival for religion. It effected all classes of society, all races, and all sexes.
The Second Great awakening affected what churches had the most members. Methodists and Baptist became the most popular of the religions. The American people started to prefer a religion with a more democratic system unlike the Catholic and Episcopal Churches who had hierarchies. Also predestination was greatly rejected and people repudiated the old Calvinist doctrines.
The African American population in the Second Great awakening saw God as a warrior who would free them. The compared themselves to the Jews who were saved from slavery in Egypt. This also led to slaves uprising and disobeying the elite planters.
The new forms of religion was disruptive to males in their household and the planter elites. Woman also began to take a greater part in the church. Evangelical religion offered salvation for. It didn’t matter whether you are black or white, male or female; you could be saved. This greatly effected the patriarchal household. Woman started to demand more equality in their houses. The planter elite was effected by having their slaves revolt and become more disobedient.