Explain how views about race and labor shaped American history from 1776 to 1865.
click to edit
White Manhood Suffrage:
Voting RIghts for all adult male citizens regardless of any religious, economic, or social qualifications. This shaped views of race in early American history by essentially supporting the notion that the white man was superior to the black man in a political regard.
click to edit
click to edit
click to edit
The different views of slavery were what led to Civil War.
click to edit
Expansion of Slavery:
Slavery shaped American views on race and labor because the shift of racial demographics from white indentured servants towards African labor portrayed the discriminatory attitudes of the majority of whites--especially in the South. Additionally, slaves were seen as property while whites were seen as humans-- low-class humans, but humans nonetheless. Thus, in terms of labor, slaves were seen as expendable and used to do hard labor under harsh weather conditions. Slavery overshadowed class hierarchy; modeled Barbados.
The industrial revolution gave women an opportunity to venture outside of their homes and gain opportunities/widen the possibilities for their future outside of just marriage.
shift in labor brought by Industrial Revolution was a factor in American History
Mill girls left to labor in factories since men migrated West
click to edit
european immigration
Expansion of slavery :
- decided inferiority of blacks justified the morality of slavery to some whites
- free labor made profit greater so it became a necessity
Expansion out west: Manifest Destiny - catalyst to Civil War
Tensions between Slavery and Freedom
- gaining political power by using racial injustice through labor (slavery) as justification for expansion
- NW Ordinance - Missouri Compromise - Wilmot Proviso
- different views about slavery gave South disproportionate power through 3/5 Compromise
during the civil war, the north gained workers from the south causing southern infrastructure to crumble
American System- northern "free labor" economy dependent upon slave south
Missouri Compromise- western expansion question of slavery
Views:
- Southern perception of Blacks as inferior to Whites
- Black slaves deemed property
- Regionalization: South takes slavery as main form of labor, North takes free labor
- Southern justification: false science, religious
Fugitive Slave laws
- tensions/conflict over states' rights based upon racial subordination and forms of labor (property as well) leading to tipping over the edge: Civil War
Even more divided politically, creates regional two party system
War and Violence
Treatment of slavery vs. Treatment of white labor, North had better treatment of slavery in the North until 1840. White poor people also treated badly because of lower social status
In the South, poor whites had more power because they had more power over slaves.
click to edit
click to edit