Chapter 13

Manifest Destiny: An Empire for Liberty– or Slavery?

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Growth as the American Way

• Unprecedented growth: U.S. population and land 1803-1850

• “Manifest Destiny” (1845)

- to possess the continent for the development of liberty

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

The Westering Impulse

• What famous line did Horace Greeley coin?

• Depression of 1837

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

The Oregon and California Trails

• “Oregon fever”

• 1849, California Gold Rush

• Stories of triumph & tragedy

• Victims of starvation, disease, & Indians

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Overland Trails, 1846

Texas Territory

• Mexico encouraged settlement of Texas (1821)

• Mexican qualifications for settlement

• When does Mexico abolish slavery?

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Texas Territory (continue)

• American settlement

- Protestants in a Catholic country

- Slave owners in country banning slavery

• 30k Americans lived in Texas by 1835

- outnumbered Mexicans 6 to 1

The Republic of Texas

• New Conservative Mexican Gov’t (1835)

- Americans protest Mexican authority

- Mexican gov’t responds militarily

• Texas declares independence 1836

Texas Independence

• Mexican General Santa Anna captured Alamo killing all 187 defenders (3-6-1836)

–“Remember the Alamo!”

Battle of San Jacinto• Sam Houston (1836)

- captured Anna (forced to sign treaty)

Sam Houston: 1st president of the Republic of Texas

Led a petition for annexation by US

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

James K. Polk• Polk in 1844• “Fifty-four forty or fight!”• Polk elected• Texas becomes 15th state (1845)

• Mexico breaks off diplomatic relations with U.S.

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Settlement of the Oregon boundary Dispute, 1846 (49th parallel)

The Mexican War, 1846-48

• Polk attempted to buy CA & N. M. for $30 million

• - provoked a war

• “Mr. Polk’s War”

• Did the US win the Mexican War?

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• Treaty of Hidalgo (1848)– Formally acquired new territory for $15 million– Reduced Mexico by ½ & increased US by ¼

• Why would US want to acquire westward territory?

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Issue of slavery in new territory

• Zachary Taylor wins election of 1848

- war hero / slave-owner

• Taylor suddenly dies in office

- Millard Fillmore becomes president (1850)

• Slavery issues

• Senate passes Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850

• Provisions– California a free state (16th)– New Mexico and Utah no restrictions on

slavery (popular sovereignty) – Fugitive Slave Law

- required all to assist in the return of runaway slaves

Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s

Cabin

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Book is reaction against Fugitive Slave Law

• Central theme: breakup of slave families

• Shaped Northern perceptions of slavery for a generation

The Fugitive Slave Law

• As anti-slave sentiment in North grew, local authorities refused to cooperate with fugitive slave laws (and slave hunters)

• "Underground Railroad“• Harriet Tubman

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Conclusion• 1845-1848: addition of 1,150,000 square

miles to United States• America’s “manifest destiny” justified

expansion• Missouri Compromise of 1820• Compromise of 1850 postponed slavery

issue• America- An Empire for Liberty– or

Slavery?

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved