The Issue of Slavery

The five civilized tribes were the Creek, the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, and the Seminole. The Creek Indians where originally from the area of southern Tennessee, all of Alabama, western Georgia, and the northern part of Florida. They were forced out of their homes by the Indian Removal Act in 1880. Small settlements of the Creek Indians are still around in Louisiana and Texas. The Cherokee Indians where primarily located in southeastern Tennessee, southwestern North Carolina, The tip of western South Carolina, and northeastern Georgia. Their written language was written by Sequoyah. They were also forced out of their homes, but some of them were able to escape back to North Carolina and their descendants still live their today. The Chickasaw Indians lived in the southeastern parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. After the Act of 1880, they migrated to Oklahoma where they still live today. Their clothes where made from deer skin. The Choctaw Indians inhabited the southeastern United States, which includes Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana. They were the first of the five tribes to be forced to the west on the Trail of Tears. The Seminole Tribe lived in Florida before the act. Now they primarily live in Oklahoma with a minority in Florida.

Daniel Webster was a politician in the House of Representatives from 1813-1827. He was also the Secretary of State for President Harrison, Tyler, and Fillmore. Webster was one of the most sought out court lawyers of the time. The winter of 1830 Daniel Webster went up against Robert Hayne of South Carolina. They debated about states’ rights vs. federal rights. During these debates Webster said “Liberty and Union now and forever, one and inseparable.” Webster died October 24, 1852.

Unitarianism, deism, and transcendentalism gave rise to social gospel during this time. Unitarianism is the belief that instead of there being a trinity, there is only one God. They believe Jesus was inspired by God. It does not fall under the category of Christian, but rather in the same spectrum as Jehovah Witness and co. Although the only thing Christians and Unitarians have in common is that, you cannot gain salvation through works, it has to be through faith. Transcendentalism, this long word describes a very simple idea, that political parties and society corrupts the purity of an induvial. It is their belief that people are better off independent and self-reliant. People who believe in deism believe there is a God but He does not intervene in the working of the universe. They believe that God is an unknowable and untouchable creator. They believe that he just set the world in motion and left it as it was.

Who was Dred Scott? Dred Scott was a black slave. The reason Dred Scott was so important was it brought up the question, if a slave from a slave state travels to a free state then should he be free? This question was debated about and even went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided that if a slave should go to a free state, while still a slave they are not granted freedom. So that’s why the slaves escaped to Canada.

The first white women to cross the Continental Divide where Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spaulding. They both crossed with their husbands Henry Spaulding and Marcus Whitman. Eliza began to teach to the Nez Peirce Indians, while Henry preached. They moved in the summer of 1833 because of the murders of Narcissa and Marcus Whitman. Though they continued to preach and teach where ever they go.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book written by an anti-slavery abolitionist named Harriet Beecher Stowe. Harriet had twelve siblings growing up. Most of them where social reformers like her. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written to help support anti-slavery. It is said that the book helped set the ground work for the Civil War. The book its self was to show what life was like as a slave. It was very popular among white folks, especially in the free states of the north.

Harriet Tubman is a name I’m sure everyone has heard by now. Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross. She was born into slavery sometime in the 1820s to a slave named Harriet Ross. In 1844 Araminta married a free black man named John Tubman, taking his last name. In 1849 she escaped slavery. The only thing that kept her going was the thought that she might be sold. After she escaped into freedom Araminta changed her name to Harriet. Harriet soon went back the plantation where she just escaped from to save her family. She did it again and again and again, saving almost 300 slaves. She uses the Underground Railroad during all of this. The Underground Railroad consists of the houses of Quakers and freed slaves to get to Canada. During all of this she had a bounty of $40,000 for her capture. In 1862 she joined the army as a scout, a nurse, and a laundress for the Union. After the war she started to take in orphans and elders out of which came the practice of, Harriet Tubman’s Home for Indigent Negros.

Henry Clay was called the “Great Compromiser”, because of sever compromises he made. These compromises where between the North and the South over the issue of slavery. He was a U.S. congressman, senator, statesmen, and twice unsuccessful Presidential candidate. He was the one that lead to the Compromise of 1850. Although he did fail at times he was still a good compromiser.

Henry Ward Beecher was one of Harriet Beech Stowe’s brothers. Henry was a famous preacher and anti-slavery activist. He was a liberal theologian and strong abolitionist. He was the preacher for the Plymouth church, which had over 3,000 seats. He taught that God forgave sin, and preached a “Gospel of Love.” This belief was very different from his father’s Calvinistic beliefs. During the civil war he spoke out against slavery and rifles became known as “Beecher’s Bibles.” He would ship them to slaves in boxes labeled Bibles. The then President Lincoln was so sure this man’s ministry help turn the tides of the Civil War, he sent him to Fort Sumter to raise the U.S flag after the South surrendered.

Horace Greenly was a newspaper editor born February 13, 1811. In 1834 he became the editor for the New-Yorker. Then in 1843 he founded his own newspaper called the New York tribute. His staff included Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engles. This newspaper became like a political bible of that time.

James K. Polk was the 11th president of the United States of America. He was the eldest of ten children. He graduated from the University of North Carolina. At the age of forty-nine he was the youngest President of that time. During his time he was called “Young Hickory.” When he was campaigning for the Presidency he came used the slogan “Manifest Destiny.” The term manifest destiny was used to convince the people that it was their destiny to expand the states across North America. Though people used this as an excuse to slaughter and displace thousands of Indians on their way to the Pacific.

Born May 9, 1800, John Brown was an abolitionist. He believed that all people should be free and slavery should be gone. He was highly disappointed in the pacifist way the anti-slavery people were going about it. He said, “These men are all talk. What we need is action-Action.” So he took it upon himself to arm slaves. He and some others raided the federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. He was soon captured and put on trial. He was sentenced as a traitor, and he was hanged for his crimes. In the North he was considered a saint and in the South he was considered a monster.

Martin Van Buren was a very special President. He was the first President to be born in the United States. He was a very good lawyer back in his home town.

The Mexican War started with both the United States and Mexico claiming the area between Rio Grande and the Nueces River. It helped fulfill the United States manifest destiny. On April 25, President Polk received word that Mexican troops had crossed the border and attacked General Taylor’s troops and ended up killing or injuring 16 of his solders. In retaliation Polk said Mexico had “invaded American territory and had spilled American blood.” The Alamo took place during this war; this was when the Mexicans tried to take over Fort Alamo. The Mexicans suffered heavy causalities, between 600 and 1,600 people were killed and 300 were wounded. At the end of the war 13,000 people died, although ninety percent of them where from diseases. The end of the war took place with a Treat of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo.

For a while there were only two political parties: The National Republican party and the Republican Party. The very first third political party was Anti-Masonic Party. It was highly popular with the Puritans, the Scottish Presbyterians, and numerous German Pietist. John Quincy Adams was known to be one, because Andrew Jackson was a high-ranking Freemason. But soon the Anti-Masonic Part assimilated into the Whig Party.