The Changing views of race in the Civil War

Changing views of Race during the Civil War era.

It was with the discovery of the new world by Columbus in 1492 that severe slavery in the Americas began. It wouldn’t end for almost four hundred more years. From enslaving the Native American population, who were considered poor slaves, Europeans went directly to enslaving the African population. In due time these populations in southern and central America began to fade and slavery began to die a natural death. In the North American south, however, slavery was revived on its last leg when Cotton became King.

At the start of the American Civil War, 1861, enslaved peoples were considered politically, morally and mentally inferior.  Very few people considered them equals; even Abraham Lincoln, hailed as a hero and a great abolitionist, believed blacks to be inferior. Even the publication of Abolitionist works, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published some ten years earlier, did not change this mindset. It did, however, make people more sympathetic, facilitated the war and laid the ground work for many future abolitionists.

Around 1863 this attitude began to change, people became more politically active and the idea that black people were inferior was undergoing a rapid change in the North. With the implementation of Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, which was mainly for the manpower the slaves would provide and to give the north a moral reason to fight, and a growing dissenting public opinion, people were beginning to see that slaves were equal. This attitude lasted until the end of the war.

At the end of the war, opinion on race was deeply divided. The South blamed blacks for many of the problems incurred by the war, which, coupled with the already present racism led to a hostile environment for freed slaves that is still present in some areas. In the North there were a growing number of people sympathetic to the plight of black people.

In the end racism was still prevalent but numerous political acts and the military presence in the south made sure it wasn’t acted on for years. The idea of racial superiority changed rapidly over the Civil War, in the process of five years slavery was abolished and the ground work was laid of the civil rights movement that would occur nearly a century later.

The development of democracy between 1820-1840

-Western Expansion
-Changes in Electoral politics

If the election of 1800 was a revolution in American politics then the election of 1820 was a peaceful continuation of one party politics with light undercurrents of discontent and disunity. The Democrat-Republicans had been in power for twenty years with little opposition from the dying Federalists and had been in the 'Era of good Feelings' since 1817. This time of unity, however, was drawing to a sharp close. By the next election the people would be demanding new politics, more representational leaders.

By the election of 1824 people were expanding westward in large numbers. Not many had gone very far but many had penetrated the Appalachian mountain range that was previously a line of division for the American people. At this point the settlers had settled and were demanding representation, like their family in the east was recieving. Andrew Jackson, who the settlers saw as a hero was running against John Q. Adams, a good(if cold) president. Jackson did not win the necessary electoral college votes to get elected so John Adams was elected in his place. The majority of the popular vote had gone to Jackson, however and the people saw this as an unfair conspiracy by the upper classes; they saw themselves as not being represented in the highest levels of government. For this reason the election of 1824 was known as the 'Corrupt bargain'. Unsuprisingly Andrew Jackson won the next election.

The election of 1824 had a lasting effect on American politics. It was the first time Americans had blatantly expressed dissatisfaction in their voting process and rallied to change it. The placement of people in America provides a direct correlation- The further people spread out and settle,the different representation they need. In terms of politics and people the early nineteenth century is considered a time of change.

What's happening?

So that class isn't that hard. I enjoy the work and the history and even the textbook. The tests are difficult. Like super difficult. There aren't that many problems with the class actually. Well, my test grades. But whatever. I would probably do better if I read my notes after I took them. But whatever.
I really enjoy history, Thomas Jefferson? He's awesome. Mostly, except for the whole going-against-his -party thing. But whatever.


Sincerely,
Lilly LeQuire

By 1809 which political  party's beliefs prevailed?

In the election of 1800 there was a great political power change from the Federalists to the Democrat-Republicans, or the Jeffersonian Democrats as they came to be known due to the appellation of the first Democratic Republican president, Thomas Jefferson. But while Jefferson was an open minded and liberal man who believed in agrarian societies, he was a conservative president who hedged his bets many times while in office. Clearly, although the Democratic-Republicans we in power the ideas and powers of the federalist party were still a dominant factor by 1809.

Jefferson went against his own ideology many times while in office, as clearly seen in Alexander Hamilton's, a federalist, financial program. First enacted while Washington was still president, Hamilton's financial program made the national government assume the debts of the states, impose tariffs on imported and exported goods and tax the Whiskey distilleries in the mountains. Going against his personal, and party, beliefs of small national government, Jefferson kept Hamilton's financial program, with the exception of the whiskey tax. In addition the Democrat-Republicans went against the grain and purchased large tracts of land from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

When the United States approached France in 1803 with the desire to purchase the port city of New Orleans the Jeffersonian Republicans and the Federalists looked at it as a necessary purchase. But when France, in war and in debt, offered to sell all of it's land holdings in America to the United States government there was a definite split in beliefs. The offer was almost immediately taken up on by the United States, even though it fell against the beliefs of the party in power. The Jeffersonian Republicans were strict constitutionalists, if it isn't stated in the Constitution it is illegal, and purchasing land is not stated in the constitution. Jefferson was conflicted but purchased the land anyway. He went against his own beliefs, and allowed the federalist beliefs to live on.

The federalists sought a large national government led by the elite. Even when the federalists fell out of favor at the election of 1800 and never fully regained their power, their ideas and beliefs lived on through an unlikely source- their opponents, the Jeffersonian Democrats. Thomas Jefferson could hardly have know the effect of  his continuation of the federalists policies and beliefs, that by doing so he would eventually assure the presence of a large national government, a primarily city-dwelling society with a national debt, in today's society. The federalist beliefs were in power for long after the party fell into obscurity.