The nullification crisis
The nullification crisis took place between 1832 to 1833 under president Jackson’s term. The crisis entailed dispute between the national government and the state of Southern Carolina. Southern Carolina had declared that the tariffs were null and void. In order to mitigate outside competition from Europe, the enacted tariffs of 1828 were meant to raise taxes on imported goods since the industries could not compete with Europe’s cheap goods. However, the southerners termed the tariffs as tariffs of abomination since they favored the northern industries at the expense of their interests.
The southerners were against the tariff since it overburdened them with unfair taxes. When president Jackson failed to take action, John Calhoun, the vice president from South Carolina declared the tariffs as null and void based on the assumption that any state could declare federal law null and void. However, a compromise was met that saw a reduction of the taxes which remained low to south’s satisfaction. The compromise did not please the southerners who wanted the tariff completely removed. Compromise was finally met in 1832 when the taxes were further lowered but the president further passed the force bill which made it compulsory for the south to pay import duties.
The Eaton affair and politics of sexuality
The petticoat affair that began in 1829 and ended in 1831, is a scandal that rocked president Jackson’s term. The scandal involved the wives and the members of the cabinet during that time. The wives questioned the circumstances under which Peggy and John Eaton got married. It was a serious issue that led to the resignation of four cabinet members including John Eaton, the secretary of war.
The Eaton affair started as a dispute among the elite wives of the cabinet members. Women, vice president’s wife on the lead, shunned and neglected Peggy Eaton because they questioned her moral standards. She got married soon after her husband’s death instead of mourning for a long period. Peggy was married to a navy officer. During their marriage, it was rumored that Peggy and John Eaton were having an affair. After her husband’s death, Peggy and John got married after nine months. Although the scandal involved the elite women, it impacted the Jackson’s cabinet and led to resignation of some of the cabinet members. Women at the time were not allowed to vote or hold government offices, however they played a key role in politics because of their influence.
Atlantic origins of reform
The reform movements in the nineteenth century emanated from the United States. The reform movements were established by the transatlantic group of coalitions that faced typical disputed problems. The groups came together to find solutions to their problems. Factors such as industrialization led to the development of the movement. Such movement had an outstanding impact on the American society as it fostered the awakening against slavery and encouraged the formation of a society that was based on equality for both races.
The transatlantic reform movement proved to be crucial because it not only linked America to other parts of the transatlantic world, but it also enabled the sharing of information and ideologies. Dissemination of information was made possible by technologies such as printing that lowered the cost of publication and reached a large audience. American and European missionaries worked together and laid the ground work for the movement by establishing long lasting links across the transatlantic. Later antislavery movements in the America joined hands with other abolitionist movements from other parts of the transatlantic with the objective of stopping slavery. The cooperation of the movements strengthened the effort to improve societies and individuals.
Cotton and slavery
During the period before civil war, the south shifted from tobacco and rice to cotton cultivation. The society and culture of the south during this period was built on slavery. America produced 70 percent of world’s cotton. This was made possible by the invention of cotton gin that sped up cotton processing although cotton being labor intensive depended largely on slavery. The southerners therefore believed that slavery is what drove their economy leading to an increase in demand for slaves in the south.
Although slavery was abolished by congress, it did not end as it continued to rise and over a million slaves were sold to the whites to prepare the lands and tend for cotton. Cotton revolutionized the economy of America and propelled it to be recognized as one of the world’s super power nations. Therefore, slaves became a crucial commodity and the more the white farmers owned slaves, the more they became wealthy. Some didn’t feed the slaves to maximize on profits. Improved transportation such as the steam boats made transportation of cotton easier and faster. The southern cities flourished and transformed into modern cities with increased population resulting from the constant migration of slaves to maintain the demand for cotton.
Religion and honor in the slave south
Most of the southern people were Methodists and Baptists faith. Both faiths were against and shunned slavery and later embraced the system claiming that it was the will of god for the black Americans to be slaves. They even preached that the slaves should be submissive to their masters. The slaves were denied access to education to hinder them from reading the bible and keep them uninspired to rebel the system. As a result, many slaves formed their churches and practiced their own kind of Christianity and based their practice on their African beliefs and traditions.
Religion transformed the slaves. For instance, Nat Turner who led the rebellious group claimed to have been called by God, killed his master and other several white children and adults in a bid to free fellow slaves in his area. The rebellious group was found and later executed. Terrified by such events, the whites further restricted the laws of access to education and closed down many black churches as well as putting them under the white church supervision. During the awakening period, the churches denounced slavery and made it compulsory for the church members to denounce human slavery as well.
The meaning of black of freedom
The south experienced immense change with the end of slavery. The whites could not believe that the old system of slavery had finally come to an end. There was a conflict as they sought to maintain slavery by enacting discriminating laws that restricted the freedom and labor of the former slaves. The laws known as black codes limited the ex- slaves to certain low wage paying jobs and banned them from holding office positions. However, the resilience of the black race was a force to reckon with as they fought for their freedom and equality.
After gaining their freedom many ex slaves sought to establish their own churches and practice their faith freely. They based their churches on their African beliefs though it was believed that their faith was interfered with by the migration to the America. They established their own music that they could identify with. Most importantly they strived to get education to improve their social and economic status and be in a position to compete in the already competitive society. They developed their schools and emphasized on the importance of education. They owned properties, reunited with and established their families. A large number also served in the military.
Reconstruction and women
During the reconstruction period, men were involved in the war and women had to take charge of their households. During the period, education opportunities increased for women. They strived to get education with the goal of getting employed to support their families. The rate of illiteracy among the women reduced drastically and women started taking part in politics at the national and community level. The reconstruction era saw the greatest sophistication and spread of many women fighting for their rights. Black women were also not left behind in this period as they fought for women’s right and reconstruct themselves as crucial members of the society.
Black women made it their mandate to transform their private and public lives. However, there were conflicts that emerged as a result of women fighting for their rights. Some white women from the south who could not handle domestic chores still preferred hiring black women to do their house chores or even work in their plantations. They also established the system of apprenticeship and required black American children to work without pay. The black American women retaliated by refusing to work and held on to their children. Black women created clubs that helped their communities and buried their loved ones.
Violence in the reconstruction
When the congress passed the thirteenth amendment granting slaves their freedom, the event disrupted the southern system since their economy heavily depended on slavery. Refusing to let go of the system, the southerners resolved to laws that attempted to maintain the old system of slavery. They applied violence to take freedom from the freed slaves and return slavery to provide free labor. They terrorized the freed black Americans through interpersonal fights, riots and hired organized groups meant to punish and suppress the ex-slaves.
Blacks were the victims of riots in Memphis. During the reconstruction period, black men were the target of violence, they were shot and lynched over minor disputes. Although they were granted the rights to civil duties and serve in the military as well, white men were not prosecuted successfully for such atrocities against the blacks. The Ku Klux Klan, based in the south, was one of the organized crime groups that tormented the blacks. They made their economic attempts difficult and terrorized them from performing their civic duties such as voting. The federal government passed the enforcement act that protected the blacks from being deprived of their civil rights by the white southerners.
The Missouri crisis
The issue of slavery caused polarization in the America when Missouri applied to become a state that allowed slavery. The contention was whether to allow slavery in the state. Allowing slavery in the new state of Missouri would jeopardize the balance between states that allowed slavery and those that did not. The congress passed the Missouri agreement which accorded Missouri as a state that allowed slavery while Maine as a state that did not allow slavery to strike a balance between the two.
Tallmadge proposed that slavery ought to be banned in Missouri and that slaves would not be allowed to enter after being accorded with the statehood and children born of slaves would be set free after attaining twenty-five years of age. Tallmadge received support from the North who were against slavery for its moral point of view. The south however was against the proposal and purported that slavery was beneficial to the economy. The Missouri agreement was passed in 1820. Tallmadge’s proposal was rejected and it was agreed that slavery would exist south of the line corresponding to Missouri’s border drawn on the remaining Louisiana state but not the northern part of it to avoid future disputes.
Women’s rights in the antebellum
Although women were limited to domestic responsibilities such as raising children to be individuals with good behavior and virtuous, women strived to achieve equal rights as men. The society believed in gender roles and that it was the man’s responsibility to provide a stable home for his family and for the wife to take care of the family. Women were not allowed to vote or participate in politics. However, with the rise in education, they sought to shift the ideologies and stand for their rights.
Women such as Angelina and Sarah Grimke supported anti-slavery and fostered women’s rights. They were faced with ridicule and the threat to slow down their efforts. They claimed that God created men and women as equals with the equal rights. They formed conventions such as Seneca Falls conventions that brought audience together and addressed a wide range of challenges faced in the social, family and political set up. The women were taught the skills of public speaking and petitioning, and how to deal with disapproval. The politics of the reconstruction period gave the women the opportunity to fight for women’s rights to vote. The attempt to allow women to vote stalled and was overthrown by women’s activism that was more conservative and popular.