APUSH PERIOD FIVE-MANIFEST DESTINY, CIVIL WAR & RECONSTRUCTION (1844-1877)
KEY CONCEPTS/SFI OVERVIEW
Key Concept 5.1
Students will understand that…
The United States became more connected with the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the
Western Hemisphere, and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.
Students will know that…
I. Popular enthusiasm for U.S. expansion,
bolstered by economic and security interests,
resulted in the acquisition of new territories,
substantial migration westward, and new
overseas initiatives.
Natalie Williams
A) The desire for access to natural and
mineral resources and the hope
of
many settlers for economic
opportunities or religious refuge led to
an increased migration to and
settlement in the West.
B) Advocates of annexing western lands
argued that Manifest Destiny and the
superiority of American institutions
compelled the United States to expand
its borders westward to the Pacific
Ocean.
C) The U.S. added large territories in the
West through victory in the Mexican–
American War and diplomatic
negotiations, raising questions about the
status of slavery, American Indians, and
Mexicans in the newly acquired lands.
D) Westward migration was boosted
during and after the Civil War by the
passage of new legislation promoting
Western transportation and economic
development.
Specific Factual Information
(individuals, events, topics, or sources for students to examine the key
concept in depth)
Gold findings in California, lead to the migration of people westward in
the Gold Rush. The people that migrated westward during the Golden
Rush were known as the 49ers. Mormons during this time period fled
westward for religious refuge. They moved from Nauvoo and settled in
Salt Lake City, Utah where they pursued religious freedom and practiced
polygamy (which was introduced into the U.S. by the Mexican- American
War). The state of Texas attracted a lot of immigrants due to the
availability of ranching and cotton slavery. The states of Oregon,
California, and other states in the pacific northwest attracted other
people because of the good farming lands. Intermarriage between New
England merchants and mexican ranchers, Californios, occurred because
of merchants trying to gain access to cow hides in the Western United
States.
The Manifest Destiny was made by John O’Sullivan, a journalist, in 1845
when people began migrating westward to the pacific coast mainly in
states including California and Oregon. The point of the Manifest destiny
was to spread liberty, freedom, and republicanism. But in reality the
Manifest destiny was because of anti-catholicism, nativism, hostility
towards Native Americans and Mexicans, and Protestantism. James K
Polk used the slogan “54 40 or Flight!” while campaigning during the
1844 election.
Texas was annexed by the US and politicians James K Polk, Henry Clay,
Zachary Taylor, and Martin Van Buren turned the annexation into a big
issue during the 1844 election. Polk set out to start a war with Mexico
after they denied selling land to him in order for him to fulfill his goal of
accumulating as much land as possible. American and Mexican armies
would set up camp to intimidate each other in disputed territories,
violence eventually broke out. American armies managed to pull
through the violence and won quickly. New states such as New Mexico,
Arizona, and California was new American territory. The Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo promised citizenship for Native Americans and
Mexicans, but of course this treaty was never taken seriously.
Government treaties were made with Native Americans to gain their
land. Mexicans in these lands were often denied land in trials in courts
because white settlers considered them to be foreigners.
Abraham Lincoln supported Henry Clay’s idea of the American System.
Because of this national bank regulations were reinforced on local and
state banks. High protective tariffs were put into place. The Homestead
Act made land free, and because of this the union army was sent
westward to stop native americans in the Great Plains from interfering

E) U.S. interest in expanding trade led to
economic, diplomatic, and cultural
initiatives to create more ties with Asia.
Nicole Raikin-Mejias
Students will know that…
II. In the 1840s and 1850s, Americans
continued to debate questions about rights
and citizenship for various groups of U.S.
inhabitants.
A) Substantial numbers of international
migrants continued to arrive in the
United States from Europe and Asia,
mainly from Ireland and Germany, often
settling in ethnic communities where
they could preserve elements of their
languages and customs.
B) A strongly anti-Catholic nativist
movement arose that was aimed at
limiting new immigrants’ political power
and cultural influence.
C) U.S. government interaction and conflict
with Mexican Americans and American
Indians increased in regions newly
taken from American Indians and
Mexico, altering these groups’ economic
self- sufficiency and cultures.
Key Concept 5.2:
Students will understand that…
Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural,
with American westward migration. The transcontinental railroad
helped to transport goods across the continent, alongside other sub-
railroads that filled certain spaces in.
American merchants were trading with China, they were exporting furs
and importing silks, spices, porcelain, and other chinese goods. Because
of this the Chinese developed a clipper ship that was developed for
faster and efficient trade. One of the many people that became
millionaires as a result of chinese trade was John Jacob Astor. Because
Britain started to hog the chinese trading from the United States, the US
started to trade with the Japanese. This trading process involved
forceful efforts from Commodore Matthew Perry and the Treaty of
Kanagawa. During all of this international trading, Hawaii became a
trading post and a refueling station for ships. Secretary of State William
Seward created policies such as expansionism and the Burlingame
Treaty that advanced the trading process of America with bases,
recoiling stations, and rights for immigrants from China and America.
Specific Factual Information
(individuals, events, topics, or sources for students to examine the key
concept in depth)
Due to expansion in the Northern manufacturing corporations, many
immigrants from Ireland and Germany came to the United States in
search of work. The Irish, especially, performed unskilled tasks such as
building canals and turnpikes, and due to discrimination and low wages,
they were forced to live in shanty communities.
By the early 1850s, the California Gold Rush attracted migrants from all
over the world in search of riches. Most of these people consisted of
young, adventurous Chinese men who, also due to discrimination by
American workers, needed to form their own communities for
protection and a chance to escape the mistreatment.
As more German and Irish Roman Catholics moved to the United States, the
Know-Nothing Party rose to combat their influence in the country. This
party believed that the Catholics would taint the Protestant economy and
societal norms, and instead of being loyal to the rules of the United States,
they would hold their loyalty towards the teachings of the Pope. In order to
scare off immigrants, party members would burn churches, create violent
gangs throughout New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and they would try
to support new immigration policy. For example, they wanted for
immigrants to wait a total of twenty-five years before becoming official
citizens.
After winning the Mexican American War, Mexican residents of Texas,
also called Tejanos, were not trusted by the American citizens. The
Americans were scared of the Tejanos because they believed that they
were working as spies. Thus, many were driven out of the republic, or
they were forced to live as second-class citizens (with a low political and
economic status). In Oregon, as more and more white settlers claimed
land, they began to interact with the native populations. For example,
Christian missionaries, such as Marcus Whitman and his wife, Narcissa,
attempted to convert the Cayuse Indians and persuade them to adapt to
the American culture.
and political issues led the nation into civil war.
Amanda McQuade
Students will know that…
I. Ideological and economic differences over
slavery produced an array of diverging
responses from Americans in the North and the
South.
A) The North’s expanding manufacturing
economy relied on free labor in contrast
to the Southern economy’s
dependence
on slave labor. Some
Northerners did not object to slavery on
principle but claimed that slavery would
undermine the free labor market. As a
result, a free- soil movement arose that
portrayed the expansion of slavery as
incompatible with free labor.
B) African American and white abolitionists,
although a minority in the North, mounted
a highly visible campaign against slavery,
presenting moral arguments against the
institution, assisting slaves’ escapes, and
sometimes expressing a willingness to use
violence to achieve their goals.
Specific Factual Information
(individuals, events, topics, or sources for students to examine the key
concept in depth)
As the nation expanded, white settlement moved beyond its
boundaries into the great plains to create cultivation territories in
Iowa, Missouri, and into Minnesota where settlers found great
prosperity in ranching, (and cities such as Minneapolis started for
flour production and this is where Gold Medal Flour and Pillsbury
come from. Outside out-of-state knowledge. :)) This expansion
westward brought about a growing need for a transcontinental
railroad that had brought about controversy between slave and free
states, but raised the Northern Economy. While the North was able to
gain revenue from Industrial factory work and railroad manufacturing,
the North also created a system called a “Free Soil” Ideology that
carried the belief that democracy allowed all citizens to own property
and the idea that anyone could undergo advancement no matter the
color of a person’s skin (however it wasn’t always a ideology that
supported abolition, but some believed it threatened whites as well).
The North’s common view of the South was that it was a stingy, anti-
free and anti-progress aristocratic system, and gave them further
reasoning to strengthen the new Republican Party. In the South, they
rejected the “Free Soil” Ideology, although this movement did inspire
events like the 1831 Nat Turner Uprising and made them question the
“Peculiar Institution”. Nonetheless, Southern whites were terrified of
the “Free Soil” mentality and strengthened their desires to expand the
Cotton Kingdom and further enlarge the Southern Economy. The
entire southern economy depended on slavery, and Southern whites
sought every opportunity and example that would save their system
by using the “Pro Slavery Argument. Stating that slavery was a
necessary evil and statements that slaves had better treatment than
Northern laborers. It was the Southern way of life, and the South saw
the North’s threats against slavery as a society of corruption, while the
Southern life was simple. Defenses of slavery rose, and the Free-Soil
movement caused major tensions between Northerners and
Southerners.
In the North, assumptions had been previously made that the proper
society of structure was based upon the Free-Soil Ideology. Northern
Abolitionists, few but the loud, used this Ideology as support for their
argument that Slavery was a moral evil. Most White Northerners may
not have had the same concerns of abolitionists, but instead of arguing
that it was a problem for African Americans, but they believed that
slavery was a problem for whites as well. Both abolitionists and
ordinary Northerners could agree on one thing: that Democracy is
based upon the ideals that all people have the right to own property,
labor, and shared the common belief that all should have equal
opportunities for progression. This idea of Free-Soil laid out the basic
ideals of the new Republican Party, and as expansion continued, they
believed that the Free-Soil Act would make the United States more
powerful with new progression.
 C. Defenders of slavery based their
arguments on racial doctrines, the view
that slavery was a positive social good,
and the belief that slavery and states’
rights were protected by the Constitution.
Students will know that…
II. Debates over slavery came to dominate
political discussion in the 1850s, culminating in
the bitter election of 1860 and the secession of
Southern states.
Annabelle Taylor
A) The Mexican Cession led to heated
controversies over whether to allow
slavery in the newly acquired territories.
B) The courts and national leaders made a
variety of attempts to resolve the issue of
slavery in the territories, including the
Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–
Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision,
but these ultimately failed to reduce
conflict.
C. The Second Party System ended when the
issues of slavery and anti-immigrant nativism
weakened loyalties to the two major parties
and fostered the emergence of sectional
parties, most notably the Republican Party in
the North.
In the South, most whites still carried the belief that the peculiar
institution was needed, as it was the primary source of economic
power in the South. The South felt threatened by the Free-Soil Act
because it inspired rebellions such as the Nat Turner uprising of 1831,
and brought up debate over the morality of slavery. To combat this,
instead of being moral, Southerners decided to approach the situation
with logistics. Speakers such as John C. Calhoun and Thomas R. Dew
summarized their views with the Pro-Slavery Argument anthology.
Both men believed that slavery was not necessarily an evil that was
needed, but slavery was good because African American slaves did not
suffer as many hardships as Northern Laborers did, and saw the Slave-
Master relationship as the only way that peace could be achieved
between races. The South was stable, and cultural life was refined, as
well as protecting the welfare of workers while the North was often
unstable.
Specific Factual Information
(individuals, events, topics, or sources for students to examine the key
concept in depth)
John C. Calhoun’s “common property” doctrine argued slaves were
property protected by the Constitution, and Congress could not make
laws to stop slavery.
California requested to become a slave state, broke the Missouri
Compromise line, they wanted in as a free state
Polk’s war ended up putting the nation into a debate over issue of
slavery which led directly to the American Civil War
Wilmot Proviso argued that no slavery would allow anyone into new
territory
The Kansas-Nebraska Act drove the North and the South further apart.
Most of the settlers were free soilers, but every time there was a vote
on popular sovereignty, pro-slavery contributors came from Missouri
to vote for slavery; Lecompton Constitution favored slavery.. John
Brown then went on a rampage in revenge for free-soil town of
Lawrence being attacked, he and his sons killed five pro-slavery
contributors at Pottawatomie.
Franklin Pierce tried to play the “Polk card” and use expansionism to
direct the attention away from slavery, but the Gadsden Purchase for
a southern transcontinental railroad frustrated the North, and
attempts to take Cuba made the North angry, this stirred up a war to
expand slavery.
James Buchanan’s election in 1856 was seen as the Democrats
keeping things together by electing people who were unknown and
were who were ,under the radar, pro-slavery contributors.
1860 election brought upon the Republicans taking all of Congress
and the presidency with Lincoln
Anger over the Kansas-Nebraska Act sent the Whig Party off, as the
abolitionist and Free Soil wings went separate, and became apart of
the Northern Whig Party to make the Republicans; Lincoln came up as
the most famous Western Republican.
Southern Democrats broke into the Unionists and secessionists; 1860
convention became the Northern Democrats walk out over proslavery
positions; Stephen Douglas was eventually nominated by North, while

D. Abraham Lincoln’s victory on the
Republicans’ free-soil platform in the
presidential election of 1860 was
accomplished without any Southern electoral
votes. After a series of contested debates
about secession, most slave states voted 
to
secede from the Union, precipitating the Civil
War.
Key Concept 5.3:
Students will understand that…
The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery
and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship
rights.
Students will know that…
I. The North’s greater manpower and
industrial resources, the leadership of Abraham
Lincoln and others, and the decision to
emancipate slaves eventually led to the Union
military victory over the Confederacy in the
devastating Civil War.
RICHIE PEARCY
A. Both the Union and the Confederacy
mobilized their economies and societies to
wage the war even while facing considerable
home front opposition.
B. Lincoln and most Union supporters began
the Civil War to preserve the Union, but
Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation
Proclamation reframed the purpose of the
war and helped prevent the Confederacy from
gaining full diplomatic support from
European powers. Many African Americans
John C. Breckinridge was nominated by Southern Democrats.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act brought Lincoln back into politics to oppose
Douglas and popular sovereignty in favor of Free Soil
Lincoln won the electoral college vote, but only had 40% of the
popular vote.
Lincoln was a Henry Clay Whig, a Free Soiler who believed in sending
freed slaves back to Africa.
Lincoln won the North, he wasn’t even on the ballot in the South;
Douglas took Missouri and New Jersey; the Union Party candidate took
the border states; and John C. Breckinridge won the South
He seized West Virginia, where antislavery was strong; Delaware ws
held by the unionists; Lincoln arrested almost 1000 secessionists in
Maryland.
Specific Factual Information
(individuals, events, topics, or sources for students to examine the key
concept in depth)
The Union experienced enhanced economic production and success
thanks to the war as the Northern industries such as shipbuilding and
manufacturing helped with ships like the USS Monitor and helped
build Union weapons such as the repeating rifle, and engaged the
women to take over in places in society that were previously given to
men, who a vast amount had to fight or serve in the war. This led to
women taking over jobs such as nursing which was previously
dominated by men, seen such with U.S. Sanitary Commission. The
Confederacy as well engaged a vast majority of their men population
into fighting the war, leading to many single women seeing increased
respect and showing their ability to do jobs/things and live without
men. Both sides accomplished despite resistance from both sides
towards the war, but mainly in the North with the Union, as the South
had more reason to fight as their society and way of life was being
threatened to be stripped from them. In the North, resistance was seen
through the Draft Riots that occured in New York City after Congress
passed new laws implementing a draft as volunteers to fight for the
Union were low, and was seen with the resistance of the
“Copperheads” in Congress, Northern Democrats who opposed the
war.
Despite the growing Abolitionist movement in the North and Lincoln’s
personal moral concerns with slavery, Lincoln and most Union
supporters were fighting the Civil War to keep the Union together, as a
number of states still in the Union had slavery in them, such as
Maryland and Delaware, meaning that if Lincoln was to announce
early in the war that the Union was fighting to end slavery, these states
may of left to join the Confederacy, meaning the Union would of been
fled southern plantations and enlisted in the
Union Army, helping to undermine the
Confederacy.
C. Lincoln sought to reunify the country and
used speeches such as the Gettysburg Address
to portray the struggle against slavery as the
fulfillment of America’s founding democratic
ideals.
D. Although the Confederacy showed military
initiative and daring early in the war, the
Union ultimately succeeded due to
improvements in leadership and strategy, key
victories, greater resources, and the wartime
destruction of the South’s infrastructure.
Students will know that…
outnumbered in terms of states and facing a more tougher opponent.
Eventually, Lincoln went away from this point of view and wanted to
end slavery in the South through the Emancipation Proclamation,
though not ending slavery in the border states, as it would help spur
African-Americans in the South and the North to fight for the Union to
free themselves, leading to the Union having more troops. Lincoln
needed a major battle win in order to announce the proclamation, as
up to the point of the Union had been struggling and had not earned a
significant win, losing battles such as the 1st Battle of Bull Run and
failing on their offensives against Richmond, the capital of Virginia.
After the major Union victory in the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln was
free to announce his Emancipation of Proclamation, leading to many
African-Americans fighting for the Union in the war, including the 54th
Massachusetts Regiment and other noted African-American regiments
and troops, despite being paid significantly less than white troops and
facing scrutiny and discrimination.
Lincoln had always opposed secession, and had garnered the
Republican nomination and ran as President as a moderate on slavery
and sort of a compromise candidate when it came to the North and the
South, despite the South still opposing him and ultimately seceding
from the Union. These beliefs and positions of Lincoln helped lead him
to trying to reunify the country during the Civil War, including when it
came to giving speeches such as the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s
Second Inaugural Address to portray the fight against slavery in a way
of achieving America’s democratic ideals as seen in the Declaration of
Independence with “All men are created equal.” Despite the end of the
war, the country was still divided and the Southern states were yet to
be accepted or put back into the Union. Lincoln’s proposed plan for the
Reconstruction period was very lenient toward the South, including
his 10 Percent Plan when it came to the amount of Southerners who
had to swear their loyalty to the Union, and other than the
abolishment of slavery, he left the South control of what to do when it
came to African-Americans, as LIncoln just wanted to reunify the
country. This would lead to the creation of the Black Codes in the
South and the restricting of African-Americans rights in general in the
South.
At the start of the war, the Confederacy achieved earlier victories in
battles such as the Battle of Fort Sumter, the 1st Battle of Bull Run and
the Battle of Fredericksburg despite their lack of troops in comparison
to the Union thanks to their great generals such as Robert Lee,
“Stonewall Jackson”, and others, and their initiative and daring in the
war, seen with Lee’s invasion of the North. This was also due to the
ineptitude of the Union generals like General McClellan, who
constantly avoided chances to destroy or end the Confederate army of
Lee, like after the Battle of Antietam where the Union forced a
Confederate retreat and an end to Lee’s invasion, Joseph Hooker,
Ambrose Burnside, and others. However, after the implementation of
General Ulysses S. Grant and the efforts of other Union generals such
as William T. Sherman, and their key victories and successes at the
Battle of Atlanta, Sherman’s March to the Sea, the Battle of Vicksburg,
and the Union advantage in terms of resources thanks to its larger
population and significant advantage in terms of manufacturing and
natural resources, the Union ultimately succeeded and beat the
Confederacy in the American Civil War.
Specific Factual Information
II. Reconstruction and the Civil War ended
slavery, altered relationships between the
states and the federal government, and led to
debates over new definitions of citizenship,
particularly regarding the rights of African
Americans, women, and other minorities.
A. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery,
while the 14th and 15th amendments granted
African Americans citizenship, equal
protection under the laws, and voting rights.
B. The women’s rights movement was both
emboldened and divided over the 14th and
15th amendments to the Constitution.
C. Efforts by radical and moderate
Republicans to change the balance of power
between Congress and the presidency and to
reorder race relations in the defeated South
yielded some short-term successes.
Reconstruction opened up political
opportunities and other leadership roles to
former slaves, but it ultimately failed, due
both to determined Southern resistance and
the North’s waning resolve
(individuals, events, topics, or sources for students to examine the key
concept in depth)
Julia Smith
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery once and for all. The South
proceeded to try and put former slaves back into slavery, with black
codes and violence. Johnson eventually led the Congress to promote
the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment declared that all persons
born or naturalized in the United States were citizens. It also obligated
the states to respect US citizens and provide them with equal
protection of the laws. After 1868 election and Reconstruction begun,
Congress proposed the 15th Amendment. The 15th AMendment
would secure all males the right to vote, regardless of race, color, or
“previous condition of servitude”. This was ratified in 1870.
Women who had supported abolitionists for decades were furious that
their right to vote wasn’t included in the 15th amendment. Radical
Republicans afraid adding women would kill the 15th amendment.
The Constitution asserted that men not women had the right to vote.
Previously, only state laws restricted voting rights to men. Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were fired up about women being
denied their rights and they served as leaders i n the women's rights
movements. Activists fought about whether to support or oppose the
Fifteenth Amendment. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony objected to the
new law. They wanted women to be included with black men.
After Lincoln’s assassination, the less-competent Andrew Johnson
bungled the interaction with Congress, which then proceeded to
undermine the power of the presidency
One month before Lee’s surrender, Lincoln delivered on of his greatest
speeches the second inauguration address. On April 14th, John Booth
shot and killed the president while he was attending a performance in
Ford’s Theater in Washington. After Lincoln's death senator Andrew
Jackson took presidency. Johnson made the decision in presidency to
pardon most of the Confederate leaders led them to assume all was
forgiven and they then cracked down on the freedmen, restoring
slavery in all but name with the Black Codes, which restricted the
freedmen’s rights to travel and work and raise their children. He
created the law of the Freedmen's Bureau given extended powers in
South to protect freedmen from abuses. Shorty after, Congress passed
Civil Rights Act of 1866 which declared former slaves to be citizens,
with equal protection under the law, and the right to be in court. The
Radical Republicans then passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, to
remake the South under military law and enforce right of freed males
to vote. The Radical Republicans were extremists and then tried to
impeach Johnson over his violation of the Tenure Act . The
Republicans remade Southern laws and institutions, trying to make
them conform to Northern cultural practices: schools being the biggest
change especially for freedmen. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 the last
gasp of Reconstruction reform, but it dropped the clauses for
integrated churches and schools, while retaining “full and equal
access” to jury service and no segregation on public transportation
and services. The North shortly became exhausted with

D. Southern plantation owners continued to
own the majority of the region’s land even
after Reconstruction. Former slaves sought
land ownership but generally fell short of self-
sufficiency, as an exploitative and soil-
intensive sharecropping system limited
blacks’ and poor whites’ access to land in the
South.
E. Segregation, violence, Supreme Court
decisions, and local political tactics
progressively stripped away African American
rights, but the 14th and 15th amendments
eventually became the basis for court
decisions upholding civil rights in the 20th
century.
Reconstruction. The South felt invested and claimed the North won the
war, but that the South won the peace. The South took back political
control as the Democrats reorganized and won the election. Violence
broke out in the South between blacks and whites. As a result of all
the violence Congress passed Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871 to try and stop
it.
North never enacted promise implied by the Sherman lands of “forty
acres and a mule”. Property rights protected, rather than they actually
gave rights of freedmen. The Freedmen's Bureau tended to take the
side of the planters and it established nearly 3,000 schools for freed
blacks. Reconstruction was often portrayed as illegitimate and corrupt.
sharecropping was debt slavery, successfully imposed on poor blacks
and whites. The Black Codes restricted the rights and the movements
of the of former slaves. The codes even prohibited blacks from renting
land or borrowing money to buy land.
The Civil Rights Act of 1886 was among the first actions in
congressional Reconstruction were votes to override Johnson’s vetoes
of both the Freedmen’s Bureau Act and the first Civil Rights Act. The
Civil Rights act announced all African Americans to be U.S. citizens and
also attempted to provide a legal shield against the operation of the
Southern Black Codes. Republicans feared that the law could be
repealed if the Democrats ever won control of the Congress. That is
when the congress passed the 14th and 15th Amendment.