Mr. Streit's Hawthorne Website

Life After Washington

Read p.37-47 & 52-56 in your The New Nation mini-book and answer the Life After Washington questions in your COMP books:

1. Who was the first president to live in the Federal City (later called Washington D.C.) and the President's House (later called the White House)?
2. How did George Washington die?  How did the country respond?
3. What did Benjamin Franklin mean by, Adams "was always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes and in some things, absolutely out of his senses"?
4. Why didn't John Adams and Alexander Hamilton believe in democracy?
5. Why did John Adams decide to keep the United States out of the conflict between England and France?  NOTE:  Remember without France it is unlikely that George Washington and Continental Army would have won the War of Independence / Revolutionary War. 
6. What did the Democratic-Republicans (later the Republican Party) call the Federalists?
7. What were the Alien and Sedition Acts signed by President John Adams?  Were they constitutional?
8. What did President Thomas Jefferson mean at his inaugural address when he stated, "Let us unite with one heart and one mind.  Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle...We are all Republicans-we are all Federalists"?  HINT:  Start reading p.52
9. What purchase did President Thomas Jefferson make for $15 million dollars in 1803?
10. Why did Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr get involved into a real duel?

Expansion westward seemed perfectly natural to many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century. Like the Massachusetts Puritans who hoped to build a "city upon a hill, "courageous pioneers believed that America had a divine obligation to stretch the boundaries of their noble republic to the Pacific Ocean. Independence had been won in the Revolution and reaffirmed in the War of 1812. The spirit of nationalism that swept the nation in the next two decades demanded more territory. The "every man is equal" mentality of the Jacksonian Era fueled this optimism. Now, with territory up to the Mississippi River claimed and settled and the Louisiana Purchase explored, Americans headed west in droves. Newspaper editor JOHN O'SULLIVAN coined the term "MANIFEST DESTINY" in 1845 to describe the essence of this mindset.  Read more: US History: Manifest Destiny

BONUS:  Conspiracy Time -Did Meriwether Lewis really commit suicide?  If it was murder, who killed him and why?  HINT: Try Manifest Destiny and Adventures of Lewis and Clark Resources (below) to help you decide.

Read p.57-67 in your The New Nation mini-book and answer the Manifest Destiny & The Adventures of Lewis and Clark questions in your COMP books:

1. Why did Thomas Jefferson select Meriwether Lewis and William Clark for the great Louisiana Purchase expedition? 
2. How far did Lewis and Clark cover?  HINT:  Try the map below
3. How many species of plants did the two discover?
4. How do you think Lewis and Clark responded to Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin when he asked, "that country is susceptible of a large population"?
5. What were some of the threats to Lewis and Clark's safety?  
6. Who was York?
7. Who was Sacajawea?  How did she get involved with the expedition?  Who was Ca-me-ah-wait?
8. Manifest Destiny begins!  Who was Chief Red Jacket?
9. What are missionaries?  Critical Thinking: Were the Christian Missionaries right or wrong for attempting to spread their religion?

Manifest Destiny and The Adventures of Lewis and Clark Resources:

• Homestead History: Uncle Sam is Rich Enough To Give Us All a Farm (classwork/homework) Article & Questions
• Classic Reload: Oregon Trail Game
• National Geographic: Lewis and Clark (Documentary)
• Legends of America: Westward Expansion & Manifest Destiny
• History of Us: Westward(Documentary)
• Info & Resources about Territorial Expansion & Reform
• First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
• Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from MI, MN, & WI
• Stories About Western Expansion & Reform
• Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America
• Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion
• CRASH COURSE - Latin American Revoultions
• Smithsonian: Meriwether Lewis' Mysterious Death

For two and a half years, Americans fought Against the British, Canadian colonists, and native nations.  In the years to come, the War of 1812 would be celebrated in some places and essentially forgotten in others.  But it is a war worth remembering—a struggle that threatened the existence of Canada, then divided the United States so deeply that the nation almost broke apart.  Some of its battles and heroes became legendary, yet its blunders and cowards were just as prominent.  Read more:  PBS: The War of 1812

U.S.S. Constitution

War of 1812 Resources:

• Battle of New Orleans Song (Johnny Cash version)
• CRASH COURSE:  War of 1812
• PBS:  War of 1812 (Full Documentary)

1. Who was Tecumseh?  What was his message to the Native American tribes he came into contact with?
2. What side of the war do the Red Sticks and White Sticks fight for during the War of 1812?  Was this a lost opportunity for the Native Americans in regards to their independence from the white man?
3. Who was the general, later President, that led the White Sticks against British and Red Sticks?  How were the White Sticks thanked by the U.S. government after their victory in battle?
4. What does the word Seminole mean?
5. I know you all remember how President John Adams kept the U.S. out of the European conflict between England and France (see Life After Washington above).  Well, that peace or policy of neutrality doesn't last long.  Did the English ever leave this country after the Revolutionary War?  How does the War of 1812 start?  HINT: Start reading p.76-77.
6. Who was President during the War of 1812?  Why was he cautious not to get involved with the European conflict?
7. Who declared war?  How long did the war last?
8. Why did the younger politicians believe that Canada would welcome the U.S. army as allies?
9. Why was the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in Europe, so devastating to the U.S.A.?
10. What happened to our capital, Washington D.C., in 1814?  HINT: First Lady, Mrs. Madison famously rescued a painting of President George Washington from the White House (this where it gets it's famous nickname).
11. After the fall of our capital, the British moved on to Baltimore where the expected and easy victory.  What happened at Fort McHenry?
12. Who witnessed the battle of Baltimore (Fort McHenry) from the Chesapeake Bay (Baltimore) as a prisoner of war inside a British ship?  What song did he write?  How long did the bombing of Fort McHenry go on for? 
13. Birth of the U.S. Navy!  What ship saw the most at sea war battles during the War of 1812?  What famous founding father helped build the ship? HINT: The ship's nickname was "Old Ironsides".  

Read p.90-102 in your The New Nation mini-book and answer the Presidents:  3 Present / 2 Past questions in your COMP books:

1. Who became our fifth president in March of 1817?
2. Why was the capture, later purchased for 5 million, of Florida important?
3. Why were many Americans upset with General Andrew Jackson for his actions in Florida?  The U.S. Government were not as upset as other Americans because Andrew Jackson was given what job in 1821?
4. With Florida now in American hands, what happened to the Seminoles?  
5. What was the message/purpose of the "Monroe Doctrine"?
6. Remember the struggles of President John Adams (see Life After Washington above), what similarities are there for his son, John Quincy Adams' presidency?
7. Why was July 4, 1826, a special day in American history?  How did we celebrate?  Why did many cry as well?
8. What was different about our seventh President, Andrew Jackson, from the first six?
9. Andrew Jackson was our last Revolutionary War president.  How young was he when he became a member of the South Carolina militia?  What happened to him during the war?
10. What political party did Andrew Jackson create?
11. How did Andrew Jackson receive the nickname "Old Hickory"?
12. The second question and most controversial was his treatment regarding Native Americans.  Why did President Andrew Jackson urge Congress and sign the Indian Removal Act?  What were it's ramifications?  HINT: Try this PBS: Indian Removal Act

Before Whitney’s gin entered into widespread use, the United States produced roughly 750,000 bales of cotton, in 1830. By 1850 that amount had exploded to 2.85 million bales. This production was concentrated almost exclusively in the South, because of the weather conditions needed for the plant to grow. Faster processing of cotton with the gin meant it was profitable for landowners to establish previously-unthinkably large cotton plantations across the south. But harvesting cotton remained a very labor-intensive undertaking. Thus, bigger cotton farms meant the need for more slaves. The slave population in the United States increased nearly five-fold in the first half of the 19th Century, and by 1860, the South provided about two-thirds of the world’s cotton supply. Southern wealth had become reliant on this one crop and thus was completely dependent on slave-labor.

In terms of understanding what the cotton gin means for Civil War history, the connection to the growth of slavery and its economic centrality for the South is clear. Between the political conflict of the 1820s to 1850s regarding new states and slavery, the election of Lincoln, whom Southerners perceived to be anti-slavery, and the high tariffs imposed on cotton and cotton goods by laws written in the North, the fact that the cotton states of the Deep South chose to succeed seems far less surprising.  Read more:  Civil War Trust:  How the Cotton Gin Contributed to the Civil War

Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin Resources:

• National Archives: Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin
• ASME: How the Cotton Gin Started the Civil War
• PBS: Growth and Entrenchment of Slavery
• Civil War History: How the Cotton Gin Contributed to the Civil War
• Ted-Ed: How inventions change history (for better and for worse) Video
• PBS: Classroom | The Cotton Gin Video
• Primary Source Lessons: The Invention of the Cotton Gin and Its Effect on the South

• PBS: William Lloyd Garrison
• AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | The Abolitionists, Part 1
• AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | The Abolitionists, Part 2
• AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | The Abolitionists, Part 3
• PBS: Frederick Douglas
• Frederick Douglass - From Slave to Abolitionist (Full Documentary)
• SPARK Notes: Uncle Tom's Cabin
• Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) Uncle Tom's Cabin (Free eBook)

Compromise (North & South) Collapse, 

Kansas Nebraska Act to Bleeding Kansas Readings:

• The Failure of Compromise: Institute of American History
  
• History.com: Nat Turner 
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act: US History
  
• Canefight! Preston Brooks and Charles Sumner: US History
• History.com:  Bleeding Kansas & John Brown
  
• History.com: John Brown Videos

Caning of Senator Charles Sumner

Compromise (North & South) Collapse Questions:

Use the Compromise (North & South) Collapse, Kansas Nebraska Act to Bleeding Kansas resources (above) to answer the Compromise (North & South) Collapse questions:  

1. One of, if not, the first compromises between North and South, free soil and slavery, was the Three-Fifths Compromise.  So, what was the Three-Fifths compromise?  
   
2. What was the Missouri Compromise?  What was the importance of the 36° 30′ latitude line?  HINT: Think extension of the Mason-Dixon line.  
   
3. In 1831, Nat Turner, a Virginian slave, led a major slave revolt.  In the end, how many people will be killed?  Slaves?  White people?
4. What was the Compromise of 1850?  What was the Fugitive Slave Act? 
   
5. Why was the Kansas Nebraska Act a really bad idea?  What was the result of this really bad idea?  
   
6. What happened to Senator Charles Sumner (look left) on the Senate floor?  The attack on Charles Sumner signifies that the compromises of the past were doomed to fail.  Explain. 
7. Why was the 1857 Supreme Court decision of Dred Scott important?  
   
8. Who was John Brown?  What was his raid on Harper's Ferry?