Kenny Lopez and Fernando Martinez

 

Source 1:

ARTICLE V

"The boundary line between the two Republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying directly into the sea; from thence up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, where it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico; thence, westwardly, along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico (which runs north of the town called Paso) to its western termination; thence, northward, along the western line of New Mexico, until it intersects the first branch of the river Gila; (or if it should not intersect any branch of that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and thence in a direct line to the same); thence down the middle of the said branch and of the said river, until it empties into the Rio Colorado; thence across the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower California, to the Pacific Ocean."

-Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848

 

A: United States Government after the Mexican American War

P: United States and Mexico, 1848

P: The Mexican American War was fought between Mexico and the US because of Texas refusing to abide by Mexico's anti-slavery laws. This led to secession from Mexico, and when Texas joined the US, it aggravated relations between Mexico and the US. This happened under Polk, and he advocated for the war because of his belief in Manifest Destiny.

A: Mexican Officials

R: To end the war and to attain the remaining land to the West , connecting the US to the Pacific.

T: To achieve Manifest Destiny.

S: It allowed for more conflict between those who either supported or were against slavery. The majority of the states acquired were under the Missouri Compromise Line, which led to much 

strife, and led to things like the Compromise of 1850, which led to even more upset in the Senate and Congress.

 

Source 2:

 

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850Legislation1850

 

Sec. 10. "And be it further enacted... Whereupon the court shall cause a record to be made of the matters so proved, and also a general description of the person so escaping, with such convenient certainty as may be; and a transcript of such record, authenticated by the attestation of the clerk and of the seal of the said court, being produced in any other State, Territory, or district in which the person so escaping may be found, and being exhibited to any judge, commissioner, or other officer authorized by the law of the United States to cause persons escaping from service or labor to be delivered up, shall be held and taken to be full and conclusive evidence of the fact of escape, and that the service or labor of the person escaping is due to the party in such record mentioned. And upon the production by the said party of other and further evidence if necessary, either oral or by affidavit, in addition to what is contained in the said record of the identity of the person escaping, he or she shall be delivered up to the claimant. And the said court, commissioner, judge, or other person authorized by this act to grant certificates to claimants or fugitives, shall, upon the production of the record and other evidences aforesaid, grant to such claimant a certificate of his right to take any such person identified and proved to be owing service or labor as aforesaid, which certificate shall authorize such claimant to seize or arrest and transport such person to the State or Territory from which he escaped..."

A: House of Representatives of the US

P: The United States, primarily in the North. 1850.

P: The Fugitive Slave Law applied to "escaped slaves" in the North, and basically said that if a black was identified as a runaway, be it true or not, they would be deported to the South and put back into slavery. The act was released coupled with the Compromise of 1850, which had outlawed slavery in the capital, and made California a free state.

A: People, specifically whites, in the North.

R: The southerners felt that too many slaves were running away, and so they felt entitled to their "property." It was a way at "getting back," in essence, at the blacks.

T: Tried to show southern white supremacy over blacks. It was used to further strip blacks of their very limited rights.

S: This represented how the southerners were gaining power through the fugitive slave act by implementing consequences if these rules were not followed by the north. They would recive a $1,000 fine if they did not report a "Runaway slave" or you would be sent to prison. It drew more northerners to the cause of not supporting slavery and led to books and newspapers being written to defend them.

 

 Source 3: 

 

 Dred Scott v. SandfordSupreme Court case1857

 

"But it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race, were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this Declaration; for if the language as understood in that day, would embrace them, the conduct of the distinguished men who framed the Declaration of Independence would have been utterly and flagrantly inconsistent with the principles they asserted; and instead of the sympathy of mankind, to which they so confidently appealed, they would have deserved and received universal rebuke and reprobation.

Upon the whole, therefore, it is the judgment of this court, that it appears by the record before us that the plaintiff in error is not a citizen of Missouri, in the sense in which that word is used in the Constitution; and that the Circuit Court of the United States, for that reason, had no jurisdiction in the case, and could give no judgment in it.

Its judgment for the defendant must, consequently, be reversed, and a mandate issued directing the suit to be dismissed for want of jurisdiction..."

A: Supreme Court, Mr. Chief Justice Roger Taney

P: 1857 Washington D.C

P: Dred Scott was a former slave who had wanted to sue for his freedom when his owner took him to Illinois, a free state, and then to Wisconsin, a free territory. He argued for his freedom on the grounds that he was above the Missouri Compromise Line, makimg him tecnically free.

A: The court, southerners, northerners, and the black population.

R: Dred Scott wanted to gain his freedom on legal terms rather him running away like most slaves do.

T: Dred Scott proved to be an example of a black trying to exercise his rights on legal ground. The Supreme Court decision said otherwise, and shot down the Dred Scott case.

S: This was the first time a slave had ever tried to sue his owner through legal terms. this would implement the idea that slaves were not a citizen that can utilize the rights of one. It set the matter what a slave was in american society, a peice of property rather a human being. this would set the tone for futher cases.

 

Source 4:

 

Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Societyby the American Anti-Slavery SocietyConstitution adopted at their founding conventionDecember 4, 1833

 

ARTICLE II. -- The objects of this Society are the entire abolition of Slavery in the United States. While it admits that each State, in which Slavery exists, has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its abolition in said State, it shall aim to convince all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their understandings and consciences, that Slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of God, and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned, require its immediate abandonment, without expatriation...

ARTICLE III. -- This Society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the people of color, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and religious improvement, and

by removing public prejudice, that thus they may, according to their intellectual and moral worth, share an equality with the whites, of civil and religious privileges; but this Society will never, in any way, countenance the oppressed in vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force.

A: American Anti-Slavery Society

P: North, 1833

P: The AAS was an organization that wanted to abolish slavery right away and also connected with them wanting to send blacks back to Africa.

A: The main audience concerned with congress, both northerners and southerners, and free blacks.

R: The AAS was a radical abolition group which called for the immediate emancipation of blacks, and drew more to their numbers through documents like these.

T: The document just basically outlines the purpose and ideas of the AAS, like what they stand for and what they plan to do; their platform.

S: Groups like the American Anti-Slavery Society proved to play big parts in Antebellum American thought because groups tended to sway whites, and on occasion, whites with power to their side. This was a driving force for the abolitionist movement, and drew more antislavery sentiment in the North.

Source 5:

Picture of a COTTON GIN.

A: No author; author unavailable

P: Antebellum South, early to mid 1800s

P: Eli Whitney came up with the invention of the cotton gin. The purpose of the machine was to separate the seeds from cotton, making the cotton picking and cleaning process faster. This played an immense role in the shaping of lives for slaves in the Antebellum South.

A:  No discernable audience…

R: The cotton gin was invented to increase the yield of cotton plantations and to increase the amount of money pulled in.

T: The document really has no main idea. It’s a cotton gin.

S:  The cotton gin revolutionized the industry of cotton picking for cotton growers. It increased their output of cotton, which not only benefitted the Southern economy, but more slaves were needed to work the gins. More slaves were bought, traded, and sold, and the invention further cemented the African importance in the South.

Source 6: 

SOUTHERN PLANTATION IN VICKSBURG, MS.

A: No known author

P: Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the 1830s-1840s

P: The South was pro-slavery, and such plantations are what kept the South’s economy aloft.  Cotton was grown on these plantations, and although there weren’t many, they held the most slaves, with each plantation usually owning about a hundred slaves or more.

A: As a document, there really is no audience.

R: It housed the Southern elites, and was from a standpoint, a business. It was the epitome of slave culture mixing with southerners.

T: The main idea of plantations was that they had the power to sway the Southern economy, and the social standpoint of a certain white individual. 

S: Plantations were the backbone of the Southern economy. They embodied the evil that was viewed of the South: they had rich thriving tycoons controlling an incredible mass of blacks , and making a fortune off of King Cotton, the staple crop of the South.

Source 7:

Map showing the Missouri Compromise Line

A: No author

P: The United States, was used mostly in coming or developing states,1820 and onwards.

P: The Missouri Compromise was a result of Missouri wanting to join the Union as  a slave State, but in order to not upset the balance between free and slave states, the Union admitted Maine as a Free state, and set that any state joining the union under the 36 30 line would be slave and any joining above would be free. It stretched to the Pacific.

A: No audience

R: The Missouri Compromise was made in an attempt to keep balance between slave and free states in the Union.

T: There really is no main idea to the Compromise,  just that slavery had to be controlled.

S: The Missouri Compromise is arguably one of the biggest argument starters of the 19th century. Although the plan worked in practice, after things like the Mexican American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and things like west ward expansion caused much strife in the government.  It led to things like the Compromise of 1850, the Dred Scott case, and served as pretty much the border between the North and South during the Civil War.

Source 8:

  

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

A: No author

P: Virginia, 1831

P: Nat Turner was a priest who organized an onslaught of white southern families in an act of rebellion. He roughly had 60 followers, and the rebellion left a permanent imprint in black and white southern society.

A: Whites of the South

R: Nat Turner organized the rebellion to show the whites that blacks had had enough of the abuse that they were receiving.

T: The main idea of this particular drawing was to show the blacks as ruthless animals that slaughtered and butchered the white citizens.

S: Nat Turner’s rebellion caused much hardship for blacks.  It caused whites to put stricter restrictions on slaves, like restrictions on meeting, reading, etc. Blacks also received harsher 

punishment because the rebellion caused whites to be afraid. It was a precursor to further black opposition, and led to things like the Underground Railroad.

Source 9: 

A: No author

P: The South, 1800-1860

P: The South was known for producing cotton; it was their staple crop.  There were plantations dedicated to producing cotton through the use of slaves, and inventions like Eli Whitney’s cotton gin helped such an effort.

A: No discernible audience

R: The reason as to why there was an increase in both the cotton consumption and slave population is because the more slaves there were, the more cotton was produced.

T: There really is no main idea, other than to show a correlation between consumption and population.

S: This data can be used in several ways. For one, there is a pike in both of the graphs, so it justifies the South as needing slaves, because their main crop is being consumed, and it is booming up the Southern economy. This in turn leads to the uncertainty that the Northern government officials had before prepping for war: did they really want to destroy the economy of half the nation in order to do what is humanitarianly correct?