Manifest Destiny and

Reconstruction
I. Manifest Destiny

This painting (around 1872) by John

Gast called American Progress, is an
symbolic representation of Manifest
Destiny
A. Definition
1. The God-given right to own all of the land
from the east coast to the west coast.
American westward expansion is idealized in Emanuel
Leutze's famous painting Westward the Course of
Empire Takes its Way (1861).
 II. James Knox Polk
(11th President)

1. Promised to only serve one term

2. Favored expansion
3. Promised to bring both Texas (Mexican-
American War) and Oregon into the Union.
4. December 1845 Texas became the 28th
state.
5. 1846 Polk made agreement with Great
Britain – Oregon (29th)
 III. What helped with expansion
West?
1. Gold in California ( $100,000 in 1 year)
2. Eureka – used to celebrate an unexpected discovery
A forty-niner peers into his gold pan in
the American river at the base of the
Sierra Nevada
IV. Manifest Destiny - Positive and
Negative effects.
A. Positive
1. Unifying and inspirational
B. Negative
1. 1846 David Wilmot proposed the Wilmot
Proviso
a) Called for no slavery in the new territories.
(failed)
2. Took American attention from expansion to
slavery.
 V. Melting Pot
A. Isreal Zangwill coined the phrase
1. Implied that many diverse nationalities and
ethnic groups would be combined to form a
new, unique American Identity.
B. Cultural Pluralism
1. A nation in which many traditions co-exist in
harmony with one another.
 *BOOK WORK*
• Section 5 begins of PG. 53
– Read the Blue Titles labeled:
• Manifest Destiny, Looking Westward, The Journey
Westward, and The Aftermath of War
– On PG. 59, on a separate sheet of paper,
answer question #4 : If you were a poor
farmer in 1850, would you have chosen to join
a wagon train to the West? Why or why not?
• Write Question, Answer Question (@ least 3
sentences)
THE SOUTH IS DESTROYED
•The Civil War ended April 9, 1865.
•Most of the land in the South was
destroyed by the Civil War. The South
would need to be rebuilt.
•This
rebuilding of the South was called
Reconstruction.
RECONSTRUCTION PLAN
•President Lincoln wanted to reunite the
nation as quickly as possible.
•Any southern state with at least 10% of its
voters making a pledge to be loyal to the
U.S. could be readmitted to the Union.
•The South also had to accept a ban on
slavery.
 THE SLAVES ARE FREE
•With the ending of the war, the slaves
were now free.
•The 13th Amendment to the Constitution
was passed.
•The 13th Amendment made slavery
illegal forever in the United States.
THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU
•The Freedmen’s Bureau was established
to help poor blacks and whites in the South.
•The Freedmen’s Bureau established
schools in the South.
•Laws against educating slaves during the
Civil War meant that most ex-slaves did not
know how to read and write.
C. Black Codes
1. Restricting African Americans' freedom, and of
compelling them to work in a labor economy based
on low wages or debt.
2. Forced many blacks to become sharecroppers –
renters of land to farm. Rent would be a portion of
the crops.
D. Civil Rights Act of 1875
1. Sometimes referred to as the Enforcement Act, was a United
States federal law enacted to guarantee African Americans
equal treatment in public accommodations, public
transportation, and to prohibit exclusion from jury service.
– Was not enforced
– No new civil rights act for 90 years.
 THE 14TH AMENDMENT
•
•The 14th Amendment guaranteed
citizenship to all people born or naturalized
within the U.S. except for the Indians.
•It said that state governments could not
“deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law.”
KU KLUX KLAN
•In 1866 a group of white southerners created the
Ku Klux Klan.
•The KKK was a secret society opposed to African
Americans obtaining civil rights, particularly the
right to vote.
•The KKK used violence and intimidation to
frighten blacks.
•Klan members wore white robes and hoods to
hide their identities.
15TH AMENDMENT
•In1870 the 15th Amendment became law.
•The 15th Amendment gave African
American men the right to vote.
•Women’s rights activists were angry
because the amendment did not also grant
women the right to vote.
 SEGREGATION AND JIM CROW
LAWS
•Starting in 1881, blacks had to stay in separate
hotels, sit in separate parts of theaters, ride in
separate rail cars, and have separate schools,
libraries, and parks. This is known as
segregation.
•Segregation - the legal separation of blacks
and whites in public places
•Jim Crow Laws - laws that forced segregation
PLESSY V. FERGUSON
•The Supreme Court ruled segregation was legal
in Plessy v. Ferguson.
•They said that segregation was fair as long as
“separate-but-equal” facilities were provided for
African Americans.
•It would take until the 1965, 100 years after the
Civil War ended, for Jim Crow laws to be
outlawed and blacks to finally realize legal
equality in America.
E. Exodusters
1. Exodus – A mass departure of people.
2. Benjamin “Pap” Singleton urged African
Americans to head west and create their own
communities.
3. They would pay Pap $5 to go up the river to
Kansas. Over 15,000 left and went to
Kansas between 1879-1880.
COMPROMISE OF 1877

• An agreement that essentially ended

Reconstruction by which the Democrats
agreed to accept the victory of Rutherford B.
Hayes in the presidential election in
exchange for the North agreeing to remove
federal troops from the South
B. Amendments of Reconstruction
1. 13th – Abolished Slavery
2. 14th – All people born in the U.S. were
citizens and were to be given full and equal
benefit of all laws.
3. 15th – The right of U.S. citizens to vote
 *BOOK WORK*
• Starting on PG. 87, read the entire section
4.
• In your “Book Work” section, copy the
chart on PG. 91.
• Also on PG. 91, copy and answer the
“Analyzing Cause and Effect” question,
“Which of the effects of Reconstruction
were temporary?