Identify and give the significance of the Dred Scott Supreme Court case.
The Dred Scott case took place in 1857. Dred Scott sued in federal court claiming that he was a free citizen. He had been taken to a slave-free territory by his owner, who was an army doctor (history.com). Since the state was free he also declared that he too was free, so Scott sued. He said that he was a citizen of Missouri and a free man. This case became a legal nightmare. This case was basically trying to figure out if slavery should be allowed in the South or not (history.com). Scott tried to gain his freedom, but it the trial did not turn out so well.
The court ruled that Scott was not a citizen and consequently had no right to sue. They stated that slaves were property, not citizens, meaning do not have the right to sue. If slaves were forbidden in free states it disposed the owner of his property. This only made the slavery/antislavery factionalism in Congress worse and was another step to the Civil War. The court ruled that even residence on free soil did not render a slave a free person, regardless of their status, black people had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” The court declared unconstitutional the compromised of 1820, which had banned slavery in the region north of Missouri’s southern border. The decision that the court made threatened the precarious freedom of the South’s quarter million free people of color and extended the reach of slaver into the North. Nonabolitionists feared the long-term implications of the ruling because it suggested that the institution of slavery was about to spill out of the confines of the South and into the rest of the country. Free white men and women feared having to compete with slaves in the workplace. (Jones)
6) Explain the significance of the idea of Manifest Destiny
In the mid-1840s, it was written in the New York Democratic Review that the United States had a “manifest destiny.” It was believed that the United States had a “manifest destiny” to expand from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. It had become the nation’s manifest destiny to outspread its influence beyond its “continental boundaries into the Pacific and Caribbean basins” (history.com). The phrase communicated the belief that it was Anglo-Saxon Americans’ God-given mission to expand across North America (history.com). The term later became a wide-ranging phrase. It started to gain republic supporters as time passed (history.com). It began justifying American efforts not only to conquer new territory but also to seek out new markets for its goods across the oceans. It was a God-given right to expand US territory, used to justify territorial growth and expansion of economic markets and conquest. The supporters of the phrase “manifest destiny” believed that white Americans were superior, exceptional people, and that they had the right to place their own economic and territorial interests over “inferior” people. It rested upon excluding or destroying American Indians, African Americans, and Asian and Hispanic immigrants (teachinghistory.org). They did not fit in the ideal America that was thought up. The Catholics were mostly ignored and women were believed to be unimportant (teachinghistory.org). The United States had a manifest destiny to expand, but at the time, seizing Texas would force the country to struggle with slavery. Southern slaveholders wanted to expand slavery westward, while abolitionists, along with members of the new liberty party, opposed this expansion of slavery. Manifest destiny was merely a phrase used to prove that white Americans were amazing and that more land was needed, so they should expand.
Part II: Longer essay (20 points each). Choose ONE of the following and answer in details.
1. Discuss in detail why the Union was able to defeat the Confederacy. Be sure to discuss the strength and weaknesses of both the Union and the Confederacy in your answer.
The civil war was very costly and had many battles that caused the death of thousands. Not only was costly because of the amount of people that dies, but it was also costly economically. Roughly 624,000 people died within the 4 years it took for the war to be over. The war consisted of many battles including Battle at Fort Sumter, Bull Run Battle, and Battle of Shiloh. When the Union won it was the end of slavery, which came with the 13th amendment. The amendment not only helped slaves, but also the women’s movement. It supported industrialization, commercial and geographical expansion. The amendment was able to encourage the Chinese to migrate to Hawai’i. At the end of the war General Lee surrendered to General Grant. President Lincoln knew he won the war. Though both the Confederacy and the Union had a high chance of winning, the many strengths and weaknesses of both groups made it possible for only one side to win.
The Confederacy was part of the South. One major strength they had was they had crops such as cotton tobacco, and rice, but they did not have weapons like the North did. The Southerners were also not as willing to fight when compared to the North. If the person was a rich plantation owner they would hire a poor white person to fight their war. The Confederates planned to fight a defensive war along their 6,000-mile border and to rely on the labor of their 3 million slaves. They were very good at coordinating strategies, such as the strategy of sending the militia to attack the Fort. The Confederate leaders had to coordinate strategy across a vast region, and they had to contend with runaway slaves fleeing to Union lines. Another reason the South was not the best was they failed to gain diplomatic recognition and formal aid from European powers, meaning they did not have the support from other world powers. Once again, the Confederates proved to be weak because they squandered their end resources on early conventional offensives instead of using non-conventional warfare against the North’s communication transportation infrastructure (mtholyoke.edu). Up until 1862, the Confederates were doing well because they were winning battles, such as the Bull Run Battle, and their strategies was only having to defend their territories, but in the end, they were not the ones to win.
The one main weakness I found in the Union was that they had to conquer a very large portion of unfamiliar land. The Union proved to be very strong. They won because the North had more industries and were stronger economically. Their industrial economy was not solely based on the environment (mtholyoke.edu). They had factories so they could build the things necessary for war like guns, blockades, fighting tools, and trains. They had railroads which helped to transport supplies and uniforms to them fast from the factories (mtholyoke.edu). The North also had a larger population, better leadership in president Lincoln, and their military leaders were more determined and more brutal in their tactics. At the beginning of the war Lincoln wanted to make sure that the North did not fire the first shot to prove that they are not the aggressors, that they were fighting back. The North held the advantage in manufacturing and railroad miles, and it controlled the U.S. Navy and the federal government. They had the support needed from other world powers, unlike the Confederacy. The Union was strong because they had greater resources, and the Republicans’ centralized government facilitated mobilization. Their strategies were smarter than the Confederates. They increasingly succeeded at setting up blockades against the South in order to prevent supply line from getting to the Confederates.
In conclusion, The Civil War proved to be very disastrous and costly. The Confederates and Union lost a lot of men within those four days. They both had their strengths and weaknesses. Owning crops and being able to make weapons are all strengths that are require
d to win a war, but in the end, it just so happened that the Union was stronger. They had much more resources that was able to help through the war.