- The War Of 1812 The election of 1810 brought war hawks or, new Jeffersonian leaders, into office. The War Hawks believed that the US had tolerated Britain’s presence in America, Indian Raids, and attacks on American commerce for too long. President Madison asked congress to declare war on June 1, 1812. Britain beat back [...]

Alexis de Tocqueville visited the states in the 1830′s and observed that “no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.” He was speaking about influence of Protestants in the political and social values of the U.S. While not everyone agreed [...]

Bringing a nation together that just fought a war regionally against each other was enough of a task. The country knew that they would have to deal with the issues annexing the South back in to the Union and slavery, and black rights. But who would have thought that Reconstruction would include a power grab [...]

As we all know between 1820 and 1860 the American economy changed from being agricultural to being industrial.  This had profound effects on the economy. The average Americans’ income increased by 2% per year between 1820 and 1840. However that was of course a downside. There was often periods of economic boom and bust during [...]

During the late 1850’s, stated that the preservation on the young nation’s freedom, pended on how many registered voters went to the polls. The paper went on to say that it was the “positive duty of every citizen of a Republic to vote.” Do you agree with this statement? Quite clearly, the influx in voting [...]

Before the beginning of the 19th century the number of Americans residing past the Mississippi River were  inconsequential. The few who had were mostly tradesmen in the fur business, with small families; some were involved with the trade of exporting sea-otter skins to China as well. Mexicans and the Native Americans however, were the majority [...]

The term “the Gilded Age” was coined in the satirical book co-authored by Mark Twain in 1873.If you find yourself interested in this book, check out this link it’s pretty cool! http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Gilded-Age9.html. This expression characterized the political and social life in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century. During this era, there was a [...]

The Lives of Freed people Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. You may be wondering why is their a list of common known presidents, under a blog for “The Lives of Freed people?” The reason being is that these three men weren’t only presidents but slave owners as well. Thomas Jefferson was known to [...]

When Abraham Lincoln accepted his senatorial nomination in Chicago, he addressed the slavery issue in the nation: “a House divided by itself cannot stand.” Lincoln said, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” The issue of slavery became the major political issue among the federal government. The bloody struggle in [...]