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Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900 | Rise of Industrial America

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Surprisingly, immigration to the U.S. rose post-Civil War. The United States was seen as the land of opportunity (economic) during these years, as other parts of the world faced famine and job shortages. Many of the immigrants came from Europe, but from 1849-1882, the U.S. saw a spike in Chinese immigrants.

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Group of Immigrants Cabinet of American Illustration

In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity. Others came seeking personal freedom or relief from political and religious persecution, and nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900. During the 1870s and 1880s, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, and England - the principal sources of immigration before the Civil War. Even so, a relatively large group of Chinese immigrated to the United States between the start of the California gold rush in 1849 and 1882, when federal law stopped their immigration.

With the onset of hard economic times in the 1870s, European immigrants and Americans began to compete for the jobs traditionally reserved for the Chinese. With economic competition came dislike and even racial suspicion and hatred. Such feelings were accompanied by anti-Chinese riots and pressure, especially in California, for the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from the United States. The result of this pressure was the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed by Congress in 1882. This Act virtually ended Chinese immigration for nearly a century.

Immigrants entered the United States through several ports. Those from Europe generally came through East Coast facilities, while those from Asia generally entered through West Coast centers. More than 70 percent of all immigrants, however, entered through New York City, which came to be known as the "Golden Door." Throughout the late 1800s, most immigrants arriving in New York entered at the Castle Garden depot near the tip of Manhattan. In 1892, the federal government opened a new immigration processing center on Ellis Island in New York harbor.

Although immigrants often settled near ports of entry, a large number did find their way inland. Many states, especially those with sparse populations, actively sought to attract immigrants by offering jobs or land for farming. Many immigrants wanted to move to communities established by previous settlers from their homelands.

Once settled, immigrants looked for work. There were never enough jobs, and employers often took advantage of the immigrants. Men were generally paid less than other workers, and women less than men. Social tensions were also part of the immigrant experience. Often stereotyped and discriminated against, many immigrants suffered verbal and physical abuse because they were "different." While large-scale immigration created many social tensions, it also produced a new vitality in the cities and states in which the immigrants settled. The newcomers helped transform American society and culture, demonstrating that diversity, as well as unity, is a source of national strength.

To find other documents in Loc.gov relating to this topic, use such key words as immigration or immigrants, or include the names of specific immigrant or ethnic groups, such as German, Irish, Scandinavian, Swedish, Norwegian, or Chinese.

Documents

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Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900 | Rise of Industrial America, 1876-1900 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States.

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Nothing has changed the way society communicates quite as rapidly as the modern computer era. But, did you know that computers were originally created to solve math problems associated with the Census? The technology behind computers dates back to as early as 1801, with the first computer coming forth in 1937. Now, nearly all U.S. adults carry a personal computer in their pocket.

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The history of computers began with primitive designs in the early 19th century and went on to change the world during the 20th century.

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In 1935 when unemployment was at its highest, President Roosevelt knew U.S. citizens needed to get back to work to elevate themselves and the country. He created the WPA as an answer to this problem. The WPA put millions of people, mostly uneducated men, to work on public works projects like road and building construction.

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" Back to Glossary Index
(renamed Work Projects Administration, 1939)
President Roosevelt created the WPA on May 6, 1935 with Executive Order No. 7034, under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. Harry Hopkins was the first (and most well-remembered) administrator of the WPA, serving from July 1935 through December 1938 [1].

The WPA was the largest and most diverse of the New Deal public works programs. It was created to alleviate the mass unemployment of the Great Depression and by the time it was terminated in 1943, the WPA had put 8.5 million Americans back to work [2].

The majority of WPA projects built infrastructure, such as bridges, airports, schools, parks, and water lines. In addition, the Federal Project Number One programs undertook theater, music, and visual arts projects, while other service programs supported historic preservation, library collections, and social science research. The WPA also employed women in sewing rooms and school classrooms and cafeterias, and in the later run-up to war it improved many military facilities.

The volume and diversity of work was so large that one researcher wrote at the time: "An enumeration of all the projects undertaken and completed by the WPA during its lifetime would include almost every type of work imaginable...from the construction of highways to the extermination of rats; from the building of stadiums to the stuffing of birds; from the improvement of airplane landing fields to the making of Braille books; from the building of over a million of the now famous privies to the playing of the world's greatest symphonies" [3]. An inventory of WPA accomplishments in the Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43 includes 8,000 new or improved parks, 16,000 miles of new water lines, 650,000 miles of new or improved roads, the production of 382 million articles of clothing, and the serving of 1.2 billion school lunches [4].

The WPA employed people directly. A typical project began at the local level, with city and county governments assessing their needs and unemployment numbers. Proposals were then sent to a WPA state office for vetting before being forwarded to headquarters in Washington, D.C. and, finally, to the president for final approval. Projects could be rejected anywhere along this three-step process, and were not imposed on local communities by the Federal government. Normally, localities had to provide about 12-25% to trigger federal funding of WPA projects [5].

In 1939, after a federal government reorganization, the Works Progress Administration was renamed the "Work Projects Administration" and was placed under the newly created Federal Works Agency. With the advent of World War II and absorption of the ranks of the unemployed into war production and the military, the WPA was gradually shut down. Official termination came on June 30, 1943, per a December 4, 1942 presidential letter to the Federal Works Administrator, while the Second Deficiency Appropriation Act of July 13, 1943 established liquidation procedures.

Sources: (1) Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946, pp. 7-10. (2) Ibid. at p. iii ("Letter of Transmittal"). (3) Donald S. Howard, The WPA and Federal Relief Policy, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1943, p. 126. (4) See note 1, at pp. 134-136. (5) See note 3 at p. 147 and note 1 at p. 9.

" Back to Glossary Index

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Works Progress Administration (WPA) (1935) - Living New Deal

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(renamed Work Projects Administration, 1939) President Roosevelt created the WPA on May 6, 1935 with Executive Order No. 7034, under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. Harry Hopkins was the first (and most well-remembered) administrator of the WPA, serving from... read more

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The 13th amendment to the constitution abolished slavery in the United States after the Civil War in 1865.

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The 15th amendment to the constitution granted African American men the right to vote. The amendment states: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

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The Greek civilization greatly influenced the world by their architecture, art, philosophy, government, language, and education.

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11 Ways Ancient Greece Influenced Modern Society

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Our society today owes a lot to Greece. Here are 11 significant contributions made by the ancient Greeks.

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Political parties began during the ratifications of the constitution in 1787 over how much power the central government had over the states. The federalists was lead by Alexander Hamilton who wanted power to go to the central government. The anti federalists was led by Thomas Jefferson who advocated for individual state’s rights and power.

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The Roman Empire was one of the largest Empires in history. The Romans’ engineering of cities, buildings, roads, aqueducts, art, and governing largely influenced and impacted other civilizations.

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Traces of Ancient Rome in the Modern World

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The ideas and culture of ancient Rome influence the art, architecture, science, technology, literature, language, and law of today.

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The social security act was part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal program to provide financial aide to the elderly, unemployed, and disabled Americans.

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Early Social Assistance in America

Economic security has always been a major issue in an unstable, unequal world with an aging population. Societies throughout history have tackled the issue in various ways, but the disadvantaged relied mostly on charity from the wealthy or from family and friends.

In the early 17th century, England established "poor laws," acknowledging the government's responsibility to care for its less-fortunate citizens.

The Pilgrims brought these laws with them to the New World. Eventually, colonial governments created new laws to care for the poor and destitute, deeming which citizens were worthy or unworthy of different types of assistance. Poorhouses or outdoor relief (where people were given monetary or other assistance to keep them out of a poorhouse) were common means of public assistance.

By the mid-19th century, conditions in poorhouses were often deplorable. Yet thanks to deteriorating economic conditions they were also packed to the rafters, and local governments struggled to keep up with the overwhelming need.

Early Forms of Social Security

A large segment of American citizens received an early form of social security decades before President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935.

Starting in 1862, hundreds of thousands of veterans disabled in the Civil War and their widows and orphans could apply for a government pension for veterans. In 1890, the law was amended to include any disabled Civil War veteran, regardless of how the disability occurred. In 1906, the law was amended again to include old age as a criterion.

Company pension plans came on the scene in 1882 when the Alfred Dolge Company created a pension fund for its employees. A handful of companies followed suit, but few employees received even a nickel. Most of the companies went out of business before the pensions could be distributed, or the pensions were never dispersed.

Industrial Revolution in America

According to the Social Security Administration, four changes beginning in the late 19th century helped abolish the economic security policies of the time: the Industrial Revolution, America's urbanization, the vanishing extended family and a longer life expectancy.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, many people were farmers and managed to support themselves during hard times, and extended family often lived together on family farms and cared for one another as they aged or struggled.

The Industrial Revolution, however, enticed people to flock to cities for jobs that were often threatened by layoffs and recession, leaving many without a way to support themselves if they lost their job. The urbanization of American also found many people leaving their extended family behind to fend for themselves.

As sanitary and general conditions in America improved, the life expectancy of its citizens did, too. When more and more people grew older, many were unable to work or became sick and required care.

Impact of The Great Depression

The Great Depression left millions of people unemployed and struggling to put food on the table. It struck the elderly especially hard and many states passed legislation to protect their elder citizens.

But most elder-assistance programs of the time were a dismal failure. They were underfunded, poorly run and, in some cases, flat out ignored by officials. Those seniors who received assistance only got about 65 cents a day.

As the depression raged on, government officials and frustrated private citizens alike moved to find ways to help struggling Americans and introduced plans to increase economic security. Most ideas were basically federal or state financed pension plans. Some included all citizens while others included only the elderly.

None of the plans became law; however, many had huge followings and initiated spirited dialogue about how to care for the disadvantaged and the elderly.

Roosevelt's Radical Idea: Social Security

Until Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, most social assistance plans in America were dependent on the government, charities and private citizens doling out money to people in need.

Roosevelt, however, borrowed a page from Europe's economic security rulebook and took a different approach. He proposed a program in which people contributed to their own future economic security by contributing a portion of their work income through payroll tax deductions.

Basically, the current working generation would pay into the program and finance the retired generation's monthly allowance.

Social Security Benefits

In June 1934, President Roosevelt created the Committee on Economic Security (CES) and tasked them with creating an economic security bill. Led by the first woman to hold a U.S. cabinet post, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the CES drafted the Social Security Act aimed at giving people economic security throughout their lives.

The bill included:

an old-age pension program

unemployment insurance funded by employers

health insurance for people in financial distress

financial assistance for widows with children

financial assistance for disabled individuals

After much debate, Congress passed the Social Security Act to provide benefits to retirees based on their earnings history and on August 14, 1935, Roosevelt signed it into law. This firmly placed the burden of economic security for American citizens on the federal government's shoulders.

Social Security Cards

After signing the Social Security Act, President Roosevelt established a three-person board to administer the program with the goal of starting payroll tax deductions for enrollees by January 1, 1937. It was a daunting task, but by November 1936 registration for the program began.

Not everyone could participate, though. Self-employed professionals, field hands and domestic workers were excluded.

To become eligible, workers completed an application at their local post office and received a national identity card with a unique, nine-digit identification number. Within eight days of rolling out the program, over one million workers had Social Security numbers.

Four months later, almost 26 million had enrolled despite most projected payouts being below poverty level. The Social Security card was-and still is-used to track workers earnings and benefits.

Social Security Act Amendments

Many amendments have been passed to the original Social Security Act. For instance, originally, monthly payouts of old-age benefits were slated to start on January 1, 1942. Eligible people who turned 65 prior to that date received a lump sum payment.

On August 10, 1939, an amendment passed to move up the start date to receive monthly benefits to January 1, 1940. Another amendment extended eligibility to dependents and survivors of retired workers.

In the 1950s, amendments were made which extended Social Security eligibility to domestic and farm workers, non-farm self-employed professionals and some federal employees. It also offered voluntary coverage to some state and federal employees, hundreds of thousands of nonprofit employees and workers in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

In addition, benefits were increased for millions of beneficiaries and a new contribution schedule established.

Medicare: Medical Insurance For Social Security Recipients

In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved legislation to allow Social Security benefits for disabled workers and their dependents.

The Social Security Amendments of 1965 provided medical insurance to Social Security beneficiaries age 65 and older. This new "Medicare" program also offered people 65 and older the chance to purchase supplemental medical insurance.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation to provide an automatic cost of living allowance each year to offset the cost of inflation. Prior to the new law, annual increases required Congressional approval.

Efforts to Keep Social Security Solvent

By 1977, it was clear Social Security was in financial peril. An amendment was passed changing the benefit qualification formula for people born after 1917. Other amendments were also passed including increasing the payroll tax and slightly decreasing benefits to help cut costs, leaving some beneficiaries with less money during difficult economic times.

These efforts didn't prevent the program from facing a serious financial crisis in the 1980s, however, and President Ronald Reagan created a commission to examine how to keep Social Security in the black. In 1983, he signed legislation that gradually increased the retirement age to 67, taxed Social Security benefits and provided Social Security benefits to federal workers.

After taking office in 2001, President George W. Bush appointed another Social Security Commission with its top priority being Social Security reform. No revolutionary changes were made to keep the program solvent long-term. Still, the Bush administration extended disability benefits and food stamps to qualified immigrants and their children, eliminated wage credits for the military and expanded Medicare prescription drug coverage.

President Obama 's administration temporarily reduced the Social Security tax rate from 6.2 to 4.2 percent in 2011 and 2012. The move helped ease financial strain on American workers but did little to stop the risk of Social Security going into future debt.

The Future of Social Security

The Social Security Act has provided Americans with much-needed financial help when they need it most. For many of America's most vulnerable, it's the only source of income they have.

Still, despite attempts to keep it solvent, the Social Security program faces a major long-term shortfall. The retirement age to receive full benefits continues to increase and many beneficiaries are claiming benefits much later in life to receive maximum payouts, often at age 70.

As partisan politicians continue to debate the problem each year, the Social Security Administration-which is now an independent government agency-works behind the scenes to keep Social Security intact. Administering the program is a monumental and always-changing task.

Each year, the Social Security Administration rolls out changes to the program. In 2018, they announced a two percent cost-of-living adjustment, a taxable earnings increase, an earnings limit increase for beneficiaries who still work and a slight increase in disability payments.

Despite the program's pitfalls, most Americans want Social Security to continue and consider it a retirement lifeline, according to a National Academy of Social Insurance survey. And eighty-one percent of them are willing to pay more taxes to ensure it. Whether politicians are listening and can come up with a viable solution remains to be seen.

Sources

5 Facts About Social Security. Pew Research Center.
5 Social Security Changes to Expect in 2018. Investopedia.
Administering Social Security: Challenges Yesterday and Today. Social Security Office of Retirement and Disability.
Frances Perkins: The Force Behind Social Security. Roosevelt Institute.
Historical Background and Development of Social Security. Social Security Administration.
How FDR Created Social Security. AARP.
Key Dates in the History of Social Security. National Academy of Social Insurance.
Poor Relief in Early America. VCU Libraries Social Welfare History Project.
Social Security Turns 80: Past, Present and Future. National Academy of Social Insurance.

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Economic security has always been a major issue in an unstable, unequal world with an aging population. Societies throughout history have tackled the issue in various ways, but the disadvantaged relied mostly on charity from the wealthy or from family and friends.

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Dred Scott was an enslaved man who sued for his freedom when he was taken to and from different states where slavery was legal and illegal. The Supreme Court ruled against Scott, however this case lead to abolitionist movements and ultimately the civil war.

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Dred Scott first went to trial to sue for his freedom in 1847. Ten years later, after a decade of appeals and court reversals, his case was finally brought before the United States Supreme Court. In what is perhaps the most infamous case in its history, the court decided that all people of African ancestry -- slaves as well as those who were free -- could never become citizens of the United States and therefore could not sue in federal court. The court also ruled that the federal government did not have the power to prohibit slavery in its territories. Scott, needless to say, remained a slave.

Born around 1800, Scott migrated westward with his master, Peter Blow. They travelled from Scott's home state of Virginia to Alabama and then, in 1830, to St. Louis, Missouri. Two years later Peter Blow died; Scott was subsequently bought by army surgeon Dr. John Emerson, who later took Scott to the free state of Illinois. In the spring of 1836, after a stay of two and a half years, Emerson moved to a fort in the Wisconsin Territory, taking Scott along. While there, Scott met and married Harriet Robinson, a slave owned by a local justice of the peace. Ownership of Harriet was transferred to Emerson.

Scott's extended stay in Illinois, a free state, gave him the legal standing to make a claim for freedom, as did his extended stay in Wisconsin, where slavery was also prohibited. But Scott never made the claim while living in the free lands -- perhaps because he was unaware of his rights at the time, or perhaps because he was content with his master. After two years, the army transferred Emerson to the south: first to St Louis, then to Louisiana. A little over a year later, a recently-married Emerson summoned his slave couple. Instead of staying in the free territory of Wisconsin, or going to the free state of Illinois, the two travelled over a thousand miles, apparently unaccompanied, down the Mississippi River to meet their master. Only after Emerson's death in 1843, after Emerson's widow hired Scott out to an army captain, did Scott seek freedom for himself and his wife. First he offered to buy his freedom from Mrs. Emerson -- then living in St. Louis -- for $300. The offer was refused. Scott then sought freedom through the courts.

Scott went to trial in June of 1847, but lost on a technicality -- he couldn't prove that he and Harriet were owned by Emerson's widow. The following year the Missouri Supreme Court decided that case should be retried. In an 1850 retrial, the the St Louis circuit court ruled that Scott and his family were free. Two years later the Missouri Supreme Court stepped in again, reversing the decision of the lower court. Scott and his lawyers then brought his case to a federal court, the United States Circuit Court in Missouri. In 1854, the Circuit Court upheld the decision of the Missouri Supreme Court. There was now only one other place to go. Scott appealed his case to the United States Supreme Court.

The nine justices of the Supreme Court of 1856 certainly had biases regarding slavery. Seven had been appointed by pro-slavery presidents from the South, and of these, five were from slave-holding families. Still, if the case had gone directly from the state supreme court to the federal supreme court, the federal court probably would have upheld the state's ruling, citing a previously established decision that gave states the authority to determine the status of its inhabitants. But, in his attempt to bring his case to the federal courts, Scott had claimed that he and the case's defendant (Mrs. Emerson's brother, John Sanford, who lived in New York) were citizens from different states. The main issues for the Supreme Court, therefore, were whether it had jurisdiction to try the case and whether Scott was indeed a citizen.

The decision of the court was read in March of 1857. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney -- a staunch supporter of slavery -- wrote the "majority opinion" for the court. It stated that because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue. The decision also declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820, legislation which restricted slavery in certain territories, unconstitutional.

While the decision was well-received by slaveholders in the South, many northerners were outraged. The decision greatly influenced the nomination of Abraham Lincoln to the Republican Party and his subsequent election, which in turn led to the South's secession from the Union.

Peter Blow's sons, childhood friends of Scott, had helped pay Scott's legal fees through the years. After the Supreme Court's decision, the former master's sons purchased Scott and his wife and set them free.

Dred Scott died nine months later.

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Dred Scott first went to trial to sue for his freedom in 1847. Ten years later, after a decade of appeals and court reversals, his case was finally brought before the United States Supreme Court.

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George Washington was commander and chief of the colonies’ army during the American revolution against the British. His command led them to victory and he became the 1st president of the United States and helped write the U.S. constitution.

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George Washington's Early Years

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at his family's plantation on Pope's Creek in Westmoreland County, in the British colony of Virginia, to Augustine Washington (1694-1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708-89). George, the eldest of Augustine and Mary Washington's six children, spent much of his childhood at Ferry Farm, a plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. After Washington's father died when he was 11, it's likely he helped his mother manage the plantation.

Did you know? At the time of his death in 1799, George Washington owned some 300 enslaved people. However, before his passing, he had become opposed to slavery, and in his will, he ordered that his enslaved workers be freed after his wife's death.

Few details about Washington's early education are known, although children of prosperous families like his typically were taught at home by private tutors or attended private schools. It's believed he finished his formal schooling at around age 15.

As a teenager, Washington, who had shown an aptitude for mathematics, became a successful surveyor. His surveying expeditions into the Virginia wilderness earned him enough money to begin acquiring land of his own.

In 1751, Washington made his only trip outside of America, when he traveled to Barbados with his older half-brother Lawrence Washington (1718-52), who was suffering from tuberculosis and hoped the warm climate would help him recuperate. Shortly after their arrival, George contracted smallpox. He survived, although the illness left him with permanent facial scars. In 1752, Lawrence, who had been educated in England and served as Washington's mentor, died. Washington eventually inherited Lawrence's estate, Mount Vernon, on the Potomac River near Alexandria, Virginia.

An Officer and Gentleman Farmer

In December 1752, Washington, who had no previous military experience, was made a commander of the Virginia militia. He saw action in the French and Indian War and was eventually put in charge of all of Virginia's militia forces. By 1759, Washington had resigned his commission, returned to Mount Vernon and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he served until 1774. In January 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), a wealthy widow with two children. Washington became a devoted stepfather to her children; he and Martha Washington never had any offspring of their own.

In the ensuing years, Washington expanded Mount Vernon from 2,000 acres into an 8,000-acre property with five farms. He grew a variety of crops, including wheat and corn, bred mules and maintained fruit orchards and a successful fishery. He was deeply interested in farming and continually experimented with new crops and methods of land conservation.

George Washington During the American Revolution

Washington proved to be a better general than military strategist. His strength lay not in his genius on the battlefield but in his ability to keep the struggling colonial army together. His troops were poorly trained and lacked food, ammunition and other supplies (soldiers sometimes even went without shoes in winter). However, Washington was able to give them direction and motivation. His leadership during the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge was a testament to his power to inspire his men to keep going.

By the late 1760s, Washington had experienced firsthand the effects of rising taxes imposed on American colonists by the British and came to believe that it was in the best interests of the colonists to declare independence from England. Washington served as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 in Philadelphia. By the time the Second Continental Congress convened a year later, the American Revolution had begun in earnest, and Washington was named commander in chief of the Continental Army.

Over the course of the grueling eight-year war, the colonial forces won few battles but consistently held their own against the British. In October 1781, with the aid of the French (who allied themselves with the colonists over their rivals the British), the Continental forces were able to capture British troops under General Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805) in the Battle of Yorktown. This action effectively ended the Revolutionary War and Washington was declared a national hero.

America's First President

In 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Great Britain and the U.S., Washington, believing he had done his duty, gave up his command of the army and returned to Mount Vernon, intent on resuming his life as a gentleman farmer and family man. However, in 1787, he was asked to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and head the committee to draft the new constitution. His impressive leadership there convinced the delegates that he was by far the most qualified man to become the nation's first president.

At first, Washington balked. He wanted to, at last, return to a quiet life at home and leave governing the new nation to others. But public opinion was so strong that eventually he gave in. The first presidential election was held on January 7, 1789, and Washington won handily. John Adams (1735-1826), who received the second-largest number of votes, became the nation's first vice president. The 57-year-old Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, in New York City. Because Washington, D.C., America's future capital city wasn't yet built, he lived in New York and Philadelphia. While in office, he signed a bill establishing a future, permanent U.S. capital along the Potomac River-the city later named Washington, D.C., in his honor.

George Washington's Accomplishments

The United States was a small nation when Washington took office, consisting of 11 states and approximately 4 million people, and there was no precedent for how the new president should conduct domestic or foreign business. Mindful that his actions would likely determine how future presidents were expected to govern, Washington worked hard to set an example of fairness, prudence and integrity. In foreign matters, he supported cordial relations with other countries but also favored a position of neutrality in foreign conflicts. Domestically, he nominated the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay (1745-1829), signed a bill establishing the first national bank, the Bank of the United States, and set up his own presidential cabinet.

His two most prominent cabinet appointees were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), two men who disagreed strongly on the role of the federal government. Hamilton favored a strong central government and was part of the Federalist Party, while Jefferson favored stronger states' rights as part of the Democratic-Republican Party, the forerunner to the Democratic Party. Washington believed that divergent views were critical for the health of the new government, but he was distressed at what he saw as an emerging partisanship.

George Washington's presidency was marked by a series of firsts. He signed the first United States copyright law, protecting the copyrights of authors. He also signed the first Thanksgiving proclamation, making November 26 a national day of Thanksgiving for the end of the war for American independence and the successful ratification of the Constitution.

During Washington's presidency, Congress passed the first federal revenue law, a tax on distilled spirits. In July 1794, farmers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled over the so-called "whiskey tax." Washington called in over 12,000 militiamen to Pennsylvania to dissolve the Whiskey Rebellion in one of the first major tests of the authority of the national government.

Under Washington's leadership, the states ratified the Bill of Rights, and five new states entered the union: North Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796).

In his second term, Washington issued the proclamation of neutrality to avoid entering the 1793 war between Great Britain and France. But when French minister to the United States Edmond Charles Genet-known to history as "Citizen Genet"-toured the United States, he boldly flaunted the proclamation, attempting to set up American ports as French military bases and gain support for his cause in the Western United States. His meddling caused a stir between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, widening the rift between parties and making consensus-building more difficult.

In 1795, Washington signed the "Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America," or Jay's Treaty, so-named for John Jay, who had negotiated it with the government of King George III. It helped the U.S. avoid war with Great Britain, but also rankled certain members of Congress back home and was fiercely opposed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Internationally, it caused a stir among the French, who believed it violated previous treaties between the United States and France.

Washington's administration signed two other influential international treaties. Pinckney's Treaty of 1795, also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo, established friendly relations between the United States and Spain, firming up borders between the U.S. and Spanish territories in North America and opening up the Mississippi to American traders. The Treaty of Tripoli, signed the following year, gave American ships access to Mediterranean shipping lanes in exchange for a yearly tribute to the Pasha of Tripoli.

George Washington's Retirement to Mount Vernon and Death

In 1796, after two terms as president and declining to serve a third term, Washington finally retired. In Washington's farewell address, he urged the new nation to maintain the highest standards domestically and to keep involvement with foreign powers to a minimum. The address is still read each February in the U.S. Senate to commemorate Washington's birthday.

Washington returned to Mount Vernon and devoted his attentions to making the plantation as productive as it had been before he became president. More than four decades of public service had aged him, but he was still a commanding figure. In December 1799, he caught a cold after inspecting his properties in the rain. The cold developed into a throat infection and Washington died on the night of December 14, 1799, at the age of 67. He was entombed at Mount Vernon, which in 1960 was designated a national historic landmark.

Washington left one of the most enduring legacies of any American in history. Known as the "Father of His Country," his face appears on the U.S. dollar bill and quarter, and dozens of U.S. schools, towns and counties, as well as the state of Washington and the nation's capital city, are named for him.

George Washington: An Interactive Timeline of His Life

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George Washington: Facts, Revolution & Presidency

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George Washington (1732-99) was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83) and served two terms as the first U.S. president, from 1789 to 1797.

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King George lll was ruler of England and the Americans Colonies. He refused to surrender the colonies when they wanted to break away from his rule. Leading to the American Revolution for 7 years.

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King George III | American Experience | PBS

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King George III saw the relationship of Britain and America as that of a parent to a child and asserted his claim on the colonies strenuously.

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The new deal was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It consisted of work projects and programs and financial reforms to help stabilize the economy during/after the Great Depression.

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New Deal - Programs, Social Security & FDR

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The New Deal was a series of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans. A Second New Deal was put in place shortly thereafter as a way to continue the country’s economic recovery.

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King George was ruler of England and the Americans Colonies. He refused to surrender the colonies when they wanted to break away from his rule. Leading to the American Revolution for 7 years.

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King George III | American Experience | PBS

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King George III saw the relationship of Britain and America as that of a parent to a child and asserted his claim on the colonies strenuously.

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The 14th Amendment declares that no State can create a law that denies U.S. citizens (born or naturalized) the protections and rights granted by the U.S. Constitution.

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Constitution Hall Pass: The Fourteenth Amendment

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First created in 1831 by a blacksmith named Cyrus McCormick, a reaper helped farmers harvest grain at a higher and more efficient level. This machine allowed farmers to go from harvesting only an acre or two a day to whole fields in a day.

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Cyrus McCormick, a blacksmith in Virginia, developed the first practical mechanical reaper to harvest grain in 1831 when he was only 22 years old. His machine, at first a local curiosity, proved to be enormously important.

In the decades following McCormick's first attempts to bring mechanical aid to farm work, his invention would revolutionize farming in the United States and around the world.

Early Experiments

McCormick's father had earlier tried to invent a mechanical device for harvesting but gave up on it. But in the summer of 1831 the son took up the job and labored for about six weeks in the family blacksmith shop.

Confident he had worked out the tricky mechanics of the device, McCormick demonstrated it at a local gathering place, Steele's Tavern. The machine had some innovative features that would make it possible for a farmer to harvest grain faster than could ever be done by hand.

As the demonstration was later described, local farmers were at first puzzled by the peculiar contraption that looked like a sled with some machinery on top of it. There was a cutting blade and spinning parts which would hold grain heads while the stalks were being cut.

As McCormick began the demonstration, the machine was pulled through a wheat field behind a horse. The machinery began to move, and it was suddenly apparent that the horse pulling the device was doing all the physical work. McCormick only had to walk beside the machine and rake the wheat stalks into piles which could be bound as usual.

The machine worked perfectly and McCormick was able to use it that year in the fall harvest.

Business Success

McCormick produced more of the machines, and at first, he only sold them to local farmers. But as word of the machine's amazing functionality spread, he began selling more. He ultimately started a factory in Chicago. The McCormick Reaper revolutionized agriculture, making it possible to harvest large areas of grain much faster than could have been done by men wielding scythes.

Because farmers could harvest more, they could plant more. So McCormick's invention of the reaper made the possibility of food shortages, or even famine, less likely.

It was said that before McCormick's machinery changed farming forever, families would have to struggle to cut enough grain during the fall to last them until the next harvest. One farmer, highly skilled at swinging at scythe, might only be able to harvest two acres of grain in a day.

With a reaper, one man with a horse could harvest large fields in a day. It was thus possible to have much larger farms, with hundreds or even thousands of acres.

The earliest horse-drawn reapers made by McCormick cut the grain, which fell onto a platform so it could be raked up by a man walking alongside the machine. Later models consistently added practical features, and McCormick's farm machinery business grew steadily. By the end of the 19th century, McCormick reapers did not just cut wheat, they could also thresh it and put it into sacks, ready for storage or shipment.

At the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, McCormick exhibited his latest model. The American machine was the source of much curiosity. McCormick's reaper, during a competition held at an English farm in July 1851, outperformed a British-made reaper. When the McCormick reaper was returned to the Crystal Palace, the site of the Great Exhibition, word had spread. In the crowds attending the exhibition, the machine from America became a must-see attraction.

In the 1850s McCormick's business grew as Chicago became the center of the railroads in the Midwest, and his machinery could be shipped to all parts of the country. The spread of the reapers meant that American grain production also increased.

It has been noted that McCormick's farming machines may have had an impact on the Civil War, as they were more common in the North. And that meant farmhands going off to war had less impact on grain production. In the South, where hand tools were more common, the loss of farm hands to the military had much more impact.

In the years following the Civil War the company founded by McCormick continued to grow. When workers at McCormick's factory struck in 1886, events surrounding the strike led to the Haymarket Riot, a watershed event in American labor history.

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A Mechanical Harvesting Machine Revolutionized Life on the Farm

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The reaping machine invented by Cyrus McCormick changed farm life forever by making it possible for farmers to harvest more grain.

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A high pressured engine that used steam to run, locomotives that were designed first were used to transport coal. As engineers experimented and redesigned steam locomotives, soon they were used to pull traveler cars.

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Locomotives - The Transcontinental Railroad

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The Linda Hall Library Transcontinental Railroad website was created with generous support from the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) Foundation. The site offers visitors a brief history of the building of the transcontinental railroad as well as information on the history and technology of 19th century railroads.

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When establishing the new country, the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to protect the U.S. citizens against the injustices faced under English (and others) rule. The First 10 Amendments of the Constitution are the Bill of Rights, which addresses these issues and ensures protection from unyielding control.

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Sent by Thomas Jefferson in 1803, Meriweather Lewis and William Clark explored new land and territories purchased with the Louisiana Purchase. They explored to find water sources to connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River.

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Español
In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson guided a splendid piece of foreign diplomacy through the U.S. Senate: the purchase of Louisiana territory from France. After the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was made, Jefferson initiated an exploration of the newly purchased land and the territory beyond the "great rock mountains" in the West. He chose Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition, who in turn solicited the help of William Clark. Together they formed a diverse military Corps of Discovery that would undertake a two-year journey to the great ocean. Read More...

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Meriwether Lewis was an intelligent and literate man who also possessed skills as a frontiersman. Lewis solicited the help of William Clark due to Clark's abilities as a draftsman and frontiersman, which were even stronger than Lewis's. Lewis so respected Clark that he made him a co-commanding captain of the Expedition, even though Clark was never recognized as such by the government.

Jefferson hoped that Lewis and Clark would find a water route linking the Columbia and Missouri rivers. This water link would connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River system, thus giving the new western land access to port markets out of the Gulf of Mexico and to eastern cities along the Ohio River and its minor tributaries. At the time, American and European explorers had only penetrated what would become each end of the Lewis and Clark Trail up the Missouri several miles to the trapper headquarters at Fort Mandan and up the Columbia just a bit over a hundred miles to a point a little beyond present-day Portland, Oregon.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition paddled its way down the Ohio as it prepared the Expedition to be launched officially from Camp Wood, just outside St. Louis, in the summer of 1804. That summer and fall the company of explorers paddled and pulled themselves upstream, northwest on the Missouri River to Fort Mandan, a trading post, where Corps of Discovery set up camp, wintered, and prepared for the journey to the Pacific.

When the spring of 1805 brought high water and favorable weather, the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out on the next leg of its journey. They traveled up the Missouri to present-day Three Forks, Montana, following the western-most tributary, the Jefferson River. This route delivered the explorers to the doorstep of the Shoshone tribe, who were skilled at traversing the great rock mountains with horses. Once over the Bitterroot Mountains, the Corps of Discovery shaped canoe-like vessels that transported them swiftly downriver to the mouth of the Columbia, where they wintered (1805-1806) at Fort Clatsop, on the present-day Oregon side of the river.

With journals in hand, Lewis, Clark, and the other members of the Expedition returned to St. Louis by September 1806 to report their findings to Jefferson. Along the way, they continued to trade what few goods they still had and set up diplomatic relations with Native American tribes. Additionally, they recorded their contact and described (and at times drew) the shape of the landscape and the creatures of this western world that were new to them. In doing so, they fulfilled many of Jefferson's wishes for the Expedition. Along the way, William Clark drew a series of maps that were remarkably detailed, noting and naming rivers and creeks, significant points in the landscape, the shape of river shore, and spots where the Corps spent each night or camped or portaged for longer periods of time. Later explorers used these maps to further probe the western portion of the continent.

The Expedition of the Corps of Discovery shaped a crude route to the waters of the Pacific and marked an initial pathway for the new nation to spread westward from ocean to ocean, fulfilling what many Americans would claim to be their obvious destiny.

Over the next two centuries, new Americans and many immigrants would wash across the central and western portions of what would eventually become the contiguous 48 United States. This wave of settlement would significantly transform virgin forests and grasslands into a landscape of cities, farms, and harvested forests - displacing fauna such as the buffalo and squeezing the Native American tribes who survived onto reservations.
This text was adapted from an article written by Linda Darus Clark, a teacher at Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio. Materials created by the National Archives and Records Administration are in the public domain.

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Español In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson guided a splendid piece of foreign diplomacy through the U.S. Senate: the purchase of Louisiana territory from France. After the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was made, Jefferson initiated an exploration of the newly purchased land and the territory beyond the "great rock mountains" in the West.

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Secondary sources are an interpretation of historical events, eras, or events that have occurred. Many times secondary sources use primary sources to retell these interpretations.

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Secondary sources are works that analyze, assess or interpret an historical event, era, or phenomenon, generally utilizing primary sources to do so. Secondary sources often offer a review or a critique. Secondary sources can include books, journal articles, speeches, reviews, research reports, and more. Generally speaking, secondary sources are written well after the events that are being researched. However, if an individual writes about events that he or she experienced first hand many years after that event occurred, it is still considered a primary source.

Examples:

Sleeper, Jim. The First Forty Years : The Story of Old Newport, 1868-1908. Newport Beach, Calif.: Irvine Company, 1968.

Raup, Hallock Floyd. The German colonization of Anaheim, California. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. 1932.

Barron, Hal S., et al. Citriculture and Southern California. San Francisco, Calif.: California Historical Society, 1995.

Finney, Ben R. Surfing : a history of the ancient Hawaiian sport. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, c1996.

" Previous || Tutorial home || Next: Tertiary Sources "

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Secondary sources are works that analyze, assess or interpret an historical event, era, or phenomenon, generally utilizing primary sources to do so. Secondary sources often offer a review or a critique. Secondary sources can include books, journal articles, speeches, reviews, research reports, and more.

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Supporters of the peace movement reach for the ideals of world peace and anti-violent human interactions, especially the end of war(s). While seen throughout history, the modern peace movement in the U.S. began during the Vietnam War and extends today.

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Coined as the Father of Philanthropy, Carnegie is one of the most famous industrialists. The company that he began in 1911, has supported and discovered many topics. Topics like insulin, dismantling nuclear weapons, Pell Grants, and Sesame Street.

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Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was among the most famous and wealthy industrialists of his day. Through the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the innovative philanthropic foundation he established in 1911, his fortune has since supported everything from the discovery of insulin and the dismantling of nuclear weapons, to the creation of Sesame Street and the Common Core Standards.

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One of the first billionaires in the USA, Rockefeller was a business man who ran an oil company. The profits from his oil company opened many different programs and schools.

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Ab abolitionist who believed in the freedom of slaves. He created a newspaper, called the Liberator. Garrison spent 35 years writing about the rights for African Americans.

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The son of a merchant sailing master, William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1805. Due in large measure to the Embargo Act, which Congress had passed in 1807, the Garrison family fell on hard times while William was still young. In 1808 William’s father deserted the family…

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A movement that began in the New England States that fought against slavery and slave trade. There were many different perspectives within this group on how and when slavery should end; gradual, right now, and armed rebellions to fight.

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The practice of slavery is one of humankind's most deeply rooted institutions. Anthropologists find evidence of it in nearly every continent and culture dating back to ancient times and even the Neolithic period of human development. In Europe, the first significant efforts to ban human trafficking and abolish forced labor emerged in the 18th century.

Enslaved Africans supplied the free labor that helped the British Empire prosper for much of the 18th century. The practice took hold in the English colonies in North America, too. Before, during, and after the United States Revolutionary War, several of the original 13 British colonies abolished slavery. The agricultural-based plantation economy of Southern colonies like Virginia and the Carolinas required a large labor force, which was met via enslaving people of African descent.

In the New England states, many Americans viewed slavery as a shameful legacy with no place in modern society. The abolitionist movement emerged in states like New York and Massachusetts. The leaders of the movement copied some of their strategies from British activists who had turned public opinion against the slave trade and slavery.

In 1833, the same year Britain outlawed slavery, the American Anti-Slavery Society was established. It came under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison, a Boston journalist and social reformer. From the early 1830s until the end of the Civil War in 1865, Garrison was the abolitionists' most dedicated campaigner. His newspaper, the Liberator, was notorious. It was limited in circulation but was still the focus of intense public debate. Its pages featured firsthand accounts of the horrors of slavery in the South and exposed, for many, the inhumane treatment of enslaved people on U.S. soil. Garrison was a close ally of Frederick Douglass, who escaped his enslavement and whose 1845 autobiography became a bestseller.

Abolitionists were a divided group. On one side were advocates like Garrison, who called for an immediate end to slavery. If that were impossible, it was thought, then the North and South should part ways. Moderates believed that slavery should be phased out gradually, in order to ensure the economy of the Southern states would not collapse. On the more extreme side were figures like John Brown, who believed an armed rebellion of enslaved people in the South was the quickest route to end human bondage in the United States.

Harriet Tubman was like Douglass, she too had escaped enslavement and became a prominent abolitionist. She was active in the Underground Railroad, the clandestine network of safe houses and abolitionists that helped escapees reach freedom in the North. In the late 1850s, she assisted Brown in his planning for the disastrous raid on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

The threat of an armed revolt alarmed Americans on both sides of the debate over slavery. In the 1860 presidential election, voters chose Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln. The senator from Illinois opposed slavery but was cautious about supporting the abolitionists. Thirty-nine days after Lincoln's inauguration, the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, which marked the onset of the U.S. Civil War. Five years later the war ended and the ratification of the 13th Amendment formally ended slavery in December 1865.

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The practice of slavery is one of humankind's most deeply rooted institutions. Anthropologists find evidence of it in nearly every continent and culture dating back to ancient times and even the Neolithic period of human development. In Europe, the first significant efforts to ban human trafficking and abolish forced labor emerged in the 18th century.

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Segregation was a division of humans based on the color of skin the person had. From schools to transportation to churches to public facilities; there were separate places based on the color of skin.

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After the abolition of slavery in the United States, three Constitutional amendments were passed to grant newly freed African Americans legal status: the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth provided citizenship, and the Fifteenth guaranteed the right to vote. In spite of these amendments and civil rights acts to enforce the amendments, between 1873 and 1883 the Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions that virtually nullified the work of Congress during Reconstruction. Regarded by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern states. In 1896 the Supreme Court sanctioned legal separation of the races by its ruling in H.A. Plessy v. J.H. Ferguson, which held that separate but equal facilities did not violate the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment.

Beginning in 1909, a small group of activists organized and founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They waged a long struggle to eliminate racial discrimination and segregation from American life. By the middle of the twentieth century their focus was on legal challenges to public-school segregation. Two major victories before the Supreme Court in 1950 led the NAACP toward a direct assault on Plessy and the so-called "separate-but-equal" doctrine.

Upholding School Segregation: The Roberts Case

Five-year-old Sara Roberts was forced to walk past several white schools to reach the "colored" primary school. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, a black printer, filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston to integrate public schools. In 1849 reformer and future U.S. Senator Charles Sumner represented Roberts and challenged school segregation in the Boston court. Separate schools for African Americans, he argued, in effect branded "a whole race with the stigma of inferiority and degradation." The Massachusetts Supreme Court, however, upheld segregation in a widely cited ruling. Influential Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw noted that Boston's separate schools possessed substantially equal facilities and declared that school integration would only increase racial prejudice.

The Fourteenth Amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed the Federal Government to protect the civil rights of individuals, including African Americans, against state encroachment, was ratified in 1868. The amendment also defined national citizenship and extended it to former slaves freed by the Civil War. This 1866 letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase is from Associate Justice Stephen J. Field, whose judicial opinions would significantly influence subsequent interpretations of the amendment. Field termed the amendment, which had recently been passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification, "just what we need" and said it showed that "the American people do not intend to give up all that they have gained by the war."

Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

By the time Homer A. Plessy, an octoroon (one-eighth Negro blood), who lived in New Orleans, challenged that city's right to segregate public transportation by riding in a Whites Only rail car, the constitutional amendments, passed after the Civil War and written to provide protections and rights for Negro citizens, had been eroded. The Louisiana state courts ruled against Plessy, and his subsequent appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court was denied in 1896. The impact of Plessy was to relegate blacks to second-class citizenship. They were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, churches, cemeteries and school in both Northern and Southern states.

Buchanan v. Warley

The NAACP sought out cases that infringed on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in order to set legal precedents and ultimately secure the constitutional rights of African Americans. An early victory was Buchanan v. Warley, a case involving residential segregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Moorfield Storey, the NAACP's first president and a constitutional attorney, argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in April 1917. The Court reversed the decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, ruling that the Louisville ordinance violated the Fourteenth Amendment. As a result of the ruling, whites resorted to private restrictive covenants, in which property owners agreed to sell or rent to whites only. The Supreme Court declared this practice unconstitutional in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948). Buchanan v. Warley was cited in the Brown decision to challenge the legality of segregated public schools.

Separate and Unequal

The 1896 court ruling in Plessy v Ferguson ushered in an era of "separate but equal" facilities and treatment for blacks and whites. In the area of education, it was felt that the children of former slaves would be better served if they attended their own schools and in their own communities. These images of schools for black students show that facilities were separate but never equal.

Chief Strategist Charles H. Houston

Charles Hamilton Houston was the chief strategist of the NAACP's legal campaign that culminated in the Brown decision. Born in Washington, D.C., he graduated from Amherst College, in 1915. In 1923 he became the first African American to earn a Doctor of Juridical Science degree at Harvard, where he studied under Felix Frankfurter. Houston intermittently practiced law as a partner in Houston & Houston, the prestigious firm his father founded in 1892. In 1924 he joined the faculty of Howard University Law School, and was appointed Vice Dean in 1929. By 1932 he had transformed the law school from a part-time evening school to a fully accredited institution that trained a cadre of civil rights attorneys. In 1935 the NAACP hired Houston as its first full-time salaried Special Counsel and created the Legal Department under his supervision. Although he returned to private practice in 1938, Houston continued to advise the NAACP until his death on April 22,1950.

Murray v. Maryland, 1936

While practicing law in Baltimore, Thurgood Marshall worked diligently to amass black teachers' salary cases for the NAACP. He also urged Houston to take on Murray v. Maryland, a stronger prospect than the Hocutt case. The plaintiff, Donald G. Murray was a highly qualified Amherst graduate who had been denied entry to the University of Maryland Law School. In 1935 Houston consented and argued the case with Marshall in Baltimore City Court before Judge Eugene O'Dunne. The Judge ruled that Murray had been rejected solely on the basis of race and ordered the University to admit him. Murray became the first black graduate of the University's law school in 1938.

Progress of the Hocutt v. Wilson case, 1933

In 1933 the NAACP undertook Hocutt v. Wilson, the first test case involving segregation in higher education. The plaintiff was Thomas R. Hocutt, a student at the North Carolina College for Negroes, who had been denied admission to the University of North Carolina's School of Pharmacy. Attorneys Conrad O. Pearson and Cecil McCoy appealed to the NAACP for assistance after filing a law suit. Charles Houston recommended William Hastie to direct the litigation. According to Pearson, "the white Bar [in attendance] was unanimous in its praise," of Hastie's and his colleagues' trial performance, but the case was undermined by the North Carolina College President's refusal to release Hocutt's transcript.

Integrating University of Missouri Law School

Charles Houston, NAACP Special Counsel, targeted law schools. He was optimistic that based on their own experience, white judges would reject the unequal training for black attorneys. After winning the Murray case, Houston worked with Marshall and Sidney Redmond on Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada. In 1935 the University of Missouri Law School denied entry to Lloyd Gaines, an honor graduate of Lincoln University (Mo.), offering to build a law school at Lincoln or pay Gaines's tuition at an out-of-state school. Houston and Redmond argued the case before the U.S. Supreme court in 1938. The Court ruled that Missouri must offer Gaines an equal facility within its borders or admit him to the University's law school. In response, the State legislature tried to erect a makeshift law school inciting Houston to renew litigation. Meanwhile, Gaines disappeared, abruptly ending the case. His fate remains a mystery.

NAACP Leaders Joel and Arthur Spingarn

The favorable publicity generated by the Pink Franklin case attracted new supporters to the NAACP. Among them were Joel E. Spingarn, chairman of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and his brother, Arthur, a lawyer, shown in this photograph. In January 1911, the NAACP organized its first branch in Harlem, New York with Joel's help. The branch established a vigilance committee, which became the National Legal Committee, to deal "with injustice in the courts as it affects the Negro." Arthur worked pro bono because the NAACP could not afford to hire attorneys on a regular basis and was often able to convince other prominent attorneys to volunteer their services. Arthur served as the chairman of the National Legal Committee until 1939. The members of the Committee also included Felix Frankfurter and Charles Houston.

George W. McLaurin Segregated to the Anteroom

George W. McLaurin, a veteran school teacher living in Oklahoma applied to the all-white University of Oklahoma to pursue an advance degree in education in 1948. His application was rejected because Oklahoma statutes made it illegal for blacks and whites to attend the same school. McLaurin filed a complaint against the University on the state court level and won. He was allowed to attend classes but not with his fellow students. This photograph shows how he was segregated to the anteroom of a classroom in 1948 after his admission. In 1950, McLaurin filed suit with the and U.S. Supreme Court and won. The case paved the way for the Brown v. Board of Education cases.

Press Conference for the Sweatt Case

Thurgood Marshall hired Robert L. Carter as a legal assistant at the Legal Defense Fund in 1944 and promoted him to assistant counsel in 1945. Carter graduated from Lincoln University (Pa.), Howard Law School, and earned a Master of Laws from Columbia University. He helped to prepare briefs in the McLaurin and Sweatt cases, and argued McLaurin in Oklahoma and before the Supreme Court. Carter later became Marshall's key aide on the Brown litigation. He recommended the social science strategy that became a crucial factor in the Brown decision. He also wrote the brief for the Brown case and delivered the argument before the Supreme Court. He served as the NAACP's General Counsel from 1956 to 1968. In 1972 President Nixon appointed Carter to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he still presides as a judge.

The Henderson, McLaurin and Sweatt Cases

The Legal Defense Fund waited twelve years to pursue two precedent-setting cases before the Supreme Court. In 1946 the University of Texas Law School denied entry to Heman Sweatt and proposed a makeshift law school for him in the basement of a building near all-black Prairie View University. In 1948 George McLaurin, a teacher, applied to the University of Oklahoma to pursue his doctorate. The University admitted McLaurin but segregated him from white students. The Court also considered another case, Henderson v. United States, which involved segregated dining cars on interstate trains. On June 5, the Court ruled in favor of all three plaintiffs. In Sweatt and McLaurin, the Court held that intangible factors could create educational inequality. These factors included the Texas Law School's superior reputation, faculty, and alumni network. The Court's decisions in these cases weakened the structure of legalized segregation.

Twentieth Annual Session of the NAACP

In 1929, the annual conference of the NAACP convened in Cleveland to mark the Association's twentieth anniversary. The NAACP had much to celebrate. It had launched a successful anti-lynching crusade; won important legal battles; and organized 325 branches. The Crisis, the Association's official organ, was the leading black periodical with a circulation of more than 100,000. Among the NAACP officials seated in the front row ( left to right) are W.E.B. Du Bois, editor of The Crisis; James Weldon Johnson, NAACP Executive Secretary, 1920-1930; Robert Bagnall, Director of Branches; Daisy Lampkin, Regional Field Secretary; Walter White, Assistant Secretary, 1918-1929; William Pickens, Field Secretary; and Arthur Spingarn, Chairman of the Legal Committee.

An African American School House

This photograph shows the condition of many African American schools in the first decades of the twentieth century. Many states simply did not allocate enough funds to provide "equal" schools in the separate black schools. In South Carolina, the resulting inadequate condition for black children led to the Briggs v. Elliot case in 1954. The Briggs case would become one of the five included in the Brown decision.

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A Century of Racial Segregation 1849-1950 - Brown v. Board at Fifty: "With an Even Hand" | Exhibitions - Library of Congress

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Between 1849 and 1950, blacks were segregated from whites by law and private action in transportation, public accommodations, armed forces, recreational facilities, prisons, and schools in both northern and southern states.

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Declared on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln, declared all slaves to be free from states that had succeed from the United States.

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President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the United States, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy (the Southern secessionist states) that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union (United States) military victory.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

From the first days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to secure their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically. As a milestone along the road to slavery's final destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom.

The original of the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, is in the National Archives in Washington, DC. With the text covering five pages the document was originally tied with narrow red and blue ribbons, which were attached to the signature page by a wafered impression of the seal of the United States. Most of the ribbon remains; parts of the seal are still decipherable, but other parts have worn off.

The document was bound with other proclamations in a large volume preserved for many years by the Department of State. When it was prepared for binding, it was reinforced with strips along the center folds and then mounted on a still larger sheet of heavy paper. Written in red ink on the upper right-hand corner of this large sheet is the number of the Proclamation, 95, given to it by the Department of State long after it was signed. With other records, the volume containing the Emancipation Proclamation was transferred in 1936 from the Department of State to the National Archives of the United States.

The Emancipation Proclamation

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Enlarge The Emancipation Proclamation (page 1) Record Group 11 General Records of the United States View in National Archives Catalog Español President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war.

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America's Founding Fathers built the country on a premise of neutrality, which was generally upheld through the start of WWI when America entered the war, unofficially supporting Brittan and France. In an effort to rebuild the economy and security, following the war, the U.S. once again took an isolationism approach, focused inwardly instead of globally. This policy of isolationism continues to ebb and flow throughout the country's history.

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The untold story of American Isolationism  | Christopher Nichols | TEDxPortland

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John Brown's anti-slavery activism led him to become one of the most renowned abolitionist in history. From his participation in the Underground Railroad, through his anti-slavery movement in Kansas, which later became known as Bleeding Kansas, to his final raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, John Brown's actions elevated the political divide and springboarded the U.S. into the Civil War. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/spring/brown.html

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While settled at different times by various nations, eventually the Thirteen Colonies all became providences under English control. These colonies were united by settlers seeking a "better life," but each were unique in their religious, economic, and demographic make-up. http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/13colonies2.htm

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Chronology is the arrangement of events in the order in which they occurred in time, often laid out on a timeline. The use of a timeline allows events in history to be connected in a visual, easy to understand format that demonstrates the bigger picture of the event, person, place, or period being discussed.

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The Importance of Timelines and Mapping in Teaching History

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Harriet Beecher Stowe is the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin which showed the evils of slavery. After her sons death she felt compassion for enslaved mothers who had their children separated from them. This book initiated Northerns to rebel against the Fugitive Slave Act. The book was released in March 1852 and sold more than 300,000 in the US in the first year.

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A primary source is a first hand account of an event. They are the most direct evidence. Primary sources are original sources.

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In 1803, Thomas Jefferson made a deal with France and purchased 828,000 square miles of territory was bought and doubled the size of the United States. The boundaries were set from Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north.

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John Adams became president in 1797. He served two terms. First president to live in the White House. He was a founding father and signed the Declaration of Independence.

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The Civil Rights Movement was a movement that protested the segregation and discrimination of African Americans. The goal was for African Americans to have the same rights and privilege's as other American citizens.

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In July 1849 Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the first women's right movement. The Declaration of Sentiment was created for women to gain control of their rights. On May 21, 1919 the 19th Amendment was passed giving Women the right to vote.

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Sound Smart: The 19th Amendment | History

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Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in November of 1932. He served four terms. He worked heard to get the country out of the depression even with resistance. He created the New Deal. When the US entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor he worked hard in planning a United Nations.  He passed in April 12, 1945.

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Leading up to this US had protested against German submarines from touching civilian and neutral ships.  In February 1917 German submarines began sinking any ships in the war zones. Soon after this the US intercepted a German telegram meant for Mexico that offered the their territory back that was lost in the Mexican-American war if they would support them. On April 6, 1917 US joined the war.

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On April 6, 1917, the United States of America officially entered World War I. Over the next year and a half, millions of Americans served overseas and supported the nation's war effort at home. Their contributions helped win the war and shaped both America and the world for generations.

How the War began

For decades, tensions had been growing between the nations of Europe. In the summer of 1914, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was assassinated, setting off a sequence of events that eventually drew most of Europe into full-scale war. The Central Powers (led by Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire) fought the Allies (led by France, Great Britain and Russia) as the conflict spread from Europe to the Middle East and then to other parts of the world.

U.S. Neutrality

The United States remained neutral at the beginning of the war. Individual Americans supported one side or the other, although the majority were sympathetic to the Allies. Many contributed to relief efforts; others volunteered as ambulance drivers or nurses, or even as pilots and soldiers. However, most agreed with President Woodrow Wilson's commitment to keeping the U.S. out of the fighting.

Overseas, the war continued through 1915 and 1916. On the Western Front (in France and Belgium) the fighting bogged down into trench warfare, with combatants on both sides living and dying below ground in squalid, filthy conditions. Most of the other battlefronts also remained deadlocked. The opposing armies threw millions of men at each other in massive battles, and technological advances provided new ways of inflicting death and damage, but neither side was able to gain the upper hand.

Some Americans felt that their country had a duty to step in to stop the slaughter, but most believed that the pointless carnage proved that the U.S. had been right to stay out of the war.

America enters the War

However, in early 1917, a series of events changed American attitudes. Earlier in the war, Germany had prohibited its submarines from sinking civilian and neutral ships, due largely to U.S. protests. In February 1917 it resumed unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships in the war zone. Shortly afterward, an intercepted German telegram revealed a plan offering Mexico territory it had lost to the U.S. during the Mexican-American War (1846-48) in exchange for its support.

These events finally brought the U.S. into the war on the side of the Allies on April 6, 1917. In the months that followed, over four million Americans of all backgrounds entered military service and prepared to go overseas. The U.S. government took an active role in mobilizing American industry and society in support of the war effort. In France, General John "Black Jack" Pershing led the effort to organize millions of incoming American troops into an effective fighting force. Meanwhile, German successes on other battlefronts allowed them to focus their efforts on the Western Front.

Winning the War

In the spring of 1918, the Germans launched a major series of attacks, finally breaking the stalemate and advancing all along the Western Front. U.S. forces were thrown into action, and helped turn back the German assault. Over the summer and into the fall of 1918, the Americans played an emerging role as the Allies finally pushed back the Germans on the Western Front. The Allies also advanced on other battlefronts. One by one, the Central Powers surrendered, until Germany stood alone. Finally, on the morning of November 11, 1918, Germany signed an armistice that brought the fighting to an end.

Peace and aftermath

At least 8.5 million soldiers had been killed and over 20 million wounded. In America's relatively brief involvement, it suffered over 116,000 military deaths and 200,000 wounded. In addition, more than seven million civilians died worldwide, and countless others had been injured, starved, or made homeless. On top of this devastation, a global influenza (flu) pandemic in 1918 - 1919 struck down tens of millions more.

Against this backdrop of loss and suffering, the nations of the world came together in Paris to negotiate the post-war peace treaties. People around the globe hoped that the peace conference would lead to a new era of justice and cooperation.

Unfortunately, the resulting Treaty of Versailles and its related agreements failed to capture this spirit, and in fact planted the seeds of World War II and other future conflicts.

Legacy

World War I marked the end of the old European order and the beginning of an era that would be dominated by other forces, including the eventual rise of the United States as a global power. The mobilization of the U.S. economy and society and the service and sacrifice of millions of Americans helped bring an end to the war, and laid the foundation for the emergence of the U.S. as a world superpower later in the 20th Century.

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On April 6, 1917, the United States of America officially entered World War I. Over the next year and a half, millions of Americans served overseas and supported the nation's war effort at home. Their contributions helped win the war and shaped both America and the world for generations.

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The overall cause of the American Revolution was the disagreements in the way Great Britain ruled the colonies and how the colonies should be treated.

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American History - Educational Cartoon - Causes of the American Revolution - Social Studies

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On May 28, 1830 Congress passed this act to relocate thousands of Native Americans. This was later related to the Trail of Tears. More than 46,000 Native Americans were forced to move.

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During the 19th century, many people moved from the rural areas to the city in order to find better job opportunities working in factories.

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The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal as long as both sides had equal quality of facilities that they were required to use.

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Plessy v. Ferguson at 125 - Harvard Law Today

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In 1892, on a steamy spring day in New Orleans, Louisiana, a man - a shoemaker by trade - stepped onto a train bound for Covington, a small village due north on the Bogue Falaya River, which empties into Lake Pontchartrain. First-class ticket in hand, he found a seat in the 'whites-only' passenger car and waited.

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The Gettysburg Address was a speech given by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War that paid tribute to the fallen soldiers and the hard times Americans were going through.

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Filmmaker Ken Burns, author David McCullough, actors Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick, Stephen Lang, and Medal of Honor recipient Paul W. Bucha recite one of the most famous speeches in American history. Musical Score by Academy Award-winning composer John Williams Produced for the Civil War Trust in support of the Gettysburg No Casino Movement.

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The Fugitive Slave Act required slaves to be returned to their slave owners even in free states.

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The cotton gin was an important invention during the Industrial Revolution because it maximized cotton production, but also increased slave demand, especially in the south.

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As Eli Whitney left New England and headed South in 1792, he had no idea that he would patent a machine that would profoundly alter the course of American history. While in the South, Whitney quickly learned that Southern plantation owners were eager for a way to make cotton growing profitable. Whitney knew that if he could invent such a machine, he could apply to the federal government for a patent. Read more... Primary Sources Links go to DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.

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The Constitution contains the fundamental laws of the United States and explains the powers and duties of the government while also stating the rights of the people.

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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
--Preamble to the United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States

All four pages of the document are on permanent display at the National Archives.

The Constitution acted like a colossal merger, uniting a group of states with different interests, laws, and cultures. Under America's first national government, the Articles of Confederation, the states acted together only for specific purposes. The Constitution united its citizens as members of a whole, vesting the power of the union in the people. Without it, the American Experiment might have ended as quickly as it had begun.

Back to Main Page What Does it Say?

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Español We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father who aided in constructing the Declaration of Independence and also signed it.

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The United States government aggressively forced Native Americans to leave their homes in the south and relocate to Indian Territories.

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In this video segment adapted from American Experience: "We Shall Remain," reenactments help tell the story of how the Cherokee people were forced from their lands in the southeast. The U.S. government initially promised the Cherokee and other Native American tribes that if they could assimilate into European Americans lifestyles, they would be considered equals.

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Harriet Tubman was an Underground Railroad conductor who escaped slavery and helped find their freedom.

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Harriet Tubman." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Harriet Tubman." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-tubman.

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Known as the "Moses of her people," Harriet Tubman was enslaved, escaped, and helped others gain their freedom as a "conductor" of the Underground Railroad. Discover more about her on womenshistory.org.

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The United States took possession of land west of the Mississippi River, which led to many people migrating in order to find greater opportunities.