# data[].attributes.headline
1844-1877 Political and Historical Events

# data[].attributes.subject
1844-1877 Political and Historical Events

# data[].attributes.body
Throughout this time period there were multiple events that changed society. Starting from the Manifest Destiny to the Life after Slavery. This time period introduced the many different opinions of different political parties and divisions of lands. It shows how many new laws and way of life starting, and which ones lasted or ended throughout.

# data[].attributes.body
Manifest destiny was a phrase used in the US that they believed that by expressing their beliefs it would be the United States destiny to stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Also Americans believed that this destiny was called manifest. In the 19 century this philosophy drove expansion for territorial growth by forcing the Native Americans out of their homes. This was because of the Indian removal act and other Indian removal treaties that have pushed the Native Americans off their lands.

# data[].attributes.body
There has been tension  between Mexico and the United States from the Texas Revolution in 1863. General Zachary Taylor got orders from the Polk to march through Rio Grande and blockade the river. The declaration of war was when Taylor's forces were posted at Rio Grande, and Mexico responded by sending troops. American troops in Mexico had victory after victory, and the invasion lasted about a year. Mexico lost at least 25,000 lives and half its land. America lost about 13,000 lives from battle and disease, but gained 1/3 of territory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With the annexation of Texas, the US inherited that state's boundary dispute with Mexico. In a bid to settle the issue, as well as purchase the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico, President Polk offered to pay $25 million and forgive damages caused to US citizens in Mexico since independence. The Mexican government refused, prompting Polk to order troops to occupy the disputed land north of the Rio Grande. When Mexico responded by attacking this Army of Occupation, the US declared war.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Historical Atlas of North America (13 May 1846): Outbreak of the Mexican-American War

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With the annexation of Texas, the US inherited that state's boundary dispute with Mexico. In a bid to settle the issue, as well as purchase the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico, President Polk offered to pay $25 million and forgive damages caused to US citizens in Mexico since independence.

# data[].attributes.body
Henry Clay made resolutions called the compromise of 1850 which hoped would settle all questions in controversy between the free and slave states growing out of the subject of slavery. To satisfy the North, the compromise provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. To satisfy the South, the compromise proposed a new and more effective fugitive slave law. By doing that Clay is showing that he wants to show both sides that he can change them for the better. Also clay allowed New Mexico and Utah to vote for or against slavery to both north and south.

# data[].attributes.body
A man named Douglas developed a proposal to divide an area into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska in 1854. Many democrats thought that continued expansion would strengthen their party and strengthen the union. However, Douglas didn't understand how opposed the North had become to slavery. On January 23, 1854, he introduced the bill to congress with Nebraska in the North, and Kansas in the South. Some Northerners thought  the bill was a plot to turn the North states into slave states, and the debate over the bill was bitter. However Douglas believed that popular sovereignty was the democratic way to resolve the slavery issue. The Kansas-Nebraska Act became law in 1854. Many people came to settle in Kansas, however during one during one of their votes, "Border Ruffians" from Missouri came with their revolvers and voted Illegally. Soon there was a lot of violence in Kansas, and in 1855 a fight between proslavery and antislavery settlers resulted in the death of an antislavery activist. On May 21, 1856 a group of proslavery with 800 armed men came into a town in Kansas called Lawrence. They burned down the antislavery's headquarters, destroyed two printing presses and looted many houses and stores. People started to call the territory "Bleeding Kansas". The continuing tension formed new political alliances and lots of violence.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1855 Horace Greeley joined a new anti-political party called the Republican Party. Greeley believed that with the continuing tension over slavery many Americans needed a national political voice. The voice was to be the Republican Party. By the end of 1856 most of the nations landscape has changed and the Whigs party was split over. The issue slavery and the Democrats were weak. This gave the new Republican Party a chance to move within striking distance of the presidency. The Republican Party was united in opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and in keeping slavery out of the territories. The Democrats were established in 1840 and the main goal is states rights, limited government and divided on slavery. To balance support between the North and the South, the Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky as Buchanan’s running mate. The Republicans had the issues they needed in order to challenge the Democrats for the presidency in 1856.

# data[].attributes.body
Lincoln's victory made Southerners believe they didn't have a political say for the National Government anymore. South Carolina decided to unanimously vote to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. The South states were all desperate to have one last chance of keeping slavery. Mississippi soon followed South Carolina, and seceded on January 9, 1861. The next day Florida seceded, and soon after Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all seceded.

# data[].attributes.body
At the very start, January 1, 1863 Lincoln issues his Emancipation Proclamation. This stated that all slaves living in places under confederate control were free. For some the proclamation turned into fighting to free the slaves. The free slaves could also enlist in the Union Army. Democrats claimed that the proclamation would only make the war go on longer, and for Confederates it made them more determined than ever to fight for their way of life. From January 1863 it was a fight to death. Lincoln sent Federal troops to Maryland,  and suspended the state of Habeas Corpus which is a court order that requires authorities to bring a person held in jail before the court to determine why they are being jailed. More than 13,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers in the union were arrested and held without trial. in 1864 the Confederates suffered more losses they changed the ages to draft from 18-35 to 17-50. The union drafted men 20-45, however they could pay $300 to get out of it. of the 2 million soldiers who served in the union, 92% were volunteers, 180,000 being African American. During the war there were several riots, and poor people would be crowded into slums, crime and disease was growing, and poverty continuously got worse. In 1864 in Fort Pillow Tennessee Confederate Troops killed over 200 African American prisoners and some Whites. In 1863 a ceremony took place to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg, where Edward Everett and Abraham Lincoln spoke. Some believe this address remade America. In March 1864 Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant commander of all Union armies, and Grant appointed William Tecumseh Sherman as commander of military division of the Mississippi. Petersburg remained under Union attack from June 1864-April 1865. From May-June Grant lost 60,000 men, which the North would be able to replace but the South couldn't. In South Carolina 1865, the Union army burned down almost every house in it's path, However when Sherman's forces entered North Carolina they would hand out food and supplies. On April 9, 1865 in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Lee and Grant met to arrange surrender. Within two months, all Confederate resistance collapsed, and Grants forces celebrated. And after four years, the Civil War was over.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Roots: The Civil War and Its Legacy | History

# data[].attributes.body
The effects of the war changed the nation as a whole. In general, the war expanded the North’s economy, while shattering that of the South.As the war weakened the southern economy, however, the public lost faith in Confederate currency. The money’s value plummeted, and prices. The Confederacy’s war inflation rate reached close to 7,000 percent; prices were 70 times higher at the end of the war than at the beginning. Like the Confederate states, the federal government began to print paper money. Unlike Confederate money, northern currency did not lose its value. Northerners did not, on the whole, lose faith in the government like southerners did. The Civil War caused great political, economic, technological, and social changes in the United States. It also exacted a high price in the cost of a humans life.The government also passed the National Bank Act of 1863 which set up a system of federally chartered banks, set requirements for loans, and provided for banks to be inspected. These measures helped make banking safer for investors. The war also changed individuals lives. Perhaps the biggest change came for African Americans. The Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln had issued under his war powers, freed only those slaves who lived in the states.The Thirteenth Amendment was created and ended the Three-Fifths Compromise, which had politically defined a slave as less than a whole person. For the first time, millions of African Americans would be fully represented in the government. After the war ended some war leaders continued their military careers, while others
returned to civilian life.A group was dedicated to providing relief for injured soldiers. Returning to the United States, a nurse named Clara Barton helped found the American Red Cross in 1881. Them during a play called the third act, a man silently opened the unguarded doors to the presidential box. He crept up behind Lincoln, raised a pistol, and fired,  hitting the president in the back of the head. The assassin was John Wilkes Booth a 26-year old actor and southern sympathizer. He leaped down to the stage and broke his left leg. Despite a broken leg, Booth managed to escape. Twelve days later they found him in a barn and set the building on fire. He still refused to surrender so they shot him. Slavery and secession were no more. Now the country faced two different problems: how to restore the southern states to the Union and how to integrate approximately 4 million newly freed African Americans into national life.

# data[].attributes.body
There were many problems for the South after the Civil War. Southerners had to physically rebuild many of its region because most of the war was fought on southern soil. Property values plummeted, and the economic effects in the south were devastating. In Alabama, the wealth among whites dropped from $18,000 in  1860 to $13,000 in 1870. Also more than 1/5 of of adult white men of the Confederacy died in the war. However no matter how they tried to help, Southerners still didn't trust the Northerners. Carpetbaggers were what the Southerners called the Northerners who moved to the South after the war. Several Southern planters decided to emigrate to Mexico, Brazil, and Europe. Scalawags were the name given to Democrats that were opposed to the Republican's reconstruction. Because of the reconstruction, each Southern state had to create a new government and new constitution before being allowed back into the Union. However because of the war, plantations were destroyed and the main source of labor, slavery, wasn't an option anymore. To redeem the plantations, many decided to get into the production of cotton. The demand for cotton also went down after the war ended,. They decided to turn to the industry and create new railroads, kink Northern and Southern railroad systems, and create new main centers of business like Atlanta. Henry Grady called it "The new South.".

# data[].attributes.body
After slavery African-Americans found it difficult to adapt to the new economic and political system but are looking forward to new opportunities in life. It was difficult for African-Americans to find a job because they didn’t have many skills besides farming. When they became free, many African Americans chose to change their slave names for new names to try to forget their history of servitude and celebrated the opportunities that came with freedom. As part of their new freedom, many newly freed African Americans where looking  to locate long-lost relatives because slavery had split the families apart. When African-Americans were slaves they were punished if they would learn to read and write and now nearly 80% of the freed slaves were illiterate. African Americans established educational institutions with assistance from a number of public and private organizations, including the Freedmen’s Bureau and various African American churches. In African-American schools children, seniors and elders would all learning among each other because they thought it was never too late to learn how to read and write. One of the greatest freedoms that African Americans had was that they can take part in the political system and have a say in what they want their country to be in the future and to remain free. For African-Americans it was really hard to get land and some called it a dream to get land because without land they can’t make a farm to grow crops and feed their families. Some former slaves were forced to signed contracts with farmers to work for them but we’re not satisfied because they were paid very low and couldn’t feed their families very much. In the end, sharecropping and tenant farming were disturbingly similar to slavery. Black farmers were once again tied to the land on which they worked, with little hope of escape, although they were now at least.
nominally free.

# data[].attributes.body
There were many impacts and lasting effects that came from the many events during this period of time. When all started simply of a dream to extend the land to the many fights and opinion differences. Some of the short term impacts were the southern secession, the loss of economic stability, some of the different political parties, and many of the different kinds of compromises trying to keep the separate political parties in peace. Some long term impacts were the differences in lands, and political parties, the land being ruined by war, the many changes with laws of slavery throughout, rebuilding economic systems, and creating new rules and governments for new lands.

# data[].attributes.body
In conclusion of the history from 1844 to 1877 shows that America is a strong country and has gone through a lot of changes and is trying to improve as a country. It also shows that government was trying to make the US a better place for all citizens including African-Americans which were first imported just for slavery. But then they realized that they are living humans and have families just like everyone else and deserve freedom.