Contextualizing 1844-1877

A continental empire

The United States increased its territorial domains dramatically during the first half of the 19th century and continued to expand in the second half of the 19th century, primarily through the purchase of Alaska in 1867. In the states and territories west of the Mississippi River, American settlers and governmental and military authorities moved into areas previously managed by Mexico and indigenous societies, placing tens of thousands of people under American legal jurisdiction and posing vital questions related to rights and citizenship status. Southern slaveowners expanded their “peculiar institution” to Texas and increasingly agitated for expansion into new territories; their demands would be countered by open condemnations of slavery and even calls for the immediate and uncompensated abolition of slavery in the United States, developments that were exceedingly rare in earlier eras.

Uncivil discourse

As controversies and disagreements, particularly over the legality and morality of slavery, became more frequent, the terms and tactics employed became more direct, harsher, and even violent. **Abolitionists **condemned slavery as a moral evil and criticized slaveowners as well as their allies and other Americans who refused to condemn slavery; in turn, slaveowners and their allies derided abolitionists and vociferously defended slavery as an “absolute good” and as the “cornerstone” of southern society. Confrontations became increasingly violent, whether in the halls of Congress, the streets of American cities like Boston, or on the plains of Kansas. Political movements and terms such as the fire eaters and wide awakes emerged as politicians and ordinary citizens, particularly in the south, warned about, or in some cases celebrated, the increased likelihood of civil war. Throughout the 1850s and even through the election of 1860 and Lincoln’s first inauguration, various compromises were promoted, but none lasted more than a few years.

Civil war

For over 4 years, Americans fought each other on battlefields and in towns and villages throughout most of the southern and border states, battling over the maintenance and expansion of slavery, as well as federal versus state power and local disputes that were enfolded into the larger national conflict. Enslaved persons, Native Americans and foreign countries were directly impacted by the battles and accompanying government policies that finally outlawed slavery but did not eliminate the prejudice and cultural systems that supported slavery and the semi-feudal system of **sharecropping **that succeeded it in much of the rural south.

Reconstruction

After the worst war in American history, the critical and daunting tasks of rebuilding and reconciling in the midst of the terrible chaos exacerbated by Lincoln’s assassination became even more challenging, particularly given the temperamental and vindictive nature of his successor Andrew Johnson. The ill-defined legal and political status of the nearly four million freedmen and the nearly half a million already free African Americans were only partially addressed; 3 crucial constitutional amendments were ratified that ended slavery, established birthright citizenship, and outlawed racial, but not gender, discrimination in voting, but enforcement of these amendments and related federal civil rights laws was sporadic, and in the south virtually nonexistent.

Go west

Throughout this time period, Americans, including millions of recently arrived immigrants, moved further westward, dramatically expanding the reach of the American political and economic systems while simultaneously disrupting the lives of thousands of Native Americans. By 1877, several new western states had been admitted to the United States, including **Colorado **in 1876, and Civil War veterans continued fighting, this time against Native Americans. The partial successes of and the backlash against Reconstruction shaped much of the country’s racial and ethnic relations going forward.

Gilded for some

The American economy began a profound transformation that would culminate in later decades as industrialization expanded, including in the south, and the dramatic expansion of **railroad networks **connected the country more comprehensively than at any previous point in American history. Enormous fortunes were generated by powerful industrialists and investors but this increasing prosperity was not equally shared; **labor unions **began demanding improved pay, shorter hours, and better working conditions. When labor and management could not reach an agreement, **strikes **and other labor actions sometimes erupted into armed conflict in the mines, fields, rail yards, and cities.

The middle of the 19th century was a period of profound disruption and transformation for the United States.

Economic expansion created greater national wealth but the gains were not evenly distributed throughout the country, particularly in the antebellum south where the wealthiest planters derived enormous wealth from the forced labor of over 3 million enslaved persons.

The national trauma and bloodletting of the Civil War was followed by Reconstruction, an era with transformative potential but plagued by horrific violence stemming from feelings of anger, humiliation, resentment, and a desire for revenge.