APUSH Short Answer Test

Trail of Tears

Despite his popularity and success, Jackson's presidency was not without its controversies. One particularly troubling aspect of it was his dealings with Native Americans. He signed and implemented the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which gave him the power to make treaties with tribes that resulted in their displacement to territory west of the Mississippi River in return for their ancestral homelands. Jackson also stood by as Georgia violated a federal treaty and seized nine million acres inside the state that had been guaranteed to the Cherokee tribe. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in two cases that Georgia had no authority over the tribal lands, Jackson refused to enforce the decisions. As a result, the president brokered a deal in which the Cherokees would vacate their land in return for territory west of Arkansas. The agreement resulted after Jackson's presidency in the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation westward of an estimated 15,000 Cherokee Indians that claimed the lives of approximately 4,000 who died of starvation, exposure and illness.

Indian Removal Act

Passed in 1830, authorized Andrew Jackson to negotiate land-exchange treaties with tribes living east of the Mississippi. The treaties enacted under this act's provisions paved the way for the reluctant—and often forcible—emigration of tens of thousands of American Indians to the West. To achieve his purpose, Jackson encouraged Congress to adopt the Removal Act of 1830. The Act established a process whereby the President could grant land west of the Mississippi River to Indian tribes that agreed to give up their homelands. As incentives, the law allowed the Indians financial and material assistance to travel to their new locations and start new lives and guaranteed that the Indians would live on their new property under the protection of the United States Government forever. With the Act in place, Jackson and his followers were free to persuade, bribe, and threaten tribes into signing removal treaties and leaving the Southeast.

Transcendentalism: writers and perspectives

The philosophy of transcendentalism originated in Unitarianism, the predominant religious movement in Boston in the early 19th century. Unitarianism was a liberal Christian sect that emphasized rationality, reason, and intellectualism; it was especially popular at Harvard. The transcendentalists who established the Transcendental Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1836—mostly Unitarian clergy and Boston-area intellectuals—did not reject Unitarianism but yearned for a more spiritual experience to balance out the emphasis on pure reason. The very word transcendentalism refers to a spirituality that transcends the realm of rationality and the material world. Transcendentalists believed that humans were fundamentally good but corrupted by society and that they should therefore strive for independence and self-reliance. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were two of the most famous transcendentalists. In 1845, Thoreau moved to a cabin that he built on Walden Pond in Massachusetts and lived there for two years, two months, and two days. He chronicled the experience in his book Walden, published in 1854, which explored the themes of nature, spirituality, self-reliance, and the simple life. Thoreau acknowledged the debt transcendentalism owed to Indian religious beliefs by paying homage to the Bhagavad Gita, a Sanskrit epic that is one of the foundational texts of Hinduism: "In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat Geeta, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial." Emerson gained fame as an essayist and public lecturer; his 1836 essay "Nature" laid out many of the tenets of the transcendentalist philosophy. He suggested that God could be found in nature and that spending time in nature was the closest man could come to the divine. Another of Emerson's most famous works was the 1841 essay "Self-Reliance," a defense of individualism, which emphasized nonconformity and personal responsibility. One of Emerson's most famous quotes, a denunciation of mindless conformity, comes from this essay: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

King Andrew Jackson

This political cartoon from around the year 1833, portrays Andrew Jackson dressed in ornate, regal clothing representing a king or monarch. Jackson was starting to be seen as an overbearing tyrant who did what he wanted without consent from other parties. America, being a nation based on democracy, did not want a supreme ruler, but wanted power to the people. Americans had already been ruled by the monarch of Great Britain, and a repeat of that experience was not desired, so you can see how this cartoon would be seen as a negative portrayal of Andrew Jackson. In Jackson's hand there is a scroll titled "VETO", this most likely refers to his controversial decision to veto Congress's bill to recharter the banks in 1832. Jackson believed the Bank of t he United States was unconstitutional and held too much power, so he chose to resist it once the decision to recharter it came around (he vetoed it). This decision by the president was very unexpected, and added to the reasons some Americans believed Andrew Jackson was trying to be a dictator figure versus the president of a democracy. The removal of government deposits from the Bank of the United States was an action taken by Jackson to lower the power of the Bank, he did this without congressional approval. Yet another plan by Jackson which caused his view of his own power to be called into question. Under foot of Andrew Jackson in the picture is the "Constitution of the United States of America" and the "Internal Improvements U.S. Bank" all tattered and ripped up. This portrays Jackson's apparent disregard for both of these ideals. People began to think that Jackson was surpassing his Constitutional power as president, along with his neglectful attitude towards the Bank of the United States and the eventual veto towards rechartering it. A book is also thrown to the side in a disregarding manner, titled "Judiciary of the U.States" implying that Andrew Jackson also had no concern for the constitutional laws of the judicial branch of the Unites States.

Second Great Awakening and Resulting Reforms

What was the Second Great Awakening? The Second Great Awakening was prompted by falling interest in religion when people were excited about the innovations of the Industrial Revolution and the rapid expansion of U.S. territories, particularly in the west. People did not have the time or the inclination for worship. Exuberant revivalist meetings ignited the interest in religion. The camp-meetings featured zealous preachers who applied Christian teaching to the resolution of the social problems of the day. The Second Great Awakening began in 1800 and was in decline by 1850. Where and When did the Second Great Awakening begin? The Second Great Awakening began in 1800 in New England, New York, Kentucky and Tennessee. Most of the religious revivals in the West occurred as camp meetings and also served as social gatherings with the opportunity to trade. Why was the Second Great Awakening different to the First Great Awakening? The Second Great Awakening differed to the first as the focus of the revival meetings moved from traditional evangelism and conversion, to recruiting people into different denominations. The aim of reviving faith in the Christian religion was uppermost, hence the terms 'revival' and 'revivalists', but unlike the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening not only encompassed the Protestant religion but also encouraged the participation of Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. What was the Purpose of Second Great Awakening? The Second Great Awakening sought to awaken the consciences of people. It sought to change the beliefs and lifestyles of people by the adoption of virtues such as temperance, frugality and the ethic of hard work. It also sought to awaken people to the plight of the less fortunate in society, such as slaves, convicts and the handicapped, and work to make their lives better. Many of the preachers believed that the Gospel not only saved people, but also it was a means to reform society. The enthusiastic preachers believed that every person could be saved through revivals. Second Great Awakening in the North and the South The Second Great Awakening spread across both the Northern and Southern states but there were differences in focus and in interpretation. In the North, the movement resulted in the creation of voluntary, reformist societies, which led directly to the anti-slavery abolitionist movement. In the South, white evangelicals began to preach that the Bible supported slavery, a notion that was in the interests of the Slave Plantations. Also refer to the Fugitive Slave Act. Second Great Awakening and the Slaves The First Great Awakening had brought Christianity to the African slaves, the second brought the message of spiritual equality, a conviction that there would be deliverance from slavery and a rise in the number of black preachers. For additional information refer to Nat Turner's Rebellion. What were the Effects of the Second Great Awakening? The effects of the Second Great Awakening included: ● The Second Great Awakening enrolled millions of new members to various religious denominations ● An increase in Presbyterians, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists and Methodists ● The emergence of movements to prohibit alcoholic beverages, to support rights for women and to further education ● More women converted than men ● The establishment of Religious schools and Bible study groups ● A divergence of religious beliefs between the North and the South ● Abolitionist (anti-slavery) movements emerged in the North ● Pro-Slavery movements emerged in the South ● An emergence in black Protestantism and the founding of African-American churches What was the Impact of the Second Great Awakening? What was the Impact of the Second Great Awakening? The Second Great Awakening was extremely important as it led to the establishment of reform movements to address injustices and alleviate suffering such as the Temperance Movement, the Women's suffrage Movement and the Abolitionist Movement in which people advocated for emancipation on religious grounds. In antebellum America, a religious revival called the Second Great Awakening resulted in thousands of conversions to evangelical religions. Itinerant preachers, such as Charles Granison Finney, traveled from town to town, lecturing to crowds about eradicating sin in the name of perfectionism. Camp meetings, or large religious gatherings, also gave the devout opportunities to practice their religion and for potential conversions of non-believers. In addition to a religious movement, other reform movements such as temperance, abolition, and women's rights also grew in antebellum America. The temperance movement encouraged people to abstain from consuming alcoholic drinks in order to preserve family order. The abolition movement fought to abolish slavery in the United States. The women's rights movement grew from female abolitionists who realized that they too could fight for their own political rights. In addition to these causes, reforms touched nearly every aspect of daily life, such as restricting the use of tobacco and dietary and dress reforms.