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Americans moved across Indiana and Illinois and into the plains as trappers,traders and adventurers, acquiring herds of horses and cattle. This began the range cattle industryin Kansas and Nebraska, which supplied beef and fresh horses to immigrants going west, andalso fed mining camps and railroad crews.Fleeing from political turmoil or economic distress at home over 4 million immigrantsentered the United States from the 1840s to1880s.The first organized group of American settlerscame to California in 1841 .In 1848, after the end of the Mexican War; Mexico ceded Californiato its powerful neighbor.
By mid-century the United States extended its power from the Atlanticto the Pacific, pushing aside all Indian nations and conquering its neighbors.The discovery of gold in California in 1848 set off the famous “Gold Rush”. “GoldRush” or “Gold Fever”, dramatically described by famous American writer Jack London,occupies a special place in the USA history. The influence of it both on the region and on thewhole nation was enormous. After the news about the gold in California had spread, over 80,000Americans as well as thousands of foreigners streamed to the West with hope to get rich quicklySome of the new arrivals traveled to the port of San Francisco.
Others traveled overland,enduring a lot of hardships. In the following seven years the influx of newcomers continued andby 1856 the state already numbered 300,000.Almost all of them tried to make their fortunes bymining gold and thousands of miners lived in camps separated from their loved ones, alone invast and hostile wilderness. Very many of such fortune-seekers died because of difficultconditions and illnesses. Law and order were constantly broken down there.
Even if a miner“struck it rich” (had success) there were always those who tried to take the gold away: gamblers,outlaws, thieves, and saloon keepers.Yet there were some who made fortune by selling goods to the miners. A Germanbusinessman Levi Strauss bought strong denim canvas and used it to make pants for theminers.
Some people turned to agriculture and manufacturing in California. Farmers raisedfoodstuff to sell to the miners and settlers on their way west. Most of the farmers there wereMormons, who built new towns and grew corn and fruit on large irrigated fields of SouthernCalifornia where the latest harvesting technology was used. The gold rush helped to changeCalifornia from a frontier area into a state. In 1850 California became the31 American statThe Civil WarWhile the nation was growing and developing, the situation withthe Native Americans and black slaves was getting even more complex. TheAmerican Revolution gave great impetus to the movement to end slavery bygranting freedom to those blacks who served in the armed forces.
Followingthe American Revolution a number of states abolished slavery, and itsopponents hoped that emancipation would gradually spread to other areas ofthe country. But although many northerners opposed slavery, most of them rejected immediateefforts to eradicate it. Age-old prejudices against the Indians and blacks prevented the “white”Americans from considering them as their equals and very many Americans still believed thatblacks were basically more inferior than whites.
Besides by the Constitution the issue aboutslavery was left in the hands of the State legislature and Federal Government had no right toabolish it. When Eli Whitney in 1793 invented the machine cleaning cotton of its seeds, theproductivity of slave-labor in cotton-growing increased by 50 times and slavery came to beregarded as the mainstay economics in many Southern states.
The increased importance of cottonfor the South strengthened the hold of slavery in this region.In 1820 by the Missouri Compromise Act slavery was tacitly allowed south of 36^30’but not north of it, but a special Bill in 1854 virtually repealed the Missouri Compromise. Thenew Fugitive Law compelled the northerners to assist in capturing slaves who had escaped fromtheir owners in the SouthThe new Republican Party, which sprang up in 1854, with Abraham Lincoln as one ofits chief founders, demanded that slavery be kept within old boundaries set out in 1820.Tremendously important in awakening the nation’s consciousness was Harriet Beecher Stowe’snovel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852), 300 000 copies of which were sold within the first year andwhich was soon translated into dozens of foreign languages.
Frederick Douglas’s autobiography,a poignant account of slave life, was also sold in numerous copies. Later Douglass edited hisown newspaper, consistently urging militant action to bring about the abolition of slavery in theUSA.In 1854 the Republican Party became associated with the name of Abraham Lincoln.The revival of slave controversy stirred him deeply. “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong”,he stated with the clarity and simplicity of expression for which he later became famous.
He wasconvinced that America could not be divided and said “A home divided against himself cannotstand. I believe this Government cannot endure permanently, half slave, half free”.In November 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected the sixteenth president of the USA.“Honest Abe”, was a shrewd politician and a person of strong principles who offered goodantislavery credentials. His votes were drawn only from the Northern States. A few days after A.Lincoln’s election the South Carolina convention voted for secession. By February 1861 manyother southern states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas followed thelead. In February the congress of seceded states formed the Confederate States of America andannounced slavery as the corner – stone of their constitution.In April 1861 the civil war between the North and the South actually began.
Althoughabolition of slavery was to be one of its problems, the war was fought not only to destroy slaverybut first of all to preserve the union. When the Civil war broke out, the North could expect aneasy victory. It had superiority in material resources and more than double the population of theSouth (20.7 million against 9 million, of which 3,5 were blacks).On the other hand, the Southwas in some respects very favorably placed for resisting invasion from the North.
The countryabounded in strong positions for defense, which could be held by a relatively small force whilethe northerners had to advance long distances, thus exposing their lines of communication toattack. As soldiers, the Southerners started with certain superiority for most of them wereaccustomed to fighting as a normal and suitable occupation for men. Besides among their leadersthere were two men of great military talent – generals Jackson and Lee, while the Northernerslacked such brilliant officers.
During the first stages of the war the Union Armies had a lot offailures. But Lincoln himself read books on strategy, scanned military maps, and outlined plansof campaigns. And his determination soon began to be widely felt and appreciated by commonpeople. The belief that he could be trusted spread quickly and at the end the Northern army actedas an emancipating crusade.Lincoln’s greatness of mind and heart were unexcelled.
In his famous GettysburgAddress (1863) Lincoln made public his great plans of reconstructing the country on a new,more democratic basis: “The great task remains before us – that this nation, under God, shallhave a new birth of freedom – and the government of the people, by the people, for the people,shall not perish from the earth”.. Since 1862 the blacks were allowed to join the Northern army and by the end of thewar one Northern soldier in eight was black.
commanded by white officers. Soon the segregatedtroops proved themselves in battle: 38,000 were killed, a rate of loss 40 times higher than amongwhite troops.In the summer of 1863 General Grant of the North won several decisive battles andcut Tennessee and Arkansas. In a series of fierce battles he lost 60,000 but gained his objectives,destroying everything on its way that might help the Southerners continue the fight.In 1864 Abraham Lincoln was unanimously renominated President. He gave theclosest attention to the final military phase of the war, visiting the army.
.On April 3, 1865, Grantand Lee had to recognize the futility of further resistance. The confederate soldiers laid downtheir arms and were allowed to return to their homes in peace.The war lasted four years and cost the nation 600,000 lives but the concept of anindissoluble union won universal acceptance.
A more technically advanced and productiveeconomic system resulted from the war.The war forced the Government to proclaim emancipation for slave-soldiers fightingfor the Union. In 1865 it was followed by the antislavery amendment to the Constitution makingslavery illegal throughout the whole country. Lincoln’s part in this matter was undoubtedlycentral and the liberation of American slaves will be always associated with his name.On April 14, 1865 during a theatrical performance in Washington, Lincoln waslethally wounded by a southern conspirator John Booth and early next morning he died. The featof Abraham Lincoln’s life is best summed up in the following lines from the poem by WaltWhitman dedicated to the memory of this great American:O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip be done,The ship has weathered every rock; the prize we sought is won.Shortly before his death, the president endorsed suffrage for “very intelligent” blacksand former black soldiers in the Union army.
After Lincoln’s assassination Presidend AndrewJohnson continued Lincoln’s moderate policies. The !4 th Amendment, defining nationalPPcitizenship so as to include blacks, was passed by Congress in 1866 and was ratified despiterejection of most Southern states.That Northern victory launched the era of Congressional Reconstruction which lasted10 years starting with the Reconstruction Acts of 1867.Under that legislation the 11 Confederatestates were readmitted to the Union and had to accept the 14-th and later the 15 th ConstitutionalPPAmendments, intended to ensure the civil rights of the black freedmen.At first Reconstruction of the Union seemed to hold many promises for Black men andwomen in the South, who were allowed to leave their former owners and move to other states.But in reality the Northern efforts brought few serious changes in the status of black people. Thelaws did not guarantee any social rights of the Blacks.
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