Mexican American War and Compromise of 1850

### Mexican American War

• In 1845, Texas joined the United States.
• The United States attempted to purchase New Mexico and California from Mexico but was unsuccessful.
• The Mexican-American War took place between 1846 and 1848.
• In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war.
• Mexico ceded 55% of its territory, including parts of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, to the United States.
• In 1854, the Gadsden Purchase added more territory to the US.
• The US paid Mexico $15 million for the land and assumed up to $3.25 million in claims by its citizens against the Mexican government.

### Compromise of 1850

• The Compromise of 1850 was a collection of five laws passed in September 1850 specifically to address the issue of slavery.
• The Compromise was prompted by California’s request for admission to the Union as a free state.
• Kentucky Senator Henry Clay introduced the resolutions that formed the Compromise of 1850.
• The Compromise included:
  • California was admitted as a free state.
  • The slave trade was banned in the District of Columbia.
  • A stronger version of the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted.
  • The status of Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory was determined by popular sovereignty.

Compromise of 1850 - The Fugitive Slave Act

• The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required law enforcement and citizens in free states to capture and return runaway slaves.
• The act penalized those who aided runaway slaves.
• The act attempted to dismantle the network of abolitionist activists in the Underground Railroad.

### Harriet Tubman

• Harriet Tubman, born Araminta “Minty” Ross, was born into slavery around 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland.
• She was enslaved by several families, including the Pattisons, the Thompsons, the Stewarts, and the Brodesses.
• Tubman suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) after being knocked unconscious by a white enslaver, resulting in seizures and visions.
• She connected these episodes to her relationship with God and spirituality.
• Tubman married John Tubman, a free Black man, in 1844.
• She rescued her parents and other enslaved people from Maryland and brought them to Canada through the Underground Railroad.
• Tubman was known as “Moses,” a reference to the biblical figure who led the Israelites out of slavery.
• Enslavers offered a $12,000 reward for Tubman’s capture.
• Tubman said, “I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”

### Harriet Tubman - Brief Historiography

• Benjamin Drew’s ‘A North-Side View of Slavery’ (1855) includes Tubman’s narrative.
• Drew’s work countered pro-slavery narratives, like George Fitzhugh’s ‘Sociology for the South’ and Nehemiah Adams’ ‘A Southside View of Slavery.

### Reconstruction

• Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877.
• The period can be divided into three phases:
  • Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867)
  • Radical Reconstruction (1867-1873)
  • Liberal Reconstruction (1873-1877)

Presidential Reconstruction 1865-1867

• In January 1865, William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15, which confiscated land along the South Carolina and Florida coasts.
• The Freedmen’s Bureau was established in March 1865 to help formerly enslaved Black people and poor whites in the South.
• Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 and Andrew Johnson became president.
• Johnson dismantled the Special Field Order through the Freedmen’s Bureau.

### Reconstruction 1863 - 1877

• Reconstruction was the period of national rebuilding after the Civil War.
• It involved the reintegration of the Southern states into the Union and the process of extending citizenship and rights to Black Americans.

###  Presidential Reconstruction 1865-1867

• Johnson became president in 1865 after Lincoln’s assassination.
• Johnson’s reconstruction plan prioritized the restoration of Southern states without requiring substantial changes to their social or political systems.

### Presidential Reconstruction 1865 -1867

- The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed.

• The 13th Amendment abolished slavery.
• The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. -  The 15th Amendment prohibited states from denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

This quiz covers key events of the Mexican-American War, including the annexation of Texas and the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It also explores the Compromise of 1850, a collection of laws addressing the issue of slavery and its impact on California's statehood. Test your knowledge of these significant historical events.