AP U.S. History-Meyers
Name_________________________________
Unit 6: The Slave South, Manifest Destiny, and the Mexican War
America in the 1840s
Essential Questions
1. Trace the development of the trans-Mississippi west: note who settled where and why.
2. What was the nature of Manifest Destiny? Noble cause or economic imperialism? What was its
relationship to U.S. foreign policy during this era?
3. Was James Polk responsible for the war with Mexico? What kind of leader was he?
4. Who was to blame for the war - Mexico or the United States? Was America justified in waging
war against Mexico?
5. Who were the new arrivals to America during this period? How were they treated? How well
did they adapt? What was their impact on industrialization during the 1840s and 50s?
6. Note advances in technology and their impact on farming and industry.
7. Understand the social structure of the antebellum south. Why were the planters, who were in the
minority, still the dominant group?
8. Understand the social structure of the antebellum south. Why were the planters, who were in the
minority, still the dominant group?
9. Was growing cotton, using slave labor, profitable?
10. What was the nature of slave life? What was the relationship between master and slave?
Chapter Study Guides
Chapter 12
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
California under Mexican rule
Moses/Stephen Austin
Texas-Mexican government relations
Battle of the Alamo
The Goliad Massacre
Santa Fe Trail
Oregon Trail
Joseph Smith
Brigham Young
failed annexation of 1844
1844 election - Clay’s blunder
James K. Polk
Manifest Destiny
Fifty Four Forty or Fight
Oregon tensions with England
tensions with Mexico
John Slidell’s mission
Zach Tayler
Monterrey
Vera Cruz
Buena Vista
Nicholas Trist
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
impact of war
Samuel Morse-telegraph
railroad expansion
Cyrus McCormick-reaper
Irish immigration
impact of immigration on working classes and industrialization
reality of life for wage laborers in the industrial east
Chapter 13
Nat Turner Slave Revolt
slavery in the Upper South
DeBow’s Review
cotton and industrialization
planter class
planter-slave relations
“poor whites”
“positive good” defense of slavery
Hinton Helper
The Impending Crisis of the South
Denmark Vesey
indirect (passive) resistance
Frederick Douglass
the Negro Convention movement
David Walker
Harriet Tubman
African Methodist Episcopal Church
slave songs and sermons
slave family life
rancheros
General Santa Anna
Battle of San Jacinto
Mormon Trek
John Tyler
Liberty Party
John L.O’Sullivan
Oregon Treaty of 1846
Nueces River/Rio Grande border
Winfield Scott
John Fremont and California
Merk’s thesis
John Deere-steel plow
German immigration
Female Labor Reform Association
“Cotton is King” - economic impact
views on profitability of cotton
small slaveholders
George Fitzhugh
Gabriel Prosser
status of free blacks
North Star
Richard Allen
black Christianity
Frederick Law Olmstead
Syllabus
Friday, 11-4
Unit 5 Exam
Text, 349-355
Monday, 11-7
Go over Unit 5 Exam
Text, 355-360 (stop at Polk and the Oregon Question)
Thomas Hart Benton: “The Destiny of Race”
John L. O’Sullivan Advocates Manifest Destiny
Fill out chart as you read: Discuss the economic, social, political,
religious, and ideological aspects of manifest destiny.
Text 360-365
Fill out chart as you read: What factors were essential in understanding
why we fought Mexico? Consider political, economic, cultural,
ideological and social factors in your response. And what arguments
were used for and against war? With which do you agree?
Introduce Unit 6
Tuesday, 11-8
Discussion: Manifest Destiny
Topic: Texas
Documents: War with Mexico
Wednesday, 11-9
Topic: The Mexican War
Text 365-376
Question: What were the socio-economic aspects of immigration?
Broaden question- only a portion covers immigration
Text 381-388
Alabama Slave Codes
Fill out chart on the slave codes.
Text 388-397
George Fitzhugh Reading
Question: “Analyze the ways in which supporters of slavery in the
nineteenth century used religious, legal, and economic arguments to
defend the institution of slavery.” (1995 AP Free Response)
Thursday, 11-10
Topic: The Nation Expands
Friday, 11-11
Topic: The Distinctiveness of the Old
South
Monday, 11-14
Video: Slave Narratives
Tuesday, 11-15
Video: Slave Narratives
Text 397-406
Add question
Study!
Wednesday, 11-16
Test
TBD