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More About Space

More About Space. Catholics, Indians, and the Ugly American Party. Moving into “white space”. Europeans replace Natives as wanderers Indian tribes removed, restricted to reservations

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More About Space

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  1. More About Space Catholics, Indians, and the Ugly American Party

  2. Moving into “white space” • Europeans replace Natives as wanderers • Indian tribes removed, restricted to reservations • “the white man, who roams the vast country at his pleasure . . . cannot know the cramp we feel in this little spot” – a Shoshone leader • Stability = homogeneity? Hegemony? • Texas, California, New Mexico annexed after Mexican War (1845-7) • Mexico not annexed, despite expansionist plan • “I protest against such a union as that! . . . Ours, sir, is the government of a white race” – John C. Calhoun, SC • Goldseekers displace California tribes, Mexican landowners, and much of the natural environment • 1849-60: 300,000 overland emigrants • Many more on ships; railroad by 1869

  3. “The Great Reconnaissance” • 1830s: George Catlin & Karl Bodmer put the “noble savage” on canvas & into magazines • Art or anthropology? • U.S. stereotype becomes Plains Indian • 1840s-50s: US sends expeditions to Far West • Artist-scientists illustrate govt. publications • Lt. John C. Fremont explores & maps • Painters romanticize landscapes, pioneers • First “environmentalism”? • Paintings of Thomas Cole, novels of Fenimore Cooper • Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836) • Henry Thoreau, Walden (1854) • Nature as a mystical retreat from commercial world • George Perkins Marsh, Man & Nature (1854) • “dangers of interfering with the spontaneous arrangements of the organic and inorganic world”

  4. Other “Others” in America • Some northern states prohibited entry of free blacks – North more segregated • “It is the wish of every patriot that our union should be homogenous in race and of our own blood” – Francis Blair, Republican Party leader (mid-1850s) • Slave revolts: Nat Turner et al. • South becomes more militantly anti-black • Religious & pseudo–scientific rationales for slavery • Colonization movement (1817-1830) • What American wants to go? • Abolitionism – organized anti-slavery • One of many 19th-century reform movements • Prohibition, Women’s Rights, labor unions, vegetarianism • Moral, legal, economic arguments – but, “equal”?

  5. White “Others” Also Unwelcome • Exclusion of “Mormons” (Church of LDS) • Religious practices offend WASPs • Mob violence sends them westward • Seek independence in the wilderness • “Civilization” caught up with them • 1857: Pres. Buchanan sends troops to “Utah War” • 1896: Polygamy traded for statehood • Mormon towns similar in their urban space • Communal, organized lifestyle • Cities planned, geometrical, rectangular • Newer U.S. cities follow the grid system • Compare London, Paris, Boston, lower Manhattan with upper Manhattan, Chicago, San Francisco • Trade novelty & intricacy (“European”) for efficiency

  6. Birth of Nativism • Earliest WASP colonists disliked Catholicism • Associated with irrational medieval superstition • English & French religious wars of 17th-18th centuries • Allegiance to Pope believed to be unpatriotic • “No danger of Catholicism spreading in New England; Yankees can’t afford the time to be Catholics” –Richard Henry Dana (1830s) • 1830: 300,000 Catholics (3%) • 1860: 3 million (10%) • Irish immigrants, lacking skills, low-paid • Replaced women in New England textile factories • In South did jobs too dangerous for valuable slaves • First urban “slums” drive rich from cities • Poverty, disease, alcoholism • Lower-class WASPs angry at economic challenge • 1834: burned Boston convent, 3-day riot

  7. The “Know-Nothing” Party • Catholic immigrants resisted assimilation • Protested Protestant bibles in schools (1840s) • Immigrants tended to vote Democratic because anti-Catholics were Whigs? • Or because immigrants were pro-slavery? (Why?) • 1850s: American Party coalition’s platform • Eliminate “foreign” influences • Restrict immigration & citizenship • Slogan: “Americans must rule America” • 1856 – a million votes for candidate Fillmore swings vote to southern Democrat Buchanan • Leftovers fuse with Whigs into Republican party

  8. More Important Fish to Fry • Series of shaky compromises restricting slavery • 1787: Jefferson’s Northwest Ordinance • OH, IN, IL etc. free • 1820: Missouri Compromise • Limits slavery to south of Kansas line • 1854: Democrats repeal with Kansas-Nebraska Act • “Bloody Kansas” ensues; John Brown raids • Compromise of 1850 • CA free; NM, Utah, AZ all slave • Fugitive Slave Act inflames abolitionists • Rising tide of secession – North & South split • 1830s on – led by SC all the way – why? • Why not let the South go?

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