Chapter 5 Notes Part 2

Chapter 5 Notes Part 2

Trail of Tears and the Buildup to Civil War (1836-1861)

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act​

Over the next 10 years, Native Americans from all over the Southeast would be relocated to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

Thousands of Native Americans died on this journey, which led through Arkansas, known as the Trail of Tears

As a passageway to the west, Arkansas became the focus of several famous writings, stories like the Arkansas Traveler

Although this story was fictional, it was rooted in truth about the Arkansas territory and its settlers

During the middle part of the century, America went through a period of belief in manifest destiny, or the belief that it was America's destiny to expand all the way to the Pacific ocean.

This led to conflict with the United States and Mexico who still owned much of America’s current-day western lands.

In the aftermath of Texas being admitted as a state, the Mexican-American War was fought

Arkansas provided thousands of soldiers for this war from places like Fort Smith, and more western land was gained as a result of American victory

Fort Smith and Van Buren were also starting points for many Americans during the California Gold Rush

 Arkansas' economy pre-Civil War was heavily dependent on agriculture

As a means of making money, Cotton was king.

While the majority of Arkansas farmers were yeoman farmers, people who owned small land plots, some owned plantations and Arkansas had about 11,00 slave owners

The slave experience was miserable, violent, and tragic.

As a way of resisting this existence, many slaves attempted to escape despite the Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850

With the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the concept of Popular Sovereignty was introduced

Popular sovereignty meant that these two new territories could decide the issue of slavery for themselves based on a vote

Another important piece leading up to the Civil War was the Dred-Scott decision

In this decision, Dred Scott, a slave, was denied the right to sue his slave master because the Supreme Court ruled slaves were not citizens

This only increased the outrage from abolitionists in the country and contributed to the inevitable Civil War