1. SSUSH7 Investigate political, economic, and social developments during the Age of Jackson. a. Explain Jacksonian Democracy, including expanding suffrage, the Nullification Crisis and states’ rights, and the Indian Removal Act. b. Explain how the North, South, and West were linked through industrial and economic expansion including Henry Clay and the American System. c. Explain the influence of the Second Great Awakening on social reform movements, including temperance, public education, and women’s efforts to gain suffrage. d. Explain how the significance of slavery grew in American politics including slave rebellions and the rise of abolitionism.  

2. 7.a- Explain Jacksonian Democracy, including expanding suffrage, the Nullification Crisis and states’ rights, and the Indian Removal Act.
Historians attribute a major shift in American political history with the era of Andrew Jackson, who first ran for president in 1824, was elected in 1828, and again in 1832.
The Jacksonian era is marked by a massive expansion of the electorate, brought about by major reforms in most states’ electoral law, primarily the omission of property requirements for voting.
Jackson’s candidacy and presidency thus coincide with what is considered the rise of the “common man” in American politics. Indeed, Jackson appealed to this idea explicitly, touting his own background from a poor farming family as he campaigned for office. This translated into votes especially from small farmers and “common folk” nationwide, and saw the birth of a new political entity- The Democratic Party.

3. 7.a- Explain Jacksonian Democracy, including expanding suffrage, the Nullification Crisis and states’ rights, and the Indian Removal Act.
Ironically, while the reforms of the Jacksonian Era expanded political rights for many, other groups suffered. Native Americans in the east were targeted by Jacksonians, (and Jackson himself) to be removed west of the Mississippi. The Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830.
Eventually these Natives were forcibly marched from their homelands to trans-Mississippian reservations on what became known as the “Trail of Tears.” Thousands of Native Americans froze or starved to death on the grueling journey.
For Jackson, who envisioned himself a man of the people, his position on Indian removal represented what he saw as a democratic expression of the will of the people. By removing Indians from the east, Jackson believed he was instituting the will of the majority, who wanted to open settlement on Indian lands, without having to live among or near the Indians themselves.

4. Nullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis of 1832 erupted over the issue of tariffs. Tariffs (taxes on imports) had long been a contentious sectional issue in American politics. (Sectionalism describes the politics and tension between the “sections” of the country- north and south- and increasingly, the idea that the interests of one’s section outweighed national interest, if at cross purposes. )
Tariffs in the U.S. were primarily introduced to protect American industry and products from cheaper foreign goods. While these protective tariffs encouraged American industry, the benefits were primarily to the Northern states- where most industry was located.
The Deep South had little industry and still imported many manufactured goods from Britain and elsewhere. Because tariffs meant higher prices for goods, they were strongly opposed to tariffs.
South Carolina led the protest against higher tariffs passed in which they referred to as the Tariff of Abominations- countering with a resolution to nullify the federal law by effectively refusing to enforce it.
President Andrew Jackson responded with the so-called Force Bill, which allowed him to use the military to enforce the federal law. Eventually a compromise was reached to reduce the tariff back to 1816 levels over the next decade. In spite, South Carolina then nullified the Force Bill, which Jackson simply ignored.

5. Nullification and States’ Rights
In , the state legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky issued resolutions that challenged the supremacy of federal law by proposing the power of interposition (VA) and nullification (KY) in cases where federal law is found to be unconstitutional or otherwise incompatible with a state’s interests.
The issue inspiring the resolutions was the Alien and Sedition Acts, passed by the Federalist-controlled government.
Secretly written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison- the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions made a bold, if only theoretical statement about the relationship between the national government and the state governments. The resolutions argued that because the states existed prior to the Constitutional union, states had the right to supersede national authority if they found a federal law unconstitutional.
When nullification was invoked in the 1832 crisis over the tariff, it set a precedent that would be used again in the lead up to the Civil War- only then South Carolina took the theory a step further by seceding (withdrawing) from the union of states.
States’ rights would continue to be a central issue in American politics even long after the Civil War. During the Civil Rights era in the 1950s and 1960s, many southern states claimed states’ rights theories to justify the continuation of segregation.

7. 7.b- Explain how the North, South, and West were linked through industrial and economic expansion including Henry Clay and the American System.
Following the conclusion of the War of 1812, the United States experienced unprecedented industrial and economic growth, associated with what historians refer to as the Market Revolution.
In essence, the three major regions of the country- north, south, and west- became increasingly linked into a coherent, integrated market system. The urban centers in the north produced manufactured and finished goods, which it exchanged with the south for commodities like cotton, while the west produced grain and livestock for population centers in the north.
To further encourage the economic expansion and regional links associated with the Market Revolution, some national politicians began to promote what they called the “American System.”
The American System was a set of policies designed to promote economic nationalism with three primary goals:
Federal support for internal improvements like the construction of roads and canals
A high tariff to bolster American industry and protect manufacturers from foreign imports
Support for the re-authorization of the Bank of the United States, which would serve to stabilize the American economy and as a central source of credit for industrial expansion

8. 7.b- Explain how the North, South, and West were linked through industrial and economic expansion including Henry Clay and the American System.
The politician most associated with formulating and advocating the policies of the American System was Henry Clay, a House member from Kentucky. Clay served three separate terms as Speaker of the House, ran for president several times, and later served in the Senate until his death in 1852.
He was successful in his efforts to implement his American System. He succeeded in his efforts to re-charter the Bank of the United States, and successfully raised tariff rates. He made far less headway in securing federal funding for internal improvements.
Ultimately, however, Clay’s accomplishments toward realizing his American System were subsequently dismantled. Clay’s political nemesis, Andrew Jackson, vigorously opposed the Bank of the United States as a tool of elites, and took steps to ensure its demise. Tariff rates were also lowered substantially following the Nullification Crisis.

9. Henry Clay

11. 7.c- Explain the influence of the Second Great Awakening on social reform movements, including temperance, public education, and women’s efforts to gain suffrage.
Beginning around 1820s-1830s, a number of social issues arose that developed into broad based reform movements.
Among these were temperance (moderation or abstinence from alcohol), the issue of public education, and the beginnings of women’s efforts to gain suffrage.
Some of these reforms were inspired in part by another widespread religious revival called the Second Great Awakening. Much like the First Great Awakening in the 1730s-40s, this second major revivalist movement unified much of American religious expression, and led to the call for social reform- Inspired by religious ideas, reformers began to press for social reforms that they believed reflected their religious goals and morals.
Alcohol, for example, began to be seen as an immoral threat to the Christian family, and reformers began to target booze as sinful and “un-Christian.”
Public education also arose as an issue for reform in the 1830s. Horace Mann, a legislator from Massachusetts, is one important figure credited with jumpstarting education reform. In 1837 he oversaw the creation of the first statewide public school board, and advocated for other regions to follow. Public education was consistent with the ideals of the Second Great Awakening in that many argued that religious morality would be bolstered by education generally, and especially the notion that a personal relationship with God required literacy to read and interpret the Bible.

12. 7.c- Explain the influence of the Second Great Awakening on social reform movements, including temperance, public education, and women’s efforts to gain suffrage.
The religious ideals associated with the Second Great Awakening also had a tangential effect on the beginnings of the women’s suffrage movement.
In American religious expression, great emphasis was placed on the role of the nuclear family, and especially mothers, as the instruments and purveyors of religious morality. As such, the role of women as the moral compass of families both reinforced and elevated their traditional duties as caretakers of the home and family. It followed that since women were responsible for the moral and religious instruction of their children, they should have more of a say in the civic life that had potential to shape that duty. In other words, since women began to be seen as the spiritual equals of men, some began to argue that should be seen as equals in public life as well.
Women played important roles in many of the social reform movements associated with the era, including the temperance movement, among others.
The first organized efforts to advocate for women’s suffrage came at the Seneca Falls Conference in It would be over 70 years, however, until women finally gained the right to vote in federal elections, with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

13. Second Great Awakening

14. Temperance Cartoon

16. Horace Mann

18. d. Explain how the significance of slavery grew in American politics including slave rebellions and the rise of abolitionism

19. 7.d- Explain how the significance of slavery grew in American politics including slave rebellions and the rise of abolitionism
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, slavery became an increasingly divisive issue in American politics.
Compromises between northern and southern interests at the Constitutional Convention, and again at the admittance of Missouri in 1820, temporarily calmed tensions, but the growth of the abolition movement, and a slave rebellion in the 1830s helped to bring the slavery issue back to the center of political debate.

20. Abolitionism
Although an anti-slavery movement had been established from the beginning of the United States, the 1820s and 1830s saw a significant growth in the movement, and a decidedly more confrontational rhetoric. Gradualist theories gave way to calls for an immediate end (abolition) to slavery.
The new fervor of the abolitionist movement was informed in large part by the religious revivalism then sweeping the nation. The Second Great Awakening, with its general focus on salvation by the repenting of sins, translated into calls for social reforms. Abolitionists saw slavery as evil- a sin that needed to be purged.
One of the first well known abolitionists was a free African-American from North Carolina, David Walker. Walker advocated an immediate end to slavery by whatever means necessary, including violent rebellion.

22. William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was one of the earliest and most vocal proponents of abolition, and is credited for helping to turn abolition into a large national movement.
In 1831 Garrison began publishing an abolitionist newspaper in Boston, The Liberator. Initially seen as extremists, Garrison’s newspaper highlighted the evils of slavery and helped to change people’s minds about ending slavery altogether.
Garrison helped to organize the American Anti-Slavery Society, which by 1838 had 1350 chapters and an estimated 250,000 members.

24. Frederick Douglass
Free African- Americans in the north also contributed to the growing abolitionist movement. Among the best known was Frederick Douglass, a self-educated escaped slave, who published a narrative of his life in This first-hand account of the horrors and injustice of slavery was invaluable to the abolitionist movement and helped to convince many of the necessity of abolition.
A powerful and eloquent orator, Douglass also embarked on numerous speaking tours to spread the abolitionist message.

25. Frederick Douglass

26. Nat Turner Rebellion
In 1831, Nat Turner, an enslaved Virginian minister, led a revolt that left more than 50 dead. Turner hoped to spark a much wider rebellion that would spread throughout the South. Local and state troops ended the revolt, capturing Turner, who was later tried and hanged.
After the Nat Turner rebellion, many Southern politicians blamed the influence of abolitionists and many states enacted even harsher slave codes to regulate the activities of slaves.