Expansion, democracy, and the Jacksonian era
The early 1800s brought rapid growth, a market revolution, wider democracy for white men, and the forced removal of Native nations.
The Era of Good Feelings and Monroe Doctrine
After the War of 1812, the Federalist Party faded, leaving a period of one-party rule called the Era of Good Feelings under James Monroe. The Monroe Doctrine (1823) declared the Western Hemisphere closed to new European colonisation, while promising the US would stay out of European affairs.
The Missouri Compromise
In 1820, the Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, keeping the Senate balanced, and banned slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Territory north of latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes. Jefferson called the crisis 'a fire bell in the night', foreseeing future conflict over slavery.
The market revolution
New roads, canals such as the Erie Canal (completed 1825), steamboats, and later railways linked farms to markets. Factories, starting with textile mills in New England such as those in Lowell, Massachusetts, employed young women and immigrants. The cotton gin (1793) made cotton hugely profitable, expanding slavery across the Deep South.
Jacksonian democracy
By the 1820s, most states had dropped property requirements for voting, so most white men could vote. Andrew Jackson, elected in 1828, presented himself as a champion of the common man. Political parties and campaigns grew more popular and organised; the Democrats and later the Whigs formed the second party system.
The Bank War and Nullification
Jackson vetoed the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States, calling it a tool of wealthy elites. In the Nullification Crisis (1832-1833), South Carolina declared federal tariffs void within the state; Jackson threatened force, and a compromise tariff ended the crisis, but the idea of state nullification persisted.
Indian Removal
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorised forcing Native nations in the Southeast to move west of the Mississippi. Although the Supreme Court ruled in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) that Georgia had no authority over Cherokee lands, Jackson did not enforce the ruling. In the Trail of Tears (1838-1839), thousands of Cherokee died during forced removal.
Reform movements
The Second Great Awakening inspired reform movements: temperance (reducing alcohol use), public education (led by Horace Mann), prison and asylum reform (Dorothea Dix), abolitionism, and women's rights. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, organised by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, issued a Declaration of Sentiments demanding equal rights, including the vote.
Worked example
A New England farm daughter in 1835 might leave home to work in a Lowell textile mill, earning wages for the first time and living in a company boarding house. Her mill's cotton was likely grown by enslaved people in Mississippi or Alabama, on land taken from Native nations through removal. The market revolution tied together free labour in the North, slavery in the South, and Native dispossession.
Key takeaways
The Monroe Doctrine (1823) warned Europe away from the Americas. The Missouri Compromise (1820) balanced slave and free states. Canals, steamboats, railways, and factories drove the market revolution; the cotton gin expanded slavery. Jacksonian democracy widened voting for white men. Jackson fought the national bank and nullification. Indian Removal led to the Trail of Tears. Reform movements, including Seneca Falls (1848), sought to improve society.
Flashcard
1823, no new European colonies in the Americas
Check your understanding
What was the Trail of Tears?