Annotation: In 1854, a piece of legislation was introduced in Congress that shattered all illusions of sectional peace. The Kansas-Nebraska Act destroyed the Whig Party, divided the Democratic Party, and created the Republican Party. Ironically, the author of this legislation was Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who had pushed the Compromise of 1850 through Congress and who…

Author:   John M. Clayton and Henry Lytton Bulwer Date:1850 Annotation: The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was an agreement that stated that both the United States and the United Kingdom were not to colonize or control any Central American republic. The purpose of this agreement was to prevent one country from building a canal across Central America. If…

Author:   Benjamin Drew Date:1850 Annotation: The testimony and personal accounts of fugitive slaves’ journeys to freedom written by Benjamin Drew, a Boston abolitionist. Document: 1. Introduction: Benjamin Drew, a Boston abolitionist acting in cooperation with officers of the Canadian Anti-Slavery Society, visited various towns of Upper Canada around the middle 1850s, interviewing scores of refugees from…

Date:1848 Annotation: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the peace treaty that ended the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). Document: ART. I. THERE shall be firm and universal peace between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, and between their respective countries, territories, cities, towns, and people, without exception of place or persons. . . . ART.…

Author:   Elizabeth Cady Stanton Date:1848 Annotation: Seneca Falls, New York, is the birthplace of the women’s rights movement in the United States. On July 19, 1848, the first convention dedicated to equal treatment of women opened in this fast-growing village of 4000. Some 300 people, including 40 men, attended the meeting at the red-brick Wesleyan…

Date:1846 Annotation: This treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to the Oregon Country, which had been jointly occupied by both Britain and the U.S. since the Treaty of 1818. Document: ART. I. From the point of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, where the boundary laid down…

Author:   James K. Polk Date:1846 Annotation: Among President James K. Polk’s plans to expand the nation’s territory was the attempted purchase of New Mexico and California from Mexico in 1846. When the sale failed, Polk sent U.S. troops to Texas to provoke long-simmering tensions along the border between the recently annexed territory and Mexico. After…

Date:1842 Annotation: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled several matters between the United States and Great Britain and was signed August 9, 1842. The treaty settled the Northeast Boundary Dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain and the shared use of the Great Lakes. It also called for an end to the slave trade. Document: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty. Treaty…

Author:   John Quincy Adams Date:1841 Annotation: Abolitionists persuaded former President John Quincy Adams to represent the Amistad rebels before the Supreme Court. Adams accepted the invitation, stating that “there is in my estimation no higher object upon earth…than to occupy that position.” The 74-year-old Adams argued that the Africans had “vindicated their own right…

Author:   Kale Date:1841 Annotation: This is a letter from a child who was an Amistad captive. Document: Westville, Jan. 4, 1841 Dear Friend Mr. Adams: I want to write a letter to you because you love Mendi people, and you talk to the grand court. We want to tell you one thing. Jose Ruiz say we…