US History — Founding to Civil War

Between 1776 and 1865, America went from 13 rebellious colonies to a continent-spanning nation torn apart by civil war. These 90 years set up nearly every question America still wrestles with today — federal vs state power, race and equality, American identity. This is the most essential period of US history to understand.

After the Revolution, the Articles of Confederation proved too weak. 55 delegates met in Philadelphia to write a new Constitution.\n\nKey features:\n- **Separation of powers** — 3 branches (Executive, Legislative, Judicial)\n- **Federalism** — power shared between federal and state governments\n- **Checks and balances** — each branch limits the others\n- **Bill of Rights** (1791) — first 10 Amendments protecting individual freedoms\n\nBut: it initially counted enslaved people as 3/5 of a person. The compromise that allowed the union to form also built injustice into its foundation.

- **George Washington** (1789-97) — set precedents. Warned against foreign entanglements and political parties. Served 2 terms and stepped down.\n- **John Adams** — Federalist. Avoided war with France.\n- **Thomas Jefferson** — Democratic-Republican. Doubled the country with the Louisiana Purchase (1803).\n- **Andrew Jackson** (1829-37) — expanded voting rights for white men; forced Trail of Tears displacement of Native Americans.\n\nEach left a complicated legacy.

America pushed WEST throughout the 1800s:\n\n- **Louisiana Purchase (1803)** — doubled US territory\n- **Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06)** — explored the new land\n- **Manifest Destiny (1840s)** — the belief America was destined to span the continent\n- **Texas annexation (1845)** + **Mexican-American War (1846-48)** — added the Southwest\n- **California Gold Rush (1849)** — migration exploded\n- **Transcontinental Railroad (1869)** — united the country\n\nExpansion came at the cost of Native American lands and lives. Forced removals, broken treaties, and near-genocide marked this era.

Slavery defined America from 1619 (first enslaved Africans brought to Virginia) to 1865.\n\nBy 1860:\n- ~4 MILLION enslaved Africans in the US\n- Southern economy depended on plantation slavery (cotton, tobacco)\n- Northern states had abolished slavery gradually\n- Tension grew about whether new Western states would allow slavery\n\nKey events:\n- **Missouri Compromise (1820)** — drew a line across the continent\n- **Compromise of 1850** — California free; Fugitive Slave Act\n- **Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)** — let settlers decide; led to "Bleeding Kansas" violence\n- **Dred Scott decision (1857)** — SCOTUS ruled Black people couldn't be citizens\n- **John Brown's Raid (1859)** — failed slave uprising\n\nNothing healed the divide.

Anti-slavery voices got louder:\n\n- **Frederick Douglass** — formerly enslaved, became a powerful speaker and writer\n- **Harriet Tubman** — Underground Railroad conductor; freed 70+ people\n- **Sojourner Truth** — Black woman abolitionist + women's rights activist\n- **William Lloyd Garrison** — published "The Liberator" newspaper\n- **Harriet Beecher Stowe** — wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852), huge impact\n\nTheir courage kept slavery at the center of national debate.

When Lincoln was elected in 1860, 11 Southern states SECEDED from the Union to protect slavery. They formed the Confederacy.\n\nThe war lasted 4 brutal years. Key events:\n- **Battle of Gettysburg (1863)** — Union victory, turning point\n- **Emancipation Proclamation (Jan 1, 1863)** — Lincoln freed enslaved people in rebelling states\n- **Sherman's March to the Sea (1864)** — devastated Southern infrastructure\n- **Surrender at Appomattox (April 9, 1865)** — Lee surrenders to Grant\n- **Lincoln's Assassination (April 14, 1865)** — days after victory\n\n~750,000 Americans died — more than ALL other US wars combined until Vietnam.

After the war, three Reconstruction Amendments reshaped the Constitution:\n\n- **13th (1865)** — abolished slavery\n- **14th (1868)** — birthright citizenship, equal protection under law\n- **15th (1870)** — voting rights regardless of race\n\nThese were revolutionary — but enforcement failed, leading to Jim Crow segregation for the next century. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-60s would later build on these Amendments.