Post 10 of the most important events in the decade assigned. Explain each briefly (descriptively and in context of other events, individuals and issues of that time).
1840-1850 1843, Soujourner Truth, a deeply religious former slave, began a speaking tour throughout the North protesting against slavery. She had been a slave most of her life, and had seen most of her 13 children sold before her eyes.
1844, Democratic presidential candidate James K. Polk ran on a platform of taking control over the entire Oregon Territory and used the famous campaign slogan, "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" (after the line of latitude serving as the northern boundary of Oregon at 54°40'). Polk's plan was to claim and go to war over the entire territory for the United States.
1844, John C. Calhoun negotiates an annexation treaty between Texas and the United States, but abolitionists block its ratification by the Senate.
1845, Texas & Florida admitted to the Union
1846, The U.S. Congress voted overwhelmingly to declare war on Mexico despite initial Whig opposition. Over the course of the two year war, the United States defeated the Mexicans and captured the capital, Mexico City.
1846, Wilmot Proviso introduced
1848, The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the Mexican War, giving the United States Texas, California, New Mexico and other territories in the southwest.
1848, Dorothea Dix had covered over 80,000 miles visiting 9,000 mentally ill people in prisons and detention houses in her quest to pass humanity bills in each state she visited. Dix sends a bill to the US Congress requesting 5 million acres be deemed for the care of the mentally ill
1850, California enters the Union.
1850, Compromise of 1850, Millard Fillmore succeeds Taylor
Jan. 13, 1840- The steamboat Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island. Jan. 19, 1840- Charles Wilkes circumnavigated Antarctica. Jan. 29, 1850- Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the US Congress.
In 1850 when California entered the Union, there was an uproar among pro-slavery people living there and the pro-slavery representatives in congress. Such controversy over territories like California after the Mexican War truly lead to the civil war, even if Henry Clay's compromise of 1850 quieted things down for a few years.
1844, Democratic presidential candidate James K. Polk ran on a platform of taking control over the entire Oregon Territory and used the famous campaign slogan, "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" (after the line of latitude serving as the northern boundary of Oregon at 54°40'). Polk's plan was to claim and go to war over the entire territory for the United States.
1843 - The Great Migration, a party of one thousand pioneers, headed west from Independence, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail, guided by Dr. Marcus Whitman, who was returning to his mission on the Columbia River.
