The Kansas-Nebraska Act

 

This 1856 map shows slave states (gray), free states (pink),
U.S. territories (green), and Kansas in center (white).

In January 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced a bill that
divided the land west of Missouri into two territories, Kansas and
Nebraska. He argued for popular sovereignty, which would allow the
settlers of the new territories to decide if slavery would be legal
there. Douglas hoped that the formula for popular sovereignty would
ease national tensions over the issue of human bondage and that he
would not have to take a side on the issue. Anti-slavery supporters
were outraged because, under the new terms of the Missouri Compromise
of 1820, slavery would have been outlawed in both territories. After
months of debate, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed on May 30, 1854.
Pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers rushed to Kansas, each side
hoping to determine the results for the first election held after the
new law went into effect. The conflict turned violent, aggravating the
split between the North and South until reconciliation was virtually
impossible. This led to Bleeding Kansas. Opponents of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act helped found the Republican Party, which opposed
the spread of slavery into the territories. As a result of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, the United States moved closer to Civil War.

American Renaissance Art

Art From The American Renaissance

 

This painting is by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), his work typifies so much of what was happening in American culture in the antebellum years. Albert was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. Bierstadt was the foremost painter of American Western scenes for the remainder of the 19th century. One amazing thing about Bierstadt was that an outgrowth of paintings occurred to a group of artists to which Bierstadt belonged, known as the Hudson River School. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. This particular Bierstadt's painting depicts the Yosemite Valley in Yellowstone National Park (18640. It is a beautiful painting that is often referred to as the 'American Spirit'.

The Star-Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner

On September 14, 1814, the United States soldiers raised a huge American flag after defeating the British soldiers at the war of 1812. Upon seeing this flag, Francis Scott Key got inspiration to write a song as an ode to the flag and all that had happened throughout this lengthy war. This song later became the national anthem that we sing today. What most people do not know is that when someone sings this national anthem at games, they don't sing all of it. They only sing one out of four verses. Here is the complete version of Francis Scott Key's amazing song:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Here is a great video explaining what all happened with Francis Scott Key and his Star-Spangled Banner.