Reform and Society in Antebellum America,

REFORM AND SOCIETY IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA, 1800-1860

I. THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING

A. State of religion: 75% attended, protestant dominant, deism, Unitarianism

B. Impact of the 2nd awakening

- Reaction against liberalism, much bigger than the 1st

- Revivalism “camp meetings” peter cartwright, Charles Grandison Finney

- Methodists, Baptists

C. New sects

- “the burned over district

- Mormons: joseph smith Brigham young

- More impactful in the south and west? WHY?

II. AGE OF REFORM

A. Most reform was evangelical

B. Temperance

- Alcohol abuses widespread

- Temperance v. prohibition

C. Women's rights

- “republican motherhood” > “cult of domesticity”

- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Grimke sisters, Lucy stone

- Seneca falls convention 1848- declaration of sentiments

II. AGE OF REFORM

D. Education

- public education: Horace Mann, tax supported schools

- Noah Webster, William H. McGuffey

E. Dorothea dix-

F. Prison reform

G. Utopian communities

- New Harmony

- Brook Farm

- Oneida Colony

-Shakers

III. THE CHANGING AMERICAN FAMILY

A. Women increasingly challenging status

B. Most women left work after getting married

C. Changes:

- Marriages based on love not arrangement

- Families smaller

- More focus on children, Why?

- Children to be independent and moral individual

- Development of “modern family”

IV. ABOLITIONISM

A. Definition: Abolitionism – Movement in the North that demanded the immediate end to slavery

B. America colonization society 1871

C. Dominant reform movement

D. Radical abolitionism: William Lloyd garrison, American anti slavery society, Wendell Philips, Sojourner truth, Elijah lovejoy, martin Delaney, Fredrick Douglass

E. Underground railroad- Harriet Tubman

- Prigg v. Pennsylvania 1842

- Southern push back

V. SOUTHERN RESPONSES

A. 1820’s south had more than north

B. South worried: Nat turner, nullification crisis of 1832

C. Southern arguments: bible, Aristotle, Christianizing, paternal, “northern wage slave”

D. Abolitionist literature banned

E. “gag resolution” 1836

VI. ABOLITIONIST IMPACT IN THE NORTH

A. Abolitionists (e.g., Garrison and Lovejoy) were unpopular in many parts of the North

B. Mob outbursts occurred in response to extreme abolitionists.

C. For ambitious politicians, the support of abolitionism was political suicide; many sought to side-step the issue.

D. By 1850, abolitionism significantly influenced the northern mind.

HOW ARE THE REFORM MOVEMENTS OF THE EARLY 19TH C. SIMILAR TO TODAY?

VII. LITERATURE IN EARLY AMERICA

A. Noah Webster

B. McGuffey readers

C. Knickerbocker groupA. Washington Irving

B. James Fennimore cooper

C. William Cullen Bryant

D. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

E. Transcendentalism: romanticismA. Ralph Waldo Emerson

B. Henry David Thoreau

C. Walt Whitman

VIII. ART IN EARLY AMERICA• Thomas Jefferson: neo-classical architecture

• Portraiture: Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) and Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827)

• John Turnbull 1756-1843: Declaration of Independence (1819)

• Hudson river School of art:

• Glorified landscapes, influenced by romanticism

• Thomas cole, The oxbow 1836

• Asher Durand 1796-1886

• Kindred spirits 1849

• Fredric Edwin Church

• Albert Bierstadt 1830-1902

VIEWS CONCERNING AMERICAN WOMEN UP TO 1860

View of Women Characteristics Colonial Period Women

o were seen as morally inferior to men

and prone to temptation (e.g. Eve had

tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden)

o enjoyed few legal rights

Republican Motherhood (c. 1765-c. 1830) Dominant view of women prior to the Industrial Revolution (where a vast majority of Americans lived in rural areas)

Opponents: Abigail Adams

Mercy Otis Warren

Women

o gained respect by helping win the

American Revolution

Boycotts of English goods

Manufactured own goods

Daughters of Liberty

Deborah Sampson

o were seen as morally equal to men

o were to raise virtuous and loyal citizens

for the republic

o were an indispensable economic factor

in the success of the family farm

o gained few legal rights, however

feme covert remained in effect

husbands had full custody rights

no female suffrage

Cult of Domesticity: Antebellum era—19th Century) Emerged as a result of the Industrial Revolution. “Separate spheres” between men and women became more common. Advocates:

Evangelists of the 2nd Great Awakening

Godey’s Lady’s Book

Opponents: Women’s rights movement

Liberal colleges: Mt. Holyoke, Oberlin

Women were seen the moral backbone of

society (“an angel in the house”)

Women were to make the home a

haven/refuge for their husbands while

raising moral children

Middle- and upper-class women were not

allowed to work after marriage

o Young women were encouraged to teach

(until marriage)

Working-class women, immigrants and

black women commonly worked

o e.g. Lowell Girls

Enjoyed few legal rights

Women’s Rights Movement

Seneca Falls Convention (1848): “Declaration and Sentiments”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Margaret Fuller, Amelia Bloomer

Some women joined reform movements:

temperance, abolitionism, women’s rights

Women gained increased property rights

after marriage (starting in Mississippi in

1837 and New York in the 1840s)

Earnings laws in some states after 1860

resulted in modest gains for businesswomen