Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Coming to Terms With the New Age, 1820s—1850s

Part One:

Introduction

Chapter Focus Questions

What new social problems accompanied urbanization and immigration?How did reformers respond to social problems?What were the origins and political effects of the abolitionist movement?What was the involvement of women in reform efforts?

Part Two:

Seneca Falls: Women Reformers Respond to Market

Revolution

Seneca Falls

Seneca Falls women’s rights convention. Wide range of rights for women, including the right to vote. Women’s rights was just one of many reform movements.Movements sparked by societal disruptions on market revolution

Part Three

Immigration and Ethnicity

Patterns of Immigration

Immigration was a key part of urban growth. Beginning in 1830 immigration soared, particularly in the North. Immigrants came largely from Ireland, Germany, and China.

MAP 13.1 Distribution of Foreign Born residents of United States in 1860 The ethnic composition of the American population was increased by Irish and German immigration in the 1840s and 1850s, Chinese attraction to the California gold rush, Mormon recruitment of

Scottish and English followers to Utah, and the reclassification of Mexicans after the Mexican-American War, as foreigners in what had been their own lands.

Irish Immigration

First major immigrant wave to test American citiesReason for immigration: Potato Famine of 1845-49Most lived in cities under horrible conditionsLargest number of Irish came to New YorkBoston, smaller and homogenous, was overwhelmed .

By 1855, half the voters in New York City were foreign-born. This 1858 engraving of an Irish bar in the Five Points area appeared in the influential Harper’s Weekly. It expressed the

dislike of temperance reformers for immigrants and their drinking habits, and the dismay of political reformers that immigrant saloons and taverns were such effective organizing centers

for urban political machines. SOURCE:Frank and Marie-Therese Wood Print Collections,The Picture Bank.

German Immigration

Initial migration started by invitation of William Penn in the late 18th century.By1854 German influx surpassed Irish.Reasons for migration:

potato blight in mid 1840sdislodging effects of market forces

German settlement was relatively dispersed.

Wright’s Grove, shown here in an 1868 illustration, was the popular picnic grounds and beer garden for the large German community on Chicago’s North Side. Establishments such as this horrified American temperance advocates, who warned about the dangerous foreign

notion of mixing alcohol with family fun. SOURCE:Chicago Historical Society.

Chinese Immigration

Many Chinese migrated to California to reap benefits of Gold RushChinese workers made up 90 % of laborers building the Central Pacific RRThe Chinese tended to settle in ethnic enclaves

This cartoon encounter between a newly arrived Irishman and an African American expresses the fear of many immigrants that they would be treated like blacks and denied the privileges of

whiteness. SOURCE:Diogenes,Hys Lantern ,August 21,1852,reprinted from Noel Ignatiev,How the Irish

Became White (1995).

Irish and German Immigrant Employment in New York City ,1855

Chart: “Participation of Irish and German Immigrants” Irish immigrants were clustered in laborer and domestic jobs.German immigrants were clustered in skilled trades.

FIGURE 13.1 Participation of Irish and German Immigrants in NY City Workforce for selected occupations 1855 SOURCE:Robert Ernst,Immigrant Life in New York City 1825 –1863 (Syracuse:Syracuse University Press,1994).

The Five Points neighborhood in lower Manhattan illustrates the segregated housing patterns that emerged as New York City experienced rapid growth. Immigrants, free African

Americans, the poor, and criminals were crowded together in New York’s most notorious slum, while wealthier people moved to more prosperous neighborhoods. SOURCE:1859 lithograph;The Granger Collection.

Ethnic Neighborhoods and Urban Popular Culture

Irish and German immigrants created ethnic enclaves.A new urban popular culture emerged:

the taverntheatersthe penny press

Middle Class challenged

Part Four:

Urban America

Class Structure and Living Patterns in the Cities

The gap between rich and poor grew rapidly.Economic class was reflected by residence as:

poor people (70 %) lived in cheap rented housingmiddle-class residents (25-30 %) lived in more comfortable homesvery rich (about 3 percent) built mansions and large town houses.

Civic Order

Americans grew concerned that cities would become centers of disorder. Cities began to hire more city watchmen, police. Riots targeted Catholics and African Americans.

In 1849 a rather commonplace riot broke out at the Astor Place Theater when Irish members of the audience objected to a British actor. This riot, however, spiraled into 36 hours of

violence and 22 fatalities, quelled only when city officials, for the first time, called in the Army to control it. SOURCE:The Astor palace Riot,Museum of the City of New York.

The Urban Life of Free African Americans About half of the nation’s free African Americans lived in the North:

residential segregationjob discriminationsegregated public schoolslimits on their civil rights

African Americans formed support networks, newspapers, and churches. Dim economic prospects for African-American men. African Americans engaged in antislavery activitiesTargets of urban violence.

Part Four:

The Labor Movement and Urban Politics

The Tradition of Artisanal Politics

Cities had been centers of organized artisans and skilled workers.Worker associations, parades and celebrations were parts of the urban community. By the 1830s, skilled craft workers were being undercut by industrialization.Workers’ associations became increasingly class-conscious. Urban worker protest against change focused on party politics. Both major parties tried to woo the votes of organized workers.

This seal of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen illustrates in its motto—“By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand”—the personal and community pride artisans took in

their work. SOURCE:Abraham Godwin,print.Courtesy,Winterthur Museum.

The Union Movement

Workers organized trade unions and formed city-wide “General Trades Unions.” The local groups then organized the National Trades Union. The trade union movement was met with hostility and most collapsed during the Panic of 1837. Early unions included only skilled white workers.

Big-City Machines

Competition for the votes of workers shaped urban politics.Big-city machines arose reflecting the class structure of the fast-growing cities. The machines cultivated feelings of community by:

appealing directly for working-class votes through mass organizational activitiescreating organizations that met basic needs of the urban poor

The machines also had a tight organizational structureCorruption arose.

Part Five:

Social Reform Movements

Evangelism, Reform and Social Control Middle-class promoted various reform campaigns. Evangelical religion drove the reform spirit forward. Reformers recognized that:

traditional small-scale methods of reform no longer workedthe need was for larger-scale institutions

Reform characteristicsThe doctrine of perfectionism basic belief in the goodness of people moralistic dogmatism.

Regional and national reform organizations emerged from local projects..Reformers mixed political and social activities.

Education and Women Teachers

Educational reformers changed the traditional ways of education by:

no longer viewing children as sinners whose wills had to be brokenseeing children as innocents who needed gentle nurturing.

Work of Horace Mann and others led to tax-supported public schools. Women were seen as more nurturing and encouraged to become teachers.

Winslow Homer’s famous painting, The Country School is both affectionate and realistic, showing both the idealism of the young female teacher and the barefoot condition of most of

her pupils. SOURCE:Winslow Homer,The Country School ,1871.St.Louis Art Museum

This Currier and Ives lithograph, The Drunkard’s Progress, dramatically conveys the message that the first glass leads the drinker inevitably to alcoholism and finally to the grave, while his

wife and child (shown under the arch) suffer. SOURCE:The Drunkard ’s Progress ,Library of Congress.

Temperance

Middle-class reformers sought to change alcohol habits.Temperance seen as a panacea for all social problems. Working class joined the temperance crusade. By the mid-1840s alcohol consumption had been cut in half. Chart: Per Capita Consumption of Alcohol

FIGURE 13.2 Per Capita Consumption of Alcohol

1800–60 The underlying cause of the dramatic fall in alcohol

consumption during the 1830s was the changing nature of work brought about by the

market revolution. Contributing factors were the shock of the Panic of 1837 and the untiring

efforts of temperance reformers. SOURCE:W.J.Rorabaugh,The Alcoholic Republic:An American Tradition (New

York:Oxford University Press,1979).

Moral Reform, Asylums, and Prisons

Reformers also attacked prostitution but had little success. The asylum movement promoted humane treatment of the insane and criminals.

Reform Movements in the Burned-Over District

The region of New York most changed by the Erie Canal became “Burned-Over District”.Map: Reform Movements in the Burned-Over DistrictThe reform movements originating or thriving there included:

the Mormon Churchutopian groups like the Millerites and Fourieritesantislavery sentimentthe women’s rights movement

MAP 13.2 Reform Movements in the Burned-Over District The so-called Burned-Over District, the region of New York State most changed by the opening of the Erie Canal, was a seedbed of religious and reform movements. The Mormon Church originated there, and Utopian groups and

sects like the Millerites and the Fourierists thrived. Charles G. Finney held some of this most successful evangelical revivals in the district. Antislavery feeling was common in the region, and the

women’s rights movement began at Seneca Falls. SOURCE:Whitney Cross,The Burned-Over District (1950;reprint,New York:Hippocrene Books,1981).

Utopianism and Mormonism

Utopianism:Millerites and Shakers saw an apocalyptic end of history.Shakers also practiced celibacy amid a fellowship of equality. Conversely, Oneida Community practiced “complex marriage.” New Harmony unsuccessfully attempted a kind of socialism.

Shaker Hannah Cohoon’s 1845 painting of the Tree of Life—her effort to reproduce a vision she had seen while in a religious trance—communicates the intense spirituality of Shaker life.

SOURCE:Hannah Harrison Cohoon,Tree of Life, 1845,tempera on paper.From the collection of Hancock Shaker Village,Pittsfield,MA.

Utopianism and Mormonism

Mormonism:Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830Close cooperation and hard work made the most successful communitarian movementThey migrated to Utah in 1846 under the leadership of Brigham Young.

Part Six:

Antislavery and Abolitionism

The American Colonization Society

Various antislavery steps had been taken prior to the 1820s. None addressed the continuing reality of southern slavery. Small number of free African Americans founded Liberia.

African Americans’ Fight Against Slavery

Free African Americans rejected colonization.They founded abolitionist societies that:

demanded equal treatmentdemanded an end to slaveryencouraged slave rebellions.

The different dates on these two widely used antislavery images are important. The title page of

Thomas Branagan’s 1807 book includes a then already commonly used image of a male slave. The engraving of a chained female slave was made by

Patrick Reason, a black artist, in 1835. The accompanying message, “Am I Not a Woman and a

Sister?” spoke particularly to white female abolitionists in the North, who were just becoming

active in antislavery movements in the 1830s. SOURCE:Library of Congress.

Abolitionists

William Lloyd Garrison headed the best-known group of antislavery reformers.Garrison denounced all compromise.The American Anti-Slavery Society drew on the style of religious revivalists. Abolitionists mailed over a million pieces of propaganda. Several abolitionists were violently attacked and one was killed.

In 1837, white abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy had placed the press he used to print his antislavery newspaper in an Alton, Illinois warehouse in order to protect the press against a mob. This

contemporary woodcut depicts the mob’s attack on the warehouse. Lovejoy died defending it. SOURCE:The Granger Collection.

Abolitionism and Politics

Abolition began soon became a national political issue.Abolitionists called for abolition in the District of Columbia.Congress imposed a “gag rule” tabling all such petitions.Abolitionist unity splintered along racial and political lines.White abolitionists founded the Liberty Party.

Part Seven:

The Women’s Rights Movement

Women’s gatherings, like the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, and this meeting of strikers in Lynn in 1860, were indicators of wide-spread female activism.

SOURCE:Lynn Museum.

Women and Reform

Women were active members of all reform societies.The Grimkes became the first female public speakers in American history. Seneca Falls women’s rights convention in 1848.Historians acknowledged central role women played in reform movements.

Part Eight:

Conclusion