Antebellum America AP United States History Unit 4
Antebellum America AP United States History Unit 4
Cycle of Religiosity Puritanism (1600 s) Great Awakening (1730 s-1740 s) Half-Way Covenant (1660 s) 2 GA (1800 s 1840 s) Revolution/ Enlightenment (1760 s-1800) Social Gospel/ Fundamentalism (1890 s-1920 s) Civil War/ Industry/ WWI (1860 s-1910 s) Cold War (1950 s) Depression/ WWII (1930 s 1940 s) “Religious Right” (1980 s-) Counterculture (1960 s-1970 s)
The Great Awakenings First Great Awakening • 1730 s – 1740 s • Jonathan Edwards – “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” • George Whitefield • Baptists, Methodists emerged • first inter-colonial shared experience Second Great Awakening • 1800 s – 1840 s • Charles G. Finney • Lyman Beecher • Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians grew • Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists emerged • inspired social reforms
2 GA Revival Meeting
Charles Finney & Lyman Beecher
The Beecher Family • Lyman Beecher (2 GA, temperance) • Catharine Beecher (education) • Harriet Beecher Stowe (abolition) • Henry Ward Beecher (women’s suffrage, temperance, abolition)
Major Antebellum Reform Movements “THE WAy” to reform • • • Temperance Humanitarian concerns Education Women’s rights Abolition
Miscellaneous Antebellum Reforms
Temperance Movement
Neal Dow • • “Napoleon of Temperance” “Father of Prohibition” Maine law (1851) by 1855, 13 states were “dry” states
Dorothea Dix
Education Horace Mann
Slavery Spectrum A (Abolitionists) – wanted slavery abolished • radicals would not want to compensate slaveowners (Garrison) • others might support compensation FS (Free-Soilers) – opposed expansion into territories M (Moderates) – supported colonization (and later, “popular sovereignty”) as potential solutions E (Expansionists) – supported expansion into territories (perhaps by extending MO Comp line) or into C/S America FE (“Fire-eaters”) – supported expansion efforts and opposed any restrictions on slavery < -A-----FS-----M-----E-----FE- >
American Colonization Society
William Lloyd Garrison
David Walker’s Appeal (1829) …they want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us…therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed…and believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty. Regarding colonization: America is more our country than it is the whites – we have enriched it with our blood and tears…[W]ill they drive us from our property and homes, which we have earned with our blood?
Cult of Domesticity (Cult of True Womanhood) 4 “pillars” • piety • purity • submission • domesticity from Godey’s Lady’s Book (1850 s)
What it would be like if Ladies had their own way!
Early Women’s Rights Advocates Abigail Adams Lucretia Mott Susan B. Anthony Grimké sisters Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Declaration of Sentiments (1848) When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a absolution. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Declaration of Sentiments (1848) • • He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns. He has made her morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master - the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement. He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes of divorce, in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given; as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of the women the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of a woman, and giving all power into his hands. After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.
Declaration of Sentiments (1848) • • • He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known. He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her. He allows her in church, as well as state, but a subordinate position, claiming apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the church. He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in man. He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God. He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.
“Declaration of Sentiments” • Which of these grievances/demands attacks the “Cult of Domesticity? ” • What demands are missing from the “Declaration? ” Why do you think they were left out? • What other changes would you have expected 19 c women to demand? What would 21 c women want? • How “radical” were these demands by 19 c standards? • What factors contributed to women making these demands in 1848? What was going on in the early 19 c that encouraged the women’s movement?
Elizabeth C. Stanton on abortion When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit. There must be a remedy even for such a crying evil as this. But where shall it be found, at least where begun, if not in the complete enfranchisement and elevation of women?
Susan B. Anthony on abortion When a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is a sign that, by education or circumstances, she has been greatly wronged. Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!
Utopian Communities How did each of the following influence the rise of utopian communities: Industrialization? Urbanization? Second Great Awakening? “Perfectionism” and Reform Movements? Jacksonian Democracy?
Utopian Communities
Mormonism Joseph Smith Brigham Young
New Harmony (IN) • Robert Owen • “utopian socialism” or communism
Shakers
Millerites and Millennialism October 21, 1844
Oneida Community (NY) • John Humphrey Noyes • gender equality • complex marriage or “free love” • mutual criticism • stirpiculture • male continence • Oneida Limited • Charles Guiteau
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.
Brook Farm (MA) • George Ripley • Transcendentalist utopian community
- Slides: 37