Nationalism, Movement and Reforms

1
Nationalism, Movement and Reforms

• America After War of 1812 until 1840s

2
Economic impact on society culture

• Nationalism country is connected by idea of
  nation, by internal trade networks, by internal
  manufacturing, by new transportation, by new
  press
• Ideas for reform look at nation and see
  problems how to fix them?

3
Labor Issues

• Child Labor prevalent at this time
• Increasing popular movement against child labor
  by end of 1800s (1890s)
• Protests against working conditions in the mills
• Organized strikes
• By 1840, protests to shorten workday
• Gender division of labor with wage work not
  working toward a shared family goal

4
Economics to Politics

• New era of politics in America
• By this time, we were an established nation
• By 1816 and our second victory against Britain,
  Americans are fairly confident they are here to
  stay and are considered legitimate in the eyes of
  the world
• Different political ideals and visions than the
  years of 1783-1815

5
Politics and Reform Ideas

• Religion played a major role
• Motivation of organized benevolence and reform
• Revivals inspired interest in social movements
• South large numbers of women and African
  Americans (both slave and free) attended revivals
• West as Methodists and Baptists moved west,
  migration spread religion as well as impulse for
  moral reform

6
Jacksonianism

• Andrew Jackson 1828
• Offered alternative to strong federal government
• Viewed central government as enemy of individual
  liberty
• Favored agrarian ideals
• Feared concentration of economic and political
  power
• Restore independence of individual artisan and
  ordinary farmer
• Grassroots ideals
• Opposed reform as a movement
• Many reformers wanted a more active government
• Opposed educational reforms

7
Jacksonianism and Reform

• Reformers in a different way
• Emphasized individualism
• Restore republican virtues of prudence and
  economy
• Self-discipline and self-reliance
• Strengthen the executive branch of government as
  he weakened the federal role
• Personal popularity helps to strengthen
  presidential power ironic result
• Also had many opponents

8
Politics and the Growing Nation

• Social Movements become increasingly popular
• Diverse movements
• All share some similarities while each one is
  unique
• Public School Movement (we have already examined
  and discussed)
• Abolition, Temperance, Womens Rights, Mental
  Health Reform Movements

9
Social Movements and Social Reforms

• Abolition Womens Rights Movement
• We have seen the beginnings of these movements
  before the American Revolution encouraged many
  of these sentiments
• Large-scale social movements often have a long
  history
• Impact of Nationalism and growing country

10
Social Movements

• Abolitionist Movement
• Womens Rights Movement
• Temperance
• Labor Reform
• Dorothea Dix and reforms for care of the mentally
  ill
• Hospital and public school reforms
• Many other reform movements

11
Dorothea Dix

• Mental health reformer Dorothea Dix devoted her
  life to improving living conditions for the
  mentally ill. In 1824 she began visiting
  poorhouses and jails where the insane were housed
  in order to record the conditions under which
  they lived. Dix's reports were disturbing and
  graphic, compelling many state legislatures to
  build psychiatric hospitals where the mentally
  ill received better treatment.

12
Abolitionist Movement

• Moral issues connect to the rise of
  religious-based reform movements
• Moral intensity
• Leaders of movement viewed the institution of
  slavery as evil
• This sentiment combined with growth of free black
  population, black leaders and journalists and
  writers as well as northern emancipation laws all
  formed the basis for a strong abolitionist
  movement in the US
• Will examine this movement in depth on Wednesday
  when we look at division between North and South

13
Womens Movement

• We already saw the beginnings of this Abigail
  Adams and post-revolutionary ideology
• Women are major players in the religious
  revivals, created female reform societies
• Women as key activists in Temperance movement
• Temperance sought to stop sale and consumption
  of alcohol
• Why would women be leaders in this movement? Why
  would this be a legitimate public role for women?
• All of these early reform efforts taught women
  about the political process, taught them how to
  organize and created a national network of women

14
Seneca Falls Convention 1848

• Seneca Falls Womens Rights Convention
• After participation in religious revival and
  reform movements, more and more women starting to
  reexamine their positions in society
• Market economy new occupations outside home
• Women abolitionists among leaders
• July 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia
  Mott, and Lucy Stone organized convention
• Men and women attended

15
Seneca Falls Convention

• Declaration of Sentiments
• Primary Document reading
• Group discussions

16
Seneca Falls Convention

• Declaration of Sentiments
• All men and women are created equal
• Based on Declaration of Independence
• Called for property and legal rights
• Political rights to vote
• Protested exclusion form schooling and
  occupations

17
Seneca Falls and Suffrage

• Important note many women were against women
  having right to vote
• Divisive issue at the Convention no consensus
  even among attendees of Womens Rights Convention
• If this is a contested issue among womens rights
  activists, how do you the rest of the nation
  felt?
• Only 2 women who signed suffrage petition at
  Seneca Falls in 1848 would live to see the
  passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 (72
  years later)

18
Connection betweenAbolitionism and Womens
Movement

• These were intricately linked together
• Cannot really discuss Womens Movement without
  discussing the role of Abolitionism
• Every social reform movement built on one another
• Temperance and the Antimason movement help build
  support for the abolitionist movement as well
• Many individuals in all the movements were either
  the same or knew each other

19
Politics, Economics and Social Issues of this
time (1816-1845)

• Maturing nation
• Confident and assured
• Economy changing and growing
• Massive social movements developing
• Active citizenry
• Active debates
• Nation of movements social and physical

20
Newspapers, Movements and Spread of Ideas and
National Culture

• Advances in printing technology
• increase of literacy
• birth of a new kind of American newspaper in the
  1830s
• aimed at a lower- and middle-class readership.
• The most popular of these inexpensive dailies, or
  "penny press" newspapers, were based in New York
  City but had an almost national circulation.
• newspapers such as the New York Sun (founded in
  1833), the New York Herald (1835) and the New
  York Tribune (1841) dominated the national news
  in the antebellum era.
• As literacy spread, regional newspapers also
  multiplied

21
Looking Ahead

• All of this movement physically and socially
  has further divided an already divided nation
• The economic, political, social and geographic
  changes we looked at will come into play as we
  move to the discussion of life in the North, West
  and South between 1830 and 1860