Title: Ch.15, Sec.1- America
1Ch.15, Sec.1- Americas Spiritual Awakening
2The Second Great Awakening
- Charles Grandison Finney was one of the most
important leaders of the Second Great Awakening.
Finney held prayer meetings that would last for
days, and many people converted to Christianity
during these revivals. - Church membership grew across the country during
the Second Great Awakening, many of whom were
women or African-American.
3Transcendentalism and Utopian Communities
- Transcendentalism was the belief that people
could rise above the material things in life,
such as money and personal belongings.
Transcendentalists believed that people should
depend on themselves instead of upon outside
authority. Some people who believed in this
philosophy were - Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote about his beliefs
in his essay Self Reliance in 1841. In his essay,
he said Americans depended too much on
institutions and traditions, and he wanted people
to follow their personal beliefs and use their
own judgment. - Margaret Fuller, who wrote a book called Woman in
the Nineteenth Century in 1845. In it, she said
women had the right to choose their own paths in
life. - Henry David Thoreau, who expressed his ideas in
his book Walden, or Life in the Woods, in 1854.
4Transcendentalism and Utopian Communities cont.
- In the 1840s some transcendentalists formed a
community at Brook Farm, Massachusetts, which
didnt last long. It was an attempt at having a
utopian community, which tried to form a perfect
society on Earth. In 1774, Ann Lee started a
community of Shakers, which were called that
because their bodies would shake during worship.
5The American Romantics
- Famous American romantics during this time period
were 1. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote The
Scarlet Letter. 2. Herman Melville, who wrote
Moby Dick and Billy Budd. 3. Edgar Allen Poe, who
wrote The Raven. - Several famous poets came out of this time period
as well, like Emily Dickinson, who only had 2 of
her poems published during her lifetime, but
hundreds published after her death in 1886. Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow published Hiawatha, the
Courtship of Miles Standish, and Tales of a
Wayside Inn. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote Poems
Written during the Progress of the Abolition
Question. Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass
in 1855.
6Sec.2- Immigrants and Cities
7Waves of Immigrants
- More than 4 million immigrants settled in the
U.S. between 1840 and 1860, which 3 million were
German or Irish. Most of the Irish immigrants who
came over during this time period came to escape
the Potato famine.
8The Nativist Response
- Americans who opposed immigration and didnt
trust Catholic immigrants were called nativists.
In 1849, nativists founded a secret society that
became a political organization known as the
Know-Nothing Party. It was called this because
when asked a question by an outsider they
responded I know nothing. They wanted to keep
Catholics and immigrants out of public office.
They also wanted immigrants to have to live in
the U.S. for at least 21 years before they could
become citizens.
9Urban Problems
- Many people, particularly immigrants, could only
afford to live in dirty, overcrowded buildings
called tenements. Many cities did not have clean
water, public health regulations, or clean ways
to get rid of garbage and human waste. This led
to the spreading of diseases. Urban areas also
became centers of criminal activity, with most
cities having no permanent police force to fight
crime. Instead, they used volunteer night
watches, which were pretty useless.
10Sec.3- Reforming Society
11Prison Reform
- Dorothea Dix reported on the conditions in
prisons of how mentally ill people were being
jailed with criminals. In response, the
government of Massachusetts created special,
separate facilities for mentally ill people.
Eventually more than 100 state hospitals were
built.
12Campaigning against Alcohol Abuse
- During the 1830s, the average alcohol consumption
per person was 7 gallons a year. Many reformers
believed alcohol abuse caused social problems
such as family violence, poverty, and criminal
behavior. Americans worries about the effects of
alcohol led to the growth of a temperance
movement, which urged people to stop drinking
hard liquor and limit drinking of beer and wine
to small amounts. Some people wanted to outlaw
the sale of alcohol altogether.
13Education in America
- Most parents generally wanted their kids to learn
to read the Bible, write, and do simple math.
Most children worked in factories or farms to
help support the family. In schools, the main
textbook used in the mid-1800s was the McGuffeys
Readers, put together by an educator and
Presbyterian minister named William Holmes
McGuffey. Girls were also held out of school more
of the time than boys.
14The Common-School Movement
- People in the common-school movement wanted all
children educated in a common place, regardless
of class or background. Horace Mann was the
leading voice for education reform in the
mid-1800s. He doubled the state school budget in
Massachusetts and helped teachers earn better
salaries. He also made the school year longer and
founded the first school for teacher training.
15Womens Education
- Catharine Beecher became one of the most
effective reformers of womens education in the
early 1800s. She started an all female academy in
Hartford, Connecticut, and wrote several
important essays, including On the Education of
Female Teachers. - In 1821, Emma Willard founded a college level
institution for women called Troy Female
Seminary, which was the first school of its kind
in the U.S. - In 1837, Oberlin College became the first
co-educational college in the U.S.
16African American Schools
- In 1835, Oberlin College was the first college to
admit black students.
17Teaching People with Disabilities
- Samuel Gridley Howe opened a school in 1831
called the Perkins Institution in Massachusetts
for people with visual impairments. - In 1817, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet founded the
first free American school for people with
hearing impairments in Hartford, Connecticut.
18Sec.4- The Movement to End Slavery
19Abolition
- Some people wanted abolition, or the complete end
to slavery, and some wanted emancipation, where
all enslaved African Americans would be freed
from slavery. - Some antislavery reformers wanted to send freed
African Americans to Africa to start colonies
there. In 1817, a minister named Robert Finley
started the American Colonization Society. 5
Years later, the society founded the colony of
Liberia on the west coast of Africa. About 12,000
African Americans eventually settled in Liberia. - David Walker wrote in an essay in 1829, titled
Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, why
he was against colonization.
20Spreading the Abolitionist Message
- William Lloyd Garrison published an abolitionist
newspaper in 1831 called The Liberator. In 1833,
he also helped found the American Anti-Slavery
Society, which wanted immediate emancipation and
racial equality for African Americans. - Angelina and Sarah Grimke were members of a
slaveholding family in South Carolina. Angelina
Grimke wrote a pamphlet titled Appeal to the
Christian Women of the South in 1836. These 2
sisters became the first women to speak before
male and female audiences of Anti-Slavery
Society. In 1839, they wrote American Slavery As
It Is, which was one of the most important
antislavery writings of the time.
21African Americans Fight Against Slavery
- Frederick Douglass published a pro-abolition
newspaper called North Star. - In 1861, Harriet Jacobs wrote Incidents in the
Life of a Slave Girl, which was one of the few
narratives written by a woman. - William Wells Brown wrote an anti-slavery play
and novel called Clotel.
22The Underground Railroad
- The Underground Railroad was a network of people
who arranged transportation and hiding places for
escaped slaves. These slaves were guided by the
North Star. They would stop to rest at
stations. These would be the homes of
abolitionists known as conductors. The most
famous of the conductors on the Underground
Railroad was Harriet Tubman. Tubman escaped
slavery in 1849, and she also led her family and
more than 300 slaves to freedom. She never lost a
fugitive. It is estimated that about 40,000
slaves were set free by the Underground Railroad
between 1810 and 1850. - Between 1836-1844 the U.S. House of
Representatives used a Gag Rule to prevent
discussions of the thousands of antislavery
petitions it received, which violated the First
Amendment.
23Sec.5- Womens Rights
24The Seneca Falls Convention
- In 1838, Sarah Grimke published a pamphlet
arguing for equal rights for women called Letters
on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of
Women. - In 1840, Elizabeth Cady Stanton attended the
Worlds Anti-Slavery Convention in London,
England while on her honeymoon. Stanton had to
watch the meeting separately from her husband
because women could not participate. Women had to
sit in a separate gallery of the convention hall,
hidden from the mens view by a curtain. 8 years
later, Stanton and Lucretia Mott announced the
Seneca Falls Convention. This meeting began on
July 19, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. This
convention was the first public meeting about
womens rights to be held in the U.S.
25The Continuing Struggle
- Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony were important
leaders in the womens rights movement. Anthony
argued that women and men should receive equal
pay for equal work and that women should be
allowed to enter traditionally male professions
such as law. Anthony also collected more than
6,000 signatures to petition for a new property
rights law. In 1860, New York gave married women
ownership of their wages and property, which
other states soon followed with similar laws.