Transcript CHAPTERS 14 AND 15 New Movements in America and A Divided

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4 million immigrants settled in the United States between 1840 and
1860
3 million of them came from Ireland and Germany
Irish immigrants fled their country because of the potato blight – this
was a disease that rotted potatoes
Over a million Irish people died of starvation
German immigrants came to the U.S. for economic opportunities and
freedom from government control
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Nativists = Americans who opposed immigration
Know-Nothing Party = nativists who supported immigration
restrictions to protect jobs and culture of native-born Americans
Wanted to keep Catholics out of political offices and wanted
immigrants to live in the U.S. for 21 years before becoming citizens
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Industrial Revolution led to new jobs in American cities
City jobs drew immigrants to cities as well as Americans from rural areas
Cities grew if there were many manufacturing jobs in the region
Transportation Revolution helped connect cities
Growth of cities led to the emergence of the middle-class
Middle-class = social and economic level between the wealthy and the poor
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Many immigrants lived in tenements – poorly designed apartment
buildings that housed large numbers of people
Cities did not have clean water or effective garbage and waste disposal
Diseases spread easily
Cities became centers of criminal activity
Cities did not have police forces in the mid-1800s
Volunteer night watches fought crime
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Christian renewal that began in the late 18th century
Began in the Northeast
Charles Grandison Finney believed that salvation was in
the hands of the individual and that sin was avoidable
Many people converted to Christianity after hearing his
sermons
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Reform (change) effort to urge people to use discipline to
stop drinking hard liquor
Movement began because many Americans blamed alcohol
abuse for social problems such as crime
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She was a prison reformer
She spoke of the horrible conditions of prisons
She inspired the building of separate facilities for the
mentally ill
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Common-school movement = members wanted all children to learn in the same place
regardless of background
Horace Mann (Massachusetts) was a leader who doubled school budgets, raised teacher
salaries, set up the first school for teacher training, and extended the school year
Catherine Beecher founded an all-female academy and wrote many essays stressing the
importance of women’s education
Several Northern and Midwestern cities created schools for free African American
children
 Example (Do not copy) – Philadelphia, which was heavily influenced by Quakers, had
7 African-American schools by 1800, since Quakers believed in equality for all
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Abolition = the complete end to slavery
Benjamin Franklin was the president of the first anti-slavery society in America
Quakers challenged slavery by saying it was against God’s will
American Anti-Slavery Society – called for the immediate emancipation
(freeing) and racial equality for African Americans
Federal government issued a “gag rule” between 1836 and 1844 preventing
Congress from discussing antislavery petitions
Nat Turner’s Rebellion affected the South because people stopped discussing
slavery openly
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Underground Railroad – organization was NOT an actual railroad but
was a network of people who arranged transportation and hiding
places for escaped slaves
Harriet Tubman – led many slaves to freedom as a conductor on the
Underground Railroad
Emancipation was almost impossible in the South because of the
South’s economic dependence on slavery
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Former slave who contributed to the abolitionist cause
Believed in the same freedom and independence that white Americans
won for themselves in 1776
Argued that African Americans deserved the right to vote to protect
their interests
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Former slave who contributed to the abolitionist cause
Claimed God called her to preach about the truth about
slavery and women’s rights
Said women should not be thought of as the weaker sex
and they deserve equality
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Women’s reform movement argued that women deserved the right to vote (suffrage)
“Suffragettes” gained many male supporters
Movement claimed that men and women were different rather than unequal
Susan B. Anthony won married women the right to control their own wages and
property in 1860 in New York
Seneca Falls Convention (1848) – marked the start of the organized women’s rights
movement; organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott in Seneca Falls,
New York
Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments was modeled on the Declaration of
Independence (1776)