Transcript Reform in American Society
Reform in American Society
America’s Spiritual Awakening Section 1
Second Great Awakening
• During the early decades of the
19 th Century, people again turned to religion
• In many cases it was for the
same reasons which led to the First Great Awakening in the 1700s – fear of change
Great Awakenings First Second
• Fate controlled by
omnipotent God
• People could not
save selves from damnation
• Religion=fear • “Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God”
• In US and Europe • Free will • People could seek
salvation and control destiny
• Focus on saving
soul, not hellfire and damnation.
• Led to reforms
in the North
Charles G. Finney
• Finney preached in NY • His message differed
from that of Jonathan Edwards
• People could be saved and seek
salvation
• Conversion brought thousands
back to the church
Religion in the 19
th
Century
• Revivals were held throughout the
country, but were most effective in the North
• New converts were asked to
examine their soul and become a better person
Religion in the 19
th
Century
• African-American churches united
slaves in a common belief of freedom
• Churches in the north, like Rev.
Richard Allen’s Bethel African Church, provided a cultural center
Transcendentalists
• In the early and mid-1800s, a
group of people started looking at the world, religion and the changing economy in a different way.
• Most sought a simpler life and
focused on emotions and feeling
Transcendentalists
• Ralph Waldo Emerson – writer • Henry David Thoreau – Walden
and Civil Disobedience
• Unitarians – religious group who
tried to make people better through reforms
Utopian Communities
• Shakers -
Lee, 6000 members in several states
• Forbid marriage and sex • Lack of members caused
its demise
• Amana settlement
allowed marriage and survived Religious, Mother Ann
Utopian Communities
• Brook Farm -
founded by George Ripley
• Communal living where everyone
worked for the common good.
Utopian Communities Before the Civil War
Utopian Communities
• Utopian communities generally
failed within a few years due to lack of funding or internal problems.
American Romantics
• True romanticism believes that every individual brings a certain uniqueness to the world and are therefore valuable for their individual contributions • Thomas Cole: painted western landscapes • Nathaniel Hawthorne: • Emily Dickinson
The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick
• Edgar Allan Poe: the Raven • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Walt Whitman: great patriotic poet • Wonderful expressions of individual joy and pain is portrayed during this era
Section 2 Early Immigration and Urban Reform
Main Idea
A wave of Irish and German immigrants entered the United States during a period of urbanization and reform.
Reading Focus
• Why did many Irish and Germans immigrate to the United States in the 1840s and 1850s?
• What was life in the United States like for the new immigrants?
• How did urbanization and industrialization lead to reform?
Irish and German Immigrants
• Since the 1700s, the poor people of Ireland had relied on the potato as their staple, or major, food crop.
• From 1845 to 1849, a disease, or blight, struck the crop, severely restricting the potato harvest.
• Deprived of their primary food source and receiving little relief from the ruling British government, Ireland’s poor faced starvation.
• By 1850 about 1 million had died during the Great Irish Famine.
• Desperate to save themselves and their families, about 1.5 million of them settled in the United States.
Irish and German Immigrants
• Like the Irish, many Germans were fleeing conditions in their homeland . • Some fled economic depression and overpopulation, which made jobs scarce • Others left to escape religious persecution, harsh tax laws, or military service.
• Still others fled their country after a revolution in 1848 failed .
. • Many Germans came to the United States in search of free land and business opportunities.
• Push-pull model of immigration: factors that cause people to leave their homeland are “pushes,” and factors that cause people to move to a particular country are called “pulls.”
The Lives of Immigrants
• Many immigrant groups to the United States have faced discrimination.
• As the number of Irish immigrants grew, so too did these feelings of nativism, or opposition to immigration.
• But the influx of a huge number of poor, Catholic, Irish immigrants in such a short time changed many Americans’ views.
• They began to regard immigrants as a threat to their way of life.
The Lives of Immigrants
• Nearly as many Germans as Irish immigrated to the United States in the mid-1800s.
• Fortunately for the Germans, they did not encounter the same hostility that greeted Irish immigrants.
• Most German immigrants were middle class and Protestant.
• They could afford to travel far inland, seeking free or cheap land, reunions with relatives, or other opportunities in the heartland.
• German immigrants worked as farmers, artisans, factory workers, and in other occupations.
Reform, Urbanization, and Industrialization
• By the mid-1800s, large American cities were home to some tremendously wealthy people. • The vast majority of urban Americans, however, were very poor. • Many city-dwellers lived in tenements, or poorly made, crowded apartment buildings.
• Lacked adequate light, ventilation, and sanitation – They were very unhealthy places to live.
• Disease spread rapidly in the crowded conditions.
Reform, Urbanization, and Industrialization
• In some cities, local boards of health were established to set sanitation rules. • Enforcement was often uneven, and the poorer neighborhoods received less attention than richer ones.
• Local reform societies reached only a fraction of those who needed help.
• For the most part, the poor of America’s large cities fended for themselves, helping their families, neighbors, and friends as best they could.
• Serious efforts at reforming cities would not begin until late in the century.
Reform, Urbanization, and Industrialization
• Previously, most Americans had worked on farms. – Worked for themselves, kept the profits they earned, and made much of what they needed • American factory workers were wage earners who were paid a set amount by business owners . • Using their limited wages, they had to buy the things they needed from merchants in the city where they lived .
• A new social class arose: the urban working class.
– Most of them were poor and uneducated.
– Many were immigrants.
• Business owners wanted to maximize their profits. – Resulted in low wages, long hours, and unsafe working conditions for workers
Reform, Urbanization, and Industrialization
• In the 1820s, workers began to organize into groups to demand higher wages, shorter hours, and safer working conditions.
• Labor movement: efforts by workers to improve their situation • Skilled workers, such as carpenters and masons, formed organizations to regulate their pay.
• In 1834 several smaller groups united to form the National Trades Union in New York City.
• The labor movement faced fierce opposition from business owners and many government officials.
Reform, Urbanization, and Industrialization
• The Ten-Hour Movement: a labor reform campaign to limit the working day to 10 hours from the more common 12 hours or more • By 1840, all federal employees received a 10-hour workday.
• In the mid-1840s, New Hampshire became the first state to limit the workday to 10 hours. Other states followed New Hampshire’s example.
• Despite this success, laborers remained very much at the whim of business owners. It would be decades before they made substantial progress in improving their work conditions.
• Many people were not happy about immigration •
Nativism
: an extreme dislike for immigrants by native born people and a desire to limit immigration • Nativists disliked: • Irish, Asians, Jews and Eastern Europeans
Section 3
Reforming Society
Prison Reform
• Alexis de Tocqueville visited
America to observe the prison system
• He was dismayed at the amount
of abuse
Prison Reform
• Dorthea Dix was horrified to see
mentally ill and handicapped people in prisons alongside violent criminals.
• She led the drive to build
separate facilities for mentally ill people
Children in the Jails
• Josiah Quincy (I think grandson of Quincy that defended the British soldiers at the Boston Massacre ) wanted to separate the sentencing for adults and children • The children should receive less time for the crimes and work more on rehabilitation • Rehabilitation worked on preparing the individual for life outside the jail with education and job skills
Common – School movement
• Horace Mann
pushed for free and compulsory education for all children.
• He helped establish tax
supported schools, a longer school year and teacher training
School Reform
• McGuffy Readers were used to
teach children to read
• They combined phonics with
stories encouraging hard work, punctuality and sobriety.
School Reform
• Catherine Beecher
sought to create teachers from spinster women
• Schools also
responsible for raising children
School Reform
Secondary School Enrollment 1840-1860
Temperance
• The beverages of choice
in the 1800s were beer and whiskey
• With the new machinery of the
Industrial Revolution, men were getting injured and even killed
• Reformers blamed alcohol on the
breakup of families and poverty
Temperance
• Women led the
temperance movement.
• Temperance societies
sprung up throughout the country
• They were so successful
that alcohol consumption dropped by 50%
Temperance
• American Temperance Society and the American Temperance Union helped spread the message • “Alcohol corrupted society”
Education for Women
• Sara Grimke ran one of several
schools open for women
• Emma Willard started the first
college for women
• Oberlin College opened their doors
to women
• Elizabeth Blackwell became
America’s first female doctor
Education for Women
• Catherine
Beecher(daughter of Lyman Beecher) took a survey on women’s health and found that 3 of every 4 th woman was ill since they rarely bathed or exercised.
• She started a school
for all girls
• Before 1820s most
girls only attended elementary school
Education for people with Disabilties
• Samuel Howe worked to provide a way for those with visual disabilities to receive an education • Thomas Gallaudet studied to provide those with hearing impairments an education
Section 4
The movement to End Slavery
Abolitionists
• By the 1820s some people
began to openly question the morality of slavery
• Others wanted violent
uprisings
What to do with free slaves?
• Some proposed that all Blacks be
sent “back” to Africa Robert Finley started the American Coloniation Society
• This society founded Liberia on
the west coast of Africa and approximately 12,000 African Americans relocated there
Abolitionists
• Charles Finney preached about
the evils of slavery
• Most whites in the north gave
slavery no attention at all
• Some, particularly the Irish,
wanted slavery to continue
Abolitionists
• William Lloyd Garrison -
editor of “The Liberator”
• Wanted slave holders to
release their slaves immediately with no payment for their loss
• He associated with Africans who
promoted violence
• Found the Anti-Slavery Society
Abolitionists
• David Walker – wrote “Appeal to the
Colored Citizens of the World”
• Was completely against the returning
to Africa idea. He argued America was his not Africa and it had been built with the blood and sweat of other black men– why should he leave?
• Thought that slaves that did not
revolt deserved to be enslaved
Abolitionists
• Frederick Douglass -
born a slave and ran away as a child
• Eloquent speaker who talked about
his life as a slave
• Worked with Garrison for a time
but split with him to write “The North Star”
The Underground Railroad, was a vast network of people who helped runaway slaves escape to the Northern United States and into Canada.It was not run by just a single person,but it consisted of many individuals.
Slaves followed the North Star and used songs to pass along information to each other for a safe passing “Follow the Drinking Gourd” was one most used
Most African Americans resisted their enslavement. They used techniques such as work slow-downs, sabotage, sickness, self mutilation, or the destruction of property.To get to their destination point they used the Underground Railroad to transport them.Harriet Tubman was one involved in the Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad was neither "under the ground“ or a "railroad system," but was a loose network of aid and assistance to fugitives from captivity. Perhaps as many as 100,000 enslaved Africans may have escaped in the years between The American Revolution and the Civil War
Opposition to Abolition not only in the South
• Many Northerners did not believe in abolition because they thought the freed slaves would take jobs • The debates were so heated in Congress that a Gag Rule was issued to keep it from being discussed in the Legislature • The South argued for the continuance because of their economic needs
This rest of the slides for section 4 are a review from Chapter 14
Thank you for participating
Slavery
• America continued to import
slaves until 1808 (legally)
• Natural birth rate caused the
slave population to soar
• By the mid 1800s,
all slaves were born in America and spoke English ( unless they were illegally traded and many were )
Slavery
• Life
expectancy for slaves in America was much longer than Africans who lived in Africa
• THIS CHART DOES NOT
SUPPORT THIS INFO)
Slavery
• Men, women and
children worked from sun up to sun down.
• Slave marriages were
not considered “legal under the eyes of God” so families could be sold apart.
Slavery
• Immigrant labor did
not come to the south so many slaves learned skills
• Some hired
themselves out for pay
Slavery
• All slaves,
regardless of age, worked
• This little boy was
a ‘companion’ for the daughter of his owner.
Urban and Rural Slavery
• Slaves in the cotton fields worked
all day in the hot sun, ate substandard food, lived in wooden shacks and were beaten for minor infractions.
• Slaves in larger towns worked for
pay which was shared with their owner. They did not have an overseer.
Slave Uprisings
• Nat Turner
uprising leading to the death of 55 whites. – 1831, led an
• The retaliation led to the deaths
of hundreds of slaves and strengthening the slave codes
Slave Codes
• Regions and counties made laws for
slaves only to make certain that slaves stay under the control of whites
• After uprisings, codes became
stricter, some not allowing more than 2 slaves to gather
Slave Codes
• Most states made it illegal to teach
slaves how to read and write or learn a trade.
• They could not travel without
papers.
• Even then, there was a chance that
they would be kidnapped and sold to another owner
Pro-Slavery Advocates
• Southerners defended slavery by – The Bible – “Slaves should obey
their masters…”
– Slaves were learning about Jesus
and away from the ‘savages’ in Africa
– Slaves were ‘happy’ doing menial
labor
Economics of Slavery
• The cost of a prime field hand was
about $1,500 - $2,000
• It cost about $20 each year to
care for a slave
• The care was necessary from birth
to death, 60-70 years, and during non-growing seasons
Section 5
Women’s Rights
Cult of Domesticity
• Women’s roles changed in the
early to mid 1800s but they were still treated like property
• Some women began protesting for
equality for women and slaves
Cult of Domesticity
• Women were ‘housewives’ once
they got married
• There jobs included cooking,
cleaning, tending to the children, and household food
• These are the women who were
impacted by the Second Great Awakening
Cult of Domesticity
• Women in the 1830s had more
free time than their mothers since they could hire immigrants to help with domestic chores
• They joined the causes of
abolitionism and temperance, and eventually, feminism
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
• Daughters of southern slaveholders,
the Grimke movement sisters became avid spokesmen for the anti-slavery
• In 1833, Sarah wrote “Letters on the
Equality of the Sexes and the condition of Women”
• Angelina wrote “An Appeal to Christian
Women of the South” urging them to rid the country of slavery
Seneca Falls Convention
• Sojourner Truth,
Isabella Baumfree as a slave abolitionism , spoke about her life
• She was booed and
hissed at because the women did not want feminism to get lost while promoting
Seneca Falls Convention
• In 1848
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held a convention for women’s rights
• They declared that
women were entitled to the same rights and equality as men
Seneca Falls Convention
The organizers wrote the Declaration of Sentiments which detailed the injustice that was occurring throughout this country toward women.
Continued fight for equal rights
• Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony took up the fight to provide women with equality • Anthony argued for not only political rights but also wanted equal pay for an equal job • She also fought to allow women into predominantly male roles • In 1860, because of her work and persistence, New York finally gave women ownership of her wages and property