5: age of reform - mexican-american war

Question 1

Transcendentalism

Answer 1

Developed from romanticism and had beliefs that changes in society were leading to a morally corrupt one, and the only way to escape (or to transcend/rise above) these evils was to connect with nature and one’s true self; prioritized intuition over logic (shift away from the Enlightenment) and saw spirituality in everyday life

Question 2

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Answer 2

American speaker/writer who urged the American people to develop a self-reliant, distinctive culture rather than adopt that of Europe

Question 3

Henry David Thoreau

Answer 3

American writer and philosopher (transcendentalist) who also believed in the policy of civil disobedience

Question 4

Shakers

Answer 4

Society in New York that shared property and forbade men and women to marry/have sexual relations, leading to the community eventually dying out because not many new people were joining it

Question 5

Oneida Community

Answer 5

Community founded in the 1850s in New England; practiced polygamy and shared essentially everything (including material possessions and partners); ended up becoming a capitalistic corporation

Question 6

New Harmony

Answer 6

Founded by Robert Owen in Illinois with the premise of escaping the industrial society in the Northeast; ended up fading away due to lack of cooperation among its inhabitants

Question 7

American literature

Answer 7

Edgar Allen Poe - The Raven
Herman Melville - Moby Dick

Question 8

2nd Great Awakening

Answer 8

Rejected Enlightenment beliefs (deism / rationalism) and appealed to people emotionally / spiritually, encouraging active piety and especially appealing to the middle class by preaching that they could achieve salvation through hard work and faith

Question 9

Hierarchy of White society in the South

Answer 9

1) Planters - owned plantations and many slaves, although may not have lived as lavishly as some believe
2) Plain folk - owned few to no slaves but aspired to become planters
3) Hill people / “hillbillies” - lived in the mountains or hills of the northern South and were typically poor; resented planters and the peculiar institution
4) Slaves
Led to little class conflict because many supported this hierarchy, but also because people opposed were too spread out to interact.

Question 10

Texas independence/annexation

Answer 10

Mexico had declared independence from Spain many years before annexation, but their land (Texas) was sparsely populated, so they allowed American settlers to populate it (also to create a buffer zone between Texas and the Natives). Over time, the American population began to exceed the Mexican population, but Americans disliked the rules they instated (ie, mandatory conversion to Roman Catholicism) and declared Texas independent from Mexico.

Question 11

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Answer 11

Treaty that ended the Mexican-American War; established that the Southern border of Texas be the Rio Grande and gave New Mexico, California, and Texas to the United States for $15M

Question 12

Wilmot Proviso

Answer 12

A proposition by Whigs in Congress that slavery should be outlawed in all states gained from the Mexican-American War (was not passed)

Question 13

Cavalier image

Answer 13

• Included code of honor, which included chivalry (defending the honor of oneself/one’s wife as well)
• Included paternalism (used to justify slavery in many ways)
• Believed that the peculiar institution helped the South have a unique, distinctive culture
• Southern gentleman

Question 14

General Colonization Law of 1824

Answer 14

Allowed foreigners (ie, Americans) to settle in Texas and own land (creates buffer between Mexico and Native Americans)

Question 15

Brook farm

Answer 15

Northeast (secular / nonreligious) community where many transcendentalists went (ie, Emerson) and appealed to New England’s intellectual elite and their children

Question 16

American Colonization Society

Answer 16

Wanted gradual emancipation & for freed slaves to return to Africa

Question 17

American Antislavery Society

Answer 17

Founded by William Lloyd Garrison and had very radical ideas (ie, burning the Constitution)

Question 18

Treaty of Velasco (1836)

Answer 18

Treaty that Santa Anna signed while being a prisoner of war; supposedly pushed the American border of Texas to the Rio Grande, but was unrecognized by the Mexican government (conceded in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo)