Chapters 16-18: Antebellum Reforms and Tensions Flashcards
(111 cards)
1
Q
What is unitarianism?
A
Human nature was essentially good, that humans had free agency, and that salvation could be attained through good works. This was a rational, optimistic approach to religion.
2
Q
What was the significance of unitarianism?
A
It was one foundation of the reform movements of the 1830’s to the 1850’s.
3
Q
What was the Second Great Awakening?
A
This movement began around 1800 primarily in the West and spread to the masses (elites were largely unaffected) by camp meetings. More people were affected than by the First Great Awakening. It affected women more than men.
By the 1820’s, this revival had spread into the East.
4
Q
What was the significance of the Second Great Awakening?
A
It helped to stimulate prison reform, temperance movement, women’s rights, and abolition.
5
Q
Who was Charles Grandison Finney?
A
Finney was the most famous preacher of the Second Great Awakening, credited by some with bringing half a million converts to the church.
6
Q
What did Charles Grandison Finney do/believe in?
A
Finney was noted for expanding the role of women and allowing them to speak at prayer meetings and for urging his followers to support social reform movements including abolition, temperance, and education.
7
Q
Who did the Southern Methodist and Baptist churches split with and why?
A
They split with their Northern counterparts over the issue of slavery.
8
Q
Why did the Northern and Southern Presbyterian churches split?
A
Over the issue of slavery
9
Q
What did the secession of the Northern and Southern Presbyterian churches foreshadow?
A
The secession of the South
10
Q
Describe the order of secession.
A
- Splitting of churches
- Splitting of political parties
- Splitting of Union
11
Q
What was the Burned-Over District?
A
This area near the Erie Canal in western New York was the scene of the most intense revival activity. It was populated by many descendants of the Puritans who flocked to hear hellfire sermons.
12
Q
What did Joseph Smith do?
A
He founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in New York
13
Q
Why did the Mormons raise antagonism?
A
Voting as a unit
Drilling their militia openly for defensive purposes
Practicing polygamy
14
Q
Where was Joseph Smith and his brother killed?
A
A mob killed them in Carthage, Illinois
15
Q
Who was Brigham Young and what did he do?
A
He took over the LDS church after Joseph Smith was killed.
He was an aggressive leader, an eloquent preacher, and a gifted administrator.
To escape further persecution, Young led the Mormons over the plains to Utah.
16
Q
Who was Horace Mann?
A
An educational reformer from Massachusetts
17
Q
What did Horace Mann want?
A
More and better schools
Longer school years
Higher pay for teachers
Expanded curriculum in the emerging public education system
18
Q
What did Noah Webster do?
A
He wrote many textbooks with reading lessons designed to promote patriotism and his famous dictionary, which standardized the American language.
19
Q
What was the significance of Noah Webster’s books?
A
These books improved the quality of American education
20
Q
What did the McGuffey Readers emphasize?
A
Lessons of morality, patriotism, and idealism
21
Q
What did William H. McGuffey do?
A
Teacher-preacher who published McGuffey Readers in the 1830’s. He sold 122 million copies in the following decades.
22
Q
Who was Emma Willard?
A
Early supporter of women’s education
1818 - she published “A Plan for Improving Female Education”, which became the basis for public education of women in New York.
1821 - she opened her own girls’ school, the Troy Female Seminary, designed to prepare women for college.
23
Q
What was the significance of “A Plan for Improving Female Education”?
A
Became the basis for basis for public education of women in New York
24
Q
Which two schools provided the first opportunities for women to attend college?
A
Oberlin College (Ohio) Troy Female Seminary
25
What did Mary Lyon do?
She opened the Mount Holyoke Seminary, an outstanding women's school
26
What was the Lyceum Movement?
Traveling lecturers helped to carry learning to the masses through the Lyceum Lecture Associations, which numbered 3,000 in 1835. Lyceums provided lectures on science, literature, and moral philosophy.
27
What was the significance of the Lyceum Movement?
Responsible for the increase in the number of institutions of higher learning
28
What did Dorothea Dix do?
Responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the US and Canada.
She succeeded in persuading many states to assume responsibility for the humane care of the mentally ill.
Dix also helped to abolish imprisonment for debt.
29
Who was Dorothea Dix?
A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill
30
Who was Neal S. Dow?
Father of Prohibition
31
What did Neal S. Dow do?
Dow sponsored the Maine Law of 1851.
32
What was the Maine Law of 1851?
This law prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol. A dozen other states followed Maine’s example, but in most of these states, the laws didn’t even last a decade. They were repealed or declared unconstitutional.
33
Who was Lucretia Mott and what did she do?
Mott was a Quaker minister and the founder of the first female abolition society.
34
Who was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and what did she do?
Stanton, an ardent feminist who refused to include the word obey in her wedding vows, did much of the writing and planning for the women’s movement in the 1800s.
35
Who was Susan B. Anthony and what did she do?
Anthony, originally a temperance worker, traveled and spoke widely and was the public face of the women’s movement. With Stanton she founded in 1869 the National Women’s Suffrage Association, which supported suffrage (the right to vote), birth control, and divorce.
36
What inspired Mott and Stanton to organize the Seneca Falls Convention?
Mott had been denied the right to participate at an international slavery conference in London.
37
Who organized the Seneca Falls Convention?
Mott and Stanton
38
What happened at the Seneca Falls Convention?
The convention called for women’s rights. At Stanton’s insistence, the Declaration of Sentiments included a demand for the right to vote. This was so controversial that even Mott argued against it. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass supported Stanton, and the demand for suffrage was included.
39
What did the Declaration of Sentiments include?
The controversial demand for women to have the right to vote/
40
Where was the Seneca Falls Convention?
New York
41
What were the three utopian communities?
| Where were they?
```
New Harmony (Indiana)
Brook Farm (Massachusetts)
Oneida (New York
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42
Who established New Harmony, Indiana?
Robert Owen
43
What did Owen want?
Hoped to abolish poverty and crime through cooperative labor and collective ownership of property.
Owen spoke out against the evils of religion, private property, and marriage founded on the concept of private property.
44
What was the significance of New Harmony, Indiana?
The community made rapid progress in the areas of education and recreation, setting up the nation’s first kindergarten, free public school, and free library; and providing concerts, dances, lectures, and public discussions.
45
Why did New Harmony fail?
Within two years, the community failed due to economic problems and the difficulty of uniting people who had not been trained for community living.
46
Who founded Brook Farm and was was their goal?
Transcendentalists
Hoped to bring together enlightened individuals in a community devoted to leading a simple and wholesome life, combining plain living with high thinking. Everyone pitched in to help with the farm work, and time was set aside for study and discussion.
47
Why did Brook Farm collapse?
1847 - suffered economic collapse
48
Who founded Oneida, New York?
John Noyes
49
What principles did people have in Oneida, New York?
This community practiced complex marriage, birth control, and scientific selection of parents to produce superior children.
50
What did Noyes preach?
Perfectionism
51
What is perfectionism?
The belief that it is possible to achieve a state of sinlessness for individuals and the perfection of society here on Earth
52
Why was Oneida, New York financially stable?
| Why did it end?
They produced excellent steel traps and silverware
| Oneida lasted over thirty years until complaints about free love drove Noyes to Canada.
53
In what ways was national identity expressed in art and architecture?
The Hudson River School of Painting
Transcendentalists (like Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Neoclassical architecture
54
What was the Hudson River School of Painting?
Rather than following European styles in painting, artists including Thomas Cole and Asher Durant created images celebrating the beauty and grandeur of the American wilderness. This corresponded with the nationalistic upsurge after the War of 1812.
55
What was the significance of Ralph Waldo Emerson?
Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson in his most famous address, “The American Scholar,” called for American writers to break free of European traditions and develop a distinctive American perspective.
Best known of transcendentalists, lectured widely on the lyceum circuit
Popular because his ideals reflected those of the individualistic republic
56
Explain Neoclassical architecture.
Interest in British styles had waned during the War of 1812. Instead, Americans favored the Neoclassical style (aka Greek Revival) that recalled the design of a Greek temple. In the mid-19th century, many Americans believed that ancient Greece represented the spirit of democracy. Public buildings, such as the US Capitol, were often in the Neoclassical style as architects sought to suggest the emphasis on reason, democracy, and the rule of law found in ancient Greece and Rome.
57
What was the significance of John James Audubon?
Audubon was a naturalist best known for his The Birds of America, a massive work with paintings of every bird then known in the US. His concern about the destruction of wilderness helped to inspire the later environmental movement.
58
What was the significance of Stephen Foster?
African-American minstrel music became very popular with the whites during the mid-19th century. The most popular tunes were written by a white man, Stephen Foster.
59
What was the significance of Washington Irving?
The first American author to win international recognition as a literary figure, Irving wrote and published "Knickerbocker’s History of New York" in 1809 and "The Sketch Book" in 1819-1820.
60
What was the significance of James Fenimore Cooper?
Cooper was the first American novelist. His character Natty Bumppo spoke for wilderness and against the march of civilization in such books as "The Last of the Mohicans" (1826), "The Pathfinder" (1840), and "The Deerslayer" (1841).
61
What did transcendentalism emphasize?
Individualism, self-reliance, and self-discipline
| Morality over prosperity
62
Why was transcendentalism significant?
Important source of the reform movements
63
Who was Henry David Thoreau and why was he significant?
Thoreau was a transcendentalist and non-conformist. He was arrested for refusing to pay taxes because he didn’t want to support a government that supported slavery.
Thoreau’s “Essay on Civil Disobedience” exercised a strong influence on Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
64
Why was Walt Whitman significant?
Whitman’s great work "Leaves of Grass", first published in 1855, was an answer to Emerson’s call for an American literature. Whitman broke from established poetical forms and subjects. His democratic vision celebrated every aspect of American life.
65
Why was Edgar Allen Poe significant?
Though he was a gifted stylist, Poe’s dark vision ran counter to the optimism of Whitman and much of American literature of his time. Some suggest this is the reason that he has been more popular in Europe than in America.
66
Why was Nathaniel Hawthorne significant?
Hawthorne’s work (The Scarlet Letter, The Marble Faun, The House of the Seven Gables) reflects the continuing focus on morality in American life. His work explores original sin, the eternal struggle between good and evil, and the weight of the dead hand of the past on the present.
67
What did Herman Melville publish?
Melville was formerly a sailor, and his early tales of the sea were well liked. However, "Moby Dick" (a complex allegory of good and evil published in 1851) was not appreciated until much later.
68
What did the slogan King Cotton represent?
Southern leaders assumed that, in a conflict with the North, cotton would be the decisive factor.
One fifth of Britain earned a living from the manufacture of cotton cloth. British textile mills got 75% of their cotton from the American South.
The assumption was that, in a war, the North would blockade Southern ports, forcing Britain into economic catastrophe. Britain would then use its navy to break the blockade, and the South would triumph.
69
What percentage of Southerners owned slaves?
25%
70
Families owning 100 or more slaves made up less than ___% of all slave owners.
1%
71
How did the North view free slaves?
Unpopular in the North
Several states forbade them entrance, denied them the right to vote, and some barred blacks from public schools. The poor Irish hated the blacks, with whom they competed for menial jobs.
72
The poor, non-slaveholding whites supported slavery because ______.
they thought they could eventually buy a slave or two and move upward in accordance with the American dream. Also, they took comfort in knowing they outranked someone in Southern society, and they wanted to retain that racial superiority.
73
How many freed blacks lived in the south?
250,000
74
What were the 250,000 freed blacks subject to?
Various economic and legal restrictions similar to the later black codes
75
What did Absalom Jones and Richard Allen do?
In 1786 Jones and Allen, free blacks, objected to the new segregation policy of their Philadelphia church. They led a walk-out of black parishioners. They set up new churches and became the first black Americans to be ordained ministers. Allen later founded a new denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
76
What did Denmark Vesey do?
Vesey was a former slave who had purchased his freedom. He and a group of followers planned a slave rebellion in Charleston in 1822. They intended to seize all the city’s weapons.
Other slaves betrayed him; Vesey and at least thirty followers were publicly hanged.
77
Who was David Walker?
Born a free black in North Carolina, Walker left the South and settled in Boston.
In 1829, he published an anti-slavery pamphlet, "Walker's Appeal."
78
What did Walker say in "An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World"
Anti-slavery pamphlet!
Walker bitterly denounced slavery, those who profited by it, and those who willingly accepted it. Walker called for vengeance against whites, but he also expressed the hope that their cruel behavior toward blacks would change, making vengeance unnecessary. His message to the slaves was direct: if liberty is not given you, rise in bloody rebellion.
79
What happened in Nat Turner's Rebellion?
1831
Nat Turner, leading a group of sixty slaves who believed he was a divine instrument sent to free his people, killed almost sixty whites in South Hampton, Virginia. This led to a sensational manhunt in which 100 blacks were killed.
As a result, slave states strengthened measures against slaves and became more united in their support of fugitive slave laws.
80
Why was the American Colonization Society formed?
For the purpose of sending freed slaves back to Africa
81
What did the American Colonization Society do?
In 1822 the Republic of Liberia was established. Some 15,000 freed blacks were transported there in the next four decades; however, most blacks had no desire to be transported to Africa after being partially Americanized.
82
What did Theodore Dwight Weld do?
Weld was inspired by religious spirit of the Second Great Awakening. Expelled from Lane Seminary for organizing an eighteen-day debate on slavery, Weld preached anti-slavery gospel across the North.
83
What was the significance of Weld's "American Slavery As It Is"?
His pamphlet American Slavery as It Is was an inspiration for "Uncle Tom’s Cabin".
84
What did William Lloyd Garrison write?
The Liberator (a paper)
85
What was the significance of William Lloyd Garrison's paper?
1831
Garrison’s paper The Liberator gained national fame and notoriety due to his quotable and inflammatory language, attacking everyone from slave owners to moderate abolitionists.
Garrison believed that political action was powerless to abolish slavery since the Constitution protected slavery. In fact, he urged the North to secede from the Union. He sought to convert Southerners to his abolitionist views.
Garrison and other abolitionists were unpopular in the North; Garrison was almost lynched by a Northern mob in 1835.
86
Who was Wendell Phillips?
1833
Phillips was a great antislavery orator who would not eat sugar or wear cotton because they were produced by slaves. He was a prominent member of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
87
Who was Sojourner Truth?
One of the best-known abolitionists of her day, she was the first black female orator to speak out against slavery. She was also an advocate for women’s rights.
88
Who was Frederick Douglass and what did he do?
A self-educated slave who escaped in 1838, Douglass became the best-known abolitionist speaker. He edited an antislavery weekly, the North Star. He was also an early advocate for women’s rights.
In opposition to Garrison, Douglass worked for political solutions to slavery, supporting the Liberty, Free Soil, and Republican parties.
89
What was the Gag Resolution (1836)?
In 1836 Southerners pushed through this resolution, which required all antislavery appeals to be tabled without debate. John Quincy Adams waged a successful eight-year fight for its repeal.
90
Explain slavery as a necessary evil.
In the late 1700’s, slavery appeared to be declining. Fewer slaves were being imported to the US, and the price of slaves was dropping because the crops grown by slaves—tobacco, rice, and indigo—did not generate enough income to pay for their upkeep.
Jefferson and other slaveholders denounced slavery as a source of debt, economic stagnation, and moral dissipation. A French traveler reported that people throughout the South “are constantly talking of abolishing slavery, of contriving some other means of cultivating their estates.”
But the development of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 made slave-cultivated cotton a profitable crop. In two years the price of slaves doubled; in a decade the number of slaves in the South increased by a third.
However, many Southerners were ambivalent about slavery, referring to it as a necessary evil; they didn’t like it, but they felt it was economically necessary.
91
Explain slavery as a positive good.
In 1837 Senator John Calhoun gave a speech in which he defended slavery, not as a necessary evil, but as a positive good. Said Calhoun, “Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.” In other words, slavery uplifted blacks by introducing them to civilization and Christianity.
In addition, Southerners such as George Fitzhugh argued that slavery was the foundation of national prosperity, that slaves were actually treated better than were factory workers in the North, and that slavery was necessary for the continuance of the superior Southern culture that emphasized manners, graciousness, and honor in comparison to the money-grubbing society of the North.
92
Who was Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy?
Lovejoy was an abolitionist and editor. His printing press was destroyed four times, and Lovejoy was killed defending it in 1837. His death was an example of violence against abolitionists.
93
What happened in the Aroostook War?
In the early 1840’s, both Britain and Maine claimed the Aroostook River Valley under the peace treaty of 1783. Britain wanted a road to run through the valley as a defensive precaution, and Maine wanted the timber. Lumberjacks from the two countries clashed, and eventually both sides called out local militias.
94
What was the Battle of Maps?
1842
| The lumberjack dispute between Maine and the Canadian-British
95
What did the Webster-Ashburton Treaty do?
The lumberjack dispute between Maine and the Canadian-British was settled by giving the British less land but the desired Halifax-Quebec route.
Despite the fact that the treaty gave each side a roughly equal piece of the disputed territory, citizens on both sides felt cheated. However, Webster had obtained an ancient map that indicated the British were entitled to the entire area in dispute. London officials found an old map that proved the Americans were entitled to the entire area in dispute. Both sides accepted the compromise as a result.
96
What happened in the election of 1844?
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James Polk (Democrat) beat Henry Clay (Whig). Clay had tried to straddle the issue of annexing Texas while Polk was clearly in favor.
Out-going President Tyler took Polk’s victory as a mandate to annex Texas, and he signed the resolution three days before leaving office.
Polk was the nation’s first dark-horse candidate elected president.
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97
Explain the Texas Annexation.
Although the South favored annexing Texas, the North was opposed because they thought it would expand slavery, increase Southern representation in the House, and (if the Texas territory were split into several states) greatly boost Southern representation in the Senate.
Texas was annexed by a joint resolution of Congress (which took only a simple majority in both houses) rather than by a treaty (which would have required a 2/3 vote in the Senate).
98
Explain the British claims to the Oregon Country.
The British had strong claims to the Oregon country based on prior discovery and exploration, treaty rights, and actual occupation by British citizens. The British Hudson Bay Company traded profitably with the Indians for furs.
99
Explain the American claims to the Oregon Country.
America also had claims based on exploration (Gray and the Columbia River, Lewis and Clark’s expedition) and occupation (activities of Astor’s American Fur Company, arrival of 5000 Americans by 1845, many inspired by the reports of missionary Marcus Whitman).
American and British pioneers continued to live side by side through all this but America gained the advantage of population with influx of US settlers to the West in 1840s.
100
Explain manifest destiny.
This was the belief that the US was destined to spread to the Pacific, perhaps over the entire continent.
Motivations for Manifest Destiny included the following: 1) hunger for land, 2) fear that the British would gain control of the western part of North America, 3) the need for Pacific ports to facilitate trade with Asia, 4) the belief that expansion would allow the spread of democracy, 5) the desire to expand American power, and 6) the desire for new markets for American products.
101
Explain 54°40’ or Fight!
In part to calm Northern fears about expansion into Texas, the Democrats during Polk’s 1844 campaign proposed acquiring all of the Oregon Territory up to the boundary with Russian Alaska (54°40’).
Polk knew that it would take a war with Britain to obtain all of Oregon. He hoped to use the threat of war to persuade Britain to accept the compromise they had rejected in the past, the 49th parallel (the current boundary). In 1846 the 49th parallel was agreed to as the northern boundary.
102
What four goals was President Polk successful in achieving?
Lower the tariff (from 32% to 25%)
Restore the independent treasury system
Acquire California
Settle the Oregon dispute
103
Explain the settlement of the Oregon Territory.
Missionaries such as Jason Lee and Marcus Whitman came to Oregon in the 1830s and 1840s, sending back to the US glowing reports of the prospects for settlement.
Between 1840 and 1848, 11,500 settlers came to Oregon on the Oregon Trail, solidifying the American claim to the territory.
104
Explain John Slidell's Mission to Mexico.
Polk sent Slidell to Mexico in 1845 to purchase California. He was instructed to offer a maximum of $25 million for California and the area east of it. The Mexican people refused to hear Slidell’s insulting proposition. Mexico was still upset about the loss of Texas.
105
What was Polk's War message?
Polk proposed to his cabinet a declaration of war based on Mexico’s unpaid claims to Americans and on the rejection of Slidell. The cabinet urged that such a declaration be postponed until Mexico started shooting.
Polk had already sent General Taylor to the Rio Grande (into territory Mexico claimed). When Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and attacked Taylor, Polk sent a war message to Congress asking for a declaration of war since Mexico had shed “American blood on American soil.”
106
What were Lincoln's Spot Resolutions?
Lincoln, a Whig congressman, introduced several resolutions demanding to know the precise spot on American soil where American blood was shed. Polk’s opponents in Congress were pointing out that the battle took place on land that no previous president had claimed as American soil.
107
What did John C. Frémont do?
Frémont had been sent to California in 1845 to “watch over American interests.” He interpreted his instructions liberally, and with a small, armed group, seized Sonoma and proclaimed the independent Bear Flag Republic in June 1846.
108
What did Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott do in Mexico?
Taylor (Old Rough and Ready) led American forces to several victories in northern Mexico. In February 1847, he defeated Santa Anna at Buena Vista. His successes made him a presidential contender.
Scott (Old Fuss and Feathers) captured Vera Cruz and Mexico City in what was widely seen as a brilliant campaign despite a shortage of troops, disease, and a lack of political support. Scott’s victory in Mexico City essentially ended the war.
109
What happened with Nicholas and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
Trist and Scott arranged an armistice (a halt in the fighting), but Santa Anna used the time to strengthen his defenses. Polk, unhappy with Trist, recalled him. Trist wrote back, refusing to return. Before Polk could act further, Trist concluded the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
110
What did the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo do?
The treaty:
1) confirmed the US title to Texas,
2) set the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas,
3) gave the US the land between Texas and the Pacific in exchange for $15 million, and 4) committed the US to pay the $3.25 million in claims owed to US citizens by Mexico.
111
What did the Wilmot Proviso do?
1846
At the start of the Mexican War, Representative David Wilmot introduced a bill to block slavery from any territory the US might win from Mexico. Wilmot and many other Northern Democrats had supported the annexation of Texas on the assumption that Texas would be the last slave state.
The measure passed in the House but failed in the Senate.
