Chapter 12

Walt Whitman

"The Poet of American Democracy", expresses love of democracy through poetry

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

(1815-1902) A suffragette who, with Lucretia Mott, organized the first convention on women's rights, held in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848. Issued the Declaration of Sentiments which declared men and women to be equal and demanded the right to vote for women. Co-founded the National Women's Suffrage Association with Susan B. Anthony in 1869.

Seneca Falls Convention

1848, led by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. Adopted the "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" modeled on the Declaration of Independence.

Romanticism

A European art movement adopted by Americans which wanted to depict the wonder of nature, choosing scenes of the nation's wildest areas, looking for the "sublime". Several artists like Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty and Asher Durand graduated from the Hudson River School and painted well-known landscapes of the Hudson River. Also touched literature, explored man's relationship to nature, and the frontier as well as releasing human emotions

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Transcendentalist philosopher from MA who was clergyman before devoting his life to writing and teaching elements of transcendentalism. His speeches drew huge crowds and and was a significant intellectual, produced poetry and essays, in his "Nature", published in 1836 he said people should remain united to the natural world while looking for self-fulfillment, also was a significant nationalist

Susan B. Anthony

A Women's Rights activist, feminist, and American Civil Rights leader, who had a large impact on the women's rights movements. She, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, founded the first Women's Temperance Movement. Anthony traveled all over the United States and Europe to deliver speeches about women's rights. She and other women at the time such as Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton starting liking women's suffrage to that of the slaves and organized a convention in Seneca Falls in 1848 to talk about their rights. The "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" was drafted during this convention and said that women were equal to men. Their most controversial demand was the right to vote.

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

A document written at the Seneca Falls Convention, which was patterned on Declaration of Independence but changed choice words such as rephrasing it to "all men and women are created equal." Rejected the idea that men and women had separate "spheres" and were required to remain in them.

Lucy Stone

A famous speaker, abolitionist, and women's right advocate, Stone was also the first Massachusetts women to earn a college degree. She helped in establishing The Women's National Loyals League which helped in passing the thirteenth amendment. She also was among the first in taking the sweeping step to take on her own maiden name after marriage.

Frederick Douglass

A former slave who became an outspoken leader of the anti-slavery movement, spent two years lecturing in England on the subject. Founded the antislavery newspaper the North Star in 1837 and published his own autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in 1847. He demanded both freedom and equal rights for blacks and slaves, and was the first national leader of the black anti-slavery movement, and worked to merge his movement with Garrison's

Feminism

A movement focused on establishing and creating equal rights for women that took stronger hold in 1830's and 1840's. With the many reform movements occurring at the same time, women began to fight against the Cult of Domesticity. Drew parallels between the plight of slaves and the troubles of women. Often Quakers who shared similar ideas.

William Lloyd Garrison

A prominent and radical white abolitionist. Founded The Liberator in 1831, an antislavery magazine.. Calls for immediate emancipation and citizenship for all slaves, and spoke out against sending blacks to Liberia. With a group of supporters he founded the American Antislavery Society in 1832. Notable because of his status as a white man, allied himself with Frederick Douglass in the fight against slavery.

Phrenology

A pseudoscience that argued the shape of a person's skull was an indicator in that person's character and intelligence. Measured bumps and indentations to "calculate" the sizes of the different parts of the brain and how they controlled specific behaviors. Way a was to determine an individual's capability of various positions, was a vehicle for improving society.

Anti-Abolitionist Violence

Critics of the abolitionist movement were afraid of what might happen if the slaves were released, some thought there would be a war, resulting in a wave of violence against abolitionists in the 1830's. When Prudence Crandall tried to let some black girls into her school she was arrested and forced to close down the school. Garrison was captured and was almost hung before being imprisoned, Elijah Lovejoy was murdered. Highlighted the growing tension over slavery that would ignite the Civil War.

Margaret Fuller

leading transcendentalist, closest associate of Emerson. Suggested the important relationship between the discovery of the "self" so central to antebellum reform and questioning gender roles. Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1844). led life different from the domestic ideal, having intimate relationships with many men, greatly admired by European socialists and champion of italian revolution, which she witnessed.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

one of the original residents of Brook Farm, who expressed his disillusionment with the experiment in famous books such as The Blithesdale Romance, The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. He explored themes such as the danger of an individual submitting themselves to a commune and the prices one pays for cutting themselves off from society.

Temperance Crusade

A reform movement that crusaded against alcohol and public drunkenness. Many women were involved in this movement because they believed that alcoholism put a special burden on wives. Notable names: The American Society of Temperance (1826), Washington Temperance Society. Divided between banning hard liquor and banning all alcohol. 1770s: Avg. Male 2-3 gallons of pure 200 proof hard liquor 1820s: Avg. Male 6-7 gallons. Alcohol abuse seen as a major cause of public health problems and violence (esp. among immigrants)

Shakers

A society determined to redefine sexuality and gender roles, part of the women's rights movement. Everyone was committed to complete celibacy and no one could be born into the group, they had to choose to join as adults. Embraced sexual equality and said God was neither male nor female, and women held the dominant positions in the society. Hoping to establish some social discipline, not interest in creating utopia like other societies.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

An anti-slavery book published in 1852 and written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was a bestseller during the nineteenth century and was surpassed only by the Bible. It was seen as abolitionist propaganda and through showing the cruelty was said to help "lay the groundwork for the Civil War."

James Fenimore Cooper

An author considered the first great American novelist, wrote over 30 novels and was known as a master of adventure and suspense in his writing. Maintained a fascination with the American movement westward, which was depicted through some of his novels such as The Last of the Mohicans, and The Deerslayer, these novels telling the journeys westward became known as the "Leatherstocking Tales". His writings were seen as a celebration of the American spirit, and were highly influential for later writers.

Horace Mann

An educational reformer who was the 1st secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Said education was the way to protect democracy by creating an educated electorate and was essential to the free political system. Lengthened the school year to six months and increased teacher salaries, enriched curriculum and provided training for the teachers. Inspired others states to improve their own public education systems

Henry David Thoreau

Another Transcendentalist who said people should work for self-realization by resisting pressures to conform to society's expectations and their own instincts. Published Walden in 1845, talked about how he had built a cabin in the woods to live in isolation for two years as an alternative to the artificial restraints of society

American Antislavery Society

Antislavery organization founded by William Lloyd Garrison and his followers in 1832, membership rapidly increased with over 400 chapters by 1835. Founding marked the development of the abolitionist movement into a powerful and effective movement, allied itself with other movements demanding equality for all groups, including women.

"Free soil" Movement

Based on conjunctions by Northerners who thought that the right to have"free soil" and "free labor" was the most important part of American Democracy. It was not solely based on the thought that "slavery was a moral evil and must be eliminated" like the abolitionists believed but instead that slavery was detrimental to whites in the north because it threatened their rights of property, labor control, and opportunity for advancement. Going along with this theory, the South was the opposite of democracy; closed, unchanging place where slavery was used to maintain aristocracy and not leave any room for improvement. These Northerners saw themselves as prospering and held true that the south was going to try and corrupt them with slavery and therefore destroy all chances of capitalism with their own system. It was then the northerners' duty to stop the spread of slavery and have free-labor ideals spread throughout the country instead. It was this ideology that lay at the center of the new Republican party.

Worldwide Antislavery Movement

Begun late 18th century and continued through the end of the 19th. Emancipation of slavery in the United States was part of movement. American emancipation was nevertheless a part of a worldwide movement toward ending legalized human bondage

Utopian societies

Idealistic and impractical communities. Who, Rather than seeking to create an ideal government or reform the world, withdrew from the sinful, corrupt world to work their miracles in microcosm, hoping to imitate the elect state of affairs that existed among the Apostles.

Herman Melville

Born in New York in 1819, Herman Melville was an American author who is best known for his novel Moby Dick (a story about a captain named Ahab spending all his time going after the famed whale Moby Dick). . He had some success with his first novel during his lifetime, but his popularity soon declined and it was not until much later (1900s) that all of his works were really recognized and he was published by the Library of America.

Sojourner Truth

Born into slavery in 1797 in New York as Isabella Baumfree, Sojourner Truth was an African-American activist for women's rights and abolitionist. She managed to bring her infant daughter with her when she escaped slavery in 1826 but not her son. She went to court to get him back, making her the first African-American woman to go to court and win against a white man.

American Colonization Society

founded colony of Liberia in Africa in 1830 for freed blacks and slaves to go to. The plan was gradual emancipation and the exporting of freed blacks. Southerners feared slave revolts. Paul Cuffe led a small group to settle. By 1838 had grown to 2500

Amistad Case

Funded by American abolitionists, the Amistad case was a legal dispute about a Spanish slave ship headed for Cuba. The soon to be slaves aboard had mutinied against the crew anseizeded the ship in 1839. They were trying to turn it around to sail back to Africa when the U.S. Navy occupied it and held the Africans as pirates. The abolitionists disapproved and through their support, legal actions were taken in order to proclaim the Africans free. This case finally reached the Supreme Court and the anti-slavery side was argued for by John Quincy Adams, former president. In 1841, the Africans were declared free and the abolitionist groups funded for their journey back to Africa.

Benevolent Empire

Many members of the middle class and their Congregational and Presbyterian ministers launched programs of social reform know as the Benevolent Empire. They targeted drunkenness, adultery, prostitution, and crime, but established large scale organizations to implement the evils. The Benevolent Empire insisted that people who had experienced saving grace should provide moral guidance and charity to the less fortunate.

Sarah and Angelina Grimke

South Carolinian sisters that were both outspoken abolitionists and feminists. They argued that both men and women were created equal and a women can do what a man can.

Abolitionism

The official movement to end slavery that aimed to stop African slave trade and set all of the slaves free. It was not a relatively new idea during the nineteen hundreds as there were even attempts before the Revolution to had been made to stop slavery. In the early nineteenth century some Virginian Whites got together to create the American Colonization Society (ACS) which was made to go against slavery without really waging war against slaveholders in the South. With funding, the ACS was able to create the colony of Liberia in Africa for freed black men and women in 1830. They hoped that emancipation would come gradually. However, it was not until 1830 that the antislavery crusade started to gain the power that would eventually allow for it to create social reform. The term "Abolitionist" comes from William Lloyd Garrison, who in a rush to abolish slavery founded The Liberator in 1831. He uses this newspaper to to share his ideas of how slavery should be completely abolished, seen from the slave's perspective instead of the white owner's, and the bad influence slavery had on society. He soon gained many followers and was able to found the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832 and the American Antislavery Society in 1833.

Contagion theory

Theory written by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1843 that said disease could be transmitted from one person to another by microscopic bacteria. Encouraged the use of sanitary practices in the medical fields

Public Education

This was another movement started in the Jacksonian era focused on the need for establishing free public schools for Children of all classes. Began with Horace Mann in Massachusetts and other states followed the example of having tax supported public schools.

Quakers

ideas of sexual equality and toleration, encouraged women preachers and community leaders. Became tied with feminist movement. many feminists were Quakers. Women growing up to believe themselves more equal and to find their lives more restricted when they moved away from Quaker communities. At the Seneca Falls convention only Elizabeth Cady Stanton was not a Quaker.

Edgar Allen Poe

Was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and macabre, wrote The Raven. Explores themes of exploring beyond the intellect.

Asylum Movement

With motivations not unlike those for public education, there was a big push for the construction of "asylums", housing for the criminals and mentally ill to reform and rehabilitate. The prisons of the past were full of people with differing needs and they neglected to address the prisoners' real problems. Reform in the 1820s provided for many of the states to replace their old jails with "penitentiaries", places where rigid discipline and chances for the inmates to cultivate penitence were thought to help keep them from going astray. These prisons did not last and eventually devolved back into mere holding places for criminals. Dorothea Dix was an influential reformer during this time who started a movement on a national scale for new ways of treating those who were mentally ill. There were also rehab centers built on the foundation that structured institution would allow for failing people to be rescued. The "Asylum Movement" also saw new orphanages, housing for women without friends or family, and the facilities for poor emerge. Reformers held the belief that environments that were closely watched would allow for such people to be trained to live better lives.

circuit riders

a clergyman who traveled on horseback from church to church, esp. within a rural Methodist circuit. Peter Cartwright best known preacher of the circuit riders. Could spread info and religious beliefs through rural and less populated areas.

Lucretia Mott

an American Quaker minister, abolitionist, social reformer and proponent of women's rights. Began at the 1840 anti-slavery convention in London, where she would not be admitted because of her gender. She is credited as the first American "feminist in the early 1800s but was, more accurately, the initiator of women's political advocacy, starting with the Seneca Falls convention.

Mormons + Joseph Smith + Brigham Young Protestant Revivalism

began in upstate New York with Joseph Smith, young energetic unsuccessful man. Published the Book of Mormon after the ancient prophet he claimed had written it, a translation of ancient set of golden tablets he found in the hills in New York. Brigham Young succeeded Smith and took 12,000 people on a journey across the desert from Illinois to establish Salt Lake City. Highly organized, militarized, centralized society with emphasis on the family structure. The Mormon society created security and order for those who had felt out of place originally.

Indian reservations

created an enclosed region for Indians to live in isolation from white society, serving white economic purposes above all. it moved Indians from the good lands that white settlers wanted. Supposedly for a reform purposes. Some said it was for the natives to learn civilization in a protected area.

Transcendentalists

of the romantic mindset - relying on intuition rather than pure reason. "Transcend" the limits of intellect, reason, and society and allow the emotions and soul to create a relationship with the Universe/Nature to achieve perfection. Rejected former Calvinist dogma of predestination and God of wrath in favor of God of love and divinity of nature. Believed in the good of mankind and people - optimists. Felt that social constraints and societal restrictions were bad. They sought to create environments that brought them closer to nature and with fewer constraints/conforming ideals. Man must acknowledge a body of moral truths that were intuitive and must TRANSCEND more sensational proof: 1. the infinite benevolence in God 2. the infinite benevolence of nature 3. the divinity of man. They instinctively rejected all secular authority and the authority of organized churches and the Scriptures of law or of conventions. Therefore, if man was divine, it would be wicked that he should be held in slavery, or his soul corrupted by superstition, or his mind clouded by ignorance. Thus, the role of the reformer was to restore man to that divinity which God had endowed him. Naturally, abolitionism emerges from the growth of the transcendental movement.

Charles Grandison Finney

the greatest revival preacher; trained as a lawyer, stopped drinking and became an evangelist after a deeply moving conversion experience as a young man; led massive revivals in Rochester and NYC in 1830-31; devised the "anxious bench" where sinner stood and repented in front of the congregation; encouraged women to pray aloud in public; promised a perfect Christian kingdom on Earth and condemned alcohol and slavery; served as president of Oberlin College which became a center for revivalist activity and abolitionism.