Chapter 8
Nat Turner
(1800-1831) American slave leader, he claimed that divine inspiration had led him to end the slavery system. Leader of a slave rebellion in 1831 in Virginia. Called Nat Turner's Rebellion, the slave revolt was the most violent one in U.S. history; he was tried, convicted, and executed. Revolt led to the deaths of 20 whites and 40 blacks and led to the "gag rule' outlawing any discussion of slavery in the House of Representatives.
Gag rule
1835 law passed by Southern congress which made it illegal to talk of abolition or anti-slavery arguments in Congress.
Lucretia Mott
A Quaker who attended an anti-slavery convention in 1840 and her party of women was not recognized. She and Stanton called the first women's right convention in New York in 1848 (Seneca Falls Convention).
Frederick Douglass
A former slave who was an abolitionist, gifted with eloquent speech and self-educated. In 1838 he was "discovered" as a great abolitionist to give antislavery speeches. He swayed many people to see that slavery was wrong by publishing "Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass" which depicted slavery as being cruel. He also looked for ways politically to end slavery.
civil disobedience
A nonviolent, public refusal to obey allegedly unjust laws started by Henry David Thoreau.
Dorothea Dix
A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S. and Canada. She succeeded in persuading many states to assume responsibility for the care of the mentally ill. She served as the Super-intendant of Nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War.
Second Great Awakening
A series of religious revivals starting in 1801, based on Methodism and Baptism. Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects. The revivals attracted women, Blacks, and Native Americans.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
A suffragette who, with Lucretia Mott, organized the first convention on women's rights, held in Seneca Falls, New York 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.
Sarah Grimke
A woman who published a pamphlet arguing for equal rights of women called "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women". She also argued for equal education opportunities.
Sojourner Truth
American abolitionist and feminist. Born into slavery under the name of Isabella Baumfree, she escaped in 1827 and became a leading preacher against slavery and for the rights of women.
Henry David Thoreau
American transcendentalist who was against a government that supported slavery. He wrote down his beliefs in "Walden". He started the movement of civil-disobedience when he refused to pay the toll-tax to support the Mexican War.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American transcendentalist, wrote "self-reliance", who was against slavery and stressed self-reliance, optimism, self-improvement, self-confidence, and freedom. He was a prime example of a transcendentalist and helped further the movement.
Charles Grandison Finney
An evangelist who was one of the greatest preachers of all time (spoke in New York City). He also made the "anxious bench" for sinners to pray and was was against slavery and alcohol.
Cottage industry
An industry in which the production of goods and services is based in homes, as opposed to factories.
Temperance Movement
An organized campaign to eliminate alcohol consumption. Lyman Beecher, a prominent supporter was a preacher against all liquor.
Utopian communities
Experimental communities designed to be perfect societies all stressing goals like self-sufficiency.
Antebellum
Pre-Civil war South.
master artisans
Their assistants and they traditionally handcrafted their products until the 1820s.
Seneca Falls Convention
Took place in up state New York in 1848. Women of all ages and even some men went to discuss the rights and conditions of women. There, they wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, which among other things, tried to get women the right to vote (did not get the right to vote until much later).
Angelina Grimke
Wrote "An Appeal to Christian Women of the South" and fought for women's rights and abolition, said "Men and women are CREATED EQUAL!"
David Walker
a free black, who in his "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World", advised blacks to fight for freedom rather than to wait for slave owners to end slavery.
transcendentalism
a philosophical and literary movement that emphasized living a simple life and celebrated the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination.
journeyman
a skilled worker employed by a master.
strike
a work stoppage in order to force an employer to respond to demands.
apprentice
a young worker learning a craft usually assisting a journeyman.
revival
an emotional meeting designed to awaken religious faith through impassioned preaching and prayer.
Richard Allen
created the Bethel African Church in Philadelphia in 1816 that was renamed the African Methodist Episcopal Church, wanted to strengthen faith and fight against slavery.
National Trades' Union
founded in 1834 by delegates from six cities, and in 1836 printers and cordwainers (makers of high quality shoes and boots) set up their own national craft unions.
abolition
the call to outlaw slavery, was fueled by preachers like Charles G. Finney, who termed slavery "a great national sin".
Emancipation
the freeing of slaves, with no payment to slaveholders.
Cult of domesticity
the ideal woman was seen as a tender, self-sacrificing caregiver who provided a nest for her children and a peaceful refuge for her husband, social customs that restricted women to caring for the house.
William Lloyd Garrison
the most radical white abolitionist, was an editor, and was active in religious reform movements in Massachusetts, and started his own paper, "The Liberator", in 1831 to deliver the message of immediate emancipation of the slaves.