InQuizitive: Chapter 12: An Age of Reform, 1820-1840

What role did Black women play in the abolitionist movement?

Black women built their own reformist groups, often connected to Black churches. Mary Ann Shadd founded the Provincial Freeman, a newspaper dedicated to abolitionism. Black women also played a role in the public debate over slavery, giving lectures to crowds of both genders despite harassment.

How does Grimké explain that the discussion of wrongs of slavery opened the way for the discussion of other rights?

By studying slavery, she realized women lacked basic freedoms as well. (Grimké found that studying abolition led her to realize that human beings have rights, "because they are moral beings. ... [I]f rights were founded in moral being, then the circumstances of sex could not give to man higher rights and responsibilities, than to woman. ... ")

In 1836, when abolitionists began to flood Washington with petitions calling for emancipation in the nation's capital, the House of Representatives adopted the gag rule, which prohibited southern congressmen from speaking out against the petitions.

False (The rule was repealed in 1844 through the efforts of former president John Quincy Adams.)

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was modeled to some extent on the autobiography of Frederick Douglass.

False (First serialized in 1851 in a Washington antislavery newspaper, then published as a book, Uncle Tom's Cabin eventually sold more than a million copies.)

The Shakers were the most successful of the religious communities during this period. At their peak during the 1840s, cooperative Shaker settlements included more than 5,000 members. Select on the map the region where the majority of Shaker communities were located.

Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. (Although Shaker communities ranged as far south as Kentucky and as far west as western Indiana, New England was where they flourished in large numbers.)

How did women's rights reformers explain the "slavery of sex" idea?

Reformers pointed out that the legal institution of marriage proved that domestic relationships and family were not private concerns. They also claimed that a married woman did not receive compensation for domestic labor. In most states, after a marriage took place, wages and property accumulated by the woman belonged to her husband.

The Liberty Party was created in 1840 and nominated James G. Birney as its candidate for president. Identify the statements that describe Birney and the Liberty Party.

The creation of the Liberty Party was partly due to some abolitionists' dislike of women playing prominent roles in politics.

Which "central beliefs" in society did nineteenth-century women's rights reformers challenge?

Women's rights reformers challenged the notion that capacity for independence and rationality were inherently male traits. In addition, reformers objected to the belief that justice and freedom did not apply to relations within the family. Reform leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton believed that families would have "no happiness without freedom."

What does this photograph of Frederick Douglass at an abolitionist gathering reveal about the abolitionist movement by the 1850s?

A.) Although free society was deeply segregated, Blacks and whites worked together to further the abolitionist cause. B.) Women held significant leadership roles in the abolitionist movement.

Place the following states in order by number of utopian communities established by the mid-nineteenth century, least to most.

A.) Michigan B.) Illinois C.) Indiana D.) New York

About 100 reform communities were established in the decades before the Civil War. Historians call them "utopian" after Thomas More's sixteenth-century novel Utopia, an outline of a perfect society. Select on the map the two states that had more utopian communities than any others by the mid-nineteenth century.

A.) New York B.) Ohio

What does it reveal about utopian communities in the mid-nineteenth century?

A.) New York had many different utopian communities within its borders. B.) Shaker communities were spread throughout the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century.

What does the following map suggest about utopian communities in the early nineteenth century?

A.) Reform movements took many different forms. B.) There was a correlation between the locations of New Englander settlements and the locations of utopian communities.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. Identify the key issues discussed at the Seneca Falls Convention.

A.) The convention marked the beginning of the struggle for women's suffrage. B.) The convention declared that women were equal to men and decried the "injuries" on the part of men toward women. C.) Stanton and Mott argued for social equality for women, including fair pay and equal opportunities.

Identify the statements that describe the Oneida community.

A.) The founder, John Humphrey Noyes, ruled like a dictator over the community. B.) Members wanted to create a "holy family" of equals by doing away with private property and traditional marriage.

Identify the abolitionist ideas Lydia Maria Child advocated in her An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (1833).

A.) The modern idea of human rights takes precedence over national sovereignty. B.) Blacks should not be considered Africans any more than every white man be considered an Englishman.

Identify the statements that describe the militant abolitionism movement in the United States.

A.) The new generation of abolitionists rejected the traditional approach of gradual emancipation and demanded immediate abolition. B.) The militant abolitionists believed that once freed, Blacks should be incorporated as equals into American society.

How have religious reformers made a difference in American society?

A.) They created the Social Gospel that sought to improve the lives of working people and immigrants. B.) They amplified the debate for abolition, using Christian principles to attack slavery. C.) They spearheaded the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Which of the following statements describe the abolitionist use of moral suasion?

A.) They used the public sphere as their arena to spread ideas of the sinful nature of slavery. B.) They would stand outside established institutions and critique the institution of slavery. C.) They believed in converting people to Christian principles to achieve social change.

What was the American Colonization Society created to encourage?

A.) the gradual abolition of slavery B.) the resettlement of Black Americans in Africa