Religion, Reform, and Romanticism, Westward Expansion to 1877

Abigail Kelley

She was an abolitionist that traveled the United States giving speeches against slavery. She supported the rights of women and slaves.

Abolitionist

A person who sought to end slavery

American Anti Slavery Society

This was an abolitionist group that was founded in Boston in 1833.

American Colonization Society

This was an organization that was founded in 1816 that sought to bring free Blacks as well as emancipated slaves back in Africa. It was supported by the popular opinion of the time that free blacks would not be able to integrate into American Society that was dominated by whites.

Asylum Movement

The mentally ill and criminals were housed in institutions away from society.

Auburn System

A model for imprisoning people during the 19th century named after Auburn prison. Prisoners worked during the day and were kept in solitary confinement at night.

Brigham Young

He became the leader of the Mormons after the death of Joseph Smith. He relocated the Mormons to an area outside of modern day Salt Lake City, Utah, just outside the United States. When the area was ceded to the United States by Mexico in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, he was made the territorial governor of Utah. He ruled with an iron fist with no religious dissent and frequently ignored federal authority over the region.

Brook Farm

This was a transcendentalist community with private property that coincided with communal living. Artists, writers, teachers, musicians, and other intellects were drawn to this community. It was an economic failure

Burned Over District

Western New York was nicknamed this after religious revival swept through the region of the eerie canal where prostitution, gambling, and crime had been rampant.

Charles Finney

He was the most successful evangelical preacher in the Burned Over District. He targeted conversion of the elite and built a church in New York City. He believed that anyone could be saved by choosing to be saved. He also believed that people who were already Christian needed to work on themselves until they were as perfect as God.

Catherine Beecher

She was the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, a famous abolitionist. She wanted women to become teachers and become self sufficient. She created the ideal domesticity like republican motherhood. Women were also responsible for teaching morals to the next generation. They were also in charge of the management of homes.

Cult of Domesticity

This was a viewpoint that women should provide moral and religious instruction to their children while taking care of the home. Women were to stay out of business and politics.

David Walker

He was a free blacks who wrote an appeal to the colored citizens of the world to promote the abolition of slavery. He encouraged the use of force to end slavery if it was not ended peacefully.

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

These were a set of resolutions passed at the Women’s rights convention at Seneca falls, NY in 1848. They wanted full equality for women and the right to vote. This is the opening statement for women’s rights in America.

Deism

People who believed that God existed but that he created the earth and then stepped back without interfering in the daily lives of people. They don’t believe in any of the supernatural aspects of Christianity like miracles.

Edgar Allan Poe

He was an American romantic poet and author. He wrote stories of the macabre as well as mysteries. He was known for writing horror stories.

Elijah Lovejoy

He was an abolitionist printer who was killed by a mob in 1837 for printing antislavery literature. He was killed by an angry mob who was trying to destroy the printing press.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

She helped to organize the Seneca Falls convention. She was a women’s suffrage advocate.

Emily Dickinson

She was an American poet who wrote about immorality, death, love, and nature.

Dorothea Dix

She was a reformer who sought to improve conditions of the mentally ill housed in asylums.

Frederick Douglas

He was a former slave who was self educated. He became a prominent abolitionist figure, traveling the United States and world to give speeches against slavery. He had his own abolitionist newspaper called the North Star and wrote his own autobiography.

Frontier Revivals

Very few churches existed in the frontier, traveling ministers sought to increase religious participation. They set up camp meetings where people on the frontier would attend church services and come together. The sermons often evoked emotions and on the spot conversions.

Grimke sisters

They were abolitionists and feminists who were from South Carolina. They were the first female representatives in the American Anti Slavery Society. They wrote letters on the Equality of the Sexes

Harriet Beecher Stowe

She was an abolitionist and the author of Uncle Toms Cabin

Harriet Tubman

She was a runaway slave who returned to help other slaves in the South escape to freedom in the North. She helped 200 to 300 slaves along the Underground Railroad to freedom. She is responsible for liberating more slaves than any other single person in history.

Henry David Thoreau

He was a transcendentalist writer who was inspired by nature.

Herman Melville

He was an anti transcendentalist writer who wrote Moby Dick

Horace Mann

He was a Whig party member who supported state run schools to provide poor children with equal access to an education.

James McGready

He was a traveling minister who performed Frontier Revivals. He wanted sinners to convert to Christianity. His sermons were described to evoke strong emotions including praying and crying for mercy.

Joesph Smith

He was the founder of Mormonism. He wrote the Book of Mormon in 1830, claiming that it was a translation from a gold plate given to him by an Angel. He established the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He believed in polygamy and wanted a society with moral perfection.

Know Nothing Party

This was an anti immigrant political party in the United States that formed from what was left of the Whig party and some northern democrats. It was established in 1845.

The Liberator

This was an abolitionist newspaper that was created by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831. His shop was burned down multiple times, but he kept rebuilding and printing.

Lucretia Mott

She was an organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention and a women’s suffrage advocate. She was a Quaker, abolitionist, and reformer.

Lyman Beecher

He was a leader in the evangelical religious revival and the father of Harriet Beecher Stowe. He believed that the purpose of the Second Great Awakening was to reform society. He was an abolitionist.

McGuffey Reader

A textbook that almost every child in the United States read in school. There were lessons on English as well as lessons on patriotism and morality.

Mormon

Members of Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints. They were conservative and sought to lead moral lives. They were often persecuted and forced to relocate. Their headquarters are in Salt Lake City, Utah and they were established by Joseph Smith.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

He was a transcendentalist writer who later became a leader in the anti transcendentalist movement. He came from a puritan background and wrote the Scarlett Letter.

Oneida Community

In New York during the early 1800s, it was a community that was founded by John Humphrey Noyes. This community was made up of socio religious perfectionists who practiced polygamy, believed in communal property, and raising children as a community.

Pennie Dailies

Newspapers that sold for a penny a piece, making newspapers affordable for everyone. They provided news and entertainment to the masses.

Public Schools

Reformers fought to have public schools established to create well educated citizenry as the power resided with the people according to the U.S. constitution. Other reformers wanted to have free education to provide poor children with an opportunity to pursue the American dream.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

He was a minister and an American romantic writer and poet. He was an abolitionist. He was a transcendentalist.

Romanticism

This was a movement in art and literature during the 19th century. It evoked the liberation of the human spirit with individual expression and an increased interest in nature.

Second Great Awakening

This was a Protestant revival during the early 19th century. It began in the 1790s but picked up a greater following in the 1820s. Baptists and Methodists favored the movement. Women would play a major role unlike in the First Great Awakening. It contributed to increased political participation of common citizens and led to reforms.

Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention

This was a women’s rights convention in Seneca falls, New York in 1848. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Women demanded the right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement begins here.

Shaker

This was a religious movement in the United States during the early 1800s. They gained their name from dancing and shaking during worship. They believed that God was both male and female. They believed that Ann Lee Stanley, their founder, was the female component. There was still strong division among the sexes but said that men and women were equal.

Sojourner Truth

She was a former slave who spoke out against slavery. She said that women were not weak and could be as strong as men were.

Susan B Anthony

She was a women’s suffrage advocate and worked with the temperance movement. She worked closely with Stanton to write The History of Woman Suffrage.

Temperance

Followers of this movement believed that alcohol was the root of all problems in society and that it caused harm to families through violence and financial concerns. They sought to make the sale, transportation, and production of alcohol illegal.

Transcendentalism

This was an intellectual movement during the early 1800s in New England. They believed in the importance of nature and how it was degraded by materialism. It helped to influence modern American literature and is often associated with transcendentalism.

Uncle Toms Cabin

This was a book that was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It highlighted the struggles of the enslaved and worked against the Southern notion of a positive good. It helped to bring many northerners to the side of abolition and angered those in the south.

Underground Railroad

This was a secret network of hiding places and transportation run by abolitionists to help escaping fugitive slaves from the upper south to the north.

Unitarians

People who did not believe in the Holy trinity. They believed that God and Jesus exist. They said that Jesus was not divine and just a saintly man who set a good example. They believed that people were not inherently sinful. All people were worth, and hell did not exist. They believed that they were to good to be damned by God. This group attracted many of the liberal elite in Urban areas. They joined the universalists in 1961 to become the Unitarian Universalist Faith.

Universalists

People who said that all people were worthy, hell did not exist, and salvation was for everyone as God cared too much to damn people to hell. They said that they should free themselves from the rule of the Church and explore mysteries of the Earth on their own. They joined the Unitarians in 1961 to become the Unitarian Universalist Faith.

Utopian Religious Communities

Small religious communities during the 1800s where they wanted to create the perfect environment. Examples of these communities were the Shakers and Oneidas.

Walt Whitman

He was a transcendentalist writer who was inspired by nature and by Emerson.

William Lloyd Garrison

He was the founder of The Liberator and helped Frederick Douglas to become an abolitionist leader.

William Wells Brown

He was a former slave who spoke out against slavery. He was part of the American Anti Slave Society.

Alamo

An incomplete Spanish mission that was used by the Mexican Army as a fort. It was captured by the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution. The Battle of the Alamo occurred in March 1836. The defenders of the Alamo included Lt. Col. Travis, James Bowie, and Daley Crocker. All of the defenders of the Alamo would be killed by forces led by Santa Anna. Women, children, and slaves were spared.

Battle of San Jacinto

This was the last battle of the Texas Revolution. Sam Houston cornered the Mexican Army; the battle was over in less than 20 minutes. Santa Anna was found the next day disguised as a regular soldier.

Bear Flag Revolt

During the Mexican American War, Americans living in California revolted and established the Bear Flag Republic. They were quickly taken over and annexed by the United States.

Californio

A person of Hispanic heritage living in California during the time of the Spanish and Mexican rule.

Empresario

A person that was given permission by the Spanish to colonize Texas.

John C. Freemont

He was an abolitionist who was the first candidate for the Republican Party for President. He was an explorer and military officer. He helped to explore and map California during the Mexican American War.

Donner Party

A group of 81 people traveling the overland trail to Oregon spent the winter stuck in the Sierra Nevadas. They had no food and had to resort to cannibalism. Only 45 people would survive the journey, they had the highest death toll of any group that traveled the overland trail.

Election of 1844

Henry Clay (Whig) and James Polk (democrat) ran for president. Polk supported expansion and the acquisition of Texas and Oregon. Clay was against annexation. Polk won the election because the votes in New York were split with the Liberty Party and the Whigs.

Gadsden Purchase

The United States wanted to build a railroad and bypass a difficult stretch of the Rocky Mountains. This purchase was negotiated in 1853 and included part of Southern New Mexico and Arizona. It was the last addition to the continental United States.

Goliad Massacre

After a battle during the Texas Revolution, more than 400 soldiers from the Texas army were executed as pirates under Santa Anna’s orders.

James Polk

He was the 11th president of the United States. he was president during the Mexican American war and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

John Tyler

He was the vice president of William Henry Harrison, who died in office. He then became the 10th president of the United States. He was originally a democrat but later became a Whig even though they shunned him. He opposed Henry Clay’s American System. He passed a law that ended the independent treasury act. He vetoed Clay’s new National Bank.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the United States would stretch from the east to west coast of North America between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was looked at as an extension of a way to expand democracy and Protestantism. Millions of Native Americans would be displaced or killed during the time period of Western Expansion.

Mexican-American War

After the United States annexed Texas, the U.S. and Mexico disputed the border. When a group of Mexican soldiers killed American soldiers on the disputed border, the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846. It ended with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico ceded a larger portion of territory to the U.S. for 15 million dollars.

Mexican Cession

Territory ceded to the United States following the Mexican American war for 15 million. It included land that now makes up Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. This land acquisition would cause problems over if the new territories would be free or allow slavery.

Oregon Fever

Farming in the Williamette Valley was successful, sparking interest in settling in the region. Thousands of Americans would travel the overland trail to settle in the Oregon Territory.

Pioneer

People who settled the western frontier. Life was harsh for them with extreme weather and Native American attacks.

Republic of Texas

From 1836 to 1845 Texas was an independent nation. Sam Houston was the first president and Stephen F. Austin was the first Secretary of State. It would be annexed by the United States in 1845. Also known as the lone star republic.

Saint Patrick’s Batallion

They were a group of Irish and German Catholics who were originally enlisted in the U.S. army during the Mexican-American war. They switched sides and fought alongside the Mexican Army. Some switched sides because of higher wages, land grants, and to fight alongside other Catholics. Those that were captured by the U.S. army during the Battle of Mexico City were either hanged or branded with the letter D on their cheeks

Sam Houston

He was the leader of the Texas army during the Texas Revolution. He would later become the first president of Texas.

Santa Anna

President and military dictator of Mexico during the time of the Texas Revolution and the Mexican American War. He believed he was the napoleon of the west. he lost Texas and ceded land to the United States.

Stephen F. Austin

He was an empresario who brought over 300 families to help settle Texas. He was a leader during the Texas Revolution and was imprisoned by Mexico for over two years after he went to negotiate with the Mexican government.

Tariff of 1846

This is also known as the walker tariff. It was passed by president Polk and the democrats. It reduced the Tariff of 1842 and raised money to help fight the Mexican- American War. It also recreated the independent treasury.

Tejanos

People of Mexican ancestry living in Texas

Texas Annexation

This state became part of the United States in 1843 after being an independent nation for 9 years but was plagued with financial problems. The annexation was highly controversial because many feared that the annexation would spark a war with Mexico, it did. Many were also concerned about adding another slave state in the south.

Texas revolution

A group of Mexican and American settlers in Texas Revolted against Mexican rule of the territory in 1836 after Mexico failed to uphold rights they had previously granted them. The Texas Army was led by Sam Houston and the Mexican Army was led by Santa Anna. Goliad, battle of the Alamo, and the Battle of San Jacinto were significant events. It ended with the treaty of Velasco and Texas became an independent nation.

Texians

People of American ancestry living in Texas

Transcontinental Railroad

Completed in 1869, connecting the east and west coasts of the

United States. Two railroad tracks connected at Promontory Point,

Utah. The western track was largely built by the Chinese and the

eastern track was largely built by the Irish. The railroad made it

easier to move people and goods out west and vice versa.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

This is the peace treaty that ended the Mexican American War.

Mexico ceded California, Texas, and New Mexico to the United

States in exchange for $15 million. The border of Texas was

established to be at the Rio Grande.

Treaty of Velasco

This was the peace treaty that ended the Texas Revolution, Santa

Anna signed it and granted Texas its independence.

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

Canada and the United States disputed the border of Maine. It

nearly erupted into war several times. This peace treaty

established the border between the U.S. and Canada from Maine

to Wisconsin.

Western Frontier

West of the Mississippi River including the Great Plains and the

Rocky Mountain Region. Settlers began moving to this area in large

numbers in the mid-1800s, sparking conflicts with Native

Americans in the region.