Ch 12 APUSH Vocab

Hudson River School

a group of painters- including Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty, and Asher Durand -who painter scapes of the unsettled Hudson Valley to emphasize America’s “wild nature” that set it apart from Europe

Sir Walter Scott

A British writer who was the most popular author for Americans in the 1820s, known for his historical novels set in 18th-century England and Scotland

James Fenimore Cooper

Known as the first great American novelist, he was known for his contemporary works that featured adventure and suspense and shared the challenges and dangers of westward expansion; He wrote the “Leatherstocking Tales,” a series with novels like The Last of the Mohicans (1826) and The Deerslayer (1841)

Walt Whitman

An American poet who celebrated democracy, liberation of the individual, and his own yearning for emotion fulfillment; He published his first work, Leaves of Grass in 1855

Edgar Allen Poe

A writer from the south known for the sad and macabre, with works like “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” showing the pain and horror of individualism

Herman Melville

Known as the greatest American novelist of his era, this man’s youth as a sailor inspired his works set at sea, including Moby Dick. His work reflected themes of searching for personal fulfillment and ambition leading to self-destruction.

Transcendentalists

A movement of New England writers and philosophers, driven by a theory of the individual and distinction between “reason” and “understanding,” and believing every individual should strive to “transcend” the limits of the intellect.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A former Unitarian pastor who led the transcendental movement, known for his insightful lectures and significant body of poetry and essays (“Nature,” “Self-Reliance,” “The American Scholar”)

Henry David Thoreau

A Transcendentalist known for Walden (1854) and his push for repudiating repressive forces in society. He was adamantly against slavery and even went to jail for his civil disobedience on the matter.

Resistance to Civil Government

An 1849 essay by Henry David Thoreau justifying his civil disobedience by claiming that the individual’s personal morality had the first claim to their actions, and a government denying that morality had no legitimacy

Brook Farm

An experimental living community established by transcendentalist George Ripley, with the mission of full opportunity for self realization; Residents shared equally in labor so that they could share equally in leisure

Nathaniel Hawthorne

An original resident of Brook Farm who based several works (The Blithedale Romance (1852)) on his negative experience there, and also wrote works like The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables on the price individuals pay for cutting themselves off from society

Charles Fourier

A French philosopher whose ideas of socialist communities received wide attention in America and inspired villages like Brook Farm

Robert Owen

Oneida perfectionists

residents of the Oneida community (1848) who rejected traditional gender roles and marriage, and practiced what they called “free love”

Shakers

Founded by Ann Lee in the 1770s, this group practiced complete celibacy, believed in a genderless god, and was a mainly matriarchal society; their name came from the dance they would perform to rid themselves of sin

Joseph Smith

This man wrote the book of Mormon, a religious text he claimed was a translation of a set of golden tablets he found in New York. It told the story of a lost tribe of Israel that somehow found its way to America, and were visited by Jesus

Brigham Young

Successor to Joseph Smith who led the Mormons to Salt Lake City after Smith’s death, where a permanent settlement was created

Charles Grandison Finney

An evangelistic Presbyterian preacher who argued against the idea of predestination and believed each person had the capability to achieve salvation through individual effort

Temperance

a movement that called for moderation or complete abstinence from alcohol, largely led by women

Washington Temperance Society

Six recovered alcoholics from Baltimore formed this group, drawing large crowds made up of mostly workers and advocating for abstinence

American Society for the Promotion of Temperance

a coordinating agency among various Temperance groups, they used revivalism techniques to preach sobriety

Phrenology

A “science” that originated in Germany and claimed one’s skull shape could indicate their character and intelligence

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Horace Mann

Benevolent Empire

Asylum Movement

Seneca Falls

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Bloomer costume

American Colonization Society

William Lloyd Garrison

David Walker

Frederick Douglass

Amistad Case

Privy vs Pennsylvania

Liberty Party

Uncle Tom’s Cabin