APUSH Unit 4 Chapter 12 Terms

James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper

Thought to be the first great American novelist. He frequently wrote about adventure and suspense. His books like the Mohicans and the Deerslayer tell about the American frontier and the involvement with Natives, pioneers, violence, and the law.

Walt Whitman

A writer who published his works in newspapers. His writings focused on the greatness of Democracy, the liberation of individuals, and the yearning for personal fulfillment. his literary work as well as his outwardly open homosexuality helped express the soaring spirit of individualism.

Herman Melville

A novelist that spent his youth at sea and published an extremely influential piece of writing; Moby Dick. It portrayed how personal fulfillment could either liberated or destroy a human.

Edgar Allan Poe

The creator of horror novels. An extraordinary poet who wrote about individuals exploring the more spiritual parts of life. He was a very controversial author at the time, but stories like the Raven were one of the most bought novels at the time.

Transcendentalists

Followers of a belief which believed reason to be the ability to grasp ideas like beauty and truth through following instincts and emotions. They also believed that understanding was the process of applying small amounts of knowledge in fairly useless ways. They promoted the belief in individualism and caused an array of humanitarian reforms. Kind of like a hippy, don't be like a sheep be different.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A transcendentalist who became an influential speaker for his beliefs. He believed connecting to nature was key to living a virtuous life. He was also a committed nationalist.

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 by breaking laws to show why they were poor laws, to begin with.

Utopian societies

Experimental societies such as Brook Farm arose out of transcendentalist beliefs. All of them failed miserably and were seen to be militaristic and communistic. The positive side of these societies was that they promoted the belief that leisure was good for people.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A man that grew up in a Utopian society wrote books on his terrible experiences when living in Brook Farm. His book The Blithedale Romance showed how devastating the effects of Utopian societies were on the inhabitants.

Shakers

A religious group that combined traditional Christian views with new ideas and controversies occurring at the time. Members of the group were not allowed to have children and participation in the group had to be by choice. Men and women were viewed as equal in this religion, but in reality, the women were more powerful.

Mormons

Founded by Joseph Smith; a religion that combined many old religions with new beliefs based on American culture. The followers of this religion believed they could become as pious and good as God and become saints. The group had many controversial practices like polygamy and intense secrecy which made the religion outlawed in many places in America. Eventually, they migrated to Salt Lake City Utah to find a permanent home.

Protestant Revivalism

The movement that had begun with the Second Great Awakening early in the 18th century, and had evolved into a powerful force for social reform. With help from Presbyterian minister Charles Grandison Finney, the belief in spiritual rebirth and salvation was spread widely across America.

Charles G Finney

Presbyterian minister spread the ideas of spiritual rebirth and salvation throughout the United States (mostly in the North).

Temperance Crusade

The fight for banning and limiting the use of alcohol in the United States to prevent drunkenness. Many women were strong believers in this because they saw firsthand how alcoholism could affect a family.

Phrenology

The ridiculous thought that head size and shape determined key traits and values of an individual.

Horace Mann

An educational reformer and the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. He believed strongly in an educated populous and wanted to increase educational opportunities for children.

Public Education

Eventually, all states had laws enforcing children to enroll in these in order to become beneficial parts of American Society. There were more schools made and the quality of education was improved.

Asylum Movement

The belief that the current way of organizing criminals and the mentally ill was wrong. It shed light on issues such as overcrowding of prisons, the mixing of dangerous and harmless convicts, and the terrible conditions inmates suffered. Eventually led to the creation of penitentiaries and mental institutions.

Indian Reservations

Many people still believed that Native Americans could be integrated into society so they created these to try to let natives adapt to white lifestyles while still being secluded from whites.

Feminism

The emerging belief of women that males and females were created equal and therefore should have equal rights. Women's suffrage was most important at the time. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are some strong supporters of this.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A prominent advocate of women's rights took part in the creation of Seneca Falls to discuss the importance of women's rights. She drew many parallels to the treatment of women and slaves.

Lucretia Mott

Quaker women's rights advocate who also strongly supported the abolition of slavery.

Susan B Anthony

A Quaker social reformer who campaigned for women's rights, and the temperance movement, and was an abolitionist. She helped form the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first national women's rights convention at which the Declaration of Sentiments was written, explaining that all men and women are created equal.

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

A result of the Seneca Falls Convention that stated that all men and women are created equal. In demanding the right to vote, they launched a movement for women's suffrage that would survive for almost a century. The document actually rejected the idea that men and women inhabited different spheres of society.

Quakers

The religious group where most abolitionists and feminists came from. Their belief in complete equality no matter what gender or race sparked these political views.

Abolitionism

The growing movement to end slavery gained support from Quakers, women, blacks, and northerners.

American Colonization Society

A society that would buy slaves their freedom and move them to the North, the Caribbean, or Liberia. The effort proved very meaningless because these actions were very expensive.

William Lloyd Garrison

An influential abolitionist created his own newspaper, the Liberator, in order to inform the public of the atrocities of slavery. He made Americans view slavery from the African American perspective and envision the horrors that they must go through.

American Antislavery Society

A group created by William Lloyd Garrison that expanded across the northern United States and gained the support of over 250,000 followers.

Frederick Douglass

A black abolitionist writer and orator. He founded the antislavery newspaper, The North Star, and wrote an autobiography that showed the horrible conditions of slavery. He demanded social and economic equality.

Anti-abolitionist violence

Occurred mostly in the North where more abolitionists were found. Racial prejudices became evident when innocent blacks were arrested and riots formed in cities. Some abolitionists were even murdered and their property destroyed.

Amistad case

Africans destined for slavery in Cuba seized a ship and tried to sail it to Africa but the U.S. navy seized it and held the Africans as pirates. The court declared them free because the international slave trade had been illegal.

Free soil movement

Made by the Liberty Party that stated that slavery should be kept out of territories. Some people who believed in this movement did not care at all for African Americans, but it still helped attract supporters of the abolitionist movement in large quantities.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Created by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is a thrilling fiction novel that informed the public about the atrocities of slavery. It portrayed innocent and good-hearted blacks being tortured and abused by their owners. It was the most popularly bought novel at the time and persuaded many to join the abolitionist cause.