AP US History: Religion, Reform, and Culture (1820–1848)

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, religious movements, abolitionist leaders, utopian societies, and women's rights developments in Chapter 10 of AP US History (1820–1848).

Individualism

A social and philosophical concept prominent in the 19th century that emphasized self-reliance, personal autonomy, and individual self-realization outside of traditional social hierarchies.

Transcendentalism

A 19th-century intellectual movement pioneered by writers like Emerson and Thoreau that emphasized intuition, individual self-realization, and a spiritual connection with nature over formal Protestant dogma.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A leading transcendentalist philosopher, essayist, and speaker whose works championed self-reliance, individual moral independence, and cultural detachment from European traditions.

Henry David Thoreau

A transcendentalist writer and thinker who advocated for individual self-realization, simple living in natural environments, and civil disobedience against unjust government practices.

Second Great Awakening

A major wave of religious revivals in the early-to-mid 19th century that emphasized free will, inspired widespread social reform movements (such as temperance and abolition), and elevated women into prominent roles in public social change.

Temperance Movement

A widespread reform campaign influenced by the Second Great Awakening aimed at curbing or banning the consumption of alcoholic beverages to eliminate the social, domestic, and economic issues caused by drunkenness.

Utopian movement

A 19th-century movement characterized by intentional communal experiments designed to establish alternative, perfected social and moral orders in reaction to competitive market society.

Shakers

A religious communal utopian society known for strict celibacy, shared property, gender equality in governance, and energetic ecstatic ritual worship.

John Humphrey Noyes and Oneida

The religious perfectionist founder and his communal community in New York that challenged traditional marriage conventions through 'complex marriage,' shared child-rearing, and collective property ownership.

Joseph Smith and Mormonism

The founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the new religious sect established in the 1820s and 1830s based on his revelations and communal discipline.

Brigham Young

The Mormon religious leader who succeeded Joseph Smith following Smith's death and led the Mormons westward to establish a new settlement in the Great Salt Lake Basin.

Nativism

An anti-immigrant sentiment and political posture that privileged native-born Americans and expressed intense hostility toward foreign immigrants and Roman Catholicism.

Abolition

The radical 19th-century reform movement that demanded the immediate or gradual emancipation of all enslaved African Americans and the eradication of the institution of slavery.

David Walker

A free African American abolitionist whose radical pamphlet, Appeal… to the Coloured Citizens of the World, urged enslaved people to rebel and use violence if necessary to gain freedom and equality.

Nat Turner’s Revolt

An 1831 uprising led by enslaved preacher Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, which resulted in the deaths of roughly sixty white people and prompted severe Southern retaliation and stricter slave codes.

William Lloyd Garrison

A prominent white abolitionist leader who co-founded the American Anti-Slavery Society and advocated for immediate, uncompensated emancipation and racial equality.

The Liberator

An influential abolitionist newspaper founded in 1831 by William Lloyd Garrison that served as the primary vehicle for demanding immediate emancipation and denouncing the moral sin of slavery.

Dorthea Dix

A nineteenth-century reformer who investigated the squalid conditions of jails and poorhouses, successfully advocating for state-funded mental asylums and humane treatment for the mentally ill.

Underground Railroad

A covert network of secret routes, safe houses, and assistance provided by abolitionists and free Blacks to help enslaved African Americans escape to free northern states and Canada.

Gag Rule 1836

A procedural resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1836 that automatically postponed and prevented debate or action on all anti-slavery petitions.

Separate Spheres for women

A 19th-century middle-class ideological division positing that men should govern the public world of commerce and politics while women's primary responsibility belonged in the private, domestic sphere.

Cult of Domesticity

A 19th-century cultural value system that prescribed ideal womanhood around the virtues of piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestic homemaking within the home.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first national women's rights convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, which initiated the organized movement for female equality and suffrage in the United States.

Declaration of Sentiments

A manifesto issued at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, that proclaimed the equality of men and women and detailed injustices against women's civil and political rights.

Benevolent Empire

A broad coalition of Protestant reform societies in the 1820s and 1830s aimed at restoring Christian moral order through targeted campaigns against vices like alcoholism, Sabbath-breaking, and crime.

Charles Finney

A prominent revivalist minister of the Second Great Awakening whose preaching emphasized human free will, personal moral accountability, and individual conversion as a basis for broad social reform.

American Colonization Society

An organization founded in 1817 that promoted the gradual emancipation of enslaved people coupled with their resettlement in Africa, a strategy later rejected by radical abolitionists.