American Temperance Society
Founded in Boston in 1826 as part of a growing effort of nineteenth-century reformers to limit alcohol consumption
American Anti-Slavery Society
Abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. By 1838, the organization had more than 250,000 members across 1,350 chapters
Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World
Incendiary abolitionist track advocating the violent overthrow of slavery. Published by David Walker, a Southern-born free black
American Colonization Society
Reflecting the focus of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West-African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves.
Book Farm
Transcendentalist commune founded by a group of intellectuals, who emphasized living plainly while pursuing the life of the mind. The community fell into debt and dissolved when their communal home burned to the ground in 1846
Burned-over district
Popular name for Western New York, a region particularly swept up in the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening
Cult of domesticity
Pervasive nineteenth century cultural creed that venerated the domestic role of women. It gave married women greater authority to shape home life but limited opportunities outside the domestic sphere.
Liberia
West-African nation founded in 1822 as a haven for freed blacks, fifteen thousand of whom made their way back across the Atlantic by the 1860s.
The Liberator
Antislavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, who called for the immediate emancipation of all slaves.
Maine Law of 1851
Prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol. A dozen other states followed Maine’s lead, though most statutes proved ineffective and were repealed within a decade.
Mormons
Religious followers of Joseph Smith, who founded a communal, oligarchic religious order in the 1830s, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Mormons, facing deep hostility from their non-Mormon neighbors, eventually migrated west and established a flourishing settlement in the Utah desert.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Vivid autobiography of the escaped slave and renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Virginia slave revolt that resulted in the deaths of sixty whites and raised fears among white Southerners of further uprising
New Harmony
Communal society of around one thousand members, established in New Harmony, Indiana by Robert Owen. The community attracted a hodgepodge of individuals, from scholars to crooks, and fell apart due to infighting and confusion after just two years.
Oneida Community
One of the more radical utopian communities established in the nineteenth century, it advocated “free love”, birth control, and eugenics. Utopian communities reflected the reformist spirit of the age
Peculiar institution
Widely used term for the institution of American slavery in the South. Its use in the first half of the 19th century reflected a growing division between the North, where slavery was gradually abolished, and the South, where slavery became increasingly entrenched
Shakers
Called “Shakers'' for their lively dance worship, they emphasized simple, communal living and were all expected to practice celibacy. First transplanted to America from England by Mother Ann Lee, the Shakers counted six thousand members by 1840, though by the 1940s the movement had largely died out.
Second Great Awakening
Religious revival characterized by emotional mass “camp meetings'' and widespread conversion. Brought about a democratization of religion as a multiplicity of denominations vied for members.
Self-Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s popular lecture essay that reflected the spirit of individualism pervasive in American popular culture during the 1830s and 1840s.
Transcendentalism
Literary and intellectual movement that emphasized individualism and self-reliance, predicated upon a belief that each person possesses an “inner light” that can point the way to truth and direct contact with God
Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls
Gathering of feminist activists in Seneca Falls, New York, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton read her “Declaration of Sentiments,” stating that “all men and women are created equal.”