Lesson 23: Rebellion, Religion & Reform & Anti-Slavery Movement

Haiti

Site of the 1791 slave revolt against French rule; terrified Southern slaveholders.

Charles Deslondes

Leader of 1811 Louisiana slave revolt; a Black overseer.

Denmark Vesey

Free Black man who planned a massive slave uprising in Charleston (1822).

Nat Turner

Leader of 1831 Virginia revolt; killed 57 Whites; executed after capture.

Second Great Awakening

Religious revival emphasizing individual salvation and emotional conversion.

Protestant Revivalism

Evangelical preaching aimed at moral reform and mass conversions.

Methodism

Popular denomination among Free Blacks; opposed slavery.

Charles Finney

Revival preacher promoting social reform and women’s participation.

Transcendentalism

Philosophy stressing inner spiritual truth, self-reliance, and intuition.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalist promoting individualism and self-improvement.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”

Emerson’s quote criticizing rigid, unthinking conformity.

Henry David Thoreau

Transcendentalist writer; lived at Walden Pond; supported civil disobedience.

Walden Pond

Thoreau’s simple-living experiment in nature.

“Lives of quiet desperation”

Thoreau’s description of the unhappiness of ordinary people.

Civil Disobedience

Thoreau’s idea: morally refuse to obey unjust laws.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Author of The Scarlet Letter; explored sin and guilt.

Edgar Allan Poe

Writer known for gothic horror and dark poetry.

Herman Melville

Author of Moby Dick.

Temperance

Movement to reduce or ban alcohol use.

Dorothea Dix

Reformer who exposed abuse of mentally ill; pushed for humane asylums.

Insane Asylums

Early institutions for mentally ill; often used harsh treatment before reform.

Women’s Rights

Movement advocating equality for women in society and law.

Cult of Domesticity

Belief that women belonged in the home as wives and mothers.

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

First women’s rights convention in the U.S.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Leader at Seneca Falls; co-wrote the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments.

Susan B. Anthony

Women’s rights and suffrage leader; joined Stanton in the movement.

Declaration of Rights and Sentiments

Document demanding equal rights for women, modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

Evangelical Christianity

Religious belief motivating many abolitionists; stressed equality before God.

Egalitarianism

Idea that all people are equal in rights and worth.

Economic Liberalism

Belief in free labor, free markets; used to criticize slavery.

Colonization

Movement to relocate free Blacks to Africa (Liberia).

Liberia

African colony founded for relocated free Black Americans.

David Walker

Author of An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World; demanded immediate abolition.

William Lloyd Garrison

Abolitionist; editor of The Liberator; demanded immediate end to slavery.

The Liberator

Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper.

Grimké Sisters

Angelina and Sarah; supported abolitionism and women’s rights.

Abolitionism

Movement to end slavery immediately.

Feminism

Movement for equal rights for women.

Frederick Douglass

Former slave; abolitionist orator and writer; published The North Star.

The North Star

Douglass’s anti-slavery newspaper.

“What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?”

Douglass’s speech criticizing American hypocrisy.

Sojourner Truth

Former slave; abolitionist and women’s rights activist; “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe; depicted brutality of slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Elijah P. Lovejoy

Abolitionist editor murdered by a mob.

Gag Rule

Congressional rule blocking debate on anti-slavery petitions (1836–1844).

Underground Railroad

Secret network that helped enslaved people escape.

Harriet Tubman

Former slave; leading conductor on the Underground Railroad.