History 103: Ch 8. Life in Antebellum America (1807-1861)

Romanticism -

• Was a reaction to the hyper-rational, scientific approach of the European Enlightenment that said all experience had to be observable and measurable to be valid.

• Validated emotional experience.

• Affected visual art, music, and literature.

Hudson River School -

• When a man named Thomas Cole took a boat ride up the Hudson River in 1825 and was inspired to paint the scenery.

• A movement of artists who created romantic landscapes of the Hudson River Valley.

Louisa May Alcott -

• Became famous after publishing Little Women.

• On the surface, Little Women is coming-of-age story written for children about four sisters whose father is away at war. But on a deeper level, the book explores the struggle between women's traditional, subservient social role and the growing desire to pursue their own goals in life and to achieve political equality.

Transcendentalism -

Emphasized the belief that by communing directly with nature, humans could transcend the sensory world and reach the supernatural.

Utopian communes -

Are trying to create a perfect world.

Who were well-known transcendental writers?

I. Henry David Thoreau

II. Albert Bierstadt

III. Charles Blondin

IV. Ralph Waldo Emerson

V. Edgar Allan Poe

I and IV

Which group first popularized art museums and landscape paintings?

• Transcendentalists

• Hudson River School

• Mormons

• Utopians

• Romantics

Hudson River School

Brook Farm and the Oneida colony were both examples of which of the following?

• Art schools

• Utopian societies

• Romantic art venues

• Religious communes

• Transcendentalist experiments

Utopian societies

Which of these authors wrote for girls on themes such as femininity?

• Louisa May Alcott

• Harriett Beecher Stowe

• Washington Irving

• Emily Dickinson

• Edgar Allan Poe

Louisa May Alcott

Which of the following would most likely have been a popular attraction in the antebellum era?

• A Shakespearean play

• A baseball game

• A bicycle ride

• A movie

• A circus act

A circus act

The temperance movement -

• Sought to limit or even ban the consumption of alcohol.

• Strongly supported by American Protestants, there were more than 6,000 individual temperance societies at the local level by the 1830s.

• Many supporters of the movement believed that if alcohol were restricted, there would be less crime, vagrancy, child abuse, poverty, and suicide.

• Although it took nearly a century, this movement was finally successful with the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919.

Oberlin College -

Located in Ohio and was the first coeducational college in America, opening its doors to women in 1833.

Dorothea Dix -

• In 1843, she told the Massachusetts legislature that people with mental illnesses were kept ''in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!''

• Was later known for her work establishing the nursing corps in the Civil War.

• Her and other reformers helped in the creation of public institutions dedicated to the treatment of mental illness.

Abolition -

• Was the effort to end slavery in the United States.

• There had been abolitionists since colonial days, notably the Quakers, and a vocal minority had tried to abolish slavery with the founding of the nation.

• The American Colonization Society advocated purchasing all existing enslaved people and then relocating them back to Africa; they even established the colony of Liberia in 1822. On the other hand, abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison suggested that enslaved people should immediately be set free without compensation to owners and the freed people granted full rights and citizenship within America.

• The movement was finally successful with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865.

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton -

• Became friends and, eight years later, organized their own convention in Seneca Falls, New York, to bring attention to women's rights.

• About 300 women turned out for the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, where they heard Stanton read her Declaration of Sentiments, echoing the words of Thomas Jefferson, ''We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal...''

• The convention's organizers, including Stanton, Mott, and Susan B. Anthony, called for improved legal status, economic opportunity, and the right to vote. The Seneca Falls Convention is widely considered the start of the modern feminist movement. And though it was eventually successful in many ways (including suffrage with the 19th amendment), the movement for women's rights was overshadowed by the issue of slavery until after the Civil War.

Where did public schools exist in early America?

I. Massachusetts

II. New York

III. Virginia

I only

Which was America's first coeducational college?

• Harvard

• Liberia

• Yale

• Seneca Falls

• Oberlin

Oberlin

Dorothea Dix was important for her work in what movement in the antebellum era?

Asylums for people with mental illnesses

The temperance movement was also linked with…

Anti-immigrant feelings

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott advocated for women's rights after their involvement in what other reform movement?

• Prison reform

• Temperance

• Abolition

• Education

• Asylums for mentally ill people

Abolition

The transportation revolution -

Provided a number of new, reliable, safe and cost-effective ways to travel to different parts of the nation, including new land in the West.

Turnpikes -

• Private roads, crisscrossed the East, connecting to each other and to the National Road (also called the Cumberland Road).

• They were constructed and maintained by local and state governments or by private investors who made a profit by collecting a toll from people who used the road.

• Were so named because the first such private road had a series of spikes that the toll collector would move aside once the driver had paid.

• Couldn't solve the nation's transportation problems alone; they were slow and uncomfortable for passengers and impractical for shipping large quantities of goods.

Erie Canal -

• When American businessmen had been unsuccessful in convincing the federal government to dig a canal between the Great Lakes and the Hudson River, and the state of New York decided to act and broke ground on the Erie Canal in 1817.

• It took eight years and $7 million, but it was a political and financial success.

• The cost of shipping freight from Buffalo to New York City dropped from $0.19 per ton per mile down to $0.02 during the 1830s. By connecting the interior of the continent to the Atlantic Ocean, the Erie Canal allowed for the settlement of northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

• It helped open up agriculture and industry since products could now be transported easily, quickly and inexpensively back to the population centers in the East.

• The canal forged a physical and economic bond between the farms of the Midwest and the Northeast that would become important in the political battles over slavery and states' rights.

• Helped New York City replace Philadelphia as the commercial center of the nation.

• By 1840, more than 3,000 miles of canals connected most major waterways in the nation.

In the interior of the nation, which was the most important means of shipping in the early 19th century?

Canals

What was the Clermont?

The first commercial steam ship in the U.S.

Which were hindrances to building railroads in the early 19th century?

I. Turnpike operators opposed it.

II. Canal building had sapped state funds.

III. Passengers were scared to ride on trains.

IV. The Panic of 1837 limited private funding.

I, II and IV

Which best describes the federal government's position on building transportation networks?

• It supported internal improvements in theory but could not raise the funds to build them.

• It opposed such internal improvements, believing they were best left to states and private investors.

• It supported internal improvements and aggressively pursued building transportation networks.

• It wanted to build railroads but not canals.

• It was divided, with Republicans supporting internal improvements and Democrats opposing them.

It opposed such internal improvements, believing they were best left to states and private investors.

After mid-century, which was the most important means of transportation through the interior of the nation?

• Railroads

• Steamboats

• Canals

• Stagecoaches

• Turnpikes

Railroads

Cyrus McCormick -

Invented the mechanical reaper.

John Deere -

Invented the steel plow.

Charles Goodyear -

• His rubber was eventually applied in more than 500 different uses and allowed for the development of the automobile industry.

• Unfortunately, he was a man ahead of his time. He died a poor man before his inventions became widely used.

Samuel Morse -

• Needed a supplemental income, and after failing to reach his dying wife's bedside due to a lack of efficient communication, he invented the electric telegraph and Morse code in 1844.

• His little side job revolutionized communication, allowing for messages to be passed almost instantly over long distances. Within 16 years, telegraph wires crisscrossed the East Coast and reached as far west as the Mississippi River.

Corporation -

• Raises capital from many different investors.

• Each of them earns a share of the profits while only risking the amount of their original investment.

Where did most of Lowell's factory women come from initially?

They were farm women from the surrounding countryside.

Who was an artist that revolutionized communications technology?

Samuel Morse

What industry did John Deere and Cyrus McCormick work in?

Farm technology

Why did the North focus its efforts on industrialization rather than cash crops during the antebellum era?

A combination of climate advantages in the South, and the large-scale farming moving out West forced the North to rely on a commercial economy rather than agriculture.

Which was an important direct effect of industrialization?

• Lower taxes

• A lower birth rate

• Population growth

• Urbanization

Urbanization

Why would most Americans have been unlikely to read a Douay Bible in the 19th century?

Because it is a Catholic translation and most Americans were Protestant.

Which of the following is true regarding the industrial experience of the Lowell women versus that of the immigrants?

• Lowell women had a lowered life expectancy whereas immigrants had a higher life expectancy.

• Lowell women had plenty to eat whereas immigrants were in poor conditions.

• Lowell women were underpaid whereas immigrants were paid a decent salary.

• Lowell women were mainly immigrants from Germany.

Lowell women had plenty to eat whereas immigrants were in poor conditions.

Why were workers often and easily fired during the 1830s?

Because there were plenty of immigrants who were necessitating jobs.

Which of the following was NOT true of Nativists?

• Nativists were hostile to catholics.

• Nativists were, at some point in time, threatened by the sudden rise in number of immigrants.

• Nativists were never concerned by the increasing population of African Americans.

• Several Nativist riots became destructive and deadly in the antebellum era.

Nativists were never concerned by the increasing population of African Americans.

Which of the following most accurately describes the settlement of immigrants in the mid-19th century?

• Irish immigrants settled in the South while German immigrants stayed in East Coast cities.

• Irish immigrants settled in East Coast cities while German immigrants moved to the Midwest.

• Italian immigrants settled in East Coast cities while Irish immigrants moved to the South.

• German immigrants settled in the Southwest while Italian immigrants moved to the West Coast.

Irish immigrants settled in East Coast cities while German immigrants moved to the Midwest.

John C. Calhoun -

• Defended slavery as a 'positive good' to the U.S. Senate in 1837.

• He later summarized the speech, saying, 'Many in the South once believed that slavery was a moral and political evil; that folly and delusion are gone; we see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most safe and stable basis for free institutions in the world.'

Task system -

Each person had a specific job to do, and when it was finished, he was on his own time.

Which best describes Southern U.S. society in the antebellum era?

• Many rich white people owned enslaved people and ran plantations.

• It opposed the rigid class structure of Europe.

• It had a stable structure with four basic social classes.

• Most white people were equal, while Black people were not.

• It had a loose structure in which anyone could move up.

It had a stable structure with four basic social classes.

Which is TRUE of Southern industry in the antebellum era of the U.S.?

• It accounted for about 1/3 of America's manufacturing.

• It didn't really exist.

• It provided about 60% of U.S. exports.

• Its manufactured goods were rarely exported.

• It focused on banking and finance.

Its manufactured goods were rarely exported.

How did the environmental differences of the North and the South of the U.S. impact their economies in the antebellum period?

The rivers in the North powered machinery and the climate in the South enabled the production of cash crops.

In the U.S. antebellum period, enslaved people in the task system worked until the task was completed. Which type of enslaved person was most likely to work under the task system?

• A house enslaved person on a rice plantation

• A house enslaved person on a cotton plantation

• A field hand on a rice plantation

• An urban enslaved person who had a skilled trade

• A field hand on a cotton plantation

A field hand on a rice plantation

All of the following were reasons for the expansion of the 'old Southwest' in the U.S. EXCEPT.

• The end of the slave trade

• The opening of land along the Gulf Coast

• The shift from tobacco to cotton

• Rising cotton prices

• The invention of the cotton gin

The end of the slave trade

When were the first African people brought to the colony of Jamestown by the Dutch people?

1619

Why not enslave the native population?

Native American people were new to being exposed to European disease, and therefore, they were likely to catch them. They were on their home turf and could escape more easily. They also had political allies that could fight against the slave holders.

Why did they use enslaved African people?

Slavery had earlier taken hold in the Caribbean. It only took 2-6 weeks to get to the colonies from the Caribbean. Other factors included:

• Experience - they had previous experience and knowledge working in sugar and rice production.

• Immunity from diseases - they were less likely to get sick due to prolonged contact over centuries.

• Low escape possibilities - they did not know the land, had no allies, and were highly visible because of skin color.

How did African enslaved people find themselves in the New World?

• After capture, usually by African enemies and later African slave traders, people were packed tightly into slave ships. The death rate of the passengers was 50%. The ships followed the middle passage of the Triangle Trade.

• The Triangle Trade route was the flow of raw material from American colonies to Europe followed by manufactured goods leaving Europe for African markets. Those manufactured items were traded for enslaved African people, who were transported on the middle passage to the American colonies.

• Most African people landed in Brazil. Very few actually landed in North America. They were auctioned off to the highest bidder, then were put through a process of ''seasoning'' to get them ready for work. They learned a European language. They were given a European name and were shown work expectations.

How did slaves live?

They could not read or write, and it was illegal for them to learn. Some did illegally, but keeping education away from subjugated people is one big way to keep them down. The inability to write makes it difficult to organize and plan with other groups. Most of them did have Sundays off, and they went to church. Slave holders needed enslaved people to stay healthy, and they needed to convince others they were godly. Giving the Sabbath off helped with both of these.

The slave codes -

Were rules for all of those enslaved. They included that they could not leave their home without a pass, carry a weapon, gather in groups, own property, legally marry, defend themselves against a white person, or speak in court.

Slave Punishment -

They were often brutally punished for misbehaving. Punishments including whipping, branding, being sold, gagged, and just about any other way to inhumanely treat a person were used.

How did those enslaved resist?

• Flight: They would run away.

• Truancy: They would run away for a short amount of time, and then then they would come back.

• Refusal to reproduce: Enslaved women would refuse to have children.

• Covert action: They would sometimes kill livestock, destroy crops, start fires, steal stuff, break tools, poison food—pretty much do anything to throw a wrench in the slavery machine.

The four major slave revolts -

• The Stono Rebellion was a failed revolt in South Carolina in 1739.

• Gabriel Prosser led a failed revolt in Virginia in 1800.

• Denmark Vesey led a failed revolt in South Carolina in 1822.

• Nat Turner killed 60 white people in Virginia in 1831.

Denmark Vesey & Nat Turner -

• Denmark Vesey was an enslaved person in the Caribbean before coming to the United States. His name was originally Telemaque. He bought his freedom and began planning a slave rebellion that would have been second to none. Someone leaked the plan. Vesey and the other planners were caught, tried, and executed. Later, great abolitionists, like Fredrick Douglass, would use Denmark Vesey's memory to rally support for the Civil War.

• In 1831, Nat Turner got his rebellion off the ground. In Virginia, Turner built support for his uprising in Southampton County. Sixty whites were killed. It was the largest uprising before the Civil War. At least 100 enslaved people and free African-American people were killed, and after the revolt was put down, Nat Turner and 55 others accused of being a part of the revolt were executed. At least 200 more were killed by militias and white mobs in response to the uprising.

Which of the following compares the slave revolt led by Denmark Vesey with that of Nat Turner?

• Denmark Vesey bought his freedom while Nat Turner ran away from his master.

• The revolt plans by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner led to the killing of 55 and 200 white people respectively

• The revolt plan by Denmark Vesey was leaked while that of Nat Turner led to a success.

• Denmark Vesey was killed before his revolt could be carried out while Nat Turner was executed after killing 60 whites.

Denmark Vesey was killed before his revolt could be carried out while Nat Turner was executed after killing 60 whites.

The Middle Passage was _____.

the leg of the triangle trade bringing African enslaved people to the New World

Which one of the following is true about the Slave Code?

• Enslaved people could speak in court or legally marry.

• Enslaved people could carry a weapon or gather in groups.

• None of these answers are correct.

• Enslaved people could defend themselves against a white person.

None of these answers are correct.

In early America, why were enslaved people from Caribbean the preferred choice when compared to Native Americans?

They had low escape possibilities.

Which of the following was NOT part of the slave trade?

• Enslaved people were given a European name.

• Enslaved people were seasoned.

• Enslaved people were auctioned.

• Enslaved people were shown how to write.

Enslaved people were shown how to write.

David Walker -

• Published An Appeal in Four Articles in 1829, attacking slavery as a moral evil and calling on African people to fight back.

• Saw a need for violence to bring an end to slavery. A quote from his appeal reads, ''They want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us...therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed...and believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty.''

• Stated that African people deserved to be seen as both humans and Americans. His Appeal obviously frightened slave owners, but it also frightened opponents of slavery in the North because it embraced violence. Shortly after the Appeal's publication, he was found dead. Most likely, he had been murdered. His Appeal paved the way for future abolitionists and inspired the movement.

William Lloyd Garrison -

• Was from Massachusetts and was one of the men inspired by David Walker.

• He started publishing an anti-slavery newspaper called The Liberator in 1831. This is what most consider the formal start of the abolitionist movement.

• Was a devoutly Christian man, and he saw slavery as a mortal sin that could not be justified by economics or politics.

• In 1833, he brought together people in New England to form the American Anti-Slavery Society. The group included Quakers, evangelical Christians who opposed slavery, and other abolitionists. They pushed for an immediate end to slavery and equal rights for free black people. Unlike Walker, they refused to advocate violence to end slavery.

Frederick Douglass -

• Was an escaped slave.

• He used his excellent abilities as a writer and orator to bring attention to the evil of slavery. Douglass' publication was called the North Star.

• He agreed with the abolitionist stand against violence, but his speeches to white audiences were very blunt. On July 5, 1852, in a New York speech he asked, ''Why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?''

• Was a special adviser to President Lincoln and fought for the adoption of the constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights and other civil liberties to African-American people. He also assisted in recruiting African Americans for the United States Army.

Henry Highland Garnet -

• Escaped from slavery in Maryland.

• As a minister, he became interested in the abolitionist and temperance movements.

• Although he was well-known speaker for the American Anti-Slavery Society, in 1843, he became frustrated with the lack of progress. Influenced by David Walker's Appeal, he broke ranks with the Society's non-violent stance.

• His Address to the Slaves of the United States of America called for ''War to the Knife'' to end slavery. He said ''You had far better all die - die immediately, than live as slaves.''

• Was disowned by other abolitionists, like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, but he remained an important driver of active resistance to slavery. Like Douglass, Garnet helped to recruit Black troops for the Civil War. He also established a school for the children of escaped slaves in Washington D.C.

Harriet Beecher Stowe -

• Published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852.

• The novel, which condemned slavery, sold more than 300,000 copies in the United States in its first year and fueled resistance to slavery. Three hundred thousand copies in 1852 is like millions today... think Harry Potter size sales!

• In the book, images of the evil slave owner Simon Legree and the innocent slave Eliza, as she attempted to escape over an ice-filled river, made slavery real to an entire generation of American citizens. It is said that Abraham Lincoln actually greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862 with the words, ''So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War!''

Harriet Tubman & the Underground Railroad -

• There were many ways for abolitionists to act. Not all of them were great orators. Abolitionists did not advocate violence, but they did support the Underground Railroad, which helped runaway slaves to escape to the North.

• The Underground Railroad was not an organization run by a single person. It was a loose, cooperative network of individuals who worked together to help people get to freedom. From 1840-1860, about 20,000 slaves escaped through the Underground Railroad. Twenty thousand escapees is a very low estimate!

• Harriet Tubman was one of the most prominent conductors. She led hundreds of slaves to freedom. Tubman also worked as a spy for the Union during the Civil War and aided John Brown in recruiting members for his raid of Harper's Ferry.

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote _____.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

William Lloyd Garrison, founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, wrote _____.

The Liberator

Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave known for his writing and great speeches, wrote _____.

The North Star

David Walker, who predated the Abolitionist Movement and advocated violence in ending slavery wrote _____.

An Appeal in Four Articles

The platform of the Abolitionist movement wanted

to achieve immediate emancipation of all enslaved people and the ending of racial segregation without the use of violence.

Imperialism -

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Proletariat -

The working poor

Federalism -

The role of the national government.

Historians usually conclude that the Enlightenment Era of thinking ended with what key political event?

The French Revolution

Which of the following was NOT a major type of analysis of American history by the conclusion of the 19th century?

• The creation of Atlantic history

• Manifest Destiny

• The role of the national government

• Imperialism in Latin America

The role of the national government

What was one key reason that Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire was so influential to 19th century European historians?

Their own nations were in the midst of imperial expansion.

The largest economic shift produced by the Industrial Revolution was the change in production from _____ to _____.

food; goods

Karl Marx predicted that the rise of the proletariat in the 19th century would lead to what?

Seizure of the means of production

It was almost impossible to diversify the economy in the Southern U.S. during this (Antebellum) period because _____

growing cotton with slave labor was so profitable.

An honorable Southern gentleman did NOT feel the need to defend _____ as a priority.

his country

The period between The War of 1812 and the Civil War was known in American History as _____

The Antebellum Period

The first major convention focused on support for female suffrage and women's rights was the _____

Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.

Which of the following was the focus of a major reform movement during the 19th century?

• Temperance

• The educational system

• All of these were major reform movements

• Womens' suffrage

All of these were major reform movements

During the antebellum period, racism in the Northern U.S. _____

was still a part of every day life.

Which of the following artistic movements validated personal emotional experiences?

• Scientific

• Romanticism

• Art Deco

• Modernism

Romanticism

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau made great use of nature and the concept of self-reliance in their writings. They belonged to a uniquely American school of philosophy known as _____

Transcendentalism.

Which American artistic movement featured dramatic landscapes without people in them?

• Transcendentalism

• Scientific

• Modernism

• Romanticism

Romanticism

During the early 19th century, steamships and canals greatly improved transportation in the _____

entire U.S.

Which of the following new ideas greatly improved transportation during the antebellum era?

• All of these greatly improved transportation

• The National Road

• The expansion of railways

• The steamship

All of these greatly improved transportation