Key Topics in 19th Century American Social Reform and Expansion

Cult of Domesticity / Separate Spheres / Catharine Beecher

The belief that women's role was in the home, promoting morality and virtue; Catharine Beecher advocated women's education to serve domestic and teaching roles.

Second Great Awakening / Charles Finney

Religious revival in the early 1800s that emphasized personal salvation and moral reform; Finney was a leading preacher inspiring social activism.

Dorothea Dix

Reformer who fought for humane treatment of the mentally ill and the establishment of state asylums.

Temperance Movement

Social movement to reduce or ban alcohol consumption, linked to family stability and moral improvement.

Horace Mann / Common School Movement

Mann led the push for free, tax-supported public education to promote democracy and moral values.

Underground Railroad / Harriet Tubman

Secret network that helped enslaved people escape to freedom; Tubman was its most famous conductor.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe exposing the cruelties of slavery and increasing Northern opposition to it.

William Lloyd Garrison

Radical abolitionist who published The Liberator and called for immediate emancipation of all enslaved people.

The Liberator

Abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison advocating for immediate emancipation.

American Anti-Slavery Society

Organization founded by Garrison and others to promote abolition through moral persuasion and activism.

Moral Suasion

Strategy to end slavery by appealing to people's conscience and Christian morals rather than through politics.

Grimké Sisters (Sarah & Angelina)

Southern-born abolitionists and women's rights advocates who linked slavery and gender inequality.

Gag Rule

Rule (1836-1844) that automatically tabled anti-slavery petitions in Congress, silencing debate on slavery.

Free Soil Party

Political party (1848) opposing the expansion of slavery into western territories; slogan: "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, Free Men."

Joseph Smith / Mormons / Brigham Young

Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Young led the Mormon migration to Utah after Smith's death.

Shakers

Religious communal group that practiced celibacy, equality, and simplicity; known for craftsmanship and dance.

Robert Owen / New Harmony

Utopian socialist community in Indiana (1825) founded by Owen emphasizing equality, education, and cooperation.

Transcendentalism / Henry David Thoreau

Philosophical movement emphasizing nature, self-reliance, and individual conscience; Thoreau wrote Walden and "Civil Disobedience."

Oneida Community

Utopian community in New York (1848) led by John Humphrey Noyes, practicing communal property and "complex marriage."

Seneca Falls Convention

1848 women's rights meeting that issued the Declaration of Sentiments demanding equality and suffrage.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton / Susan B. Anthony

Leaders of the women's rights and suffrage movement advocating legal and social equality.

Oregon Trail / Overland Trail

Major wagon routes settlers used to migrate west to Oregon and California.

George Catlin

Artist and ethnographer who painted Native American life and advocated for preservation of their culture.

Manifest Destiny

Belief that U.S. expansion across North America was inevitable and ordained by God.

Gold Rush of 1849

Mass migration to California after discovery of gold, accelerating westward settlement.

Santa Fe Trail

Trade route between Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico, linking the U.S. and Mexican economies.

Homestead Act (1862)

Law granting settlers 160 acres of free land in the West if they lived on and improved it for five years.

Tejanos

Texans of Mexican descent, some of whom supported or opposed Texas independence.

Texas Revolution / Texas Republic / Stephen F. Austin

Rebellion of American settlers against Mexican rule in 1836; Austin led early colonization; Texas became an independent republic.

Mexican War / Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

War (1846-1848) between U.S. and Mexico; treaty gave U.S. California and the Southwest.

Fort Laramie Treaty (1851)

Agreement between U.S. and Plains tribes for safe passage of settlers west; later violated by the U.S.

James K. Polk

U.S. president (1845-1849) who expanded U.S. territory through the annexation of Texas, the Oregon Treaty, and the Mexican War.

Oregon Territory

Disputed land between U.S. and Britain; divided at the 49th parallel in 1846.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposal (1846) to ban slavery in territories gained from Mexico; failed but heightened sectional tensions.

"The Slave Power Conspiracy"

Idea that Southern slaveholders controlled the federal government to expand and protect slavery.

Compromise of 1850 / Fugitive Slave Act

Compromise admitting California as a free state and enforcing stricter laws requiring return of escaped enslaved people.

Fire-Eaters

Radical Southern secessionists who promoted slavery and disunion.

Popular Sovereignty

Policy allowing settlers in new territories to decide the slavery question by vote.

Stephen Douglas

Illinois senator who promoted popular sovereignty and authored the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Law allowing territories to choose slavery by vote, repealing the Missouri Compromise.

Bleeding Kansas (Jayhawkers v. Border Ruffians)

Violent clashes between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas after the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Sumner-Brooks Incident (1856)

Event where Congressman Preston Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner for denouncing slavery—symbol of rising sectional tensions.