Topic #5: Age of Reform

Essential Question: How did manifest destiny affect different groups of people in the west?

Second Great Awakening

• 1830s-1850s

• Increase in population + increase in economy causes social change.

• Led by evangelical preachers:

  • Charles Finney in 1832, NY: Big idea was that salvation was available to all. He spoke about sin a morality.

• Baptists and Methodists grow during the great awakening.

• Inspires social reform and Reform Movements

Missouri Compromise

The North and South were split on the Ohio River or “Dixon Line”.

• 1820

• Missouri becomes a state, but since it was between the North and South there was questioning on if slavery would be legal in it.

• The compromise was that Missouri would become a slave state and Maine would be established a state where there was no slavery.

• After the Louisiana purchase, it is decided that north of the 36º30 line will be free.

Second Middle Passage

Slaves are moved from South Carolina and Georgia to Alabama, Missouri, Louisiana, and Texas.

Life Under Slavery

• 1800 - 1 million slaves in the U.S.

• 1860 - 4 million slaves in the U.S.

• The Atlantic Slave Trade ends in 1808, so owners try to keep their slaves healthy and make them have children.

• Slaves had few rights and were considered as property. They couldn’t participate in government, get an education, have property, etc.

• Slaves worked in plantations in the South

  • Field work plantation - 100+ slaves, farmers - 20 or less slaves.

• Slaves worked in homes in the North

  • Servants or cooks. Some even lived on their own.

Resistance to Slavery

• Slaves could resist, but it was dangerous. Some worked slow/sabotoge. Some escaped in the Underground Railroad.

  • Denmark Vesey - South Carolina 1822

  • Nat Turner - Virginia, 1831. He kills 60 whites before getting caught and hung.

Underground railroad

Abolition movement

• Start in 1700s but gained momentum in the 1830s.

• Sought to end slavery because it was morally wrong and violated the principles of equality and freedom that the country was built on.

• Centered in the North

• Led by important figures: William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass.

• Religious justification: To think of another human as property is an insult to God the creator, a sin against the Holy Spirit and, violates the law.

Women’s Movement

Seneca Falls Convention

Temperance movement

Education