Reform in the Industrial Age, U.S.

What was the 'Search for Perfection' in Jacksonian America?

It was the belief that individuals could improve themselves and society through reason, self-discipline, and reform.

What beliefs characterized Jacksonian Americans during the early 19th century?

They believed in individual uniqueness, self-determination, human perfectibility, and the energetic spirit of the new American nation.

What was Transcendentalism?

A Romantic intellectual and reform movement that emphasized individual intuition, self-reliance, spirituality, and the belief in human divinity.

Who were the Transcendentalists?

They were often ministers or children of ministers in New England who influenced American thought and reform.

What did Transcendentalists believe about human nature?

They believed humans were inherently good and capable of moral and spiritual perfection.

Who were the most famous Transcendentalists?

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

What experiment did Henry David Thoreau conduct at Walden Pond?

He lived alone for two years to study simple living and reject materialism.

Why did Thoreau refuse to pay taxes?

He opposed the Mexican-American War and slavery, believing taxes supported immoral actions.

What happened to Thoreau because of his refusal to pay taxes?

He was briefly jailed and later lectured about the experience.

What was the significance of Thoreau's essay 'Civil Disobedience'?

It argued that individuals must resist unjust laws and inspired leaders like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

What was the Second Great Awakening?

A nationwide religious revival that reshaped American religion, society, and politics.

What new religious denominations grew during the Second Great Awakening?

Methodists, Baptists, and Universalists.

What core belief distinguished the Second Great Awakening from earlier Calvinism?

It taught that individuals could choose salvation and were responsible for their moral destiny.

What were camp meetings during the Second Great Awakening?

Large, emotional religious gatherings featuring intense spiritual experiences and mass conversions.

Who was Charles Grandison Finney?

The most famous preacher of the Second Great Awakening who spread evangelical Christianity.

What was the 'Burned-Over District'?

A region in western New York heavily influenced by religious revivals.

How did religious sectionalism develop by the 1840s?

Northern and Southern Protestant denominations split over slavery, foreshadowing political division.

Who was Joseph Smith?

A religious leader who claimed divine visions and founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What is the Book of Mormon?

A religious text Joseph Smith claimed to translate from golden plates revealed to him.

Why did the Mormons migrate west?

They faced persecution and were led to Utah by Brigham Young after Smith's murder.

What kind of society did Brigham Young establish in Utah?

A frontier theocracy centered on Mormon religious authority.

How were African Americans influenced by the Second Great Awakening?

Enslaved people interpreted Christian teachings as a promise of eventual freedom.

What African American church emerged during this period?

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded by Richard Allen.

How did Black churches contribute to reform movements?

They inspired abolition and other reform efforts by promoting equality and rights.

Why did reformers turn their attention to public education?

They realized that moral reform required institutional change.

What was early American education like before reform?

It was inconsistent, often private or charity-based, and largely unavailable to poor children.

Why did many poor children not attend school in early 19th-century cities?

Families could not afford fees and often refused charity schools due to stigma.

Who led the movement for public education reform?

Horace Mann of Massachusetts.

What were Horace Mann's goals for education?

Professional teacher training, standardized schools, moral education, and accessible public schooling.

What were McGuffey Readers?

Textbooks by William McGuffey that taught reading while promoting morality and patriotism.

What was the Lyceum Movement?

A system of public lectures and educational programs for adult learning.

How were prisoners treated in the early 19th century?

Harshly, often imprisoned for debt and subjected to brutal punishments.

What reforms occurred in prisons before the Civil War?

Reduced capital punishment and elimination of whipping and branding.

Who was Dorothea Dix?

A reformer who exposed abuse of the mentally ill and advocated for humane treatment.

What impact did Dorothea Dix have on mental health care?

She helped establish mental hospitals in the U.S. and advocated for reform.

What was the Temperance Movement?

A reform movement aimed at reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption.

What organization led early temperance efforts?

The American Temperance Society, founded in 1826.

How did temperance activism change over time?

It shifted from moral persuasion to legal prohibition.

What was the Maine Law?

An 1851 law banning the manufacture and sale of alcohol.

Why did temperance have an anti-immigrant aspect?

Irish and German immigrants culturally consumed alcohol, leading to prejudice.

What role did women play in the Temperance Movement?

Women were major activists, framing temperance as a moral and family issue.

How did industrialization affect women's roles?

Women entered factory work and assumed greater responsibilities.

Who is considered the founder of the women's rights movement?

Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

What event radicalized Stanton and Lucretia Mott?

Being excluded from full participation at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention.

What was the Seneca Falls Convention?

The first women's rights convention, held in 1848 in New York.

What was the Declaration of Sentiments?

A document demanding legal and political equality for women, modeled on the Declaration of Independence.

What major demand emerged from Seneca Falls?

Women's suffrage.

What was the Abolition Movement?

A reform movement dedicated to ending slavery.

Why did abolition gain strength in the 19th century?

Religious revival, Transcendentalist ideals, and activism by formerly enslaved people.

What was the American Colonization Society?

An organization founded in 1817 to relocate free Black Americans to Africa.

Why did many abolitionists reject colonization?

They viewed it as racist and demanded immediate abolition instead.

What was The Liberator?

An abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831.

What was Garrison's approach to abolition?

Immediate emancipation using moral persuasion.

Who were Theodore Weld and Angelina Grimké?

Abolitionists who lectured against slavery despite social opposition.

Who was Abby Kelley?

A radical abolitionist whose speeches provoked riots and public backlash.

Why were formerly enslaved people crucial to abolition?

Their firsthand testimony gave the movement moral authority.

Who was Frederick Douglass?

A formerly enslaved abolitionist leader and founder of The North Star newspaper.

Who was Sojourner Truth?

An abolitionist and women's rights activist who escaped slavery.

What was the Underground Railroad?

A secret network that helped enslaved people escape to freedom.

Who was Harriet Tubman?

The most famous Underground Railroad conductor who rescued about 70 enslaved people.

How did the South react to abolitionism?

With outrage, censorship, violence, and laws restricting debate.

What was the 'gag rule'?

A congressional rule that banned discussion of slavery petitions.

What did the abolition struggle reveal about the nation?

It exposed deep sectional divisions that threatened national unity.