Give Me Liberty Ch. 12 An Age of Reform - Review Questions

How did the utopian communities challenge existing ideas about property and marriage?

The utopian communities challenge existing ideas about property and marriage by prohibiting sexual relations between men and women altogether, others allowed them to change partners at will and the abolition of private property must be accompanied by an end to men's property in women.

How did the supporters and opponents of temperance understand the meaning of freedom differently?

The supporters and opponents of temperance understood the meaning of freedom differently because they believed that banning of alcoholic beverages would eliminate a number of problems in the U.S. Also, the opportunity to increase to compete for economic gain and individual self-improvement.

What were the similarities and differences between the common school and institutions like asylums, orphanages, and prisons that were created by reformers?

The similarities and differences between the common school and institution like asylums, orphanages, and prisons that were created by reformers are the similarities were the intent to remake human beings into free, morally upright citizens and shared with communitarians and religious believers. Also, become productive, self-disciplined citizens. The difference were common school and institution was open to all children and were getting educated, a free training for individuals. In asylums they receive temporary care and attention.

Why did so many prominent white Americans, from both the North and South, support the colonization of freed slaves?

Many colonizationists believed African Americans slavery and racism were so deeply embedded in American life that blacks could never achieve equality if freed and allow to in the country" ( Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! ) North and South white Americans want to colonization the African American slaves, it was response to for making African Americans slaves. It's was the best answer at the time for white Americans. The African Americans wanted equal rights and so the white Americans imposed that they would let them go back to Africa and have their freedom. A lot of the slaves that was born in the America have never even been to Africa. So they want to stay in the United States. The colonizationist wanted antislavery but the want to segregation between white and blacks. The White Americans still wanted public white only area.

How was the abolition movement affected by other social and economic changes such as the rise in literacy, new print technology, and ideas associated with the market revolution?

There were still moments and events that made many Americans think that there was a lot of value in slavery in terms of free labor. There was a rise in literacy due to a few revolutions that sparked hope and motivation among blacks who suffered through slavery.

How was racism evident even in the abolitionist movement, and what steps did some abolitionists take to fight racism in American society?

Black and white abolitionists often had different agendas by the 1840s, and certainly in the 1850s. But one of the greatest frustrations that many black abolitionists faced was the racism they sometimes experienced from their fellow white abolitionists. In many cases, within the Garrisonian movement in particular, the role of the black speaker or the black writer or the black abolitionist was, in some ways, prescribed, as the famous case of Frederick Douglass' relationship with the Garrisionians. The Garrisionians wanted Douglass to simply get up and tell his story, to tell his narrative on the platform.

How could antebellum women participate in the public sphere even though they were excluded from government and politics?

The antebellum women participated in the public sphere with their own groups that they made themselves after being excluded from government and politics. They formed abolition groups together to voice their opinions and fought in arguments over women's suffrage. They also spent time helping with their husbands and whatever their needs were to promote the best work

How did white women's participation in the abolitionist movement push them to a new understanding of their own right and oppression?

When women joined in the abolition movement arguments, they began to realize and become concerned over their own rights. This led to a women's movement that would run side by side with the abolition movement for equal rights among all people that live in the United States. Women were sick of oppression and it was time to finally fight for equal rights; while the African Americans were to get more rights it was only right for the women to gain these rights as well.

How did advocates for women's rights in these years both accept and challenge existing gender beliefs and social roles?

In the 1800's a woman 'Belonged' to a man on marriage. Her body, her possessions (Except personal items), her children. A man could divorce his wife should she commit adultery but a woman could not divorce her husband on grounds of adultery. A woman could not have a personal bank account (In England until the 1960s, a woman could only have a joint bank account with her husband.

To what degree was antebellum reform international in scope?

Antebellum culture in America reflected the growing sectional crisis, at times seeking to pave over sectional differences and at other times making light of them. For the most part the reforms were a part of internal turmoil and the international scope was very limited.

utopian communities

These communities differed greatly in structure and motivation. Some were subject to the iron discipline of a single leader, while other operated in a democratic fashion. Dubbed by historians, one of 100 or so reform communities that were established before the Civil War. Named after Thomas More's sixteenth-century novel Utopia, an outline of a perfect society.

"perfectionism"

A popularized outlook by way of revivals. Saw both individuals and society at large as capable of indefinite improvement. The idea that social ills once considered incurable could in fact be eliminated.

self-discipline

Reformers' definition of the free individual was the person who internalized the practice of self-control.

asylums

During the 1830s and 1840s, Americans embarked on a program of institution building - jails for criminals, poorhouses for the destitute, asylums for the insane, and orphanages for children without families. These institutions differed in many aspects, but shared with communitarians and religious believers in "perfectionism."

common school

Tax-supported state school systems open to all children. Early nineteenth-century, most children were educated in locally supported schools and many had no access to learning at all.

public education

Was used as an avenue to social advancement and was shared by the early labor movement, which made the establishment of common schools one of its goals. Education would "equalize the conditions of men."

American Colonization Society

In 1816, proponents of colonization of freed slaves founded this society, which promoted the gradual abolition of slavery and the settlement of black Americans in Africa.

American Anti-Slavery Society

The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) (1833-1870) was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, was a key leader of this society who often spoke at its meetings.

"moral suasion"

Many southerners feared an uprising from within by the abolitionists. Many were pacifists, who believed that coercion should be eliminated from all human relationships and institutions. Slaveholders must be convinced of the sinfulness of their ways, and the North of its complicity in the peculiar institution.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beacher Stowe's novel was to some extent modeled on the autobiography of fugitive slave Josiah Henson. Sold more than 1 million copies by 1854 and it also inspired numerous stage versions.

"Am I Not a Man and a Brother?"

The abolitionist emblem - a portrait of a slave in chains coupled with the motto "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" - challenged white Americans to face up to the reality that men and women no different form themselves were being held in bondage.

"gentlemen of property and standing"

Merchants with commercial ties to the South. Mobs disrupted abolitionist meetings in northern cities.

gag rule

In 1836, when abolitionists began to flood Washington with petitions calling for emancipation in the nation's capital, the House of Representatives adopted the notorious "gag rule," which prohibited their consideration.

Dorothea Dix

A Massachusetts schoolteacher was the leading advocate of more humane treatment of the insane, who at the time generally were placed in jails alongside debtors and hardened criminals.

Female Moral Reform Society

In 1834, middle-class women in New York City organized the Female Moral Reform Society, which sought to redeem prostitutes from lives of sin and to protect the morality of single women.

woman suffrage

Elizabeth Cady Stanton raised the issue of woman's suffrage for the first time, the principal author, modeled the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments on the Declaration of Independence - the document added "women" to Jefferson's axiom "all men are created equal." Seneca Falls Convention, 1848.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

Published in 1845, Fuller sought to apply to women the transcendentalist idea that freedom meant a quest for personal development. Margaret Fuller - wrote, had the same right to develop their talents, to "grow...to live freely and unimpeded."

"slavery of sex"

Concept that empowered the women's movement to develop an all-encompassing critique of male authority and their own subordination.

Liberty Party

Determined to make abolitionism a political movement, the seceders formed the Liberty Party, which nominated James G. Birney as its candidate for president.