Chapter 11+ APUSH Terms

Key vocabulary from Chapter 11 and pages 177-182 in Chapter 9.

Second Great Awakening (1790-1820)

1) This was a religious revival that began in the “burnt over district” of upstate New York by ministers such as Charles Finney.

2) It created more divisions in American religious sects (increased religious diversity).

3) It led to a significant increase in social reform movements such as the abolitionist movement, asylum movement, temperance movement, and women's suffrage. These movements emphasized morality as well as human perfectionism, which is the idea that individuals and society were capable of improvement.

King Cotton (Early 1800s)

1) Phrase used by Southerners in the early 1800s to describe the economic importance of cotton to the southern economy.

2) As a result of the cotton gin, cotton overtook tobacco as the main cash crop of the South, making up more than half of the total exports of the U.S.

3) The growth of cotton led to an increased reliance on slavery in the southern states before the Civil War.

Second Middle Passage (1800-1860)

1) Internal slave trade in which slaves on old tobacco plantations in Virginia and North Carolina were sold "down the river" to areas in the Deep South.

2) Resulted from the U.S. Congress outlawing the international slave trade in 1808.

3) Over 800,000 slaves were sold to the Deep South between 1820 and 1860, concentrating slavery in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, a region that became known as the Black Belt.

Charles Ball (1790-1840)

1) Born into slavery in Maryland in 1781. He was sent into the Deep South in 1806 via the Second Middle Passage, where he worked on cotton plantations in South Carolina and Georgia. He later escaped back to the North in 1810.

2) He served in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812 as a free man, and after the war he remained in Baltimore, purchasing land and building a home for himself and his family.

3) In 1830, he was kidnapped and sold back into slavery in Georgia. He escaped again and returned to his home in Maryland to find that his wife and children had also been kidnapped and sold into slavery. He then settled in Pennsylvania where he published his autobiography.

John C. Calhoun (1830s)

1) South Carolina politician and leader of the Democratic Party who served as Vice-President, Secretary of State, and a member of the Senate.

2) Strongly advocated for states’ rights, nullification, and slavery.

3) Argued that slavery was a “positive good” that morally improved the lives of those who were enslaved.

Cult of domesticity (1800s)

1) Philosophy that emphasized “separate spheres” between the genders where men were responsible for work and politics while women remained in the home.

2) Philosophy emerged during the time of the Market Revolution and discouraged women from taking wage labor jobs.

3) Was most prominent among white, Protestant, upper class families in the Northeast.

American Temperance Society (1826)

1) Reform organization that was created in opposition to the consumption of alcohol.

2) The group originally persuaded drinkers to take a pledge of abstinence; however, as time went on, they began to push for the prohibition of alcohol.

3) Founded by ministers, it was concerned about the impact of alcohol on the morality of American society.

Dorothea Dix (1820s and 1830s)

1) Former school teacher from Massachusetts who was horrified by conditions in mental hospitals and prisons.

2) Major reformer who was part of the Asylum Movement, which resulted from the Second Great Awakening. She publicized the horrible treatment and conditions in the mental hospitals and advocated for the moral treatment of patients and inmates.

3) Her campaign led to new hospitals being built and better treatment for patients and inmates.

Nat Turner’s rebellion (1831)

1) Most important slave uprising in 19th century America, led by a slave preacher, who with his followers, killed about sixty white persons in Southampton County, Virginia.

2) Led to a large debate within Virginia over the future of slavery, and the pro-slavery side won.

3) As a result, the Virginia government created harsher slave laws, which made it illegal to teach reading and writing to slaves and banned slaves from gathering in groups for religious purposes without a white minister present.

William Lloyd Garrison (1831)

1) Radical abolitionist who believed that all slaves should be immediately emancipated without any compensation to the slave owners.

2) Founded the Liberator newspaper, which helped spread the ideas of abolition before the Civil War.

3) One of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which viewed slavery as morally wrong and a corrupt institution within America.

Horace Mann (1830s-1840s)

1.) Reformer during Second Great Awakening and Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education; Known as the "Father of the public school system" and advocated for public school reform.

2.) Set the standard for public schools throughout the nation; lengthened academic year; supported training & higher salaries to teachers.

3.) Middle class reformers became concerned with the growing number of both immigrant and native-born Americans without access to a proper education.

Frederick Douglass (Mid-1800s)

1) Escaped slave who became a leading advocate for abolition.

2) Wrote and published The North Star as well as an autobiography that detailed the horrors and immorality of slavery.

3) As the only African American to attend the Seneca Falls Convention, he was also a strong advocate for women’s rights prior to the Civil War.

Oneida Community (1848)

1) Religious, Utopian community that was formed in New York.

2) Practiced free love and communalism, where members shared property and personal possessions.

3) The Utopian community collapsed by the late-1800s and became a joint-stock company in 1881, which still produces silverware today.

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

1) As the first women’s rights convention in the United States, it launched the movement for women’s suffrage.

2) Organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who had met as part of the abolitionist movement.

3) Resulted in the Declaration of Sentiments, which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence and called for equality for women.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1840s)

1.) American transcendentalist author during the Second Great Awakening.

2.) The transcendentalist movement included writers and philosophers who believed in self-reliance, the importance of nature, the goodness of humanity, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience. Transcendentalist writings were a direct response to the Market Revolution.

3.) Emerson becomes an important voice in the 1840s, speaking out against the Mexican-American War and slavery.

Hudson River School (Mid-1800s)

1) A movement of American landscape painters, led by figures like Thomas Cole, who created dramatic scenes of wilderness areas.

2) This art marked a cultural shift away from the Enlightenment, with its focus on reason and order toward Romanticism, which emphasized emotion, awe, and the spiritual power of nature.

3) Emerging during the Market Revolution, this artistic movement celebrated the beauty of the unspoiled American wilderness, reflecting both anxiety about industrialization and growing pride in a distinct American identity.