APUSH Period 4: 1800-1848 -- The Meaning of Democracy in an Era of Economic and Territorial Expansion

10-17% of exam

context for period 4

in the early 1800s, the US witnessed economic, territorial, and demographic changes that led to struggles over the definition and limits of democratic control — there was a shift to national markets, growth in US-claimed land as Americans moved west, and rise in debates between reformers and intellectuals about democracy

“revolution of 1800”

• the transfer of power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans in the presidential election of 1800

• Thomas Jefferson’s victory after John Adams’ presidency

• no violence despite bitter campaign between the two parties

• Jefferson’s label for the election — believed his administration would return the US to its founding principles

“Era of Good Feelings”

• period in the 1810s-1820s where only one major party (Democratic Republicans) competed for votes on the national level

• result of the decline of the Federalist Party

  • agricultural areas grew more rapidly than Northeast commercial centers

  • party’s opposition to the popular War of 1812

James Monroe

• Democratic-Republican easily elected as 5th President of the US in 1816

• many of his policies reflected Federalist ideas — promotion of internal improvements

• adhered to 1700s traditions — last president to wear old fashion; adopted Washington’s practice of bringing diversely-opinionated men into his administration

ways the Federalist agenda survived despite the party’s decline

• many of Monroe’s policies

• Supreme Court decisions

• nation beginning to adopt manufacturing — Hamilton’s hope

• Henry Clay’s “American System”

Marbury v. Madison

• 1803 Marshall Court case that established the principle of judicial review

• Adams’s appointed judge William Marbury was refused his undelivered commission by Jefferson, who was supported by the Court because it deemed the Judiciary Act of 1789 (which Marbury based his argument on) as unconstitutional

• gave the Court more prestige and influence

Marshall Court

• the Supreme Court during the tenure of Chief Justice John Marshall from 1801-1835

• issued decisions that extended the power of the federal government over state laws

  • Marbury v. Madison (1803)

  • McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

  • Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

  • Cohens v. Virginia (1821)

  • Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

judicial review

the power of the Supreme Court to review laws and determine whether they are consistent with the Constitution

• established in Marbury v. Madison (1803)

• has been main function of the Supreme Court

• helps maintain the balance of power between the three branches of the government

McCulloch v. Maryland

1819 Marshall Court case that prohibited Maryland from taxing the Second BUS, a federal institution

Gibbons v. Ogden

1824 Marshall Court case that asserted that only the federal government could regulate interstate trade

• invalidated a monopoly on ferry transportation between NY and NJ that had been issued by NY

Cohens v. Virginia

1821 Marshall Court case that affirmed the right of the Supreme Court to receive appeals from state courts

Worcester v. Georgia

1832 Marshall Court case that held that any dealings with American Indian nations be carried out by the federal government, not by the states — upheld NA autonomy; Cherokees were “distinct community” with their “own territories”

Louisiana Purchase

• 1803 purchase of the vast swath of land beyond the Mississippi River from France

• Jefferson set aside his strict constructionist views (initially reluctant because the Constitution doesn’t allow for the acquisition of additional land) and purchased the land from Napoleon for $15 million

• turning point for the US as it tried to gain control over North America

effects of the Louisiana Purchase to the US

• added the Great Plains to the US — most important agricultural region later

• the US gained full control of the port of New Orleans at the outlet of the Mississippi River

• remarkable economic growth

Lewis and Clark expedition

• 1804-1806 expedition by army officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of the Louisiana Territory, commissioned by Jefferson

• Lewis and Clark explored and mapped the region, sought practical routes through the mountains, and established a US presence in the West

trumped

in the first half of the 1800s, regional economic interests often __________ national interests

regional economic development in the early 1800s

• northern states experienced the beginnings of industrialization

• slavery grew dramatically in the South on the cultivation of cotton

the American System

• Henry Clay’s proposals to promote economic growth

• internal improvements in transportation — easier military transportation

• high tariffs on imported goods to promote American manufacturing

• chartering the Second Bank of the United States to stabilize the economy and make credit more readily available

• Congress recharted the 2nd BUS and passed a protective tariff in 1816

increasing isolation of the South

• the market economy linked the North and the Midwest; the South became culturally and politically isolated over time

  • roads and railroads — tended to bypass the South

  • patterns of migration — farmers, artisans, and laborers in the North were more likely to move to the Midwest than to the South

Missouri Compromise

• 1820 compromise to maintain the balance between free and slave states when Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state

• Missouri would be a slave state, Maine would enter as a free state

• divided the remaining Louisiana Territority at the 36° 30’ north latitude line — slavery allowed below the line, but not above

• temporary and uneasy truce over slavery in new territories that broke down as more land was gained

“gag rules”

a series of resolutions that would automatically “table” any antislavery resolutions and prevent them from being read or debated on the floor of the House of Representatives — in effect 1836-1844

the Barbary Wars

• First Barbary War 1801-1805

  • Jefferson sent warships to fight Tripoli in the Middle East after refusing to pay tribute for tradiging in the Mediterranean

  • no decisive victory

  • boosted US’s profile on the world stage and demonstrated the cohesion of American forces fighting far from home

• Second Barbary War in 1815 actually brought an end to the US paying tribute to the Barbary states

Chesapeake-Leopard affair

• 1807 incident where the British warship HMS Leopard fired on the unprepared American Navy frigate USS Chesapeake

• 3 Americans killed and four abducted

• part of Britain’s aggressive effort to stop American trade with the French (who they went to war with starting in 1803) — British warships stopped American merchant ships, seizing cargo and impressing men for the Navy

Embargo Act

• passed by Jefferson in 1807 as part of his “peaceful coercion” policy; cut off US trade to all foreign ports

• intent was to pressure Britain and France to agree to leave US ships alone (during their war that started in 1803)

• mainly crippled American’s mercantile sector

• very unpopular, especially in New England

Non-Intercourse Act

• passed in 1809 to replace the Embargo Act; opened trade with all nations except for Britain and France

• unpopular because GB and France had been two of America’s biggest trading partners

Macon’s Bill No. 2

• passed in 1810 in an attempt by Congress to revive trade

• stipulated that if either Britain or France agreed to respect America’s rights as a neutral nation at sea, the US would prohibit trade with that nation’s enemy

• Napoleon agreed, but France continued to seize US ships

• relations worsened with Britain because of the cuttting of trade and pushed the two nations to the brink of war —> War of 1812

War of 1812

• trade conflicts and pressure from “war hawks” in Congress pushed Pres. Madison to declare war against Britain in 1812

• opposed especially by New England Federalists

• ended with the Treaty of Ghent (1814) with no difference from before the war

• British forces seized D.C. in 1814 and burned the White House and Capitol building

• US victory at New Orleans in 1815 (after war’s end) — led by Andrew Jackson

Hartford Convention

• December 1814 meeting of New England Federalist politicians in Hartford, CT during the War of 1812

• passed a resolution calling for a two-thirds vote in Congress for future declarations of war

Treaty of Ghent

• in 1814, ended the War of 1812 where it began

• did not mention the specific grievances the US had against Britain

• the US and Britain agreed to stop fighting, give back any territory seized in the war, and recognize the US-Canada boundary from before the war

“Old China Trade”

• lucrative trade opened by US merchants with China after the American Revolution — not officially sanctioned by the US government

• driven by American demand for Chinese products — tea, porcelain, silk, nankeen (cloth)

• opened new markets to the US while revealing cultural differences

• trade increased in the 1800s as the US found that furs were in demand in China

• ended with the Treaty of Wanghia (1844) — China gave the US the same trading privileges as Britain

maritime fur trade

system in which furs were obtained from American Indian groups along the Pacific Coast and carried in large ships to be traded in China in the 1800s

Monroe Doctrine

• 1823 foreign policy address to Congress by Pres. James Monroe

• warning to European nations to keep their hands off the Americas

• meant to limit European influence in the Western Hemisphere

• this statement and Washington’s farewell address became cornerstones of US isolationist foreign policy

Adams-Onis Treaty

• 1819 treaty with Spain negotiated by John Quincy Adams (Sec. of State under Monroe)

• transferred control of Florida to the US, accepted Spain’s claims to Texas, and settled the boundary between Louisiana (state since 1812) and Spanish-held territory

concerns with Florida in the early 1800s

• Florida had become a destination for escaped slaves — issue became more pronounced during the First Seminole War (1814-1819)

  • British officer gave fort to fugitive slaves and Seminole NAs after the War of 1812

  • Andrew Jackson organized the capture of the “Negro Fort” during the First Seminole War

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

• 1842 treaty that settled a dispute with Britain over the border between Maine and Canada

• also Minnesota and Canada

• Aroostook War 1838-1839

  • as Americans and Canadians began moving into the area around the Aroostook River in Maine and New Brunswick

• Caroline incident 1837

  • British authorities burned the American Caroline being used by anti-British Canadian rebels

  • New York officials threatened to execute an arrested Canadian sheriff in response

“Fifty-four forty or fight”

rallying call of those in the 1840s who wanted the US to own the entireity of the Oregon Country

negotiation of the Oregon Border

• although in 1818 the US and Britain agreed on a “joint occupation” of the Oregon Country, as Americans following the Oregon Trail began settling along the Willamette River in the 1830s and 1840s, politicians began pushing for sole US ownership of the territory

• in 1846 President James Polk compromised with Britain — the border was established at the 49th parallel (current western US-Canada boundary)

“wildcat” banks

banks in the early 1800s that issued currency (bank notes) in excess of the value of assets held by the bank (in gold and silver coins, as well as in bonds)

• provided easy access and fuelded economic expansion but created economic instability evident in the Panic of 1819

Panic of 1819

an economic downturn caused by the growing role of the US as an exporter of farm goods and the speculation of western lands

• land boom in the West stimulated by growth in agriculture and easy access to credit, provided by banks (both wildcat and more established ones)

• remarkable growth afterward demonstrated new economy’s vitality

development of corporations

• in the late 1700s and early 1800s, corporate charters were granted mainly on a temporary basis and for public purposes

• by the 1830s and 1840s, new state laws allowed the establishment of an entity (corporation) in which members of the public could invest their money with limited liability

• number of corporations and investors grew dramatically in the decades following new laws

limited liability

investors could only lose the amount they had invested into a corporation — they were not liable for any debts beyond their investments, nor could they be held liable in any civil suits

• provided by incorporation laws to investors in the 1830s and 1840s

Supreme Court decisions related to the market economy

• early 1800s Court decisions tended to uphold and define the rules of the growing market economy, especially the sanctity of contracts

• Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) — Court defined colonial charter of Dartmouth as a contract and ruled that the original charter was valid

• Fletcher v. Peck (1810) — Court upheld a corrupt land deal between the state of Georgia and private individuals; even contracts not in the public interest should be upheld

agricultural inventions

• hand-operated tools or animal-assisted implements

• steel plow — John Deere in 1847 - durable and efficient

• automatic reaper — Cyrus McCormack in 1831 - higher yield with less work for grain production

• thresher — could process wheat much quicker than previous methods

• these machines were used on farms of the “Old Northwest” (the region between the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers)

interchangeable parts

technique where parts of a specific item were made to exact specifications and could be rapidly assembled into standardized finished products

• proposed by Eli Whitney in the early 1800s

• many industrial processes came to rely on it as mass-production techniques spread by the 1850s

steam power

• one of the important technological developments of the first half of the 1800s

• Robert Fulton developed a functioning steamboat, the Clermont, in 1807

  • steamboats came to dominate commercial shipping within 20 years

• steam-powered locomotives were soon developed

• in the years leading up to the Civil War, steam power began replacing water wheels in factories

telegraph

• major development in communications in the antebellum period

• developed by Samuel Morse; first message sent in 1844

• messages transmitted in Morse code

• by 1850, telegraph lines connected the country

• greatly facilitated the development of a national market for products and services

• information could be sent long distances in a few minutes, not days

improvements in transportation

• roads, canals, railroads

• internal improvements (canals and roads) expanded trade, especially between the Midwest and eastern cities

  • Erie Canal (1825) connected NYC with the interior

  • cost of moving items dropped

  • National Road (constructed 1811-1853) went from Maryland into the Ohio River Valley

• first RR tracks laid in 1829 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

• by 1860, RRs connected the country - sped up the movement of goods and expanded markets

Waltham-Lowell System

• textile production under one roof, with employees living in company housing

• women worked in textile mills in New England (Lowell Mills in MA) as manufacturing expanded in the 1820s and 1830s

• spread to other industries and other parts of the country

causes of growth in cotton production

• cotton became the most profitable crop in the South in the first half of the 1800s

• cotton gin allowed for rapid processing

• high demand for cotton in the North and Great Britain

effects of growth in cotton production

• dramatic increase in use of slavery in the South - expansion of internal slave trade

• more acres of land being put under cultivation

• US connected to the global economy

Irish immigration

• increased immigration in the 1840s was primarily the result of the potato famine in Ireland

  • the British used the best land to grow crops for export

  • one million starved to death, two million left

• most went to port cities like New York and Boston and other cities and towns in the Northeast

• largest immigrant group during the antebellum period

German immigration

• tended to be financially better off than the Irish immigrants

• many were skilled craftsmen and entrepreneurs with the resources to go beyond their initial city of disembarkation

• many escaping political repression following the failed Revolution of 1848 in the German states

• many settled in the “German triangle” of western cities — Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee

• second largest immigrant group during the antebellum period

movement to the West

• the West grew rapidly in the antebellum period, especially after the War of 1812 — transportation improvements opened new areas for settlement

• groups of migrants crossed the Appalachians — 4M+ between 1800 and 1840

  • communities grew

• some squatted on land illegally, some purchased from the federal government or speculators

• regional distinctiveness of the original thirteen states spread to newly settled areas

  • towns and churches of the Old Northwest (the Midwest now) resembled New England

  • plantations and slave-labor of the newly settled South resembled the Old South

economic changes for the average American from the market revolution

• material wealth of the US grew overall, average income of Americans increased, and general standard of living improved

• economy of the first half of the 1800s allowed for a degree of social mobility for many ordinary Americans

  • factory workers could hope to gain greater skill and higher wages in their fields

  • industrial and agrarian workers could hope to own their own land in the West

  • bolstered the “free labor” ideology

free labor ideology

• idea that it was possible for American wage earners to actually own land and become independent of others

• upheld the dignity of work

• led Northerners to see their society as superior to that of the South

• central tenet of Lincoln’s Republican Party

• reflected by generally increased social and geographic mobility during the 1800s-1850s

changes to social classes from the market revolution

• growing gap between the rich and the poor

  • many Americans were stuck in low-wage factory work

  • most benefits of the growing economy went to entrepreneurs, merchants, bank owners, and industrialists

  • 5% of the population controlled half of the country’s wealth by the Civil War

• a middle class developed

  • lawyers, clerks, bank workers, accountants, customs officials, and other white-collar professions provided a pathway to economic advancement for many

development of unions

• growth of manufacturing slowly undermined worker autonomy and notions of a self-governing citizenry

• workers increasingly turned to forming unions to advance their goals and improve working conditions

• Lowell Mill workers organized as the Factory Girls Association in the 1830s — staged two strikes before their limited success was undercut by the Panic of 1837 and large-scale Irish immigration

• Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) allowed unions and strikes

• successes for organized labor were still limited

• rise of union movement signaled a shift away from the 1700s face-to-face relationships of workplace settings

Commonwealth v. Hunt

• 1842 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling

• set an important precedent by declaring that unions were lawful as long as they used legal means, including strikes, to achieve their goals

putting-out system

early 1800s system of manufacturing where people would perform a task arranged by an agent and be paid by the piece produced

• task was often a small part of a larger operation (such as cutting leather for shoes)

• suited to small-town and rural communities

• families often were involved in farming at the same time

• bridge between 1700s craftwork and late 1800s industrial revolution

Samuel Slater

man who smuggled machinery plans out of Britain and built the first factory in the US in the 1790s

• Pawtucket, RI factory and the dozens built in the following years spun cotton and wool into yarn or thread

• spinning machines powered by water

water, human, and animal

_______________ power characterized industry in the pre-Civil War era

Lowell mills

• early elements of industrialization emerged in rural New England in the 1820s and 1830s

• water-powered textile factories opened in Lowell, MA starting in 1821

• young women from the countryside operated machines

  • assumed that they could be paid less and that they were temporary (work until married)

• Lowell girls lived in supervised boarding houses but had an unprecedented degree of freedom and autonomy

  • went on strike in 1834 and 1836 after wage cuts

  • replaced by Irish immigrants by the 1840s

new middle class ideals

• culture was built around the home, nostalgia, sentimentality, and a watered-down (non-Calvinist) Christian piety in the first half of the 1800s

• assigned women a dependent role as the “weaker sex”, outside of the roughness of the public world in the growing market economy

cult of domesticity

antebellum ideology that emphasized women’s “proper” roles as housekeepers and mothers in proper Christian homes that were separate from the male sphere of politics, business, and competition

feme covert

legal doctrine under which wives had no independent legal or political standing

• could not vote or sit on juries

• not entitled to protection from physical abuse from husbands

• their property became their husbands’

changes in voting qualifications in the 1820s

most states reduced or removed property qualifications for voting — most free white males had the right to vote

• impulse to expand democratic participation strongest in newer Western states, where there were less propertlyless men

• many states still restricted voting to taxpayers

opposed

in many states, conservative politicians __________ the enactment of reforms designed to broaden the voting population

Dorr Rebellion

• 1841 Rhode Island

• growing resentment of a growing propertyless class of industrial wageworkers led to the creation of a new, more democratic, (unofficial) state constitution at the People’s Convention

• the reformers tried to inaugurate a new governor, Thomas Dorr, and put the constitution into effect

• convention seen as extralegal rebellion and was put down by Pres. John Tyler’s federal troops

• illustrated strong popular desire for a more democratic governing structure

Alexis de Tocqueville

French writer who visited the US in 1831 and wrote Democracy in America, an account of democracy and description of the US at the time — described a democratic ethos rooted in American culture

• American belief in equality, active participation in voluntary civic organizations, and the perception that individual initiative determined public success

creation of a second two-party system

• developed in the 1830s out of the contentious issues of the era of Pres. Andrew Jackson

• Jacksonian branch of the Democratic-Republicans became the Democratic Party

• Jackson’s opponents, led by Henry Clay, organized the Whig Party in 1833

“corrupt bargain”

• what Jackson’s supporters called the election of 1824

• although Jackson received the largest number of electoral votes, the House elected John Quincy Adams as president

• Speaker of the House Henry Clay supposedly convinced representatives to vote for Adams, and Adams appointed Clay as his secretary of state soon after

election of 1828

• considered to be the “first modern election”

• much broader electorate than before — property qualifications for voting reduced

• candidates had to campaign more aggressively

• increased focus on character and personality

• incumbent John Quincy Adams vs. Andrew Jackson (Democrat)

• Jackson won with his backwoods, populist appeal

Tariff Act of 1828

• act that dramatically raised tariff rates on many items and led to the general reduction of trade between the US and Europe

• called the “Tariff of Abominations” by critics

• hit South Carolina, which depended on cotton exports, especially hard

• angered southern politicians like John C. Calhoun

nullification crisis

• southern politicians led by John C. Calhoun, Jackson’s vice president until he resigned in 1832, were angry at the Tariff Act of 1828 and unsatisfied with Jackson’s 1832 act lowering tariff rates

• they asserted the right of states to nullify federal legislation

• the South Carolina legislature held a Constitutional Convention in 1832 and voted overwhelmingly to declare the tariff acts unconstitutional and unenforceable in the state

• Jackson responded with the 1833 Force Bill and Congress revised tariff rates to provide relief to SC — face-saving compromise

Force Bill

• pushed through Congress by Jackson in 1833 in response to the South Carolina nullification crisis

• authorized military force against South Carolina for committing treason

Jackson vs. the Second BUS

• Jackson revived criticism of the national bank

• the Second BUS was performing its function admirably, but Jackson insisted it put too much power into the hands of a small elite

• Jackson’s opponents brought the issue of rechartering the bank to Congress in 1832 (charter would expire 1836) — thought Jackson’s veto would weaken his chances for reelection

• Jackson’s forceful and uncompromising rhetoric in his veto message won him reelection

• Jackson moved federal deposits from the 2nd BUS to state banks in Democratic-leaning states to kill the bank immediately

Specie Circular

• issued by Jackson in 1836

• mandated that government-held land be sold only for hard currency (gold or silver “specie”)

• resulted in falling land prices and a shortage of government funds

• reflected Jackson’s suspicion of bankers and credit

Panic of 1837

• 5 year economic downturn that started in 1837 — worst economic crisis in the US up to that point

• halted many canal and railroad projects

• contributed to hundreds of banks and businesses folding

• led to high unemployment

• damaged Democratic Party’s reputation; Martin Van Buren (Dem.) did little to address it and lost the election of 1840 to Whig William Henry Harrison

Treaty of Fort Wayne

• 1809 treaty in which American Indians in Indiana Territory agreed to cede 3 million acres of land for a nominal fee

• negotiated by Indiana governor William Henry Harrison

• Tecumseh, the most important regional native leader at the time, and his brother “the Prophet” Tenskwatawa were not present

Battle of Tippecanoe

• 1811 battle between American forces led by IN governor WIlliam Henry Harrison and Tecumseh’s confederation of American Indians resisting white encroachment

• perceived as an American victory

War Hawks

• western congressmen who pushed for military action against the British in the early 1800s before the War of 1812

• convinced that Britain was encouraging and funding Tecumseh’s confederation of American Indians resisting white encroachment

• led by Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of S. Carolina

• thought that fighting Britain would eliminate the American Indian threat and possibly allow the US to invade Canada

Indian Removal Act

• 1830 act pushed by Jackson to remove American Indians living in the South, the Old Northwest, and, to a lesser degree, New England and NY

• Jackson said it was in the best interests of the American Indians

• result of white southerners’ calls for expansion, fueled by the increased value of land due to cotton production’s profitability

Five Civilized Tribes

Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, and Seminole

Trail of Tears

• 1838 forced trek of 18,000 American Indians from Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida to the Oklahoma Territory

• resulted in the deaths of about ¼ of the people on the journey

• (American Indians— the Five Civilized Tribes— were pushed out of the South throughout the 1830s)

Worcester v. Georgia

• 1832 Supreme Court decision that declared that American Indian tribes were subject to federal treaties, not state actions

• voided Georgia’s efforts to remove the Cherokee from their land

• opposed by Pres. Jackson — “let John Marshall enforce it” (paraphrased)

• the Cherokee were still pushed out by federal troops enforcing Georgia’s removal policy in 1838

First Seminole War

• 1816 (during War of 1812)-1817 war between the Seminole in Spanish Florida and US troops

• preceded by hostilities caused by raids by southern whites into Florida, where runaway slaves were often given protection by American Indians, and counterraids into Georgia and Alabama by the Seminole and other American Indians

Second Seminole War

• 1835-1842 war between the Seminole in American-owned (since the 1819 Adam-Onis Treaty) Florida and US troops

• caused by the federal government pressuring the Seminole to relocate to the West by the 1830s

• standstill; many Seminole remained definant of removal efforts despite the capture of the Seminole leader, Chief Osceola

Indian Territory

• designated area within present-day Oklahoma to which many of the American Indians from east of the Mississippi River were relocated

• established of territory was part of Indian Intercourse Act of 1834

• conflicts in the territory between NAs indigenous to the area and NAs relocated there

• eventually reduced in size and ceased to exist as it was folded into the Oklahoma Territory in 1907

emergence of a national culture

• increase in nationalist sentiment and the development of a uniquely American culture after the War of 1812

• Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828

• renaissance in literature — uniquely American books in the 1850s

antebellum uniquely-American literature

• the early 1850s were the peak in the American literary spirit of the decades before the Civil War

• Moby Dick (1851), Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855), The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of Seven Gables (1851), and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854)

• grappled with religious and existential questions raised by Puritans’ legacy

• focused on the promise and contradictions of America’s experiment in building a democratic nation in the New World

• part of the emergence of a new national culture in the early 1800s

romanticism

• movement with origins in Europe; peaked in the first half of the 1800s

• embrace of a simpler, authentic, idealized past that contrasts with the modern world

  • rejection of wealth=social value, work ordered around routines, and the rationalization of nature

• deeply nationalistic — embraced a pure, uncorrupted sense of national community

• reaction to industrialization and the market revolution

• deeply influenced art, literature, and thought in the US

Hudson River School

• uniquely American art movement of landscape paintings that flourished in the 1820s to the 1870s

• artists were inspired by the traditional European romantic paintings of dramatic landscapes

• often emphasized emotion and sentiment over accuracy

• many painters shared transcendentalist ideas about the glory of nature

romanticism in American literature

• British writer Sir Walter Scott inspired many Americans in the early 1800s — novels epitomized romanticism in literature

• American authors created literature that drew on Scott’s work, but was distinctly American

• James Fenimore Cooper, in The Last of the Mohicans (1826), captured the danger and fascination of the frontier experience

• Washington Irving, in “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), portrayed a fanciful version of America

the Second Great Awakening

• religious movement in the early 1800s — revival of religious sentiment among Americans

• spoke to many of the farmers, merchants, and businessmen and women who were brought into the larger US society by the new market relations of the market revolution

• many Americans wanted to get in touch with a more immediate religious experience

• movement of large camp meetings

• especially prevalent in upstate NY and western PA

• preachings that a person could determine their eternal life and strive for perfection — encouraged reform movements

Charles Grandison Finney

• Second Great Awakening minister

• told his audiences that a person could determine their eternal life — very different from Puritan predestination

• his approach that one could become perfect in the eyes of God —> one could work to perfect society —> reform movements

Mormonism

• Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith in upstate NY — grown out of the Second Great Awakening

• like many other sects that developed during the 2nd GA, separated themselves from the larger community and developed cohesive and insular communities of their own

• met by hostility for unorthodox teachings and practices

  • mocked by other Protestants for “superstitious” or “magical” beliefs

  • dismissed for rejecting the holy trinity

  • polygamy was most controversial

• Smith was killed in IL 1844

• Brigham Young led followers to Utah (1847)

transcendentalism

• spiritual and intellectual movement critical of the material direction the US was taking in the first half of the 1800s

• valued intuition more than empirical observation

• prominent thinkers were Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson

• did not gravitate toward reform movements of the day — some separated themselves from mainstream society (utopian communities)

Henry David Thoreau

• prominent transcendentalist who wrote about the importance of nature in finding meaning in Walden (1854) after spending 2 years in relative isolation at Walden Pond

• famous essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849) urges individuals to not acquiesce to unfair and unjust government dictates

Ralph Waldo Emerson

prominent transcendentalist who wrote a series of philosophical essays, including “On Self-Reliance” (1841)

utopian communities

experiments in communal living, usually in rural settings, and structured around a guiding principle

• many had an aversion to the materialistic direction of society, like transcendentalism

• unlike transcendentalists, they sought a more collective alternative to mainstream society

• inspiration came from thinkers like French socialist Charles Fourier and Scottish industrialist and philanthropist Robert Owen