4.9
Essential Questions:
How did women in the early republic participate in politics?
What role did race and class play in determining a woman’s social status and life choices?
How did the role of American women evolve as the U.S. government stabilized and the economy grew?
How did race and class differences affect the experiences of women during the antebellum period?
Why was there resistance to women speaking in public and participating in political movements?
What causes were considered appropriate for women reformers and why?
How did blacks in the rural South forge families and communities?
Identification/Key Terms:
The Women’s Rights Movement - 339
women abolitionist movement involvement → American culture shift
1848, reformers demanded women & men equality
Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement . . . 339
Women’s “seperate sphere" - women limited to political role of “republican mother”
instructed sons in liberty & gov principles
women’s household authority increased → joined groups like Independent Order of Good Templars
Domesticity and Education - 340
S → women literacy banned
outside - churches sponsored women’s education
Emma Williard - 1st higher edu advocate
founded girls acedemies in NY & Waterford
intelectuall women edu leader - Catherine Beecher
Treatise on Domestic Economy 1841, “energetic & beovelent women” to instruct young over men
1820s - women helped expand public education → supported reformer Horace Mann
MA BOE secretary, improved quality of schools
1850s - women teachers for smaller pay
Moral Reform - 340
1834 NY mid class women in growing cities - Female Moral Reform Society, Lydia Finney prez
male chasticy
moral guidance for women factory workers, seamstresses, & servants
Dorothea Dix - Boston minister to alcoholic → charity to rescue kids from vice
1841 - insane women jailed w/ male criminals → persuaded MA leg to enlarge state hospital to hold indigent mental patients
1853 - promted states to improve hospitals & prisons
From Antislavery to Women’s Rights . . . -341
Harriot Jacobs "Life of a slave girl → gender based appeals to n women
abolitionist women attacked slavery → giving lecutres violated taboos
1840 - abol women → gender roles → domestic slavery (ex: coverture)
women sought prop rights
supported by affluent men bc they could put fam assets in wive’s name to avoid bankruptcy
supported by fathers, shielded irresponsible men
1839 - 45 Mississippi, maine, MA - married women’s property laws
1848 NY - women cntrl over prop brought to a marriage
1848 Seneca Falls Convention - organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott
1850 - churches elimated notions of female inferiority
Susab B. Anthony - prominent speaker for legis campaigns
createst women activist network women sought prop rights → 1860 NY right to cntrl wages, own prop, win guardianship of kids
The Expanding South - 349
S 1860 - minority of planter elites dominated soc, large # middlingplanters & aspiring slaveholders supported
propertyless whites → moved onto marginal lands, seperate plantation eco
Cotton S planters adapted to demo polit order demands
Planters, Small Freeholders, and Freemen . . . 349
S- slave society, inst slavery affects all aspects of life
but most white s didnt own slaves
less owned in hill country near appalacian
Planter Elites - 349
affluent Ss - republican aristocracy
worried fed gov interfere w/ slave prop & populist politicans mobilize poorer whites → criticied mid class growth N & midwest
Dual professions - a lot of lawyers in Alabama Legis
Small Freeholders - 350
smallholding slave owners → less than grandees & lawyer-planters
encouraged by proslavers & elites
men - patriarchal rights in fam
women → joined churches & outnumbered men
welcomed spiritual equality in baptist & methodist church, church supported patriarchal rule
Poor Freemen - 350
poor freemen - propertyless tenants farming for wealthy landlords
slave soc → accorded little respect to white hardworking laborers
elites refused public schools, & white men forced in militia to defer black protest
beleived they were still above blacks, satisfied
1830s - S whites → farms in appalachian hill country & +
family labor
1830s- S settlers, small farming & planation slavery to Arkansas & Missouri
The American Desert → U.S. grasslands, betw states & rocky mountian
unable to be cultivated → settlers turned to mexican territory
The Settlement of Texas . . . - 352
Texas - independence from Spain 1821
encourage migration → land grants to American emigrants
white americans & slaves outnumbered mexican residents
1835 Mexico - new constitution, stronger central gov, dissolved state legis
“war party” - Sam Houston, americans demandind itexan ndependence
“peace party” - Stephen Austin, texas can flourish w/decentralized mexican republic
“federal” const syst favored by Mexico liberal party
1st Austin won, & exemption from law ending slavery
1835 - Gen Antonio López (prez) nullified, wanting Mexican nat authority
March 2, 1836 - U.S. rebels - proclaimed independence of texas, & const legalizing slavery
Santa Anna led army defeating texan garrison defending the Alamo (san antonio) & captured @ Goliad
New Orleans & NY nespaper - romantacized deaths of americans, mexicans tyrannical in favor of catholic pope
April 1836 Gen San Houston - Battle of Sam Jacinto
Texans won, Mex gov refused recognize Texas repub
Martin Van Buren feared annexation → warl w/ Mexico & N & S, dissolving of union
The Politics of Democracy . . . 353
Elite planters → polit challenge
1819 Alabama const - suffrage to all white men
secret ballot (voting in secret), legis seats based on pop, county suprivisors, sheriffs, & court clerks elections
Alabama polit factions → vompete for votes
Taxation Policy - 353
Alabama leg - rich planters minority & distrusted
1830 - 1860 - AL legis got revenue from taxes on slaves & land
AL demos advocated limited gov & low taxes
condemned whigs for high taxes & gov subsidies for internal improvements
Oth S places → no demo thrust from tax policy
planter class dominated & pushed taxes onto freeholders
The Paradox of Southern Prosperity - 354
1860 - S eco 4th in world → “planters & yeomen should complain abt tariffs ect”
1820-1850 -N.E wealth rising faster than S
S blamed shortcomings on N manufacturers, “cotton & agriculture king”
Urban growth on S periphery - N.O, St. Louis, Baltimore
Chesapeake - factories staffed by surplus of slave laborers
Slavery → deterred euros from migrating bc competition → lost artisan skills for internal improvements
The World of Enslaved African Americans - 355
1820s - slave culture W african ancestors & S white relig beleifs
whites deterred blacks from assimilating, blacks prized heritage
Evangelical Black protestantism
1790s & 1840s - 2nd G.A. → Evangelical baptist & methodist converted slaves
African Religions & Christain Conversion
Africans - carried trad relig practices to U.S.
called witchcraft, protestant preachers set to convert blacks
Black protestantism - ignored predestination & passages encouraging obedience to authority
Black Worship
beleived deity would liberate blacks like he liberateed jews
distinctive & joyous brand of protestant worship
Forging Families and Communities . . . - 355
Gullah dialect - combined english words & variety African langs in african grammatical structure
slave unions - not legally binding
jumping the broom, fictive “aunts” and “uncles
imported africans - gave kids african names
american born - british, deriving from past relatives
names - memories of lost world & kin ties
Working Lives - 357
Revo era, SC rice lowlands - task system -black workers completed deifned job daily
Sugar & cotton plants - gang labor system - no breaks, ban on growing own crops
greatest fear → slave rebellion'
brutal coercion, sadistic masters, slaves agency to fake sick, +
Contesting the Boundaries of Slavery - 358
1850s - slaves grew crops to sell to get a little money