Antebellum Culture and Reform A Changing America

A growing division between the North and the South As North became more industrialized, the South remained primarily agricultural. Due primarily to growing demand for the raw materials produced in the South The Southern agricultural economy was booming due to the cotton industry but becoming increasingly dependant on northern manufacturing. This caused fear of Northern control to grip the south This growing tension between the North and the South would cause reform movements to begin in America, attempting to correct social, political and economic problems of the era.

Romanticism in America Borrowing from European writers, an idea of romanticism began in the United States intended to “free the human spirit” Many writers like James Fennimore Cooper wrote novels like The Last of the Mohicans to recount tales of the American frontier Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was a collection of poem’s to celebrate the Democratic Individual. Mark Twain wrote tales about ordinary people that would contain humorous situations while still containing a message.

Reform Attempts and Utopian Efforts Some groups in America formulated attempts at Utopian Societies. Thoreau wrote Walden as a chronicle of his insights on his own isolation. Some groups sought utopia through communal living Brook Farm, a commune outside of Boston based on equal work and leisure of its members, folded 6 years after its initiation. The most successful and lasting utopian effort is the Church of Latter Day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith

Reform Movements (Continued) Alcohol had become a major factor contributing to social unrest The average male in 1830 drank nearly three times the amount of alcohol as today. American Society for the Promotion of Temperance used former alcoholics as models for redemption and got the Maine legislature to pass a law that made alcohol sales illegal. Caused tension between Protestants and newly arrived Cathlolic immigrants.

The Crusade Against Slavery Begins American Colonization Society: one of the earliest abolition movements Supported the idea of colonization: settling of slaves in foreign lands. Founded Liberia on the west coast of Africa in 1830. Few freed slaves ever made it to the colony Very costly and many did not want to go.

William Loyd Garrison Published the Liberator in which he outlined a revolutionary program urging his readers to adopt the black man’s perspective. This would allow them to acknowledge the damage slavery had done to the individual slave. Stated that there was only one option left, immediate emancipation and citizenship. These ideas gained Garrison many followers and he soon founded the American Slavery Society in 1833. Membership grew to nearly 250,000 by 1838.

More Moderate and Drastic Approaches Personal Liberty Laws were passed in Northern states forbidding anyone to aid in the capture and return of runaway slaves. Liberty Party promoted free soil, or the abolition of slavery in the territories. Drastic Approaches Some supplied money and arms to abolitionists that were seeking slave rebellion Uncle Tom’s Cabin,written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, changed the way people looked at slavery in America Saw it as creating a distinct social division.

Assignment List specific ways that literature changed American society during the antebellum period. Compare these writings with one from the present that you feel has had an impact on American society today.