New Movements in America Immigrants, Reformers, and the Arts
Irish Immigration In the 1840s a blight on the potato crop caused a famine in Ireland. Four million Irishmen fled to the U.S. between 1840-1860. They settled mostly in Boston, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania .
German Immigrants Revolutions and political instability in Europe in 1848 prompted many Germans to seek refuge in the U.S.A. They settled mainly in the west where they became farmers and craftsmen.
Urban Squalor Many immigrants lived in crowded unsanitary tenements. Immigrants were often employed working long hours in unsafe factories known as sweatshops.
Anti-Immigration Movements Immigrants who spoke unfamiliar languages and worshipped differently were feared and reviled . Workers feared that cheap immigrant labor would drive down wages. Anti-immigrant groups such as the Know-Nothings and the Nativists were active in the 1840s and 1850s. They particularly despised Catholics and Jews. Racism and xenophobia were reflected in popular cartoons of the day.
Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau opposed the Mexican War and slavery and advocated self-reliance and civil disobedience.
Literature American authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and Herman Melville influenced future authors in America and abroad. Mark Twain was the greatest humorist and satirist of the age. Edgar Allan Poe
Second Great Awakening Charles Grandison Finney (top) preached that sinners could save their souls through good works (helping the poor and the needy etc.) His teachings were spread in raucous outdoor meetings known as revivals. Traditional protestant ministers such as Lyman Beecher (right) fretted that Finney’s personal approach to salvation would erode the power and influence of established Protestant ministers.
Reformers make the world a better Place Carry Nation crusaded for temperance (alcohol abuse prevention). Horace Mann was an advocate for free public education. Dorothea Dix fought for humane and sanitary prisons and mental institutions. Catherine Beecher was outspoken on behalf of higher education for women. Thomas Gallaudet was a pioneer in the field of education for the hearing impaired.
Abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, a pacifist, founded the American Anti-Slavery Society and published an abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. The Grimke sisters tried to persuade white southern women to oppose slavery. Escaped slave, Frederick Douglass, published several autobiographies and a newspaper, the North Star. Sojourner Truth used her stirring voice and quick wit to preach against slavery. Harriet Tubman led more than 300 slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Elijah Lovejoy was killed for his anti-slavery views.
Suffragettes Abolitionists like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the Grimke sisters also fought for equal rights for women. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Lucy Stone used civil disobedience, non-violent protests, mass demonstrations, and impassioned appeals to help win the right to vote for women. The suffragettes finally succeeded with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Bring Your Pennies! Don’t these girls deserve a school? Shouldn’t you help? Isn’t Mr. Scalo’s class the best place to give? What are you waiting for?