New Movements in America Chapter 14 New Movements in America
Essential Questions What goals did American social reformers have during the early 1800s?
I. Immigrants and Urban Challenges Between 1840-1860 – 4 million European immigrants Irish Potato Famine 1841 – potato blight (fungus) kills Irish potatoes Irish go to U.S. to escape starvation German Revolution 1848 – revolution against harsh rule fails Germans go to U.S. to escape political persecution Settled in Midwest on farms and rural areas
Anti-Immigration Movements Native-born Americans feared losing jobs to immigrants willing to work for less Nativists: Americans opposed to immigration 1849 – Know-Nothing Party:
Rapid Growth of Cities Cities grow because of jobs and transportation Middle Class: Entertainment Libraries Theater and concerts Playing cards Bowling, boxing, baseball New York Knickerbockers 1862
Urban Problems City residents lived near workplaces – many lived in tenements: poorly designed apartment buildings that housed large numbers of people Dangers:
II. American Arts Transcendentalism: belief that people could transcend, or rise above, material things in life (simplicity and individualism) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller Utopian Communities:
American Romanticism Artists: Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville – Moby Dick Edgar Allan Poe – “The Raven” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – “Paul Revere’s Ride” Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass Washington Irving – Legend of Sleepy Hollow Emily Dickinson – well known female poet – “I’m Nobody”
III. Reforming Society Second Great Awakening: 1790-1800s – Christian renewal movement – led to movements to fix social problems Temperance Movement:
African American Communities African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church 1835 – Oberlin College becomes first to accept African Americans Some opportunity to attend schools in North and Midwest – very limited in South – illegal for slaves to learn to read and write slaveholders feared revolt
Prison Reform Dorthea Dix: Others built reform schools for children
Improvements in Education Common School Movement: Schools and colleges for women opened Thomas Gallaudet: founded first free school for the hearing impaired in 1817
IV. The Movement to End Slavery Abolition: complete end to slavery Quakers were among the first abolitionists Abolitionists differed though on treatment of African Americans Colonization:
Famous Abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison: published The Liberator – founded the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 Sarah and Angelina Grimke:
Famous Abolitionist Frederick Douglass: escaped slave who learned to read and write – published The North Star Sojourner Truth:
The Underground Railroad Network of people who arranged transportation and hiding places for fugitive or escaped slaves Harriet Tubman:
Opposition to Ending Slavery Northern workers feared freed slaves would take their jobs Southerners saw it as a threat to way of life socially and economically Gag Rule:
V. Women’s Rights Fighting for African American rights led many female abolitionists to fight for women’s rights Margaret Fuller: wrote Women in the 19th Century in 1845 – stressed individualism
Seneca Falls Convention First public meeting about women’s rights held in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott Declaration of Sentiments:
Famous Women’s Rights Leaders Lucy Stone: gifted women’s rights speaker Susan B. Anthony: turned women’s rights into a political movement for equality and voting Elizabeth Cady Stanton: