United States History Chapter 8 Higher Order Thinking Skills Homework

1. Describe the new religious movements that swept the United States after 1790. What was the Second Great Awakening? A Religious Revival led by George Grandison Finney that stressed the importance of perfecting society and providing for the needs of all people. The concept that you were in control of your salvation through your works of faith was a reaction against the Calvinist doctrine of Predestination. How did the Second Great Awakening affect African Americans? Led to the formation of the African American Church in the United States, showing that all people belonged to the same God and should have an opportunity to worship.

2. Explain the new philosophy that offered an alternative to traditional religion. What did Transcendentalism teach? That we, as a society, needed to “rise above” (or transcend) social evils and work for a more perfect society through connection with nature and a rejection of materialism. What did Unitarians believe? Focused believers on the “perfection of human nature, the elevation of man to nobler beings”, they also worked for social reform and aided the poor.

3. Characterize the nature of utopian communities. What were the goals of the nation’s utopian communities? To separate from mainstream American society and form more perfect communities free of competition and social inequality. What views did the Shakers hold? They shared goods with each other, believed in the equality of men and women, and opposed violence of any kind.

4. Describe the reforms demanded in schools , mental hospitals, and prisons. How did reformers attempt to improve the nation’s prisons? By focusing the prison system more on rehabilitation than on punishment, on trying to produce people capable of existing in normal society. In what ways did reformers seek to improve the country’s education system? Requirements that children stay in school longer and that the public school system be supported by local taxes. What role did Horace Mann play in educational reform? Led the way in the Public School Movement and helped improve Teacher training programs. In what ways did Dorothea Dix impact the treatment of the mentally ill? She opened the first hospital to improve the treatment of the nation’s mentally ill, to treat them with humanity.

5. Identify some of the key abolitionists. What is abolition? The immediate End of all slavery in America. How did white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison alienate many whites? By writing articles in his Newspaper, The Liberator, calling for the immediate abolition of slavery in the United States. Who were David Walker and Frederick Douglass, and what did they advocate? They were African American Abolitionists. Walker, in his book An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, advocated fighting for freedom. Douglass, in his newspaper The North Star, followed Garrison’s call for legislative abolition.

6. Describe the experience of slaves in rural and urban areas. What were the similarities and differences between rural and urban slavery? Obviously both involved forced servitude, but life for the urban slave tended to include more personal freedom and a generally more relaxed lifestyle, where the rural slave faced a very difficult existence within plantation agriculture. What were the causes and consequences of Nat Turner’s rebellion? Turner believed he was instructed by God to lead a slave rebellion in Virginia. As a result the South became much more defensive of any talk of abolition and tried to place an “iron curtain” between the North and their slaves.

7. Summarize the slavery debate in the south. What was the result of the debate over slavery in Virginia in 1832? A proposal for gradual abolition was defeated and the debate on slavery was closed. Part of the reason that the western part of the state did not secede and the state of West Virginia was formed. How did the South respond to Nat Turner’s rebellion? Means of controlling slaves on the plantations were tightened up through laws called Slave Codes (later called black codes after the end of the Civil War). What arguments did many Southerners use to defend slavery? Essential to the economy, it gave slaves an exposure to Christianity, even fostered the notion of the “happy slave” who enjoyed his life on the plantation.

8. Explain why women’s opportunities were limited in the mid-1800’s. What is the cult of domesticity? Idea that women should be confined to the home raising families and tending to their husbands. Forbade education and working outside the home. What spurred the growth of the temperance movement? Many women saw that they were the main victims of alcohol abuse and, thus, were an active part in trying to rid society of alcohol and liquor. What strides did women make in the areas of education and health care? Many women were able to take advantages of new opportunities for higher education, even including co-ed colleges like Oberlin College in Ohio. Many women began to see the need to provide for better health care for women, who were suffering greatly during the early 1800’s.

9. Describe the progress of the expanding women’s rights movement. What significant events took place at the Seneca Falls Convention? First Women’s Rights convention led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Formation of the Declaration of Sentiments, outlining the objectives of the early Women’s Rights Movement. What contributions did Sojourner Truth make to the women’s rights movement? While urging men to grant women their rights, Truth urged women to get involved in the Abolition Movement (a plea that was unpopular with some women who believed it would make their cause less popular).

10. Demonstrate how new manufacturing techniques shifted the production of goods from the home to the factory. How would you characterize the nation’s manufacturing system before the early 1800’s? As mainly a “Cottage Industry” with most manufacturing work performed in the home. How did mechanization change the nature of manufacturing in the United States? Mechanization moved the manufacturing process from the home to industrial factories capable of mass production.

11. Describe the conditions female employees endured in factories. Why did factory owners tend to hire young women rather than men? They could pay them less money for the same work. What were working conditions like at the Lowell Mills? Long work days, hot/dark/damp working conditions, expected to work at a fast pace, worked under harsh overseers that locked doors and nailed windows shut. How did strikes for higher wages at the Lowell Mills end? The community pressured the women back to work with no change in conditions. The Company was able to fire the strike leaders and threaten to replace striking workers with local women.

12. Summarize the attempts of factory workers to organize unions. For what reasons did many Irish emigrate to the United States in the mid-1800’s? The Irish potato famine killed nearly 1 million Irish peasants and forced 1 million more to new homes in America. What was the National Trades’ Union, and what progress did it make on behalf of the nation’s workers? A labor union that combined workers from six major industries, they were met at first by opposition from the Courts. The case of Commonwealth v. Hunt was the first major court decision to uphold the workers’ right to strike.