1. Early 19th Century Culture
Republican Culture
Early 19th Century Culture

2. Republicanism
How did republican principles impact American culture and society?
Also referred to as “democratic republican” principles
What do “republican principles” mean?
Lack of aristocratic social class
Equal representation
Freedom from government
Right to private ownership of land
How would those apply to culture and society?

3. Opportunity and Equality --- for White Men
Absence of hereditary aristocracy
Promoted greater social mobility
Acceptance of social divisions reflecting personal achievement
Expansion of voting rights
Women and African- Americans faced specific restrictions- no land ownership, no voting
The Expansion of Voting Rights for White Men,

4. Toward Republican Families
Patriarchy
Mercy Otis Warren
Republican Marriages
The Romantic Movement
Sentimentalism
The feels
Shift away from arranged to "love" marriages
Expansion of grounds for divorce
After 1800, most cited emotional issues
Republican marriages or authoritarian marriages?
Debate over authority within homes mirrored controversy over women’s rights- Mercy Otis Warren- challenged patriarchy
Postwar Americans did not arrange marriages for children like colonial parents did when they had land to hold over them as inheritance
Children chose their own partners, influenced by “sentimentalism”: the importance of feeling or appreciation
Led to relationships based on intimacy and celebrated “falling in love”
In theory, marriages were supposed to be more republican, but reality was that husbands remained authoritarian
After 1800, more divorce petitions cited “emotional turmoil”
Several states expanded the legal grounds for divorce to include drunkenness and personal cruelty
The Wedding, 1805

5. Toward Republican Families
Decline in birthrate after 1800
Demographic transition
Young men traveled West
Delayed marriage
More women were marrying in their late twenties
White urban middle-class
Deliberately limited size of families
Inheritance
Individualism

6. Republican Motherhood
Benjamin Rush
Thoughts on Female Education, 1787
Mother would "instruct their sons in principles of liberty and government"
Idea embraced by Christian ministers
Women should forego voting and serving on juries, etc.
Care for children
1789 Charles Willson Peale. Mary Gibson (Mrs. Richard Tilghman) & sons. Maryland Historical Society.

7. Raising Republican Children
Two Modes of Parenting
Permissive
Wealthy, Enlightenment influenced
Presbyterians and Episcopalians
Children were "rational creatures"
Best trained by praise and advice
Authoritarian
Yeoman and tenant farmers
Influenced by Second Great Awakening
Children were "full of stains and pollution of sin"
Discipline was used to instill fear
Parenting- Americans encouraged to divide their property equally (not give it all to oldest son)
Parenting among middle class was more permissive- called “rationalist” approach
Yeoman and tenant farmers tended to be stricter with authoritarian practices
The Spoiled Child, Jean-Baptiste Greuze

8. Which form of child rearing, the rationalist or the authoritarian, was the most compatible with republican values and why?

9. Education Republican ideology promoted publicly supported schools
Secondary and college education
Benjamin Rush and Thomas Jefferson
The Three R's (reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic)
New England
Locally funded schools offered instruction to most boys and some girls
Other Regions
25% of boys, less than 10% of girls
Very few went on to high school, even in New England
Class Difference
Wealthy educated children
Middle and lower class needed children to work
Education – Post-Revolution emphasis on public schooling increased significantly
Among elite, the importance of primary, secondary, and potentially college training were emphasized
Most American families needed the income their children could provide
Farmers, artisans, and laborers wanted their children to know how to read, write, and do basic math- nothing more was needed

10. Here an unknown artist pokes fun at a tyrannical schoolmaster and, indirectly, at the strict approach to child rearing taken by evangelical authors, parents, and teachers. The students’ faces reflect the artist’s own rationalist outlook. One Enlightenment-minded minister suggested that we see in young children’s eyes “the first dawn of reason, beaming forth its immortal rays.”
Even in education-conscious New England, before 1800 few girls attended free public primary schools for more than a few years. Subsequently, as this detail from Scenes from a Seminary for Young Ladies (c. 1810– 1820) indicates, some girls stayed in school into their teenage years and studied a wide variety of subjects, including geography. Many graduates of these female academies became teachers, a new field of employment for women.

11. Slavery in the US 1/3 of South’s population were slaves
Impact of the Revolution on slavery?
Condemnation of slavery increased
Quakers and Enlightenment thinkers
1782- Virginia passed manumission act
Manumission- the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves
1784- Massachusetts abolished slavery, all states north of Delaware by 1804
Even where slavery was abolished, discrimination continued
1/3 of South were slaves
Some believed that the Revolution would end slavery
1782, Virginia passed a manumission act that allowed for the release of slaves by their owners
Manumission- the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves
Condemnation of slavery by Quakers and Enlightenment thinkers increased after war
1784- Massachusetts abolished slavery;
All states north of Delaware followed by 1804;
Even where slavery was abolished, discrimination continued.

12. In 1775, racial slavery was legal in all of the British colonies in North America. By the time the confederated states achieved their independence in 1783, the New England region was mostly free of slavery. By 1800, all of the states north of Maryland had provided for the gradual abolition of slavery, but the process of gradual emancipation dragged on until the 1830s. Some slave owners in the Chesapeake region manumitted a number of their slaves, leaving only the whites of the Lower South firmly committed to racial bondage.

13. Slavery in the South South defended slavery
Financial investment in slaves
Republicanism only applies to white people
Some did release slaves or allow them to buy freedom
Slavery as “necessary evil” in the South
“Republican aristocracy”
Response of slaves
Revolts: Gabriel’s Rebellion
Sabotaging work
Increased argument among southerners that republicanism was meant for whites only
South defended slavery despite ideas of “republicanism”
Hugh financial investment in slaves
Slave owners didn’t want to link republicanism to slavery
Some did release slaves or allow them to buy freedom;
Slavery was a “necessary evil” in the South
Necessary for maintenance of white supremacy and wealthy planter lifestyle
Southerners developed a “republican aristocracy”- the super wealthy planation owners at the top
1800- a planned uprising by Gabriel Prosser, VA slave, resulted in him and 30 other slaves being hanged
Increased argument among southerners that republicanism was meant for whites only

14. Slavery and Politics Constitutional debate
Transatlantic trade abolished; domestic remained
Black Abolitionists
More vocal after Haitian Revolution
Cotton increased demand for slave labor
American Colonization Society (1817)
Free slaves, but send them back to Africa
Most free blacks wanted to stay here (Identity)
During Constitution debate, it was accepted that Congress not interfere in slavery
Became a growing national issue of debate, the Transatlantic slave trade was outlawed by Congress in 1808, but domestic slave trade remained
Black abolitionists became more vocal after trade ended;
Used the Haitian Revolution as evidence of the ability of a people to overthrow the institution
Demand for slaves continued to increase with cotton boom;
In 1817, the American Colonization Society was founded by white men with the goal of freeing the slaves and sending them back to Africa;
About 6,000 African Americans resettled in Liberia
most free blacks opposed such colonization schemes, as they saw themselves as Americans

15. How did the state of slavery support and contradict the ideas of republicanism?

16. 1. What are some of the ways this painting of Grace Allison McCurdy and her daughters, Mary Jane and Letitia Grace, reflects the influences of republican culture in the early nineteenth century? (Answer: The subjects are simply but elegantly dressed, suggesting their embrace of republican simplicity. The family portrait that includes only women and girls shows the influence of new ideas about their importance and value for families.)
2. What does the portrait suggest about the relationships between mothers and their children in the republican families of this era? (Answer: The portrait is a classic depiction of republican motherhood and sentimentalism. The physical connections and matching dresses convey the intimacy and affection that existed between mothers and children.)

17. What factors encouraged, and inhibited, equality and democracy in early 19th century American life?

18. Define Republicanism in terms of culture and social structure
Evaluate the extent to which American culture was “republican” in the early 19th century.