Romanticism  Set out to evoke evoke the wonder of the nation’s landscape.  Hudson River School  Wild nature vs. Gentle Nature

Literature  James Fenimore Cooper  The Last of the Mohicans  Deerslayer  Walt Whitman  Leaves of Grass  Herman Melville  Moby Dick  Edgar Allan Poe  LOVE HIM!

Transcendentalism  Ideas traced to New England Puritans but some Transcendentalists were followers of Buddhism and other Asian traditions.  Transcendentalism: philosophical and literary movement that emphasized living a simple life and celebrated the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination.  Stressed American ideas of optimism, freedom, and self-reliance.  Ralph Waldo Emerson:  New England writer  Stressed emotional forms of expression.  Henry David Thoreau:  Urged people not to obey laws they considered unjust.  Believed in civil disobedience: peacefully refusing to obey laws seen as unjust.  Did not support US government.

The Second Great Awakening  Charles Grandison Finney: Most famous preacher of this time:  “Father of Modern Revivalism”  Emphasized Individual responsibility for seeking salvation.

Utopian Communities  Experimental communities who tried to create a “utopia” or perfect place.  Varied but shared a common goal of self- sufficiency.  Two Best-Known  New Harmony, Indiana  Brook Farm, Massachusetts  Usually lasted no more than a few years.

Mormons  1827: Joseph Smith: Established the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Settled in Nauvoo, Illinois in  Within 5 years: 20,000 in community.  Belief in human perfection.  Very rigid social structure.  Often people who felt displaced  Genuine faith  Social order

Shaker Communities  Followed the teachings of Ann Lee  New York, New England, Frontier.  Shared goods with each other  Believed men and women were equal  Refused to fight for any reason  Vowed not to marry or have any children  1840: 6,000  1999: 7

Education Reform  Prior to mid-1800s no uniform educational policy in the US.  Horace Mann: best known education reformer of the time.  1837: Became first Secretary of the MA Board of Education.  By 1850’s every state funded public elementary schools.

Prison Reform  Prior to mid-1800’s prison system seemed to go against everything US stood for.  Dorothea Dix: best-known social reformer of the time.  Fought for reforms for mentally ill; often housed in prisons.  Persuaded Massachusetts Legislature to fund a new mental hospital.  Found “prisoners” who were mentally ill chained and loosing the use of limbs because they were not allowed to walk around.

 Women’s duties were the home and family; nothing more.  Housework and Child care were the only acceptable activities for married women.  Cult of Domesticity.  Could not vote or sit on a jury while they did pay taxes.  When you married your property went to your husband.  Lacked guardianship rights over children. Women’s Roles in the Mid-1800s

Cult of Domesticity 1800s2000s

Women and Education Reform  Sarah Grimke: Letters on the Equality of Sexes and the Condition of Women  Emma Willard: Troy Female Seminary: model for a new type of women’s school.  Mary Lyon: Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.

Women and Education Reform  Oberlin Prudence Crandall: opened a school for girls in CT. Admitted a African American girl 2 years later.

Women and Health Reform  Elizabeth Blackwell  Catherine Beecher: National Survey of Women’s Health in the 1850’s.  Amelia Bloomer

Women’s Rights Movement  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott: 1848: Hold a women’s rights convention: Seneca Falls Convention.  Created the Declaration of Sentiments: detailed statement of grievances.

Sojourner Truth

Temperance Movement  Effort to prohibit the drinking of alcohol.

Story of Mary Ellen  The story of the plight to save Mary Ellen was the first time anyone had thought of a service to save children who were being abused.  Before this what was the mentality?  What came first a institution to save animals, children, or women?

Abolitionist Movement  1820s: Over 100 antislavery societies were advocating for resettlement of blacks in Africa.  Many whites joined the call for abolition: call to outlaw slavery. Charles Finney called slavery “a great national sin”

Great Abolitionists  William Lloyd Garrison:  Most radical White abolitionist.

Great Abolitionists  David Walker:  Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World.

Great Abolitionists  James Forten:  Great-Grandfather was a slave.

Great Abolitionists  Frederick Douglass:  Born a slave.  1838: Slave with skilled job in Baltimore; escaped.

Great Abolitionists  Went to NYC; avid reader of The Liberator.

Abolition of Slavery  Despite prejudice they felt they were a main force in the reform movements of the mid 1800’s.  Sarah and Angelina Grimke: Daughters of a South Carolina Slave owner.  Ardent Abolitionists

Amistad Case

Uncle Tom’s Cabin  First as a column in antislavery weekly.  1852 published as a book.  Sold over 300,000 copies.  Combined emotional conventions of the sentimental novel with political ideas of abolition movement.