1. CHAPTER 14 New Movements in America 1815-1850

2. IMMIGRATION
4 million immigrants settled in the United States between 1840 and 1860
3 million of them came from Ireland and Germany
Irish immigrants fled their country because of the potato blight – this was a disease that rotted potatoes
Over a million Irish people died of starvation
German immigrants came to the U.S. for economic opportunities and freedom from government control

3. KNOW NOTHING PARTY Nativists = Americans who opposed immigration
Know-Nothing Party = nativists who supported immigration restrictions to protect jobs and culture of native-born Americans
Wanted to keep Catholics out of political offices and wanted immigrants to live in the U.S. for 21 years before becoming citizens

4. RAPID GROWTH OF CITIES
Industrial Revolution led to new jobs in American cities
City jobs drew immigrants to cities as well as Americans from rural areas
Cities grew if there were many manufacturing jobs in the region
Transportation Revolution helped connect cities
Growth of cities led to the emergence of the middle-class
Middle-class = social and economic level between the wealthy and the poor

5. URBAN (CITY) PROBLEMS
Many immigrants lived in tenements – poorly designed apartment buildings that housed large numbers of people
Cities did not have clean water or effective garbage and waste disposal
Diseases spread easily
Cities became centers of criminal activity
Cities did not have police forces in the mid-1800s
Volunteer night watches fought crime

6. SECOND GREAT AWAKENING
Christian renewal that began in the late 18th century
Began in the Northeast
Charles Grandison Finney believed that salvation was in the hands of the individual and that sin was avoidable
Many people converted to Christianity after hearing his sermons

7. TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT
Reform (change) effort to urge people to use discipline to stop drinking hard liquor
Movement began because many Americans blamed alcohol abuse for social problems such as crime

8. DOROTHEA DIX She was a prison reformer
She spoke of the horrible conditions of prisons
She inspired the building of separate facilities for the mentally ill

9. EDUCATION REFORM
Common-school movement = members wanted all children to learn in the same place regardless of background
Horace Mann (Massachusetts) was a leader who doubled school budgets, raised teacher salaries, set up the first school for teacher training, and extended the school year
Catherine Beecher founded an all-female academy and wrote many essays stressing the importance of women’s education
Several Northern and Midwestern cities created schools for free African American children
Example (Do not copy) – Philadelphia, which was heavily influenced by Quakers, had 7 African-American schools by 1800, since Quakers believed in equality for all

10. ABOLITION Abolition = the complete end to slavery
Benjamin Franklin was the president of the first anti-slavery society in America
Quakers challenged slavery by saying it was against God’s will
American Anti-Slavery Society – called for the immediate emancipation (freeing) and racial equality for African Americans
Federal government issued a “gag rule” between 1836 and preventing Congress from discussing antislavery petitions
Nat Turner’s Rebellion affected the South because people stopped discussing slavery openly

11. UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Underground Railroad – organization was NOT an actual railroad but was a network of people who arranged transportation and hiding places for escaped slaves
Harriet Tubman – led many slaves to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad
Emancipation was almost impossible in the South because of the South’s economic dependence on slavery

12. FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Former slave who contributed to the abolitionist cause
Believed in the same freedom and independence that white Americans won for themselves in 1776
Argued that African Americans deserved the right to vote to protect their interests

13. SOJOURNER TRUTH Former slave who contributed to the abolitionist cause
Claimed God called her to preach about the truth about slavery and women’s rights
Said women should not be thought of as the weaker sex and they deserve equality

14. WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Women’s reform movement argued that women deserved the right to vote (suffrage)
“Suffragettes” gained many male supporters
Movement claimed that men and women were different rather than unequal
Susan B. Anthony won married women the right to control their own wages and property in 1860 in New York
Seneca Falls Convention (1848) – marked the start of the organized women’s rights movement; organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott in Seneca Falls, New York
Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments was modeled on the Declaration of Independence (1776)