Study Guide
Nash, chapter 10
Shaping America in the Antebellum Age
1. Economic uncertainty: During the depression of the late 1830s wages of workers fell by 30 to 50 percent within two years.
2. Market revolution and northern power: Most immigrants to the United States were settling in the North. Many could be woven into the Democratic Party coalition with appeals to cultural issues and anti-Black rhetoric, but not all. Some, once naturalized as citizens, were voting for various parties other than Democrats, early on the Whigs, Liberty Party, etc – and by the 1850s, many were voting for the Republican ticket. Southerners could see a potential shift in the Congressional balance of power (in the lower house) toward their opponents. More than this, Northern manufacturing elites were inspired by the ideology of free labor – this was seen by Southerners as a threat to slave labor.
3. Southerners on the tariff: Southerners opposed high protective tariff rates because they feared resultant increased prices for manufactured goods.
4. John C. Calhoun: In his famous essay Exposition and Protest, John Calhoun presented the doctrine of nullification, by which southern states could protect themselves from harmful national action.
5. Labor militancy: The trade unions fared better than the labor parties in the 1830s because trade union programs were more immediately practical. Over two-thirds of workers' strikes between 1834 and 1836 were held for higher wages.
6. Reform impulse: The impulse to reform in the 1830s had many causes: religious, philosophical, literary, economic, and psychological. Reform efforts included creation of utopian communities, temperance, improving health, humanizing asylums and prisons, women's rights, and the abolition of slavery. In various reform societies, Americans found jobs, purpose, spouses, and relief from the uncertainty of a changing world. A reformer must decide upon "proper" goals and tacticse.g., should one attempt to change attitudes or behavior first; fight for piecemeal or wholesale reform; use forceful or peaceful tactics? Further, a reformer must be prepared to face enormous pressures, recriminations, and outright economic or physical attacks from those (usually in the majority) who resist change.
7. Panaceas: A panacea is a cure-all: spiritualist seances to cure problems of the mind; hypnotism; special diets and exercise
8. utopian communities/communitarians: Utopian communities seemingly offered alternatives to a world characterized by factories, foreigners, flawed morals, and greedy entrepreneurship. Americans seemed too individualistic, ill suited for communal living and work responsibilities. Other recurring problems included unstable leadership, financial bickering, public hostility, and waning enthusiasm after initial settlement.
9. Utopian communities of the antebellum era failed due to the fact that Americans, in general were ill-suited for communal living, a general waning of enthusiasm after the initial founding of the community, and the stresses of American individualism
10. Temperance: During the 1840s and 1850s, temperance advocates lobbied for passage of local option laws. Antebellum Americans joined the temperance crusade, as they did other reform societies, largely to seek relief from an uncertain and changing world. One community that did survive was the “perfectionist” community established by John Humphrey Noyes at Oneida, which advocated communal child-rearing (established Oneida, NY, 1848)
11. Second Great Awakening: Preachers of the Second Great Awakening, such as Charles Finney, emphasized emotion as a way to “catch the spirit” of the Lord
12. William Miller: Utopian leader William Miller lost credibility by his failure to predict accurately the Second Coming of Christ.
13. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson urged Americans to look inward for knowledge and self-reliance.
14. Henry David Thoreau
15. Herman Melville
16. Dorothea Dix: Like many perfectionist reformers, Dorothea Dix believed that special asylums could reform society's outcasts.
17. Abolitionism: The abolitionists split into factions over ideological differences between colonizationists, gradualists, and immediatists. They also differed over the tactics of ending slavery: moral suasion, political action, or advocacy of violence. Class differences and race further divided abolitionists as well as the question of women's roles within the movement. Despite differences, abolitionists agreed more than they disagreed and generally worked together. The public hostility to abolitionists was extreme, resulting in mob attacks, censorship of the mails in the South, and even passage of a "gag rule" to stop discussion of antislavery petitions in Congress. Such attacks and restrictions elicited sympathy for the protection and rights of the abolitionists and kept the issue in the public eye.
18. The primary tactic used by abolitionists in their crusade against slavery was one of moral suasion through speeches and literature.
19. American Colonizationist Society: The American Colonizationist Society, founded in 1816, sent a small number of manumitted slaves to Liberia on the west coast of Africa. Colonizationists seemed less interested in ending slavery than in ridding the country of free blacks.
20. The American Anti-Slavery Society: The American Anti-Slavery Society, formed by William Lloyd Garrison, advocated the immediate and total abolition of slavery.
21. Lane Seminary & the Lane Rebels: The "Lane rebels" led by Theodore Dwight Weld turned Oberlin College into the first institution in the United States open equally to women and men, blacks and whites.
22. Oberlin College:
23. Theodore Weld: Radical abolitionaist inspired by Charles Grandison Finney. Evangelical abolitionist and immediatist who published American Slavery as It Is describing the inhumanity and barbarism of slavery
24. Angelina Grimke: Daughter of South Carolina slave owning family. Anti-slavery agitator. Moved North and became leading advocate of not only abolition but gender equality. She co-founded the Shaker religion. Her and sister Sarah two of most radical reformers of antebellum period. Angelina married Theodore Weld and together with her sister, helped him research and write his famous book attacking American slavery.
25. Elijah Lovejoy: Radical abolitionist murdered in 1837 in Alton, Illinois for publishing and abolitionist newspaper.
26. Frederick Douglass: Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass viewed discrimination as much a problem as slavery.
27. Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton: As the expected moral guardians of society, women joined various reform organizations, especially those to abolish slavery. They gained valuable experiences in organizational tactics and a growing awareness of the similarities between the oppression of women and that of slaves. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized a convention in Seneca Falls, New York, to offer a declaration of women's rights, especially the "sacred right to the elective franchise."
28. Seneca Falls Convention, 1848: The Declaration of Sentiments drawn up in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 asserted that all men and women are created equal. For 72 years, the major goal of the women's rights movement remained the right to vote.
29. Anti-abolitionists and mob violence/ public opinion: Anti-abolitionists engaged in mob attacks against leading abolitionists while working to ban anti-slavery literature from the US mails. They gained the support of President Jackson (Jackson called abolitionists “incendiaries”) and got Congress to pass the “gag rule” restricting any abolitionist speech on the floor of Congress.
30. Election of Andrew Jackson, 1828: The removal of voting restrictions for white adult males led to a democratization of politics in the 1820s. A competitive party system featured conventions, rallies, and parades to encourage political participation and identification. Styling himself as the people's candidate in 1828, Andrew Jackson derided the Adams administration as "corrupt" and aristocratic. Ironically, the Whigs turned the tables in 1840 by "out-Jacksoning" the Democrats in appealing to the "common man." Andrew Jackson was an effective and vigorous president, acting upon a few key convictionsthe principle of majority rule, the limited power of the national government, and the governments obligation to defend the interests of the common man. He scored a notable success in ending the nullification crisis and achieving tariff reform. While justifying his actions by popular appeals, his banking policies contributed to later instability and his removal policies led to suffering and hardships for Native Americans.
31. White democracy: majority rule
32. Nullification crisis of 1832: Response to Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 – South Carolina adopted an Ordinance of Nullification, voiding these tariffs. The legislature funded a volunteer army and threatened secession if the federal government tried to force the state to comply. Jacskon, himself a southerner and slaveowner, proclaimed that “Disunion by armed force is treason . . . The Union will be preserved and treason and rebellion promptly put down.” Compromise was reached as rates were nominally lowered over 10 years. South Caroliona repealed the Ordinance of Nullification but saved face by also nullifying the Force Bill (which was implemented by Congress to enforce the tariff). But Jackson looked the other way – the act of bravado was ignored but portended more serious events.
33. Gag Rule 1836-1844
34. Nullification Crisis
35. Fate of the Cherokee: hardship and removal: The cost of moving the Cherokee Indians, which totaled $6 million, was deducted from the $9 million awarded the tribe for their eastern lands, and of the 15,000 who set out perhaps a quarter died.
36. Divergent systems and the impending crisis: A new two-party system emerged amid the conflicts of Jackson's presidency and mirrored the growing diversity of a changing nation. The Democrats espoused liberty and local rule. They favored a laissez-faire government in terms of both economic and cultural affairs. By contrast, the Whigs viewed government as a proper agency for both economic development and moral regeneration.