Antebellum Culture and Reform

1. Antebellum Culture and Reform Chapter 12

2. Romantic Impulse • Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting • Nationalism (and most art / literature) was an import from Europe • Americans start creating/looking at their own art/traditions • power of nature • Theme = in America “wild nature” still existed

3. Literature and the Quest for Liberation • First American Writers • James Fenimore Cooper • evoked wilderness themes and suspense • Last of Mohicans and Deerslayer • Walt Whitman • “poet of American democracy” • Leaves of Grass* • conventions “restrictive” and individualism • Herman Melville • not as optimistic • Moby Dick • Edgar Allen Poe • bleak search for human spirit • The Raven

5. Literature and the Antebellum South • Centered in Richmond, then Charleston • Romantic eulogies of plantation system in the upper South • “defenders” and “realists” • Transcendentalists • New England writers • Borrowed from German Philosophers Kant, Hegel and Schelling

6. Transcendentalists Cont’d • Individualism rested the distinction between “reason” and “understanding” • reason = instincts and emotions, not rationality • understanding = repression through externally imposed learning • “Original relation to the universe” • Ralph Waldo Emerson, minister, lecturer and writer • the quest for self-reliance was really a search for communion with the unity of the universe and the wholeness of the great spiritual force known as God • Nature* • Henry David Thoreau • individuals should work for self-realization by resisting pressures to conform to society’s expectations • Walden* • civil disobedience • Many American landscape artists were greatly influenced by transcendentalists

8. Visions of Utopia • transcendentalism sparked communal living experiments • George Ripley • Brook Farm, Mass • socialism • Nathaniel Hawthorne (anti-utopian, anti-transcendentalist) • lived at Brook Farm for a while • Robert Owen • Scottish industrialist and philanthropist • ...eventual failure but “Owenite” experiments followed

9. Redefining Gender Roles • Margaret Fuller • transcendentalist • focused on importance of the discovery of “self” • Oneida “Perfectionists” • utopian society • all residents “married” to other residents • freed women from demands of male lust • The Shakers • complete celibacy • no one born into Shakerism • sexual equality, God not male or female • believed in social discipline more than personal freedom

10. The Mormons • Josesph Smith • Book of Mormon • Sect of Christianity • searched for sanctuary (“New Jerusalem”) for a community of “saints” • polygamy • intense secrecy • arrested, jailed, lynched • Independence, Missouri --> Kirtland, Ohio --> Nauvoo, Illinois --> Salt Lake City • Brigham Young • lead an expedition of 12,000 across the desert to Utah • never again to be dislodged • Reflection of the time • human perfectibility • God had been a human, people could become a god • highly organized, centrally directed society • strong emphasis on family • sep. spheres

11. Remaking Society • Two Separate Schools • transcendentalists (Emerson, Thoreau, Unitarians, Universalists, romantics) • “New Light” Evangelical Protestants (products of the Second Great Awakening) • Charles Grandison Finney in New York • Both emphasized human potential to improve • Both believed Calvinist philosophies of predestination and helplessness as destructive

12. The Temperance Crusade • connected to the revival of Evangelical Protestantism • Finney and co. connected alcohol to social problems • crime • spousal abuse • poverty • Old Northwest grain excess • Drinking was principal leisure activity for many workers • average male in the 1830s drank three times as much as today • American Society for Promotion of Temperance • Washington Temperance Society • Protestant vs. Catholic / Natives vs. Immigrants

13. Health • Cholera • brought on by contaminated water/food • outbreaks in urban locations • thousands die • “Cures” • hydrotherapy • nutrition (Graham) • Phrenology • shape of individual’s skull determined intelligence

14. Reforming Education • Massachusetts and Thomas Mann • lengthened school year • doubled teacher’s salaries • new methods of training for teachers • School quality and attendance depended on region • North East, highly trained teachers • West and South had teachers were barely literate • Native Americans • Alternative schools • transcendentalist • Values: order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority

15. Rehabilitation • “asylums” • criminals • mentally ill • overcrowding • orphanages • homes for “friendless” women • goal was to help people lead a more productive life • Indian Reservation • Indians live sheltered from white society • “regenerate” Indian race

16. The Rise of Feminism • Women played major role • Temperance Movement • Abolition of Slavery • Social standards for women of Antebellum America • raise children • dependent on husband • Grimke Sisters of SC • 1840 Anti-Slavery convention in London, women are turned away • Shifted women’s focus to elevate the status of women • Lucretia Mott • Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Susan B. Anthony • 1848 Seneca Falls, New York • Women’s rights convention • “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” • “all men and women created equal” • demanded right to vote • denounced separate “spheres” • majority were Quakers

17. Susan B. Anthony Elizabeth Cady Stanton Lucretia Mott

18. The Crusade against Slavery • Early Opposition to Slavery • Early 1800s focus was on re-location back to Africa • 1817 American Colonization Society worked carefully to challenge slavery without challenging property rights • gradual manumission • 1830 Shipment of African Americans back to Africa • 1846 Independent Republic of Liberia

19. William Lloyd Garrison* • founded the newspaper Liberator • urged shift of focus to the black perspective • rejection of “gradualism” • rejection of “colonization” • founded New England Anti-Slavery Society • 1835 = 400 chapters / by 1838 = 1,350 chapters • Black Abolitionists • 1850 250,000 free blacks in the North

20. Black Abolitionists Cont’d • lived in conditions of poverty and oppression often worse than southern slaves • victims of mob violence • no access to education • could not vote • barred from occupations • kidnapping • Proud of freedom • David Walker • Appeal to the Colored Citizens • “kill or be killed” • Sojourner Truth • powerful female spokesperson for the abolition of slavery

21. Black Abolitionists Cont’d • Frederick Douglass • electrifying orator • born a slave in Maryland but escaped to freedom • North Star • demanded not only freedom, but social equality • forged alliance with Garrison

22. Anti-Abolitionism • feared abolitionism would produce a destructive war between sections • threat to stability • escalating wave of violence towards abolitionists • efforts to keep black children out of school in the North • race riots in urban settings • Elijah Lovejoy

23. Abolitionism Divided • Garrison again • calls for overthrow of Constitution • call for equal rights for women in organization leads to division • expulsion of slave states from the union • Moderate vs. Garrisonian approach • Amistad • Free-Soil campaign • Smuggling of Arms to Kansas • Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin* • sold 300,000 copies within a year of publication • anti-slavery story/book