Era of Reforms Antebellum Society

Era of Reforms Antebellum Society Unit IV - 4 AP United States History

Think About It • Evaluate the influence and impact of Jacksonian democracy on American social reforms.

Regional Specialization • WEST • Nation’s Breadbasket • Fur traders • Cattle ranching • Mining • NORTH • Industrialization • Urbanization • Immigration • Reform Movements • SOUTH • King Cotton • Plantation system • Upper South • Deep South • Peculiar Institution

The SouthKing Cotton

The SouthWhite Society • Planter Class • 20 or more slaves • 0.6% of Southern population • Small Slave owners • 88% of slave owners; strived to be Planters • Usually worked in fields with slaves • Professionals • Lawyers, doctors, clergy, writers • Depended on planter class • Yeoman Farmers • Backbone of Southern society • Independent, self-sufficient, local commercial market • Poor Whites • 10% of population • Pine barrens, pastoral farming • Perceived as lazy and uneducated

Slave Life

South Carolina - 57% Mississippi - 55% Louisiana - 47% Alabama - 45% Florida - 45% Georgia - 44% North Carolina - 33% Virginia - 31% Texas - 30% Arkansas - 26% Tennessee - 25% Kentucky - 20% Maryland - 13% Missouri - 10% Delaware - 1.5% Slave Population of the South (1860)

Abolitionism and Antislavery Reforms • Slavery considered a sin (religious) and a violation of natural rights (ideological) • American Colonization Society (1816) • Founded by Quakers, abolitionists, former Upper South slave owners, Henry Clay, James Monroe • Colony in Liberia (1821-1822) • William Lloyd Garrison and the American Antislavery Society (1833-1870) • The Liberator • Absolute emancipation with no compensation for owners • Pacifism and women’s rights endorsement loses support • Frederick Douglass • Former slave who promoted political and direct actions • The North Star

Lines Being Drawn William Lloyd Garrison John C. Calhoun Frederick Douglass

The Liberator First Issue, William Lloyd Garrison (1831) • “During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in the free states – and particularly in New England – than at the south. I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slave owners themselves.” • “…yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free! Let Southern oppressors tremble – let their secret abettors tremble – let their Northern apologists tremble – let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble.” • “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm… but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

On the Reception of Abolition Petitions, John C. Calhoun (1837) • Such…is the language held towards us and ours. The peculiar institution of the South—that, on the maintenance of which the very existence of the slaveholding States depends, is pronounced to be sinful and odious, in the sight of God and man; and this with a systematic design of rendering us hateful in the eyes of the world—with a view to a general crusade against us and our institutions. This, too, in the legislative halls of the Union; created by these confederated States, for the better protection of their peace, their safety, and their respective institutions—and yet, we, the representatives of twelve of these sovereign States against whom this deadly war is waged, are expected to sit here in silence, hearing ourselves and our constituents day after day denounced, without uttering a word; for if we but open our lips, the charge of agitation is resounded on all sides, and we are held up as seeking to aggravate the evil which we resist. Every reflecting mind must see in all this a state of things deeply and dangerously diseased. • Standing at the point of time at which we have now arrived, it will not be more difficult to trace the course of future events n it was then. They who imagine that the spirit now abroad in the North, will die itself without a shock or convulsion have formed a very inadequate conception of its real character; it will continue to rise and spread, unless prompt and efficient measures to stay its progress be adopted. Already it has taken possession of the pulpit, of the schools, and, to a considerable extent of the press; those great instruments by which the mind of the rising generation will be formed. • I do not belong to the school which holds that aggression is to be met by concession. Mine is the opposite creed, which teaches that encroachments must be met at the beginning, and that those who act on the opposite principle are prepared to become slaves. In this case, in particular, I hold concession or compromise to be fatal. If we concede an inch, concession would follow concession—compromise would follow compromise, until our ranks would be so broken that effectual resistance would be impossible. We must meet the enemy on the frontier, with a fixed determination of maintaining our position at every hazard. • In one thing only are we inferior—the arts of gain; we acknowledge that we are less wealthy than the Northern section of this Union, but I trace this mainly to the fiscal action of this Government, which has extracted much from, and spent little among us. Had it been the reverse—if the exaction had been from the other section, and the expenditure with us, this point of superiority would not be against us now, as it was not at the formation of this Government. • But let me not be understood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races in the slaveholding States is an evil—far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be to both, and will continue to prove so if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition. I appeal to facts. Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually. It came among us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it has grown up under the fostering care of our institutions, as reviled as they have been, to its present comparatively civilized condition. This, with the rapid increase of numbers, is conclusive proof of the general happiness of the race, in spite of all the exaggerated tales to the contrary. • But I take higher ground. I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good. • I might well challenge a comparison between them and the more direct, simple, and patriarchal mode by which the labor of the African race is, among us, commanded by the European. I may say with truth, that in few countries so much is left to the share of the laborer, and so little exacted from him, or where there is more kind attention paid to him in sickness or infirmities of age. Compare his condition with the tenants of the poor houses in the more civilized portions of Europe—look at the sick, and the old and infirm slave, on one hand, in the midst of his family and friends, under the kind superintending care of his master and mistress, and compare it with the forlorn and wretched condition of the pauper in the poor house. • Be assured that emancipation itself would not satisfy these fanatics—that gained, the next step would be to raise the negroes to a social and political equality with the whites; and that being effected, we would soon find the present condition of the two races reversed. They and their northern allies would be the masters, and we the slaves;

Abolition or Union…What is Right? • “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone.”

Slave Revolts • Nat Turner • Inspired by rhetoric for direct action and resistance • Revolt in Virginia in 1831 led to 55 white deaths • Whites retaliated with brutality and quashed anti-slavery discussions in the South • La Amistad Case (1839-1941) • African slaves rebel on Spanish ship • John Q. Adams argues their case to Supreme Court and helps earn their freedom • Inspires abolitionism in northern states • White House Dinner Scene • U.S. Supreme Court Argument by John Quincy Adams

Free and Slave States (1789-1861)

Historiography“Jacksonian Democracy: How Democratic?” Sean Wilentz – Slavery, Antislavery, and Jacksonian Democracy (1996) Lacy K. Ford Jr. – Making the “White Man’s Country” White: Race, Slavery, and State-Building in the Jacksonian South (1999) By the early 1830s, an ominous antislavery challenge to the slaveholding social order of both the Upper and Lower South appeared from several different quarters…the American Colonization Society...free black David Walker published an appeal for slaves to rebel against their masters...William Lloyd Garrison ushered in a new era of abolition propaganda...[an] unsuccessful slave uprising led by Nat Turner...these events prompted a short-term return of vigilance against slave rebellion, but also serious reconsideration of public policy toward slavery and the region’s free black population precisely at the moment when mounting pressure from white egalitarians spurred most southern states to consider sweeping democratic revision of their existing state constitutions...The Jacksonian South’s political discussion of race and slavery revealed a variety of racial attitudes and ideologies ranging from exclusion and marginalization...to complete subordination of African Americans. • The antislavery Democrats, by helping to force the slavery issue to the center of politics, certainly played an important part in bringing about these revolutionary events. They did so in line with what they thought was their unswerving devotion to Jacksonian principles – opposition to the money power and its slave power ally, protection of white men’s equal political rights, support for the rights of all producers (black and white) to the fruits of their toil, strict construction of the Constitution, and adherence to the founding fathers’ antislavery intentions…The antislavery Jacksonians’ achievements hardly vindicate the entire Jacksonian movement, or even most of it. Nor, looking back, were the antislavery Jacksonians always admirable, especially on the question of black political rights...Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that the antislavery Democrats provided an alternative view of where Jacksonians ought to stand regarding slavery and the racism that justified slavery.

Cult of Domesticity • Separate Spheres • Public sphere – men • Private sphere – women; their “proper sphere” • “Cult of True Womanhood” • Piety • Purity • “the man bears rule over his wife’s person and conduct. She bears rule over his inclinations: he governs by law; she by persuasion… The empire of women is the empire of softness, her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.” • Submissiveness • “She feels herself weak and timid. She needs a protector. She is in a measure dependent. She asks for wisdom, constancy, firmness, perseveredness, and she is willing to repay it all by the surrender of the full treasure of her affection. Women despise in men everything like themselves except a tender heart. It is enough that she is effeminate and weak; she does not want another like herself.” -George Burnap, The Sphere and Duties of Woman. • Domesticity • “There is more to be learned about pouring out tea and coffee than most young ladies are willing to believe.” – Godey’s Ladies Book

Women’s Rights Movement • Letter on the Condition of Women and the Equality of the Sexes - Sarah Grimke, 1837 • Genders are equal in standing • Men have kept women in inferior positions • Women capable of same skills as men • Seneca Falls Convention (1848) • Declaration of Sentiments • Led to rise of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

Seneca Falls Declaration • “We hold these truth to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal…” • “…establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.” • “He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise…thereby leaving her without representation…he has oppressed her on all sides.” • “He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men – both natives and foreigners.” • “He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.” • “He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.” • “He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband…compelled to promise obedience…he becoming to all intents and purposes, her master…” • “He has monopolized nearly all profitable employments…[as] a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.” • “He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education…” • “He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry…” • “He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women…” • “He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.” • “Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to women an equal participation with men in various trades, professions, and commerce.” • “Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means…”

Immigration • Irish • Irish Potato Famine (1840s) • Mostly settled in northeastern urban centers • Germans • Mostly settled in northern states west of the Appalachians • Mexican-American War by 1849 • California Gold Rush 1849-1850 • Democratic Party • Nativists • Anti-immigrants, anti-Catholic • Know-Nothing Party

Immigrants Endanger America;Immigrants Do Not Endanger America Address to the Delegates of the Native American National Convention (July 4, 1845) Thomas L. Nichols – Lecture on Immigration and the Right of Naturalization (1845) The right of man to emigrate from one country to another, is one which belongs to him by own constitution and by every principle of justice. It is one which no law can alter, and no authority destroy. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are set down, in our Declaration of Independence, as among the self-evident, unalienable rights of man. If I have a right to live, I have also a right to what will support existence. If then the country in which I reside, from a super-abundant population, or any other cause, does not afford me these, my right to go from it to some is self-evident and unquestionable. The right to live, then, supposes the right of emigration… Emigration first peopled this hemisphere with civilized men. The first settlers of this continent had the same right to come here that belongs to the emigrant of yesterday– no better and no other. They came to improve their condition, to escape from oppression, to enjoy freedom- for the same, or similar, reasons as now prevail... The great physiological reason why Americans are superior to other nations in freedom, intelligence, and enterprize, is because they are the offspring of the greatest intermingling of races. • It is an incontrovertible truth that the civil institutions of the United States of America have been seriously affected, and they now stand in imminent peril from the rapid and enormous increase of the body of residents of foreign birth, imbued with foreign feelings, and of an ignorant and immoral character, who receive, under the present lax and unreasonable laws of naturalization, the elective franchise and the right of eligibility to political office. The whole body of foreign citizens, invited to our shores under a constitutional provision adapted to other times and other political conditions of the world, and of our country especially, has been endowed by American hospitality with gratuitous privileges unnecessary to the enjoyment of those inalienable rights of man – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… The mass of foreign voters, formerly lost among the Natives of the soil, has increased the ratio of 1 in 40 to that of 1 in 7! A like advance in fifteen years wil leave the Native citizens a minority in their own land!

Era of Reforms Antebellum Society