Download Ch. 12 - Antebellum Culture and Reform

Antebellum Culture and Reform
Ch. 12
I. The Romantic Impulse
A)Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting
• i)Europeans felt that they alone at center of artistic world,
but paintings w/in US popular b/c felt they had artistic
traditions of their own: wonder of nation’s landscape, show
power of nature through wild outdoor scenes- “awe &
wonder”
• ii)First great school of American painters from Hudson River
School in NY: Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas
Doughty, Asher Durand. Hoped to express “wild nature”
that existed in America but not Europe
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
Thomas Cole
Asher Durand
I. The Romantic Impulse
B)Literature and the Quest for Liberation
•
i)Early 19th century American literature unpopular, British novelist Sir Walter Scott
was. But even during 1820s great American novelist James Fennimore Cooperevocation of wilderness, adventure, westward expansion- his “Leatherstocking
Tales” were The Last of the Mohicans & The Deerslayer
•
ii)Cooper’s novels showed effort to produce truly American literature, ideal of
independent individual with natural inner goodness, fear of disorder
•
iii)Later American romantic works included: poet Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
(1855)- celebration of democracy, individual liberty. Other works more bleakHerman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) of individual will but tragedy of pride and
revenge, writer Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) established him as literary
figure- humans exploring deeper world of spirit and emotions
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
I. The Romantic Impulse
C)Literature in the Antebellum South
• i)Southern writers wanted to create American literary
culture as well, but often produced historical romances for
eulogies of plantation system of Upper South. Most famous
William Gilmore Simms- believed duty of intellectual to
defend southern lifestyle + slavery, sectional
• ii)Augustus Longstreet, Joseph Baldwin, Johnson Hooper
focused not on “cavaliers” but on ordinary people and poor
whites
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
I. The Romantic Impulse
D)The Transcendentalists
•
i)New England writers who focused on distinction between “reason” and inner
capacity to grasp beauty and emotional expression vs. “understanding” and
repression of instinct and imposed learning- goal to cultivate “reason”
•
ii)Centered in Concord, MA. Leader Ralph Waldo Emerson- essays “Nature” (1836)
argued self-fulfillment thru communion w/ nature, “Self-Reliance” (1841) called
for individual fully explore inner capacity, unity w/ universe
•
iii)Emerson a nationalist, lecture “The American Scholar” (1837), argued beauty
from instinct v. learning, therefore Americans can still have artistic greatness
•
iv)Henry David Thoreau- people should seek self-realization by not conforming to
society’s expectations & responding to own instincts. His Walden (1845) was of
him living simply in the woods, essay “Resistance to Civil Government” (1849)gov't that required violation of personal mortality not legitimate
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
I. The Romantic Impulse
E)The Defense of Nature
• i)Some uneasy w/ rapid economic development,
feared impact on natural world. Nature not just for
economic activity (farmers, miners) or for study by
scientists- but vehicle for human inspiration, realize
truth within the soul
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
I. The Romantic Impulse
F)Visions of Utopia
• i)Transcendentalism spawned communal living experiments
• ii)Brook Farm established by George Ripley 1841 in MA, create community
that would permit full opportunity for self-realization, equal labor, share
leisure
• iii)Conflict between individual freedom & communal society led to dissenters:
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance (1852) submission equals
oppression, The Scarlet Letter (1850)- price individuals pay for not being in
society
• iv)French philosopher Charles Fourier’s idea of socialist communities led
Robert Owen 1825 to create experiment New Harmony in Indiana, economic
failure
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
I. The Romantic Impulse
G)Redefining Gender Roles
• i)Transcendentalism + utopian communities led to some sense of
feminism
• ii)Margaret Fuller’s Women of the Nineteenth Century (1844)feminist ideas
• iii)John Humphrey’s Oneida Community “Perfectionists” rejected
traditional ideas of family and marriage, communal raising of
children. Ann Lee’s Shaker Society committed to celibacy,
equality of sexes, God neither male or female
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
I. The Romantic Impulse
H)The Mormons
•
i)Mormons effort to create new and more ordered society through Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints. Began upstate NY by Joseph Smith w/ his 1830 Book of
Mormon. Began looking for sanctuary for follower “New Jerusalem”
•
ii)Ideas of polygamy and secrecy led surrounding communities to fear them. Mob killed
Smith, his protégé Brigham Young led exodus to new community in present Salt Lake
City, Utah. Family structure very important
•
iii)Belief in human perfectibility, but not individual liberty. Organized, centrally directed
society- refuge from disorder and insecurity of secular world
•
iv)Members mostly people dislodged by economic growth & social progress of era
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
II. Remaking Society
A)Revivalism, Mortality, and Order
• i)Reform b/c rejection of Calvinist doctrines + preached divinity of
individual (Unitarians, Universalism), and b/c of Protestant
revivalism
• ii)New Light revivalists believed every individual capable of
salvation. Charles Finney important leader- predestination and
human helplessness obsolete
• iii)Revivals in “burned-over district” in upstate NY (economic change
b/c where Erie Canal had been built). Successful among those who
felt threatened by change (including the prosperous worried about
social changes), and women
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
II. Remaking Society
B)The Temperance Crusade
• i)Alcohol seen as responsible for crime, disorder, poverty. Large problem in
West where farmers made extra grain into whiskey, in East as leisure
activity
• ii)Earlier temperance movement revived by new reformers- 1826
American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, 1840 Western
Temperance Society.
• iii)Growth led to factions: which alcohol to ban, method (law v.
conscience)
• iv)Trying to impose discipline on society- Protestants vs. Catholic
immigrants for which drinking social ritual, disturbing to old residents of
communities
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
II. Remaking Society
C)Health Fads and Phrenology
• i)Interest in individual + social perfection led to new health
theories, also threat to public health by cholera epidemics
1830s/40s led to city health boards
• ii)B/c boards found few solutions Americans turned
toward nonscientific theories to improve health: “water
cure (hydrotherapy)”, Sylvester Graha’s new diet theories,
German “phrenology” 1830s through efforts of Fowler
brothers- shape and regions of skull important indicator of
character + intelligence
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
II. Remaking Society
D)Medical Science
• i)Science of medicine lagged behind other tech. + scientific
advances b/c lack of regulation led many poorly educated
people to be physicians, absence of basic knowledge of
disease- vaccination, anesthesia result of luck vs. study
• ii)W/o use of scientific methods + experimentation little
learned about treating + transmission of disease
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
II. Remaking Society
E)Reforming Education
•
i)Reform toward universal public education-by 1830 no state had system (some limited
state versions [MA, etc.])- reflection of new belief on innate capacity of every person,
society’s obligation to tap that, expose kids to social values
•
ii)Greatest reformer Horace Mann- educated electorate essential to work free political
system. Academic year lengthened, better teacher salaries + training
•
iii)By 1850s tax-supported elementary schools in all states. Quality of education varied
widely- Horace Mann’s MA professional + trained, elsewhere some barely literate, limited
funding. West dispersed pop=less opportunity, South blacks barred from formal education,
only 1/3 children nationwide in school
•
iv)School reform achievements: US literacy rate highest in world, new emphasis led to new
institutions to help handicapped- greater benevolence
•
v)School efforts to impose set of social values on children seen as important in industrial
nation- thrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
II. Remaking Society
F)Rehabilitation
• i)“Asylums” for criminals + mentally ill. Antiquated jails
replaced w/ new penitentiaries and mental institutions,
jailing debtors + paupers decreased
• ii)Reform & rehabilitate inmates- rigid discipline to curb
criminal “laxness”, solitary confinement to contemplate
crimes. Overcrowding became problem
• iii)Idea properly structured institution to prevent moral
failure + rescue people from failure led to orphanages,
almshouses for poor, homes for “friendless” women
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
II. Remaking Society
G)The Indian Reservation
• i)Main US Indian policy had been relocation to make way for
expanding white civilization. Reform led to idea of reservationenclosed area for Indians to live in isolation from white society.
Served economic interest of whites, but also attempt to teach
ways of civilization in protected setting
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
II. Remaking Society
H)The Rise of Feminism
•
i)Women 1830s/40s had to deal w/ traditional limitations + new role in family to focus energy
on home and children, leave income-earning to husbands
•
ii)Resentment over limitations. Leaders of women’s movement (Grimke sisters, Stowe sisters,
Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dorothea Dix) began to draw connection between their
abolitionist ideas and plight of women
•
iii)1848 organized convention at Seneca Falls, NY to discuss women’s rights- led to “Declaration
of Sentiments and Resolutions” stating all men + women equal, call for women’s suffrage.
Many women in feminist movement Quaker
•
iv)Progress limited in antebellum yrs- only few became physicians, ministers
•
v)Women benefited from association w/ other reform movements (very important abolition),
but led some to consider their demands secondary to slave rights
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
III. The Crusade Against Slavery
A)Early Opposition to Slavery
• i)Early 19th century opposition by genteel lot. 1817 American
Colonization Society- Virginians who wanted manumission &
transportation out of country but also maintain property rights by
compensating slaveholder—1830 Liberia
• ii)Failed b/c not enough private + state funding, too many slaves to be
possible, opposition from 3rd/4th generation Africans far removed
from society + lands
• iii)By 1830 movement losing strength- colonization not viable, cotton
boom in Deep South + planter commitment to “peculiar institution”
led to dead end
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
III. The Crusade Against Slavery
B)Garrison and Abolitionism
• i)William Lloyd Garrison employed by antislavery newspaper (Genius of
Universal Emancipation), but impatient w/ moderate tone + reform proposals
• ii)1831 founded his own Liberator, should look from black perspective, shouldn’t
talk in terms of damage to white society. Reject “gradualism”, extend African
Americans full rights of American citizens
• iii)Gained Northern following, founded New England Antislavery Society 1832,
year later American Antislavery Society- membership grew rapidly
• iv)Growth b/c like other reform movements committed to unleashing individual
human spirit, eliminate artificial social barriers
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
III. The Crusade Against Slavery
C)Black Abolitionists
• i)Abolitionism appealed to Northern free blacks who were poor, had
little access to education, suffered mob violence, only menial
occupations
• ii) free blacks realized own position in society tied to existence of
slavery. David Walker came to be a leader w/ violent rhetoric, most
blacks less violent speech- Sojourner Truth became antislavery
spokesman
• iii)Greatest abolitionist Frederick Douglass- escaped slavery, lectured
in NE. His newspaper North Star, autobiography Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass (1845). Demanded freedom, but also social +
economic equality
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
III. The Crusade Against Slavery
D)Anti-Abolitionism
• i)White southerners opposed abolition, but also many in the
North. Seen as threat to social system, feared war between
sections & influx of blacks to North
• ii)Escalating violence against abolitionists 1830s- abolitionist
headquarters “Temple of Liberty” in Philadelphia burned by
mob, Garrison seized
• iii)Yet movement grew despite, suggesting members strongwilled + passionate, great courage and moral strength. Majority
sentiment ambivalent to slavery
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html
III. The Crusade Against Slavery
E)Abolitionism Divided
•
i)By 1830s abolitionists faced serious internal strains + divisions. Prompted b/c anti-abolitionist violence
made some favor moderation, radicalism of William Garrison and his attacks on slavery, opposition to
slavery, call for full equality for women, extreme pacifism, call for northern disunion from South.
Moderates called for “moral suasion” of slaveholders, later political action
•
ii)1839 Amistad- slaves seized ship tried to return to Africa. US navy captured ship. Supreme Court 1841
declared the Africans free
•
iii)1842 Prigg v. Pennsylvania ruled states need not enforce 1793 law requiring return of fugitive slaves,
“personal liberty laws” in northern states forbade officials to assist in capture + return of runaways
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iv)Nat’l gov't pressured to abolish slavery in areas of federal gov't jurisdiction, prohibit interstate slave
trade. No political party ever founded, but “free-soil” movement to keep slave out of territories became
popular
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v)Some abolitionists violent, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses (1839)
distorted images of slavery
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vi)Most powerful abolitionist propaganda Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851)- combined
sentimental novel w/ political ideas of abolitionist. Story of good, kindly blacks victimized by cruel
system movement. Brought message to new audience, but also inflamed sectional tensions to new level
Source: http://histnotes.com/US_Ch._12.html