chapter 14: the age of reformmrshaffersonlineclassroom.weebly.com/.../4/0/4/1/40419645/chap14.pdf412...

Chapter Themes■ Section 1, Civic Rights and

Responsibilities■ Section 2, Individual Action■ Section 3, Groups and Institutions

Why It’s ImportantThe idea of reform—the drive to improve society and the

lives of individuals—runs like a continuous thread throughAmerican history. During the mid-1800s, American reformersattacked such social problems as cruelty toward people withmental illness. They worked to make education available tomore young people. Many also crusaded against slavery orfor women’s rights. These movements paved the way forlater social changes.

The Age of Reform

Chapter 14Chapter 14

The Country School by Winslow Homer Homer painted scenes ofrural American life in the 1800s. This painting shows a classroom in arural public school.

HISTORYAND ART

1820–1860

410

See pages 962–963 for primary source readings to accompany Chapter 14

PRIMARY SOURCESPRIMARY SOURCES

LibraryLibrary

Chapter 14 The Age of Reform 411

Anew reforming spirit arose in America inthe early 1800s. The men and womenwho led the reform movement wanted to

extend the nation’s ideals of liberty and equalityto all Americans. They believed the nation shouldlive up to the noble goals stated in the Declarationof Independence and the Constitution.

The Reforming SpiritThe spirit of reform brought changes toAmerican religion, politics, education, art,

and literature. Some reformers sought to improvesociety by forming utopias, communities basedon a vision of a perfect society. In 1825 RobertOwen established New Harmony, Indiana, a vil-lage dedicated to cooperation rather than compe-tition among its members.

The Shakers, the Mormons, and other reli-gious groups also built their own communities.Founded on high hopes and sometimes impracti-cal ideas, few of the utopian communities lastedmore than a few years. Only the Mormons estab-lished a stable, enduring community.

The Religious Influence

In the early 1800s, a wave of religious fer-vor—known as the Second Great Awakening—stirred the nation. The first Great Awakening hadspread through the colonies in the mid-1700s.

The new religious movement began withfrontier camp meetings called revivals. Peoplecame from miles around to hear eloquent preach-

Robert Owenestablishes NewHarmony, Indiana

Oberlin College admits African Americans

Horace Mann initiates education reform

Dorothea Dix reveals abuses of mentally ill

18351825 1837 1843

1820 18401830 1850

Social ReformREAD TO DISCOVER . . .■ how religious and philosophical ideas

inspired various reform movements.■ why educational reformers thought all

citizens should go to school.■ how a new American style developed in art

and literature.

TERMS TO LEARNutopia normal schoolrevival Transcendentalisttemperance

Henry David Thoreau sat on the hard,wooden bench in the jail cell, but he did notcomplain about its stiffness. He felt proud thathe had stood up for his beliefs. Thoreau had refused to pay a one-dollar tax to vote, not wanting his money to support the Mexican War.As he looked through the cell bars, he heard avoice. “Why are you here?” asked hisfriend Ralph Waldo Emerson.Thoreau replied, “Why areyou not here?” He wouldlater write, “Under a gov-ernment which impris-ons any unjustly, thetrue place for a just manis also a prison.”

SThetoryteller

Section 1Section 1

Ralph Waldo Emerson

412 Chapter 14 The Age of Reform

ers, such as Charles Finney, and to pray, sing,weep, and shout. The experience often made menand women eager to reform both their own livesand the world. The Second Great Awakening in-creased church membership, especially amongMethodists and Baptists. It also inspired people tobecome involved in missionary work and socialreform movements.

War Against Alcohol

Religious leaders stood at the forefront of thewar against alcohol. Public drunkenness wascommon in the early 1800s. Alcohol abuse waswidespread, especially in the West and amongurban workers. Lyman Beecher, a Connecticutminister and crusader against the use of alcohol,wanted to protect society against “rum-selling,tippling folk, infidels and ruff-scruff.”

Reformers blamed alcohol for poverty, thebreakup of families, crime, and even insanity.They called for temperance, drinking little or noalcohol. The movement gathered momentum in1826 when the American Society for the Promo-tion of Temperance was formed.

Beecher and other temperance crusadersused lectures, pamphlets, and revival-style ralliesto warn people of the dangers of liquor. The tem-perance movement gained a major victory in1851, when Maine passed a law banning the man-ufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. Otherstates passed similar laws. Many Americans re-sented these laws, however, and most were laterrepealed, or canceled.

The temperance movement would reemergein the early 1900s and lead to a constitutionalamendment banning alcohol. You will read aboutthis amendment and its repeal in Chapter 21.

Reforming EducationReformers also focused on education. Theyargued that the poor state of education

threatened the nation’s well-being. Thomas Jeffer-son had stated that a democracy could not sur-vive without educated citizens.

In the early 1800s, only New England provid-ed free elementary education. In other areas parents had to pay fees or send their children to schools for the poor—a choice some parents refused out of pride. Some communities had no schools at all.

Horace Mann

The leader of educational reform was HoraceMann, a lawyer who became the head of theMassachusetts board of education in 1837. Duringhis term Mann lengthened the school year to sixmonths, made improvements in the school cur-riculum, doubled teachers’ salaries, and devel-oped better ways of training teachers.

Mann shared Jefferson’s belief that educationwas vital to democracy:

Biography

During the 1800s,many Americans

on the frontier attended religiouscamp meetings. At these gather-ings, preachers gave rousing mes-sages that stirred the listeners’emotions. What two religiousgroups gained members as a result of the camp meetings?

PicturingHISTORY


“If we do not prepare our children to begood citizens, then our republic mustgo down to destruction, as others havegone before it.”

Partly due to Mann’s efforts, Massachusettsin 1839 founded the nation’s first state-supportednormal school, a school for training high-schoolgraduates as teachers. Other states soon adoptedthe reforms that Mann had pioneered.

Education for Some

By the 1850s all states had accepted threebasic principles of public education—that schoolsshould be free and supported by taxes, that teach-ers should be trained, and that children should berequired to attend school.

These principles did not immediately go intoeffect. Opposition to compulsory educationslowed the development of public schools inmany places. In addition schools were poorlyfunded, and many teachers lacked training.

Most females received a limited education.Parents often kept their daughters from school be-cause of the belief that a woman’s primary rolewas to become a wife and mother and that thisrole did not require an education. When girls didgo to school, they often studied music or needle-work rather than science, mathematics, and histo-ry—considered “men’s” subjects.

In the West, where settlers lived far apart,many children had no school to attend. AndAfrican Americans in all parts of the country hadfew opportunities to go to school.

Higher Education

Dozens of new colleges and universities werecreated during the age of reform. Most admittedonly men. Religious groups founded many col-leges between 1820 and 1850, including Amherstand Holy Cross in Massachusetts and Trinity andWesleyan in Connecticut.

Slowly, higher education became available togroups who were previously denied the opportu-nity. Oberlin College of Ohio, founded in 1833,admitted both women and African Americans to

the student body. In 1837 a teacher named MaryLyon in Massachusetts opened Mount Holyoke,the first permanent women’s college in America.The first college for African Americans—AshmunInstitute, which later became Lincoln Universi-ty—opened in Pennsylvania in 1854.

People with Special Needs

Some reformers focused on the problem ofteaching people with disabilities. Thomas Gal-laudet (ga•luh•DEHT), who developed amethod of educating people who were hearingimpaired, opened the Hartford School for theDeaf in Connecticut in 1817.

At about the same time, Dr. Samuel GridleyHowe advanced the cause of those who were vi-sually impaired. He developed books with largeraised letters that people with sight impairmentscould “read” with their fingers. Howe headed thePerkins Institute, a school for the blind, in Boston.

Braille Howe’s raised-letter system waslater replaced by Braille, a method inventedby Louis Braille of France, in which raiseddots represent letters.

ootnotes to HistoryF

In 1862 Mary Jane Patterson,the first African American

woman to receive a bachelor’s degree, grad-uated from Oberlin College in Ohio. Whywere educational opportunities limited forwomen during the mid-1800s?

PicturingHISTORY


New Attitudes Toward Mental Illness

When schoolteacher Dorothea Dix visited awomen’s jail in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shefound that some women confined there had com-mitted no crime. They were mentally ill. These“lunatics,” as the jailers called them, were lockedup in the back of the jail in cold, dark cells.

Dix spent 18 months visiting the jails, poor-houses, and asylums of Massachusetts. She tooknotes on what she saw and made a report to theMassachusetts legislature. People were shockedby her vivid description of mentally ill peoplekept in pens, cellars, and cages, “chained, naked,beaten with rods and lashed into obedience.”

Massachusetts lawmakers agreed to spendthe money needed to provide better care for thementally ill. Dix then began a lifelong crusade toimprove the care of people with mental illness—one of many reforms dedicated to transformingAmerican society in the mid-1800s.

Cultural TrendsThe changes in American society influ-enced art and literature. Earlier generations

of American painters and writers looked to Eu-rope for their inspiration and models. Beginningin the 1820s American artists developed their ownstyle and explored American themes.

Painters

American painters started choosing subjectsthat were specifically American. One group ofpainters, known as the Hudson River School,painted landscapes of the Hudson River valley inNew York.

George Catlin painted hundreds of picturesof Native American life in the West. George CalebBingham of Missouri celebrated contemporaryriver and frontier life. In a series of elegant paint-ings and sketches, John James Audubon por-trayed the birds of America.

Transcendentalists

The American spirit of reform influencedTranscendentalists. Transcendentalists stressedthe relationship between humans and nature aswell as the importance of the individual con-science. Writers such as Margaret Fuller, RalphWaldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreauwere leading Transcendentalists. Through her lifeand writings, Fuller supported rights for women.In his poems and essays, Emerson urged peopleto listen to the inner voice of conscience and tobreak the bonds of prejudice. Thoreau put his be-liefs into practice through civil disobedience—refusing to obey laws he thought were unjust. In1846 Thoreau went to jail rather than pay a tax tosupport the Mexican War.

Other Writers

The Transcendentalists were not the only im-portant writers of the period. Two of the mostpopular authors of the early 1800s were JamesFenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. Innovels such as The Deerslayer and The Last of theMohicans, James Fenimore Cooper wrote of theclash between the values of the white settlers onthe frontier and those of Native Americans. Wash-ington Irving wrote tales, such as “The Legend ofSleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” set in theHudson River valley of New York.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a descendant of earlyMassachusetts colonists, wrote of moral strugglesin Puritan New England in The Scarlet Letter.

Author Nathaniel Hawthorneexplored themes of guilt and

innocence, and good and evil.What American writer of the mid-1800sfocused on the supernatural?

PicturingHISTORY


Using his experiences at sea, Herman Melvillewrote Moby Dick, an epic tale of a whaling cap-tain’s search for revenge. In stories such as “TheTell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe explored theworld of the supernatural. Poe perfected themodern detective story and has been called the“father of the modern short story.”

American Poets

Many poets created impressive works duringthis period. Henry Wadsworth Longfellowwrote narrative, or story, poems, such as The Songof Hiawatha, on American themes. Walt Whitmancaptured the American impulse for self-improve-ment and equality in Leaves of Grass and other po-etry. He wrote of a growing, confident people.

Emily Dickinson wrote simple, deeply per-sonal poems. In a poem called “Hope,” written in1861, she compares hope with a bird:

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers—That perches in the soul—And sings the tune without the words—And never stops—at all—”

Women writers of the period were generallynot taken seriously, yet they were the authors ofthe most popular fiction. Harriet Beecher Stowe

wrote the most successful best-seller of the mid-1800s, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe’s novel exploresthe injustice of slavery—an issue that took on newurgency during the age of reform.

Section 1 AssessmentSection 1 Assessment

Activity

Conducting an Interview Interview your grand-parents or other adults who are more than 50years old to find out what they remember abouttheir public school days.

Checking for Understanding1. Identify Horace Mann, Dorothea Dix,

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe.

2. Define utopia, revival, temperance, normal school, Transcendentalist.

3. Explain the link between religion andreform in the early 1800s.

Reviewing Themes4. Civic Rights and Responsibilities How

did Thoreau act on his beliefs?

Critical Thinking5. Drawing Conclusions What did Thomas

Jefferson mean when he said that theUnited States could not survive as ademocracy without educated and well-informed citizens?

First printed as a series in anewspaper, Harriet Beecher

Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin came out as abook in 1852. What was the major topicof Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

PicturingHISTORY


American Colonization Society is formed

First AfricanAmericanssettle in Liberia

William Lloyd Garrison founds The Liberator

Liberia becomes anindependent country

18221817 1831 1847

1815 18451830 1860

The AbolitionistsREAD TO DISCOVER . . .■ how some Americans—African Americans

and whites—fought to eliminate slavery.■ why many Southerners and some Northern-

ers feared the end of slavery.

TERMS TO LEARNabolitionist Underground Railroad

William Lloyd Garrison, a dramatic andspirited man, fought strongly for the right ofAfrican Americans to be free. On one occasionGarrison was present when Frederick Dou-glass, an African American who had escapedfrom slavery, spoke to a white audience aboutlife as a slave. Douglass electrified his listenerswith a powerful speech. Suddenly Garrisonleaped to his feet. “Is this a man,” he demand-ed of the audience, “or a thing?” Garrisonshared Douglass’s outrage at the notion thatpeople could be bought and sold like objects.

SThetoryteller

Section 2Section 2

The spirit of reform that swept the UnitedStates in the early 1800s was not limited toimproving education and expanding the

arts. It also included the efforts of abolitionists—members of the growing band of reformers whoworked to abolish, or end, slavery.

Early Efforts to End Slavery

Even before the American Revolution,some Americans had tried to limit or end

slavery. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787,the delegates had reached a compromise on thedifficult issue, agreeing to let each state decidewhether to allow slavery. By the early 1800s,Northern states had ended slavery, but it contin-ued in the South. The North and the South thenengaged in a heated debate over the issue of slavery.

The religious revival and the reform move-ment of the early and mid-1800s gave new life tothe antislavery movement. Many Americanscame to believe that slavery was wrong. Yet notall Northerners shared this view. The conflict overslavery continued to build.

Quakers for Freedom

Many of the men and women who led the antislavery movement came from the Quakerfaith. One Quaker, Benjamin Lundy of New Jersey, founded a newspaper in 1815 to spread the

Antislaverybanner


abolitionist message. Lundy wrote, “I heard thewail of the captive. I felt his pang of distress, andthe iron entered my soul.”

American Colonization Society

The first large-scale antislavery effort was notaimed at abolishing slavery but at resettlingAfrican Americans in Africa or the Caribbean.The American Colonization Society, formed in1817 by a group of white Virginians, worked tofree enslaved workers gradually by buying themfrom slaveholders and sending them abroad tostart new lives.

The society raised enough money from pri-vate donors, Congress, and the Virginia andMaryland legislatures to send several groups ofAfrican Americans out of the country. Some wentto the west coast of Africa, where the society hadacquired land for a colony. In 1822 the firstAfrican American settlers arrived in this colony,called Liberia, Latin for “place of freedom.”

In 1847 Liberia became an independent coun-try. American emigration to Liberia continueduntil the Civil War. Some 12,000 to 15,000 AfricanAmericans settled in the new country between1822 and 1865.

Problems With Resettlement

The American Colonization Society did nothalt the growth of slavery. The number of en-slaved people continued to increase at a steadypace, and the society could only resettle a smallnumber of African Americans. Furthermore, mostAfrican Americans did not want to go to Africa.Many were from families that had lived in Amer-ica for several generations. They simply wanted tobe free in American society. African Americansfeared that the society aimed to strengthen slavery.

The Movement ChangesReformers realized that the gradual ap-proach to ending slavery had failed. More-

over, the numbers of enslaved persons hadsharply increased because the cotton boom in the

Deep South made planters increasingly depen-dent on slave labor. Beginning in about 1830, theAmerican antislavery movement took on new life.Soon it became the most pressing social issue forreformers.

William Lloyd Garrison

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison stimu-lated the growth of the antislavery movement. In1829 Garrison left Massachusetts to work for thecountry’s leading antislavery paper in Baltimore.Impatient with the paper’s moderate position,Garrison returned to Boston in 1831 to found hisown newspaper, The Liberator.

Garrison was the first white abolitionist to callfor the “immediate and complete emancipation[freeing]” of enslaved people. Promising to be “asharsh as truth, and as uncompromising as jus-tice,” he denounced the slow, gradual approachof other reformers. In the first issue of his paper hewrote: “I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL

BE HEARD.”

Biography

William Lloyd Garrison, 1825

Garrison was heard. He attracted enough fol-lowers to start the New England Antislavery So-ciety in 1832 and the American AntislaverySociety a year later. The abolitionist movementgrew rapidly. By 1838 the antislavery societiesGarrison started had more than 1,000 chapters, orlocal branches.

Americans Against Slavery

Among the first women who spoke out pub-licly against slavery were Sarah and AngelinaGrimké. Born in South Carolina to a wealthyslaveholding family, the sisters moved toPhiladelphia in 1832.

In the North the Grimké sisters lectured andwrote against slavery. At the National Anti-Slav-ery Convention in Philadelphia in 1838, AngelinaGrimké exclaimed, “As a Southerner, I feel that itis my duty to stand up . . . against slavery. I haveseen it! I have seen it!”

The Grimkés persuaded their mother to givethem their share of the family inheritance. Insteadof money or land, the sisters asked for several ofthe enslaved workers, whom they immediatelyfreed.

Angelina Grimké and her husband, abolition-ist Theodore Weld, wrote American Slavery As It Isin 1839. This collection of firsthand accounts oflife under slavery was one of the most influentialabolitionist publications of its time.

African American Abolitionists

Although white abolitionists drew publicattention to the cause, African Americans

themselves played a major role in the abolitionistmovement from the start. The abolition of slaverywas an especially important goal to the freeAfrican Americans of the North, who numberedabout 250,000 in 1850.

Most African Americans in the North lived inpoverty in cities. Excluded from most jobs andoften attacked by white mobs, a great many of these African Americans were nevertheless intensely proud of their freedom and wanted tohelp those who were still enslaved.

Fighting Slavery

African Americans took active part in orga-nizing and directing the American AntislaverySociety, and they subscribed in large numbers toWilliam Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator. In 1827Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm started thecountry’s first African American newspaper, Free-dom’s Journal. Most of the other newspapers thatAfrican Americans founded before the Civil Waralso promoted abolition.

Born a free man in North Carolina, writerDavid Walker of Boston published an impas-sioned argument against slavery, challengingAfrican Americans to rebel and overthrow slav-ery by force. “America is more our country than itis the whites’—we have enriched it with ourblood and tears,” he wrote.


This song sheet commemo-rates Frederick Douglass’s

1838 escape from slavery. What role didFrederick Douglass play in the abolitionistmovement?

PicturingHISTORY


In 1830 free African American leaders heldtheir first convention in Philadelphia. Delegatesmet “to devise ways and means for the betteringof our condition.” They discussed starting anAfrican American college and encouraging freeAfrican Americans to emigrate to Canada.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass, the most widely knownAfrican American abolitionist, was born enslavedin Maryland. After teaching himself to read andwrite, he escaped from slavery in Maryland in1838 and settled first in Massachusetts and then in New York.

Biography

As a runaway, Douglass could have been cap-tured and returned to slavery. Nevertheless hejoined the Massachusetts Antislavery Society andtraveled widely to address abolitionist meetings.A powerful speaker, Douglass often moved lis-teners to tears with his message. At an Indepen-dence Day gathering he told the audience:

“What, to the American slave, is yourFourth of July? I answer: a day thatreveals to him, more than all other daysin the year, the gross injustice and cru-elty to which he is the constant victim.To him, your celebration is a sham . . .your national greatness, swelling vanity;your sounds of rejoicing are empty andheartless . . . your shouts of liberty andequality, hollow mockery.”

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The Underground Railroad

Many enslaved African Americans escaped to freedom with the help of the Under- ground Railroad. 1. Movement Which river did enslaved persons cross before reaching Indiana

and Ohio? 2. Analyzing Information About how many miles did an enslaved person travel from Montgomery, Alabama, to Windsor, Canada?

Recorded slaveholdingregions

UndergroundRailroad routes

Map Study

350 kilometers0Albers Equal-Area projection

350 miles0

Harriet Tubman returned tothe South 19 times to helpseveral hundred enslavedAfrican Americans flee.

Some 3,000 members of the Underground

Railroad helped thousands of enslaved African Americans find freedom.

For 16 years, Douglass edited an antislaverynewspaper called the North Star. Douglass wonadmiration as a powerful and influential speakerand writer. He traveled abroad, speaking to hugeantislavery audiences in London and the West In-dies. Douglass returned to the United States be-lieving abolitionists must fight slavery at itssource. He insisted that African Americans re-ceive not just their freedom but full equality withwhites as well. In 1847 friends helped Douglasspurchase his freedom from the slaveholder hehad fled in Maryland.

Sojourner Truth

“I was born a slave in Ulster County, NewYork,” Isabella Baumfree began when she told herstory to audiences. Called “Belle,” she lived in thecellar of her master’s house. When New Yorkbanned slavery in 1827, her owner insisted shestay a year longer. Instead, she fled.

In 1843 Belle chose a new name. “SojournerTruth is my name,” she said, “because from thisday I will walk in the light of [God’s] truth.” Shebegan to work in the movements for abolitionismand for women’s rights.

Sojourner Truth had never been taught toread or write, but she spoke with wit and wis-dom. In 1852 at a gathering of Ohioans, a rowdy

farmer challenged her: The Constitution did notoppose slavery. Was she against the Constitution?

In answer, Sojourner used an example thefarmer could understand. She knew that insectscalled weevils had eaten that year’s wheat crop inOhio. So she described walking near a wheat fieldand touching the tall, healthy-looking stalks butfinding no grain there. “I says, ‘God, what’s thematter with this wheat?’ And he says to me, ‘So-journer, there’s a little weevil in it.’”

The farmer started to interrupt, but Sojournercontinued to speak: “I hears talk about the Con-stitution and rights of man. I come up and I takeshold of this Constitution. It looks mighty big. AndI feels for my rights. But they not there. Then Isays, ‘God, what ails this Constitution?’ And youknow what he says to me? . . . ‘Sojourner, there’sa little weevil in it.’”


Some abolitionists risked prison—evendeath—by secretly helping enslaved

Africans escape. The network of escape routes outof the South came to be called the UndergroundRailroad.

The Underground Railroadby Charles T. Weber This1850s painting shows fugi-tives arriving at a station ofthe Underground Railroad inIndiana. Why was HarrietTubman considered themost famous “conductor”of the Underground Railroad?

HISTORYAND ART



The Underground Railroad had no trains ortracks. Instead, passengers on this “railroad”traveled through the night, often on foot, andwent north—guided by the North Star. The run-away slaves followed rivers and mountainchains, or felt for moss growing on the north sidesof trees.

Songs such as “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd”encouraged runaways on their way to freedom. Ahollowed-out gourd was used to dip water fordrinking. Its shape resembled the Big Dipper,which pointed to the North Star.

“When the river ends in between two hills,

Follow the drinkin’ gourd,For the Ole Man’s waitin’ for to carry you

to freedom.Follow the drinkin’ gourd.”

During the day passengers rested at “sta-tions”—barns, attics, church basements, or otherplaces where fugitives could rest, eat, and hideuntil the next night’s journey. The railroad’s “con-ductors” were whites and African Americanswho helped guide the escaping slaves to freedomin the North.

In the early days, many people made the jour-ney north on foot. Later they traveled in wagons,sometimes equipped with secret compartments.One runaway, Henry “Box” Brown, traveled fromRichmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylva-nia, hidden in a crate.

African Americans on the Underground Rail-road hoped to settle in a free state in the North orto move on to Canada. Once in the North, how-ever, fugitives still feared capture. Henry Bibb, arunaway who reached Ohio, arrived at “the placewhere I was directed to call on an Abolitionist, butI made no stop: so great were my fears of beingpursued.”

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubmanescaped from slavery tobecome the most famousconductor on the Un-derground Railroad. Shemade many dangeroustrips into the South andguided hundreds of en-slaved people, includingher parents, to freedom.

Slaveholders offereda large reward for Tub-man’s capture or death.“There was one of twothings I had a right to,liberty or death,” shesaid. “If I could nothave one, I wouldhave the other; for noman should take mealive.” Tubman wasnever captured and lived toan old age.

The Underground Railroad helped only a tinyfraction of the enslaved population. Most whoused it as a route to freedom came from the bor-der states, not the Deep South. Still the Under-ground Railroad gave hope to those who sufferedin slavery. It also provided abolitionists with away to help some enslaved people to freedom.

Clashes over AbolitionismThe antislavery movement led to an in-tense reaction against abolitionism. South-

ern slaveholders—and many Southerners whodid not have slaves—opposed abolitionism be-cause they believed it threatened the South’s way

Early Freedom Rider During the Civil War, Sojourner Truth tried to desegregatepublic transportation. Desegregated public transportation would not exist until almost 100 years later, in the 1950s.


Harriet Tubman


of life, which depended on enslaved labor. Manypeople in the North also opposed the abolitionistmovement.

Opposition in the North

Even in the North, abolitionists never num-bered more than a small fraction of the popula-tion. Many Northerners saw the antislaverymovement as a threat to the nation’s social order.They feared the abolitionists could bring on a de-structive war between the North and the South.They also claimed that, if the enslaved AfricanAmericans were freed, they could never blendinto American society.

Economic fears further fed the backlashagainst abolitionism. Northern workers worriedthat freed slaves would flood the North and takejobs away from whites by agreeing to work forlower pay.

Violence against Abolitionists

Opposition to abolitionism sometimes erupt-ed into violence against the abolitionists them-selves. In the 1830s a Philadelphia mob burnedthe city’s antislavery headquarters to the groundand set off a bloody race riot. In Boston a mob at-tacked abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison andthreatened to hang him. Authorities saved his lifeby locking him in jail.

Elijah Lovejoy was not so lucky. Lovejoyedited an abolitionist newspaper in Illinois. Threetimes angry whites invaded his offices andwrecked his presses. Each time Lovejoy installednew presses and resumed publication. The fourthtime the mob set fire to the building. When Love-joy came out of the blazing building, he was shotand killed.

The South Reacts

Southerners fought abolitionism by mount-ing arguments in defense of slavery. They claimedthat slavery was essential to economic progressand prosperity in the South. Slave labor, they said,had allowed Southern whites to reach a high levelof culture and civilization. Southerners also ar-gued that they treated enslaved people well, andthat for African Americans slavery was preferableto factory work in the North.

Other defenses of slavery were based onracism. Many whites believed that African Amer-icans were better off under white care than ontheir own. “Providence has placed [the slave] inour hands for his own good,” declared one South-ern governor.

The conflict between proslavery and antislav-ery groups continued to mount. At the same time,a new women’s rights movement was growing,and many leading abolitionists were involved inthat movement as well.


Activity

Creating a Political Cartoon Find a political car-toon that depicts abolitionists or expresses anabolitionist sentiment. Use it as a model to cre-ate your own cartoon about the antislaverymovement.

Checking for Understanding1. Identify Liberia, William Lloyd Garrison,

Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman.

2. Define abolitionist, Underground Railroad.3. Discuss the American Colonization

Society’s solution to slavery.Reviewing Themes

4. Individual Action What role did HarrietTubman play in the antislavery movement?

Critical Thinking5. Making Comparisons Compare the argu-

ments of Northerners and Southernerswho opposed abolitionism.

The Underground Railroad was a secret, widespread network of people and places thathelped enslaved people reach freedom in theNorth. Many conductors of the Underground Railroad, such as Harriet Tubman, used Polaris—the fixed star in the northern sky—to guide themto the North. To find out more about the Underground Railroad’s famous history, travel the Internet.

Getting ThereFollow these steps to gather information

about the Underground Railroad.1. Use a search engine. Type in the phrase

Underground Railroad.

2. After typing in the phrase, enter words likethe following to focus your search: maps,stations, fugitives, slaves.

3. The search engine should provide you with anumber of links to follow. Links are “point-ers” to different sites on the Internet.

What to Do When You Are ThereClick on the links to navigate through the

pages of information. Locate information about es-cape routes and stations that fugitive slaves used.Then use a large wall map of North America andtrace the various routes that fugitive slaves used toreach freedom in the North. Place pins on themap to represent the location of stations.

Setting up the VideoWith a group of your classmates, view “Freder-

ick Douglass’s Home” on the videodisc HistoricAmerica: Electronic Field Trips. Frederick Dou-glass’s efforts to abolish slavery make him one ofAmerica’s greatest civil rights leaders. This programfocuses on different aspects of Douglass’s life andcontributions he made during his lifetime.

Side 1, Chapter 9 !7|Ü"

Surfing the “Net”

Historic America Electronic Field Trips

Multimedia ActivitiesMultimedia Activities

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Field Trip to Frederick Douglass’s Home


View the video by scanning the bar code or by entering thechapter number on your keypad and pressing Search.


Hands-On ActivityCreate a map of the United States. Include

its borders as they appeared just before the CivilWar. Color-code the map to reflect both free andslave states. Draw symbols for the agriculturaland economic resources ofeach state. Include thesesymbols in your map key.


In the early 1800s, American women lackedmany of the rights that men enjoyed. TheBritish system of law, which the American

states had adopted after independence, mademen the guardians of women. The law treatedwomen like children who needed to be lookedafter and cared for. Unmarried women cameunder the authority of their fathers or nearestmale relatives. Married women came under theirhusbands’ authority. Widows and single womencould own property and make wills. When theymarried, however, control of their property andearnings passed to their husbands.

Women and ReformWomen played a major role in all theAmerican reform movements of the 1800s,

but they were especially active in the campaign toend slavery. The female abolitionists, however,were often pushed aside or excluded by the menin the movement.

Some men believed that women should notspeak in public or publish their writings. WhenAmerican women attended a world antislaverymeeting in London in 1840, they had to sit behinda curtain that separated them from the all-malemeeting.

The Birth of the Movement

Gender prejudice turned many female aboli-tionists into champions of women’s rights. “Wehave good cause to be grateful to the slave,”

1830 1860 1890

Mary Lyon establishesMount Holyoke FemaleSeminary

First women’s rightsconvention held inSeneca Falls, New York

Elizabeth Blackwellfounds the NewYork Infirmary forWomen and Children

Wyoming grantswomen the rightto vote

18481837 1857 1890

The Women’s MovementREAD TO DISCOVER . . .■ how the antislavery and the women’s rights

movements were related.■ what progress women made toward

equality during the 1800s.

TERMS TO LEARNfeminist coeducationsuffrage

Women who fought to end slavery beganto recognize their own bondage. On April 19,1850, about 400 women met at a Quakermeetinghouse in the small town of Salem,Ohio. They came together “to assert theirrights as independent human beings.” Onespeaker stated: “I use the term Woman’sRights, because it is a technical phrase. I likenot the expression. It is not Woman’s Rights ofwhich I design to speak, but of Woman’sWrongs. I shall claim nothing for ourselves be-cause of our sex. . . . [W]e should demand ourrecognition as equal members of the humanfamily. . . .”

SThetoryteller

Section 3Section 3

Antislavery drawstring

purses


wrote reformer Abby Kelley. “In striving to strikehis irons off, we found most surely, that we weremanacled [chained] ourselves.”

Women abolitionists became the first Ameri-can feminists, people who work for women’srights. Seeking to improve women’s lives and winequal rights, they launched a continuing struggle.

Like many of the women reformers, LucretiaMott was a Quaker. Quaker women, who enjoyeda certain amount of equality in their own com-munities, were particularly disturbed by the sex-ism in the antislavery movement. Mott gavelectures in Philadelphia calling for temperance,peace, workers’ rights, and abolition. Mott alsohelped fugitive slaves and organized thePhiladelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.

At the world antislavery convention in Lon-don, Mott met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. There thetwo female abolitionists joined forces to work forwomen’s rights.

Feminists Meet Opposition

The abolitionist sisters Angelina and SarahGrimké were early supporters of women’s rights.Some men in the movement criticized theGrimkés for engaging in “unfeminine” activities,but the sisters continued their work. “Men andwomen were CREATED EQUAL,” they declared, “. . .and whatever is right for man to do, is right forwoman to do.”

Sojourner Truth also met opposition as shetraveled throughout the North speaking aboutwomen’s rights and slavery. When she addresseda women’s meeting in New York City, a hostilecrowd forced its way into the hall to jeer at thewomen. Truth told the mob,

“We’ll have our rights; see if we don’t;and you can’t stop us from them; see ifyou can. You may hiss as much as youlike, but it is comin’.”

The Seneca Falls Convention

In July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, LucretiaMott, and a few other women organized the firstwomen’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NewYork. About 200 women and 40 men attended.

The convention issued a Declaration of Senti-ments and Resolutions modeled on the Declara-tion of Independence. The women’s documentdeclared: “We hold these truths to be self-evident:that all men and women are created equal.”

Just as the Declaration of Independence hadlisted Americans’ complaints against KingGeorge III, the Seneca Falls declaration listedwomen’s grievances against men. It read,

“He [man] has endeavored, in every wayhe could, to destroy her [woman’s] con-fidence in her own powers, to lessenher self-respect, and to make her will-ing to lead a dependent and . . . [miser-able] life.”

to HISTORYEyewitness

Sojourner Truth

Women Physicians The first American medical school for women, the Boston Female Medical School, opened in 1848 with an enrollment of 12 students.



The women’s declaration called for an end toall laws that discriminated against women. It de-manded that women be allowed to enter the all-male world of trades, professions, and businesses.The most controversial issue at the Seneca FallsConvention concerned suffrage, or the right tovote.

Elizabeth Stanton insisted that the declarationinclude a demand for woman suffrage, but dele-gates thought the idea of women voting was tooradical. Lucretia Mott told her friend, “Lizzie,thee will make us ridiculous.” After a heated de-bate, however, the convention voted to includethe demand for woman suffrage in the UnitedStates. As Stanton later reasoned:

“Having decided to petition for a redress of grievances, the question isfor what shall you first petition? For the exercise of your right to electivefranchise [vote]—nothing short of this.The grant to you of this right will secure all others, and the granting ofevery other right, whilst this is denied,

is a mockery. For instance: What is theright to property, without the right toprotect it?”

The Movement Grows

The Seneca Falls Convention paved the wayfor the growth of the women’s rights movement.During the 1800s women held several nationalconventions. Many reformers—including WilliamLloyd Garrison—joined the movement.

Susan B. Anthony, the daughter of a Quakerabolitionist in rural New York, worked forwomen’s rights, temperance, and the reform ofNew York property and divorce laws. She calledfor equal pay for women, college training forgirls, and coeducation—the teaching of boys andgirls together. Excluded from a group called theSons of Temperance, Anthony organized thecountry’s first women’s temperance association,the Daughters of Temperance.

Susan B. Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stan-ton at a temperance meeting in 1851. They be-came lifelong friends and partners in the strugglefor women’s rights. For the rest of the century,Anthony and Stanton led the women’s move-ment. They worked with other women to win theright to vote. Beginning with Wyoming in 1890,

Lucretia Mott (left) and SusanB. Anthony were leaders in

the effort to allow women a greater role inAmerican society. What changes did theSeneca Falls declaration demand?

PicturingHISTORY

LinkingPAST & PRESENTLinkingPAST & PRESENT

Ladies’ Legwear Creates Scandal

In the early 1850s, women’s rights workerAmelia Jenks Bloomer thought that hugehoops and long skirts kept women from mov-ing about easily and naturally. She beganwearing a pair of loose trousers gathered atthe ankles. The trousers—invented by Eliza-beth Miller but commonly called “bloomers”—caused quite a scandal. Some men shoutedtaunts, while others hurled sticks. Eighty yearslater, in the 1930s, wearing pants becamecommonplace for women.


several states granted women the right to vote. It was not until 1920, however, that woman suffrage became a reality everywhere in the United States.

Progress by American Women

In the 1800s most Americans believed thatgirls should not have advanced education.

Some even questioned whether girls should betaught to read and write. Education, peoplefeared, might make young women dissatisfiedwith their lives.

Without institutions that would offer themadvanced education degrees, women werestopped from expanding their professional hori-zons. Before the 1830s no university or college inthe United States would accept female students.Many men and women alike believed that it wasuseless and even dangerous for women to learnsuch subjects as mathematics. The stress of study-ing such subjects, some felt, might cause delicatewomen to have nervous breakdowns.

The only schools for women beyond elemen-tary schools at that time offered courses forwomen on how to be good wives and mothers.Some young women, however, began to maketheir own opportunities. They broke barriers tofemale education and helped other women do thesame.

Education

After her marriage Emma Willard educatedherself in subjects considered suitable only forboys, such as science and mathematics. In 1821Willard established the Troy Female Seminary inupstate New York. Catharine Beecher, the daugh-ter of temperance crusader Lyman Beecher,founded schools to teach women about home-making in Connecticut and Ohio. Mary Lyon es-tablished Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (laterMount Holyoke College) in Massachusetts in1837. She modeled its curriculum on that of near-by Amherst College.

Marriage and Family Laws

During the 1800s women made some gains inthe area of marriage and property laws. New York,Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Mississippi,and the new state of California recognized the rightof women to own property after their marriage.

Some states passed laws permitting womento share the guardianship of their children jointlywith their husbands. Indiana was the first of sev-eral states that allowed women to seek divorce iftheir husbands were chronic abusers of alcohol.

Breaking Barriers

In the 1800s women had few career choices.They could become elementary teachers—al-though school boards often paid much lowersalaries to women than to men. Breaking intofields such as medicine and the ministry was farmore difficult. Some strong-minded women,however, succeeded in entering these all-maleprofessions.

Hoping to study medicine, Elizabeth Blackwell applied to—and was turned down

Mary Lyon was a giftedteacher and a pioneer in the

cause of higher education for women. Whatinstitution did Mary Lyon found?

PicturingHISTORY


by—more than 20 schools. Finally accepted byGeneva College in New York, Blackwell graduat-ed at the head of her class. She went on to becomethe first woman to receive a medical degree in theUnited States or Europe. In 1857 she founded the

New York Infirmary for Women and Children,staffed entirely by women.

One of Blackwell’s sisters-in-law, AntoinetteBrown, became the first ordained female ministerin the United States. Blackwell’s other sister-in-law,Lucy Stone, an Oberlin College graduate, becamean influential lecturer on abolitionism andwomen’s rights. To symbolize her equality withher husband, Stone kept her maiden name aftershe married and encouraged other women to dothe same.

Maria Mitchell, a librarian, taught herself as-tronomy. Mitchell gained world renown whenshe discovered a comet in 1847. She became aprofessor of astronomy at Vassar College and thefirst woman elected to the American Academy ofArts and Sciences.

Sarah Hale, editor of a popular magazinecalled Godey’s Lady’s Book, influenced thousandsof American women. Hale mixed articles on fash-ions and other traditional female subjects with acall for women to stand up for their rights.

Despite the accomplishments of notablewomen, some gains in education, and changes instate laws, women in the 1800s remained limitedby social customs and expectations. The earlyfeminists—like the abolitionists, temperanceworkers, and other activists of the age of reform—had just begun the long struggle to achieve theirgoals.


Activity

Composing a Song Write and record a song designed to win supporters for the women’srights movement. Include lyrics that will drawboth men and women supporters.

Checking for Understanding1. Identify Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady

Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Lyon,Elizabeth Blackwell, Maria Mitchell.

2. Define feminist, suffrage, coeducation.3. Summarize how the fight to end slavery

helped to spark the women’s movement.Reviewing Themes

4. Groups and Institutions Discuss threespecific goals of the women’s rightsmovement.

Critical Thinking5. Making Generalizations What qualities

do you think women such as SojournerTruth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth CadyStanton, and Elizabeth Blackwell shared?

Maria Mitchell won world-wide recognition for her

achievements in astronomy. What other notable women made contributions infields once closed to women?

PicturingHISTORY

How many times have you had to go tothe library to research a report or paper?Skill in using a computerized card cata-

log will help you find the information you need.

Learning the Skill

Go to the card catalog computer in yourschool or local library. What do you want to knowabout? Type in the name of an author or per-former; the title of a book, videotape, audiocas-sette, or CD; or a subject heading. You will accessthe on-line, or computerized, card catalog thatlists all the library’s resources for that topic. Thecomputer will list on screen the titles, authors, orwhatever you requested.

The “card” that appears on screen will pro-vide other information as well, including the yearthe work was published, who published it, whatmedia type it is, and the language it is written orrecorded in. Use this information to determine ifthe material meets your needs. Then check to seeif the item is available. In addition, find the classi-fication (biography, travel, etc.) and call numberunder which it is shelved.

Practicing the Skill

This chapter discusses abolitionists. Thesesteps will help you use the computerized card cat-alog to find additional information on the subject“abolitionists”:1. Type “s/abolitionists.”2. From the list of subjects that appears on the

screen, determine which might apply toabolitionists in the United States during theyears between 1820 and 1860.

3. Follow the instructions on the computerscreen to display all the titles under each

subject you selected. For example, theinstructions might be to type the line num-ber next to the subject and press RETURN.

4. Determine which of the books, videos,audiocassettes, and CDs now on the screenyou want to learn more about.

5. What do the instructions on the screen tellyou to do to find more details?

6. What do the instructions on the screen tellyou to do if you want to find out howmany copies of the title the library ownsand if and where a copy is available?

TechnologyTechnology

Using a Computerized Card Catalog

Using a Computerized Card Catalog Use thecomputerized card catalog in your school orlocal library to identify four resources—books,videotapes, CDs, or audiocassettes—you canuse to write two reports, one on ElizabethCady Stanton and the other on public educa-tion in the 1800s.

Applying the Skill


In antislavery newspapers, abolitionistsshowed the horrors of a slave auction.

Reviewing Key TermsOn graph paper, create a word search puzzle usingthe following terms. Crisscross the terms verticallyand horizontally, then fill in the remaining squareswith extra letters. Use the terms’ definitions as cluesto find the words in the puzzle. Share your puzzlewith a classmate.utopiarevivaltemperancenormal schoolTranscendentalistcivil disobedienceabolitionistUnderground Railroadfeministsuffragewomen’s rights movementcoeducation

Reviewing Key Facts1. What were the founders of utopias hoping

to achieve?2. What problems in society did leading

reformers in the temperance movementblame on the manufacture and sale ofalcoholic beverages?

3. What were the three basic principles ofpublic education?

4. What was unique about the subject matterthat American artists and writers of themid-1800s used?

5. How did William Lloyd Garrison’sdemands make him effective in the anti-slavery movement?

6. What purposes did the Underground Railroad serve besides helping runawayslaves?

7. How were women viewed under the American system of law in the early 1800s?

Time Line ActivityCreate a time line on which you place the followingevents in chronological order.

• Oberlin College admits women andAfrican Americans

• William Lloyd Garrison founds abolitionistnewspaper

• Horace Mann introduces major changes inschools

• Seneca Falls Convention held in New York• First African American settlers arrive in

Liberia• Dorothea Dix files report revealing abuses

of people with mental illness

Reviewing Themes1. Civic Rights and Responsibilities How did

Dorothea Dix win rights for people withmental illness?

2. Individual Action Summarize FrederickDouglass’s role in the abolitionist movement.

3. Groups and Institutions What was the sig-nificance of the Seneca Falls Convention?

Skill Practice ActivityUsing a Computerized Card CatalogUse the card catalog computer in your school or locallibrary to find out more about American poets of theearly 1800s.

1. Type “s/poetry.”2. From the list of subjects that appears on the

screen, determine which might apply to theUnited States during the years 1820 to 1860.

3. Follow the instructions on the computerscreen to display all the titles under eachsubject you selected.

4. Which of the books on the screen do youwant to learn more about?


Assessment and Activities


Critical ThinkingAnalyzing Information

Emily Dickinson’s special talent was to writeabout great subjects—life, death, nature—usingconcrete images from everyday experience. Readthe poem below, then answer the questions thatfollow.

“‘Nature’ is what we see”

“Nature” is what we see—The Hill—the Afternoon—Squirrel—Eclipse—the Bumble bee—Nay—Nature is Heaven—Nay—Nature is what we hear—The Bobolink—the Sea—Thunder—the Cricket—Nay—Nature is Harmony—Nature is what we know—Yet have no art to say—So impotent [weak] our Wisdom isTo her Simplicity.

1. What does the poet say nature is in line 1?In line 4?

2. In your own words explain what the lastfour lines suggest about nature.

3. Write your own poem describing “WhatNature Is.”

Geography ActivityUse the map on page 419 to answer the followingquestions.

1. Movement About how many enslavedAfrican Americans found freedom throughthe Underground Railroad?

2. Location From what Southern ports didAfrican Americans flee by ship?

3. Location What “stations” of the Under-ground Railroad were situated on the OhioRiver?

4. Movement How many times did HarrietTubman risk her life to help slaves escape?

Technology ActivityUsing the Internet Search the Internetfor a modern organization whose goal is to support women’s rights.Write a brief description ofthe organization, includ-ing its name, location,and a description of its purpose or activities.

Cooperative ActivityHistory and Language Arts Work in smallgroups to create a deck of “author cards” for yourclass. With members of your group, create a cardfor each of the 11 writers and poets discussed inthe chapter. The front of each card should show asketch of the author and a memorable line fromone of that author’s works. The back of each cardshould contain biographical information, a list ofsome of the author’s titles, and other interestingfacts about the author’s life or writing style. Combine the cards of all the groups. Then workwith your group to come up with a set of rules to play a game using your cards.


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HHiissttoorryy JJoouurrnnaall Reviewthe chapter and makea list of the majorreform movements of this period.Create a graphic organizer that linksthe reform movements to the namesof the people who participated ineach.

ActivityPortfolioPortfolio

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