ANTEBELLUM CULTURE AND REFORM
CHAPTER12 (SECTIONS 1& 2)
JIGSAW ACTIVITY
Health Fads and Phrenology- pg.328-329
 Medical Science- pg. 329-330
 Temperance- pg. 327-328
 Revivalism, Morality, and Order- pg. 326-327

WHAT DOES ANTEBELLUM REFER TO?
Origin: Latin ante bellum before the war
 First Known Use: circa 1847
 Webster’s definition: existing before a war;
especially : existing before the American Civil
War

MATCHING
Match the author in the left column to the their famous work in the right column
American Author
Famous Work
James Fenimore Cooper
The Raven
Henry David Thoreau
Moby Dick
Edgar Allen Poe
Civil Disobedience
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Last of the Mohicans
Herman Mellville
Nature
James Fenimore CooperThe Last of the Mohicans
Herman MelvilleMoby Dick
Ralph Waldo EmersonNature
Henry David Thoreau- Civil
Disobedience (this work influenced
Gandhi and MLK Jr.)

Edgar Allen Poe –The Raven
REMAKING SOCIETY
“The simultaneous efforts to liberate the
individual and impose order on a changing
world also helped create a wide range of new
movements to remake society…” (326)
 By 1830’s these movements took the form of
organized reform societies
NEW REFORM MOVEMENTS
New organizations formed for a wide range
of issues: “temperance; education; peace;
the care of the poor, the handicapped, and
the mentally ill; the treatment of criminals;
the rights of women,” and more
 What do you notice about this list?

•These issues from the past are presently debated today as well; they
are universal issues
REVIVALISM, MORALITY, AND ORDER
Philosophy of reform several different sources
 Transcendentalists- rejected Calvinist doctrines
(predestination)



Included Thoreau and Emerson
2nd Protestant revivalism-began with Second Great
Awakening
Evolved into a powerful reform movement
 Theologically different than transcendentalism but alike
in that they both felt every individual was capable of
salvation

CHARLES GRANDISON FINNEY

Evangelist Presbyterian Minister
 Most
influential revival leader of the 1820s-1830s
 Preached that each person had capacity to
experience spiritual rebirth and salvation
 Revival of faith did not depend on a miracle from
God (could be created by individual effort)
CHARLES GRANDISON FINNEY
CHARLES GRANDISON FINNEY

Revivals in “burned-over district” in upstate NY
 Experienced
economic change (where Erie Canal
had been built).
 Successful among those who felt threatened by
change (including the prosperous worried about
social changes), and women
THE TEMPERANCE CRUSADE
Alcohol seen as responsible for crime, disorder,
poverty.
 Large problem in West where farmers made
extra grain into whiskey, in East as leisure
activity.
 Average male in 1830s drank three times as
much alcohol as the average person today
 Trying to impose discipline on society

 Disturbing
to old residents of communities
HEALTH FADS AND PHRENOLOGY

Interest in individual + social perfection
Led to new health theories
 Also threat to public health by cholera epidemics in
1830s/40s led to city health boards

Since boards found few solutions Americans
turned toward nonscientific theories to improve
health
 “water cure (hydrotherapy)”
 German “phrenology” in 1830s through efforts of
Fowler brothers- shape and regions of skull was an
indicator of character + intelligence

SYLVESTER GRAHAM
DID YOU KNOW?

Sylvester Graham
Connecticut born Presbyterian
minister
 Committed reformer
 Won followers with prescriptions
for eating fruits, vegetables, and
bread made from coarsely
ground flour instead of meat.
 Like dietary theories today
 Graham Cracker named after a
type of flour named for him.

MEDICAL SCIENCE

Science of medicine lagged behind other
technology.
 Scientific
advances due to lack of regulation led
many poorly educated people to be physicians
 Absence of basic knowledge of disease- vaccination
 Anesthesia result of luck vs. study
 William
Morton- New England dentist looking for ways to
help patients endure the pulling of teeth
EARLY DENTISTRY (WILLIAM MORTON)
MEDICAL SCIENCE
Without knowledge of scientific methods and
experimentation little was learned about
treating and the transmission of disease
 Prestige of the profession, therefore remained
low

 Was
for many people a career of last resort
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Boston essayist, poet, and physician
 Published
his findings from a study of large
numbers of cases of “Puerperal Fever” (septicemia
in children)
 Concluded that disease could be transmitted from
one person to another
 At the time this theory was criticized but was later
validated by a Hungarian physician
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SR.
REFORMING EDUCATION
Reform toward universal public education by 1830 no state had a public education
system (some limited state versions [MA, ect.])
 reflection of new belief of innate capacity of
every person, society’s obligation to tap that,
expose kids to social values

HORACE MANN

Greatest reformer- educated electorate
essential to work free political system
 Academic

year lengthened 6 months
better teacher salaries + training (2x)
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


School reform achievements: US literacy rate
highest in world, new emphasis led to new
institutions to help handicapped


Perkins School for the blind (Boston)
School efforts to impose set of social values on
children seen as important in industrial nation
Thrift
 order
 Discipline
 Punctuality
 respect for authority

REHABILITATION


“Asylums” for criminals + mentally ill.
Antiquated (old) jails replaced w/ new penitentiaries and mental
institutions


Reform & rehabilitate inmates- rigid discipline to curb criminal
“laxness”, solitary confinement to contemplate crimes.


jailing debtors + paupers (very poor person) decreased
Overcrowding became problem-rehabilitation became less of a goal
Idea- properly structured institution to prevent moral failure + rescue
people from failure

led to orphanages, almshouses for poor, homes for “friendless women”
to prevent prostitution
THE INDIAN RESERVATION
Main US Indian policy had been relocation to
make way for expanding white civilization
 Reform led to idea of reservation- enclosed
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

THE RISE OF FEMINISM



Women 1830s/40s had to deal w/ traditional limitations and now “Separate
Spheres”
The notion of separate spheres dictates that men, based primarily on their biological
makeup as well as the will of God, inhabit the public sphere – the world of politics,
economy, commerce, and law.
Women's "proper sphere", according to the ideology, is the private realm of domestic
life, child-rearing, housekeeping, and religious education.


Resentment over limitations. Leaders of women’s movement (Grimke sisters, Stowe
sisters, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dorothy Dix) began to draw
connections between their abolitionist ideas and plight of women

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
LUCRETIA MOTT
GRIMKE SISTERS
Angelina
Sarah
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON & SUSAN B. ANTHONY
THE RISE OF FEMINISM (CONTINUED)

Progress limited in antebellum yrs- only few
became physicians, ministers

Women benefited from association w/ other
reform movements (very impt abolition), but led
some to consider their demands secondary to
slave rights
THE CRUSADE AGAINST SLAVERY
Antislavery movement not new to the midnineteenth century
 First ever slave revolt in North America 1526
 Efforts even before the revolution to limit and
even eliminate the institution
 These efforts helped end slavery for most of
the North by the end of the 18th century

WHAT IS MANUMISSION?
Manumission-is the act of a slave owner freeing
his or her slaves.
 In the United States before the passage of the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution,
which abolished slavery, this often happened
upon the death of the owner, under conditions
in his will

EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY

Early 19th century opposition by genteel (proper or
refined) lot (1817)

American Colonization Society- Virginians who wanted
manumission & transportation out of country but also
maintain property rights by compensating slaveholder—
1830 Liberia

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

By 1830 movement losing strength- colonization not viable, cotton
boom in Deep South + planter commitment to “peculiar institution”
led to dead end
GARRISON AND ABOLITIONISM

William Lloyd Garrison employed by antislavery newspaper (Genius of
Universal Emancipation), but impatient w/ moderate tone + reform
proposals

1831 founded his own paper called the 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

Gained Northern following, founded New England Antislavery Society
1832, year later American Antislavery Society- membership grew
rapidly

Growth b/c like other reform movements committed to unleashing
individual human spirit, eliminate artificial social barriers
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Greatest abolitionist Frederick Douglassescaped slavery, lectured in NE. His newspaper
North Star, autobiography Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass (1845). Demanded
freedom, but also social + economic equality
ANTI-ABOLITIONISM

Both Northerners & southerners opposed abolition

Seen as threat to social system, feared war between
sections & influx of blacks to North

Escalating violence against abolitionists 1830sabolitionist headquarters “Temple of Liberty” in
Philadelphia burned by mob, Garrison seized

Yet movement grew despite

suggesting members strong-willed + passionate, great
courage and moral strength.
ABOLITIONISM DIVIDED

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

1839 Amistad- slaves seized ship tried to return to Africa. US navy
captured ship. Supreme Court 1841 declared the Africans free

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
VOCABULARY

What is the Difference between Intrastate and
Interstate commerce?
Intra- within a states borders (trade within the state)
Inter- Within two or more states (Ex: From Pennsylvania top New
York)
DIVIDED

Nat’t govt pressured to abolish slavery in areas of federal govt
jurisdiction, prohibit interstate slave trade. No political party ever
founded, but “free-soil” movement to keep slavery out of territories
became popular

Some abolitionists violent, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of A
Thousand Witnesses (1839) distorted images of slavery

Most powerful abolitionist literature 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
