Culture and Reform
Movements
Americans develop their own style of Art and Literature
&
The efforts made to make America Great for all Americans
Romanticism
Movement that emphasized
Imagination and Emotion in Art & Literature.
Hudson River School Artists
A group of American Artist that were
known for painting American
Landscapes. A common theme
among their works is “nature.”
John James Audubon
John James Audubon was an
American ornithologist, artist
and naturalist known for his
studies, drawings and
paintings of North American
birds.
Transcendentalism
Is a philosophy where people believed
that the spiritual world was more
important than the physical.
It taught people to find their “true
self”
Emphasized the importance of nature.
Education Reform
Temperance – Pre Prohibition Era
Women’s Rights Movement - Suffrage
• Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott
• Fought for Women Suffrage – the
right to vote.
• Held the 1st Women’s rights
convention in Seneca Falls, New
York.
• They wrote the Declaration of
Sentiments
“We hold these truths to be self
evident that all men and
women are created equally…”
Treatment of the Mentally Ill & Prison Reform
• She led the effort to improve the treatment and
care of mentally Ill Americans.
• Mentally Ill people were often locked away in
prisons along with other criminals.
• They were often neglected and did not receive
the care or treatment for their illnesses.
• Her efforts led to separate institutions (hospitals)
for the Mentally Ill.
• Special schools for the blind and deaf were also
established as an effect of here efforts.
• Her efforts also led other to call for prison
reforms.
• The emphasis of prisons became that of
rehabilitation rather than punishment.
The Abolition Movement
The Beginnings of the US Abolition
The Society of Friends was
established by Quakers and were the
first European colonist to proclaim
that slavery was anti-Christian. They
alone called for its abolition.
Slavery and the US government
The Articles of Confederation
successful banned the spread of
slavery into the Northwest
Territories.
The Constitution supported slavery,
remember the 3/5th Compromise. It
also banned the importation of new
slaves from Africa in 1808.
The Great Awakening
• Religious movement in the 1830s
• Preachers preached about
personal redemption and
salvation at revivals as seen in
the image on the right.
• The effects of this spiritual
revivals was to encourage
Americans to not only reform
themselves but society
• Was the cause of the Social
Reforms of the 1800s
Slavery and Western Expansion
The Northwest Territory was the
first region of the United States
where slavery was not allowed to
expand. As per the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787. Remember
this law was passed when we
were governed by the Articles of
Confederation.
Slavery and Western Expansion
MISSOURI COMPROMISE 1820
The Missouri
Compromise
banned Slavery in
the newly acquired
lands of the
Louisiana Purchase,
north of Missouri’s
southern border.
Western Expansion and Slavery
Wilmot Proviso – an agreement
made in Congress to ban
slavery in any lands gained a
war with Mexico.
Rather than ban slavery in the
Mexican Cession, Congress
agreed to the Compromise of
1850 which used the idea of
popular sovereignty to allow the
people living in New Mexico and
Utah to decided for themselves
through a vote.
This angered Free Soil Party
supporters who wished to stop
slavery from expanding into
Western territories.
Kansas-Nebraska Act leads to Violence
BLEEDING KANSAS
The notion of popular sovereignty would be used
to determine the expansion of slavery into the
newly organized territories of Kansas and
Nebraska.
The effects of this Act led many northerners and
southerners to move to Kansas to affect the vote.
The differences between these people led to
violence known as Bleeding Kansas.
The Abolitionist
William Lloyd Garrison
Published the
Liberator, an antislavery Newspaper.
“I am in earnest - I will not
equivocate - I will not excuse - I
will not retreat a single inch and I will be heard!”
“I will be as harsh as truth and as
uncompromising as justice”
“Enslave the liberty of but one
human being and the liberties of
the world are put in peril”
“So you’re the
little lady the started this
great war.”
-Abraham Lincoln to Harriet B. Stowe
The effect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was that it led
to greater support for the Abolition
movement.
African American Abolitionist
Frederick Douglass
• A former slave who
educated himself,
• He became the
leading voice of
Abolition.
• His very existence
changed people’s
perception of
African Americans
Sojourner Truth
• A former slave as well,
• She spoke in favor of
Abolition,
• She is best know for her
poem, Ain’t I a Woman
David Walker
• He was born free,
• He published a
pamphlet called,
Appeal to the Colored
people of the World,
but in particular, and
very expressly, to
those of the United
States of America
Harriet Tubman
• A former slave
• She was a conductor of the
Underground Railroad
• She is also known as the
“Moses” of her people
• She risked her life time and
time again to help other
enslaved people runaway to
freedom along the
Underground Railroad
Radical Abolitionist – John Brown
• John Brown was a radical abolitionist, he believed in using force to free African Americans
from slavery.
• While living in Kansas, at the time of the passing of the Kansas Nebraska Act, he got into a
struggle with pro slavery settlers and killed six of them in retaliation for a previous event.
#bleedingkansas
• He is most famously known for raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory in Virginia.
• His plan was to arm slaves and have them fight for their independence.
Abolition – The U.S Efforts to End Slavery
1700s
The Society of Friends
was established by
Quakers and were the
first European colonist
to proclaim that
slavery was antiChristian. They alone
called for its abolition.
After the American
Revolution, more
Americans began to
equate American
Independence from
Great Britain with the
slaves rights to
freedom.
1800s
1850s
The Articles of
Confederation banned
the spread of slavery
in the Northwest
Territory in 1787.
The Abolition Movement
gained momentum in the
1830s as result of the
Second Great Awakening.
This revivalist movement
equated the owning of
slaves as sinful.
Northern Abolitions
began to take an
active role in ending
slavery. The
Underground Railroad
was used to help
slaves escape to
freedom.
Congress makes a series
of Compromises dealing
with the Western
expansion of slavery.
These efforts were made
to ease tension between
the North and South.
Even the Constitution
supported the
practice of slavery, it
banned the Slave
Trade in 1808.
The movement gained
momentum with the
addition of members
such as Fredrick
Douglass and
Sojourner Truth.
Harriet Tubman, a
runaway slave herself,
risked her life, time and
time again, to help other
slavers escape to
freedom along the
Underground Railroad.
Congress also enacts
the Fugitive Slave Act.
Making assisting
slaves to runaway a
federal crime.
Abolition – The U.S Efforts to End Slavery
1850s
Abolitionist increase
there efforts. Harriet
Beecher Stowe publishes
Uncle Tom’s Cabin in
1855. It becomes a huge
success and further
strengthens the Abolition
Movement.
John Brown, a radical
abolitionist, took it upon
himself to free slaves via
the use of force. He was
executed for his role in
leading a raid on Harpers
Ferry, Virginia.
1860s
The central issue of the
presidential election of
1860 was slavery.
Southerners feared if
Abraham Lincoln became
president it would mean
the end of Slavery.
The Civil War began
in 1861 when the
Confederate army
attacked Fort Sumter
in South Carolina.
1865
The passing of the 13th
Amendment was the official end
of Slavery in America.