Day 21 Reforming American
Society
• Homework: 144-149
Go Down Moses- Negro Spiritual
When Israel was in Egypt’s land,
Let My people go!
Oppressed so hard they could
not stand,
Let My people go!
Refrain:
Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt’s land;
Tell old Pharaoh
To let My people go!
No more shall they in bondage toil,
Let My people go!
Let them come out with Egypt’s
spoil,
Let My people go!
Oh, let us all from bondage flee,
Let My people go!
And let us all in Christ be free,
Let My people go!
You need not always weep and
mourn,
Let My people go!
And wear these slav’ry chains
forlorn,
Let My people go!
Your foes shall not before you stand,
Let My people go!
And you’ll possess fair Canaan’s
land,
Let My people go!
De Boatman’s Dance
Minstrels were performed
by whites (typically
working class Irish) in
black face
Many learned banjo
playing techniques from
African Americans
Spiritual Awakening
• Revivals from 1790-1830 “2nd
Great Awakening”
• Personal Responsibility and
salvation
• Unitarians- reason to path of
perfection
• Ralph Waldo EmersonRomanticism
• Transcendentalism- simplicity
and truth in nature
• African American ChurchesPromise of Freedom- Egypt
Slavery and Abolition
• William Lloyd
Garrison – spreads
concept of abolition with
“The Liberator”- by any
means necessary
• Sarah and Angeline
Grimke- Father
slaveholder but fought
to end it
• Fredrick DouglasAfrican American leader
of abolitionist
movementnewspapers, had been
an urban slave
• By 1830’s Slaves were
predominantly AfricanAmerican
• David Walker- former
slave calls for violent
overthrow of slavery
• Turner’s Rebellion- Nat
Turner leads rebellion
• Tightening of Regulations
by slave holders
Women
• Cult of Domesticity
• Women were the largest group
of reformers (slavery, mentally
ill, prisons)
• First Schools for women
• First women's health centers
and doctors (Catherine
Beacher)
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott are not accepted
by abolitionist men so they hold
Seneca Falls Convention
• Sojourner Truth- took on new
name as she travelled to speak
against slavery
“Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter.
think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about
rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over
ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or
over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look
at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could
head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when
I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen
children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's
grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience
whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or
negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be
mean not to let me have my little half measure full? Then that little man in black there,
he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman!
Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a
woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all
alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up
again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say”
Reforms
• Dorothy Dix opens
nine hospitals for
mentally ill in South
• Amelia Bloomerdesigned clothes for
women’s comfort
• Temperance
movement- To end
alcohol use
Summary Questions
1)
2)
What was the religious revival between 1790-1830?
The key concept to this movement started by Ralph Waldo
Emerson was truth that could be found in nature?
3)
Who established 9 new hospitals for the mentally ill in the south?
4)
What do the terms emancipation and abolition mean?
5)
Who was the white man that established a newspaper “the
liberator” calling for the abolishment of slavery?
6)
Who was the former slave that called for the non violent
abolishment of slavery?
7)
Who led a slave rebellion was tried and then hung?
8)
What two women created the Seneca Falls convention?
9)
What was the movement that attempted to end the consumption
of alcohol?
10) What was the event that was the official start to the women’s
rights movement?