The importance of Republican
Motherhood/Cult of Domesticity
• Most APUSH exams have one to two multiple
choice questions and the writers use
straightforward definitions, quotes and even
picture to see if students can identify these
concepts. 2006 DBQ was devoted to this topic
Social & Cultural movements- pre-civil war
• Lowell factory workers= Massachusetts farm girls mainly 1820-1830,
eventually replaced by Irish immigrants who would work for cheap
• Women’s movement
– Middle class women
– Legal & educational rights
– Ties to anti-slavery & temperance movement
– Conventions in NE and Midwest but not South
– SENECA FALLS CONVENTION-1848
• Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott
• Declaration of Sentiments & Resolutions=greater rights for
women: suffrage, right to retain property after marriage, greater
divorce & custody rights, equal educational opportunities
• APUSH Test Tip= know what reforms the convention called for and
what it did not- ie. Did not call for more liberal abortion laws or
equal pay for equal work
Notable women in this time
• Dorothea Dix= reform for the treatment of
mentally handicapped people as well as prison
reform. NOT in women’s rights movement
• Sarah Grimke=one of first women
to publically support abolition
& women’s rights
Abolition movement
• American Colonization Society=worked to return freed
slaves to Africa mainly led by middle-class men &
women
• William Lloyd Garrison=editor of The Liberatorabolitionist newspaper & a founder of the American
Anti-Slavery Society. Called for emancipation of slaves
• Frederick Douglass=black abolitionist who also fought
for women’s rights & equality for Native Americans
• APUSH Test Tip- most know Douglass & questions for
sure but also know Garrison – the writers like him
Transcendentalism & Utopian
Communities
• Transcendentalism=philosophical & literary movement
of the 1800s that emphasized a simple life that
celebrated truth in nature, personal emotion &
imagination
• Henry David Thoreau & Ralph Waldo Emerson top
writers
• Utopian communities=perfect life achieved through
conscious act of will- @ Brook Farm, New harmony &
Oneida Community
– Escape competitive America
– Regulate your moral behavior
– Create cooperative life in harmony with others
Culture
• Education-McGuffey Readers, more
newspapers, more training for teachers, better
schools
• Art=Hudson River School- led by Thomas Cole,
painted landscapes to celebrate beauty of
America-first actual art school
Gathering Storm 1840-1860
• Manifest Destiny= US will expand
– Sea to shining sea
– God given right
– Americans support
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Texas- Lone Star republic
Jackson opposed annexation- why?
America divided over Texas until added in 1845
Oregon-dispute with Britain over boundary=54 / 40 or
fight!
Mexican War 1846-1848
• Polk justifies war by claiming Mexican troops crossed into
America over Rio Grande/vs. Nueces River boundary dispute
& killed soldiers
• Lincoln & others support war, Whigs do not
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the war & US gains CA, NM,
UT, most of AZ, NV, parts of CO & WY. + Rio Grande is borderperiod.
• WILMOT PROVISO=called for no slavery in these new lands.
Never became law but eventually endorsed by all but one of
the free state legislatures-issue of expanding slavery
• APUSH Test Tip=easy to believe this was a law, but actually
passed twice by House and rejected by Senate. Test writers
may use the phrase “passage of the Wilmot Proviso” as a
tempting but WRONG answer
Compromise of 1850
• Key players= Stephen Douglas, Daniel Webster,
Henry Clay & John C. Calhoun
• Not a player=Abe Lincoln
• Provisions:
– Admit CA as a free state
– Abolish slave trade in DC but continue to protect
slavery in DC
– Pass a more stringent fugitive slave act
– Establish territorial govts of NM & UT but no decision
on slavery there yet
Events that led to Civil War
• Popular Sovereignty
– Stephen Douglas is the champion of this idea
– Settlers of a given territory would have sole right to
decide whether or not slavery would be permitted
– KS / NE Act- 2 territories & those states get to choose
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Consequences= Missouri Compromise 1820 erased
Slavery can expand beyond South leads to huge debate
Bloody Kansas
Split in Democratic Party
Republican Party forms
Violence in Congress
More events
APUSH Test Tip=important to remember which
compromises, acts & Supreme Court decisions
restrict the expansion of slavery& which do not
• Dred Scott Case 1857
– Ruling= Dred is a slave & no right to sue in court.
Constitution says they are private property & can
be taken into any territory regardless of free or
slave state
– Consequences= invalidates the NorthWest
Ordinance of 1787 & Missouri Compromise of
1820. Becomes major issue in Lincoln-Douglas
debates. Deeper divide between North & South
And still more…
• Election of 1860
– Republicans v/ Democrats:
• Abe- Republicans accept slavery where it exists but
don’t want further expansion in to territories
• Democrats split
– Northern Democrats favor Douglas & popular sovereignty
– Southern Democrats support Breckinridge, extension of
slavery to territories & annexation of Cuba
– Consequences: Lincoln wins electoral vote but not majority of
popular vote & 7 states led by (you guessed it) SC secede from
the Union