Chapter 8
Protestant Christianity as a Social Force
A Republican Religious Order


The era of the early republic also shaped the development of religion in the United States.
A series of revivals planted the values of Protestant Christianity deep in the American national
character and created new public roles for women.
- The Old Order of single established church crumbled away.
- However, the separation of church and state was not complete because many still believed
that religious institution promoted morality and respect for authority.
- Some governments prohibited religious requirements for holding office, while others
discriminated against anyone who didn’t follow doctrines of Protestant Christianity.
- Those influenced by the Enlightenment demanded complete freedom of conscience and
even religious liberty to prevent tyrannical clergy and government.
The Second Great Awakening



The Second Great Awakening spawned a wide variety of organizations dedicated to the causes
of social and political reform
- Preached spiritual equality
- Most popular = Evangelical Methodist and Baptist churches
It shifted the denominational base of American religion away from the leading churches of the
colonial period toward more evangelical and democratic ones.
- Copied preaching techniques from First Great Awakening
- In the South, evangelical religion caused issues because many ministers criticized slavery
- Southern preachers adapted their religious message to justify slavery
- Other evangelists spread Protestant Christianity among their slaves who then adapted the
teachings to their own needs.
- People began to believe in free will and human reason
Started cooperation between denominations as Protestant ministers saw themselves as part of
a united movement that would change history.
- As a result of the Great Awakening, religion became an important force in political life,
raising calls for union of church and state again
Women’s New Religious Roles




Many women demonstrated their piety and even founded new sects
Women took charge of religious and charitable enterprises because they were excluded from
other public roles and because of their high numbers
As women claimed new spiritual authority, men tried to curb their power
Religious activism advanced female education
- Many women became school teachers
***The Second Great Awakening made Americans a fervently Protestant people. The values of
Christian republicanism bolstered the public authority of women.
Chapter 9
The Benevolent Empire:





The Benevolent Empire = organizations of conservative social reform with the purpose of
restoring the “moral government of God” by reducing poverty
Upper-class Americans formed benevolent reform societies that:
- promoted less drinking and temperance
- dispensed charity
- encouraged respect for the Christian Sabbath  workers and freethinkers opposed this
They passed their reforms by using institutions and large organizations.
Women played a big role in the Benevolent Empire.
However, popular resistance by workers and planters limited the success of the Benevolent
Empire.
Charles Grandison Finney: Revivalism and Reform





Simultaneously, Charles Grandison Finney and other evangelical clergymen gave new life to the
Second Great Awakening
They enlisted influential merchants and manufacturers, propertied farmers, and middle-class
Americans in a massive religious revival movement.
- Ideas of free will attracted the new middle class.
The temperance movement was the most successful reform
Evangelical reformers argued religion is the key to moral improvement, not self-discipline.
There was resistance from the poor who wanted higher wages and better schools more than
prayers and sermons
Chapter 11
Urban Popular Culture




Rural migrants and foreign immigrants created a new urban culture
Urban growth raise as a result of immigration in the 1840s
These new cities, like New York, created a new urban culture
- Involved sexual promiscuity and popular entertainment like minstrel shows
- Also involved racism against blacks, which helped other white races like the Irish
become integrated into society
Nativism = reaction to immigration
- Nativists called for the end of immigration and wanted to extend voting
restrictions in states
- Often exhibited violence against immigrants
Abolitionism







The antislavery movement was divided among gradual emancipationists, who argued for African
colonization, and abolitionists, who demanded an immediate end to slavery.
- David Walker: he used history and morality to attack slavery and called for
immediate end to slavery
African Americans rejected colonization and fought for abolition.
- Nat Turner’s Rebellion: Nat Turner rose against his master and killed many
whites, but was stopped and killed.
William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Weld, and Angelina and Sarah Grimke were all key
abolitionists.
- Appealed to religious Americans, used the printing press, aided runaway slaves
But abolitionism was a minority.
After Nat Turner’s Rebellion, southerners took more action to defend slavery, protecting it
through state laws and blocking the consideration of federal laws that might restrict slavery by
means of the congressional gag rule.
- Gag rule = antislavery petitions couldn’t be discussed
In the North, people who feared the effects of abolition and its associated radicalism savagely
attacked abolitionist speakers, conventioneers, and writers.
The antislavery movement split between radicals, most notably William Lloyd Garrison, and
moderates, who sought political solutions to the problem of slavery through the Liberty Party.
- The abolitionist party also split over the issue of women’s rights.
- Garrison supported women’s rights and pacifism.
- The Liberty Party = 1st antislavery party
- James Birney = the nominated presidential candidate for the Liberty Party in the
Election of 1840. He was from Kentucky and argued that slaves were free in
areas of federal authority, like D.C.
The Women’s Rights Movement (1840s)

Women’s role in society was also reevaluated
Origins of the Women’s Movement

Moral reform:
-

Middle-class women came to be regarded as bastions of morality and religion.
From this new position of higher moral authority, women attempted to protect
the home by fighting intemperance and prostitution.
Women like Dorothea Dix improved prisons, created asylums, and expanded
education.
Abolitionist women:
-
When many women became active in the abolitionist movement, they became
aware of their own degraded social and legal status
Saw their treatment as the “domestic slavery” of women
-

Maria Stewart and Harriet Jacobs were abolitionist women who spoke about
the horrors of slavery for women
In 1848, their experiences in reform movements led women to issue a declaration of their own
political rights at a meeting at Seneca Falls, New York.
- Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott
- Wanted to strengthen property rights for women
- Rejected idea of separate spheres for men and women
- Made a legislative campaign for suffrage (=right to vote), led by Susan B.
Anthony
Chapter 12:
Creating the Cotton South
The Domestic Slave Trade

The Upper South exports slaves:
-

The slave trade ended, so the demand for labor soon exceeded the supply
Planters tried to import slaves illegally from Florida
In the Chesapeake region, the slave population grew from natural increase, so the deep
South turned to the Upper South to get their slaves
Created an interstate slave trade
Forced massive migration of slaves
Divided the North and South even more
There was a coastal trade system and an inland trade system – the inland system was less
apparent but more extensive and relied on professional slave traders
There was a massive trade mart in New Orleans
Sugar was the worst crop and was called the “killer crop”
*The domestic slave trade was crucial to the prosperity of the southern economy
The impact on blacks:
-
The domestic slave trade worsened their status as property
Sales to the South disrupted slave marriages and families
For those sold to freedom, they set up new lives in the Mississippi River Valley
Masters twisted reality and saw themselves as benevolent masters – they didn’t see slavery
as immoral
The Dual Cultures of the Planter Elite

As the South’s economy became increasingly based on slavery, the planter elite consolidated its
wealth into regional political control.
- The plantation elite consisted of two groups:
1) Traditional aristocrats of the Old South
2) The market-driven entrepreneurs who made their wealth in the cotton industry of
the New South.

The Traditional Southern Gentry
-
-
Planters identified themselves with the English landed gentry and viewed their lives as
embodiments of classical republican values.
Rice planters were at the top of society
Most planters criticized the increasingly egalitarian society of the Northeast and Midwest,
preferring that society be led by wealthy men of talent.
To maintain their identity, aristocratic planters entertained lavishly and married their sons and
daughters to one another.
In the Chesapeake, many hired out excess slaves

The Idea of “Benevolence”
-
They also defended slavery as a benevolent “positive good” and justified slavery with religion.
Some masters tried to force slaves into following their evangelical religion

-
Cotton Entrepreneurs:
-
Cotton was a demanding crop
Used gang-labor = slaves working in teams, greatly supervised
Cotton was very profitable
Chapter 13:
The Independence of Texas


-
Westward expansion carried American settlers into the Mexican province of Texas, where
they mounted a successful rebellion and petitioned for annexation to the United States.
Mexico originally encouraged settlement of Texas by offering land grants, but did not anticipate
the rebellion
The “peace party” led by Stephen Austin did not want war, but wanted more independence.
The “war party” led by Georgians demanded war and independence
The Texans established de facto independence and Mexico gave up trying to conquer them
The popular appeal of Manifest Destiny prompted southern leaders such as John Tyler and
John C. Calhoun to advocate the immediate annexation of Texas
But Texas wasn’t annexed in 1836 because of fear of war with Mexico
The Push to the Pacific

Oregon
-
Oregon was claimed by both Britain and America.
American interest in Oregon’s fertile lands increased and lots of American settlers arrived in
Oregon Country.
British officials tried to keep them south of the Columbia River. However, the migrants – and
fervent mid-west expansionists – asserted that Americans could settle anywhere in the territory.
Southern leaders supported northern politicians who laid claim to all of Oregon.
In 1846, British and American diplomats resolved the issue by dividing the region at the 49th
parallel line.
-

California
-
The Mexican government took over California and liberated the Indians. They set up ranches
with linked California with American economy.
American migrants in California wanted to separate themselves from Mexican society and
sought to colonize the country and be annexed into the U.S. (like Texas)
-
Election of 1844
-
The election of 1844 determined the American policy toward California, Oregon, and Texas.
Northern expansionists demanded Oregon; Southern expansionists (Tyler and Calhoun)
demanded Texas
Expansion became the central issue
Democrats decided on James K. Polk from Tennessee
Whigs nominated on Henry Clay and his American System
Liberty party nominated Birney
Polk’s expansionist program carried him to the presidency in the election of 1844.
Texas was then annexed in 1845
War, Expansion, and Slavery
The War with Mexico (1846-1848)




Polk attempted to persuade Mexico to sell New Mexico and California to the United States.
When the Mexican government rebuffed his offer, Polk provoked a war along the Rio Grande
and in California.
Realizing that the United States could not manage a war with Great Britain at the same time,
Polk negotiated a proposal to divide Oregon.
After the brilliantly executed capture of Mexico City by American troops under the command of
General Winfield Scott, the Mexicans ceded New Mexico, Texas, and California—more than onethird of their territory—to the United States.
A Divisive Victory


-
The acquisition of new lands in the West undermined the long-standing political compromise
over the spread of slavery and threatened to split the Union.
Whigs split over the issue of slavery
Conscience Whigs = warned of the South’s conspiracy to extend slavery and have slavemasters
control the federal government
The Democrats also split over slavery but the party survived
The Wilmot Proviso
Was an attempt to prohibit slavery in any area gained from Mexico, but did not pass in Congress
However, it divided Whigs and Democrats along sectional lines and rallied Liberty Party
members to its cause.

Free Soil Party:
-
Antislavery advocates formed the Free-Soil Party, emphasizing the need to keep the West
devoid of slavery in order to preserve the West for freehold farms.
Saw slavery as a threat to republican liberties and attracted broad popular support
Douglass supported it

Election of 1848:
-
The Free Soil Party gained broad popular support, taking a significant number of votes from the
Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass, in 1848.
Cass was vague about the expansion of slavery, which lost him votes
As a result, the Whig Party, under the war hero Zachary Taylor, won the presidency.
-
1850: Crisis and Compromise


The California Gold Rush led to settlement of California
John Sutter = 1st to find gold in 1848
In 1849, more and more people discovered gold  led to gold rush
Led to questions of land ownership and slavery
When California applied to be admitted to the Union as a free state in 1849, southern leaders
attempted to block its admission.





Moderate Democrats and Whigs joined in framing a political settlement, known as the
Compromise of 1850.
It’s most important aspects were laws admitting California as a free state and establishing the
Fugitive Slave Act, which required federal officials in the North to assist slave catchers.
Democrat Franklin Pierce won the presidency in 1852 by gaining support from southern Whigs
and northern Free-Soilers.
The Whigs, divided between North and South, never again fielded a presidential candidate.
To develop the northern area of the Louisiana Purchase, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska
Act, which voided the Missouri Compromise by opening the territories to slavery on the
principle of popular sovereignty.
The End of the Second Party System

The Second Party System died in the political conflicts and armed violence of the 1850s.
Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850:
-
Allowed federal magistrates to recapture slaves
Antislavery northerners defied the Fugitive Slave Act by battling southern slave catchers in the
courts and on the streets.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, boosted northern opposition to
the act.
Northerners enacted personal-liberty laws that increased legal rights of residents, including
fugitives
-
The Political System in Decline






When northern Whigs refused to support the act, southerners deserted the party, killing it as a
national organization.
Democrats were equally divided
The Election of 1852:
Democrats chose Pierce as a comprise between extreme North and South candidates
The Whigs chose General Scott, but southerners opposed him
So Pierce won
President Pierce:
He pursued an expansionist foreign policy
The Democratic Party also lost its national appeal because of southern attempts to annex land in
Mexico and the Caribbean and the failure of Stephen Douglas’s doctrine of popular sovereignty
to allow the peaceful settlement of Kansas and Nebraska.
As northern opponents and southern supporters of slavery fought a guerrilla war in “Bleeding
Kansas,” northern Whigs and Free-Soilers established the Republican Party, which also attracted
“anti-Nebraska Democrats” and former Know-Nothings (=nativists).
Buchanan’s Failed Presidency

The Election of 1856:
-
Democrat James Buchanan won the presidency in 1856 on a platform of popular sovereignty.
Every single party (Whigs, Know-Nothing/American Party) split over slavery
The Republicans had replaced the Whigs as the second major party, but had no support in the
South  it was a sectionalist, not a nationalist party
He supported the southern position during his term, alienating northern Democrats.

Dred Scott Case:
-
Dred Scott: raised issues of Congress’s constitutional authority over slavery
-Decision = Scott had no right to sue because he wasn’t a citizen; Congress can’t prevent
southerners from taking slaves into territories; Congress can’t give any powers to
territorial governments that it did not possess itself
The national Democratic Party disintegrated after the Supreme Court’s proslavery decision in
the Dred Scott case and President Buchanan’s support for a proslavery constitution in Kansas.
Following John Brown’s attempt at Harpers Ferry to raise a slave rebellion, southern Democrats
unsuccessfully demanded ironclad protection for the institution of slavery.
-
Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Triumph
Lincoln’s Political Career



Abraham Lincoln became a leader in the Republican Party because of his commitment to limit
slavery in the territories
But he did not believe the federal government had the authority to restrict or prohibit slavery in
the established states.
Lincoln emerged as the leader of Illinous
The Rise of Radicalism


Southern Democrats divided into moderates and radical fire-eaters
Moderates =
The Election of 1860




Lincoln won the election of 1860 by attracting broad support in the North.
The Democratic Party split between the northern Democrats’ candidate, Stephen Douglas, and
the southern Democrats’ candidate, John C. Breckinridge.
Former southern Whigs in the border states chose John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party.
Lincoln, who had rallied the Northeast, Midwest, and Far West, won without support from the
South. The nation stood poised on the brink of secession and war.