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Chapter 15 Study Guide
Section 15-1: America’s Spiritual Awakening
Fill in the blanks:
1. The Second Great Awakening was a period in which there was a resurgence of religious faith in 19th century America.
2. Charles Grandison Finney was an important leader in the above religious movement.
3. Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement in which people argued that society can and should rise above individual materialism, wealth, greed, and corruption and create a utopian society.
4. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a leading transcendentalist author who believed in self-reliance and distrusted government institutions.
5. Margaret Fuller was a female transcendentalist who believed that women should be free to choose their own path in life and that men and women should be equals.
6. Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist said that people were too dependent upon institutions like government and the Church and should be more self-reliant.
7. Transcendentalists attempted to form utopian communities, or perfect communities where everyone shared equally in labor, resources, land, etc.
8. Romanticism was an artistic movement formed in response to the rigid logic and reason of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, as well as a response to urbanization and industrialization.
9. Thomas Cole was a painter of the Hudson River School, which focused on natural beauty as its primary subject.
10. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a New England author that wrote books such as The Scarlett Letter and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
11. Edgar Allan Poe was an author that focused on subjects involving fear, anger, the macabre (horror), superstition, and the unknown.
12. Emily Dickinson was a female poet of the 19th century that made unique use of rhyme, meter, and punctuation to make her poems unique and unsettling.
13. Walt Whitman was a famous poet and author who wrote a book of poetry called Leaves of Grass.
Thoroughly answer the following questions:
14. a) What was the Second Great Awakening, and b) why did it occur? a) A revival of religious faith in America in the early 19th century b) Some worried that American were too focused on wealth, power, materialism, etc; that America was forgetting its religious roots; that religious faith was one of the primary methods of teaching morality to new generations; that morality and ethics were key to success in a democratic republic 15. a) Explain the concept of transcendentalism. B) Who were some well-known transcendentalists? C) Their ideas led people to attempt to form what types of communities? a) Belief that people could transcend (rise above) material wealth such as money and personal belongings; that people were born inherently good and were shaped by their environments; that social institutions like the government and religion were sources of corruption; that people should be more self-reliant and live in harmony with one another in smaller communities b) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau c) Attempted to form communal, classless, utopian (perfect) societies, in which all members of the community contributed equal work and received equal benefits; tried to achieve egalitarianism (equality) within these communities; most were unsuccessful
16. a) Explain the American Romantic movement in art and literature. b) What were some of the events and trends in America (and Europe) that brought this movement about? a) The Romantic movement emphasized the human emotional response to the world around them, explored emotions such as love, anger, fear, and the supernatural and unknown, and emphasized individuality b) Was seen as a response to the rigid logic and reason and conformity of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, both of which emphasized empiricism (drawing conclusions only based on data and observation) and shunned emotional responses to the world around them; promoting the idea that individualism, art, emotion, etc. were still valid in the proper context; also a response to industrialization and urbanization, which tended to be ugly and unnatural, Romantic artists emphasized the beauty of nature
Section 15-2: Immigrants and Cities
Fill in the blanks:
17. Due to a potato blight and famine in Ireland, millions of poor Irish migrated to American in the 19th century.
18. Those Americans who were against the immigration of various ethnic groups to the United States were known as nativists.
19. Some of the above people formed a “secret” political party called the Know-Nothing Party.
20. Industrialization and urbanization in America led to the formation of the middle class, mostly comprised of workers, businesspeople, merchants, etc.
21. Many urban poor crowded into poorly built apartment buildings called tenements.
Thoroughly answer the following questions:
22. a) From which continent did most immigrants to the United States come from in the early to mid- 1800s? b) Which countries contributed the most immigrants during this period? a) Most immigrants came from European countries like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, etc. b) Irish and German immigrants made up a large proportion of overall immigration at this time
23. a) Explain why various immigrant groups came to the United States. b) Where did these people settle and why? a) Economic reasons: Irish came largely to escape starvation and poverty in their homeland, saw a chance for higher standard of living in the United States. Political reasons: Germans came to the United States to escape social and political revolutions, warfare in their home countries b) Irish settled in the urban areas of the Northeast, in cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. With no money or skills, forced to crowd into densely populated urban slums filled with poverty, crime, poor sanitation, etc. Many worked in jobs no one else wanted to perform, or resorted to crime in order to survive. Many Germans had the means to purchase land in the Midwest, became farmers, established communities in which they could live with their fellow Germans. Introduced German culture, food, etc. into American society
24. a) Explain the concept of nativism. b) Why did many Americans feel this way? c) What political party was founded by nativists? a) Nativism placed emphasis on local traditions and customs, opposed foreign cultures and foreign immigration b) Americans felt threatened by foreign cultures, practices, languages, religions, etc. e.g. fear of the unknown (xenophobia). Many worried that foreign immigration would lead to increased poverty, crime, and urban decay; religious differences were emphasized, especially Protestantism vs. Catholicism c) The Know-Nothing Party was founded by nativists, but generally kept secret; when asked about their affiliation with nativism, they would say they “Know-Nothing”.
25. a) What were the various factors that led to the growth of American cities? b) What new class of people emerged from this urban growth as well as industrialization? a) Advancements in agriculture reduced the need for labor on American farms; construction of infrastructure (roads, highways, rail, canals) made migration to cities easier; foreign immigration added millions of Americans each year, many of which settled in urban areas of the Northeast b) Urban growth and industrialization led to the growth of the American middle class
26. a) List the various problems that arose within urban areas around the mid-1800s. a) Division/tension between the social classes, who often lived in very close proximity; urban overcrowding; unsanitary living conditions and spread of disease; poverty; crime; pollution from industry; corruption within local governments; the growth of urban gangs
Section 15-3: Reforming Society
Fill in the blanks:
27. Dorothea Dix made efforts to reform prisons and create institutions to house the mentally ill.
28. Rather than send them to prison, some wanted to see the establishment of reform schools for juveniles that broke the law.
29. The effort to end alcohol abuse, or even consumption, was known as the temperance movement.
30. Lyman Beecher was a leader of the above movement, claiming that alcohol abuse led to the demise of the American family.
31. The common-school movement promoted the idea that all people, regardless of class, race, or even gender, should be educated in the same schools.
32. Horace Mann was a leader of the above movement, who felt that it would lead to acceptance and cooperation between various social groups in America.
33. Catherine Beecher argued that women were better at teaching moral lessons and made better teachers overall than men.
34. Emma Willard established an all-female college in Troy, New York.
35. Mary Lyon established Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts.
36. Oberlin College in Ohio became the first university in America to admit both male and female students.
37. The above school also became the first college in the United States to admit black or African- American students.
38. Samuel Howe made efforts to improve education for the blind, deaf, and mentally handicapped, and was also involved in prison reform.
39. Thomas Gallaudet focused his efforts on helping the hearing impaired, and established a school for the deaf in Hartford, Massachusetts.
40. The Braille system was composed of patterns of raised dots on paper that represented letters of the alphabet and allowed the blind to read.
41. Louis Braille invented the above system.
Thoroughly answer the following questions:
42. a) What kinds of changes occurred with respect to prison reform in the mid-1800s? b) Who was an important figure in the prison-reform movement? a) Houses of corrections established to rehabilitate criminals rather than just putting them behind bars to serve their sentence, where they would be given basic educations and taught skills so they didn’t return to a life of crime; efforts made to distinguish criminals from the mentally ill; establishments of reform schools for juvenile delinquents, rather than placing children in prisons with adults b) Dorothea Dix lobbied the government of Massachusetts to establish special institutions for the mentally ill and cease placing them in prisons with criminals
43. a) Explain the temperance movement and its goals. a) The temperance movement was the effort to end alcohol abuse, which was seen as a cause of many of society’s problems (immorality, joblessness, poverty, crime, the demise of the American family, etc.); many of the leaders of this movement were religious leaders and women; Women in particular were often the victims of alcohol abuse on the part of their husbands
44. a-d) List the four major reform movements in American education during the mid-1800s. a) Common school movement: the idea that people of all classes, races, and genders be educated together in order to encourage more acceptance and understanding of different cultural groups b) Women’s education reform movement: establishment of women’s colleges, coeducation institutions like Oberlin college c) African-American educational reform movement: establishment and improvement of schools for free blacks, especially in the North; admission of African-Americans into colleges like Oberlin College and Harvard University; creation of historically black colleges to allow blacks to receive university educations d) Educational reform for the disabled: the establishment of schools for the deaf, blind, and mentally ill; development of the Braille system so that the blind could read, etc.
Section 15-4: The Movement to End Slavery
Fill in the blanks:
45. The term abolitionism generally refers to the movement to end slavery in the United States.
46. People wanted complete empancipation, or freedom, for America’s slaves.
47. Robert Finley was the founder of an organization dedicated to recolonizing America’s freed slaves back to their African homeland.
48. The above person founded the American Colonization Society.
49. David Walker opposed this idea, saying that America was partially built on the labor of slaves, and once free, they should be able to take part in the country they helped create.
50. William Lloyd Garrison was the outspoken publisher of a Northern abolitionist newspaper.
51. The above person’s newspaper was called The Liberator.
52. The group known as the American Anti-Slavery Society wanted emancipation and equality for slaves and free blacks.
53. Angelina and Sarah Grimke were sisters who grew up in the South but moved to the North to speak out on the evils of slavery.
54. Frederick Douglass was a self-educated escaped slave who became a leading voice in the movement to end slavery.
55. The Underground Railroad was a series of routes and safehouses escaped slaves used to eventually make their way to freedom.
56. Harriet Tubman was an important leader in the above movement.
Thoroughly answer the following questions:
57. a) Explain the various reasons abolitionists wanted emancipation for slaves. b) How did some abolitionists disagree about life for African-Americans after slavery ended? a) Religious reasons: slavery was immoral, everyone was equal in the eyes of God; Political reasons: slavery was incompatible with democracy and republicanism, the idea that all men are created equal, American values such as liberty, freedom, basic natural rights b) Some abolitionists believed in full equality and rights for freed slaves, full integration into American society; others believed in the inherent inequality of the races, believed that whites and blacks could never live in an integrated society and that they should be repatriated back to their African homeland
58. a) Explain Robert Finley’s plan for emancipated slaves. a) Finley founded the American Colonization Society, intended to send freed slaves to the newly created country of Liberia on the west coast of Africa; plan was somewhat successful, with 12,000 freed slaves settled there; some disagreed with this plan, claimed it was just a ploy to get rid of African-Americans in the United States, said that freed slaves helped build the US, and should be able to enjoy the fruits of their labors
59. a) Who were some of the more prominent abolitionists, and how did each spread their message? a) William Lloyd Garrison: outspoken abolitionist who published a newspaper called the Liberator; Angelina and Sarah Grimke, Southern sisters who witnessed slavery firsthand, travelled throughout the country speaking out against it; Abraham Lincoln, who believed slavery was immoral and wished to see it abolished, although not at the expense of the destruction of the United States
60. a) Who were some prominent African-Americans in the fight against slavery? b) How did these free blacks help the abolitionist cause? a) Frederick Douglass, escaped and self-educated slave who travelled the country promoting abolition, published an abolitionist newspaper called the North Star; Sojourner Truth, like Douglass, an escaped and self-educated slave, named herself Sojourner (one who undertakes a journey of significance) Truth (because she spoke honestly and openly about slavery, refused to take her former master’s name; Harriet Tubman, important conductor of the Underground Railroad b) Travelled the country speaking about the horrors of slavery, also proved that blacks were intelligent, educated, well-spoken, and successful, helping to undermine the justifications used by proponents of slavery (that blacks were incapable of such things and thus must be kept “under control”)
61. a) Explain the Underground Railroad. b) Who was its most well-known “conductor”? a) A network of routes that escaped slaves could follow to freedom in the North, Canada, Europe, or the Caribbean; people would travel at night, often guided by “conductors” who would help lead them to freedom; various people sympathetic to their cause would offer safe refuge in hidden rooms in their homes, referred to as “stations”; escaped slaves would often follow the North Star, aka Polaris, which was stationary in the night sky and indicated which direction was north b) Harriet Tubman, dubbed “Moses” by escaped slaves because she was similar to the Moses of the Bible, who led the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt
62. a) Who opposed abolition in the United States and what was their reasoning? a) Southerners: obviously, planters and others who owned slaves, claimed slaves were property and vital to the economy of the South as well as the United States; also claimed slavery as a positive good, in that people of African ancestry were incapable of surviving in civilized society, and that slavery was beneficial to them in that it offered them security they would not have if they were free men, argued that civilization would collapse without the institution of slavery. Northerners: industrialists and capitalists relied on cheap Southern products like cotton, produced by slave labor; many Northerners worried that if freed, many slaves would migrate north, crowd into already densely populated northern cities and exacerbate (make worse) already existing issues like poverty and crime; northern workers worried that freed slaves would be willing to work for lower wages and longer hours, and thus compete with them for jobs. Governments: Slavery/abolition was a divisive issue and threatened to tear the country apart. Congress instituted a gag rule on debates over slavery and abolition.
Section 15-5: Women’s Rights
Fill in the blanks:
63. The Seneca Falls Convention was a convention held by leading feminists in New York in 1848 where they gathered to discuss the women’s rights movement.
64. At this convention, the delegates drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, which was similar to the Declaration of Independence and declared women had the same basic rights as men.
65. Sojourner Truth, a freed slave and abolitionist, argued that women were the equal or even better of men in many ways.
66. One of the key rights demanded by the women’s rights movement was the right to universal suffrage, or the right to vote.
67. The convention mentioned in #63 was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
68. Other key figures in the women’s rights movement were Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony, who argued for equal pay in the workplace as well as the right to vote.
Thoroughly answer the following questions:
69. a) How did the abolitionist movement inspire the women’s rights movement? a) Many leaders within the abolitionist movement were women, and the messages of the abolitionist movement could be applied to women’s rights: equality, freedom, greater political and economic participation, etc. Had the support of prominent abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison.
70. a) What were two primary goals of the women’s rights movement? b) What arguments did some people offer in opposition to the movement? a) To gain suffrage, or the right to vote (political participation), and greater economic opportunity, like owning land, businesses, etc. and engaging in professions typically dominate by men like law and medicine. b) Religious arguments: sometimes through Biblical interpretation, which said that a woman’s duty was to honor and obey their husbands, raise children, etc. Social arguments: women were not as intelligent as men, and whereas men were logical and rational, women acted based more on emotion; women were seen as the “weaker” sex, and relied on men to protect and take care of them, incapable of surviving on their own.
71. a) Who were the prominent women’s rights advocates at the Seneca Falls Convention? b) What important document was signed there and what was its purpose? a) Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; also attended by other prominent figures like William Lloyd Garrison and even Frederick Douglass b) The Declaration of Sentiments, patterned after the Declaration of Independence; it stated that women had equal rights with men, had suffered thousands of years of abuse at their hands, and were now taking steps to ensure future gender equality