Antebellum Revivalism, Reading, and Reform (1830-1840)

• The Second Great Awakening: "Spiritual Reform From Within"
  • Religous Reforms brought about social reforms that caused people to redefinine the ideal of equality
    • Temperance
    • Asylum and Penal Reform
    • Abolitionism
    • Women's Rights- Seneca Falls
    • Education- Horace Mann
  • Background on Religion
    • most people still attended a church, but was a social function not because they were devout, so by 1800, intense reaction to religious liberalism
      • Deism- "Divine Clockmakers Theory." Deism explained the origin of humans, but not much else.
      • Unitarianism- much more liberal (no Trinity, Jesus not God, No predestination, no original sin)
    • began on southern frontier, all the way into the cities of the Northeast and was spread by "camp meetings" especially Methodists and Baptists. estimated 25,000 people, hellfire gospel, frenzied reactions
    • this was even bigger than the First Great Awakening
    • when lots of churches started popping up, there were splits and sects of different beliefs and interpretations of the Bible. lots of people converted
      • Wealthier conservative denomination in the east
      • Methodists and Baptists created from fervor in poorer, less educated South and West. The rising power and political influence of Methodists and Baptists
        • stressed personal conversion, democratic control of church affiars
    • rising evangelicals, which were very excited religious people- influenced other ares of reform such as prison reform, temperance, women's movement and abolitionism.
    • church membership skyrocketed, stimulated humanitarian reforms, missionary work
    • Burned-Over District was a particularly zealous area in New York where lots of churches cropped up and where the revival was strongest
  • Different Religions
    • The Mormons: Joseph Smith and the Jesus Christ Church of Latter-Day Saints
      • first church in Palmyra, New York, which was in the Burned-Over District
      • The Book of Mormons was translated from the Golden Scribe by Joseph Smith
      • believed in plural wives, or polygamy.
      • they worked as a community, like a utopian society
      • anti-slavery, which a lot of people didn't like
      • Smith would say that the Mormon church was the one true church of God, which angered the other churches
      • the Governor of Missouri ordered an executive order to exterminate the Mormons, which was called the War for Missouri?
      • After moving to Far West, the Mormons eventually settled down in Nauvoo on the Mississippi, where they took their lives very seriously.
      • Nauvoo was where polygamy became really popular
      • After Smith died in a mob after he destroyed a printing press, Brigham Young emerged as a leader and led the Mormons on the Second Mormon Trek to Utah.
      • Brigham Young started to make orders from Utah, and at one point Buchanan actually sent troops out there to stop him
    • The Shakers: The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing
      • founder was "Mother" Anne Lee
      • was a split of the Quakers
      • dancing was important to their religion
      • completely celibate
      • very clean bedrooms, like damn
      • famous for their architecture
    • The African Methodist Episcopal Church: founded by Richard Allen
    • Millerite, founded by William Miller
      • predicted the time that Jesus would return, but he was wrong
      • became known as the Great Disappointment
      • Significances
        • Nearness of Jesus' Comming
        • Jehova's Witness created
        • important later to Baha'i faith
    • Transcendentalism (1825-1850)
      • german philosophers and eastern religion
      • truth is very important in a relationship with the universe
      • a very personal thing, YOU need to find your inner light and that is the way to god
      • involves nature
      • individualism and getting in contact with yourself
      • Things they wanted to do
        • freedom to slaves
        • well-being to the poor
        • education to the ignorant
      • Famous Transcendentalist Intellectuals/ Writers
        • Ralph Waldo Emerson- considered the founder or leader of the Transcendentalists
          • Self Reliance
          • Nature
          • The American Scholar
        • Henry David Thoreau
          • Walden
          • Civil Disobedience
• Cultural Nationalism- Literature
  • Noah Webster created the first American Dictionary.
  • Education: "The Virtuous Citizen" An American form of English

Creation of a National Culture (1790-1860)

• Limner portraits were portraits in which the painter would paint the bodies ahead of time, and fill in the faces when demand for portraits was high.
• James Audubon painted lots of birds with water colors, and he was the best in his time.
• Hudson River School "A new art for a new land"
  • Basic Beliefs
    • artists focused on capturing the power of nature
    • humans are insignificant
    • nature is the best source of wisdom and fulfillment
    • experiment with affects of light on water and sky
    • they created visual embodiments of the ideal of the Transcendentalists
    • painting is the vehicle through which the universal mind could read the mind of mankind
    • art is the agent of moral and spiritual transformation
  • Famous Hudson River Artists
    • The founder- Thomas Cole
    • Asher B. Durand "Kindred Spirits"
  • Luminism
    • working on the contrast between light and dark
    • little bit more focus on people, usually interacting with nature
    • George Caleb Bingham
    • George Catlin: famous for his frontier art
  • Patriotic Art
    • "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Leutze
    • Charles Willson Peale painted lots of portraits
    • Gilbert Stuart also painted portraits
• Architexture
  • Georgian Revival in Philly
    • symmetrical
    • cupolas on the tops of the houses
    • dormer windows
    • fake columns
    • Palladian house often had wings and columns
    • Most famous example of Palladian architecture is Thomas Jefferson's house called Monticello
  • Federal or Neoclassical
    • symetrical
    • domes
    • columns
    • The White House
    • Supreme Court of the United States
    • Basilica Church in Baltimore by Benjamin Latrobe
    • Boston Massachusetts State House but Charles Bulfinch
  • Greek Revival
    • Washington Monument- an obelisk
    • Second Bank of the US- Doric columns
    • Doric columns and pediments

Two Great Revolutions (1800-1860)

• First Industrial Revolution and Market Revolution
  • Between 1820 and 1860, the US's market revolution created a new economic structure. Merchants and manufacturers worked to make things as productive as possible, using the water and steam powered machines. At the same time merchants, traders, and shopkeepers created a huge market system in which they exchanged the goods in. The American population was fast growing and west moving.
  • America's only advantage early in the nineteenth century was its abundant raw materials such as cotton. GBR had cheaper labor, lower interest rates, and cheaper shipping, that kept their prices lower than american rivals. The Industrial Revolution caused the North and West to be linked with transportation in order to exchange food. The fact that the South was not connected like this was bad news later during the Civil war.
• The American System
  • South: cotton and other cash crops
  • Northeast: industry, water power, steam power
  • West: foodstuffs and natural resources
• Eli Whitney
  • The Cotton Gin 1793-94: Whitney attempted to end slavery with his new invention, but that plan completely backfired on him and cotton became many times more profitable and caused a boom in slavery.
  • Whitney's Musket Factory: he created interchangeable parts and specialization. This led to mass production, and is what whitney is most famous for. Henry Ford is given credit for making the production line.
• Industrialization of the textile industry
  • Spinning Wheel
  • hand loom
  • Flying shuttle
  • Spinning Jenny invented by James Hargreaves 1765
• Samuel Slater "Father of the Factory System," who was British, snuck out of GBR in order to spread knowledge of industrialization to America since he wanted to get rich.
  • Why did he go to the North and not the South?
    • He went to the NE colonies because the streams and rivers were faster flowing, which was good for water power.
    • There was more capital in the North than in the South, and the capital was more fluid
    • There were more people, raw materials, ports, and attitude (towards factories) in the North.
  • Sam Slater died shortly after making it over here, but he did start his factory. When he died his ideas had already taken root in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
• James Watt is given credit for inventing the horizontal steam engine, which is what we use today.
• Francis Lowell's Company Town was one of the earliest Corporation called: "Boston Associates."
  • Company towns were towns where the workers could stay and deduct their expenses from their pay. Lots of people went deep into debt and were trapped in these country towns for their whole lives.
  • Girls from 17-25 were able to stay in boarding houses and had a chance to earn some money before marrying, but this turned out to be disgusting, dirty, dangerous, and not very profitable.
  • These terrible conditions at company towns and other factoies led to early Unions.
    • One significant union was the Workingman's Party 1829 founded in New York City by Robert Dale Owen. This part stemmed from the desire for a 10 hour work day, abolition of banks, equal taxes, and public education.
    • Most unions were unsuccessful until after the Civil War.
    • Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Hunt: not an American supreme court case, but it made unions legal.
• The Old Immigrants of 1820-1860
  • Irish
    • 1840s potato famine, 2 million died of hunger
    • they started to immigrate into the US, and were most heavily concentrated into NYC and Boston.
    • "Native" Americans hated the Irish because of the competition of jobs. Most of them worked in railroads or factories.
    • Ancient order of the Hibernians
  • German
    • there were already Germans here, but they also came especially after political unrest in 1848.
    • settled especially in Milwaukee, which is now the beer capital of the US.
  • Nativism
    • Americans feared the immigrants because they took jobs, were Roman Catholic, and gained political power.
    • These peoples formed the "American Party" or the "Know-Nothing Party"
    • Thomas Nast drew lots of famous political cartoon.
• John Fitch: is sometimes given credit for inventing the first steam boat
• Robert Fulton: is actually given credit for the steamboat, called the "The North River Steamboat," or Clermont" in 1807.
  • Fulton earned his fame going up and down the Hudson River.
  • Fulton was involved in the supreme court case Gibbons vs Ogden, which deals with interstate commerce. Article 1 Section 8 Clause 3
  • "The Clermont" was able to travel up and down the Mississippi, which has much stronger currents. This was the real test of whether or not the boat was practical for the future.
• John Ericsson (from Sweden)
  • Invented a better screw propeller- like a swimmer's hands cupping the water
  • Improved moveable turret- guns could move without moving the whole ship
  • USS Monitor- one of the first two iron ships to fight in battle
• Types of Roads, Canals, and Railways
  • Clipper ships briefly created some competition for steam boats because they were a lot faster, but couldn't carry as much stuff.
  • After the Dark Ages, people started to rediscover how to make roads. Macadamized Road improved upon the roman way of how to make a road.
  • Highways to the West- Plank Road Design. The wooden roads were surprisingly durable, but required maintenance.
  • Corduroy Roads were made from planks cut sideways, much less durable and couldn't hold heavy loads, but was much easier to make.
  • Some of the first roads were toll roads, for example in Lancaster, PA.
  • Conestoga Wagons commonly used for going out west
  • Not many roads in the South, except for the Great Wagon Road.
  • DeWitt Clinton started the Eire Canal, which is just about the only important canal anymore since canals are not very practical in the winter when they freeze over and in the summer when they dry up.
  • Peter Cooper invented the first steam locomotive in 1830, which was nicknamed "Tom Thumb."
  • The BNO (Baltimore and Ohio) was the first railroad company.