WARM-UP Using the time line on pages 238-239 which covers the years 1820 – 1850 when many efforts to reform society took place, answer the following: What year saw an-effort to improve workers conditions? What events of the period may have caused great concern for slaveholders? What events had a significant impact on immigration to the United States? Examine the engraving on pages 238-239 and suggest words to describe what conditions might have been in the textile mills. How is the fabric being produced? What are the women doing?
Transcript
WARM-UPUsing the time line on pages 238-239 which covers the years 1820 –
1850 when many efforts to reform society took place, answer the following:
What year saw an-effort to improve workers conditions? What events of the period may have caused great concern for slaveholders? What events had a significant impact on immigration to the United States?
Examine the engraving on pages 238-239 and suggest words to describe what conditions might have been in the textile mills.
How is the fabric being produced?
What are the women doing?
What does the engraving indicate about the mill workers?
What year saw an-effort to improve workers conditions?
1834 – National Trades’ Union formed
What events of the period may have caused great concern for
slaveholders?The printing of David Walker’s Appeal
Nat Turner’s rebellion
The abolishment of slavery in the British empire
World’s Anti-Slavery Convention
What events had a significant impact on immigration to the
United States?
1845 - Ireland’s Great Potato Famine
1848 – European revolutions
Examine the engraving on pages 238-239 and suggest words to describe what conditions might have been in the textile
mills.
Examine the engraving on pages 238-239 and suggest words to describe what conditions might have been in the textile
mills.
Loud
Dark
Hot
How is the fabric being produced?
How is the fabric being produced?
MACHINES
What are the women doing?
What are the women doing?
Feeding yarn into the machines and collecting fabric from the
machines
What does the engraving indicate about the mill workers?
What does the engraving indicate about the mill
workers?
The workers appear to be women and children – indicating the use
of child labor
Reform in American Society
It is highly recommended you go to my website and print the file Reforming American Society Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Section 1
Religion Sparks Reform
The year is 1834. You work in the textile mills in Massachusetts and provide most of the income for your family. The mill owners have gradually increased your workload to 12 hours a day. Now they are going to cut your pay by 15 percent. Coworkers are angry and are
discussing what they can do.What would you do to improve working conditions?
• What are some conditions you would not tolerate? Consider reasons why employees might protest their work conditions
• What actions pressure businesses to change? Consider what actions employees or protest groups have used throughout history to pressure business groups
• What moral arguments would you present? Consider why workers should be viewed as more than just another component of the factory
Second Great Awakening
•During the early decades of the 19th Century, people again turned to religion
• In many cases it was for the same reasons which led to the First Great Awakening in the 1700s – fear of change…
Great AwakeningsFirst Second
• Free will• People could
seek salvation and control destiny
• Focus on saving soul, not hellfire and damnation.
• Led to reforms in the North
• Fate controlled by omnipotent God
• People could not save selves from damnation
•Religion=fear• “Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God”
• In US and Europe
Charles G. Finney•Finney preached in NY•People could be saved and
seek salvation•Conversion brought
thousands back to the church•Convert’s duty was to spread
the word•New era religious
activism/evangelism
Religion in the 19th Century
• Revivals were held throughout the country, but were most effective in the North
• New converts were asked to examine their soul and become a better person
• Reject notion predetermined damnation
• Revivalism – large and last for days
Religion in the 19th Century
•African-American churches united slaves in a common belief of freedom
•Churches in the north, like Rev. Richard Allen’s Bethel African Church in Philadelphia, provided a cultural center
•Membership grew rapidly developing into a new political voice
Religion in the 19th Century
•There was a widespread belief that the world was coming to an end on October 21, 1844
•William Miller had thousands of followers
•When nothing happened, his followers became 7th Day Adventists
Transcendentalists• In the early and mid-1800s, a
group of people started looking at the world, religion and the changing economy in a different way.
•Most sought a simpler life and focused on emotions and feeling
•Celebrated the truth found in nature and personal emotion and imagination
Transcendentalists
• Ralph Waldo Emerson – writer/leader
• Henry David Thoreau – wrote Walden (follow your inner voices) and urged people not to follow laws they consider unjust - Civil Disobedience
• Unitarians – religious group who tried to make people better through reforms. Christianity “the perfection of human nature, the elevation of man into nobler beings”
Utopian Communities
•New Harmony - Secular, Owenist
•Wanted to provide an answer to the problems of inequity and alienation caused by the Industrial Revolution
•Failed due to financial problems and disagreements among members
Utopian Communities
•Shakers - Religious, Mother Ann Lee, 6000 members in several states
•Communal living where everyone worked for the common good.
Utopian Communities
Before the Civil War
Utopian Communities
•Utopian communities generally failed within a few years due to lack of funding or internal problems.
Prison Reform• Alexis de Tocqueville visited America to observe the prison
system.
• “while society in the United States gives the example of the most extended liberty, the prisons of the same country offer the spectacle of the most complete desptism (rigid and severe control)
Prison Reform
•Dorthea Dix was horrified to see mentally ill and handicapped people in prisons alongside violent criminals.
•She led the drive to build separate facilities for mentally ill people
GROUPS (15 MINUTES MAX) ELECT A RECORDER AND NARRATOR – ONLY 1 COPY IS NEEDED FOR ENTIRE GROUP. A GROUP GRADE WILL BE GIVEN BY ME BASED ON THE QUALITY OF YOUR ANSWERS. YOU WILL GRADE EACH OTHER; A-F FOR PARTICIPATION/CONTRIBUTION
1. ACCORDING TO DIX’S REPORT, HOW WERE THE MENTALLY ILL FORCED TO LIVE?
2. WHY DO YOU THINK DIX TOOK HER FINDINGS TO THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE?
3. DO YOU THINK THE EXAMPLES OF ABUSE DRAWN FROM DIX’S NOTEBOOK AND JOURNAL STRENGTHENED OR WEAKENED HER CASE? EXPLAIN YOUR RESPONSE.
Using a PRIMARY SOURCE:
Dorothy Dix’s Plea on Behalf of the Mentally Ill (handout) Read Together – highlight or underline what you think is important
1. According to Dix’s report, how were the mentally ill forced
to live?
1. According to Dix’s report, how were the mentally ill
forced to live?
The mentally ill were forced to live in filthy jail cells, cages, and stalls
where they were chained or confined without being let outside
2. Why do you think Dix took her findings to the
Massachusetts legislature?
2. Why do you think Dix took her findings to the
Massachusetts legislature?
She believed that it was the legislators’ moral responsibility to protect the
mentally ill and hoped to convince them to take action to provide more adequate
and human provisions for their care
3. Do you think the examples of abuse drawn from dix’s notebook and journal
strengthened or weakened her case? Explain your response.
3. Do you think the examples of abuse drawn from dix’s notebook
and journal strengthened or weakened her case? Explain your
response.
The examples of abuse strengthened her case because
they graphically and persuasively demonstrated the
need for reform
Students will stage a show of “MEET THE PRESS” In groups of 4. There will be one Moderator asking the questions of three guests. All four members of the group will work on questions and answers, in the end only the moderator will be asking those questions of his/hers guests. You are to connect the major reform movements and evaluate their effectiveness. The reformer will answer questions with regards to the reformers’ views, motivations, emotions, accomplishments, and desires. Stress any geographic origins. This will be graded by me based on your ability as a group to convey the significance of each. ALL STUDENTS WILL BE TAKING NOTES.
Group 1 – Charles Finney, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David ThoreauGroup 2 – Dorothy Dix, Horace Mann, and Margaret FullerGroup 3 – James Forten, Frederick Douglas, and
William Llyod Garrison (somebody double as David WalkerGroup 4 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and the Grimke’ daughters (combine personalities as if one)
If extra person in this group add Sojourner TruthGroup 5 – Second Great Awakening, Temperance Movement, Seneca
Falls Convention, cult of domesticity
School Reform
•Horace Mann pushed for free and compulsory education for all children.
•He helped establish tax supported schools, a longer school year and teacher training
School Reform
•McGuffy Readers were used to teach children to read
•They combined phonics with stories encouraging hard work, punctuality and sobriety.
School Reform
•Catherine Beecher sought to create teachers from spinster women
•Schools also responsible for raising children
School Reform
WARM-UPIn a few coherent sentences
for each…..• What ideas and practices did each of the following promote?
1. Revivalism
2. Unitarian movement
3. African Methodist Church
4. Transcendentalism
Reform in American Society
Chapter 8
Section 2
Slavery and Abolition
Abolitionists•Abolition – call to outlaw
slavery•By the 1820s some
people began to openly question the morality of slavery
•Some proposed that all Blacks be sent “back” to Africa
•Others wanted violent uprisings
Abolitionists
•Charles Finney preached about the evils of slavery
•Most whites in the north gave slavery no attention at all
•Some, particularly the Irish, wanted slavery to continue
Abolitionists
•William Lloyd Garrison - editor of “The Liberator”
•Wanted slave holders to release their slaves immediately with no payment for their loss
•He associated with Africans who promoted violence
Abolitionists
•David Walker (free black)– wrote “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World”
•Thought that slaves that did not revolt deserved to be enslaved
Abolitionists
• Frederick Douglass - born a slave and ran away as a child
• Knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom
• Eloquent speaker who talked about his life as a slave
• Worked with Garrison for a time but split with him to write “The North Star” (anti-slavery newspaper)
Slavery
•America continued to import slaves until 1808
•Natural birth rate caused the slave population to soar
•By the mid 1800s, all slaves were born in America and spoke English
Slavery
•Life expectancy for slaves in America was much longer than Africans who lived in Africa
Slavery
•Men, women and children worked from sun up to sun down.
•Slave marriages were not considered “legal under the eyes of God” so families could be sold apart.
Slavery
• Immigrant labor did not come to the south so many slaves learned skills
•Some hired themselves out for pay
Slavery
•All slaves, regardless of age, worked
•This little boy was a ‘companion’ for the daughter of his owner.
Urban and Rural Slavery
•Slaves in the cotton fields worked all day in the hot sun, ate substandard food, lived in wooden shacks and were beaten for minor infractions.
•Slaves in larger towns worked for pay which was shared with their owner. They did not have an overseer.
Denmark Vesey
Denmark Vesey was executed on 2 July 1822 after being accused of planning a slave rebellion against slaveowners and other whites in Charleston, South Carolina. Vesey was a well-respected carpenter and minister who in his teens had been sold into slavery from the West Indies island of St. Thomas. For years he was the household servant to Captain Joseph Vesey, who settled in Charleston in 1783. Denmark Vesey won $1,500 in a lottery in the year 1800. He used the money to buy his freedom and set up a carpentry shop, where he prospered. Educated and financially successful, he also co-founded a separate black Methodist church in Charleston in 1816 (though it was closed by white authorities four years later). In 1822 he was accused of being the leader of a secret plot to rebel against whites, a plot that supposedly involved 9,000 slaves and more than two years of preparation. The alleged plan was for the slaves to murder as many whites as they could, then set sail for Africa or Haiti. In the wake of rumors of the plot, Charleston authorities charged 131 people with conspiracy, convicted 67 and executed at least 35, including Denmark Vesey. Though the story of Vesey and the rebellion has long been taken for fact, a few historians have argued that no such rebellion ever was planned, and that Vesey and others were victims of false rumors that spread among nervous slaveholders.
Slave Uprisings
•Nat Turner – 1831, led an uprising leading to the death of 55 whites.
•The retaliation led to the deaths of hundreds of slaves and strengthening the slave codes
Slave Codes
•Regions and counties made laws for slaves only to make certain that slaves stay under the control of whites
•After uprisings, codes became stricter, some not allowing more than 2 slaves to gather
Slave Codes
•Most states made it illegal to teach slaves how to read and write or learn a trade.
•They could not travel without papers.
•Even then, there was a chance that they would be kidnapped and sold to another owner
Pro-Slavery Advocates
•Southerners defended slavery by–The Bible – “Slaves should obey their masters…”
–Slaves were learning about Jesus and away from the ‘savages’ in Africa
–Slaves were ‘happy’ doing menial labor
Economics of Slavery
•The cost of a prime field hand was about $1,500 - $2,000
• It cost about $20 each year to care for a slave
•The care was necessary from birth to death, 60-70 years, and during non-growing seasons
Economics of Wage Earners
•There was no initial cost•Competition among workers
kept salaries low•There were no benefits and
workers only got paid when there was work to do
•Sick or injured workers did not get paid at all
Reforming American Society
Chapter 8
Section 3
Women and Reform
Cult of Domesticity
•Women’s roles changed in the early to mid 1800s but they were still treated like property
•Some women began protesting for equality for women and slaves
Cult of Domesticity
•Women were ‘housewives’ once they got married
•There jobs included cooking, cleaning, tending to the children, and household food
•These are the women who were impacted by the Second Great Awakening
Cult of Domesticity
•Women in the 1830s had more free time than their mothers since they could hire immigrants to help with domestic chores
•They joined the causes of abolitionism and temperance, and eventually, feminism
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
•Daughters of southern slaveholders, the Grimke sisters became avid spokesmen for the anti-slavery movement
•Angelina wrote “An Appeal to Christian Women of the South” urging them to rid the country of slavery
Temperance
• The beverages of choice in the 1800s were beer and whiskey
• With the new machinery of the Industrial Revolution, men were getting injured and even killed
• Reformers blamed alcohol on the breakup of families and poverty
Temperance
•Women led the temperance movement.
•Temperance societies sprung up throughout the country
•They were so successful that alcohol consumption dropped by 50%
Education for Women
•Sara Grimke ran one of several schools open for women
•Oberlin College opened their doors to women
•Elizabeth Blackwell became America’s first female doctor
Education for Women
•Catherine Beecher took a survey on women’s health and found that 3 of every 4th woman was ill since they rarely bathed or exercised.
Seneca Falls Convention
• In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held a convention for women’s rights
•They declared that women were entitled to the same rights and equality as men
Seneca Falls Convention
•Sojourner Truth, Isabella Baumfree, spoke about her life as a slave
•She was booed and hissed at because the women did not want feminism to get lost while promoting abolitionism
Reforming American Society
Chapter 8
Section 4
The Changing Workplace
Factory Workers• When labor shifted away from
homes and into factories, women and children became part of the labor force
• The Lowell Mills was a prototype for women in the workplace
• As cheaper, immigrant labor entered the country, women were replaced by men and children
Factory Workers
•The new type of labor put a strain on families already fighting poverty and disease
Before the Factory
•Goods were produced in homes, cottage industries
•Handmade items, mostly completed by women were sold at the market
Home Crafts
•Trade unions were established during the Middle Ages to regulate quality, supply and prices.
•Their basic purpose remained through modern American history
Home to Factory
•Apprentice – training phase• Journeyman – skilled employee•Master – most experienced
artisan•Factories became more
efficient, prices for machine made goods fell, these workers moved from making hand-made goods to factory life
Lowell Mills
• Women worked most textile mills because of the low pay afforded by these jobs
• Strikes were staged to force the factories to give the girls better pay (or to keep it from being cut)
• They were not successful and conditions deteriorated.
Industrial Revolution
Striking Workers•Strikes continued during the
1830s and 1840s.•Employers almost always won
because immigrants gave them an unlimited supply of replacement workers
• Immigrants flooded into factory areas, ignoring the slave south
Irish Immigrants
•The Irish faced a famine due to a potato blight.
•About 1 million immigrants came to America
•They faced hostility and resentment because of their religion and love of whiskey
Irish Immigrants
Immigrants
Trade Unions•The trades organized unions
for specific skills – shoemaking, printing, comb making, etc
•They formed the largest union, the National Trades Union
•The union was dissolved because of opposition from bankers
