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Southern Planter Elite
Rich plantation owners adopted a luxurious aristocratic lifestyle supported by slave labor. They saw themselves as republican aristocracy and superior. They considered slavery a “positive good” because it supported their own lavishness and “educated genetically inferior blacks”. They also used religion to justify slavery. These Planter Elites owned the majority of slaves and over 60% of southerners owned none. -
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Northern Sexuality and Culture
The populous cities in the north developed a more promiscuous culture. Young women found job opportunities scarce and many became prostitutes. Working men bought sex at the growing number of brothels and STDs circulated rampantly, especially syphilis. Many men came to view this type of sex as a right. Homosexual relationships also had more freedom to form in the cities. Fashions also became trendy and common. -
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Mormonism
Joseph Smith started a religion/ social movement called Mormonism. Its principles followed patriarchy, socialism, frugality, moral perfectionism, and plural marriage/ polygamy. Four religious texts including the Bible and the Book of Mormon were used as reference. This movement was hardier but also more reviled that other groups, especially for its polygamy. Mormons were forced to relocated to Utah where they could be more isolated and less persecuted. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner, a slave in VA, organized a violent uprising. He’d had a religious vision that he must fight slavery, and on the day of an eclipse, he and 60 other slaves killed 55 whites. They were easily subdued by cavalry and their heads were put on spikes as a warning. The opposite of the desired result happened; tougher slave codes, non education, and oppression increased. -
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Moral Reform
Women and others who sought to reform society established societies to help the struggling/ poor and improve. The Female Moral Reform Society tried to curb prostitution. Others created orphanages, improved prisons and hospitals, created asylums for mentally sick, and improved the quality of education. Treatment and security in society improved a lot as a result of these reformers. -
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Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman
Free slave and leading abolitionist Harriet Tubman created the Underground Railroad, a network of people who helped slaves escape to the north or Canada. The American Anti Slavery Society promoted this. White and black abolitionists helped slaves find housing and jobs in free states, risking their own lives and freedom. Harriet Tubman herself returned to the south many times to bring out slaves. ~1k slaves were freed per year. This was intensely opposed in the south, of course. -
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Utopian Communal Groups
The Industrial Revolution and later economic depression drove some to try to escape capitalism and follow idealists. Communal groups such as the Oneida, Shakers, and Fouriers practiced socialism and redefined sexual and gender roles, to the disapproval of conventional society. The Oneidas practiced complex marriage, gender equality, and perfectionism; the chaste Shakers danced for a female male God; and Fouriers promoted gender equality. Most of these groups eventually fell apart. -
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Immigration and Nativism
Over 4 million immigrants flood into the US, mostly of British, German, and Irish origin. They are coming to find opportunities in the new world (Northern US) or escape hardships in their native countries. However, many already settled Americans find their sudden presence a hardship also. While British and some German immigrants were better off, the Irish were usually very poor. Because they were willing to take any job they could get their hands on and worked for low wages, other Americans had -
Seneca Falls Convention
The women’s rights movement advocated for their equality, freedom from domestic roles, and political/ economic rights. At the Seneca Falls Convention in NY, a manifesto (the Declaration of Sentiments) modeled after the Declaration of Independance was presented. It listed the oppressions of women by men and marriage and called for reform. Activists led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott attended. They vowed to petition the government and society for change. -
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)
Stanton was a key suffragist in the women’s rights movement as well as an abolitionist. She wrote extensively for equality, was well educated outside the domestic sphere, and led the Seneca Falls Convention with Lucretia Mott in in 1848. She also worked with Susan B Anthony.
