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Romantic Movement
A movement in writing with a focus on the past, emotion, and was a response to the growing industrial revolution taking shape in America. Peaking in the 1800s despite its start. -
Lowell System
A labor model created during the rise of textile mills where they took in girls and gave them good wages and set them up in boarding houses with regimented schedules. A red falgish early example of exploitative labor practices that would not be the role of reformers until later. -
Cotton Gin
A new technology invented by Eli Whitney that made cotton production much easier and greatly benefited the south's economy which was heavily cotton based. -
Spoils System
A system where the victorious political official gives political positions to supporters. A rather corrupt system that would later be reformed. -
Louisiana Purchase
The application of Manifest Destiny by president Thomas Jefferson. Buying a huge portion of land and doubling the nation's size and driving people to start moving west. -
Lewis & Clark Expedition
A famous expedition in which two men explored the newly bought Louisiana territory and documented the wildlife they encountered. -
The American System
Henry Clay's economic plan, all components meeting to create a strong economy centered on American culture and supporting American business. -
Battle of Tippecanoe
A battle between American soldiers and Natives in the Indiana territory. A blow at British and American affairs as the English supported the Natives financially. -
Antebellum Period
The period before the civil war where the South prospered greatly under slavery while raising the tension with the north as abolition became a more popular ideology. -
2nd Great Awakening
A protestant revival in America that spread its ideology and gained many new converts to Methodism, also a jumping board for various reform movements throughout the nation. -
Era of Good Feelings
A period after the war of 1812 where American cultured focused on unity and was noted by the end of the federalist party. Rising tension from the divide of Abolition and slave-holding however, made this imperfect. -
Cult of Domesticity
A kind of opposition to the women's rights movement. Saying that women should stay at home and not work or get an education but also saw domesticity as a morally high position. -
"The Liberator"
A weekly newspaper that argued for Abolitionism from a religious point of view. And an important part of bringing the growing Abolitionism movement into the public conscious of the time. -
Public School Movement
A reform movement focused on bringing secondary education to children across America. Another reform that grew out of the time of the nation's early development, trying to set America on the right track. -
Asylum Movement
A national reform movement that sought to change the treatment of mentally ill people by society and support their treatment instead. One of the first major reform movements that spread throughout the early years of America. -
The North Star
Another abolition newspaper that worked to normalize and popularize Abolitionism to the public. This one written by freed slave Frederick Douglass. -
Oneida Community
A community of religious people who believed in perfectionism and preached mutual criticism and a free-love of sorts. -
Women's Rights Movement
Like it sounds, a reform movement through America to give women more rights and agency in the new nation. Primarily: the right to vote. Also collaborated a lot with abolitionists as they had similar aims to fight for disenfranchised groups. -
Seneca Falls Convention of '48
The first ever women's rights convention and contained several lectures and demonstrations, as well as the signing of the declaration of sentiments. -
On Civil Disobedience
An essay by Henry David Thoreau motivated by his disgust at institutions like slavery where he argues against complacency to the system of government and the importance of civil disobedience.
