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Period: to
1600-1900
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Galileo Determines Planets Rotate Around Sun
Galileo determines through his invention of the telescope that the planets revolve around the sun, opposed to the earlier viewpoint that they, including the sun, revolve around earth. Galileo's work was considered anti-church, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Church admitted the sentencing was a mistake in 1992. -
Roger Williams founded Providence, Rhode Island
The 1630s brought about a time when theological differences began to undermine the harmony of “A city upon a hill.” Winthrop and some holy commonwealth leaders said that the commonwealth required cooperation between the church and the state, but Roger Williams, in 1631 argued that civil government should instead remain uninvolved with religious matters; Williams was banished in 1635, and purchased land from the Narragansett Indians, founding Providence in 1636. Other dissenters followed William -
Great Awakening; George Whitefield’s two-year American tour
The First Great Awakening in America - George Whitefield In 1739, there was an outpouring of European Protestant revivalism. This time represented an unleashing of anxiety and longing among ordinary people concerned with their sin and salvation. The preaching of charismatic leaders such as Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards, William Tennent, and Theodore Frelinghuysen spoke to crowds and led meetings t -
American Temperance Society organized in Boston, MA
Temperance movements varied – while all addressed the growing problem of alcohol distribution and consumption, some stressed total abstinence from alcohol and others supported a moderation in consumption of liquor. The first national temperance organization was the American Temperance society, created February 13, 1826, and was of the “total abstinence” party. Leaders of the temperance movement were nearly always men; for recruits, they targeted moderate drinkers in the laboring classe -
William Lloyd Garrison starts The Liberator
28a. William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator Anti-slavery sentiment flourished in the Revolutionary era, but declined in the early nineteenth century. Then, it caught on again with William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper The Liberator first published on January 1 of 1831. Garrison’s views were extremely radical: he wanted slaves to be emancipated immediately, and believed that blacks had civil and legal equality and so should not be shipped “back” -
Abolitionist Movement
Abolitionist Movement There were many individuals and events that led to the beginning of the Abolitionists movement. William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglas both wrote newspapers to expose the evils of slavery. In addition, the Grimke sisters fought to abolish the myth of the happy slave, indicted by Sen. John C. Calhoun. Various rebellions and slaves like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth all helped to expose the injustices -
Horace Mann becomes secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
Public schools were generally supported by rural parents, but reformers changed the educational system in the United States. Reformers argued that schools had to equip children for the emerging competitive and industrial economy. Manufacturers heartily supported the idea of tax-supported schools that would teach punctuality and discipline to their future workers. In 1837, Horace Mann was appointed Massachusetts first ever Secretary of the Board of Education. -
Transcendentalists Emerge
Transcendentalists were men and women, usually intellectuals, sought for citizens to trust their instinct and find the truth themselves instead of believing gossip. They were commonly known through Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and the Hudson River School of Artists. They also urged people to return to native. This was in conjuction with the Second Great Awakening. -
Dorothea Dix began teaching Sunday School at Jail
Dorothea Dix
The early nineteenth century brought about new assumptions about the causes of deviancy; in order to combat poverty, crime, and insanity, new, highly regimented institutions were formed. These supposedly helped alter the moral influences on a person – the assumed causes of deviancy were drunken fathers and broken homes. Most penitentiaries were a place where solitary confinement was the key to -
Commonwealth v. Hunt
The economic depression led to wage cuts, and these to discontent. Discontent led to reform movements in the laboring classes. In 1844, English-born radical George Henry Evans started a land reform movement – the National Reform Association. He argued that worker’s true interests could never be reconciled with an industrial order in which factory operatives sold their labor for wages – how would workers gain economic independence? – instead he argued for land as compensation for work. -
Free Soil Party Emerges
Emerging during Zachary Taylor's presidency, this political party formed on the basis of complete freedom and no slavery. This party was a threat because it stole botes from the Whigs and Democrats. -
Seneca Falls Convention
Seneca Falls Convention This event, led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was to allow women to meet and discuss equality as well as fight for suffrage. This movement was in conjunction with the Women's Christian Temperance Movement as well as the Reform Era. -
Temperance
In conjuction with the Women's Suffrage Movement, this movement was to abolish liquor so that men and husbands would stop the violence and beatings. Led by Mary Vaughn, alcohol was later abolished as the 18th amendment (now overturned). -
Know-Nothings are formed from the Order of the Star Spangled Banner
The number of immigrants entering the United States dramatically increased during the first half of the nineteenth century. Many of these were Irish (and therefore Catholic) immigrants. As Catholic immigration increased, Protestants began their counterattack, forming Nativist groups such as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner. This Order became the “Know-Nothing” party in 1854, and became a political force during the 1850s. -
End of Reconstruction
Reconstruction Act of 1867 occurs and the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendment are passed to further help slaves. Also, the Freedmen's Bureau is formed; Radical Republicans begin to initiate their legislature in Congress. -
Labor Unions
The use of labor unions was to stop the cruel and destitute labor practices as well as improve working conditions. Many workers were threatened, fired, and forced to sign Yellow Dog Contracts to stop all use of labor unions. -
Radical Republicans
Radical Republicans were form of republicans who believed that Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction was too nice and that the real issue with the end of the Civil War was exterminating slavery. Radical Republicans later schemed in the Tenure of Office Act (Johnson's close impeachment) as well as civil rights for blacks. -
Populist Party
This political party piggybacked off the ideas of the Grange and Farmers' Alliance, both organizations working to improve the situation of farmers scammed by the railroads. They worked for the free silver standard, income tax, crop storage, and crop loans at 2%. Gold bugs, monopolies, and the Interstate Commerce Act all come into efect here. -
Progressivism Era
Muckrakers, nickelodeons, and newspapers all serve as ways to spread information. Social welfare and reform again emerges. The seventeenth and nineteenth amendment are passed.
