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The Market Revolution, part II: Social and Cultural Changes 1815-1850s

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Women and Families Middle-class women ladies o separate spheres for men and women separation of home and workplace public and private spheres o the cult of domesticity (cult of true womanhood) piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity guardians of social morality o new conception of children & family loving marriage fewer children, each one nurtured o education, not work training married women did not work outside the home Working-class women wenches o worked outside the home esp. domestic service, needle trades to mens wages The Sphere of a Woman (Godeys Ladys Book, 1850)

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The Second Great Awakening Began in backwoods KY, 1790s o evangelical tent revivals o enthusiasm o personal salvation repentance & redemption 1820s: spread across the North o perfectibility rejection of Calvinism faith, willpower, and Gods grace Charles Grandison Finney o emphasized a gentle, loving Jesus over an angry God encouraged loving bonds among family members

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The Second Great Awakening Was all this a middle-class reaction to the market revolution? o evangelicalism was strongest in those areas most affected by the Market Revolution e.g., the Burnt-Over District in western New York state o most participants & converts were the new urban middle-class especially middle-class women, who pressured their husbands, fathers, etc., to join the new churches and reform movements Evangelicalism adapted market values to spiritual needs o religion reflected the new emphasis on individual responsibility/power o replaced fulfillment of community with compassion & social reform o recaptured moral high ground from those who criticized new businessmen not greedy, exploitative, materialistic, & power-hungry

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Industrial Discipline Some historians argue that employers pushed evangelical values on their workers out of self-interest o transition from semisedentary farming to capitalism required instilling discipline into their work force constant work less leisure time, no slow seasons a clock dictated start, stop, meals, and breaks o market-economy values: hard work, punctuality, ambition, sobriety, self-reliance ** 2 nd Great Awakening gave these the authority of religious morals**

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Antebellum Reform 1820s-1830s religious revivals 1830s-1840s secular reform o if individuals could become sinless/perfect, so could society o millennialism: human faith & will could usher in the 1,000-year era of Gods kingdom on Earth before the Day of Judgment evangelicals had an obligation to reform others sinfulness, too o moral suasion show sinners their error and they will repent and reform The Empire of Benevolence o Sabbatarian movement (no work on the Sabbath) o American Tract Society pamphlets, Bibles o missionary work to foreign lands, Indians, urban poor, prostitutes o anti-prostitution, anti-gambling, anti-dueling o treatment of criminals (reformatories/penitentiaries) and the insane (asylums) o public schools (for instilling proper Christian values) o temperance (alcohol moderation or total abstinence) o abolitionism

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Women and Reform Women dominated the ranks of benevolent reform o the same middle-class wives and daughters who filled the pews of the evangelical churches staffed the reform movements Reform movements offered women access to the public sphere o they could spread the morality of the home into the external world But they held inferior positions in reform societies o men were in charge, women were the rank & file o women rarely held offices & never spoke in public

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Radical Abolitionism Evangelicalism and antislavery o slavery was a sin which must be eradicated from society o perfectibility meant that racial prejudice could be overcome rejected the colonizationist assumption that prejudice was insurmountable No more compromise, no gradual emancipation o slavery was an evil and must be abolished immediately Key events of the 1830s o Walkers Appeal (1829) and Nat Turners revolt (1831) called attention to slavery o Garrisons Liberator made moderation difficult for many reformers o British emancipation (1833) 1830s: abolitionist organizations spread across the North o American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS) founded 1833

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Anti-Abolitionism But abolitionists remained a small & hated minority o considered dangerous blamed for sectional conflict o most Northerners were outraged/threatened at idea of black equality o abolitionists were targets of social frustration & fears convenient scapegoat for anxieties raised by economic/social changes o at no point were abolitionists more than about 10% of the Northern population Anti-abolitionist mob violence common o numerous riots against abolitionist speakers and papers 1837: abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy killed in Alton, IL o became a martyr inspired fellow abolitionists

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Abolitionism and Womens Rights Abolitionism was the reform most open to female participation o they held important positions & spoke publicly e.g., Sarah & Angelina Grimke 1848: Seneca Falls convention o demanded civil and legal equality o rewrote the Declaration of Independence to highlight mens tyranny over women o 1850, Worcester: 1 st National Womens Rights Convention Every Seneca Falls organizer (male and female) was active in the abolition movement o many of those radical enough to imagine racial equality could also imagine gender equality Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

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Split in Abolitionism In the late 1830s, abolitionism divided into two factions o in large part over womens rights 1840: Garrison and his allies brought female delegates to the World Anti- Slavery Convention in London resulting conflict two separate US organizations o the other major issue was politics Garrison and his allies refused to acknowledge any political system that recognized slavery and included slaveholders o WLG condemned the US Constitution as a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell, publicly burning a copy on July 4, 1854 o WLG condemned the Union, emblazoning the motto No Union with Slaveholders on the masthead of the Liberator and organizing a secession convention in Worcester in 1857 (no one but Garrisonian abolitionists came) less radical activists saw politics as a promising means to advance the cause o 1840: the Liberty Party ran James G. Birney for president won 6,800 votes o 1844: the Liberty Party won 62,000 votes (2.5% of the total) o in the late 1840s and early 1850s, a handful of abolitionists were elected to Congress

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Significance of Abolitionism Abolitionist activism made it increasingly difficult for Northerners to ignore slavery o kept the issue of slavery almost constantly in the public eye o abolitionists consistently interpreted Southern actions to defend slavery as a plot to control the country and spread slavery a Slave Power Conspiracy saw selves as an antislavery equivalent to the Sons of Liberty by the mid-1850s, the idea began to catch on and become popular o yet very few Northerners were ever as radical as the abolitionists for the vast majority, the Union and the Constitution would always be much higher priorities than their dislike of slavery Meanwhile, abolitionism activism was central to Southerners growing defensiveness & extremism o white Southerners greatly exaggerated the popularity of abolitionism in North as well as its influence among slaves in the South an Abolitionist Conspiracy this perceived antislavery attack development of proslavery defense ** In the late 1840s and 1850s, this fear of Northern antislavery fanaticism led Southern leaders to be increasingly proactive in protecting slavery which led them to take actions that even moderate Northerners saw as threatening ** result: a vicious cycle of proslavery and antislavery defensiveness and escalating sectional conflict