Para 1 - Cengage



CHAPTER 12

Responses to the Great Transformation, 1828-1840

Learning Objectives

After you read and analyze this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Describe the choices Americans made in dealing with the stresses created by the rapid change of the Jacksonian era and evaluate the cultural outcome.

2. Discuss the major elements of American cultural thought and its connections to European cultural thought during the Jacksonian era and describe efforts by some thinkers to cope with what they thought was an excess of individualism.

3. Trace the evolution of the Whig Party, from its origin in the early 1830s to its victory in the presidential election of 1840.

Chapter Outline

I. Toward an American Culture

A. Romanticism and Genteel Culture

1. Americans imported romanticism as a mode of thought from Europe.

2. Leading cultural figures in America combined individualism with romanticism.

a) In so doing, they emphasized the positive features of American life and experience and the uniqueness of America.

3. In religion, the combination of individualism and romanticism gave rise to Transcendentalism.

a) Ralph Waldo Emerson fashioned the ideas of Transcendentalism.

4. Emerson also led the way in the development of an American literature.

a) In “The American Scholar,” he called for independence from European literary models.

5. Leading literary figures in American Transcendentalism included:

a) Henry David Thoreau

b) Sara Moore Grimké

c) Margaret Fuller

d) Lydia Sigourney

e) Catharine Beecher

f) James Fenimore Cooper

g) Herman Melville

h) Nathaniel Hawthorne

i) Edgar Allan Poe

6. In history, George Bancroft argued for the uniqueness of the American experience.

7. In the visual arts, emphasis on American scenes replaced the neoclassicism of the beginning of the nineteenth century.

a) Thomas Cole painted the American landscape and created the Hudson River School.

b) George Caleb Bingham painted the common man.

B. Culture Among Workers and Slaves

1. Alcoholism abounded.

a) Drinking was central even to working-class theaters and sporting events.

b) Violence abounded: between individuals, as well as between rioting ethnic, religious, and racial groups.

2. Women were worse off than men.

a) Single women earned less than men.

b) Married women were confined to tiny apartments and were barred from activities available to men.

3. A truly unique African American culture evolved among slave communities.

a) Traces of African heritage were visible in slaves’ clothing, entertainment, and folkways.

b) Family structure and religion helped preserve this way of life.

C. Radical Attempts to Regain Community

1. American cultural leaders and their followers who reacted to excesses in individualism established experimental communities.

a) Brook Farm and about 100 other communities tried out socialist Fourierism.

b) Robert Owen experimented with communal utopianism for workers at New Harmony, Indiana.

2. Experimental religious communities also arose.

a) Oneida combined communal living with group marriage.

b) The Shakers established communities practicing celibacy.

3. Joseph Smith established the Mormon Church, which was influenced by both religion and romanticism.

a) Smith led his religious community from New York to Ohio, from there to Missouri, and then to Illinois.

II Reactions to Changing Conditions

A. A Second Great Awakening

1. New Protestant ideas in the early nineteenth century emphasized the individual.

a) Nathaniel Taylor’s theology taught that the individual could initiate salvation.

2. Charles G. Finney sparked an intense religious revival that swept the country.

a) Thousands attended revival meetings.

3. Revivalism challenged existing church authority.

a) New denominations emerged.

b) Multiplication of denominations reinforced belief in the separation of church and state.

4. Revivalism led to a new sense of Christian community—of responsibility for fellow Christians.

a) This led to missionary outreach efforts and to benevolent reform movements.

B. Free and Slave Labor Protests

1. Skilled journeymen took the lead in organizing protest movements.

a) They were reacting to their loss of economic and social position because of the rise of the factory system.

b) Journeymen formed craft unions as well as the National Trades’ Union, but unions accomplished little.

c) In Commonwealth v. Hunt, the Massachusetts Supreme Court recognized the legality of unions and strikes.

2. Labor protests were at times violent.

3. Ethnic riots often reflected tension between skilled American workers and unskilled immigrant laborers.

4. Most slaves, too, restricted themselves to passive resistance rather than open protests.

5. The most active and frightening form of slave resistance was open and armed revolt.

a) Turner’s Rebellion led to stricter controls.

C. The Middle Class and Moral Reform

1. Hundreds of voluntary societies arose in behalf of many reform causes.

a) These organizations provided outlets for members of the new upper and middle classes.

2. Religious idealism influenced many of the reform movements.

a) New approaches to the criminal and the insane emerged.

b) Bible societies, Sunday schools, and Sabbath-rest movements developed.

3. Many of the reform movements sought to impose middle-class standards of behavior.

4. Educational reform was one such movement.

a) Horace Mann led the movement for public schooling for the children of all classes.

b) In addition to teaching practical knowledge, the public schools sought to impart Protestant religious values.

c) In reaction, Catholics established their own schools.

5. Temperance was another such movement.

a) It had its roots not only in religious idealism but also in its attractiveness to factory owners for economic reasons.

b) Increasing public drunkenness in the cities and less use of alcohol by the middle and upper classes contributed to it.

D. Opposition to Slavery

1. Slavery as a moral question began to capture national attention after the War of 1812.

2. The American Colonization Society proposed to return freed slaves to Africa.

3. More radical opponents of slavery began to call for its complete abolition.

a) The American Anti-Slavery Society, founded by William Lloyd Garrison, advocated immediate abolition and no compensation for owners.

4. Abolition was not a popular cause.

a) Mobs attacked abolitionists and broke up their meetings.

b) Congress refused to debate the existence of slavery between 1836 and 1844.

III. The Whig Alternative to Jacksonian Democracy

A. The End of the Old Party Structure

1. Anti-Jackson forces were at first unable to unite.

a) Three anti-Jackson parties ran in 1832, all going down to defeat.

B. The New Political Coalition

1. Anti-Jackson forces—Clay’s supporters, southern nullifiers, Antimasons, and Christian reformers—coalesced in the Whig Party.

a) Whigs beat many Democrats (Jackson’s party) in the 1834 congressional elections.

C. Van Buren in the White House

1. Democrat Van Buren won the presidency in 1836.

a) Whig strategy—force the election into the House of Representatives by having many candidates—backfired.

2. Van Buren’s presidency was plagued by economic turmoil.

a) The Panic of 1837, caused by Biddle’s activities against Jackson and by Jackson’s Specie Circular, initiated a harsh depression.

b) Van Buren added to the problem by adhering to hard-money policies, cutting government spending, and establishing regional Treasury offices.

D. Log-Cabin and Hard-Cider Campaign of 1840

1. The Whigs won with Harrison for several reasons.

a) They united behind one candidate.

b) They nominated a southern Democrat for vice president.

c) They portrayed Harrison as a common man and Van Buren as an aristocrat.

d) The depression ruined Van Buren’s chances.

Identifications

Identify the following items and explain the significance of each. While you should include any relevant historical terms, using your own words to write these definitions will help you better remember these items for your next exam.

1. Angelina Grimké

2. The Liberator

3. William Lloyd Garrison

4. lay exhorter

5. Second Great Awakening

6. revival meeting

7. evangelical sects

8. post-millenialism

9. trade union

10. National Trades’ Union

11. passive resistance

12. border states

13. vigilance committees

14. Christian benevolence

15. Dorothea Dix

16. irreligious

17. Horace Mann

18. parochial school

19. American Colonization Society

20. Mason-Dixon Line

21. William Lloyd Garrison

22. abolitionist

23. gag rule

24. Alexis de Toqueville

25. cupidity

26. romanticism

27. Ralph Waldo Emerson

28. transcendentalism

29. transcendental

30. nonconformity

31. Henry David Thoreau

32. Lydia Sigourney

33. allegory

34. neoclassicism

35. Hudson River School

36. minstrel show

37. trickster tales

38. extended family

39. spiritual

40. New Harmony

41. Francis (Fanny) Wright

42. Brook Farm

43. socialist

44. Fourierism

45. Oneida Community

46. Shakers

47. ward

48. Joseph Smith, Jr.

49. block voting

50. machine politics

51. party platform

52. Whig Party

53. favorite son

54. Panic of 1837

55. Specie Circular

56. John Tyler

Multiple-Choice Questions

SELECT THE CORRECT ANSWER.

1. Folk tales like those of Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox were actually stories about

a. forms of passive resistance by slaves.

b. racial violence on the plantation.

c. runaway slaves.

d. militant slave rebellions.

2. The violence that became a feature of urban life in the 1830s and 1840s can be traced to

a. contemporary conflict between ethnic and religious groups.

b. high taxes for urban renewal projects that did not benefit the poor.

c. excessively high protective tariffs.

d. refusals by factory owners to employ immigrant laborers.

3. In the case of Commonwealth v. Hunt, the Massachusetts Supreme Court

a. outlawed trade unions.

b. decreed that owners and managers were required to give workers a minimum wage.

c. found that workers had the right to organize in trade unions.

d. decided that factory managers were required to ensure safe conditions for workers.

4. As a result of the activities of Charles Grandison Finney,

a. thousands converted to Catholicism.

b. existing religious organizations fragmented, and new denominations emerged.

c. reform movements died down because religious enthusiasm captured the energies of the middle class.

d. revival meetings increasingly earned a reputation for debauchery and drunkenness.

5. The Yale College theologian Nathaniel Taylor

a. called for a return to the old values of Puritanism.

b. was a champion of free will and democratic salvation.

c. warned of the evils of Unitarianism.

d. was an advocate of slavery.

6. The temperance movement provides an example of

a. hypocritical behavior on the part of most of the religious figures involved in the Second Great Awakening.

b. an effort by factory owners to keep their workers happy by plying them with alcohol.

c. an attempt to modify the behavior of immigrants and other members of the lower class.

d. a reform movement led and inspired by the medical profession.

7. As a reform movement, abolitionism

a. was favored by the authors of Missouri’s state constitution.

b. had no connection with the religious enthusiasm prevalent during the early nineteenth century.

c. did not win support among African Americans.

d. encountered intense and often violent hostility.

8. The Panic of 1819 and the Panic of 1837 were alike in that both

a. began with a sudden collapse of cotton prices in Europe.

b. were caused by problems related to the availability of credit.

c. owed their start to political manipulation by the president.

d. could have been avoided had Congress reduced tariff rates in time.

9. To avoid the mistakes it made during the presidential election of 1836, the Whig Party in 1840

a. united behind a single candidate.

b. issued a public apology to Andrew Jackson for insulting him on so many occasions.

c. promised to appoint worthy Democrats to federal office.

d. dropped its previous insistence on rechartering a national bank.

10. By the 1830s, American thinkers and writers

a. rejected the movement in European thought known as romanticism.

b. embraced and celebrated individualism.

c. bemoaned the emphasis on money and wealth in Jacksonian America.

d. warned against the excesses of democracy in American life.

11. Brook Farm and the early Mormon Church community shared

a. in active missionary work among Native Americans.

b. a belief in anarchism and socialism.

c. an interest in moderating the excessive individualism of Jacksonian America.

d. an important position in the Democratic Party.

12. The trade union movement in antebellum America

a. arose because journeymen felt displaced by the new factory system.

b. succeeded in creating a national organization.

c. accomplished little.

d. All of these

13. The Whigs were particularly successful in 1840 at

a. appealing to rich voters.

b. arguing against slavery.

c. using the democratic rhetoric and symbols of their opponents.

d. appealing to urban workers.

14. The Whigs’ portrayal of William Henry Harrison during the presidential election campaign of 1840 demonstrated that

a. it was better to be from a city than from rural origins.

b. the electorate could see through the excessive claims of politicians and political parties.

c. great wealth deeply impressed most American voters.

d. success in American politics now went to those with whom ordinary people could identify.

15. Nat Turner provides an example of

a. the inroads made by romanticism in American culture.

b. armed opposition to slavery.

c. the new techniques in art practiced by members of the Hudson River School.

d. how new church denominations grew out of the Second Great Awakening.

Essay Questions

1. THE STRUCTURE OF POLITICAL LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES CHANGED MARKEDLY DURING THE 1830S, LARGELY BECAUSE OF ANDREW JACKSON’S CONFRONTATIONAL, FORCEFUL PRESENCE ON THE NATIONAL SCENE. DO YOU AGREE?

DEVELOPING YOUR ANSWER: The political structure did change during the 1830s, as a new two-party system developed. Andrew Jackson was certainly a forceful figure (you might want to review Chapter 10 for evidence to include here on this point), but you may not agree that his was the only “forceful presence on the national scene.” Henry Clay was also a powerful presence in political life on the national level, the Antimasons were an influential force, and the new Whig party and others helped to win the election of 1840.

You might also discuss the effect of Martin Van Buren’s economic policies in the late 1830s on political life. His actions, once he became president, demonstrate that not all developments in political life can be traced to Jackson alone.

2. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself,” wrote poet Walt Whitman. How did this sentiment reflect currents of thought prevalent in Jacksonian society? Did all American thinkers in the Jacksonian era agree with the ideas reflected in the poet’s line?

DEVELOPING YOUR ANSWER: Jacksonian America celebrated the individual, especially the common, ordinary man whom Andrew Jackson exemplified. Many Americans believed that, like Jackson, the ordinary individual could rise from humble origins to greatness. Walt Whitman’s line gave voice to the era’s faith in the individual.

Other important contemporary American thinkers similarly celebrated the individual. In your essay, you should explore the centrality of individualism in the thinking of such important contemporaries of Whitman as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Perhaps Thoreau, withdrawing by himself to Walden Pond, represents the ultimate Jacksonian individualist.

As the question implies, however, not everyone celebrated the rampant individualism of the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Such skeptics emphasized the importance of the community—the very opposite of the individual. Their attempts to salvage the value of community in the face of so much individualism took many forms, ranging from Brook Farm to Oneida to the Shakers. Explore as many of these as possible in your essay, including the most successful communitarian experiment of all, the Mormons.

Map Exercise

Which states in 1830 would you describe as the most democratic? Which were the least democratic? Which region of the country, the North, the South, or the West, would qualify as the most democratic? Examine the Chapter 12 opening map to answer.

Individual Choices

Angelina Grimké

To answer the following questions, consult the Individual Choices section at the beginning of the chapter.

1. What important event took place on March 22, 1838?

2. How did people react to this event? Why?

3. Briefly describe Angelina Grimké’s background. What most influenced her later reform activities?

4. Why did she move to Pennsylvania? Did she find what she expected there? Explain.

5. Why do you think someone raised in a slaveholding family would later reject slavery?

6. Identify the American Colonization Society. Did Grimké’s family have any connections to it?

7. What role did William Lloyd Garrison play in Grimké’s life?

8. Why do you think Grimké was so successful in her reform efforts?

Individual Voices

Examining a Primary Source: Angelina Grimké Corrects Catharine Beecher on Women’s Activism

To answer the following questions, consult the Individual Voices section at the end of the chapter.

1. Identify Catherine Beecher.

2. In the first paragraph of this passage, Grimké quotes from one of Catharine Beecher’s earlier letters. What does Beecher seem to be saying about the extent to which women should be advocates for abolitionism? What limits to such activism do her words imply?

3. What sort of action does Grimké advocate in response to perceived evils such as slavery? How does her view differ from Beecher’s?

4. What does Grimké see as the appropriate goal for abolitionism? How might this explain her willingness to risk public ridicule and even physical danger by speaking out against slavery?

RUBRIC: Do further research on the various views of those against slavery and compare their goals and the eventual outcome(s) of their efforts.

|INDIVIDUALS/GROUPS AGAINST SLAVERY|IDEOLOGY |REFORM EFFORTS |OUTCOMES |

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Answers to Multiple-Choice Questions

1. A. THESE STORIES TAUGHT SLAVES HOW THEY MIGHT OUTFOX THE FORCES RANGED AGAINST THEM. SEE PAGE 345.

b. The Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox stories showed how the weak could outsmart the strong not through violence but through cleverness. See page 345.

c. Br’er Rabbit was symbolic of the individual who was trapped in slavery, rather than of the one who was able to escape. See page 345.

d. These tales exemplified passive rather than overt rebellion. See page 345.

2. a. Older Americans (who were largely Protestant) often clashed with new immigrants, who were mostly Catholic. See page 349.

b. Renewal projects were not a feature of urban life in the mid-nineteenth century. For reference to urban conditions, particularly in slum neighborhoods, see page 349.

c. Low wages, ethnic hatred, and religious differences gave rise to urban violence; protective tariffs did not. See page 349.

d. Immigrant laborers found employment in the new industrial factories at low wages. See page 349 for an example.

3. c. See page 344.

a. The court found that journeymen in Boston could strike. See page 344.

b. The court decreed that workers could organize and strike. See page 344.

d. The decision did not enjoin employers in any manner; it recognized labor’s right to organize and to strike. See page 344.

4. b. Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians broke apart in disagreement over all sorts of issues. See pages 341-343.

a. The Second Great Awakening, in which Finney played a leading role, occurred among such Protestant groups as the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists. See pages 341-343.

c. Religious ferment contributed to the formation of many reform causes, such as the temperance movement, asylums for the insane, and the Sunday school movement. See pages 341-343.

d. Although highly emotional, sometimes even giving rise to hysteria, revival meetings were not scenes of dissipation. See pages 341-343.

5. b. The individual could freely choose (or not choose) to be saved. Emphasis on individual choice gave his theology a democratic cast. See pages 341-343.

a. Contrary to Puritanism’s emphasis on predestination, he argued that the individual could choose or not choose salvation. See pages 341-343.

c. Opposition to Unitarianism was not part of Taylor’s theology. See pages 341-343.

d. He focused on theological issues. See pages 341-343.

6. c. Factory owners and managers supported temperance as a way to improve the behavior of their workers. See page 349.

a. There is no evidence that the leaders of the Awakening had a double standard with regard to the consumption of alcohol. See page 349.

b. The movement sought the opposite: to wean people from using alcohol. See pages 342-343.

d. Christian reformers provided the leadership. See page 349.

7. d. Abolitionists were sometimes physically attacked, and their public meetings were often disrupted by rioting anti-abolitionists. See pages 350-351.

a. Missouri permitted slavery; moreover, its constitution prohibited free African Americans from entering the state. See pages 350-351.

b. Members of Christian revival and reform movements often became abolitionists. See pages 350-351.

c. The abolitionist movement sought the end of slavery. See pages 350-351.

8. b. In both cases, the tightening of credit squeezed investors and speculators. See pages 287-288 and 353-354.

a. The price brought by cotton in Europe was not a factor in either panic. See pages 287-288 and 353-354.

c. This was true only in connection with the Panic of 1837, because of Andrew Jackson’s war against the Second Bank of the United States. See pages 287-288 and 353-354.

d. Unlike the availability of easy credit and problems with banks, the protective tariff did not play a role in precipitating either panic. See pages 287-288 and 353-354.

9. a. In 1836, the Whigs had divided their forces among four candidates, hoping that the election would be forced into the House of Representatives. See pages 354-355.

b. See pages 354-355 for the campaign of 1840.

c. See pages 354-355 for the campaign of 1840.

d. Rather than any serious economic issues like the national bank, the Whigs ran a campaign built around the image of William Henry Harrison. See pages 354-355.

10. b. Their emphasis on individualism mirrored such developments as the emergence of the self-made man like Andrew Jackson. See pages 332-335.

a. American intellectuals absorbed the ideas of European romanticism. See pages 332-335.

c. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, celebrated money. See pages 332-335.

d. See pages 332-335.

11. c. Both rejected excessive individualism in favor of communal living. See pages 338-341.

a. Neither is associated with such activity. See pages 338-341.

b. Their shared belief in a highly disciplined and well-organized community suggests that they did not favor anarchism (which disdains government). And while Brook Farm’s leader embraced a form of socialism, there is no evidence that the Mormons did. See pages 338-341.

d. Both in effect withdrew from the affairs of the contemporary world in general. See pages 338-341.

12. d. This is the correct choice.

a. Although this is true (see pages 336-338), it is not the correct choice.

b. Although this is accurate (see pages 336- 338), it is not the correct choice.

c. Although this is a generally accurate assessment (see pages 336-338), it is not the correct choice.

13. c. They depicted Harrison as an ordinary common man, copying the Democrats’ portrayal of Andrew Jackson. See pages 354-355.

a. There is no evidence for this. In fact, the Whigs made a point of appealing to ordinary voters by depicting William Henry Harrison as a frontiersman. See pages 354-355.

b. They avoided all serious issues. See pages 354-355.

d. There is no evidence for this. They sought to capture votes everywhere. See pages 354-355.

14. d. They successfully depicted Harrison as someone like the majority of people. See pages 354-355.

a. The Whig campaign depicted William Henry Harrison as a frontiersman who lived in a log cabin. See pages 354-355.

b. The Whigs successfully distorted the images of both Harrison and Van Buren. See pages 354-355.

c. They stressed their candidate’s humble origins. See pages 354-355.

15. b. Turner’s rebellion in 1831 led to the deaths of 55 whites. See pages 340-341.

a. Turner led a slave rebellion. See page 347.

c. See page 347 for the Turner slave rebellion.

d. See page 347 for the Turner slave rebellion.

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