Chapter 12 Study Questions - Antebellum Culture and Reform

1. What does the term antebellum mean? (315-316)

• Antebellum: before war

2. How was the concept of nationalism expressed in American art? (316)

• Portrayed images of the American frontier/landscapes
• Unlike in Europe, “wild” nature still existed in America > America was a nation of greater promise than Old World

3. What is romanticism and how was it expressed in the United States? (316)

• Romanism: belief that within every individual resides an innately good spirit and that society should attempt to liberate the human spirit
• Expressed in: literature, philosophy, art, politics, economics

4. What does Brinkley mean by the phrase, “The Quest for Liberation”? (316)

• Create distinctly American literature
• Find ways of self expression through writing = romanticism
• Writing that characterized the spirit of individualism (Whitman)

5. What is transcendentalism and who were the transcendentalists? (318-319)

• Transcendentalism: idea that in determining the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond, everyday human experience in the physical world
• Liberation of “understanding”(intellect as used by society) and cultivation of “reason” (individual’s innate capacity to grasp beauty and truth through giving full expression to the instincts and emotions)
• Transcendentalists: New Eng. Writers and philosophers
• Ralph Waldo Emmerson
• Henry David Thoreau

6. Explain the concept of utopia and how this idea was important in early America. (319-320)

• Utopia: a more perfect society; full opportunity for self-realization
• Brook Farm (1841-1847): most famous 19th cen. Experiment of communal living
• Leisure = good, opportunity for self realization
• Manual labor bridged gate btw world of intellect and learning
• Gave way to a form of socialism > residents = disenchanted
• Vision inspired and enchanted Americans

7. List the characteristics of both the Shakers and Mormons. (321-322)

• Shakers
• Founded by “Mother” Ann Lee (1770s)
• Commitment to complete celibacy
• Women > Men
• Lived in conditions with limited opposite gender contact
• Endorsed idea of sexual equality
• Male or Female God
• Women exercised most power
• Create society separate and protected from chaos and disorder of Amer. life
• Mormons
• Founded by Joseph Smith
• 1830 Book of Mormon
• Ancient & successful civilization in Amer > natives = remnants
• 1831 small group of believers search for sanctuary for now community of “saints” (New Jerusalem”
• Polygamy
• Belief in human perfectibility
• Did NOT embrace doctrine of individual liberty
• Centrally directed social structure
• Structure of family
• Baptism ceremony in the name of a deceased ancestor
• Interest in genealogy
• Men and women who felt displaced in rapidly changing society
• 1844 Smith arrested, killed by mob in jail
• Establishment of Salt Lake City (Brigham Young)

8. Why was Joseph Smith and his followers forced to leave the areas they tried to settle? (321)

• Persecution from surrounding communities suspicious of their radical religious doctrines (polygamy)

9. Who was Brigham Young and what did he do? (321-322)

• Smith’s successor
• Establishment of Salt Lake

10. Explain Protestant revivalism. (323)

• Began w/ 2nd Great Awaking and evolved into a powerful force for social reform
• Belief that very individual was capable of salvation
• People came to believe that every individual was capable of salvation (and a revival of faith could come from individuals, not necessarily god)

11. What is Finney's Doctrine of Personal Regeneration? (323)

• Rochester, NY: Charles Grandison Finney staged a series of emotionally wrenching religious meetings that aroused a large segment of the community; call for crusade against personal immorality

12. Define temperance and explain why it was an issue in early America. (323-324)

• Temperance: abstinence from alcohol
• Responsible for crime, disorder and poverty
• Supply & appetite of alcohol growing rapidly
• American Society for the Promotion of Temperance
• Cultural Divisions over Alcohol (Protestants vs. Catholics)

13. What is cholera and why was it a problem? (324-325)

• Cholera: severe bacterial infection of the intestines, usually a result of consuming contaminated food or water
• Fewer than half of afflicted survived, thousands died during outbreaks

14. Define phrenology and its impact on American ideas for improving society. (325-326)

• Phrenology: shape on individual's skull was an important indicator of character and intelligence
• Thought it provided way of measuring an individual’s fitness for various positions in life and seemed to promise an end to the arbitrary process by which people matched their talents to occupations and responsibilities

15. Make a list of improvements in medicine. (326)

• Smallpox vaccination – Edward Jenner
• Anesthetics – William Morton
• Discovery of Contagion – Oliver Wendell Homes

16. Make a list of educational reforms. (326-327)

• Lengthened academic year to six months
• Doubled teachers’ salaries
• Enriched the curriculum
• Introduced new methods of professional training for teachers
• Building of new schools
• Creation of teachers’ colleges
• New groups of children had access to education

17. What was the Asylum Movement? (327)

• Advocated prison and hospital reform
• New penitentiaries and mental institutions designed to provide a proper environment for inmates
• Imprisonment of debtors and paupers gradually disappeared as well as hangings
• Attempt to reform and rehabilitate the inmates

18. Explain the new “reform” approach to the problems of Native Americans. (328)

• Reservations: idea of creating an enclosed region in which Indians would live in isolation from white society
• Moved natives out of good lands that whites wanted
• Could learn ways of civilization in protected setting

19. What is feminism and why was it important to early America? (329)

• Feminism: avocation of equal female rights and sexual equality
• Challenged previous social structure
• Socialist ideas incorporated into society

20. What happened at Seneca Falls? (329)

• Mott, Stanton, Anthony & Co, organized a conventions in Seneca Falls NY (1848) to discuss the question of women’s rights
• “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” – women = men
• Demand for women’s suffrage

21. Create a chart that shows the ways that shows the successes and failures of the abolitionist movement. (330-336)
23. What was the Amistad case? (336)

• 1839 Africans destined for slavery in Cuba seized the ship from crew and tired to return to Africa
• John Quincy Adams argued on behalf of Abolitionists at Supreme Court
• Court declared Africans free in 1841

22. How did the abolitionist movement galvanize the northern states and also contribute to the growing schism between the north and south states? (330-336)

• many reforms succeeded at the state level in the Northern/Western states but had little impact on many areas of the South
• Northerners worked to perfect their own society through change; southerners committed to tradition
• South depended on slaves for agricultural economy; North = not dependent upon slaves
• South --> alarmed to see northern reformers join forces to support antislavery movement; viewed social reform as a northern conspiracy against the southern way of life