Revolt, Resistance & Reform

Feminism, Abolition, Indian Removal1820 -1840

Study Guide Identification’s

• American Temperance Society• Benevolent Empire• Intemperance• Social Mother• New York Female Reform

Society• Sarah Joseph Hale• Working Man’s Movement• Institutional Reforms• Abolition• William Lloyd Garrison

American Colonization SocietyAmerican Anti Slavery SocietyBlack AbolitionDavid WalkerNat Turner’s RebellionNew England Non-Resistant SocietyElizabeth Cady StantonSeneca Fall’sDeclaration of Sentiments

Study Guide Questions

• What role would did women play in the reform movements that followed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution?

• What characterized the evolution of women’s reform?

Historical Context Review

• Industrial Revolution 1820 – 1860• Living standards of artisans and mechanics, the working class

declined– Slums overcrowded– Poor lived in cellars– Malnutrition & disease

• Labor Republicans– Wanted to abolish servitude & among whites– Create virtuous citizens– Defined as not a slave or hireling– Independent small producers– Protestant work ethic– Frugal and hard working

Historical Context

• Jackson Era, 1824 – 1845

– Extension of white male democracy– Popular religious revolt– Rise of Jackson’s Democrats (1824-28)– Jackson appeal – Indian removal– Spoils System

White Male Suffrage

• 1800-1820s – restrictions on white male suffrage under attack

• Political Democracy – defined as the majority rule of white males– States removed/reduced property qualifications for office

holding– Popular choice for presidential candidates– Tax paying qualification for voting– Seth Luther “we wish nothing , but those equal rights,

which were designed for us all”

2nd Great Awakening

• Evangelical sects led by Methodists and Baptists radically transformed religious landscape, 1800-1840.

• Gave religious expression to popular impulse behind democratic reform

• Populist rejection of traditional religious canons– Rejection of predestination– People could choose salvation

Attack of Black suffrage

• Working man’s complicity in destruction of black rights and suffrage– New York 1825– Connecticut 1818– Columbia Pennsylvania 1834– Rhode Island 1822 (attempt)

The creation of the anti-citizen• Rise of Popular Racism in the North– Tools of working class repression

• New industrial morality 1812 – 1860

– White tools of black repression• Race riots, attacks on churches and homes• Exclusivity of trade unions• Minstrel shows – conscious racism• Popularize racist pseudo science, plea for white unity in the Democratic

party• 1850s republication of “A Plea for Slavery” by Bartholome De Las Casas• Color bars in employment• Repression of multiracial celebrations – Pinkster Celebrations, NY and NJ

American Colonization Society

• Founded in 1817 – By slave holding politicians from the upper south

such as Henry Clay, James Madison and President James Monroe

• Gradual emancipation followed by the removal of black people from America to Africa – Goal was to make America all free and all white.

Black Abolition• A black petition in 1817 states that banishment from America

would “not only be cruel, but in direct violation of the principles which have been the boast of this republic.”

• 1827 Freedom’s Journal• David Walker, “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World,”

1829 – Rejected colonization – Indictment of white greed and hypocrisy – “America is more our country, than it is the whites, we have enriched

it with our blood and tears,” and he warned that “wo be to you if we have to obtain our freedom by fighting.”

Nat Turner’s Rebellion exploded in 1831 and gave rise to white abolitionists who rejected colonization

American Anti-Slavery Society• Founded in 1833 by Black and White Abolitionists • With financial backing spread the messages:

– Printed word• Documented indictment of slaver,• American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses

– Rallies– Paid lectures– Children’s games and toys– Sermons– Published sayings on posters, emblems, song sheets and candy

wrappers

Anti-slavery men

Anti- Abolition Movement• Mid 1830s anti-abolitionist mobs in the north

– disrupted anti slavery meetings– beat and stoned speakers– destroyed the printing press– burned homes of wealthy benefactors – vandalized free black movements

• In the south – burned and censored anti-slavery literature– offered rewards for capturing leading abolitionists to stand trial for

inciting slave revolts– tightened up slave codes and surveillance of free blacks.– Democrats in congress passed a gag rule that automatically tabled

anti-slavery petitions

Reform Movement

• The Benevolent Empire– Voluntary church-affiliated reform organizations– Eastern elites and families– Impose moral discipline

• Religious/Christian Conversion would provide order among the lower classes– IN part a response to ills born of, or exacerbated

by , the Industrial Revolution

Goals of Early Reform

• Andover South Parish Society for the Reformation of Morals– “to discountenance [discourage] immorality,

particularly Sabbath breaking, intemperance, and profanity, and to promote industry, order, piety and good morals”

Temperance Movement

• American Temperance Society– Founded in Boston, 1826 by Upper-middle class– Businessmen used ideas to create a regimented

labor force

• Intemperance – the greatest sin – Crime, poverty, insanity, broken families

Washington Temperance Societies

• Economic Depression of 1839-43

• Washingtonians– Small businessmen and

artisans carried temperance into working class districts

– Insisted that Temperance would allow survival of the depression

– Between 1830 and 1845 consumption dropped

Women’s Role in Reform

• Phase I: Reform activities represented an extension of the domestic ideal promoted in the Cult of Domesticity

• “Social Mother”• 1797, the Society for the Relief of Poor

Widows with Small Children, New York

1820’s Women’s Reform

• Middle class women– Voluntary female groups• Maternal associations• Sponsored revivals• Established Sunday schools• Distributed bibles and religious tracts

• Widened public role of women• Reinforced cultural stereotypes of women as

helpmates who deferred to males

Women’s Role in Reform

• Phase II: 1830s– began to challenge male prerogatives• Crusade against prostitution exemplified new militancy

New York Female Moral Reform Society

• Crusade against prostitution– Advocate for Moral Reform, Identified male greed

and licentiousness as cause for fallen state of women

– businessmen exploited women and children for the low wages that forced some women to resort to prostitution

American Female Moral Reform Society

• 1839, Attack on the Sexual double standard – Women mounted lobbying campaign– Bypassed prominent men, reached a mass

audience– first state laws criminalizing seduction and

adultery in the 1840s

Boston Aid Society

• Sarah Joseph Hale – Rejected the benevolent tradition of

distinguishing between the “respectable” and the “unworthy”

– low wages and substandard housing that trapped her poor clients in poverty

– Businessmen exploited female labor

Backlash Against Benevolence

• Women’s growing public and political role was perceived by many men as a threat to their authority

• Men attacked feminized evangelicalism for undermining their paternal authority– Found in scripture an affirmation of patriarchal

power

Mormonism• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints– Represented the most enduring religious backlash• Established by Joseph Smith in Upstate New York in

1830• Provided a defense of communal beliefs centered on

male authority• Assigned complete spiritual and secular authority to

men• Only through subordination & obedience could women

hope to gain salvation

Trajectories for Reform & Social Improvement

• Public Education – 1st School Board, 1837• Utopian Communities• Penitentiaries or Prisons• Mental Hospitals or Asylums• Work houses• Orphanages• Reformatories

New England Non-Resistant Society

• Dedicated to the belief that a complete moral regeneration based on renouncing force in all human relationships, was necessary if America were ever to live up to its Christian and republican ideals

• Rejected

– all coercive authority• human bondage• male dominance in patriarchal family• racial oppression of black people• police power of government.

Abolition & Women’s rights

• Abolitionists– insisted that slavery was THE great national sin and it

mocked ideals of liberty and Christian morality.

• 1840, Movement led by William Lloyd Garrison split– Garrison’s division supported women’s rights– Female abolitionists organized a separate women’s rights

movement.

Women’s Rights Movement

• Feminism grew out of abolitionism• Parallels between slaves & women– Considered biologically inferior – Denied the vote– Deprived of property or control of wages after

marriage– Barred from most occupations and advanced

occupations

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton called the First National Convention devoted to Women’s rights at Seneca Fall, New York

Seneca Fall’s Convention

• Seneca Fall’s Convention defined goals of women’s movement for the rest of the century– Declaration of Sentiments – full female equality– identified male patriarchy as the source of women’s

oppression– demanded the vote

• New York’s Married Women’s Property Act of 1860– established women’s legal rights to their own wage income and to

sue fathers and husbands who tried to deprive them of their wages.

Study Guide Identification

• Jackson’s Indian Policy• 2 legal methods of removal• Treaty of Hopewell• Sequoyah• Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia 1831 &

Worcester Vs Georgia in 1832• Treaty and Ross Party• Cherokee and Choctaw Removal

Study Guide Questions

• What characterized Jackson’s Indian policy? How did southeastern nations respond?

• How did Jackson live up to his billing as a friend of the common man?

• Manifest Destiny– Nativism– Advance of Civilization– Transportation revolution– Market revolution– Industrial revolution– American Progress– Corporate interest– Right of way through – Indian lands (RR)

• Philosophy of Indian hating– Refusal to “meliorate” condition – to strive in the career of life

to acquire riches, honor, power or other object (moral values of market revolution)

– Inevitable destruction

Jackson’s Anti-Indian Policy

• Elected in 1828• Strongest support in West and South• Removing Indians from these regions - he

lived up to his billing as the friend of the common (white) man. – Washington McCartney wrote & delivered his

eulogy • Described Jackson as the embodiment of the nations

true spirit & ruling passion & head of the great movement of the age

Jackson & Removal

• 2 legal methods1. Indian removal through land allotment program• Provided for granting land fee simple title to individual

Native peoples• Landowner could then be reduced to citizenship or he

could sell and move west of the Mississippi river• Most often land grants would be taken by speculators

– 80-90% or 25 million acres were swindled by agents/speculators from tribes

Jackson & Removal

2. Direct removal through treaty

If Jackson could not buy out and remove them individually he would use the treaty method to remove the entire tribe directly

Southern Tribes

• The Treaty of Hopewell in 1785

– Cherokees would be under the protection of the US

– permit the government to regulate trade– try any American criminal acting within Cherokee

lands• secured their Sovereignty and land under the

treaty and agreed to maintain peace with the US

Seqouyah

– syllabry in 1821 – translated the bible – publishing a weekly paper– Sent representatives to congress to

monitor legislation• Adopted many of the trappings of

white society in order to placate Americans

Removal Policy

Thomas Jefferson - 1st president to propose removal

James Monroe - 1st to propose a plan for removal

Andrew Jackson - 1824 began campaigning openly in favor of forced removal

Congress passed Removal Act of 1830

Forced Removal• Southern Cotton Farmers and speculators

determined to that Arkansas was too valuable for Indians

• Various southern states passed discriminatory laws to forcing removal of tribes

• New waves of threats and violence perpetrated upon the people

Legal Resistance

• Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia 1831 & Worcester Vs Georgia in 1832

– a domestic nation occupying its own territory and boundaries – the Laws of Georgia did not apply – citizens had no right to enter

• Jackson ignored the ruling

Cherokee Removal• The Treaty Party– Major Ridge, John Ridge, Elias

Boudinot and Stand Watie decided the best course of action was to sign a treaty removing them from the lands

– Treaty of New Echota committed tribe to removal in 1835

• The Ross party – Chief John Ross opposed

removal at any cost.

Trail of Tears

• Georgia militia invaded homes– rounded people up– imprisoned them in stockades before driving them

like cattle to Indian territory– Soldiers seized men, women and children and

beat them when they resisted

• 25% of population died : disease, depression, starvation and exposure

Choctaw Removal• Removal began in 1830 – Treaty of Dancing

Rabbit Creek

• Government guarantee – to educate 40 Choctaw

per year – provide 50,000 for

public schools – 20,000/year for 20

years for supplies and moving expenses

Choctaw Removal• 1/4 chose to take allotments – Agent William Ward defrauded allottees– speculators and officials swindled resulting in

impoverished communities rampant with disease and death

– Those who removed thousands died from malnutrition and disease, as well as exposure.

Forced Removals

• Muscogee• Chickasaw• Seminole• Old northwestern Tribes• Wyandot• Northwestern Tribes following Lewis & Clark

Expedition• Navajo “The Long Walk”• California tribes – The Gold Rush