Transcript The Spirit of Reform: 1828-1845

The Spirit of Reform: 1828-1845
Chapter 8
Jacksonian America
Section 1
New Era in Politics
• Andrew Jackson – People’s President
– Diligence, hard working, and innate intelligence
– Achievements: Elected to TN state congress
before the age of 30, Battle of New Orleans –
War of 1812, and invaded and captured Spanish
Florida
– Spoils System: appointing friends, family, and
supporters to government jobs
• Jackson felt it was more democratic because it allowed
more people to hold government offices
Nullification Crisis
• South depended heavily on imports from England
• 1828, Congress passed a tariff that Southerners called
the Tariff of Abominations
– SC threatened to secede – leave the Union
– SC’s threat troubled VP John C. Calhoun
• Nullification – his idea
• Robert Haynes – pro-Nullification/Daniel Webster – pro-Union
– Jackson: “Our federal Union—it must be preserved”
– Calhoun: “The Union—next to liberty is most dear”
– Jackson considered nullification an act of treason
• He sent warships to Charleston, SC in response
Native Americans
• Jackson planned to relocate Native Americans to
the Great Plains
– Indian Removal Act provided money for the relocation
of Native Americans
– Worcester v. Georgia
• “Marshall made his opinion now let him enforce.”
• Martin van Buren becomes the 8th president
– He sent troops to force the Cherokee out of Georgia &
to the West – migration is known as the Trail of Tears,
4000 Native American died on the journey
Jackson Battles the National Bank
• Jackson believed the National Bank was a
monopoly that benefited the wealthy elite
• The Bank played a role in keeping the money
supply in the U.S. stable
– State banks would issue bank notes – could be
redeemed for gold or silver
• 1832, Jackson reelected & destroyed the bank
– May have caused many of the economic
problems of the U.S.
A New Party Emerges
• Whig Party formed in
opposition to Jackson &
the Democrats
• Panic of 1837:
– Many banks failed
– businesses failed
– Thousands of farmers
lost their land
– Unemployment soared
among Eastern factory
workers
Whigs
Democrats
Larger federal Limited
government
federal
government
Industrial &
Distrusted
commercial
eastern
development merchants
and business
leaders
Centralized
economy
Changing Culture
Section 2
New Wave of Immigrants
• Many immigrants coming into the U.S. in the
early to mid-1800s were Irish & German.
– They faced prejudice.
– Nativism: hostility towards foreigners
– Many political organizations wanted to ban
immigrants and Catholics from government offices
Literary Renaissance
• Romantic movement – originated from Europe
• Romanticism advocated (FOUR things):
–
–
–
–
Feeling over reason
Inner spirituality over external rules
Individual above society
Nature over environment created by humans
• American Romantics became known as the
Transcendentalists
– They urged people to transcend (1) the limits of their minds
and (2) let their souls reach out to embrace the beauty of
the universe
American Writers Emerge
• Ralph Waldo Emerson – influential
transcendentalist – communion with the natural
world
• Thoreau believed one must fight not to conform
• Hawthorne’s novel = Scarlett Letter
– Explores the persecution and psychological suffering
that results from sin
• Emily Dickinson, poet
– Simple, personal, deeply, and emotional poetry
Utopian Communities
• Utopia: “no place;” perfect world/society
• Shaker Communities (religious) and
Brookhaven are two examples of Utopian
experiments in the U.S. during this time
period
Reforming Society
Section 3
The Reform Spirit
• New reform spirit brought on by the Second
Great Awakening
• Dorothea Dix advocated prison reform
– Also advocated the creation of mental institutions
• Women were very involved in the reform
movements-Christian Church basis
– Parts of society needing reform:
• Excessive drinking,
• Prison,
• & Education
Temperance Movement
• Reformers believed no vice caused more
crime, disorder, and poverty than alcohol
• 1920s – Prohibition
• 18th Amendment – Prohibition; 21st
Amendment Repeal of Prohibition
Educational Reform
• Reformers pushed for the idea of public schools
funded by the government and open to citizens
– Increase in immigrants showed need for public
education
– Democracy can only survive if populace is educated
and informed
– Horace Mann – leader of Educational Reform
• 50 new HS & doubled teacher pay
• MA passed first mandatory attendance
• Elizabeth Blackwell – first women to graduated
from Medical School
Early Women’s Rights Movement
• Women held as the conscience of the home &
society
• Realized the need for political power & right to vote
• Fuller believed if men & women treated equal it
would be all injustices
• Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton
– Seneca Falls – organized women’s movement
• 15 states allowed women to retain property after
death of husband
• Movement picked back up after the Civil War
Abolitionist Movement
Section 4
Early Opposition to Slavery
• Many Americans called for an immediate end
to slavery
– Abolition was the most controversial issues &
divided the U.S. between North & South –
eventually leads to the Civil War
– Gradualism: end slavery in phases over a long
period of time
– Colonization: send slaves back to Africa in a
colony in Liberia
New Abolitionists
• Abolitionists argued: (1) enslaved Af Am should
be freed immediately & (2) no compensation for
slaveholders
• Garrison said slavery = sin that U.S. needs to
repent for
– William Lloyd Garrison – the Liberator – time for
moderation is over! Complete emancipation now!
• 190,000 Af Am in North – enjoyed freedoms
– Frederick Douglass – escaped slave from MD,
published the North Star
– Sojourner Truth –female abolitionist
Response to Abolition
• South felt attacked
• Northerners disagreed with slavery & opposed
extreme abolition because:
– Abolition would upset the social structure
– Could produce a destructive war
– More Af Am in the North
– Did not want to see South’s economy fail
• Southerners defended slavery –”national benefit”
– Dew thought most slaves did not want freedom
– Anti-Slavery literature not allowed in the South
• Crusade of Abolition reminder of dividing nation