Essential QuestionsWhat is the significances of industrialization and

urbanization on life in America during the mid-1800s?

How did the women’s rights movement grow out of the abolitionist movement, and what opposition did it face?

Women in Society

-cult of domesticity

husband, children, home, church

- housework and child care were only proper activities for married women

-could not vote in most places –

-could not own property or keep wages if husband lived

Reformers

- middle-class white women inspired by the optimistic message of the Second Great Awakening

-expanding efforts to seek equal rights for themselves

-Abolitionists / Suffrage: right to vote

Women’s Reforms

Grimke sisters: abolitionists that taught slaves

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Stanton: organized the Seneca Falls Convention, women’s rights

Susan B. Anthony leader of women’s rights, voted illegally

Sojourner Truth former slave, women’s rights, “ain’t I woman?”

Women’s Reforms

-Temperance

- move to ban alcohol

- offshoot of increased influence of churches and the women’s rights movement

- American Temperance Society founded 1826

Women’s Movement

-women saw increased opportunities in reform movements

- i.e. abolitionists, religion

-Seneca Falls Convention, 1848Women’s rights. Led by Lucrietta Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“Declaration of Sentiments” based on Declaration of Independence

Reforms

-Women’s Education

Catherine Beecher

Oberlin College – first co-ed college

-Health Reform

- Elizabeth Blackwell – first woman to graduate from medical college

- Amelia Bloomer – publisher of a temperance newspaper, idea of bloomers

Markets Expand

-by the mid 1800’s people were no longer totally self-sufficient

- Market revolution: people bought and sold goods rather than making them for their own use;

-produce one product, buy all others

-specialization – (ex. Make one part of the finished product, rather than the entire thing)

-capitalism: production and distribution owned by individual or company

-standard of living rose for almost everyone!

Transportation Changes

-Robert Fulton

steam powered ships – makes travel against current possible

-many canals were built after Erie was completed – use of canals MUCH cheaper

-growth of railroads – will transform transportation

Inventions Improve Life

-Charles Goodyear

vulcanized rubber

-I.M. Singer

sewing machines

-Samuel Morse

telegraph, Morse code – improves communication

- relaying up-to-date information!

Agriculture

-people began to move into the mid-western parts of the nation

-John Deere: steel plows;

-Cyrus McCormick

mechanical reaper

**These two make farming and settlement of west easier**

Changing Workplace

-development of industry – continued expansion

-decline of skilled labor due to specialization

-growth of urban areas: cities and industrial areas

-cost of goods decreased and supply increased – Supply and Demand theory!

Factory System Begins

-Lowell textile mills 1st textile mill, located on rivers, most important industry before civil war

-factory system

-company town for young girls work before marriage

Company towns: everything is owned by the main company in the town

-strict control over the workers lives

-factory conditions would warn of future problems

Working Conditions

-long hours

-six days a week

-poor ventilation and lighting

-unsafe working conditions

-development of labor unions and strikes

Immigration

-lots of immigration in the mid 1800’s becomes referred to as “Old Immigration”

-mostly Irish or German

-most immigrants settled in groups, replace working women at mills

-low wages of immigrants caused problems with other workers – immigrants will work for less

-Growth of Nativism: opposition to immigration

-Know-Nothing Party: opposed to immigration