Social Reforms

• Medicine: Benjamin Rush • Education: Noah Webster• Free public education: republican virtues• Role of Women: increased education

– “Republican Motherhood”

Industrial Revolution• James Watt: steam engine

(1770’s)• Britain’s design: secretive

– Samuel Slater: first textile mill in U.S.

• Steam Power: transportation– Robert Fulton: Clermont

(1807)• Against the stream• Increase shipping

Eli Whitney• Interchangeable Parts - guns

• Cotton Gin (1793) separates the seeds

• Effects of the Cotton Gin:– Production increase= profits (exports)– Major cash crop of the South = need

more land– Plantations need more labor =

increased demand for slave labor in the South!

– Factions

Transportation Revolution• Clipper Ships

• Canals: Erie Canal (1825)

• Roads: Cumberland Road – from Maryland to Ohio

• Railroads: steam locomotive– Baltimore and Ohio (1828)

Religious Life• Second Great

Awakening– Revival: tent meetings– New denominations:

Baptist, Methodists, etc.

– African American denominations• Richard Allen: African

American Episcopal Church (AME)

The Mormons Settle Utah• Joseph Smith = “spiritual leader”

and founder• (NY to Ohio to Missouri to Nauvoo,

IL)• 1843 –Smith says men can have

more than one wife at the same time

• 1844 – Smith and brother killed in hostile attack

• Brigham Young – took over, moved everyone beyond the US border to Utah

• By 1860, 30,000 Mormons lived in Utah

• 1896 – Utah becomes the 45th state of the union with Brigham Young as governor

Reform in America

From Temperance to Abolition:Social Reform in the mid-1800’s

Birth of the Reform Age

• Congestion in the East• Second Great

Awakening: roots of reform

• Transcendentalism: “rise above” philosophical movement– Ralph Waldo Emerson– Henry David Thoreau

Temperance

• Temperance Movement: campaign to eliminate alcohol consumption.

• Abstinence: to not drink alcohol–Alcohol free establishments–Health benefits–Economic benefits–To stop physical abuse–Laws against drinking?

Women and Reform• Catharine Beecher:

traditional roles & education• Dorothea Dix: prison reform• Limits for women: lacked

political power– Could not vote/hold office– Most states: can’t own

property– Denied full rights as

American citizens• Fight for abolition: parallels

and limits

Women’s Rights• Angelina & Sarah Grimke• Women writers: reach a wide

audience– Sojourner Truth: Life of Harriett

Tubman– Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s

Cabin• World Anti-Slavery Convention:

no women allowed (1840)– Lucretia Mott– Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Seneca Falls Convention• 1848: First women’s rights

convention• Elizabeth Cady Stanton:

equal rights – Declaration of Sentiments:

signed by 68 women and 32 men

– Stanton: seeks Women’s suffrage• Criticism: including Mott• Slow road: more Beecher less

Stanton

The Anti-Slavery Movement• Abolitionist movement: end slavery• Moderates: emancipation• Radicals:

– William Lloyd Garrison: The Liberator– Frederick Douglas: North Star

• Divisions among Abolitionists• Underground Railroad• A long road of resistance

The West and Manifest Destiny

Lewis and Clark

Map proceeds the territory

Lewis and Clark• 1803: Jefferson asks Congress for money to send

an exploration team to map the far Northwest.

• 1804: Corps of Discovery– Team of 45 begin in St. Louis ascend the Missouri River– Built fort in North Dakota– Acquire Indian guide Sacajawea (Indian interpreter)– They crossed the Continental Divide and take the

Columbia River to the Pacific.– They split up, Lewis heading back the same way they

came, but Clark took the Yellowstone River home.

Lewis and Clark’s path

1845 – John L. O’Sullivan• It is the nation’s “manifest destiny

to overspread and possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.”

“Go West Young Man, and grow up with the country…”

(?Horace Greeley?)

• Reasons for Westward Expansion:– Congestion in the East– Panic of 1837….economic

depression– Religious freedom and

conversion

• Criticisms of Manifest Destiny:– Moral justification for U.S.

expansion– Rationalizations for greed and

imperialism

Successful Movements Westward

• Follow established trails either alone or in a wagon train

• Deal effectively with any Indians they encounter

• Bring enough essentials to make it all the way, but not too much to load themselves down unnecessarily

Much, Much more on this

on Monday…

Young Americans• Political and literary movement:

– America was on the move onward, upward, and Westward to spread democracy and morals

• Manifest Destiny achieved through:– Aggressive foreign policy– Rapid economic growth– Territorial acquisitions

• Responsibilities: sense of duty and mission– To advance civilization to those less fortunate– “White Man’s Burden”

Native American Resistance• American expansion increases

after the Revolution.

• Many Native Americans fight back

• Battle of Fallen Timbers (1795) – General “Mad Anthony Wayne” leads

Americans to defeat the Indians. – They are forced to sign the Treaty of

Greenville, they lose 2/3 of Ohio territory

The California Gold RushIn 1848, gold was found at

Sutter’s Mill. 4,000 people rush to California.

Date Population of California

1848 14,0001849 100,0001852 200,000

5% were Women and Children10% were ChineseCame from US, Europe, Asia, and South America

Nicknamed “The 49ers”

Other Major Gold Strikes:• Late 1850s –

Cripple Creek, Colorado

• 1858 – Fraser River, Canada

• 1859 – Comstock Lode, Nevada

Boom Town – appeared “overnight” with saloons, stores, and banks.Ghost Town – ex-boom town, some become tourist/ski spots, most still deserted.

How to go West, & how NOT to go West

Oregon Trail & the Donner Party

The Oregon Trail

The Donner Party: Where Manifest Destiny Becomes

Manifest Doom…

Where they Meant to Go…

A Quick Timeline of Events…• "The Picnic"

• March 1846: George Donner runs a classified ad in a Springfield, Ill., newspaper in search of people interested in joining his wagon train.• May 12: The assembled team crosses the Missouri River and heads into the wilderness.• July 12: The party arrives in Independence Rock, Wyo.

• "The Short cut"• July 19: The fatal decision is made to try an unproved short cut to California. It was thought that the unproved route was going to save the travelers several hundred miles and two weeks of travel. But in reality it added 125 miles and more than a month of time. Separated and hungry, members of the party reached Reno through the last week of October.

• Oct. 31: With snows already piling up in the Sierra, the Donner Party finally reaches Donner Lake. They have only 100 miles left to reach the Sacramento Valley.

• “The Disaster"• Nov 1: In the first hours of the night a huge storm hits the Sierra, blanketing everything in dense snow cover. For 20 days the group attempts different routes and methods to ascend the summit, but are finally forced to surrender and wait out the winter.• Of 81 people who arrived at Donner that October, nearly half died of cold, starvation, and illness.• The last surviving Donner Party member was rescued on April 23, 1847, more than one year after leaving the Midwest.