A. THE CULT OF DOMESTICITY/REPUBLICAN MOTHERHOOD
1. American women could not vote, serve on juries, or perform other civic tasks. These restrictions raised the question of what role women should play in the new republic.
2. The concept of "republican motherhood" advanced the idea that women did have a vital role to play as wives and mothers. Proponents argued that women should be educated to rear their children to be virtuous citizens of the new American republic.
3. The republican mother should be concerned with domestic, family, and religious affairs.
TEST TIP
Many students are surprised when they encounter APUSH questions on the cult of domesticity/republican motherhood. They shouldn't be. Most APUSH exams have one, possibly even two multiple-choice questions on this important concept. Test writers have used straightforward definitions, quotes, and even pictures to see if students can identify the cult republican motherhood. A recent APUSH exam devoted the DBQ (document-based essay question) to this topic.
B. FACTORY WORKERS IN LOWELL
1. During the first half of the nineteenth century, textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, relied heavily on a labor force of women and children.
2. During the 1820s and 1830s, the majority of workers in the textile mills of Massachusetts were young, unmarried women.
3. Prior to the Civil War, Irish immigrants began to replace New England farm girls in the textile mills.
A. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
1. The movement was led by middle-class women.
2. It promoted a broad-based platform of legal and educational rights.
3. It had close links with the anti-slavery and temperance movements.
4. Followers held conventions in the Northeast and Midwest but not in the South.
B. THE SENECA FALLS CONVENTION, 1848
1. The Seneca Falls Convention was organized and led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.
2. The "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" issued by the Seneca Falls Convention demanded greater rights for women. The declaration's first sentence clearly stated this goal: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal."
3. The Seneca Falls Convention called for women's rights in the following areas:
• Women's suffrage
• Women's right to retain property after marriage
• Greater divorce and child custody rights
• Equal educational opportunities
TEST TIP
It is important to know what reforms the Seneca Falls Convention called for. It is also important to know what reforms the convention did not call for. For example, the Seneca Falls Convention did not call for more liberal abortion laws or equal pay for equal work.
C. DOROTHEA DIX
1. Dorothea Dix worked to reform the treatment of people with mental and emotional disabilities.
2. Dix was not involved in the women's rights movement.
A. THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING
1. The Second Great Awakening was a wave of religious enthusiasm, led by itinerant preachers such as Charles Finney and Lyman Beecher.
2. Finney achieved his greatest success in central and western New York. This area became known as the "burned-over district" because of the fervent prayer meetings held during the Second Great Awakening.
3. The Second Great Awakening played an important role in making Americans aware of the moral issues posed by slavery.
B. AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY
1. The American Colonization Society worked to return freed slaves to the west coast of Africa.
2. The American Colonization Society was primarily led by middle-class men and women.
C. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
1. Garrison was the editor of the radical abolitionist newspaper The Liberator and one of the founders of the American Anti- Slavery Society.
2. In the first issue of The Liberator, Garrison called for the "immediate and uncompensated emancipation of the slaves."
3. Here is a famous quote published in the first issue of The Liberator on January 1, 1831: "Let Southern oppressors tremble ... I will be as harsh as Truth and as uncompromising as Justice ... I am in earnest—I will not retreat a single inch—and I WILL BE HEARD!"
4. Garrison's support of women's rights caused the American Anti-Slavery Society to split into rival factions.
D. FREDERICK DOUGLASS
1. Frederick Douglass was the most prominent Black abolitionist during the antebellum period.
2. Although best known as an abolitionist, Douglass championed equal rights for women and Native Americans. He often declared, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."
TEST TIP
Most APUSHstudents study Frederick Douglass, and a significant number have read portions of his autobiography. In contrast, many students only have a vague memory of William Lloyd Garrison. Be sure to update and sharpen your notes on Garrison. Although Frederick Douglass reigns supreme in textbooks and courses, APUSH test writers have written a number of questions about this fervent abolitionist.
E. SARAH MOORE GRIMKE
1. Grimke was one of the first women to publicly support both abolition and women's rights.
2. "I ask no favor for my sex," declared Grimke. "I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet off our necks."
A. TRANSCENDENTALISM
1. Transcendentalism is a philosophical and literary movement of the 1800s that emphasized living a simple life while celebrating the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination.
2. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were the leading transcendentalist writers.
B. UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES
1. Utopians shared a faith in perfectionism—that is, the belief that humans have the capacity to achieve a better life through conscious acts of will.
2. The best-known utopian communities included Brook Farm, New Harmony, and the Oneida Community.
3. Utopian communities strove to escape the competitiveness of American life, regulate moral behavior, and create cooperative lifestyles.
A. EDUCATION
1. McGuffey Readers were the best known and most widely used school books in the nineteenth century. Also known as Eclectic Readers, the books included stories, poems, essays, and speeches supporting patriotism and moral values.
2. Newspapers flourished during the first half of the nineteenth century.
3. Educational reformers worked to pass compulsory school laws, create more teacher-training schools, and use state and local taxes to finance public education.
B. THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL
1. The Hudson River School was a group of artists led by Thomas Cole, who painted landscapes emphasizing America's natural beauty.
2. The Hudson River School was America's first coherent school of art.