Antebellum American Society

2. Trends in Antebellum America, 1810-1860
1. Nationalism (American identity)
2. Democratization (Jacksonian democracy)
3. Territorial expansion (Manifest Destiny, annexation of Texas,
Mexican War)
4. Economic development (American System, infrastructure,
Industrial Revolution, King Cotton)
5. Marshall Ct. decisions  federal power 
6. Population growth and immigration (Irish and German
Catholics)
7. Emotional movements (Romanticism, Transcendentalism,
Second Great Awakening)
8. Social reforms (abolition, women’s suffrage, educational
reform, prison/mental health reform)

3. Sectionalism
EAST  Industrial
SOUTH  Cotton & Slavery
(MID)WEST  Nation’s “Breadbasket”

4. American Population Centers in 1820

5. American Population Centers in 1860

6. National Origin of Immigrants:
1820 - 1860
Why now?

7. American View of the Irish Immigrant

8. Know-
Nothing
Party:
“The Supreme
Order of the
Star-Spangled
Banner”

10. Cultural Nationalism
American English - Noah Webster, 1828

11. American literature: Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
James Fennimore Cooper

12. American art:
1) Neoclassical
2) Romanticism: Hudson River school and Transcendentalism

13. Monticello

14. Virginia State Capitol

15. Jefferson Rotunda
(Univ. of VA), 1819-26

16. Neo-Classical Architecture:
U. S. Customs House, 1836

17. The Capitol Rotunda

18. George Washington
Horatio Greenough, 1841
The “New Cincinnatus”?

19. In Nature’s Wonderland Thomas Doughty, 1835
Hudson River School

20. Niagara
Frederic Church, 1857

21. View of the Catskills, Early Autumn
Thomas Cole, 1837

22. View from Mt. Holyoke: The Oxbow
Thomas Cole, 1836

23. The Course of Empire: The Savage State
Thomas Cole, 1834

24. The Course of Empire: The Arcadian
or The Pastoral State - Thomas Cole, 1836

25. The Course of Empire: Consummation
Thomas Cole, 1836

26. The Course of Empire: Destruction
Thomas Cole, 1836

27. The Course of Empire: Desolation
Thomas Cole, 1836

28. Kindred Spirits – Asher Durand, 1849

29. Watercolors by John Audubon
Stanley Hawk Barred Owl

30. Boston Harbor from Constitution Wharf
Robert Salmon, 1833

31. The Constitution in Boston Harbor
Fitz Hugh Lane, 1848-49

32. Fur Trappers Descending the Missouri
George Caleb Bingham, 1845

33. The Landing of the Pilgrims
Unknown Artist, 1830s

34. Washington Crossing the Delaware
Emmanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1851

35. Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawnees
Charles Bird King, 1821
1. “Noble Savage”

36. Buffalo Bull’s Back Fat,
Head Chief,
Blood Tribe - George
Caitlin, 1832
2. The “Stoic” Indian

37. Mato-Tope – Karl Bodmer,
1830s
3. The “Demonic” Indian

38. Osage Scalp Dance
John Mix Stanley, 1845

39. Last of the Race – Tompkins Matteson, 1847
4. The “Doomed” Indian

40. Dying Indian Chief
Contemplating the
Progress of Civilization
Thomas Crawford, 1857

41. Changing Occupation Distributions:
1820 - 1860

42. Economic Nationalism
First Turnpike, Lancaster, PA (1790)
By 1832: 2400 mi. of roads

43. Cumberland “National Road,” 1811

44. Conestoga Covered Wagons

45. Yankee Clipper Ships

46. Robert Fulton, The Clermont

47. Erie Canal System, 1817-1825

48. The Erie Canal, 1820s

49. Principal Canals in 1840

50. The “Iron Horse” Wins!, 1830
1830  13 miles of track built by Baltimore & Ohio RR
By 1850  9000 mi. of RR track [1860  31,000 mi.]

51. The
Railroad
Revolution,
1850s
 Immigrant labor
built the No. RRs.
 Slave labor
built the So. RRs.

52. Inland Freight Rates

53. Anything new is quickly introduced here, including all of the
latest inventions. There is no clinging to old ways. The
moment an American hears the word “invention,” he pricks
up his ears.
New Inventions
1800  41 patents approved
1860  4,357 patents approved
- German visitor in the 1840s

54. John Deere, Steel Plow (1837)

55. Cyrus McCormick, Mechanical Reaper (1831)

56. Samuel F. B. Morse
1840 – Telegraph

57. Cyrus Field, Transatlantic Cable, 1858

58. Elias Howe & Isaac Singer
1840s
Sewing Machine

59. Samuel Slater
“Father of the Factory System”

60. Francis Cabot Lowell =
Lowell Mill, MA

61. Lowell Girls

62. Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory
Interchangeable Parts Rifle

63. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, 1791
Actually invented by a
slave!

64. The Antebellum South
1. Agrarian
2. VA & SC Deep South
3. “Cotton Is King!” 1860 57% of US exports
4. Slow industrialization
5. Rudimentary financial system
6. Inadequate transportation

65. Slave-Owning Population (1850)

66. Slaves Using the Cotton Gin

67. Value of Cotton Exports
As % of All US Exports

68. Slave Master
Brands
Slave Accoutrements
Slave muzzle

69. Slave tag, SC
Slave Accoutrements
Slave leg irons
Slave shoes

70. Anti-Slavery Pamphlet

71. Slave Rebellions:
Nat Turner, 1831

72. Religious/Social Movements
 Second “Great Awakening”
 Abolitionism
 Mormonism
 Transcendentalism
 Utopianism

73. The Second “Great Awakening:”
Revivalist Meeting

74. Charles G. Finney
The ranges of tents, the
fires, reflecting light…; the
candles and lamps
illuminating the
encampment; hundreds
moving to and fro…;the
preaching, praying, singing,
and shouting,… like the
sound of many waters, was
enough to swallow up all
the powers of
contemplation.
“soul-shaking”
conversion

75. “Burned-Over” District
in Upstate New York

76. The Mormons
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
Joseph Smith
(1805-1844)
Brigham Young
(1801-1877)

77. Violence Against Mormons

78. The Mormon “Trek”

79. Transcendentalism
“Transcend” intellect: shift from reason  emotion
Restore man to divine dignity:
 Abolitionism
 Welfare
 Education
 Healthcare
 Justice

80. Transcendentalist
Intellectuals/Writers
Concord, MA
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Henry David
Thoreau
Nature
(1832)
Walden
(1854)
Resistance to Civil
Disobedience
(1849)
Self-Reliance (1841)
“The American
Scholar” (1837)
R3-1/3/4/5

81. Utopian Communities

82. Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Utopian Socialist
“Village of Cooperation”

83. Original Plans for New Harmony, IN
New Harmony in 1832

84. Penitentiary Reform
Dorothea Dix
(1802-1887)
1821  first penitentiary in
Auburn, NY
R1-5/7

85. Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849

86. Temperance Movement
Frances Willard
The Beecher Family
1826 - American Temperance Society
“Demon Rum”!
R1-6

87. Annual Consumption of Alcohol

88. Children = clay “molded” into
perfection
Discouraged corporal punishment
Est. state teacher-training
“Father of American Education”
Horace Mann (1796-1859)
R3-6

89. Early 19c Women
1. No vote
2. Legal minor
3. Property:
• Single  yes
• Married  no control over property or
children; no wills, contracts, or lawsuits
w/o husband’s permission
4. Could not initiate divorce

90. Cult of Domesticity = Slavery
Second Great Awakening
inspired women to improve status
Angelina Grimké Sarah Grimké
Southern Abolitionists
R2-9

91. Women’s Rights
World Anti-Slavery Convention, 1840, London 
Seneca Falls, NY Declaration of Sentiments, 1848
Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton
R2-6/7

92. Abolitionist Movement
1816: American Colonization Society 
Liberia, 1820

93. Early Emancipation in the North

94. William Lloyd Garrison, 1801-1879
Slavery undermined republican values
Immediate emancipation with NO compensation.
Slavery was a moral, not an economic issue.
R2-4

95. Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
1845  The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass
1847  “The North Star”
R2-12

96. Sojourner Truth
1787-1883
1850  The Narrative of
Sojourner Truth
R2-10

97. Harriet Tubman
(1820-1913)
• Underground Railroad:
Led 300+ slaves to freedom.
• $40,000 bounty
• Union spy during CW
“Moses”

98. The Underground Railroad