1. Women Reformers of Seneca Falls Respond to the Market Revolution
a. 1848- Charlotte Woodward persuaded six of her friends to travel to Seneca Falls to attend a “convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.”
b. Surprisingly, almost 300 people (men and women) attended the 2 day meeting
c. Declaration of Sentiments- The resolutions passed at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 calling for full female equality, including the right to vote.
i. Men had originally deprived women of legal rights, of the right to their own property, of custody of their children in cases of divorce, of the right to higher education, of full participation in religious worship and activity, and of the right to vote.
ii. Attendees approved all but one of the resolutions unanimously. The last, which was voted against, was thought too radical.
d. The struggle for women’s rights was only one of many reform movements that emerged in the United States in the wake of the economic and social disruptions of the market revolution that deeply affected regions like Seneca Falls.
e. Many of the reformers belonged to liberal religious groups with wide social perspectives.
f. Seneca Falls- early 1840s- “Temperance Reformation”- a more limited, but extremely popular reform cause dedicated to promoting abstinence from alcohol.
g. Nation’s best-known woman reformer- Lucretia Mott
i. Well known antislavery orator- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
h. The reforming women of Seneca Falls, grouped together on behalf of social improvement, had found in the first women’s rights convention a way to speak for the needs of working women.
2. Immigration and Ethnicity
a. Introduction
i. The impact of the market revolution was most noticeable in cities because of immigration.
b. Patterns of Immigration
i. Immigration increased began in the 1820s and increased dramatically after 1830
1. 20,000 in 1831 to 430,000in 1854
2. Declined in the years prior to the Civil War
3. Proportion of immigration in the population increased from 1.6% in 1820 to 11.2% in 1860.
4. By 1860, almost half New York’s population was foreign born
ii. Most of the immigrants came from Germany and Ireland.
1. Political unrest and poor economy in Germany
2. Potato Famine (1845-1849) in Ireland
3. Irish arrived poor
4. Most of the Irish and some of the Germans were Catholic and this provoked a nativist backlash among Protestant Americans
iii. Industries needed immigrants for workers.
1. Many of the changes in industry and transportation that accompanied the market revolution would have been impossible without immigrants.
2. Irish contract workers—Erie Canal (1825)
3. Irish- Lowell Mill
iv. Few immigrants had an easy or pleasant life in America
1. Endured harsh living and working conditions.
2. The state governments dealt with immigrants; not federal governments
a. New York did not establish an official reception center until 1855
c. Irish Immigration
i. The Irish had been emigrating to the United States long before the Potato Famine
1. Young people who wished to own land, but knew they could not in Ireland came to the US
ii. The British, who were governing Ireland as a colony, could not handle the Potato Famine
1. Irish were forced to either starve or die
a. 1mil died, 1.5mil emigrated
b. They were starving, diseased (typhus), and poor
iii. The Irish immigrants lacked the money to settle inland, so they settled in cities close to the New England Coast.
1. They settled in New York, but did not make a big difference.
2. Boston had a smaller population and there was a big difference there (by 1850, ¼ of population Irish).
a. Puritan-rich Boston did not appreciate the influx of illiterate Irish Catholic peasants.
i. “No Irish Need Apply” for jobs in the area.
d. German Immigration
i. By 1790, Germans made up 1/3 of Pennsylvania’s population.
ii. The typical German immigrant was a small farmer of artisan dealing with the same problems of the market revolution
iii. Germans were not nearly as poor as the Irish
1. Germans could afford to move away from the coastal cities
iv. Major ports Germans left from were Bremen (N. Germany) and Le Havre (N. France)
1. These ports were also the main ports for the importation of American tobacco and cotton
a. The tobacco ships took the immigrants to Baltimore and the cotton ships took them to New Orleans
v. Gold Rush in California drew in a lot of Chinese people
1. Chinese workers made up 90% of the people building the Central Pacific Railroad
2. San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest Chinese enclave in America
e. Ethnic Neighborhoods
i. Irish raised money to erect Catholic churches and schools
ii. Germans build their own “Little Germanies”
1. Formed leisure organizations and churches
2. Published German-language newspapers
iii. Americans were suspicious of the ethnic neighborhoods
f. Ethnicity and Whiteness in Urban Popular Culture
i. 1820-1860—New York experienced the replacement of artisanal labor with wagework, two serious depressions (1837-43 and 1857), and a large influx of immigrants
1. Response: violence
a. Brawls, riots, gangs
ii. Irish immigrants were depicted as monkeys similar to blacks, but Irish insisted on their “whiteness”
iii. Astor Place Riot of 1849 began as a theater riot by Irish immigrants and escalated into a battle between mod and militia (22 dead)
iv. Actors (mostly Irish) would paint their faces black and perform
3. Urban America
a. Introduction
i. It was within the new urban development that new American political and social forms began to emerge.
b. The Growth of Cities
i. The market revolution dramatically increased the size of America’s cities
1. 7% in 1820, 20% in 1860
a. Largest population jump in American history
ii. Nation’s top five largest cities: New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and New Orleans (New Orleans replaced Charleston from 1800)
iii. New York- most populous city, largest port, and financial center of the nation.
iv. Result of market revolution- “instant cities” at critical points in the new transportation network
c. Class Structure and Living Patterns in the Cities
i. Preindustrial cities in America had been small and compact to where people, rich and poor, lived near their workplace in a small scale housing pattern that encouraged friendliness
1. Growth of immigration changed that
ii. Although the per capita income had almost doubled between 1800 and 1850, the gap between rich and poor also increased greatly
1. The top 1% of the population owned 40% of the nation’s wealth while 1/3 of the population owned virtually nothing
a. Poor- unskilled working jobs, lived in cheap rented housing, moved frequently, depended on more than one income
b. Artisans and skilled workers- liked in cramped quarters that doubled as shops
c. Middle class- nice houses
d. Rich- mansions and townhouses with servants, multiple houses
2. “Streetcar suburbs”
iii. Sanitation was a big problem
1. Lacked municipal water supplies, sewers, and garbage collection
a. People drank from wells, used outhouses that often contaminated the water supply, and threw garbage out the door
i. Yellow fever, cholera, typhus
2. Some cities completed water systems, but only the wealthy could afford them
3. When disease epidemics hit, rich people usually left the area
iv. Slums developed as middle class families left the area
1. Worst slum in New York was Five Points
2. Immigrants, free blacks, criminals
3. Starvation and murder were common
4. Diseases were blamed on the slums
d. Civic Order
i. The challenges of the middle class were publicized by political papers and popular “penny papers” (began 1833)
1. These challenges were the inspiration for authors like Democratic Party activist and poet, Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass, 1855)
2. Edgar Allen Poe wrote “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) and “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1842) about contemporary American crimes
ii. Working-class used the streets for parades, celebrations, and marches.
1. New Orleans was most notable for this
a. African American bands played funeral processions
b. Dances in Congo Square attracted hundreds of slaves
2. Choctaw Indians drummed
3. Respectable middle-class men rang cowbells as they took part in rowdy protests
iii. New York’s New Year’s Eve “frolics”
1. Members of the lower class paraded through the streets playing music
2. By 1828, the event was taken over by gangs who walked through the city vandalizing it.
3. 1829- parade was banned
iv. New York’s first response to violence was to hire more city watchmen
1. Militia was called to restrain riots
a. Deaths were common
2. 1845- NY created a permanent police force
v. Beginning in 1830s, series of riots broke out against Catholics (Irish) and free blacks
e. Urban Life of Free African Americans
i. ½ mil free blacks by 1860 (11% of black population)
1. More than half lived in North
a. Competed with immigrants and poor people for jobs
ii. Free African Americans faces discrimination and segregation
1. Residential segregation, pervasive job discrimination, segregated public schools, severe limitations of civil rights
2. Exclusion from leisure activities and places and public transportation
a. Frederick Douglass was denied admittance to a zoo, a public lecture, a restaurant, and a public omnibus all within a span of a few days
iii. African Americans, like the Irish and German, created their own communities
1. Formed associations for helping the poor of their community, self-improvement, and socializing
2. Established their own newspapers
3. Major community organization- African Methodist Episcopal (AME) or black Baptist
iv. Employment prospects for black men deteriorated
1. Forced from jobs and sons were denied apprenticeships
2. Blacks made up a large portion of sailors
a. Pay was poor, conditions were miserable
b. More equality on ships than land
3. Women worked as domestic servants, washerwomen, and seamstresses
v. Free African Americans worked to help slaves
1. There were many riots against the free blacks themselves also
a. Philadelphia- “City of Brotherly Love” was the worst
4. The Labor Movement and Urban Policies
a. Introduction
i. Traditional political leadership of wealthy elite was replaced by professional politicians.
b. The Tradition of Artisanal Politics
i. Urban centers had been strongholds of craft associations for artisans and skilled workers
1. Workers’ organizations were strong and solid
ii. Riots and demonstrations over matters simple and complex were traditions by workers
1. Urban workers had been an integral part of the older social order controlled by the wealthy elite.
iii. By the 1830s, the status of the artisans and independent craftsmen in the nation’s cities had changed
iv. Open antagonism between workers and employers was new
1. Workers realized they had to depend on other workers, not their employers, for support.
c. The Union Movement
i. Urban worker protests took forms of party politics
1. The Workingmen’s Party (founded in Philadelphia 1827)
a. “Workies” campaigned for 10 hour day and the preservation of the small artisanal shop
b. Jacksonian Democrats picked up on their themes
i. Neither major political party really spoke for the workers
1. Unhappy with the political parties, workers turned to labor organizations
ii. Between 1833 and 1837 there was a wave of strikes in NY
1. Workers wanted higher wages and the strike was won because a bunch of other workers helped
2. Formed General Trades Union (GTU) in 9 different trades
a. Forty strikes between 1833 and 1837
b. Formation of more than 50 unions
3. Formed National Trades Union (NTU)
iii. Employers very upset with Unions
1. One case in NY, employers took tailors to court over strikes
a. Judge Ogden Edwards declared the strikers guilty of conspiracy and declared unions un-American
b. GTU responded with a burned effigy of Edwards
c. GTU collapsed during the Panic of 1837
iv. Early unions included only white men in skilled trades
1. Made up only a small portion of all workers
2. Majority of workers were excluded
d. Big-City Machines
i. Workers were not able to create strong unions or political parties that favored their interests, but they managed to shape urban politics
1. As population grew, so did the number of voters
a. Half of the voters were foreign born by 1855
i. There was a big difference between the immediate immigrant suffrage and the continuing restrictions on African Americans
b. At the time, America was the only nation where property less white men had the right to vote
ii. Old system of leadership= social unity of eighteenth century cities; new machine system= class structure of nineteenth century cities
1. Feelings of community were now cultivated politically
2. Legally, three years of residence were required before citizenship, but evidence of faster naturalization was evident
3. Irish typically were Democrats while Germans, who were less politically active, voted Republican
a. Irish and Germans destroyed the Whig party
iii. Tammany Society- a fraternal organization of artisans begun in the 1780s that evolved into a key organization of the new mass politics in New York City
1. Affiliated with Democrats
2. Parades, rallies, current songs, party newspapers
iv. Tight system of political control beginning at the neighborhood level with ward committees and topped by a chairman of a citywide general committee
v. Machine politics- bosses, at the citywide level, bartered the loyalty and votes of their followers for positions on the city payroll for party members and community services for their neighborhood
1. The machines offered personal ties and loyalties to recent arrivals in big cities and help during hard times to the workers who voted for them
vi. Critics said the big-city machines were corrupt; they often were
5. Social Reform Movements
a. Introduction
i. Middle class people tried to deal with the social changes in their community by joining groups dedicated to reforms.
ii. Printing presses greatly intensified the messages of the reforms.
b. Evangelism, Reform, and Social Control
i. The Evangelical religion was fundamental to social reform
1. Evangelismàpersonal reformàsocial reform
2. “perfectionism”—it was possible for all Christians to personally understand and live by God’s will and thereby become “as perfect as God”
3. Members of evangelistic religions really expected to convert the world and create the perfect moral and religious community on earth
ii. The new middle class set the agenda for reform
1. Reformers realized that large cities had to make large-scale provisions for social misfits and that institutional (i.e. insane asylums) rather than private efforts were needed
iii. Moralistic dogmatism
1. They knew they were right and intended to see improvements enacted
2. People did not always want to be the subject of the reformers concern
iv. Evangelical reformers promoted dangerous hostility towards Catholics (Irish and German immigrants
1. Sought uniformity rather than tolerance
a. Strong nativism infected American politics between 1840-60
v. Regional and national reform organizations grew from local projects to dealing with drinking, prostitution, mental illness, and crime
1. Lyman Beecher- General Union for Promoting the Observance of the Christian Union
a. Beecher also leader of anti-Catholic and anti-immigration movement
vi. Sabbatarianism- reform movement that aimed to prevent business on Sundays
1. Controversial
a. 6-day workers upset that their taverns were forced closed on Sundays
b. Were unable to stop the traffic of passenger and freight boats
c. Education and Women Teachers
i. Women became involved in reform movements through their churches
1. Women got together to talk about how to raise their children—reflected a new and more positive definition of childhood
2. Puritans believed children were born with sin and punishment was harsh and physical.
a. Educational reformers believed children needed gentle nurturing and encouragement
ii. Schooling for white children aged 5-19 was common
1. Term only a month or so long
2. Uniformity in curriculum and grading spread rapidly to other states
iii. The spread of public education created the first real career opportunity for women
1. Grades separated by age were created
2. Wanted to create a friendly atmosphere
a. Who better than women?
iv. Women usually taught in years between their own schooling and marriage
1. Though teaching was an adventure
2. Half the pay as male teachers
3. Teaching was appealing for marriage prospects
d. Temperance
i. American Society for the Promotion of Temperance- Largest reform organization of its time dedicated to ending the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages
ii. Temperance- Reform movement originating in the 1820s that sought to eliminate the consumption of alcohol
1. Social and political issue
iii. Excessive drinking was a national problem
1. Women did not normally drink in public
2. Drinking was a part of a man’s typical working life
3. They drank FOUR TIMES as much as we do now!!!! (Holy cow..)
iv. Reasons against it
1. Spending money on alcohol impeded families economically
a. Women could not control the money of the family legally
b. Divorce was difficult and socially unacceptable
2. Drinking led to violence and crime (within the family and in society)
3. New industrial machinery was dangerous and workers needed to be sober to operate them
a. Employers eventually banned alcohol at work
i. Also found workers who drank unreliable and immoral
v. Whigs favored it, Democrats were opposed
vi. Germans and Irish were hostile towards the temperance movement
vii. Panic of 1837
1. Most men had to cut back on drinking in order to survive economically
viii. Women’s groups stressed that alcoholism posed harm on families
ix. By mid 1840s, alcohol consumption had been halved (about the level of today)
e. Moral Reforms, Asylums, and Prisons
i. Female Moral Reform Society- antiprostitution group founded by evangelical women in New York in 1834
1. Evangelical believers believed that prostitutes needed to be saved and offered them salvation and shelter and real jobs
2. Surprising that so many women were willing to recognize something so distasteful
ii. Asylum movement- Dorothea Dix
1. 1843- Told Mass. state legislature about the things insane women were subjected to (housing with criminals)
2. Her efforts established insane asylum in Massachusetts
a. She went on to publicize the movement
i. By 1860, 28 states had insane asylums
iii. Reformers were active in prison reform, establishment of orphanages, homes of refuge, and hospitals
f. Utopianism and Mormonism
i. Seneca Falls Convention- The first convention for women’s equality in legal rights, held in upstate New York in 1848
ii. Shakers- The followers of Mother Ann Lee, who preached a religion of strict celibacy and communal living
1. Opposite them was the Oneida community (John Humphrey Noyes) who practiced “complex marriage” of very high sexual activity.
a. Only few “spiritually advanced” men could father children, who were raised by everyone
iii. Millerites (William Miller) believed the Second Coming of Christ would be on October 22, 1843
a. Members sold their belongings and bought white robes for their ascension into heaven
b. Never happened- most followers drifted away
i. Small group of them left, those are Seventh-Day Adventists (still active today)
iv. Transcendental Wild Oats (Louisa May Alcott)
v. Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints based off the Book of Mormon
1. Mormons believed in polygamy
a. Outsiders did not like that
i. Faced discrimination and were forced out of places such as New York
6. Antislavery and Abolitionism
a. Introduction
i. Free African Americans, Quakers, and militant white reformers sought an end to slavery
ii. By 1800, slavery had been either abolished or gradual emancipation was enacted in most of the Northern states.
b. The American Colonization Society
i. First attempt to “solve” slavery was a plan for gradual emancipation and resettlement in Africa
1. American Colonization Society- an organization, founded in 1817 by anti-slavery reformers, that called the removal of freed blacks to Africa
ii. Most Northerners were happy to send their free blacks to Africa because they were ignorant, degraded, miserable, mentally diseased, and broken-spirited.
iii. This society was terribly ineffective; more slaves were born in a week than they sent to Africa in a year.
c. African Americans’ Fight Against Slavery
i. Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World- written by David Walker, a published insistence that “America is more our country, than it is the whites’—we have enriched it with our blood and tears.”
ii. Most free blacks rejected colonization and demanded the immediate end to slavery and equality among races.
iii. Famous African American abolitionists—Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth
iv. First African American newspaper (Freedom’s Journal) founded in 1827 by John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish
d. Abolitionists
i. Best known group of antislavery reformers was headed by William Lloyd Garrison
1. Began publishing his own newspaper- Liberator
2. Garrison demanded the immediate abolishment of slavery
a. Though he did not expect all slaves to be free at one time at that moment, but he wanted everyone to see the immorality of slavery
3. Theodore Weld joined Garrison in 1833 and formed the American Antislavery Society
ii. Slavery enraged many Northerners
1. Many read Theodore Weld’s American Slavery As It Is (1839)
a. Based in part of the recollections of Angelina Grimké whom he had married
iii. Abolitionists produces millions of antislavery tracts and sent them to southern states
1. South banned antislavery literature and burned the tracts
2. Encouraged the harassment of people distributing it
3. Georgia legislature offered $5,000 to anyone to kidnap Garrison so he could stand trial for inciting rebellion
4. States reacted by toughening laws on and about slaves
iv. Controversy over slavery was common even in the north
1. Activists faced riots and physical attacks on their lives
e. Abolitionism and Politics
i. “gag rule” (1836) prohibited discussion of antislavery petitions
ii. Although abolitionists groups raised the nation’s emotional temperature, they failed to achieve moral unity
1. White and black abolitionists split
a. Frederic Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison
2. Though Quakers were activists for antislavery, they still maintained segregated seating in churches
3. While they liked the idea of no slavery, they were still not comfortable with equality
iii. 1840—abolitionist movement formally split
iv. Liberty Party- The first antislavery political party, formed in 1840
7. The Women’s Rights Movement
a. Introduction
i. Because women could not vote or be active in the government, they had some activity in social reforms.
1. Some women even formed all-female chapters of the reforms so they could implement their own policies and programs
ii. The majority of women did not participate in reforms because they were busy with housekeeping and taking care of their children.
iii. Few women (who had servants) had the time and energy to participate in extra activities.
b. The Grimké Sisters
i. Sarah and Angelina Grimké were members of a wealthy South Carolina Slave-holding family
1. They did not accept these views and went to live in a Quaker community near Philadelphia
ii. The sisters had become the first female public speakers in America because they would speak about their experiences with slavery to antislavery groups
1. They were criticized for speaking because they were women
2. Women in the antislavery movement constantly struggled to be heard
iii. A group of ministers reprimanded the sisters for stepping out of their bubble of silence.
1. Sarah responded that women and man are created equal and whatever is right for a man to do is right for a woman.
iv. Women were normally granted a secondary role in these reforms, even when the majority of members were women
c. Women’s Rights
i. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was the first women’s rights convention in American history
ii. Over the years, in response to persistent petition, states passed laws more favorable to women
1. More jobs opened to women
2. Women gained the right to vote in some states (first was Wyoming territory in 1869)
iii. 1920 (22 years after universal women’s suffrage was proposed at Seneca Falls) the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.
8. Conclusion
a. The market revolution changed the size and social order of America’s cities
b. Immigration, rapid population growth, and changes in working life and class structure contributed to problems
i. These problems came on so quickly that they were overwhelming
ii. Old methods of social control didn’t work
1. New associations were created to fill the gap
c. Americans came to terms with the market revolution by engaging in a passion for improvement
