1830s: America is Taking Shape

Top 10 List

1. Alexis de Tocqueville: Man from France who came to America to study Democracy. Write Democracy in America in 1835.

2.The Second Great Awakening An attack on the Calvinist Doctrine that brought people back to religion.

3. Joseph Smith: Founded the Mormon religion. The Mormons, led by Brigham Young, settle in the Utah Territory in 1847.

4. Dorothea Dix leads a movement for proper care of the mentally ill.

5. William Lloyd Garrison Abolitionist and founded the newspaper the Liberator in 1831.

6. Frederick Douglass, a former slave, leads the abolitionist movement.

7. Some states try to abolish the production of alcohol to decrease its consumption.

8. Women move for increased rights.

9. Cities, factories, and population multiply.

10. The Seneca Falls Convention is held in 1848.

Quotes:

"The strong should help the weak, so that the whole should advance as a band of brethren," Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe.

"No novelty in the United States struck me more vividly during my stay there than the equality of conditions," Toqueville.

"Such wealth is within reach of all," Toqueville.

"It is as if all America were but one gigantic workshop," Francis Gund

"ln America men never stay still." Alexis de Tocqueville

"I am in earnest, I will not equivocate-I will not excuse-I will not retreat a single inch-and I will be heard." William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator

"We have good cause to be grateful to the slave. In striving to strike his irons off, we found most surely, that we were manacled ourselves." Abby Kelly, Feminist.

Summary:

When T ocqueville and Beaumont arrived and later wrote Democracy in America they came to see "what a great republic is like," What they found was the hustle and bustle we call America. People were on the move west and moving into the cities. They also found many social and religious reforms along with the Feminist and Abolitionist movements.

For every person who went west, several went to the cities. Still in the 1820's 3 out of 4 people were involved in farming. Many people enjoyed having their closest neighbors 2 to 3 miles away, so when the area began to get populated they would move. With the United States population doubling every 22 years some people were bound to move 3 or 4 times in their lifetime.

The Second Great Awakening was much like the first in that it consisted of lots of pastors running around trying to save the world from damnation. The biggest difference was that this time the women got involved and helped with sharing the gospel. Out of the Second Great Awakening came many backwoods utopias most of which died out after a few years. The Shakers who were known for their simplistic lifestyle and for their joyful dancing were also known for their furniture. The most influential of the Utopias was the Mormon religion.

Founded by John Smith it flourished in the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, until persecution forced them to move to Salt Lake City, Utah, under the guidance of Brigham Young.

Of the many civil reforms,(from schools for the deaf and blind to prison and insane asylum reforms.) The temperance movement was probably the most successful. In the 1820s the per capita of the consumption of hard liquor was at 5 gallons. The American Temperance Union did a lot to solve this problem. They put out pamphlets and held seminars to show how drinking affected crime and work. By 1855 the per capita of the consumption of alcohol had dropped down to 2 gallons a year.

Abolitionism and Feminism also had their places in the 1820·s. Two of the main advocators of freeing the slaves were Frederick Douglas a former slave who traveled around the north making speeches about freeing the slaves. The other was William Lloyd Garrison the founder of the Liberator a abolitionist based newspaper. Women who had before this time been abolitionists decided that it was time for them to get the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were two of the leaders in the Feminist Movement. They played a key part in organizing the Seneca Falls Convention which drafted the Declaration of Sentiments,

patterned after the Declaration of Independence.