Unit Four: Reform Movement Vocabulary

1. Unit Four: Reform Movement Vocabulary

2. Day 1 • Transcendentalism: A philosophical and literary movement of the 1800s that emphasized living a simple life and celebrated the truth that can be found in nature. Prominent authors of this movement include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walk Whitman. • Second Great Awakening: A 19th-century religious movement in which preachers like Charles Grandison Finney traveled throughout the United States and emphasized the importance of seeking salvation as well as personal and social improvement. • Dorothea Dix: A female reformer who worked to improve conditions for the mentally ill and imprisoned. There was a mental hospital in Raleigh, NC named after her. • Hudson River School:An American art school and movement during the mid-19th century that produced paintings of American landscape that were influenced by romanticism.

3. Day 2 • William Lloyd Garrison: A Northern abolitionist who published the first abolitionist newspaper called the Liberator. • Abolition Movement: Nineteenth century movement that sought an end to slavery. • Frederick Douglass: A former slave who escaped to the North and began sharing his experiences with slavery. He became a leading figure in the abolition movement and also participated and supported the women’s movement

4. Day 2 • Nativism: The policy of or belief in favoring the interests of native-born people over foreign-born people. • Samuel Morse: inventor of the electromagnetic telegraph. His original invention could send a message 10 miles through copper wire. Congress then granted him the funds to build longer telegraph wires that would connect major cities to Washington, D.C. • Grimke Sisters: Sarah and Angelina Grimke were early, prominent abolitionists and advocates for women’s rights from South Carolina. • Utopian Communities: Settlements established with the goal of striving for moral perfection. Examples: Oneida, Brook Farm, New Harmony

5. Day 3 • Temperance Movement: A movement aimed at stopping alcohol abuse and the societal and familial problems caused by it. • Underground Railroad: A network of secret routes and safe houses that slave used during the 19th-century to escape from the South to free states in the North and Canada. This network was led by Harriet Tubman. • Harriet Beecher Stowe: An American abolitionist from the North that wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book depicting the lives of African Americans living under slavery in the South. It deeply angered many living in the South.

6. Day 4 • Cult of Domesticity: An American value system during the 19th-century that emphasized ideas of feminitiyand urged that a woman’s role is within the home where she is to care for her husband and children. • Nat Turner: A slave living in Richmond, Virginia who organized a slave revolt in 1831. He intended to capture a nearby armory and gain more weapons. On the way to the armory, 60 people were killed by him and his followers. When he was captured by a local militia, he was executed. • Seneca Falls Convention: The first women’s rights convention held in the United States in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 and was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Declaration of Sentiments was written at this convention.

7. Day 5 • Free Soil Party: A political party active in the United States during the mid 19th-century that opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. • Mormon Movement: A religious and cultural movement that started when Joseph Smith received visions in the early 19th century. The group traveled to what is now Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young, who took over after Smith was kille din 1844. • Horace Mann: Leader of the Education/Public School Movement that took place in the United States in the 19th century. He advocated for free public education for all children.