AP US History

1. AP US History Chapter 10: Toward an American Culture

2. Cultural Influences • As the transportation and industrial revolutions took off, so did the culture of the American people • More and more people read for pleasure, especially newspapers (men) and novels (women) • Several factors contributed to a new middle class in the North • Many people, because of the Market Revolution, were able to start businesses • Charles Finney religiously organized the middle class, based on old Puritan beliefs in sermon, but individualized outside of church • Division of labor defined the home, where men worked and women were in charge of house work and raising children • Authors of the 1800s were successful in marketing stories to the middle class • Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, just to name a few

3. Religion 1790-1850 • The number of churches and membership declined sharply as the 1800s progressed • Many rejected the strict guidelines of churches, seeking more democratic sects or rejecting religion altogether • New sects formed or greatly increased based on several factors • Circuit riders: ministers that traveled around, spreading the word • Rejection of the need of a college degree for ministers, meaning that it was what was in the heart, not the head • Methodists and Baptists increased greatly, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) was created • Joseph Smith had visions that led him to found the Church in 1830 • Started in New York, but persecution forced the Church to Illinois, Missouri, and eventually Utah

4. Pop Culture • Blood sports, such as cock fighting, dog fighting, were popular • Boxing also gained popularity in the 1840s • Theater became more accessible to people of all walks of life, not just the rich • Most popular was minstrel, in which white actors portrayed black stereotypes • Novels were printed cheaply, in paperback form for the first time • Newspapers popular, with exaggerated stories to sell more copies

5. Culture of the South • The South transformed into the Bible Belt during the first part of the 1800s • Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists gained a strong following amongst the poor and middle class • Preached to slaves, while accepting the institution, and women, by accepting patriarchy as the norm • Accepted slavery on the grounds that the Bible allowed for it and blocked any publications that criticized it • Family was first, the individual second • Entertainment tended to be a community event, reserving commercial entertainment for the larger cities • Literacy rate was lower than in the North • Racism as it is today developed in the South in the early 1800s • Blacks seen as inferior to whites • Some blacks were free, but had to take low paying jobs

6. Race and Citizenship • Racial tensions erupted into violence in many cities throughout the nation • Discrimination towards blacks prevented good jobs • Immigrants often scuffled with blacks over jobs • Some people formed societies to address slavery and black rights • American Colonization Society called for the formation of an African colony for people to move to from the United States • More and more white men called for equality for themselves • Eventually, religious tests and land ownership requirements were lifted from voting • Free blacks were still heavily restricted from voting • Eventually, free, white and 21 years old became the norm to be able to vote