Reformer Movement
Second Great Awakening

Charles Grandison Finney - American Congregationalist/Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great
Awakening; called The Father of Modern Revivalism.

Evangelism - The movements were characterized by revival meetings and emotional conversion

Second Great Awakening - religious movement emphasizing individual responsibility for seeking salvation;
emphasized need for personal and social improvement;

Revivalism – Religions gatherings designed to reawaken faith through impassioned preaching.

African Methodist Episcopal Church - It is the oldest independent Protestant denomination founded by black
people in the world. It was founded by the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

Richard Allen - assembled the Bethel African Church in Philadelphia (later, the African Methodist Episcopal
Church); organized the first black national convention
Transcendentalism and Reforms

Ralph Waldo Emerson - American writer and author of the essay, “Self-Reliance”, which argued that each
individual should avoid conformity and, rather, follow one’s own instincts; Leader of the transcendentalism
movement

Transcendentalism - movement that emphasized living a simple life; valued truth found in nature, personal
emotion and imagination

Henry David Thoreau - New England writer who practiced transcendentalism and civil disobedience

Civil Disobedience - refusal to obey laws which are seen as unjust; effort to change government policy using
peaceful resistance

Unitarianism – Emphasized reason and appeals to conscience as the paths to perfection. Attracted wealthy
people from New England.

Utopian Communities – experimental groups who tried to create a perfect place. These communities varied
their philosophies and living arrangements but shared common goals such as self-sufficiency.

Dorothea Dix – emphasized rehabilitation for mentally ill and those imprisoned to help them re-enter society

Horace Mann - leader in the public school reform movement; believed in preparing children to become good
citizens and in enriching young minds with knowledge for the sake of our country
Women Mobilize for Reform

Cult of Domesticity - based on prevailing customs, the “cult of domesticity” was the belief that women should
stay at home, as servants to their family, and to not do any work outside of the home.

Sarah and Angelina Grimke - were the first American female advocates of abolition and women's rights. They
were writers, orators, and educators.

Lucrecia Mott - advocate of women’s rights; together with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mott organized the Seneca
Falls Convention

Temperance Movement - organized effort to prevent drinking alcoholic beverages

Emma Willard - opened up one of America’s first academically rigorous schools for girls, the Troy Female
Seminary, in Troy, New York

Mount Holyoke College - Located in South Hadley, Massachusetts, Mount Holyoke College is the oldest
institution of higher education for women in the United States never to have closed its doors and the first of the
"Seven Sister" liberal arts schools.

Elizabeth Blackwell - opened the New York Infirmary for Women; was the first woman to graduate from medical
college
Women’s Right Movement Emerges

Seneca Falls Convention - women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York

Elizabeth Cady Stanton – Tried to attend the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention but was turned away for being a
woman. Along with Lucrecia Mott, headed the first women’s rights convention, assembled in Seneca Falls, New
York in 1848.

Lucrecia Mott – Quaker abolitionist. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, headed the first women’s rights
convention, assembled in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.

Declaration of Sentiments – Statement of grievances that Mott and Stanton modeled after the Declaration of
Independence.

Sojourner Truth - former slave woman who, after becoming legally free, became a travelling preacher dedicated
to pacifism, abolitionism, and equality
The Changing Workplace

Cottage Industry - business or manufacturing activity carried out in a person’s home

Master - skilled artisan; often owns a business and employs other workers

Journeyman - skilled worker employed by a master

Apprentice - a worker learning a trade or craft, typically under the supervision of a master

Lowell Massachusetts – Location of weaving factories where women would work to send wages home to their
families.

Mill Girls - female workers who worked in the textile factories in Lowell, Massachusetts; most workers in textile
factories were young women

Strike – A work stoppage in order to force an employer to respond to demands.

Lowell Female Labor Reform Association – A labor group that petitioned the MA state legislature for a ten-hour
workweek. This failed but they helped to defeat a local legislator who opposed the bill.
Workers Seek Better Conditions

European Immigration – Sharp increase in immigration to the United States between 1830 and 1860. Mostly
German (who moved to the norther Mississippi River valley and the Ohio River Valley) and the Irish.

Irish Immigration Strike – Irish dock workers who striked in New York in the 1840s.

Great Potato Famine – A blight that destroyed the potatoes crops in Ireland, forcing Irish peasants to move to
the United States. Killed over 1 million Irish people.

Trade Unions - An organization whose membership consists of workers and union leaders, united to protect and
promote their common interests.

National Trades Union - The National Trades' Union was the first federation of labor unions in the United States.
It was established in 1834, but collapsed during the Panic of 1837.

Commonwealth v. Hunt - Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling on the subject of labor unions;
established that workers had the right to form unions; Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled on the case

Lemuel Shaw – MA Chief Supreme Court Justice declared that Boston’s journeymen bootmakers could act “in
such a manner as best to subserve their own interests.” Upheld the rights of labor.
Market Revolution

Samuel F.B. Morse - inventor of the telegraph; telegraph was a device used to electrically transmit coded
messages over wires, dramatically increasing the speed of communication over long distances

Specialization – In farming, the raising of one or two crops for sale rather than a variety of foods for personal
use.

Market Revolution – The major change in the U.S. economy produced by people’s beginning to buy and sells
goods rather than make them for themselves.

Francis Cabot Lowell - American businessman and the principal founder of what is said to have been the world’s
first textile mill in which were performed all operations converting raw cotton into finished cloth.

Entrepreneurs – a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk of a business venture

Vulcanized Rubber – A rubber created by Charles Goodyear that did not freeze in cold weather or melt in hot
weather, unlike untreated rubber. First used in shoes but later used in automotive tires.

Elias Howe - invented the sewing machine; sewing machines helped to significantly speed up the production of
clothing
Economic Revolution

Telegraph – a device for electronic transmission of coded messages over wire

Robert Fulton - inventor of the steam boat; the steam boat carried freight and passengers; helped unite
economic life of North and South

Erie Canal - a canal in New York running from Albany to Buffalo, designed to create a water route from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes

Railroads – A significant mode of transportation and shipping that could move items quickly and throughout the
year. Quickly overtook canals as the preferred method of shipping and transportation.

Southern Agriculture/Northeast Manufacturing – The South depended on crops such as cotton, tobacco, and
rice. The North developed into a center for manufacturing. These regions became more dependent on each
other as New York became the central link for American agriculture and foreign markets.

John Deere - inventor of the steel plow; the steel plow cut through heavy soil much more easily than existing
plows, requiring less animal power to pull

Cyrus McCormick – inventor of the mechanical reaper; the mechanical reaper did the work of five farm workers,
speeding up production time and cutting down on labor cost