WOMEN IN ANTEBELLUM
AMERICA
1789-1848
REPUBLICAN MOTHERHOOD
The new American republic promoted equality
and social democracy. Women, however, were
denied many basic rights. For example, they
could not vote, hold political office, or serve on
juries. Given these restrictions, what should be
the role of women in the new republic?
 The idea of republican motherhood began to
emerge after the Revolutionary War. Its
advocates insisted that the new American
republic offered women the important role of
raising their children, especially their sons, in
the principles of liberty, women played a key role
in shaping America’s moral and political
character.
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CULT OF DOMESTICITY
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Prior to the Industrial Revolution many men and
women worked together as an economic unit on
small family farms. However, as the industrial
revolution gained momentum, it encouraged a
division of labor between home and work. While
men held jobs in a competitive market economy, the
home became the appropriate place for a woman.
The cult of domesticity idealized women in their
roles as wives and mothers. As a nurturing mother
and faithful spouse, the wife created a home that
was a “haven in a heartless world.” The home thus
became a refuge from the world rather than a
productive economic unit.
The cult of domesticity created a cultural ideal that
best applied to upper and middle-class white women.
It is important to note that there was a wide gap
between the ideals of the cult of domesticity and the
harsh realities faced by women working in factories
and on the frontier. In addition, enslaved black
women were completely excluded from any hope of
participating in the cult of domesticity.
Reformers such as Margaret Fuller recognized that
the cult of domesticity relegated women to a separate
domestic sphere that continued to deny them the
basic rights of American citizenship.
WOMEN AND THE LOWELL EXPERIMENT
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In 1790, Moses Brown built America’s first
textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
The pace of textile production, however,
remained slow until the Embargo Act of
1807 and the War of 1812 stimulated
domestic production.
In 1813, Francis Cabot Lowell and a group
of investors known as the Boston
Associates constructed a textile factory in
Waltham, Massachusetts. The Waltham
mill used both modern spinning machines
and power looms to produce cheap cloth.
Investors earned a 20% profit as sales
soared from $3,000 in 1814 to $300,000 in
1823. The profitable commercial
manufacture of textiles marked an
important step in moving production from
the home to the factory.
WOMEN AND THE LOWELL EXPERIMENT
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Inspired by the success of the Waltham mill, Francis Lowell
built a model factory town at Lowell, Massachusetts 27 miles
from Boston. Lowell built clean red-brick factory centers and
dormitories designed to avoid the drab conditions in English
mill towns. He hired young New England farm women to
work in his mill. The girls worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a
week. They lived together in boarding houses under the
watchful eyes of older women who enforced mandatory church
attendance and strict curfews.
WOMEN AND THE LOWELL EXPERIMENT
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The Lowell experiment worked well at
first. By the early 1830s, young
unmarried women from rural New
England comprised the majority of
workers in Massachusetts textile
mills. However, the factory owners
soon became more interested in profit
than in the welfare of their employees.
In 1834 and 1836 the owners cut
wages without reducing working
hours. The women responded by
going out on strike and petitioning the
Massachusetts state legislature to
pass a law limiting the workday to 10
hours. Although this measure failed
to pass, it convinced the owners that
the female workers were too
troublesome. Factory owners then
turned to the impoverished and
compliant Irish immigrants who were
then pouring into Massachusetts.
THE SENECA FALLS CONVENTION, 1848
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What happened?
In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott
organized the first convention in support of women’s
rights. The convention met for two days in Seneca
Falls, New York. The delegates discussed “the social,
civil, and religious conditions and rights of women.”
 The convention adjourned after two days and issued
a “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolution”
modeled after the Declaration of Independence. The
Declaration demanded greater rights for women.
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THE SENECA FALLS CONVENTION, 1848
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What caused the Seneca Falls Convention?
During the 1830s and 1840s many women dedicated
themselves to working for the abolition of slavery. Led by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, a small but
determined group of feminists realized that they were also the
victims of injustice.
 Stanton and Mott questioned the prevailing idea that women
should be subordinate to men.
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Why should you remember the Seneca Falls Convention?
The Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of the
women’s rights movement in the United States.
 Written primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Declaration
of Sentiments opened by declaring, “We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” The
document called for greater divorce and child custody rights,
equal opportunities in education, the right to retain property
after marriage, and the extension of suffrage to women.
Taken together, these demands formed the agenda of the
women’s rights movement into the twentieth century. It is
important to note that the Declaration of Sentiments did NOT
call for equal pay for equal work or for greater access to birth
control methods.
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RELIGION, REFORM, AND
ROMANTICISM
1815-1860
THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING
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Background
As the eighteenth century ended, the religious fervor ignited by
the First Great Awakening seemed to wane (decline).
 During the early 1800s, a new wave of religious enthusiasm called
the Second Great Awakening swept across much of the country.
The Second Great Awakening began on the western frontier and
then quickly spread to the more densely populated East coast.
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Key characteristics
The Puritans believed in a just but stern God. Second Great
Awakening preachers replaced the hellfire-and-damnation
Puritan God with a gentler divinity of love and grace.
 The Puritans believed that humanity was doomed by original sin
and thus marked at birth for membership in either the small
group of the “elect” or the much larger mass of the “damned.”
Second Great Awakening preachers instead emphasized
humanity’s inherent goodness and each individual’s potential for
self-improvement.
 The Puritans believed that God controlled the destiny of each
human being. In contrast, Second Great Awakening inspired a
belief in Perfectionism – the faith in the human ability to
consciously build a just society. This close link between religion
and reform awakened many Americans to a variety of social and
moral issues.
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THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING
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The “Burned-Over District”
Intense religious revivals were especially
widespread in central and western New
York. This region became known as the
“Burned-Over District” because of
particularly fervent revivals that
crisscrossed the region.
 Charles Grandison Finney emerged as
the most popular and influential preacher
from the Burned-Over District. Finney’s
emotional sermons stressed that each
individual could choose to achieve salvation
by a combination of faith and good works.
 The Burned-Over Districts was the
birthplace of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints, or the Mormons. The
Mormons were originally led by their
founder Joseph Smith.
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REFORM MOVEMENTS
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Educational reform
Horace Mann was America’s leading educational
reformer. As Secretary of the newly created
Massachusetts Board of Education, he wrote a series of
annual reports that influenced education across
America. Mann sponsored many reforms in
Massachusetts including a longer school year, higher pay
for teachers, and a larger public school system. As a
result of his tireless work, Mann is often called the
“Father of the Common School Movement.”
 Emma Willard was an early advocate of women’s
education. She founded the Troy Female Seminary,
America’s first women’s school of higher education.
 America’s public school children learned about literature
from a series textbooks called McGuffey Readers. Also
called Eclectic Readers, the book included stories
illustrating the virtues of patriotism, hard work, and
honesty.
 The first half of the nineteenth century witnessed a
dramatic increase in the number of newspapers from
about 1,200 in 1833 to 3,000 in 1860. The proliferation
(rapid increase) of newspapers promoted literacy and a
well-informed public.
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REFORM MOVEMENTS
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The mentally ill
Dorothea Dix launched a crusade to create
special hospitals for the mentally ill. An
indefatigable (tireless) champion of reform,
Dix travelled more than 10,000 miles and
visited almost every state.
 Dix and other reformers created the first
generation of American mental asylums. By
the 1850s there were special hospitals in 28
states.
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Temperance
In the early 1800s, America had over 14,000 distilleries
producing 25 million gallons of alcoholic drink each year.
By 1830, Americans drank 5 gallons of alcohol per capita.
 The Temperance Movement was a widespread campaign to
convince Americans to drink less alcohol or to drink none
at all. Founded in 1826, the American Society for the
Promotion of Temperance soon boasted 5,000 state and
local temperance groups. Their campaign against “Demon
rum” worked. By the mid-1840s Americans drank just 2
gallons of alcohol per capita.
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TRANSCENDENTALISM
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The Transcendentalists were a small group of writers and thinkers who
lived in and around Boston. The leading Transcendentalists included
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. The
Transcendentalists published a journal of literature, art, and ideas
called The Dial, Margaret Fuller served as its first editor.
Transcendentalism included the following key beliefs:
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The divinity of man: The Transcendentalists believed that God lived within
each individual. Each person possessed an inner soul or spirit and thus a
capacity to find spiritual truth.
The value of human intuition: The Transcendentalists condemned logic and
reason. They believed that human intuition transcended or rose above the
limits of reason. Intuition enabled humans to discover and understand
spiritual truths.
Nonconformity and dissent: The Transcendentalists were fiercely and
uncompromisingly individualistic. They repudiated (rejected) the “tyranny of
the majority.” “If a man does not keep pace with his companions,” Thoreau
wrote, “perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”
The importance of nature: The Transcendentalists believed that truth could be
found in nature. Transcendentalists viewed communion with nature as a
religious experience that enlightened their soul. For example, Thoreau turned
away fro the artificiality of “civilized” life and lived for two years in a cabin at
the edge of Walden Pond near Concord. He strove to acquire self-knowledge
by living close to nature.
UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES
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Utopian communities were concrete social expressions of the Perfectionist vision of
achieving a better life through conscious acts of will. Idealists founded over 100 utopian
communities between 1800 and 1900. The movement reached its peak between 1830
and 1860.
The various utopian communities all shared the following common goals:
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They rejected the competitive business practices of the market economy.
They tried to build an egalitarian (equal) social order by creating an economy based on shared
wealth.
They regulated moral behavior in order for members to realize their full spiritual potential.
They organized their members into cooperative work and living units.
UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES
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Brook Farm was the most
celebrated utopian community.
Founded at West Roxbury,
Massachusetts in 1841, it enjoyed
the support of Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and
other leading Transcendentalists.
Brook Farm’s experiment in
plain living and high thinking
proved to be short-lived. The
community disbanded following a
devastating fire in 1846. Brook
Farm, nonetheless, had a lasting
impact upon its members. Years
later, Nathaniel Hawthorne
remembered, “our beautiful
scheme of a noble and unselfish
life, and how fair, in that first
summer, appeared the prospect
that it might endure for
generations.”
ROMANTIC ART AND LITERATURE
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From Deism to Romanticism
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and other leading late eighteenth century
American intellectuals were all deists. Deism is the belief that God created the
world but then allowed it to operate through the laws of nature. These natural
laws could be discovered by human reason and expressed as mathematical
formulas.
 During the 1820s and 1830s, artists and writers in Europe and America began to
rebel against Deism’s logical and well-ordered world. “Feeling is all!” became the
guiding spirit of a new generation of Romantic painters and poets. Inspired by
the Transcendentalists, the romantic movements in
America emphasized nature, emotion, and spontaneous
feelings.
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The Hudson River School
The Hudson River School was America’s first native
school of art. Its members concentrated on painting
landscapes that portrayed America’s natural beauty.
 Hudson River School artists typically painted large
compositions which suggested America’s unlimited
opportunities and boundless future. A famous example is
The Oxbow by Thomas Cole.
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Walt Whitman
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Walt Whitman was America’s leading Romantic poet.
In Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, Whitman rejected reason and
celebrated his own feelings and emotions.