Chapter 12 offers an overview of the modernization of the American North from 1820 to 1850. The growth of American industry; the transportation revolution; urbanization; German and Irish immigration; and the impact of industrialization and urbanization on the distribution of wealth and society inequality in America are surveyed in this chapter. These changes in American society were answered with the rise of reform movements; the chapter covers the expansion of religion into areas of moral and social reform and the benevolent empire; the various reform efforts including the abolitionist movement; experimental utopian communities; the role of women in reforming society and the beginnings of the movement for women’s rights.
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
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Describe the transportation revolution including the significance of railroad construction and the Erie Canal.
- Identify the reasons for the growth of cities.
- Compare and contrast Irish and German immigrants of the early nineteenth century.
- Describe the development of the industrial revolution in America; identify and describe the advantages of the factory system and the sources of labor available.
- Explain how the middle class expanded and describe the cult of domesticity.
- Identify the differences among industrial workers and how working class concerns were voiced.
- Explain the benevolent empire, the temperance movement, and women’s role in the reform movement.
- Describe the beginnings of the Mormon Church.
- Identify Horace Mann and his significance in the area of school reform.
- Identify the major examples of American experimentation with utopian communities; identify transcendentalism and the major American writers.
- Identify William Lloyd Garrison and explain his antislavery philosophy.
- Explain the emergence of the nineteenth century American women's movement and the historical significance of the Seneca Falls Convention.
- Identify Frederick Douglass and explain his role in the abolitionist movement.
- Define the term Slave Power.
