Early America and the Antebellum Period

Understanding the Division (1800-1860)

• Focus of this section: Reasons behind America's split from a unified nation to the verge of Civil War
• Today's topic: Social and cultural aspects during the Antebellum period, beyond just political and military timelines

Southern Society

Plantation Society

• Centered around growing cotton in an agrarian-based economy
• Similar to medieval manorialism
• Wealth & political power held by plantation owners (Planters)
  • Usually only one child inherits the plantation, the others often go into law/politics
• Dominates socio-economic and political structures despite being a small class
• Owned slaves and controlled large land areas

Yeoman Farmers

• Closest to a "middle class" in the South
• Family-owned farms with small acreage
• Mainly grew food for themselves; few might own a slave or two
• Did not own large plantations
• Majority of the Southern population

Poor Whites

• Did not own land; socio-economically disadvantaged
• Limited job opportunities due to lack of industry
• Possible jobs: farmhands, overseers, dockworkers

Free Blacks

• Small population in the South
• Socio-economically similar to poor whites but racially segregated

Slaves

• Subfields: Field slaves, Domestic slaves, and Skilled slaves
• Field slaves: Worked mainly on cotton plantations
• Domestic slaves: Worked in the household with close interaction with the family
• Skilled slaves: More specialized roles, like blacksmithing; best chance of earning freedom

Slave Resistance

• No successful slave rebellions in the U.S.
• Most notorious: Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831)
  • Resulted in 55-65 white deaths; over 120 black deaths in retaliation
  • Led to stricter laws against educating and congregating slaves

Northern Society

• Simpler social hierarchy compared to the South

Industrialists

• Factory owners; top of the social ladder

Factory Workers

• Bottom of the social ladder
• Included poor whites, free blacks, and immigrants
• Generally unskilled labor due to deskilling from industrialization

Middle Class

• Professionals like doctors, lawyers, teachers, small business owners

Immigration

• Mainly settled in the North for factory jobs (Push/Pull factors)
• Contributed to crowded, polluted, and crime-ridden cities

Nativism

• Anti-immigration sentiment, especially against Catholics from places like Ireland
• Led to the formation of the Know Nothing Party, anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic

Cultural Movements

• The Second Great Awakening: Religious revival spreading moral and social reforms
• Major denominations: Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists (all would later split over issues like slavery)

New Religious Movements

• Adventism
  • William Miller's prophecy about the second coming of Christ
  • Led to the formation of Seventh-day Adventist Church
• Mormonism
  • Founded by Joseph Smith
  • New revelation: The Book of Mormon
  • Led by Brigham Young to Utah territory after Smith's murder
• Unitarianism and Transcendentalism
  • Rejected Holy Trinity; God found through nature
  • Notable figures: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller
• Social Reforms tied to Second Great Awakening
  • Women’s Rights Movement: Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott
    • Declaration of Sentiments modeled after the Declaration of Independence
  • Abolitionism: Immediate end to slavery
    • Notable abolitionists: William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass
  • Temperance Movement: Ban or curb alcohol consumption
    • Notable figures: Lyman Beecher
    • American Temperance Society founded in 1826

Summary

• Contextual factors contributing to the split of the United States
• Next session: Return to political timelines to tie these factors together