American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 12: ANTEBELLUM CULTURE AND REFORM

Main themes of Chapter Twelve:

• The development by American intellectuals of a national culture committed to the liberation of the human spirit, as expressed in art, literature, utopian communities, and transcendental philosophy



• The effect of this commitment to the liberation of the human spirit in reinforcing the evangelical reform impulse of the period, in movements as diverse as temperance, education, rehabilitation, and women's rights



• The emergence of the crusade against slavery as the most powerful element in this reform movement, and the various strategies of such prominent abolitionists as William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass in combating the "peculiar institution"

• The contributions of the Hudson River School, antebellum writers, and the transcendentalists in fashioning an American culture grounded in nationalism and romanticism



• The development of utopian communities and new religions as an expression of the American reform impulse



• The growth of both religious revivalism and new theories of health, science, and education during the antebellum decades



• The origins and development of the nineteenth century women's movement, and its culmination in the Seneca Falls convention



• The impact of William Lloyd Garrison on the rapid rise of abolitionism, and his role in the later division between radical and moderate abolitionists



• The successes, struggles, and hardships faced by the abolitionist movement through 1852



• American abolitionism in the context of the global movement against slavery that arose in the nineteenth century