The Reformers
People
| Person (memorize) | Why are they important? (memorize) |
|---|---|
|
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
The first transcendentalist; "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." |
| Henry David Thoreau | wrote Walden; describe the philosophy of civil disobedience |
| Walt Whitman | wrote Leaves of Grass; his poetry celebrated democracy as a sacred character |
| Herman Melville | wrote Moby Dick; believed individualism without discipline could lead to disaster |
| Nathaniel Hawthorne | wrote The Scarlet Letter; believed individualism against the rules of society could lead to degradation |
| Margret Fuller | wrote Woman in the Ninteenth Century; believed women deserved psychological and social independence |
| Alexis deToqueville | wrote Democracy in America; coined the term "individualism" |
| Ann Lee Stanley | leader of the Shakers; her visions led her to believe the end was near |
| Charles Fourier | British commune organizer; his followers set up over 100 society in the US |
| John Humphrey Noyes | leader of the Oneida commune; believed in "complex marriage"; freaky |
| Joseph Smith | founder of the Mormon Church; killed by a mob in IL |
| Brigham Young | took over the lead of the Mormon Church; moved his people to Utah |
| William Lloyd Garrison | published the newspaper The Liberator; vowed to keep writing until every slave was free |
| Sarah and Angelina Grimke | used passionate speeches and biblical rhetoric to promote feminism and abolitionism |
| Dorothea Dix | nurse; crusaded for the mentally ill in the 1940's |
| Catherine Beecher | believed women should use their moral power to influence change; women should become teachers |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe | wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton | wrote the Declaration of Sentiments; "all men and women are created equal" |
| Lucretia Mott | organized the Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, NY |
| Susan B. Anthony | founder of the National American Women's Sufferage Association |
| Sojourner Truth | former slave; gave speeches on behalf of the feminist and abolitionist causes |
Play Scatter
Places and Things
| Person (memorize) | Why are they important? (memorize) |
|---|---|
Transcendentalists |
19th century philosophy that protested against modern society; believed people could transcend the physical world |
| Brook Farm | a transcendentalist commune; an attempt by Thoreau and others to leave society behind |
| Fourierists | set up over 100 communes based on self-reliance and equality |
| Shakers | American religious sect devoted to the teachings of Ann Lee Stanley |
| Oneidans | religious group who believed that Jesus had already returned; practiced complex marriage |
| Mormons | religious group that emphasized moderation, saving, hard work, and risk-taking; moved from IL to UT |
| National American Women's Sufferage Assn. | group formed to gain greater rights for women, mainly the right to vote |
| Seneca Falls Convention (1848) | called the birthplace of feminism; gathering of leading sufferage workers from all over the US |
| Declaration of Sentiments | declared that all "people are created equal"; used the Declaration of Independence to argue for women's rights |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | an antislavery novel that profoundly affected American attitudes toward African-Americans |
| The Liberator | antislavery newspaper |
The Crisis of the Union
| Person (memorize) | Why are they important? (memorize) |
|---|---|
Steven Austin |
the "father of Texas"; tried to find a peaceful settlement to Texas' conflict with Mexico |
| Sam Houston | won independence for Texas at the battle of San Jacinto |
| John C Freemont | army commander who captured Mexican California for the US |
| Antonio Lopez deSanta Ana | Mexican general at the Alamo; later the president of Mexico |
| Thomas O Larkin | Leader of American interests in California; helped take Monterey and later Southern CA |
| John L O'Sullivan | coined the term "manifest destiny" |
| Zachary Taylor | American general; invaded northern Mexico; later elected president |
| James K Polk | elected president in 1844; gained WA, OR, CA, NV, TX, NM, AZ, and NV for the US |
| Franklin Pierce | 14th president of the US; favored the Kansas-Nebraska Act |
| John Sloat | led the US Navy in capturing Monterey, CA |
| Stephen Douglas | created the Kansas-Nebraska Act; lost the election of 1860 to Lincoln |
| Frederick Douglass | escaped slave; one the most powerful antislavery speakers and writers |
| Abraham Lincoln | the first anti-slavery president; his election caused the South to secede |
| Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo | ended the Mexican-American War; gave the US lots of territory for only $15million |
| Texas Annexation | After the Battle of San Jacinto, the US took almost ten years to decide to make Texas part of the Union |
| The Gold Rush | After its discovery in 1948, 10's of thousands of treasure hunters descended on California |
| The Compromise of 1850 | With CA ready to become a free state, the Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened |
| Ostend Manifesto | secret plan to take Cuba from Spain |
| Kansas-Nebraska Act | the settlers of KS were allowed to choose whether to be slave or free; this was a very bad idea |
| Dred Scot v. Sanford | "a black man has no rights a white man is bound to respect" |
| Know Nothings | the American Party; anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic |
| Republican Party | the antislavery party; made of antislavery Whigs and northern Democrats |