A New Spirit of Change1820 – 1860

Why People Migrated

Most made journey in steerage, the cheapest deck on the ship

Conditions were FILTHY

Illness and death common on journey

Why People Migrated

Push Factors: Population growth

Agricultural changes

Crop failures

Industrial Revolution

Religious and political turmoil

Pull Factors: Freedom

Economic opportunity

Abundant land

Where Did They Come From?

Scandinavians (Sweden, Switzerland, and Norway) left due to poverty.

Many settled in the Midwest, especially Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Many Germans settled in the Midwest as well.

Germans largest immigrant group of the 1800s and contributed most to American culture: kindergartens, the Christmas tree, gymnastics, and the hamburger, to name a few.

The Irish Flee Hunger

Irish Catholics were ruled by British Protestants for centuries.

Irish could not vote, hold office, own land, or go to school

British rule created extreme poverty.

The Irish Flee Hunger

Disease struck Ireland’s main food crop, the potato, in 1845.

Led to severe food shortage, or famine.

The Irish Potato Famine killed more than 1 million people.

The Irish Flee Hunger

Most Irish settled in port cities where their ships docked

By 1850, they made up one fourth of the populations of Boston, NYC, Philly, and Baltimore.

Lack of education and skills led to low paying jobs.

Many Irishmen built canals and railroads

Greatest competition for jobs were free blacks

Nativists and Know Nothings

Many immigrants were discriminated by and harassed by nativists; native-born people who wanted to eliminate foreign influence.

The Know-Nothing Party was founded by nativists who wanted to ban immigrants and Catholics from holding public office. They elected six governors but never a national office due to disagreements over slavery.

A Spirit of Revival

Renewal of religious faith called the Second Great Awakening helped to awaken a spirit of reform, or change.

Charles Finney

Temperance Societies

A church-led temperance movement began in America, which is a campaign to stop the consumption of alcohol

Fighting For Workers’ Rights

Girls in the Lowell Mills started a labor union, or a group of workers who band together to seek better working conditions.

In 1836, they went on strike, or stopping work to force owners to meet their demands

In 1835 and 1836, 140 strikes took place in the eastern United States

Panic of 1837 brought an end to the young labor movement.

Improving Education

Horrace Mann headed up the first state board of education in Massachusetts in 1837.

Boston opened the first public high school in 1821.

Churches and other groups began founding private colleges.

Improving Education

Women not allowed to attend most colleges. Oberlin first to admit women and men.

Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to earn a medical degree.

College attendance for women overall was very rare until the late 1800s.

Free blacks were often barred from attending public schools.

Educating slaves in the South was illegal.

If slaves were caught with as much as a book, they were beaten.

ElizabethBlackwell

Scars from repeated beatings

Caring for the Needy

Boston reformer Dorthea Dix worked to establish fair treatment for the mentally ill

Thomas H. Gallaudet founded first school for deaf children in 1817

Samuel G. Howe founded the Perkins School for the Blind in the 1830s

Reform also took place in prisons as well

Spreading Ideas Through Print Cheaper newsprint and

the invention of the steam-driven press lowered the price of a newspaper to a penny.

Publications aimed toward educating Americans on social reform became more widely read.

Creating Ideal Communities

Ann Lee founded the Shakers

Shakers vowed not to marry nor have children.

They believed in sharing goods with each other, men and women were equal, and they refused to fight for any reason