Movements, Words, and Beliefs
A 19th-century ideology defining middle/upper-class white women's roles as confined to the home, focused on piety, purity, submission, and domesticity (cooking, cleaning, childcare) as a moral refuge for men
What is Cult of Domesticity?
A blacksmith who invented the first commercially successful self-scouring steel plow in 1837
Who is John Deere?
This invention dramatically boosted cotton's profitability, fueling the growth of the plantation system in the American South and tragically intensifying the demand for enslaved labor, making cotton a dominant export and cementing slavery as a cornerstone of the Southern economy.
What is the Cotton Gin?
A crescent-shaped region in the American South known for its dark, fertile soil, which became the heart of the plantation system reliant on enslaved labor for cotton, leading to immense wealth for owners but deep economic hardship and systemic racism for African Americans
What is the Black Belt?
An American author and abolitionist who wrote 30 books and publications that challenged societal norms. They are best known for their 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which dramatized the harsh realities of slavery and is credited with fueling anti-slavery sentiment in the United States.
Who is Harriet Beecher Stowe?
A mid-1850s U.S. political movement known for its nativist (anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic) stance, rising from secret societies like the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner where members answered "I know nothing" when asked about their group. They aimed to restrict immigration, lengthen citizenship requirements (to 21 years), and keep Catholics out of office
What is the Know Nothing Party?
A pivotal inventor known for the Cotton Gin (1794), which revolutionized cotton processing but tragically expanded slavery in the South, and for pioneering the concept of interchangeable parts, which laid the groundwork for American mass production and the Industrial Revolution
Eli Whitney
Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful...
What is the Steamboat?
A landmark 363-mile man-made waterway completed in 1825, connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River, which slashed shipping costs, spurred westward expansion, fueled New York City's rise as a trade hub
What is the Erie Canal?
A prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer known for his radical, immediate call for ending slavery, publishing the influential anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator, advocating for women's rights, and rejecting political compromise with slaveholders
Who is William Lloyd Garrison?
A derogatory term for a worker who crosses a union's picket line to take a striking worker's job, breaks a strike, or works for lower wages
What are scabs?
"Father of the American Industrial Revolution," an English immigrant who secretly brought British textile technology to America in 1789
Who is Samuel Slater?
Components made to precise standards so they can be freely substituted for one another in various products, replacing hand-fitted parts.
What are interchangeable parts?
America's first important, long-distance, crushed-stone road, built by a private company between 1792-1796, connecting Philadelphia to Lancaster
What is the Lancaster Turnpike?
A violent 1831 uprising of enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia, led by this preacher, who believed he was divinely commanded to free the enslaved, resulting in the deaths of around 55 white people before the rebellion was crushed, leading to severe restrictions on Black freedoms and intensifying Southern defenses of slavery.
Who is Nat Turner?
Policy or belief that favors native-born inhabitants over immigrants, viewing newcomers as threats to jobs, culture, and political stability, leading to anti-immigrant sentiment, restrictive laws (like quota acts), and movements (like the Know-Nothing Party) against groups like Irish Catholics, Southern/Eastern Europeans, and Asians, emphasizing a desire to protect a perceived traditional American identity.
What is Nativism?
A painter and inventor from the United States who contributed to the development of a single-wire telegraph system in middle age. His invention, which used electrical pulses to send messages, revolutionized communication worldwide
Samuel F B Morse
Elias Howe and Isaac Singer fought over patents on this invention.
What is the sewing machine?
Also known as the National Road, was America's first federally funded highway, authorized in 1806 and built from 1811 to 1840
What is Cumberland Road?
A free Black carpenter and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina, who planned a major slave insurrection in 1822, inspired by the Haitian Revolution, to liberate enslaved people but was discovered, arrested, and executed for treason, becoming a pivotal figure in Black resistance history
Who is Denmark Vesey?
American legal case in which the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the common-law doctrine of criminal conspiracy did not apply to labour unions.
What is Commonwealth v. Hunt?
an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902.
Who is Cyrus McCormick?
A fast mail service that operated from April 1860 to October 1861, using a relay system of horse-mounted riders to deliver mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.
What is the Pony Express?
The historic boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon (1763-1767) to settle land disputes, but it became famous as the symbolic dividing line between the Northern free states and Southern slave states leading up to the Civil War
What is the Mason Dixon Line?
An American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century.
Who is Frederick Douglass?