Notes on American History and Seneca Falls Convention

Topics: Reform movement, Frederick Douglass, Women's suffrage Pages: 17 (3860 words) Published: November 3, 2013
Chapter 13. 416-425

1. Women Reformers of Seneca Falls Respond to the Market Revolution a. 1848- Charlotte Woodward persuaded six of her friends to travel to Seneca Falls to attend a “convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.” b. Surprisingly, almost 300 people (men and women) attended the 2 day meeting c. Declaration of Sentiments- The resolutions passed at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 calling for full female equality, including the right to vote. i. Men had originally deprived women of legal rights, of the right to their own property, of custody of their children in cases of divorce, of the right to higher education, of full participation in religious worship and activity, and of the right to vote. ii. Attendees approved all but one of the resolutions unanimously. The last, which was voted against, was thought too radical. d. The struggle for women’s rights was only one of many reform movements that emerged in the United States in the wake of the economic and social disruptions of the market revolution that deeply affected regions like Seneca Falls. e. Many of the reformers belonged to liberal religious groups with wide social perspectives. f. Seneca Falls- early 1840s- “Temperance Reformation”- a more limited, but extremely popular reform cause dedicated to promoting abstinence from alcohol. g. Nation’s best-known woman reformer- Lucretia Mott i. Well known antislavery orator- Elizabeth Cady Stanton h. The reforming women of Seneca Falls, grouped together on behalf of social improvement, had found in the first women’s rights convention a way to speak for the needs of working women. 2. Immigration and Ethnicity

a. Introduction
i. The impact of the market revolution was most noticeable in cities because of immigration. b. Patterns of Immigration
i. Immigration increased began in the 1820s and increased dramatically after 1830 1. 20,000 in 1831 to 430,000in 1854
2. Declined in the years prior to the Civil War
3. Proportion of immigration in the population increased from 1.6% in 1820 to 11.2% in 1860. 4. By 1860, almost half New York’s population was foreign born ii. Most of the immigrants came from Germany and Ireland. 1. Political unrest and poor economy in Germany

2. Potato Famine (1845-1849) in Ireland
3. Irish arrived poor
4. Most of the Irish and some of the Germans were Catholic and this provoked a nativist backlash among Protestant Americans iii. Industries needed immigrants for workers. 1. Many of the changes in industry and transportation that accompanied the market revolution would have been impossible without immigrants. 2. Irish contract workers—Erie Canal (1825)

3. Irish- Lowell Mill
iv. Few immigrants had an easy or pleasant life in America 1. Endured harsh living and working conditions.
2. The state governments dealt with immigrants; not federal governments a. New York did not establish an official reception center until 1855 c. Irish Immigration
i. The Irish had been emigrating to the United States long before the Potato Famine 1. Young people who wished to own land, but knew they could not in Ireland came to the US ii. The...
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