nativists
U.S. citizens who opposed immigration because they were suspicious of immigrants and feared losing jobs to them
Know-Nothing Party
a political organization founded in 1849 by nativists who supported measures making it difficult for foreigners to become citizens and to hold office
middle class
the social and economic level between the wealthy and the poor
tenements
poorly built, overcrowded housing where many immigrants lived
transcendentalism
the idea that people could rise above the material things in life; a popular movement among New England writers and thinkers in the mid-1800s
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American transcendentalist who was against slavery and stressed self-reliance, optimism, self-improvement, self-confidence, and freedom. He was a prime example of a transcendentalist and helped further the movement.
Margaret Fuller
(1810-1850) A journalist, critic, and women's rights activist, she was a member of the Transcendentalist group of authors.
Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862) American writer and transcendentalist philosopher, he studied nature and published a magazine article, "Civil Disobedience," as well as his famous book, Walden Pond.
utopian communities
places where people worked to establish a perfect society; such communities were popular in the United States during the late 1700s and early to mid-1800s
Nathaniel Hawthorne
(1804-1864) American writer, he is famous for his many stories and books, including The Scarlet Letter, and he is recognized as one of the first authors to write in a unique American style.
Edgar Allan Poe
(1809-1849) American writer, he is famed for his haunting poem "The Raven," as well as many other chilling or romantic stories and poems. He is credited with creating the first detective story, The Gold Bug.
Emily Dickinson
(1830-1886) American poet, she lived a reclusive life, and her poems were not widely acclaimed until after her death.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882) American poet in the mid-nineteenth century, he is best known for his story-poems, such as "Paul Revere's Ride" in Tales of a Wayside Inn and The Song of Hiawatha.
Walt Whitman
(1819-1892) American poet, he gained recognition abroad and later at home for unrhymed works of poetry praising the United States, Americans, democracy, and individualism.
Second Great Awakening
a period of religious evangelism that began in the 1790s and became widespread in the United States by the 1830s
Charles Grandison Finney
(1792-1875) American clergyman and educator, he became influential in the Second Great Awakening after a dramatic religious experience and conversion. He led long revivals that annoyed conventional ministers.
Lyman Beecher
(1775-1863) American clergyman, he disapproved of the style of preaching of the Great Awakening ministers. He served as president of the Lane Theological Seminary and supported female higher education.
temperance movement
a social reform effort begun in the mid-1800s to encourage people to drink less alcohol
Dorothea Dix
(1802-1887) American philanthropist and social reformer, she helped change the prison system nationwide by advocating the development of state hospitals for treatment for the mentally ill instead of imprisonment.
common-school movement
a social reform effort that began in the mid-1800s and promoted the idea of having all children educated in a common place regardless of social class or background
Horace Mann
(1796 -1859) American educator, he is considered the father of American public education. He was a leader of the common-school movement, advocating education for all children.
Catharine Beecher
(1800-1878) American educator and the daughter of Lyman Beecher, she promoted education for women in such writings as An Essay on the Education of Female Teachers. She founded the first all-female academy.
Thomas Gallaudet
(1787-1851) American educator, he studied techniques for instructing hearing impaired people and established the first American school for the hearing impaired.
abolition
an end to slavery
William Lloyd Garrison
(1805-1879) American journalist and reformer, he published the famous antislavery newspaper, the Liberator, and helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society, promoting immediate emancipation and racial equality.
American Anti-Slavery Society
an organization started by William Lloyd Garrison whose members wanted immediate emancipation and racial equality for African Americans
Angelina and Sarah Grimk�
(1805-1879) and (1792- 1873) American sisters and reformers, they were the daughters of a slaveholding family from South Carolina who became antislavery supporters and lecturers for the American Anti-Slavery Society. They also took up the women's rights c
Frederick Douglass
(1813-1861) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, "The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass," and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the "North S
Sojourner Truth
(c.1797-1883) American evangelist and reformer, she was born an enslaved African but was later freed and became a speaker for abolition and women's suffrage.
Underground Railroad
a network of people who helped thousands of enslaved people escape to the North by providing transportation and hiding places
Harriet Tubman
(c.1820-1913) American abolitionist who escaped slavery and assisted other enslaved Africans to escape; she is the most famous Underground Railroad conductor and is known as the Moses of her people.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
(1815-1902) American woman suffrage leader, she organized the Seneca Falls Convention with Lucretia Mott. The convention was the first organized meeting for women's rights in the United States, which launched the suffrage movement.
Lucretia Mott
(1793-1880) American reformer, she planned the Seneca Falls Convention with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the first organized meeting for women's rights in the United States.
Seneca Falls Convention
(1848) the first national women's rights convention at which the Declaration of Sentiments was written
Declaration of Sentiments
(1848) a statement written and signed by women's rights supporters at the Seneca Falls Convention; detailed their beliefs about social injustice against women
Lucy Stone
(1818-1893) American woman suffragist, she was a well-known and accomplished antislavery speaker who supported the women's rights movement.
Susan B. Anthony
(1820-1906) American social reformer, she was active in the temperance, abolitionist, and women's suffrage movements and was co-organizer and president of the National Woman Suffrage Association.