Social Movements of the Nineteenth Century Primary Source Set

Guiding Question

• How did reform movements in the early nineteenth century address the social and economic challenges of the era?

Objectives

• I can identify several social movements of the nineteenth century.
• I can read and analyze primary sources.

Resource Overview

These sources accompany the Social Movements of the Nineteenth Century Lesson Plan. To prepare for the lesson, print a set of these documents for each student group you plan to have.

Table of Contents

Text Sources

• Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
• Excerpts from Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and Remedy of Intemperance (1828)
• Free Soil Party Platform (1848)
• Excerpts from Walden (1854)
• Revival Sermon (1835)
• Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts on the conditions of the prisons (1843)

Image Sources

• Women’s Rights
• The Drunkard’s Progress
• The Anti-Slavery Society Convention
• Replica of Thoreau House at Walden Pond
• Methodist Camp Meeting
• Norris Shackled on His Bed at Bedlam

Text Sources

Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments (1848)

Background Information

In July 1848, an important meeting took place at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. It was the first big gathering in the United States where people came together to discuss how to achieve greater equality for women. About three hundred women and men came to the meeting, including Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass. At the end of the meeting, one hundred people—sixty-eight women and thirty-two men—signed a paper called the Declaration of Sentiments. This paper based itself on the Declaration of Independence and stated that women have the same natural rights as men.

Adapted from Annotated Declaration of Sentiments Activity

Text	Vocabulary and Context
We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;	self-evident- obvious     endowed- given   inalienable- impossible to take away
that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.	instituted– established deriving– receiving   consent of the governed– The power of government comes from the people.
Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.	destructive of these ends– no longer secures inalienable rights   refuse allegiance- stop being loyal or committed   foundation on such principles– creating a new government based on the ideas of inalienable rights and consent of the governed mentioned before
Analysis Questions: From what document is the Declaration of Sentiments borrowing language? Why is this similarity significant?

Excerpts from Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and Remedy of Intemperance (1828)

Background Information

Lyman Beecher was a minister from Connecticut who played a key role in fighting against alcohol use in America before the Civil War. In 1826, he helped create a group called the American Temperance Society and took part in religious meetings of that time. Two years later, in 1828, he wrote a book called Six Sermons that talked about the problems with drinking and how to fix them.

Link to the Original Source 

Text	Vocabulary and Context
Intemperance is the sin of our land, and with our boundless prosperity, is coming in upon us like a flood;	Intemperance- lack of self-control associated with drinking alcohol   boundless prosperity- limitless growth and resources
and if any thing shall defeat the hopes of the world, which hang upon our experiment of civil liberty,	experiment- The United States was called an “experiment” because it was an idealistic and new form of government.   civil liberty- protection from unjust laws and government interference
it is that river of fire, which is rolling through the land, destroying the vital air, and extending around an atmosphere of death…
Analysis Questions: What is the “river of fire” that Beecher refers to? What connection is Beecher making between intemperance and the duties of a citizen?

 

Free Soil Party Platform (1848) Excerpts

Background Information

The Free Soil Party started in 1848 as a group of people who wanted to keep slavery out of the western territories. They believed the land in the West should be used by small farmers and workers who were free, not by people who owned slaves. They wanted to make sure free workers had good opportunities to succeed. They did not try to end slavery in places where it already existed because they thought the government did not have the constitutional power to do that. Still, many people in the party thought slavery was wrong and evil. The things they stood for helped make slavery a big issue across the country and later led to the creation of the Republican Party.

Link to Original Source

Text	Vocabulary and Context
We have assembled in Convention, as a union of freemen, for the sake of freedom, forgetting all past political differences in a common resolve to maintain the rights of free labor against the aggressions of the Slave Power, and to secure free soil to a free people.	assembled- come together       common resolve- firm determination together   the Slave Power- referring to slave state political power in the Senate.
[W]e accept the issue which the Slave power has forced upon us; and to their demand for more Slave States, and more Slave Territory, our calm but final answer is, no more Slave States and no more Slave Territory.	the issue– referring to Southern desire to expand the Missouri Compromise line across new lands acquired from Mexico, ensuring new slave states would be added to the Union. The Free Soil Party opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories.
Let the soil of our extensive domains be kept free for the hardy pioneers of our own land, and the oppressed and banished of other lands, seeking homes of comfort and fields of enterprise in the new world.	extensive domains- large amounts of land hardy- strong oppressed and banished- people from other nations that have been treated badly or kicked out by their governments enterprise- a project or mission
Analysis Questions: What issue does the Free Soil Party stand against? How do you know? What does the excerpt suggest about views of American expansion in the nineteenth century?