responses

Respond Jacob s

Hey Class,

Hope you are all having a good start to your week. Today I will be discussing one of the effects of the Great Awakening. There was almost 350 newly built churches in response to the Great Awakening. This changed the religious climate exponentially because the movement had put the importance on the people rather than the church itself. This caused an uproar of evangelists and sparked a passion amongst the people to take their relationship with God into their own hands. After all, this was the first religious revival in American History.

Charles h

Class,

This week I chose the topic of: When and why did the South move from seeing slavery as a necessary evil to seeing it as a good thing?

With the addition of several states into the Union came new opportunities to claim new lands. Many white southerners saw opportunity here to establish the great wealth amassed by slave owners and join the ranks of the social elite at the same time increasing their political power. Slavery played an important role in the development of southern culture. Common crops such as tobacco, rice, and sugar were vital to the wealth of the region but it was the introduction of cotton in 1787, and the increase in demand after the war of 1812 that granted cotton as America’s new cash crop. Unlike crops previously planted, cotton was extremely labor intensive requiring large amounts of forced labor to separate the seeds from the fibers. At this time the south had an extreme dependence along with a growing appetite for slave labor to harvest the cotton or else see their profits suffer. Not only were slaves battling the day to day of harvesting the cotton fields they were forced to clear out large amounts of forest and swamps to make way for the planting of the new cash crop. As for slavery, it would now come to be known as a necessary evil. However, with increased pressure from abolitionists and feeling the pressure from the political north, the south felt the need to defend slavery. In the early 1830’s one southern politician named John C. Calhoun, who “was perhaps the most eminent and profound theorist of state’s rights” (William, 1841), fought to defend states’ rights for the preservation of slavery and to “preserve and protect our race”. As the abolitionist movement grew under the likes of Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe with a mission to abolish slavery, southern slave owners fought for their beliefs by displaying that slavery generated a huge amount of wealth for the United States and left white men free, leaving slaves to tend to the rigors of tending to the crops and clearing vast amounts of land. It was also stated that slaves were well taken care of, were provided the teachings of Christianity, and that this would be far better off than transporting them back to Africa to live in an uncivilized society. Those for slavery now began to advocate that it was a positive good for America rather than a necessary evil.

Cody g.

Why did women take such a prominent role in the reform movement?

  I believe women took such a prominent role in the reform system because they saw an opportunity for change to occur and took full advantage. Women were put into very discriminatory roles that most were not a fan of, but never really had a chance to change. They began to see that they were being placed into a specific role in society, just as slaves were, (treated better obviously) and they did not feel they were being treated equally. There were several different parts to the reform and in my opinion, women were best suited to handle most of them. During  the education reform, women knew they would end up being the educators that were teaching all of the children schoolwork education. With the push for education, women also had a large push to allow themselves to be further educated so they could pass this education and knowledge along better to the children and society (Actively Learn).  Additionally, I believe the abolishment of slavery was much easier of a process to begin, and eventually get rid of with women helping out the cause. Naturally women are way more compassionate than men which may not currently be the case but in a time where men had to pretend to be feeling-less, I believe this statement to be fact. The ability to show compassion for another person, or group was crucial to understanding that these slaves were people just as the owners were.