US History

U.S. History Study Guide

formation, construction and operation, they brought profound social, economic and political changes. America would build bridges to cross large rivers and the country could move faster, items could be sent cheaper. Photography In 1814, Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was the first person to take a photograph. He took the picture by setting up a machine called the camera Obscura in the window of his home in France. Louis- Jacques-Mande Daguerre, another Frenchman, invented the daguerreotype in 1839. Within a few years, daguerreotype studios appeared in the United States. In 1843, former President John Quincy Adams would be the first of many politicians to have their picture taken. This camera would go all over the world and capture many events. The Civil War would be the first war to be photographed and for the first time people would see the horrors of war first hand on the photographs, the most notable Civil War photographer was Mathew Brady. 11.6 Social Reforms of the Period The 1820’s and 1830’s saw a great rise in popular politics, as free white males achieved universal freedoms. Women, blacks, and Native Americans remained excluded from the political process and were often neglected by politicians. In protest, these marginalized groups and their sympathizers organized reformmovements to heighten public awareness and to influence social and political policy changes. Many reformers believed they were doing God’s work and the Second Great Awakening did much to encourage them in their missions. Abolitionism The most famous reform movement of the period was abolitionism, the anti-slavery movement. Abolitionism had many followers in the revolutionary period, but the movement faltered during the early 1800’s. By the 1830’s, the spirit of abolitionism surged, especially in the Northeast. The movement split into two wings: Garrison’s Radical Followers, and the Moderates who favored “moral suasion” and petitions to Congress. In 1840, the Liberty Party which was the first national anti-slavery party, backed a presidential candidate on the platform of “free-soil” which meant non-expansion of slavery into the new western territories. Many important figures would come out of this movement which would not only help the abolitionist cause but the fight for women's equality as well: • Frederick Douglass became a leader of the abolitionist movement after escaping from slavery and gaining popularity for his amazing speech-making and insightful antislavery writing. He stood as a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Many found it hard to believe that such an intellectual had been a slave despite his many wrote autobiographies. He eloquently described his experiences as a slave in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave , which became a bestseller and influential in supporting abolition.

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