Presentation Transcript

1. Chapter 8 Reforming American Society

2. Transcendentalism • An idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England around 1836. It taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures.

3. Civil Disobedience • The refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest.

4. Abolition • The action or an act of abolishing a system, practice, or institution. • In this case we will be talking about the abolition of slavery. • People who support abolition are called abolitionist.

5. Antebellum • Occurring or existing before the American Civil War.

6. Slave Codes • Slave codes were laws in each US state, which defined the status of slaves and the rights of masters. These codes gave slave-owners absolute power over the enslaved Africans.

7. Temperance Movement • A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced or prohibited use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements typically criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence, or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.

8. Suffrage • The right to vote in political elections.