APUSH Review Blog

Discuss the changing ideals of American womanhood between the American Revolution (1770’s) and the outbreak of the Civil War. What factors fostered the emergence of “republican motherhood” and the “cult of domesticity”? Assess the extent to which these ideals influenced the lives of women during this period. In your answer be sure to consider issues of race and class. Use the documents and your knowledge of the time period in constructing your response.

Antebellum Renaissance

1790-1860
Analyzing the question

• Republican Motherhood- responsibility to cultivate civic virtue of republicanism in their children

• Focused on the changing women from the American Revolution to the Civil War.
• Focus on race and class
• Cult of Domesticity- homemakers and mothers
  
  
  Document A-Letter written by a Philadelphia woman, 1776
  • Boycotted English goods,manufactured their own goods, freedom
  • Daughters of Liberty- supported revolution
  • Abigail Adams- “remember the ladies”
  • Molly Pitcher (Mary McCauley)- carried water to soldiers
  • Home manufacturing
  • Document B-Benjamin Rush, Thoughts Upon Female Education, 1787
    
    
    • women’s should be educated to educate their children
    • Republican motherhood
    • Oberlin College
    • Catharine Beecher- teaching profession
    • Hartford Female Seminary- train mothers to be teachers and mothers
      Document C: Occupations of Women Wage Earners in Massachusetts, 1837
      • hats,textiles, boots, and shoes
      • paid workforce, limited space
      • Lowell girls
      • Lowell factory system
        Document D: Letter written by a factory worker, 1839
        • positive feeling about factory work
        • women recruited other women
        • some thought work as bad
        • Document E: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845
        • • equal opportunities
          • separate spheres- middle class ideal
          • Lucretia Mott- women’s right, abolitionist,
          • Elizabeth Cady Stanton- women’s right movement
          • Seneca Falls- Declaration of Sentiments
          • Document F: Sarah Bagley, “The Ten Hour System and Its Advocates,” Voice of
            Industry, January 16, 1846
          • • long hours of work
            • society american womanhood did not apply to the working class
            • ideal v reality
            • Lowell girls
            • immigrant women
            • ocument G: “Woman, and the ‘Woman’s Movement,’” Putnam’s monthly magazine of American literature, science and art, March 1853
              
              
              • inferior to men, guardian of man’s humanity
              • moral guardians
              • subordination
              • women movement
              • Declaration of Sentiments
              • Seneca Falls Convention
              • Document H: Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861
              • • slaves as property, law did not protect slaves
                • ideal not extended to slaves
                • infidelity of their husbands
                • American Anti Slavery Society
                • Sojourner Truth- “ain’t I women”
                • Grimke Sisters- abolitionist and suffragists,
                • Uncle Tom’s Cabin- novel gained opposition to slavery, Harriet Beecher Stowe
                • Document I: Letters written by a frontier woman in Iowa to relatives, 1861
                • • women worked in the fields, acceptable work
                  • aspired for cult of ...
                  • Document J: H. L. Stephens, The Parting, 1863
                  • • sale of slave family
                    • slave families did not have stability
                    • Underground Railroad
                    • Sojourner Truth- “ain’t I woman”
                    • Harriet Tubman- conducted the underground railroad
                    Thesis- The cult of domesticity and republican motherhood was embraced as part of American womanhood with middle and upper class using it as a handicap to reach social and economic equity; however, such ideal could not be embraced by the working class and African Americans due to economic and social repression.

                    Class
                    
                    
                    • lower class and black women
                    • young women- work in factories
                    • Lowell girls- semi-acceptable working conditions
                    • obligated to attend church
                    • no economic advancement- for men
                    • Dorothea Dix- against inhumane treatment of insane prisoners
                    • Clara Barton- founded the Red Cross
                    • nursing
                      
                      
                      Race
                      • white- cult of domesticity
                      • black- freed and enslaved
                      • not able to practice republican motherhood
                      • torn apart from families- unable to instruct values
                      • the law didn’t do anything
                      • slaves forbidden to marry
                      • taught to admire both but unable to
                      Politics
                      
                      
                      • advocates of women’s political rights- shunned
                      • suffragist- not seen as ladies
                      • Seneca Falls Convention
                      • Susan B. Anthony- woman and men are equal
                      • Margaret Fuller- Transcendental journal
                      • cult of domesticity and republican motherhood- bad for advocates of women’s right
                        
                        
                        Social Reforms
                        • educated and middle class women- social reform
                        • advocates of temperance and prohibition
                        • organized anti-alcohol groups
                        • abolitionist
                        • Grimke sisters
                        • Uncle Tom’s Cabin
                          
                          
      
      
      Religion
      • Great Awakening
      • moral supremacy- country’s values
      • make intellectual and physical superiority- out of politics and economics
      • cult of domesticity- moral preservation and instruction
      • occupation of teaching
      • republican motherhood- unmarried women teaching
      • enforced
      Conclusion
      • American womanhood was suppose to be followed by every woman living in America; however, it was not due to economic and social repressions.
      • It was not welcomed by advocated for women’s right because it suppressed their ability.
      • 19th amendment

Truman Doctrine, Hanoi Hilton

If you were assigned an Event or situation you need to summarize the event add primary source analysis, and include a video of the event or situation in 3 paragraphs.
Truman Doctrine

      The Truman Doctrine came to be after Britain was unable to provide financial support to pro-democratic countries, usually surrounded by pro-Soviet countries. Truman instituted the Truman doctrine in order to help financially countries retain the pro-democratic stances. President Eisenhower invoked the Eisenhower Doctrine ten years after his predecessors Truman Doctrine. In 1947, President Truman asked congress for four hundred million dollars in order to prevent countries such as Turkey and Greece fall into communism. 
      Truman said it is the duty of the Unites States to help countries overthrow and stop communism. Therefore, he provided aid in the ways he sought fit since Britain could no longer provide support. The doctrine supported countries through economic means not so much through military action. Controversy was seen when that support for all countries was not economically possible such as the case with the Hungarian revolt under the Eisenhower doctrine.
Truman Doctrine
      Britain informed the United States it could no longer provide financial aid to Turkey and Greece. This was due since war world 1 had a lot of economic repercussions and Britain was widely affected. It was then that the idea of the United States responsibility to help countries to not fall into communism came to be. With the Truman Doctrine the Domino theory was created. Truman addressed the American people through the radio and gave extreme importance to a measure against communism.

Hanoi Hilton
     The capital of communist Vietnam was the Hanoi and the area surrounding it was called the Hanoi Hilton by American prisoners of war. In 1948, the Geneva Convention to discuss the treatment of prisoners of war and how countries were to conduct warfare. North Vietnamese did not follow the treatment of prisoners of war established by the Geneva Convention due to the fact the U.S. did not officially declare war. As a result, American prisoners of war were badly treated and considered pirates and air pirates. The Hanoi Hilton is the base of interrogation for the Vietnamese were cruel treatment was practiced. The Vietnamese practiced sensory deprivation and with that process were able to get information from the soldiers.
      However, American soldiers were trained and educated in military academies; their command was not to leak information unless the pain became unbearable. Being educated soldiers created a communication system in the prison with the basis of the Morse code. The soldiers then gave inaccurate information to their captors and were not caught. The Vietnamese believed the treatment worked and trusted the information. Some American soldiers lived in the Hanoi Hilton to up to 8 years and managed to survive using the communication system.
Documentary -video
Primary Source
     The primary source is derived from the Geneva Convention which is supposed to ensure the treatment of prisoners of war is not brutal.It states that the enemy power is held responsible for the treatment of the prisoner and can be accused if an individual violates the Geneva Convention. It is the responsibility of the enemy power to return the custody of the prisoners if the convention is violated. The convention states no brutal treatment can be given to prisoners such as mutilation. The enemy power is also in charge of the health and medical fees of the prisoners. This was important because Vietnam violated the Geneva Convention;however, it was okay because the U.S. did not officially declare war against Vietnam.

President Johnson (Political Cartoons)

The anti-Vietnam War movement was important for the youth of United States because students gathered and projected their collective voice. College students used posters in order to protest along with marches and demonstrations. The Student Mobilization Committee was a national organization which encouraged the formation of campus committees to end the war, such as thee poster Bring the Troops Home Now. The phrase was a common slogan for antiwar organizations and rallies; the phrase was also the name of a newspaper that was dedicated to reduce the amount of troops sent to Vietnam. The designer of the poster is Nancy Coner. Johnson saw the Vietnam War as a struggle in order to end the expansion of communism as part of the containment policy. The public slowly grew in opposition to the war that dragged on especially after televised events of the Tet Offensive. Americans were divided into "hawks" and "doves" in which the doves led anti-war demonstrations. 

The political cartoon is trying to convey the truth of Vietnam. The significance of the cartoon was before the media became involved the citizens were lied about the motives to fight in Vietnam.

Once the media became involved it exposed the cruelties and true horrors of what was happening there.  This also was the beginning of people’s distrust in the government.  The bucket in the left side of the picture explains how the government dealt with the Vietnamese.  They would go into their territory and kill off as much of their culture and families as they could. The police officer is painting over what they wanted to cover up during the war.  In the end, there was no victory in the war. Many were killed and that was the truth that many Americans did not see.

In this particular cartoon from The Washington Post, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is reinterpreted in such a way that the administration is plagued with problems. Furthermore, this critique of Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the Vietnam War was satirized as being Caesar-like.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

President Johnson (Seminar)

President Johnson presidency was from 1963-1969 and he took charge after JFK was assassinated. President Johnson led the United States effectively through the Cold War because he nurtured the people after JFK's assassination.  Johnson was very dedicated to his job as presidents till the point he memorized names and faces. But the Great Society, a social plan, for Americans represented how much he cared to bring up his people and out of poverty. He titled a program War on Poverty designed to help the many American go to college and find job. The Civil Rights Movement was also important and he believed equal rights was necessary for every American. The Civil Rights Bill and the Voting Rights of 1965 ensured and reinforced the rights of African American and any minority in the future. 

Working with his predecessors work Johnson already had a foreign policy that he was obliged to work with. An example is the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution where it asked Congress for money to support a war against communism of North Vietnam. Johnson did not have other choices than to proceed with the proposition because of the Domino Theory and Truman and Eisenhower doctrine dictated. Although America lost the Vietnam War, Johnson led the country by always being updated and trying to end the war. Left with horrifying images from the Tet offensive Americans and Johnson truly saw what war was. 

Truman did not to a good job leading America through the Cold War. He set up expectations against communism that would cost a lot of money and that money could be used to help American in other aspects. President Eisenhower used a lot of money to create weapons and with realization the Eisenhower doctrine was a fail because excessive fund must be placed to fight against communism.

Dorothea Lange

On the Road 1939

Dust Bowl migrants

dirty because of sever dust storm

farms became unlivable so needed to find somewhere else

Causes

Homestead act of 1862 and transcontinental railroad

Kinkaid Act 1904

Enlarged Homestead Act 1909

Severe drought and dust storms

human displacement

dust pneumonia or malnutrition

land barren and home seized in foreclosure

FDR 100 days in office

Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Plot 1936

Federal Surplus Relief Association

Drought Relief Service

Civilian Conservation Corps

move

Problem, Possible Cause, Government Responsibility, Possible Solution

Mass Death and Destruction (during WW1)

War World 1, belligerents are the Allied (Entente) Powers and the Central Powers, which was centered in Europe lasting about four years from July 28, 1914 till November 11, 1918. In this war more than 9 million combatants, people who are directly involved in the war, died. The war brought in economic world powers where the Triple Entente was based on United Kingdom, France, and Russian Empire and the Central Powers based on Germany and Austria-Hungary. War World I was the introduction to warfare and the use of modern technology which resulted in mass destruction and death, and by November 1918 more than 9 million soldiers were killed.
Chemical weapons in warfare, such as poison gas was introduced by Imperial Germany in 1915 the Battle of Bolimov. Through chemical weapons used by both sides it was estimated of a 1.3 million casualties. Chemical casualties- for British was over 180,000 during war, one-third of U.S. casualties by gas, and 500,000 chemical weapon casualties reported by Russian Army. The 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare were treaties prohibiting the use of chemical warfare which both sides violated. Soldiers were not the only endangered from the chemical warfare, civilians were also endangered due to blowing winds and ineffective gas masks. The idea of genocide and ethnic cleansing was prevalent in War World I and not only in Germany. In Turkey, the Ottoman Empire went against the Armenian population through Tehcir Law and mass execution. In Russia, Jews were targeted and estimated 60,000-200,000 were killed. The Rape of Belgium is a term used during German occupation and invasion to describe the treatment of civilians
POW were guaranteed a higher survival rate then those in the front line because all nations pledged to follow fair treatment of prisoners of war in the Hague Convention. Conditions in camps were satisfactory due to neutral nation's inspection and the International Red Cross. Russia and Germany seemed to be exceptions because starvation was a problem to both prisoners and civilians. The Ottoman Empire treated the POWs harsh by making them march and building a rail.

Progressive Characters

Theodore Roosevelt

a. Theodore Roosevelt grew up an ill child with asthma problems; therefore, fueling his passion towards dangerous sports. Coming from a wealthy family who taught a life of service he developed his political ethics by supporting the working class. He also used his wealth to support the Rough Riders, a volunteer unit, in which they received the best uniforms and guns.

b. A major legislation was the square deal which helped establish a program to help the needy and poor. He also established the FDA, the food and drug administration, which helped  sanitary reasons.

c. Goal was to help the poor and needy with different programs. Against companies and more towards helping the workers. Against companies taking over the government or having too much power.

Eugene V. Debs

a. His parent were German immigrants who struggled financially but had accumulated intellectual wealth. Debs excelled in aademic and loved reading Les Miserables and having book discussions with his family. Debs experienced the dangers of the Pacific Union Railway at the age of 17 because immigrants at that time were unable to attend college.

b. In becoming a union activist, he helped form the American Railway Union which gained popularity. With the ARU the Great Railway Strike, known as Debs Rebellion in the newspaper, was a string against George C. Pullman and his unfair company policies. Debs was arrested for inciting a riot when in fact he was for a peaceful protests. During WWI, Debs delievered speeches against WWI and Wilson which inevitabley caused the enforcement of Sedition act against him.

c. Debs started as union activist and his goal was to help develop better conditions for workers. He became a socialist after being imprisoned and ntcing big corporations control American. He believed if the government controlled and managed corporations and railroads, workers would have better working conditions and the America will be truly great.

John D. Rockefeller

a. Rockefeller lived a decent childhood as middle class family who moved to Ohio to farm. Religion became an important aspect of Rockefeller's life and shaped his decisions. He completed college early by emersing himself in his studies and then his job eventually climbing up to the highest position and taking a risk to start his own business.

b. By slowly gaining a monopoly in the oil industry with company Standard Oil he began to realize the importance of controlling the means of production. He also did predatory pricing by lowering the prices of products so low that the competition went out of business. After the government forced the company to divide into smaller businesses you fought to keep unions out.

c. Rockefeller thought with hard work was the only way a worker could rise to the top just as he had. He was a philantropist giving to churches and different institutions. His goal was to progress the nation with corporate institutions.

Robert La Follette

a. Had a difficult childhood filled with poverty but was the first to attend and graduate college. While working in the District Attorney he fought of coruptions and gained a political career once elected. He felt compassion towards the poor and needy since he experienced it as a child.

b. He passed initiative and referendum in some stated which gave voters a real direct democracy.  He became the Wisconsin idea which gave the power of the government back to the people. He filibusterd for 24 hours to attempt to stop the Declaration of War.

c. He was what most called an isolationist. He was antiwar as he campaigned and gave several speeches. He broke up several monopolies and anything he felt was corrupt.

Ida Tarbel

a. Tarbel came from a hard working family whose oil well was taken away by Standard Oil Company. She was a top student and was the first women to attend and graduate college. She gained interest in writing and became known as a muckracker.

b. She wrote a biography about Lincoln in whcih she gained fame for her writing skills. She also wrote "The History of the Standard Oil Company" about Rockefeller and his corruptions. A success in which Standard Oil Company was considered a monopoly and broken into small companies. b

c. She attempted to reform the nation the journalism. She used facts to fight off corruptions and monoplies. Her goal was to use facts while respecting the individual and get the truth known.

Woodrow Wilson

a. Wilson began in a library with an intense love for books and knowledge. He graduated from a top university and rose to the top from student to president of the university. He created the theory of Moral Internationalism.

b. As a president he passed the Sedition Act and Espionage Act during WWI. Wilson tried to ratify the Treaty of Versailles with the creation of 14 Points. He also tried to create The League of Nations which was a democracy of the world.

c. Roosevelt ideals followed the  theory of Moral Internationalism. He thought the U.S. is a world power and should help other countries. The ideas of the U.S. as world power was very prominent and thought the U.S. would solve poverty.

What was life like in the South for African Americans after Reconstruction ended in 1877? (African American Reconstruction)

        The life of African Americans in the United States is embedded with racism and segregation that lasts in contemporary American society. With the emergence of the Jim Crow laws, a set of laws similar to the black codes which stated separate but equal. The emergence of the KKK which was a social club for white Southerners created after the Civil War brought treacherous acts against African Americans. The act of lynching took place during the night where African Americans where tortured to death and left in the doorsteps of politics or families. With the film the Birth of a Nation advertisement of the KKK sprung in which stereotypes and racism was prominent in the film.

        The 13 14 and 15 amendment which where designed to protect the civil rights of African American and any other citizen was just a written paper with no enforcement. African Americans were vulnerable to the white supremacist. The KKK act of 1871 was deemed unconstitutional in 1882 and led to abolish the little protection of African Americans had. Poll taxes was prominent in the South where African Americans had to pay and take literacy tests in order to vote.

Chinese (Immigration)

The Chinese came to the United States with the idea of instant wealth due to the massive advertisements of the Gold Rush in California. The idea of immigrating to the States was not permanent but a way to make money and send it to their families living in poverty back in China. Gam Saan, or the gold mountain was a dream to the Chinese to become instantaneously rich. The Chinese push factor was the poor condition and unavailability of jobs in China; while the pull factor were the many advertisements and allure America brought. In 1849, the rumor of the Gold Rush arrived in Hong Kong but it wasn't until 1851 that 250,000 Chinese immigrated.
The first group of Chinese immigrants was between the 1840s and 1850s with little work experience and education. The Chinese immigrants found jobs in building railroads and their labor was cheap. In the 1960s a new wave of Chinese immigrants from all over China arrived to the United States. The new wave was skilled and was culturally diverse- some from Hong Kong and others from Taiwan.
Foreign Miners License tax
The Sidewalk Ordinance of 1870
Chinese Exclusion Act
Queue Ordinance of 1873

Theodore Dreiser (Muckracker)

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was born on August 27,1871 and became a famous American novelist. His father was a German immigrant and his mother was from Ohio who was disowned for marrying and converting to Roman Catholicism; therefore, Dreiser was raised in strict Catholicism. Dreiser married Sara White in 1998 and separated in 1909 due to his infatuation to Thelma Cudlipp. In 1944 he married his cousin Helen Richardson whom he began an affair in 1919. 

Most of Dreiser’s literary works contained characters who succeeded in their goal; however, lacked a moral code. Dreiser face censorship due to his work dealing with promiscuity going against what was acceptable in society at that time. Dreiser was well-known for Carrie, a 1900 novel, and An American Tragedy, a 1925 novel. Carrie is about a woman who flees the country life for the city and was not widely promoted because of the moral depictions. The young woman achieves her dreams of wealth and fame through relationships with men. The Nigger Jeff, a short story published in 1901, was inspired when Dreiser witnessed a lynching 1893. American Tragedy became a huge success and was based on the crime of American’s greed toward wealth and success.  

The reason why Carrie became known as the “greatest of all American urbans” is because it broke social standards and female ideals wrote Sister Carrie who broke female ideals, it “showed social changes of the time - city life, scramble for money and power, understood place of greed in Gilded Age.” Dreiser was involved in campaigns against social injustice and therein wrote several nonfiction books on the political issues. Dreiser wrote novels based on workers being harshly treated by business owner with sole ambition of wealth over anything else.