mormonism

Mormonism emerged from the religious ferment from families of Puritan descent who lived a long the Erie Canal. The founder of the Mormon church was Joseph Smith wrote a story called, The Book of Mormon, which told how God singled him out to receive a special revelation of divine truth. He began to see himself as a prophet and organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He advocated practices that were central to individual success in the age of capitalist markets and factories. His main goal was to have a church-directed society that would inspire moral perfection. His major problem was being able to secure a permanent home for his religious movement, due to a lot of persecution from anti-Mormons. He decided to leave New York and move west where he settled in Nauvoo, Illinois which bloomed and became the largest utopian community with 300,000 inhabitants. However, tensions began to rise and Joseph Smith began to abide or agree to any law he did not approve of, and began to go over board by asking congress to declare himself a candidate for president of the US. Smith began to express to his followers about a revelation he had received that justified polygamy, which was the the practice of a man having more than one wife at one time.which outraged local Christians. Smith was later arrested for treason, and an anti-Mormon mob stormed the prison and murdered Joseph Smith.
A follower Brigham Young, felt the need to leave from these religious tension and leave the United States and settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. When the US acquired Mexico's northern territory, they settled with Brigham Young and gave him a much smaller Utah territory that he asked for in 1850 and named him territorial governor. ***Mormons had finally succeeded where other social experiments and utopian communities had failed. With the idea of private ownership of property and encouraging individualist economic enterprise, they became prosperous contributors to the new market society.***

The Second National Bank

The Second National Bank of the United States opened in 1816, the main purpose of the bank was to stabilize the nation's money supply. This included reducing the amount of paper money, to do this the Second Bank promised to redeem paper notes for gold and silver coins. Collecting these paper notes helped the Second Bank keep the state banks from issuing too much paper money. Throughout the 1820s the Second Bank continued to remain stable by closing reckless state banks as well as keeping expansion-minded bankers in the western states. This made the bankers and entrepreneurs with capital investments that were underwriting economic development happy. But the American people were afraid because of the the bank's power to force other banks to close which left them with worthless paper notes. Some bankers didn't like that all of the federal governments specie was being deposited in the Second Bank and wanted some of it deposited in their banks, while others just didn't like the idea of any kind of supervision by a central bank. In 1832 Henry Clay and Daniel Webster attempted to get Biddle to get an early extension on the bank's charter hoping that Jackson would veto the bill and thus split the Democrats before the 1832 elections. In the end Jackson vetoed the bill that rechartered the bank saying that the bank has no constituional authority to charter the national bank and that it was "dangerous to the liberties of the people. Lastly he pointed out that British aristocrats owned most of the bank's stock and that any institution that powerful shoudl be "purely American." This attack on the bank lead to his victory in the election of 1832.

The election of 1824

In this election there were four cadidates. These four candidates were Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, son of the previous president Adams, Sec. of Treasury William H. Crawford, Henry Clay of Kentucky and Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. In the election of 1824, John Quincy Adams won and he tried to set up a government using Henry Clay's American System. He wanted a protective tariff, federally subsidized roads and canals and a national bank to control credit and create a uniform currency. In this election Jackson was still fighting to get his way and in 1828 and tariff was placed that rose tariffs on imported raw materials. This infuriated the southerners because it cost them about $100 million more a year than it should have.

Then in the election of 1828 Adams didn't run again and Jackson ended up winnig this election with extreme votes. Jackson was all for state rights and a less powerful central government. The people that supported Jackson became known as the Democrats because the republic ideals were more for a few idividual right rather than the whole and the Jacksonians were about the whole society. In 1832 John C. Calhoun thought that the states should be able to decide if tariffs were constitutional or not and even though Jackson was for the states he thought this idea was rediculous. In 1833 Jackson passed the Force bill that gradually lowered the taxes and by 1842 the tariffs were back to the modest rates of 1816. Jackson also didn't approve of the Second National Bank and he vetoed a bill to recharter it and declared that congress had no constitutional right to charter a national bank. In 1830 Jackson pushed for the Indian Removal Act that would move the indians to present day Oklahoma and Kansas (west of the Mississippi), just the way the easterners wanted it. Eventually Jackson used Military force to move the indians who refused to move. Overall Jackson's presidency celebrated the power of the people.

Adams, Jackson and the Election of 1824

There were four candidates in the Election of 1824: Crawford, Adams, Clay and Jackson. Andrew Jackson won the popular vote , but there was no majority in the Electoral College so the vote went to the House of Representatives where John Quincy Adams came out the winner. Adams was not a very successful president and that was proven when he passed the Tariff of 1828 that raised taxes on imported British woolen goods. This upset many people, mainly the people of the south, and Jackson used it to his advantage while running for president in 1828.

With the help of Martin Van Buren and John c. Calhoun Jackson ran a smart campaign. Van Buren's strategy was to unite the northern farmers and artisans with southern slave owners and smallholding farmers. Calhoun who was running to be Jackson's vice-president brought his allies from South Carolina to join the campaign. This group of Jacksonians started calling themselves Democratic Republicans, eventually becoming Democrats. Jackson was able to remain popular in the south by opposing the tariffs. Jackson won the election and made Martin Van Buren Sectretary of State. Once in office Jackson used the spoils system where he replaced all members of his office with loyal supporters, so he had his own people holding government jobs.

Economic Revolution

Henretta Chapter 10 discusses the ever changing American Economy. Manufacturing was a critical component in boosting the American economy. Several factors lead to a successful manufacturing economy: division of labor, improved British technology and hiring less expensive workers.A division of labor assigns specific tasks to different workers. The division improved efficency and productivity leading to a significant increase in output. Secondly, by improving British technology American's were now able to compete in the textile industry. American's have Francis Cabot Lowell to thank for building the first textile plant to outwork the British. Lowell did so by touring British textile mills asking questions and secretly sketching drawings of the machinery and then passing them along to Paul Moody. Once Moody recieved the drawings he copied the machines and made vast improvments to the outdate American machines. Finally, American's began to hire less expensive workers. The "Waltham plan" recruited thousands of farm girls and women to work in the textile factories. The women were put up in housing and given curfews. Although the jobs were not glamourous, many women still chose to work in textile factories simply because the pay was more than they would be making doing household work.

Frederick Douglass

After reading the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougalss, I believe it would be an understatement to say his story is admirable. Frederick Douglass spent his whole life overcoming adversity. His mother died when he was a young child and when she was living, she had to sneak over at night to tuck him into bed. Frederick mentioned his feelings of his mother's death were similar to if a stranger had passed.
Frederick was under the command of several different masters during his time in slavery. Frederick was abused phisically, mentally, emotionally, and verbally by his masters. One day he was severly beated for passing out due to heat-exhaution. I would think passing out from the heat would be punishment enough. Frederick always worked long hours. One of his masters believed, "the longest days were too short, and the shortest nights were too long."
I would consider Frederick Douglass a self-made-man. He was taught letters by his master's wife, but when the master found out, he probibited his wife from teaching a slave to read. He believed if slaves learned to read it would give them a certain power, and would eventually take over. After this, Frederick did not give up, he found a way to keep learning. He would give his bread to the poor white children in exchange for a reading lesson. He would also recycle the spelling books of his master's children and fill in the blank lines. Being able to read enabled Frederick Douglass to help unify the slaves. They began to all want to read. Every Sunday they would gather and he would teach the slaves to read. I believe he called it "Sabboth School." Frederick Douglass stood up for himself and fought for what he thought was right. Whether it had been his own strength and courage or strength from the plant his friend told him to keep in his left pocket, Frederick stood his ground. Frederick was determined to be free. Even after he was caught with the other men, Henry and John Harris, Henry Bailey, and Charles Robert, for planning an escape, he was sure he would be free one day. The last time he tried he was alone and he knew it was to be free or to die. Frederick finally made it safely to NY where he married Anna Murray on Sep. 15, 1838. After being told NY was not a safe place for them to be, they moved to New Bedford. Suprising to Frederick New Bedford was "clean, new, and beautiful." People seemed happy, it was the life he'd been dreaming of. When asked about being free, he explained it as it "felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions." Frederick worked as a caulker until white men refused to work with him. He then worked many other jobs stating none were too much work or too dirty. Frederick Douglass had finally reached his ultimate goal, to serve as his own master.
The fact I found most interesting in reading this article is throughout his life he went by five different names. He was born as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, he then shortened it to Frederick Bailey, was known as Stanely when living in Baltimore, Fred Johnson, and when he started his new life in New Bedford he was given the name Frederick Douglas by Mr. Johnson.

Industrialization in America

Industrialization began to show in America during the 1790's. The use of the outwork system(division of labor) and modern factories used new and improved technology to increase the output of goods exponentially. With improved technology factories were finally able to produce metal goods and parts, such as reaping machines for farms and guns. The British government limited the export of new machinery and the emigration of those who knew how to build it after the country's manufacturers began to worry about American competition. Lured by money and offers of partnerships mechanics made their way to America to help create a more advanced machines. Although America had more natural resources, Britain still had a larger population overall and that was concentrated in cities. To rectuit more workers Americans had to create stratigies to find more workers. One such idea was the "Waltham plan" that brought thousands of farm women and girls into the textile work force. By the 1820s American mechanics were on the rise following in British immigrants footsteps creating multiple machines to produce better goods, faster. They also pioneered the development of machines that could make other machines. The increase in factory work, although boosting the economy, created problems for artisans who lost business and faced unemployment and the loss of status. More and more Americans were forced to take jobs as wageworkers, workers who toiled for twelve or more hours a day for little pay. Unions brought thousands of workers together who faught for better working conditions.