Discussion Topics:

For this module, answer each of the following in your original post:

1. After reading Chapter 8 and any one of primary source readings: How did the expanding economy impact the lives of workers, professionals, and women? How did economic changes transform the American class system and the relationships among classes?

James Madison Asks Congress to Support Internal Improvements, 1815 (Links to an external site.)

After the War of 1812, Americans looked to strengthen their nation through government spending on infrastructure, or what were then called internal improvements. In his seventh annual address to congress, Madison called for public investment to create national roads, canals, and even a national seminary. He also called for a tariff, or tax on certain imports, designed to make foreign goods more expensive, giving American producers an advantage in domestic markets.

A Traveler Describes Life Along the Erie Canal, 1829 (Links to an external site.)

Basil Hall, a British visitor traveled along the Erie Canal and took careful notes on what he found. In this excerpt, he described life in Rochester, New York. Rochester, and other small towns in upstate New York, grew rapidly as a result of the Erie Canal.

Maria Stewart bemoans the consequences of racism, 1832 (Links to an external site.)

Maria Stewart electrified audiences in Boston with a number of powerful speeches. Her most common theme was the evil of slavery. However, here she attacks the soul-crushing consequences of racism in American capitalism, claiming that the lack of social and economic equality doomed Black Americans to a life of suffering and spiritual death.

Harriet H. Robinson Remembers a Mill Workers Strike, 1836 (Links to an external site.)

The social upheavals of the Market Revolution created new tensions between rich and poor, particularly between the new class of workers and the new class of managers. Lowell, Massachusetts was the location of the first American factory. In this document, a woman reminisces about a strike that she participated in at a Lowell textile mill.

Alexis de Tocqueville, How Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes, 1840 (Links to an external site.)

The French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville traveled extensively through the United States in gathering research for his book Democracy In America. In this excerpt, he described the belief that American men and women lived in separate spheres, men in public, women in the home. This expectation justified the denial of rights to women. All women were denied political rights in nineteenth century America, but only a small number of wealthy families could afford to remove women from economic production, like de Tocqueville claimed.

2. After reading Chapter 9 and any two of the sources below, address the following: What role did cotton production and slavery play in the Souths economic and social development? What does the author of Chapter 9 and Frederick Douglas think was the worst thing about slavery? What do you think? What does the institution of slavery suggest about American values and how they have changed over time? What factors made the South distinct from the rest of the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century?

Nat Turner explains the Southampton rebellion, 1831 (Links to an external site.)

In August, 1831, Nat Turner led a group of enslaved and free Black men in a rebellion that killed over fifty white men, women, and children. Nat Turner understood his rebellion as an act of God. While he awaited trial, Turner spoke with the white attorney, Thomas Ruffin Gray, who wrote their conversations into the document.

Harriet Jacobs on Rape and Slavery, 1860 (Links to an external site.)

Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery in North Carolina. After escaping to New York, Jacobs eventually wrote a narrative of her enslavement under the pseudonym of Linda Brent. In this excerpt Jacobs explains her experience struggling with sexual assault from her enslaver.

Solomon Northup Describes a Slave Market, 1841 (Links to an external site.)

Solomon Northup was a free Black man in New York who was captured and sold into slavery. After twelve years, he was rescued and returned to his family. Shortly thereafter, he published a narrative of his experiences as a slave. This excerpt describes the horrors he saw in a slave market.

George Fitzhugh Argues that Slavery is Better than Liberty and Equality, 1854 (Links to an external site.)

As the nineteenth century progressed, some Americans shifted their understanding of slavery from a necessary evil to a positive good. George Fitzhugh offered one of the most consistent and sophisticated defenses of slavery. His study Sociology for the South attacked northern society as corrupt and slavery as a gentle system designed to protect the inferior Black race and promote social harmony.

Five Myths about Frederick Douglas (Washington Post, February 10, 2017) (Links to an external site.)

Over 125 years after Frederick Douglasss death, the great abolitionists impact on our country is still unfolding. But as Douglasss fame has grown, so too have myths about his history and personality. Fascinating article written by two Harvard University professors, Henry Louis Gates and John Stauffer DO NOT PLAGIARIZE