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Alessandra Bassani

Mr. Jones

AP US History

26 November 2017

The Changing Roles of Women in the Antebellum Period

The antebellum market revolution and the Second Great Awakening marked a turning

point for the role of women in the family, workplace, and society in the years 1815-1860. This

was a result of them achieving more of a importance in the revived Methodist and Baptist

churches, and being honored for their role in the family through the cult of domesticity. Women

became the leading demographic of new church membership, and thus would lead the way in

shepherding societal reforms, including the abolition of slavery. From 1815-1860, the antebellum

market revolution and the Second Great Awakening had a profound impact on women’s roles,

since they attained more prominence in everyday life, and fought to increase the nation’s quality

of life.

The Second Great Awakening was a pushback to the liberalism of the Unitarian faith,

while revivalist preachers sought to bring people back to the old churches. As the Methodist and

Baptist churches experienced the largest growth during this period, women would become the

largest new membership in churches, and play a pivotal role in the revivals and reforms of this

era. Charles Grandison Finney was the greatest of these preachers, and he believed in the

“anxious bench” which helped inspire conversions. He also encouraged women to pray aloud,

and was one of the first preachers who embraced women in religion. Finney commented on a

conversion that occurred in 1831 between a Christian woman, which was a result of

“considerable conversation and prayer” (Doc. 1). After this happened “her heart broke down and
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she settled into a joyous faith”, since the conversion enabled her to become a member of the

church (Doc. 1). It also allowed her to be brought back to the Christian faith.

Women were given the important responsibility of teaching their children civic virtue at

home, reflecting a climate of millennialism that came from the Second Great Awakening. They

were seen fit for this position since they no longer had as many of the usual household chores,

allowing them more time to teach their children Republican morals. In the picture Sarony and

Major, “The Happy Mother” created in 1846, a woman is shown with her two children (Doc. 7).

Family size decreased and women typically got married later. Women also spoiled their children,

since they became the center of the household. Additionally, in the Godey’s Lady Book of 1845,

a women’s magazine, it illustrated how women are “constituted the first teacher of every human

being” according to God (Doc. 5). However, they are still “denied those privileges of education

which can only enable [them] to discharge [their] duty to [their] children” (Doc. 5). By stating

this in a women’s magazine, they could voice their opinion on the inequality they faced, and

their hope for change. This was promoted by the Seneca Falls Convention, which launched the

women’s movement. Nonetheless, women were respected for their roles in the home like never

before, and they became the nurturers of society’s reforms.

Women also experienced new job opportunities in factories, due to the switch in focus

from a subsistence to a market economy. As a result, there was a shift from making household

items to becoming employed in mills, often to obtain a dowry. The conditions they had to work

in were not favorable however, and the women also had to work six days a week for twelve to

thirteen hours, earning only low wages—such was the experience of the Lowell girls. Harriet

Farley described in the Lowell Offering, a newspaper that featured the works of the textile girls,

what working in the Lowell Textile Mill was like. She stated it attracted “worthy, virtuous,
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intelligent, and well-educated girls”, which was their first experience with independence (Doc.

4). They worked to “get money, as much of it and as fast” as they could (Doc. 4). However,

women endured working in these factories, because their were few opportunities for them to be

self-supporting.

Although women were given new roles in society, blacks were still subject to slavery,

causing many to believe in abolition. In the picture “Selling a Mother from Her Child”, a mother

is being separated from her child. This was done “very often, and frequently, too” since they

would “sell...the mother while they keep her children” (Doc. 2). By illustrating this, it was meant

to arouse anti-slavery sentiment, since many people regarded this as inhumane behavior. Harriet

Beecher Stowe was an important abolitionist, and in her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she captures

the degrading effect slavery has on individuals. This caused many people to join the abolitionist

movement as a result, and the article “What Women Have to Do with Slavery: A Dialogue” was

published in The Liberator, an early anti-slavery newspaper. The dialogue captures the

conversation between two women; one who joined the antislavery cause, and the other who

criticized the movement. Harriet, the woman who “joined the Anti-Slavery Society” did it

“according to [her] own sense of right”, because she believed women had “strength and

enlightening power of truth” (Doc. 3). This attitude drove the women’s movement, and caused

many other reforms to ensue.

There were a wide array of other reformers that tried to improve the quality of society.

For example, Dorothea Dix protested the conditions of the mentally ill in her report to the

Massachusetts legislature in 1843. She stated how “insane persons” are “confined... in cages,

closets, cellars, stalls, pens” and are “chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into

obedience” (Doc. 6). Dix did not believe it was fair to both the mentally ill and prisoners, that
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they were confined to the same cells. She protested change and it resulted in correctional

facilities and reformatories. There were also reforms in education taking place, with Catherine

Beecher who feminized education, and Emma Willard who created the Troy Female Seminary, a

college for women. These are only a few of the women who were reformers during the

Antebellum Period.

As a result of the antebellum market revolution and the Second Great Awakening,

women were given new roles in the family, workplace, and society. These changes resulted in

women attaining prominence and respect for their part in everyday life. They also became the

front runners for the end of slavery and an increase in the quality for the disadvantaged. From

1815-1860, women stood up for their rights and the rights of others, and were honored for their

contributions to the family and church.

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