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HIST 1301 Journal 2
United States History I (HIST 1301)
Central Texas College
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Entry 1
With the influx of new immigrants into the United States, there was a particular group already in country that didn’t see the same freedoms that they saw. Blacks were not seen as Americans by the other citizens. When the New York constitutional convention removed property qualifications for whites to vote, raised the requirement for blacks to $250, an amount beyond the reach of nearly every black resident. North Carolina and later Pennsylvania disenfranchised free blacks. Blacks were considered as citizens of color and intruders among the white men. In some states they could not vote, serve in militias, or attend public schools. Race was becoming a dividing factor among citizens. Race had become a boundary between Americans who could express political freedoms and those who could not.
Entry 2
The economic collapse started in 1836 after the government sold 20 million acres of land for paper money and then after President Jackson declared land can only be sold with gold or silver and because of this the Bank of England demanded American merchants pay their creditors in gold or silver. Then, the economic downfall in Britain put a damper on the distribution of American cotton. All these things together caused the American economic collapse, the Panic of 1837, and then into a depression until 1843. In the first year, prices fell by twenty five percent, businesses failed, and farmers were unable to meet payments, and many lost their land. Thousands of workers lost their jobs. In 1842, nine states defaulted on their debts. During this time, states amended their constitutions to prohibit legislatures from borrowing money, issuing corporate charters, and buying stocks in private enterprises. The goal was to separate federal and state governments from the economy.
Entry 3
One influential religious community during this time in history was Oneida. Oneida was founded in New York by John Humphrey Noyes, who was a son of a United States Congressman from Vermont. Noyes preached to his followers that they were so perfect that they had achieved a state of complete sinlessness. Noyes’ message was that man can achieve moral perfection to an extreme. Noyes and his followers formed a community in Putney, Vermont. He taught to his members that all of them formed a single holy family and any man could propose sexual relations to any woman, who could accept or deny, and then would be registered in a public record book. Noyes felt that exclusive relationships destroyed the harmony of the community. In 1848, Noyes was indicted for adultery and he moved his community to Oneida. The community survived until 1881.
Entry 4
A new slavery had become known to the public; it was the slavery of sex. Women were demanding more rights. Feminism was now an international movement. Household chores had diminished due to domestic servants and manufactured goods. Many women had restrictions
that made it impossible to get an education, enter professions, and exercise their personal talents. Feminists demanded that every woman, married or not, should be able to have these individual choices. The goal women wanted was freedom. Feminists usually spoke on women’s freedoms not in their private lives, such as in the home. In the twentieth century, women were becoming to exercise their private freedoms. This was evident in the dramatic fall in the country’s birthrates. Women were also demanding rights to regulate their own sexual activity and procreation within their marriages.
Entry 5
Following the Civil War, American religion and patriotism was at an all time peak. With the war producing so many casualties, northern Protestant clergy provided them with religious justification. They reassured their families that they had not died in vain. Religious press was now devoting more attention to military and political developments, than in spiritual matters. Christianity and patriotism were joined in a civic religion in many sermons that depicted the war as God’s way of ridding slavery from the United States and enabling it to become the land of freedom that was originally promised. On the contrary, southern clergy was also convinced that the Confederate cause represented God’s will for the United States. Religious beliefs allowed Americans to cope with their losses from the war. Spiritualism, which is the belief in the ability to talk to the dead, became more popular during this time also.
Entry 6
For northern women, the war created opportunities for them to start working. They took advantage of the labor shortage and moved into factory jobs and nursing. The expansion of the government also allowed women to move into government offices as clerks. Thousands of northern women participated in organizations that gathered money for books, medical supplies, clothing, and food to soldiers fighting in the war. Although the country’s control at a national level was still in the hands of men, women did most of the grassroots work in the country. Men often thought of women working during the war as an extension of their natural capacity for self-service, but for many women volunteering for work in soldier aid societies brought them into the public sphere and gave them a taste of independence. The women’s suffrage movement halted operations during the war to devote their energies and time into the Union and emancipation.
Entry 7
With the end of the Civil War, the United Sates was a new nation. For the first time, Americans were free. With the abolition of slavery, the questions pertaining to freedom were on the minds of every American. During Reconstruction, freedom became a topic of conflict. Out of the conflict of freedom, came new kinds of relations between white and black southerners. The understandings of freedom to the African Americans was shaped by their experiences while they were slaves. To them freedom meant no more punishment by the lash, separation of their families, denied access to education, or sexual exploitation of their women. African Americans
HIST 1301 Journal 2
Course: United States History I (HIST 1301)
University: Central Texas College
