Ap Us History Dbq American Motherhood

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Between the American Revolution and the outbreak of the Civil War there had been exponential gains in the fields of the freedom of speech, religious tolerance and freedom of the press in the United States. The United States had grown both socially and economically during this period of changing morals and ideals. But these positive changes in ideas were excluded from women. The ideals of republican motherhood which pertained to a mother's responsibility to safeguard the nation's values by passing them onto the countries youth, took a handhold in American society. A similar ideal was the cult of domesticity showing the sphere of influence that woman had in the the home. Though both republican motherhood and the cult of domesticity showed a presence in many American homes, black and lower class women never upheld the ideals because of the lack of social and economic opportunities. As poor women worked in factories and black women remained separated by slavery, women in middle and upper class society had crippling defeats over their fight for economic and political equality. Woman's defeat to try to gain equality in these fields were due to the prejudices created by the ideals of the republican motherhood and the cult of domesticity. The fostering of the cult of domesticity derived from the movements that seemed to be giving them a sense of equality. Movements that can be see between the American Revolution and the Civil War includes that of the second Great Awakening. The equality that this movement brought for women though was limited to the the Church, showing how women had become more faithful and religious than men. Men lost the distinction that they were superior to women spiritually, but it remained that they were both physically and intellectually dominant. “Woman is by nature inferior to man... in passion...intellect...and in physical strength.” These ideals

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