How Did The Spread Of Domestic Ideologies During The Antebellum Era

During the antebellum era, there were many aspects of life in which people believed could change for the better. This reform sprouted from many different types of rhetoric, some of which being Christianity, The Declaration of Independence, and Domestic Ideology. Out of all the rhetoric used during the era, Domestic Ideology was the most prominent one used to reform society. Domestic Ideology allowed many reforms to spread including temperance, women’s rights, and Abolition. Although the other rhetoric, Christianity and The Declaration of Independence, also contributed to the reforms. However, they did not have the same level of influence that Domestic Ideology had, and Christianity even hindered some of the movements.
The temperance movement

This was a problem because of the shift of work to railroads and factories with machinery, and having intoxicated workers was a safety issue . This is one way Domestic Ideology shined through as a main argument for the temperance movement. During this time period, men were considered the breadwinners of the home, and the consumption of alcohol was interfering with their work thus it harming their role in the family. Therefore, women had to use their God “given moral insight or instinct” which embraces the domestic ideology that it was the women’s job to keep men on the moral path to ensure that they do not loose their way. As said in lecture, Domestic Ideology shapes the temperance rhetoric due to the fact it sheds light on how alcohol was bad for the family ideology. Since it was the women’s job to keep men on this moral path they were very active in driving the temperance movement. Workingmen would spend all the families’ money on alcohol, and that alcohol had this connotation of a slippery slope, where once a man began to drink he started down a path towards doom, which ultimately ended in suicide. Christianity also played a role in the temperance movement because they

Also, the abolition movement was another way people were trying to repair society. Abolitionists used both Christianity and Domestic Ideology to promote their reform. In the beginning, it was described that the only people challenging slavery “were Quakers, slaves, and free black.” Through the Quaker religion emerged and an important woman named Abby Kelly, who was described as selfless and courageous which were necessary characteristics for her becoming a part of the abolition movement. Her courage led her to challenge domestic ideology’s “assumption that women’s “place” was in the home” by giving public speeches about slavery. Many women compared slavery to the temperance movement as a way into the public sphere. Fredrick Douglass even explains that when the history of antislavery is written women will heavily occupy it due to the fact that “much of the movement’s grassroots strength derived from northern women…” The use of slavery to get into public politics is another way women rebelled against this idea of domestic ideology by showing that they can exist in the public sphere and succeed. Another