The Antebellum Era And The Abolition Movement

The Antebellum Era was a monumental step in the right direction for American society. This is due to the reform movements that arose at the time, which include education reform, women’s rights, abolition, temperance, religious reformation, and more. There were always two opposing sides to each issue depending on where and what the person did at the time. For example, women started first wave feminism for obvious reasons and men opposed it due to traditional values. This opposition to reform can be found in every movement even outside of the antebellum period. A question that could be asked about the era is as follows: How would a male Irish immigrant from the middle class working in a textile mill react to such reforms and why? In order to

By the Antebellum period, America had already been split in half, eleven states wanting to abolish slavery and eleven states wanting to keep slavery. Many may think that an Irish Immigrant working in a factory would be pro-abolition due to the fact that he wouldn’t have any slaves, but they would be wrong. Oddly enough, immigrants opposed abolition in the fear that freed slaves would steal their jobs, similar to what people fear now with illegal immigration. This fear was fueled by the common ideal of the “American Dream”, the concept that those who move to America will be able to climb the economic and social ladder if they work hard enough. Freed slaves were seen as a threat to factory workers because many thought they would be payed less for the same amount of work, an argument currently used against immigration. This is obviously untrue, but a factory worker at the time wouldn’t know it, due to their lack of knowledge on the subject. These factory workers were unable to know what slaves went through for a long

Alcohol consumption was a growing problem in the 19th century, particularly with men. Men would come into work intoxicated, become intoxicated and abusive around their families, and spend majority of free time at bars. An Irish man working in a factory at the time would likely strongly oppose the opposition to alcohol consumption. He would probably consume a lot of alcohol himself, due to the high stress nature of his job. This is why many people were showing up to work intoxicated, the long hours and monotonous nature of work would cause depression within many workers, and alcohol was an easy coping mechanism. While it did make men abusive their wives and more prone to injury and death at work, it felt good for them to be drunk. According to Alan Brinkley, “The average male in the 1830s drank nearly three times as much alcohol as the average person does today.” Drinking was common and seen as unharmful for many men who did it on a daily basis, including Irish