Antibellum DBQ essay essays

Antibellum DBQ essay essays During the Antebellum years the United States of America was changing, separate political parties formed and education was stressed. Social, religious, and political reforms during these years helped shape society into what it is today. People focused on the reformation of many different things, women's rights, slavery, schooling, the criminal justice system and poverty. During the Antebellum reforms Americans were still very religious as a people which lead to the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening was a response to the growing liberalism. The Second Great Awakening resulted in many new denominations of Christianity. Methodists and Baptists, two of the new denominations, used democracy to settle church affairs, these changes lead to more reformations. According to Francis Grund, the inspiration of American reforms was directly linked with religion. He stated, "Religion has been the basis of the most important American settlements...The Americans look upon their religion as a promoter of civil and political liberty" ( Doc 3) Religion had a major effect on reformations in America. Theodore Parker had views on religion and war. "War is an utter violation of Christianity.... If war be right, then Christianity is wrong, false, a lie. Every man who understands Christianity knows that war is wrong." (Doc 5) Theodore Parker was a Massachuse tts minister and was a leading abolitionist. Political figures had many influences on reformation as well. Andrew Jackson had faith in the common man and believed in human perfection. Jackson said "I believe man can be elevated; man can become more and more endowed with divinity; and as he does he becomes more God-like in his character and capable of governing himself. Let us go on elevating our people, perfecting our institutions, until democracy shall reach such a point of perfect that we can acclaim with truth that the voice of the people is the voice of God" (Doc 1). He thought tha...

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the military geniuses of American history, was born July 13, 1821 in Bedford County, Tennessee. Nathan Forrest was the son of William and Marian Beck Forrest. Nathan's father Willaim died when he was only 16. Forrest rose from poverty to become a wealthy cotton planter, horse and cattle trader, real estate broker, and slave dealer. Nathan Forrest was perhaps the most interesting and controversial general of the civil war. This almost illiterate backwoodsman was a self-made millionaire who enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army in June of 1861 and with no prior military training rose to the rank of lieutenant general in 1865 and has also been called the greatest cavalry commander of either army. Without military education or training, he became the annoyance of Grant, Sherman, and almost every other Union general who fought in Tennessee, Alabama, or Kentucky. His formula for success was "get there first with the most men." Forrest w!as fe arless and brutal. "War means fightin' and fightin' means killin'," he explained. His nemesis General William Tecumseh Sherman called him "a devil" and declared that Forrest should be "hunted down and killed if it costs 10,000 lives and bankrupts the treasury." It is said that Forrest personally killed 31 men and had 29 horses shot out from under him. Forrest left his mark throughout the Western and at many sites in West and Middle Tennessee. During the years General Nathan Bedford Forrest was a leader he fought in many wars. At the Battle of Fort Donelson, where 13,000 Confederates surrendered to General U.S. Grant, Forrest declared that he had not come to surrender and led his men through swollen rivers and winter weather to the safety of Nashville. At Pittsburgh Landing he charged and routed a line of Union skirmishes by himself in defense of the retreating rebel army. In Murfreesboro, Tennessee he freed a garrison jail