The Victorian American Era and the Emergence of People’s Movements

Abstract

The term “Victorianism” derived from Queen Victoria reflected the heavy British command on its colonies during colonial times. “Victorian America” is a time referring to the broad influence of the Victorianism and the Victorian English lifestyle, values that became dominant over the American socio political culture in 1800’s. The Victorian era in America pressurized almost every aspect of American society. At its peak, the Victorian American culture provoked severe political, social, cultural changes and issues. This empowered people’s movements, and the contemporary political landscape in United States of America very much a recreation of these movements. Throughout this era, race, gender and immigration had been the leading basis to fight for the civil liberties. The main objective of this study is to understand the Victorian influence on American political landscape and to examine how that motivated Americans to fight for civil liberties collectively. The paper brings out some of the main movements such as women’s suffrage movement, temperance leagues, and abolitionist movement and further, elaborate on their contribution in fighting for civil rights. Further, the study attempts to capture how contemporary American landscape was shaped by these movements. This is a secondary source based study involving review of literature and documents. Considering the findings of the study, paper brings out that the civil liberty fights in 1800’s are consequences of Victorian American crisis. Further, the paper argues that, “even though the Victorian values had a constant commitment to influence the social landscape of the United States of America, It has motivated a rapid emergence of people’s movements.”