Chapter 15

The Ferment of Reform and Culture, 1790-1860

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Reviving Religion• 1850: church attendance = regular

– 3/4 of population attended• Many relied on Deism

– reason rather revelation– Rejected original sin of man– denied Christ’s divinity– believed in a supreme being that created

universe with an order– similar to a clockmaker

• Put everything in order and let it run

Reviving Religion• Unitarian faith begins (New England)

– believed God existed in only 1 person• not in the orthodox trinity;

– stressed goodness of human nature– believed in free will – salvation through good works– pictured God as a loving father– appealed to intellectuals with rationalism &

optimism

The Second GreatAwakening

The Second GreatAwakening

“Spiritual Reform From Within”

[Religious Revivalism]

Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality

Temperance

Asylum &Penal

Reform

Education

Women’s Rights

Abolitionism

The Benevolent Empire

• Definition: A broad ranging campaign of moral & institutional reform inspired by Evangelical Christian ideals & created by middle class men & women. In the 1820s “benevolence” became a seminal concept in American spiritual thinking during the Second Great Awakening

Reviving Religion•  2nd Great Awakening

– tidal wave of spiritual fervor – Results?

• prison reform• church reform• temperance movement (no alcohol)• women’s rights movement,• abolition of slavery movement in 1830s

– spread to the masses through huge “camp meetings”

– East went to the West to Christianize Indians

Second Great AwakeningRevival Meeting

Second Great AwakeningRevival Meeting

Reviving Religion•  2nd Great Awakening (continued)

– Methodists & Baptists stressed • personal conversion• democracy in church affairs• emotionalism

• Peter Cartwright – best known of the “circuit riders” or traveling

preachers• Charles Grandison Finney

– greatest revival preacher, led massive revivals in Rochester, NY

The ranges of tents, the fires, reflecting light…; the candles and lamps illuminating the encampment; hundreds moving to and fro…;the preaching, praying, singing, and shouting,… like the sound of many waters, was enough to swallow up all the powers of contemplation.

Charles G. Finney

(1792 – 1895)

Charles G. Finney

(1792 – 1895)

“soul-shaking”

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Denominational Diversity

• The revival furthered fragmentation of religious faiths– New York, with its Puritans, preached

“hellfire” and was known as the “Burned-Over District”

– Millerites (Adventists) – predicted Christ to return to earth on Oct 22, 1844• When prophesy failed to materialize, movement

lost credibility.

The “Burned-Over” Districtin Upstate New York

The “Burned-Over” Districtin Upstate New York

Denominational Diversity

• Second Great Awakening– widened lines between classes the region (like

1st Great Awakening)– conservatives were made up of:

• propertied Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Unitarians

– the less-learned of the South the West (frontier areas) • usually Methodists or Baptists

The Mormon Experience

• Joseph Smith (founder) believed God had singled him out to receive a special revelation of divine truth—The Book of Mormon.

The Mormon Experience: Joseph Smith

• Organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

• Affirmed traditional patriarchal authority    

• Encouraged hard work, saving of earnings, & entrepreneurship   

• Started a church-directed community intended to inspire moral perfection.

The Mormon Experience

• Mormons eventually settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, & became the largest utopian community in America

• Resentment toward the Mormons turned to overt hostility when Smith refused to abide by some Illinois laws – He asked that Nauvoo be turned into a

separate federal territory– Declared himself candidate for president.

The Mormon Experience

• Smith believed in polygamy—having more than one wife at a time.

• 1844: Smith was murdered in jail after being arrested for trying to create a Mormon colony in Mexico.

The Mormon Experience

• Led by Brigham Young, the Mormons settled in the Great Salt Lake Valley – Planned agricultural

communities across present- day Utah (then part of Mexico)

The Mormon Experience • Mormons who did not support polygamy

remained in the U.S., (led by Smith’s son) they formed the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

• The “Mormon War” – Was a bloodless encounter – President James Buchanan was afraid that

if he tried to eliminate polygamy it might set a precedent that could be used to end slavery

The Mormon Experience

• Mormons in Utah & the Midwest succeeded because: – They reinvigorated the patriarchal

family, endorsed private ownership of property

– Accepted the entrepreneurial spirit of a market economy

– They renounced polygamy & dropped overt political agenda.

• Because of their unorthodox religious views & communal solidarity, Mormons faced hostility first in New York & then in Missouri & Illinois.

• Following the murder of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young led the polygamist faction of Mormons into lands thinly populated by Native American peoples. From Omaha, the migrants followed the path of the Oregon Trail to Fort Bridger and then struck off to the Southwest, settling in Mexican territory along the Wasatch Mountains in the basin of the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah.

Free School for a Free People

• Tax-supported, compulsory (mandatory), primary schools was opposed (thought to be a hand-out to paupers)– Gradually, support rose

• uneducated “brats” might grow up to be rabbles with voting rights

• Free public education, triumphed in 1828 – Part of the democratization of Jackson era– Teachers = ill-taught & ill-trained

Free School for a Free People

• Horace Mann – fought for better schools – Known as the “Father of Public Education”

• School = too expensive for many communities– blacks were mostly left out from education

• Important educators = Noah Webster (dictionary & Blueback Speller); William H. McGuffey — McGuffey’s Readers)

Free school for a Free people

Free school for a Free people

Religious Training Secular Education

e MA always on the forefront of public educational reform * 1st state to establish tax support for

local public schools.

e By 1860 every state offered free public education to whites. * US had one of the highest literacy rates.

“Father of American Education”

Horace Mann (1796-1859)

Horace Mann (1796-1859)

e children were clay in the hands of teachers and school officialse children should be “molded” into a state of perfection

e discouraged corporal punishmente established state teacher- training programs

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The McGuffey Eclectic Readers

The McGuffey Eclectic Readers

e Used religious parables to teach “American values.”e Teach middle class morality and respect for order.e Teach “3 Rs” + “Protestant ethic” (frugality, hard work, sobriety)

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Women EducatorsWomen Educatorse Troy, NY Female Seminary

e curriculum: math, physics, history, geography.

e train female teachersEmma Willard(1787-1870)

Mary Lyons(1797-1849)

e 1837 she established Mt. Holyoke [So. Hadley, MA] as the first college for women.

Higher Goals for Higher Learning

• 2nd Great Awakening led to the building of small schools in South & West (mainly for pride)– curriculum focused = Latin, Greek, Math, moral philosophy

• 1st state-supported university = the Univ. of North Carolina, in 1795;

• Jefferson started University of Virginia next – UVA was to be independent of religion or politics

• women were thought to be corrupted if too educated – That’s why they were excluded

• Libraries, public lectures, and magazines flourished

An Age of Reform

• reformers opposed:– Tobacco– Alcohol– Profanity

• In favor of women’s rights• Middle-class women = important in

motivating these reform movements

Penitentiary ReformPenitentiary Reform

Dorothea Dix(1802-1887)

1821 first penitentiary foundedin Auburn, NY

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Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849

Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849

Demon Rum—The “Old Deluder”

• drunkenness was widespread• The American Temperance Society

formed at Boston (1826) –– = “Cold Water Army” (children)

• signed pledges• made pamphlets• Wrote an anti-alcohol novel called 10 nights in

a Barroom and What I Saw There

• Attack on the demon drink adopted 2 major lines attack– stressed temperance (individual will to

resist)– legislature-removed temptation - Neal S.

Dow becomes the “Father of Prohibition”• sponsored Maine Law of 1851 - prohibited

making & sale of liquor (followed by others)

Demon Rum—The “Old Deluder”

Annual Consumption of Alcohol

Annual Consumption of Alcohol

“The Drunkard’s Progress”

“The Drunkard’s Progress”

From the first glass to the grave, 1846

Women in Revolt• 19C women stayed home

– No voting rights– American women were generally better off than in

European women• many women avoided marriage altogether

becoming “spinsters”

Early 19c WomenEarly 19c Women1. Unable to vote.2. Legal status of a minor.3. Single could own her own

property.4. Married no control over her

property or her children.5. Could not initiate divorce.6. Couldn’t make wills, sign a

contract, or bring suit in court without her husband’s permission.

“Separate Spheres” Concept

“Separate Spheres” Concept“Cult of

Domesticity”e A woman’s “sphere” was in the home (it was arefuge from the cruel world outside).

e Her role was to “civilize” her husband andfamily.e An 1830s MA minister:The power of woman is her dependence. A woman who gives up that dependence on man to become a reformer yields the power God has given her for her protection, and her character becomes unnatural!

Women’s Movement• led by

– Lucretia Mott– Susan B. Anthony (Suzy Bs)– Elizabeth Candy Stanton– Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (1st female medical

graduate)– Margaret Fuller– the Grimke sisters (anti-slavery advocates)– Amelia Bloomer (semi-short skirts)

Angelina GrimkéBorn in the south to a prominent slaveholding family, Angelina Grimké moved to the north to distance herself from an institution she hated. When she discovered that northerners were no more sympathetic about the plight of slaves than southerners and would not give abolition a free hearing, she chose to do something about it. She toured the northeast, speaking first to groups of women and then to large mixed audiences. She capped her tour by becoming the first woman to address the Massachusetts state legislature. Her courage won new respect both for abolitionists and for women. (Library of Congress)

Angelina Grimké

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton and sons, 1848Elizabeth Cady Stanton posed in 1848 with two of her sons, Henry Jr., left, and Neil. Stanton, one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention, traveled widely and agitated for women's equality while raising five children. (Collection of Rhoda Jenkins)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and sons, 1848

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Women’s Movement• The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention

(1848) – held in NY– major landmark in women’s rights– Declaration of Sentiments

• written in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence• said that “all Men and Women are

created equal”

– demanded ballot for women– launched modern women’s rights movement

• temporarily eclipsed by slavery w/ the Civil War• = foundation for future

What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own

Way!

What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own

Way!

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Seneca Falls DeclarationSeneca Falls Declaration

Utopian CommunitiesUtopian Communities

Wilderness Utopias

• Robert Owen – founded New Harmony, IN (1825) – it failed in confusion

• Brook Farm – Massachusetts – experiment (1841) where 20 intellectuals

committed to Transcendentalism (it lasted until ‘46)• Most major authors of the era spent some time

at Brook Farm

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Utopian Socialist

“Village of Cooperation”

Original Plans for New Harmony, IN

Original Plans for New Harmony, IN

New Harmony in 1832

New Harmony, IN

New Harmony, IN

Brook FarmWest Roxbury, MA

George Ripley (1802-1880)

George Ripley (1802-1880)

Wilderness Utopias

• Oneida Community — – practiced free love, birth control, eugenic

selection of parents to produce superior offspring

– survived ironically as a capitalistic venture, selling baskets and then cutlery.

The Oneida CommunityNew York, 1848

The Oneida CommunityNew York, 1848

John Humphrey Noyes(1811-1886)

e Millenarianism --> the 2nd

coming of Christ had already occurred.

e Humans were no longer obliged to follow the moral rules of the past.

• all residents married to each other.• carefully regulated “free love.”

Wilderness Utopias

• Shakers – a communistic community (led by Mother Ann Lee); they couldn’t marry so they became extinct

Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784)Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784)

e If you will take up your crosses against the works of generations, and follow Christ in theregeneration, God will cleanse you from allunrighteousness.

e Remember the cries of those who are in need and trouble, that when you are in trouble, God may hear your cries.

e If you improve in one talent, God will give you more.

The Shakers

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Shaker Village at Alfred, Maine, Joshua H. Bussell, 1845 (Plate XVI)

This map shows the layout of a Shaker Village. The Shakers, the largest of the communal utopian experiments, reached their peak between 1820 and 1860. (Library of Congress)

Shaker Village at Alfred, Maine, Joshua H. Bussell, 1845 (Plate XVI)

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Shaker MeetingShaker Meeting

Shaker HymnShaker Hymn

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'Tis the gift to be free,'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,And when we find ourselves in the place just right,'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gainedTo bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,To turn, turn will be our delight,'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Shaker Simplicity & Utility

Shaker Simplicity & Utility

The Dawn of Scientific Achievement

• Early Americans = interested in practical science rather than pure science (i.e., Jefferson and his newly designed plow).– Nathaniel Bowditch – studied practical

navigation and oceanography– Matthew Maury - ocean winds, currents

The Dawn of Scientific Achievement

• The most influential U.S. scientists…– Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864) - pioneer in

chemistry geologist (taught in Yale)– Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) - served at

Harvard, insisted on original research– Asa Gray (1810-1888) Harvard, was the

Columbus of botany– John Audubon (1785-1851) painted birds

with exact detail

The Dawn of Scientific Achievement

• Medicine in the U.S. = primitive– i.e., bleeding used for cure for smallpox, yellow

fever • it killed many

– Life expectancy = low– Self-prescribed patent medicines = common

• usually mostly alcohol & often harmful

– local surgeon = local barber or butcher

Artistic Achievements• U.S. traditionally imitated European styles of art

– aristocratic subjects, dark portraits, stormy landscapes

• 1820-50 = Greek revival– Gothic forms also gained popularity

• T. Jefferson = most able architect of his generation – Monticello and University of Virginia

• Artists viewed as a wasters of time– suffered from Puritan prejudice of art as sinful pride

• Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) - painted Washington and competed with English artists

Artistic Achievements• Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)

– painted 60 portraits of Washington

• John Trumbull (1756-1843) – captured the Revolutionary War in paint in dramatic

fashion

• Nationalism upsurge after War of 1812– painters portrayed human landscapes & Romanticism

• Music:– “darky” tunes became popular– Stephen Foster wrote Old Folks at Home (AKA

Suwannee River, his most famous)

The Blossoming of a National Literature

• Literature was imported or plagiarized from England

• Americans poured literature into practical outlets – i.e. The Federalist Papers, Common Sense

(Paine), Ben Franklin’s Autobiography, Poor Richard’s Almanack)

• literature = reborn after the War of Independence & especially after War of 1812

The Blossoming of a National Literature

• The Knickerbocker group in NY wrote the first truly American literature

• Washington Irving (1783-1859) – 1st U.S. internationally recognized writings, The

Sketch Book

• James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) – – 1st US novelist, Leatherstocking Tales (which

included The Last of the Mohicans which was popular in Europe)

• William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) – – Thanatopsis, the 1st high quality poetry in U.S.

Trumpeters of Transcendentalism

• Literature dawned in the 2nd quarter of 19C• transcendentalist movement (~1830)

– clashed with John Locke (who argued knowledge came from reason)

– Believed truth came not by observation alone, from with inner light

– stressed individualism, self-reliance, & non-conformity

Trumpeters of Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson

• translated vague ideas into examples that made sense to ordinary middle-class Americans – Believed that all nature was saturated with the

presence of God – Criticized the new industrial society, predicting

that it would drain the nation’s spiritual energy

• ideal of his essay, Self Reliance, reflected the spirit of the U.S.

• Influenced Henry David Thoreau

Trumpeters of Transcendentalism: Henry

David Thoreau

• Henry David Thoreau– condemned slavery and wrote Walden: Or

life in the Woods– also wrote On the Duty of Civil

Disobedience, which wasidealistic in thought• forerunner of Gandhi & then Martin

Luther King Jr.• said it is not wrong to disobey a wrong law

Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers

Concord, MA

Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers

Concord, MA

Ralph WaldoEmerson

Henry DavidThoreau

Nature(1832) Walden

(1854)

Resistance to Civil

Disobedience(1849)

Self-Reliance (1841)

“The American Scholar”

(1837) R3-1/3/4/5

Trumpeters of Transcendentalism: Walt Whitman

• a teacher, journalist, & publicist for the Democratic Party

• 1855: published Leaves of Grass– recorded his attempts to pass a

number of “invisible boundaries.” • did not seek isolation but rather

perfect communion with others • celebrated democracy as well

as himself arguing that a poet could claim a profoundly intimate, mystical relationship with a mass audience.

American Lyceum

• A lecture circuit beginning in 1826 that sent ministers, transcendentalists, and scientists all across the north on speaking tours. The Lyceum movement helped to spread transcendentalism and reform ideas in the 19th C

The Transcendentalist AgendaThe Transcendentalist Agenda Give freedom to the slave.

Give well-being to the poor and the miserable.

Give learning to the ignorant.

Give health to the sick.

Give peace and justice to society.

Glowing Literary Lights (not associated with transcendentalism)

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – wrote poems popular in Europe such as Evangeline

• John Greenleaf Whittier – poems that cried against injustice, intolerance, inhumanity

• James Russell Lowell – political satirist who wrote Biglow Papers

• Oliver Wendell Holmes – The Last Leaf

Glowing Literary Lights (not associated with transcendentalism)

• Women writers– Louisa May Alcott

• with transcendentalism wrote Little Women

– Emily Dickinson • wrote of the theme of nature in poems

• Southern literary figure– William Gillmore Simms -

“the cooper of the south”; wrote many books of life in frontier South during the Revolutionary War

Literary Individualists and Dissenters

• Edgar Allan Poe – wrote “The Raven” and many short stories– invented modern detective novel and

“psychological thriller”– was fascinated by the supernatural & reflected a

morbid sensibility (more prized by Europe)

Literary Individualists and Dissenters

• reflections of Calvinist obsession with original sin & struggle between good & evil– Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet

Letter (psychological effect of sin)– Herman Melville - Moby Dick, and

allegory between good & evil told of a whaling captain

Portrayers of the Past

• George Bancroft– founded the naval academy– published U.S. history book – known as the “Father of American History”

• William H. Prescott – published on the conquest of Mexico, Peru

• Francis Parkman – published on the struggle between France & England in colonial

North America

• Historians were from New England (had the most books)– an anti-South bias.