Chapter 15

The Ferment of Reform and

Culture

1800-1850

Chapter 15

The Ferment of Reform and

Culture

1800-1850

1. The Second GreatAwakening

1. 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

In France, I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America, I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country… Religion was the foremost of the political institutions of the United States.

-- Alexis de Tocqueville, 1832

The Rise of Popular ReligionThe Rise of Popular Religion

R1-1

“The Pursuit of Perfection”

In Antebellum America

“The Pursuit of Perfection”

In Antebellum America

Reviving Religion • Church attendance was regular in 1850 (3/4 of population attended)• Many relied on Deism (reason rather revelation); Deism rejected

original sin of man, denied Christ’s divinity but believed in a supreme being that created universe with an order, similar to a clockmaker.

• 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 and salvation through good works; pictured

God as a loving father– appealed to intellectuals with rationalism and optimism

• These perversions of Christianity ignited Christians to “take back their faith” and oppose these new beliefs

Liberalism in Religion• Started in 1800 spawned the 2nd Great Awakening a tidal wave

of spiritual fervor that resulted in prison reform, church reform, temperance movement (no alcohol), women’srights movement, abolition of slavery in 1830s – it spread to the masses through huge “camp meetings”– the East went to the West to Christianize Indians– Methodists and Baptists stressed personal conversion,

democracy in church affairs, emotionalism– Peter Cartwright – was best known of the “circuit riders” or

traveling preachers– Charles Grandison Finney – the greatest revival preacher

who led massive revivals in Rochester, NY

“The Benevolent Empire”:1825 - 1846

“The Benevolent Empire”:1825 - 1846

New York, with its Puritans, preached “hellfire” and was known as the

“Burned-Over District”

New York, with its Puritans, preached “hellfire” and was known as the

“Burned-Over District”

Second Great AwakeningRevival Meeting

Second Great AwakeningRevival Meeting

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”

conversionR1-2

The Mormons(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day

Saints)

The Mormons(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day

Saints)

Joseph Smith (1805-1844)

§ 1823 Golden Tablets

§ 1830 Book of Mormon

§ 1844 Murdered in Carthage, IL

Violence Against MormonsViolence Against Mormons

The Mormon “Trek”The Mormon “Trek”

The Mormons• Joseph Smith (1830)

claimed to have found golden tablets in NY with the Book of Mormon inscribed on them.

• He came up with Mormon or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints antagonism toward Mormons emerged due to their polygamy, drilling militia, and voting as a unit

Joseph Smith

Brigham Young

• Smith was killed, but was succeeded by Brigham Young, who led followers to Utah they grew quickly by birth and immigration from Europe

• They had a federal governor and marched to Utah when Young became governor

• The issue of polygamy prevented Utah’s entrance to U.S. until 1896 Brigham

Young(1801-1877)

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 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

• Have you ever heard about the dinosaur story?

STOP!!!

DAY #2 Lecture Notes

START

Chapter 15 – Day 2

Today’s EQ’s:

• How important is a free public education to a republic?

• Was the “new family” a progressive reflection of American democratic ideals, or a restriction on them?

By the end of class you will be able to:

• Analyze various selected primary sources from the reform movements of the United States from 1825-1850, including the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and resolutions (1848).

• Assess the validity of whether reform movements in the United States from 1825-1850 sought to expand democratic ideals.

• Employ selected primary source citations to validate whether reform movements in the United States from 1825-1850 extended democratic ideals.

The Second Great AwakeningThe Second Great Awakening

“Spiritual Reform From Within”

[Religious Revivalism]

Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality

Temperance

Asylum &Penal

Reform

Education

Women’s Rights

Abolitionism

Temperance

Demon Rum—The “Old Deluder”• Drunkenness was widespread• The American Temperance Society was formed at

Boston (1826)• The “Cold Water Army” (children), signed pledges, made

pamphlets, and an anti-alcohol novel emerged called 10 nights in a Barroom and What I Saw There

•

Attack on the “demon drink” adopted 2 major lines of attack…

1. stressed temperance (individual will to resist)

2. legislature-removed temptation

Neal S. Dow “Father of Prohibition”

– Sponsored the Maine Law of 1851

• Prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor except for "medicinal, mechanical, or manufacturing purposes,"

• By 1857 around a dozen “dry” states had followed Maine’s example. March 20, 1804 –

October 2, 1897

Annual Consumption of Alcohol

Annual Consumption of Alcohol

Asylum & Penal Reform

Asylum & Penal Reformers

• They fought for no imprisonment for debt (the poor were sometimes locked in jail for less than $1 debt)

• This was gradually abolished reformers wanted criminal codes softened and reformatories created.

• The mentally insane were treated badly.

• Dorothea Dix fought for reform of the mentally insane in her classic petition of 1843

Penitentiary Reform Penitentiary Reform

Dorothea Dix(1802-1887)

A tireless reformer.

She worked to improve the treatment of the mentally ill.

Women’s Rights

Women in Revolt• Women stayed home, without voting rights.

• Still, in the 19th century, American women were generally better off than in Europe.

• many women avoided marriage altogether becoming “spinsters”.

• gender differences increased sharply with different economic roles women were perceived as weak physically and emotionally, but fine for teaching.

• Home was the center of the female’s world.

• The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention (1848) – held in NY, it was a major landmark in women’s rights Declaration of Sentiments – was written in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence saying that “all Men and Women are created equal” demanded ballot for womenand launched modern women’s rights movement

• The women’s movement was 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), and Amelia Bloomer (semi-short skirts)

Education

Education

Free School for a Free People

• The idea of tax-supported, compulsory (mandatory), primary schools was opposed as a hand-out to paupers (poor people).

• Gradually, support rose because uneducated “brats” might grow up to be thugs with voting rights.

• Free public education, triumphed in 1828 along with the voting power in the Jackson election

• There were largely ill-taught and ill-trained teachers, however Horace Mann fought for better schools and is best remembered as the “Father of Public Education”.

• School was too expensive for many communities.

• Blacks were mostly left out from education at this point in history.

• Important Educators :– Noah Webster (dictionary and Blueback Speller)– William H. McGuffey — McGuffey’s Readers)

The McGuffey Eclectic Readers

The McGuffey Eclectic Readers

Used religious parables to teach “American values.”Taught middle class morality and respect for order.

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Abolitionism

Anti-Slavery AlphabetAnti-Slavery Alphabet

William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879)

William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879)

Slavery undermined republican values.

Immediate emancipation with NO compensation.

Slavery was a moral, notan economic issue.

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The LiberatorThe Liberator

Premiere issue January 1, 1831

R2-5

The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All

Villanies!

The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All

Villanies!

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

1845 The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass1847 “The North Star”

R2-12

Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)

Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)

1850 The Narrative of Sojourner Truth R2-10

Harriet Tubman(1820-1913)Harriet Tubman(1820-1913)

Helped over 300 slaves to freedom.

$40,000 bounty on her head.

Served as a Union spy during the Civil War.

“Moses”

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

STOP!

DAY 3 LECTURE NOTES

TranscendentalismTranscendentalism

• Literature dawned in the 2nd quarter of 19th century with the transcendentalist movement (circa 1830).

• Transcendentalism clashed with John Locke (who argued knowledgecame from reason)

• Transcendentalists argued truth came not by observation alone, but from within (individualism, self-reliance, and non-conformity)

Transcendentalist ThinkingTranscendentalist Thinking§ Man must acknowledge a body of

moral truths that were intuitive and must TRANSCEND more sensational proof:

1. The infinite benevolence of God.

2. The infinite benevolence of nature.

3. The divinity of man.

§ They instinctively rejected all secular authority and the authority of organized churches and the Scriptures, of law, or of conventions

Transcendentalism(European Romanticism)

Transcendentalism(European Romanticism)

§ Therefore, if man was divine, it would be wicked that he should be held in slavery, or his soul corrupted by superstition, or his mind clouded by ignorance!!

§ Thus, the role of the reformer was to restore man to that divinity which God had endowed them.

Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers

Concord, MA

Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers

Concord, MA

Ralph WaldoEmerson

Ralph WaldoEmerson

Henry DavidThoreau

Henry DavidThoreau

Nature(1832) Walden

(1854)

Resistance to Civil

Disobedience(1849)

Self-Reliance (1841)

“The American Scholar”

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

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.

Their pursuit of the ideal led to a distorted view of humannature and possibilities:

A Transcendentalist Critic:Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-

1864)

A Transcendentalist Critic:Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-

1864)

One should accept the world as an imperfect place: * Scarlet Letter * House of the Seven Gables

Utopian CommunitiesUtopian Communities

The Oneida CommunityNew York, 1848

The Oneida CommunityNew York, 1848

John Humphrey Noyes(1811-1886)

Millenarianism --> the 2nd coming of Christ had already occurred.

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

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

Oneida Community

• practiced free love

• birth control

• eugenic selection of parents to produce superior offspring

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

• ULTIMATELY FAILS!!!

Secular Utopian Communities

Secular Utopian Communities

IndividualFreedom

Demands ofCommunity Life

spontaneity

self-fulfillment

discipline

organizationalhierarchy

Brook FarmWest Roxbury, MA

George Ripley (1802-1880)George Ripley (1802-1880)

Brook Farm – Massachusetts

• experiment (1841) where 20intellectuals committed to Transcendentalism .

• (it lasted until ‘1846)

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

FAILED!!!

New Harmony, IN

FAILED!!!