Chapter Learning Objective Reforms in American Society: 1790-1860 Chapter 15 The rise of democratic and individualistic beliefs, a response to rationalism, and changes to society caused by the market revolution, along with greater social and geographical mobility, contributed to a Second Great Awakening among Protestants that influenced moral and social reforms and inspired utopian and other religious movements. Causes 1. The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine 2. Deism and Unitarians Event: Began on the southern frontier One of the most momentous episodes in the history of American religion Would lead to social issues: prison reform, temperance movement, women s movement, abolitionism Methodists and Baptists were the most affected religions Peter Cartwright & Charles Grandison Finney Key feature of the Second Great Awakening- WOMEN Most enthusiastic revivalists Majority of new church members Save the rest of society - would lead to reforms of the 1800s Effects- Widened the gap between classes and regions East- little effect on revivalism Baptists and Methodists grew in rural South and West Churches split over slavery issue N. Methodists vs S. Methodists N. Baptists vs S. Baptists IMPACT- would foreshadow Civil War 1
Mormons Led by Joseph Smith (Book of Mormon) Smith and Mormon followers ran into trouble in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois (killed in Carthage, IL 1844) Brigham Young took control and led Mormon followers to Utah 27 wives, 56 kids Why so many problems with Mormons? Public Education Early tax-supported schools were scarce- only educated the poor children Why the turn-around for well-to-do, conservative Americans? Little red schoolhouses- the shrine of American democracy Problems with early schools and early teachers Horace Mann- more and better schoolhouses, longer school terms, higher pay for teachers & expanded curriculum Public Education Other educational advances- Noah Webster William H. McGuffey- McGuffey s Readers Higher Education led to the growth of small, denominational, liberal arts collegemainly South & West Not very effective Narrow curriculum of Latin, Greek, Math, and Moral Philosophy- BORING 1 st state supported universities North Carolina (1795) University of Virginia (1819) Higher Education Women s Education Frowned upon in early 1800s Bad for the brain, health, unfit for marriage Emma Willard- Troy Female Seminary (1821) Mary Lyon- Mount Holyoke Seminary (1837) Oberlin College (1837) The Age of Reform Promises of the inspired people to battle earthly evils Modern idealists pictured a old Puritan vision of a perfected society Women were the strongest proponents in the reform movements- escape from home Most activists were unaware of new industrial age- ignored factory workers, blamed problems on bad habits, and were very single-minded 2
Debtors Prisons Late 1830s- hundreds in prison for debt (some less than a $1) Debtors prisons gradually abolished as laborers continued to win in elections and state laws were rewritten Criminal Codes Number of capital offenses were being reduced Less brutal punishments (whipping/ branding) New idea- prisons should reform as well as punish- penitentiaries (for penance) Dorothea Dix Collected observations on insanity and asylums over 8 years Her report to the Mass. Legislature resulted in improved conditions for mentally ill- alsoconcept that mentally ill were not perverse and demented Temperance Movement American drinking problem- excessive drinking caused by way of life and custom Why a call for temperance movement? Drinking decreased the efficiency of labor Increased the danger of accidents at work fouled the sanctity of the family Threatened the spiritual, physical welfare of women/children Temperance Movement Temperance Society formed at Boston in 1826 T.S Arthur s Ten Nights in a Barroom and What I Saw There Moderate reformers- temperance (moderation) Radicals- new legislation to remove alcohol Maine Law of 1851 Neal Dow Prohibited the manufacture and sale of liquor By 1857, close to a dozen states joined 3
Early 1800s women: Could not vote Could be legally beaten by her husband Could not retain title to her property (became her husband s) Women s role- special responsibility to teach the young how to be good and productive citizens Early Women s Reformers Lucretia Mott Quaker who was a hard-fought abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton Suffrage for women Re-wrote her wedding vows- no obey Quaker who was a hard-fought abolitionist Susan B. Anthony Advocate for women s rights- Suzy Bs Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell First female graduate from a medical college Sarah and Angelina Grimke Abolitionists Lucy Stone Retained her maiden name Lucy Stoners Seneca Falls Convention 1848- Seneca Falls, NY Launched the modern women s rights movement All men and women created equal Wilderness Utopias More than 40 communities were established during this time period- wanting to create a society seeking human betterment Robert Owen in New Harmony, Indiana (1825) Oneida Community- New York (1848)- free love Most died out or changed their methods Longest running- the Shakers- 1770s-1940 Scientific Achievements Nathaniel Bowditch- mathematician for navigation Matthew Maury- oceanographer- ocean winds and currents Lousi Agassiz- Biology Asa Gray- his textbooks on botany set new standards for clarity/interest Medicine- bleeding remained the common cure, doctors eventually used laughing gas & ether instead of whiskey 4
National Literature Knickerbocker Group Washington Irving- Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow James Fenimore Cooper- The Spy, The Last of the Mohicans William Cullen Bryant- Thanatopsis, editor of the New York Evening Post Transcendentalism Transcendentalism- Truth transcends the senses- it cannot be found by observation alone. Every person has an inner light that can illuminate the highest truth and put him/her in direct touch with God. Commitment to self-reliance, self-culture, and self-discipline Hostility to authority, dignity of the individual, leader of reform movements Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson-his popularity was because his ideals reflected the expanding America: self-improvement, self-confidence, optimism, and freedom. The American Scholar speech at Harvard (1837) Henry David Thoreau- Walden: Or Life in the Woods, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience- inspired Gandhi Walt Whitman- Leaves of Grass 5