Chapter 12 Antebellum Culture & Reform The Rise of Popular Religion 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 Second Great Awakening Began in early 1800 s, traditional region staged a dramatic comeback ( revivalism ) => Second Great Awakening. Spread religious fervor throughout the country. Churches and membership (Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian) mushroomed. Unlike the First G.A. of the old time Puritans, this did not scare a captive congregation with dire predictions of a vengeful God s and arbitrary judgments. Second Great Awakening But instead, message: Benevolent God desires salvation for everyone of his children. Basic thrust: Individual must re-admit God and Christ into their lives. Embrace fervent worship and reject skeptical rationalism Believe that he/she could affect his/her own destiny and reach salvation through faith and good works. Second Great Awakening Accelerated the growth of different Christian sects and denominations. Served as vehicle for establishing order and social stability in communities still searching for an identify. Attracted a great deal of women (young women) and African Americans (stirring racial unrest in the South) p308 1
Rise of Evangelism Methodists proceeded to their camp meeting The Second Great Awakening: The Frontier Camp meetings ignited a spiritual Phasefervor that converted thousands and altered the religious landscape of America forever. Camp meeting revivals conveyed intensely personal religious message ~25,000 people gathered to hear the gospel preached by charismatic orators who rode the circuit from camp to camp 1835 Evangelical camp meeting Second Great Awakening in the North Trained as lawyer, but became one of the greatest evangelist Held crowd spellbound with his oratory skills Led massive Charles Finney revivals in Rochester & NY City (1830-1831) Second Great Awakening in the South black slaves and freed men and women could also attend segregated, companion revivals Second Great Awakening s Effects on Women Was the feminization of religion. Wives, daughters of businessmen: most fervent enthusiasts. Why the attraction? Evangelicals preached a gospel of female spiritual worth, that they play an active role in bringing their husbands and families back to God. Gave women the inspiration, then, to save the rest of society. They formed a host of benevolent and charitable organizations and spearheaded some of the 2
The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) Violence Against Mormons 1823 Golden Tablets 1830 Book of Mormon 1844 Murdered in Carthage, IL Joseph Smith (1805-1844) p310 Map 15-1 p311 The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) Deseret community. Salt Lake City, Utah The Romantic Impulse In Antebellum America Brigham Young (1801-1877) 3
Transcendentalism Liberation from understanding and the cultivation of reasoning. Transcend the limits of intellect and allow the emotions, the SOUL, to create an original relationship with the Universe. Transcendentalist 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) Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers Concord, MA 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. Nature (1832) Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance (1841) Walden (1854) Henry David Thoreau Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849) The American Scholar (1837) Watch Transcendentalism The 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. A Transcendentalist Critic: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) Their pursuit of the ideal led to a distorted view of human nature and possibilities: * The Blithedale Romance One should accept the world as an imperfect place: * Scarlet Letter * House of the Seven Gables 4
The Pursuit of Perfection In Antebellum America Nationalism and Romanticism: American Painting American artists expressed the nation s virtues, evoked the wonder of America s landscape. Nature (not civilization) was best source of wisdom & spiritual fulfillment. The Hudson River School: 1820s-1870 Background Emergence of an American romantic impulse, independent from Europe. These artists captured the undiluted power of nature Paint the nation s most spectacular and undeveloped areas [the new Garden of Eden]. Nature (not civilization) was the best source of wisdom & fulfillment. Painting is the vehicle through which the universal mind could reach the mind of mankind. Art is the agent of moral & spiritual transformation. Characteristics of the Hudson River School A new art for a new land. Paint grand, scenic vistas. Humans are an insignificant [even nonexistent] part of the picture. Experiment with affects of light on water and sky. Issues/Themes Addressed by the Antebellum Artists Transcendentalist thinking. Westward expansion. American nationalism --> What is America? * Creation of a national mythology Racism and Native Americans. Concern for political extremism. The price paid for progress and the advances of civilization. 5
In Nature s Wonderland - Thomas Doughty, 1835 Niagara by Frederic Church, 1857 View of the Catskills, Early Autumn - Thomas Cole, 1837 View from Mt. Holyoke: The Oxbow - Thomas Cole, 1836 The Course of Empire: The Savage State - Thomas Cole, 1834 The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or The Pastoral State - Thomas Cole, 1836 6
The Course of Empire: Consummation - Thomas Cole, 1836 The Course of Empire: Destruction - Thomas Cole, 1836 The Course of Empire: Desolation - Thomas Cole, 1836 Kindred Spirits Asher Durand, 1849 Vision of Utopia In Antebellum America Radical Ideas and Experiments: Utopian Communities Utopian socialism Inspired by Robert Owen, Charles Fourier New Harmony, Indiana Owenite Religious utopianism Shakers Oneida Community 7
Secular Utopian Communities George Ripley (1802-1880) Individual Freedom Demands of Community Life spontaneity self-fulfillment discipline organizational hierarchy Brook Farm West Roxbury, MA Robert Owen (1771-1858) Original Plans for New Harmony, IN Utopian Socialist Village of Cooperation New Harmony in 1832 New Harmony, IN The Oneida Community New York, 1848 Millenarianism --> the 2 nd coming of Christ had already occurred. Humans were no longer obliged to follow the moral rules of the past. John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886) all residents married to each other. carefully regulated free love. 8
p323 p323 Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784) The Shakers Shaker Meeting If you will take up your crosses against the works of generations, and follow Christ in the regeneration, God will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Remember the cries of those who are in need and trouble, that when you are in trouble, God may hear your cries. If you improve in one talent, God will give you more. Shaker Hymn Shaker Simplicity & Utility '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 gained To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, To turn, turn will be our delight, 'Till by turning, turning we come round right. 9
p320 The Second Great Awakening Social Reforms In Antebellum America Temperance Spiritual Reform From Within [Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Abolitionism Education Asylum & Penal Reform Women s Rights Penitentiary Reform Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) 1821 first penitentiary founded in Auburn, NY R1-5/7 p315 10
Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849 Temperance Movement 1826 - American Temperance Society Demon Rum! R1-6 Frances Willard The Beecher Family Annual Consumption of Alcohol The Drunkard s Progress From the first glass to the grave, 1846 Social Reform Prostitution The Fallen Woman Sarah Ingraham (1802-1887) 1835 Advocate of Moral Reform Female Moral Reform Society focused on the Johns & pimps, not the girls. 11
The Extension of Education Before the 1820s, most schools were private Wealthy in the North and South sent children to private schools Some poor sent children to charity or pauper schools financed by local governments New England towns were often required to support elementary schools Public schools expanded rapidly from 1820 to 1850 Means of advancement for working class Means of inculcating values of hard work, responsibility to middle-class reformers Horace Mann (1796-1859) Children were clay in the hands of teachers and school officials Children should be molded into a state of perfection Horace Mann argued that schools saved immigrants, poor children from parents bad influence. Worked to establish a state board of education and adequate tax support. Advocated using moral influence rather than corporal punishment, as Calvinists used Established state teacher-training programs Discouraged corporal punishment Educational Reform The Country School (1871) By Winslow Homer Religious Training Secular Education MA always on the forefront of public educational reform * 1 st state to establish tax support for local public schools. By 1860 every state offered free public education to whites. US had one of the highest literacy rates. p312 Women Educators A Female Seminary Troy, NY Female Seminary curriculum: math, physics, history, geography. train female teachers Emma Willard (1787-1870) 1837 she established Mt. Holyoke [So. Hadley, MA] as the first college for women. Mary Lyons (1797-1849) 12
Graduates of Oberlin College, Class of 1855 Early 19c Women 1. 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. p314 Separate Spheres Concept Cult of Domesticity A woman s sphere was in the home (it was a refuge from the cruel world outside). Her role was to civilize her husband and family. Child rearing seen as essential preparation for self-disciplined Christian life Women confined to domestic sphere Women assumed crucial role within home What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own Way! 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! R2-8 Cult of Domesticity = Slavery The 2 nd Great Awakening inspired women to improve society. Women s Rights London in 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention R2-9 Angelina Grimké Sarah Grimké Southern Abolitionists Lucy Stone American Women s Suffrage Assoc. edited Woman s Journal Lucretia Mott 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments Elizabeth Cady Stanton 13
Seneca Falls Declaration Reform Turns Radical Most reform aimed to improve society Some radical reformers sought destruction of old society, creation of perfect social order Gradualists gradual end to slavery colonization of freed slaves to colony of Liberia, W. Africa Abolitionist Movement Radicalists By 1830s Immediate abolition of slavery Divisions in the Benevolent Empire Before 1830, many people expressed religious and moral concern over slavery, but viewed it as deeply rooted social and economic system that could only be eliminated gradually. 1817: American Colonization Society Radicals like William Lloyd Garrison demanded immediate emancipation 1831: Garrison founded The Liberator 1833: American Anti SlaverySociety William Lloyd Garrison Anti-Slavery Alphabet William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879) Slavery undermined republican values. Immediate emancipation with NO compensation. Slavery was a moral, not an economic issue. 14
The Liberator The Tree of Slavery Loaded with the Sum of All Villanies! Premiere issue January 1, 1831 Other White Abolitionists Black Abolitionists Lewis Tappan Arthur Tappan James Birney Liberty Party. Ran for President in 1840 & 1844. David Walker (1785-1830) 1829 Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites. Black Abolitionists Former slaves related the horrible realities of bondage Black newspapers, books, and pamphlets publicized abolitionism to a wider audience Blacks were also active in the Underground Railroad Sojourner Truth Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) Frederick Douglass 1845 The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass 1847 The North Star 15
Sojourner Truth (1787-1883) or Isabella Baumfree 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. 1850 The Narrative of Sojourner Truth R2-10 Moses Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad Conductor ==== leader of the escape Passengers ==== escaping slaves Tracks ==== routes Trains ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves Depots ==== safe houses to rest/sleep 16