Antebellum Reform Movements Chapter 15 The Second Great Awakening Spiritual Reform From Within [Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Temperance Abolitionism Education Asylum & Penal Reform Women s Rights 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 Toqueville e, 1832 R1-1 1
Changing Role of Religion 3/4 of Americans attended church regularly in 1850 Calvinism declining More liberal religious beliefs Deism Unitarianism Second Great Awakening Reaction to the liberalization of religion Began in southern frontier and then moved North Areas of major social and economic changes Mills, canals, rapid growth 1790s-1830s The Benevolent Empire : 1825-1846 2
Charles G. Finney (1792 1895) soul-shaking conversion 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. R1-2 Second Great Awakening Revival Meeting Characteristics of Revival Very attractive to people on the frontier Entertaining Got people away from home Thousands would attend Women also could attend and participate 3
The Burned-Over District in Upstate New York Second Great Awakening Characteristics Emotionalism Patriotism Promoted female spiritual worth Fragmentation of religious denominations Spoke to the middle to working classes Transcendentalism e Liberation from understanding and the cultivation of reasoning. e Rejected ideas of John Locke that knowledge comes from the senses e Truth transcends the limits of intellect and allows the emotions, the SOUL, to create an original relationship with the universe. 4
Transcendentalist Thinking Every person has an inner light that puts them in direct touch with God. Man is divine. Individuality over social group conformity in secular and religious matters. Stress on self-reliance and self-discipline. They instinctively rejected all secular authority and the authority of organized churches and the Scriptures, of law, or of conventions Transcendentalism Therefore, if man is 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 Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Nature (1832) Self-Reliance (1841) Walden (1854) Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849) The American Scholar (1837) R3-1/3/4/5 5
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. Utopian Societies Try to make the perfect society Many started in the Burned Over District Utopian Communities 6
The Oneida Community New York, 1848 e Millenarianism --> the 2 nd coming of Christ had already occurred. John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886) e Humans were no longer obliged to follow the moral rules of the past. all residents married to each other. carefully regulated free love. Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784) The Shakers e 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. 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. R1-4 Shaker Beliefs Devote one s life to labor Absolute chastity Second coming of Christ was near No need to procreate Bodies would shake when worshipping God is male and female 7
Shaker Meeting Shaker Simplicity & Utility Millerites William Miller tried to mathematically predict the second coming of Christ Became Seventh Day Adventists 8
The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) 1823 à Golden Tablets 1830 à Book of Mormon 1844 à Murdered in Carthage, IL Joseph Smith (1805-1844) Violence Against Mormons The Mormon Trek Active missionary work Support for Indians. Voted as a block 9
The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) Desert community. Salt Lake City, Utah (1847) Populaton swelled as immigrants came from Europe Brigham Young (1801-1877) Robert Owen (1771-1858) Utopian Socialist New Harmony, IN Original Plans for New Harmony, IN New Harmony in 1832 10
New Harmony, IN George Ripley (1802-1880) Brook Farm A center of transcendentalism Antebellum Reform Movements Influenced by Second Great Awakening Battle earthly evils 11
Annual Consumption of Alcohol Temperance Movement Protest corrosive effects of alcohol Early reformers stressed moderation, not elimination Many of the reformers were women Will use this experience to go after other reforms and political experience The Drunkard s Progress From the first glass to the grave, 1846 12
Temperance Movement 1826 - American Temperance Society Demon Rum! R1-6 Frances Willard The Beecher Family American Temperance Society Founded in 1826 and believed in total abstinence. Influenced by Finney revivals Reformers usually had 2 strategies Moral: help people resist alcohol Political: eliminate through legislation. Political Victories State level success Maine went dry in 1851 16 dry states by Civil War Many laws declared unconstitutional, repealed or openly disobeyed 13
Penitentiary Reform Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) 1821 à first penitentiary founded in Auburn, NY R1-5/7 Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849 Working Class Formation of trade unions Advocation of free, tax-supported schools National Trades Union founded in 1834 1834-36: 168 strikes Panic of 1837 hurt union movement 14
Educational Reform 1840: 50% of whites were literate 1840: 38% of white children were in public school Opposition to Public Schools Rich often sent kids to private schools Many realized that ignorant citizens could become dangerous--armed with the vote. Educational Reform Religious Training à Secular Education e MA à always on the forefront of public educational reform * 1 st state to establish tax support for local public schools. e Compulsory education laws by 1836 e By 1860 every state offered free public education to whites. * US had one of the highest literacy rates. 15
Horace Mann (1796-1859) Father of American Education e children were clay in the hands of teachers and school officials R3-6 e children should be molded into a state of perfection e discouraged corporal punishment e established state teachertraining programs More on Education Manufacturers encouraged education for increased productivity and discipline Blacks in South forbidden to receive an education First state-supported universities North Carolina in 1795 Virginia in 1819 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) R3-8 16
Separate Spheres Concept Cult of Domesticity e A woman s sphere was in the home (it was a refuge from the cruel world outside). e Her role was to civilize her husband and family. 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! Early 19c Women 1. Unable to vote or hold public office. 2. Legal status of a minor. 3. Single à could own her own property. 4. Married à 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. What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own Way! R2-8 17
Cult of Domesticity = Slavery The 2 nd Great Awakening inspired women to improve society. Angelina Grimké Sarah Grimké e Southern Abolitionists R2-9 Lucy Stone e American Women s Suffrage Assoc. e edited Woman s Journal Women Educators e Troy, NY Female Seminary e curriculum: math, physics, history, geography. e train female teachers Emma Willard (1787-1870) e 1837 à she established Mt. Holyoke [So. Hadley, MA] as the first college for women. Mary Lyon (1797-1849) Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell 18
R2-6/7 Women s Rights 1848 à Convention in Seneca Falls New York Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1848 à Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments Declaration of Sentiment All men and women created equal Equal opportunity Equal before the law Suffrage Birth of women s rights movement Seneca Falls Declaration 19