Chapter 12: The Pursuit of Perfection AP United States History Week of January 11, 2016
The Rise of Evangelism Pictured: Lyman Beecher The United States of the early 1800s underwent an evangelical revival Background: Church and state were fully separate Deism was in decline, Catholic immigration was increasing Spirit of Jacksonian democratic politics was present
The Second Great Awakening on the Frontier Pictured: Charles Grandison Finney What exactly was the Second Great Awakening? Two key elements: A particular dynamic evangelism that rejected Calvinism of 1700s Calvinists stressed sinful nature of man, salvation was only in God s hands Featured orchestrated events (revivals) that provoked conversions
The Second Great Awakening on the Frontier, Part II Second Great Awakening began in 1801 in Cane Ridge, KY Camp meeting met social and religious needs Were an emotional outlet for rural residents In the South, church meetings gradually replaced revivals Southern churches grew in membership Encouraged temperance, but conservatism of South hindered further reform
The Second Great Awakening in the North Reform movement in New England began as a defense of Calvinism Rev. Timothy Dwight of Yale preached to undergraduates that they were dead in sin His pessimistic Calvinism limited his appeal Nathaniel Taylor, one of his students, stressed that every individual was a free spirit who could overcome sin Lyman Beecher was the first new Calvinism preacher Promoted revivals in New England churches Charles Grandison Finney practiced more radical revivalism More appeal to emotion, stressed unqualified free will Second Great Awakening in North spurred other social reform movements and moral reforms
From Revivalism to Reform The most successful reform crusade was the temperance movement, a campaign against excessive alcohol consumption Alcohol was a real problem Whiskey was the most popular beverage, and it was cheap and safe Reformers saw alcohol as a threat to morality Spawned vice, threatened family life Here, women played a vital role, as it affected home life Intemperance was also an affront to republican virtues Campaign was effective; alcohol consumption was cut Other areas of reform: missionary and benevolent societies, efforts against gambling and prostitution
Domesticity and Changes in the American Family The evangelical culture of the early 1800s also changed family dynamics A new ideal of marriage for love arose among the middle class Mutual affection now started to surpass protecting family property This love was reflected in correspondence between spouses Emergence of a Cult of Domesticity view that women had a special role in the domestic sphere Emergence of factories in towns and cities drew men out of the house Domestic ideology opened women to new roles in public sphere Like what? This ideology largely did not affect working-class or poor women
Domesticity and Changes in the American Family, Part II The evangelical culture of the early 1800s also changed family dynamics Lyman Beecher s daughter, Catherine, extended the domestic ideal to teaching Wanted to make schoolteaching a woman s occupation, as the teacher was equivalent to a mother Middle-class family also became child-centered Children were spending more time at home and receiving more parental attention Parents became more aware of parenting responsibilities Discipline also became less physical and more about withholding of affection or shaming Family size shrunk, partly due to increasing use of birth control and more frequent abortions
Institutional Reforms: Education and Asylums Two institutions in the United States that were the target of reforms in the 1800s were schools and prisons Reformer Horace Mann established a state board of education in Mass. Conceived of public education as a means to social discipline Unfortunately, public schools alienated working-class children from their families Education reforms also took the form of more lyceums in cities In 1820s and 1830s, prisons, asylums and poorhouses emerged to house deviants Previously: they wandered, or were jailed, or executed Goal was to reform them, but institutions were often inhumane and overcrowded Dorothea Dix lobbied for reforms, improving conditions of prisons and insane asylums
More Radical Reform: Abolitionism A more radical strand of 1800s-era reform surfaced concerning the issue of the abolition of slavery Previously, abolitionists were associated with the American Colonization Society Goal was to resettle blacks in the colony of Liberia in West Africa Was inadequate, opposed by Northern blacks and some white abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator calling for immediate emancipation Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society The abolitionist movement largely grew out of the Second Great Awakening Abolitionists encountered fierce, often violent opposition in the South Abolitionists also split over women s role in the movement
More Radical Reform: Abolitionism, Part II A more radical strand of 1800s-era reform surfaced concerning the issue of the abolition of slavery The abolitionist movement depended heavily on the support of northern blacks Black newspapers, like Frederick Douglass North Star, gave blacks a voice in movement Ex-slaves such as Harriet Tubman participated in the Underground Railroad, giving slaves a path to freedom South responded with a gag rule in Congress
From Abolition to Women s Rights Women s participation in the abolitionist movement was the catalyst for the women s rights movement Pictured: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Women were not allowed to participate equally in the abolitionist movement Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were excluded from speaking at a convention in London They held the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 Rejected the cult of domesticity; issued Declaration of Sentiments
Radical Ideas and Experiments Two far more radical reform ideas were utopianism and transcendentalism Utopianism: belief that reformed society could be attained by members withdrawing and forming their own communities Robert Owen founded a community in New Harmony, IN Another reform movement: transcendentalism Main idea: the individual could transcend material reality and attain a oneness with the universe Ralph Waldo Emerson preached a form of radical individualism Henry David Thoreau lived by himself near Walden Pond, and wrote Walden Rev. George Ripley rejected Emerson, and founded a community in Brook Farm, MA