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Chapter 15': Society, Culture, and Reform (1820-1860)

Religion: The Second Great Awakening Early 19th century, religious revivals across America as a reaction against rationalism which was a reaction against Puritanism, or Calvinism (original sin and predestination) Starting in the 1790s, Calvinism made a comeback, starting with the educated, ex. President of Yale Reverend Timothy Dwight, and spread through populist preachers to the less educated Revivalism in NY: Starting in 1823 in NY, Presbyterian minister Charles G. Finney gave a series of revival that appealed to emotion and fear of damnation, and said that salvation could be achieved through faith and hard work Western NY became known as the burned-over district for his hell-and-brimstone revivals Baptists and Methodists: In the South and West, traveling Baptist and Methodist preachers, ex. Peter Cartwright, gave dramatic sermons that converted many By 1850, the Baptists and Methodists were the largest Protestant denominations in America Millennialism: Much religious enthusiasm was based on the widespread belief that the world would soon end with the second coming of Christ Preacher William Miller predicted that the second coming would occur on October 21, 1844, and gained tens of thousands of followers The prediction was not fulfilled, but the Millerites would continue on to become the Seventh-Day Adventists Mormons: 1830 Joseph Smith founded the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, or the Mormon church, based on the Book of Mormon that connected the Native Americans with the lost tribes of Israel Smith and the Mormons moved around, and while in IL, Smith was murdered by a local mob So to escape persecution, the Mormons under Brigham Young went to the far western frontier and established New Zion at the Great Salt Lake in Utah Prospered because of their cooperative social organization, but were disliked by the U.S. government because they practiced polygamy The Second Great Awakening caused divisions between older Protestant churches and newer evangelical churches Only in the North did the Awakening play a significant role in social reform

Early 19th century in Europe, was a romantic movement that stressed intuition and feelings, Culture: Ideas, the individual heroism, and the study of nature Arts, and 1820 to 1860 in the U.S., some New England writers and reformers were influenced by Literature romanticism and formed the transcendentalists Questioned doctrines of established churches The Questioned capitalism of the merchant class Transcendentalist Argued for mystical and intuitive thinking to discover ones inner self and the essence of God s in nature Challenged American materialism by suggesting that artistic expression was more important than the pursuit of wealth Were individualistic and viewed organized institutions as unimportant

Supported several reforms, esp. the antislavery movement Essayist, lecturer, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): 1837 address The American Scholar, urged Americans to create a new American culture instead of imitating Europe Argued for self-reliance, independent thinking, and spiritual over material matters Was a critic of slavery and a supporter of the Union Friend of Emerson Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): In 1854 book Walden, published essential truths he discovered about life and the universe from an experiment in which he lived in the woods alone for two years Was a pioneer ecologist and conservationalist Essay On Civil Disobedience, argued for nonviolence and non-obeyance to protest unjust laws Would inspire Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Brook Farm: 1841 Protestant minister George Ripley started an experiment in living by transcendentalist ideals at Brook Farm, MA to achieve a more natural union between intellectual and manual labor Had an atmosphere of artistic creativity and an innovative school that attracted the children of New England intellectuals Leading intellectuals of the age lived there at various points, ex. Emerson, feminist Margaret Fuller, theological reformer Theodore Parker, and novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne 1849 was forced to close because of a fire and debts Communal Experiments The antebellum era saw over a hundred experimental communities 1840s the Shakers held property in common and forbade marriage and sex, but by the mid1900s most communities had died out for lack of new recruits German Pietists founded the Amana settlements in Iowa that were also dedicated to ascetic life, but allowed marriage, so communities survived better Welsh industrialist and reformer Robert Owen founded a secular, utopian socialist community in New Harmony, IN in hopes of finding a solution to the inequity and alienation caused by the Industrial Revolution, but failed because of financial problems and disagreement between community members 1848 John Humphrey Noyes started a community in Oneida, NY to achieve perfect social and economic equality by sharing property and significant others; was denounced as sinful for its system of planned reproduction and communal child-rearing (free love), but prospered by producing high-quality silverware 1840s French socialist Charles Fourier advocated that people share work and housing in communities dubbed Fourier Phalanxes, and many Americans, ex. newspaper editor Horace Greeley, were interested, but the movement died out because Americans were too individualistic Painting: 1830s genre painting, or portraying ordinary, daily life, was in style George Caleb Bingham painted common people in various everyday settings William S. Mount was famed for his rural paintings Thomas Cole and Frederick Church emphasized the heroic beauty of American landscapes, esp. through dramatic scenes along the Hudson River The Hudson River school expressed the romantic age's fascination with nature In architecture, classical Greek styles were revived to glorify the democratic spirit of the

Art and Literature

republic Literature: The War of 1812 caused an increase in American nationalism and thus an increase in desire to read the works of American writers on American themes Washington Irving wrote fiction in American settings James Fenimore Cooper's 1824-1841 Leatherstocking Tales included The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, and The Deerslayer that glorified frontiersmen as nature's noblemen Nathaniel Hawthorne's novels, ex. 1850 The Scarlet Letter, questioned the intolerance and conformity in American life Herman Melville's 1855 Moby-Dick reflected the theological and cultural conflicts of the era Reforming Society Antebellum reform often started out with moral persuasion and moved on to political action and ideas for new institutions Temperance The rate of alcohol consumption per person was high 1826 Protestant ministers and others founded the American Temperance Society because were concerned by the high rate of alcohol consumption and its effects; used moral arguments to persuade drinkers to take a pledge of abstinence 1840 recovering alcoholics began the society of Washingtonians who argued that alcoholism was a disease that needed practical, helpful treatment By the 1840s, temperance had become a path to middle-class respectability German and Irish immigrants were opposed to temperance, but did not have the political power to prevent the government from siding with temperance Factory owners and politicians supported temperance because would reduce crime and poverty and increase productivity 1851 ME was the first state to abolish alcohol, rather than tax its sale The temperance movement would be subdued by the Civil War, but would eventually achieve national success with the 1919 Eighteenth Amendment 1820s and 1830s humanitarians called attention to the wretched conditions and abuse and neglect of criminals, the mentally ill, and paupers Proposed setting up new public institutions, ex. state prisons, mental hospitals, and poorhouses, to cure inmates of antisocial behavior by placing them in a rural, disciplined environment Schoolteacher Dorothea Dix campaigned to build and improve specialized institutions for the mentally ill, and 1840s many state legislatures did so, so mental patients began receiving professional treatment at state expense Thomas Gallaudet founded a school for the deaf, and Dr. Samuel Gridley founded a school of the blind, and by the 1850s other schools had been built in their example Prisons: In PA, crude jails were replaced by penitentiaries that kept inmates in solitary confinement to force them to reflect and repent, but the they were dropped because of the high rate of inmate suicides The Auburn system in NY rigidly enforced discipline while providing moral instruction and work programs

Movement for Public Asylums

Public Education Public education was supported by the middle class because feared for the future of America

with the growing numbers of the uneducated poor Workers' groups in the cities also generally supported Wanted to instruct children in basic literacy and morality Secretary of the MA Board of Education Horace Mann (1796-1859) was the leading advocate for public (AKA common) schools, and worked for improved schools, compulsory attendance, a longer school year, and better-prepared teachers 1840s the public school movement spread rapidly to other states Moral education: Teacher William Holmes McGuffey created a series of elementary readers that were widely accepted as the basis for moral education, and extolled the virtues of hard work, punctuality, and sobriety Roman Catholics founded private schools for Catholic and foreign-born children in a reaction against the evangelical Protestant tone of the public schools Higher education: Starting in 1830s, Protestant denominations founded small denominational colleges, esp. in the newer Western states Several new colleges, ex. MA Mt. Holyoke College founded 1837 by Mary Lyon, and OH Oberlin College, began to admit women Lyceum lecture societies provided speakers, ex. Emerson, to small-town audiences The Changing By the mid-19th century, the small but growing urban and industrial part of society underwent American Family fundamental changes In cities, because of office and factory jobs created by the Industrial Revolution, men left and Women's home six days a week to work for pay, and middle-class women remained at home to take Rights care of the household and children Movement In the middle-class, family size decreased through birth control So richer women had time to form religious and moral uplift organizations, ex. the New York Female Moral Reform Society that worked to prevent poor young women from being forced into prostitution The new gender roles of the urban middle class became established; men were responsible for economic and political affairs, while women were idealized as moral leaders in the home and educators of children (the cult of domesticity) Origins of the women's rights movement: Women reformers, esp. in the antislavery movement, were dissatisfied with men relegating them to secondary roles in the movement and kept them from fully participating in political discussions Antislavery reformer Sarah Grimke 1837 wrote her Letter on the Condition of Women and the Equality of the Sexes After being barred from speaking at an antislavery convention, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began campaigning for women's rights 1848 leading feminists met at the Seneca Falls Convention in NY and issued the Declaration of Sentiments that listed women's grievances against discriminatory laws and customs After the convention, Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led the campaign for equal voting, legal and property rights But 1850s the women's rights campaign was overshadowed by the slavery crisis Antislavery Movement Moderate supporters wanted gradual abolition, and radical supporters wanted immediate abolition without compensation to slave owners

Northerners supported after the Second Great Awakening because thought slavery was sinful American Colonization Society: 1817 the American Colonization Society was founded that wanted to transport freed slaves to an African colony Moderate reformers and politicians supported because wanted to remove free blacks from American society 1822 the Society established a settlement in Monrovia, Liberia But colonization was not practical because the slave population grew much faster than the colony population could 1831 William Lloyd Garrison began publishing newspaper The Liberator that advocated the immediate abolition of slavery without compensation to owners; was the beginning of the radical abolitionist movement 1833 Garrison and others founded the American Antislavery Society that accused the Constitution of supporting slavery and refused to remain in a Union with slaveholders until they freed their slaves 1840 northerners founded the Liberty party because believed political action would be more effective than a moral crusade; 1840 and 1844 ran James Birney as their presidential candidate Black abolitionists: Some of the strongest supporters of abolition were escaped slaves and free blacks Former slave Frederick Douglass wanted political and direct action to end slavery and prejudice, and 1847 started antislavery journal The North Star Others helped fugitive slaves escape to the North or Canada, ex. Harriet Tubman, David Ruggles, Sojourner Truth, and William Still Violent abolitionism: Northern blacks David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet were the most radical; argued that slaves should revolt against their masters 1831 a revolt under VA slave Nat Turner killed several whites, and the whites put down the revolt by killing more slaves After the Turner revolt, there was no more talk of antislavery in the South for fear of future uprisings Other Reforms 1828 the American Peace Society was founded that wanted to abolish war; influenced some New Englanders to oppose the Mexican War Laws were introduced that protected seamen from being flogged Changes in diet to promote good digestion, ex. whole wheat bread and Sylvester Grahams crackers Women began to wear Amelia Bloomers pantalettes instead of long skirts New pseudoscience phrenology studied to shape of the skull to assess a persons character and ability The reform movements succeeded in northern and western states, but had little effect in much of the South The South wanted tradition Increasingly viewed social reforms as a northern conspiracy against the southern way of life

Southern Reaction to Reform

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