BY: Susan M. Pojer Pamela K. Montague Antebellum Revivalism & Reform.

BY: Susan M. PojerPamela K. MontagueBY: Susan M. PojerPamela K. Montague

AntebellumRevivalism

&Reform

AntebellumRevivalism

&Reform

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

The Rise of Popular ReligionThe Rise of Popular Religion

The Second GreatAwakening

The Second GreatAwakening

“Spiritual Reform From Within”

[Religious Revivalism]

Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality

Temperance

Asylum &Penal

Reform

Education

Women’s Rights

Abolitionism

“The Pursuit of Perfection”

In Antebellum America

“The Pursuit of Perfection”

In Antebellum America

How did the transportation revolution and the market revolution lead to this desire?

How did the transportation revolution and the market revolution lead to this desire?

“The Benevolent Empire”:1825 - 1846

“The Benevolent Empire”:1825 - 1846

Where did the movement begin?Where did the movement begin?

The “Burned-Over” Districtin Upstate New York

The “Burned-Over” Districtin Upstate New York

Many NE Puritans had settled thereMany NE Puritans had settled there

Second Great AwakeningRevival Meeting

Second Great AwakeningRevival Meeting

Spread to the masses on the frontier by multi-day camp meetingsSpread to the masses on the frontier by multi-day camp meetings

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.

Charles G. Finney(1792 – 1895)

Charles G. Finney(1792 – 1895)

““soul-soul-shaking” shaking”

conversionconversion

2nd Great Awakening led to the feminization of religion - women make up majority of Church membership and move into charity work in the reform movements it sparked.

2nd Great Awakening led to the feminization of religion - women make up majority of Church membership and move into charity work in the reform movements it sparked.

The Mormons(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day

Saints)

The Mormons(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day

Saints)

Joseph Smith (1805-1844)

1823 Golden Tablets

1830 Book of Mormon

1844 Murdered in Carthage, IL

Why?

Violence Against MormonsViolence Against Mormons

Why were the Mormons persecuted?Why were the Mormons persecuted?

The Mormon “Trek”The Mormon “Trek”

Why Utah?Why Utah?

The Mormons(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day

Saints)

The Mormons(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day

Saints) Deseret

community

Salt Lake City, Utah

Frontier theocracy

Later flouted what laws in UT?

Brigham Young(1801-1877)

Temperance MovementTemperance Movement

Frances Willard Lyman Beecher & the Beecher Family

1826 - American Temperance Society

“Demon Rum”!

Annual Consumption of Alcohol

Annual Consumption of Alcohol

“The Drunkard’s Progress”“The Drunkard’s Progress”

From the first glass to the grave, 1846

What social problems were attributed to alcohol?What social problems were attributed to alcohol?

NEAL DOW• Father of Prohibition• MAINE LAW, 1851

– First U.S. Law to ban the manufacture and sale of alcohol.

• Temperance is the most widely supported, least sectional and most successful of all the reform movements

• What groups will be most resistant?

Early 19th Century Women – Rights?Early 19th Century Women – Rights?

1. Unable to vote.2. Legal status of a minor.3. Single could own her own

property.4. Married no control over

herproperty 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.

“Separate Spheres” Concept“Separate Spheres” Concept“Cult of

Domesticity” A woman’s “sphere” was in the home (to be arefuge from the cruel world outside).

Her role was to “civilize” her husband and family – had great moral power.

Seen as physically/emotionally weak….but also as artistic and refined.

Republican Motherhood idea still alive. 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!

CULT OF DOMESTICITY& TRUE WOMANHOOD

• Separate spheres: men off to work to support family, woman’s place is in the home

• Popularized in newspapers, magazines, etc.

• What were the 4 parts of ideal womanhood?

• Why were women seen as physically inferior to men?

• Why were women seen as intellectually inferior to men?

• What strange myths arose as a result?

What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own

Way!

What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own

Way!

Cult of Domesticity = Slavery

Cult of Domesticity = SlaveryThe 2nd Great Awakening inspired

women to improve society – many began with abolitionism.

Angelina & Sarah Grimke

Southern Abolitionists

Lucy Stone

American Women’sSuffrage Assoc.

edited Woman’s Journal

R2-9

Women’s RightsWomen’s Rights1840 split in the abolitionist movement over women’s role in it.

London World Anti-Slavery Convention

Lucretia Mott,a Quaker

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1848 Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments

Susan B. Anthony

Seneca Falls Convention, 1848

Seneca Falls Convention, 1848

What did the Declaration of Sentiments call for?Who attended?

What did the Declaration of Sentiments call for?Who attended?

Religious Training Secular Education• More people have right to vote, so more

need for education• Also, many immigrants to be Americanized!• MA – 1st state to establish free public

education – tax supported• However, many communities unwilling to tax

to raise the $ needed– Lots of private, religious schools - did not

want to pay taxes to support public ones• By 1850 – free public ed. in most of North;

even some high schools• Better teacher training• Mostly women as teachers – CATHERINE

BEECHER– didn’t have to pay them as much as men

Educational ReformEducational Reform

“Father of American Education”

Horace Mann (1796-1859)Horace Mann (1796-1859)

Children were clay in the hands of teachers and school officials Children should be “molded” into a state of perfection Discouraged corporal

punishment

Established state teacher- training schools (“normal schools”)

NoahWebst

er

• “American Spelling Book”

• Encouraged Americans to respect their own literature

• Later, dictionaries

The McGuffey Eclectic Readers

The McGuffey Eclectic Readers

Used religious parables to teach “American values.” Teach middle class morality and respect for order. Teach “3 Rs” + “Protestant ethic” (frugality, hard work, sobriety)

Women EducatorsWomen Educators Troy, NY Female Seminary Curriculum: math, physics, history, geography. train female teachers

Emma Willard(1787-1870)

Mary Lyons(1797-1849)

1837 - she established Mt. Holyoke [So. Hadley, MA] as the first college for women.

Penitentiary Reform Penitentiary Reform

Dorothea Dix(1802-1887)

• Prisons are an American creation

• Reformers hope to help prisoners “repent” & learn to lead normal lives, reflect on sins, become better citizens

• Horrid conditions existed; sane & insane together

• DOROTHEA DIX gets prison reforms & gets insane out of prisons; mental asylums established

• Will be appointed as Superintendent of Nurses for Union forces in Civil War

Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849

Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849

Two Types of Prisons Develop:

• Auburn System• First in 1821,

Auburn, NY• Congregate

system• Congregate work

by day BUT in total silence

• Solitary at night

• Pennsylvania System• Individual system• Isolates inmate for

entire stay• Blindfolded on

admittance, etc.• Overcrowding a

problem

Utopian CommunitiesUtopian Communities

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Utopian Socialist

New Harmony - “Village of Cooperation”

To be a model of the "New Moral World"

But will dissolve in less than 3 years.

Original Plans for New Harmony, IN

Original Plans for New Harmony, IN

Believed an individual's character was shaped by his or her environment,

therefore, by controlling the environment, superior character could

be developed.

New Harmony, IN

New Harmony, IN

First American kindergartenand free public school

BROOK FARMWest Roxbury, MA 1841

George Ripley (1802-1880)

George Ripley (1802-1880)

“Plain Living & High Thinking”

Transcendentalists

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a resident; eventually it burns down

The Oneida CommunityNew York, 1848

The Oneida CommunityNew York, 1848

John Humphrey Noyes(1811-1886)

Millenarianism --> the 2nd

coming of Christ had already occurred. Humans were no longer obliged to follow the moral rules of the past.• all residents married to each other.• carefully regulated free love.”

Silver plate, steel traps

The Oneida CommunityThe Oneida CommunityBirth control, eugenic selection of parents, communal care of children

Noyes had to flee to Canada to escape prosecution for adultery

Survive for 30 years (silverware!) and then change in 1880 – no more communism / became monogamous

Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784)Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784)

“If you will take up your crosses against the works of generations, and follow Christ in theregeneration, God will cleanse you from allunrighteousness.

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.”

The Shakers

God is dual sided – Christ is male side / Mother Ann Lee is female side

Shaker MeetingShaker Meeting

Religious fervor is sign of inspiration from God!

Shaker HymnShaker Hymn'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 gainedTo bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,To turn, turn will be our delight,'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

• Men / women equal spiritually

• Celibacy– So how did they survive so

long?

• Longest lasting sect – until 1940…….

Shaker BeliefsShaker Beliefs

Shaker Simplicity & UtilityShaker Simplicity & Utility

Landsdowne PortraitGeorge Washington,1796

Portrait of George Washington, 1796

ArtisticAchievements

Gilbert Stuart, an AMERICAN painter

Charles Wilson Peale

• Hudson River School: Romantic, grandiose AMERICAN landscapes

• Thomas Cole, The Oxbow - 1836

ROMANTICISM IN ARTAND LITERATURE

TranscendentalismTranscendentalism Individualism in religion!

Man can be liberated from understanding and the cultivation of reasoning.”

Truth “transcends” the senses.

Man can “transcend” the limits of intellect and allow the emotions, the SOUL, to create an original relationship with the divine

Transcendentalist ThinkingTranscendentalist Thinking§ Commitment to self-reliance, self-

culture, self-discipline; artistic expression more important than wealth.

§ Rejected all secular authority and the authority of organized churches and the Scriptures, of law, or any conventional wisdom.

§ As reformers – role was to restore man to the divinity God had given them.

§ So…. man can’t be held in slavery or have his mind corrupted by superstition or ignorance!

Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers

Concord, MA

Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers

Concord, MA

Ralph WaldoEmerson

Ralph WaldoEmerson

Henry DavidThoreau

Henry DavidThoreau

Nature(1832) Walden

(1854)

Essay on Civil Disobedience

(1849)

Self-Reliance (1841)

“The American Scholar”

(1837)

The Transcendentalist AgendaThe 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.

Their pursuit of the ideal led to a distorted view of humannature and possibilities: * The Blithedale Romance

A Transcendentalist Critic:Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-

1864)

A Transcendentalist Critic:Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-

1864)

One should accept the world as an imperfect place: * Scarlet Letter * House of the Seven Gables

Hawthorne also held minor political offices under Van Buren, Polk, Pierce

Overview of Period Authors:Overview of Period Authors:

• James Fennimore Cooper– American themes– Leatherstocking

Tales

• Walt Whitman– Rambling, free-

verse poetry– Leaves of Grass

• Ralph Waldo Emerson– Evolved the essay

• Henry David Thoreau– Activity in nature– Walden

• Pessimists - a dark view of human nature:

• Edgar Allen Poe– Short story– Terror, darkness– The Raven

• Herman Melville– Human psychology &

struggles– Moby Dick

• Nathaniel Hawthorne– Also focused on human

struggles– Fascination with New

England Puritans– The Scarlett Letter

The End of the Age of Reform?

• Caused by westward territorial expansion which brings what issue to the forefront and takes over politics?

• SLAVERY!