Cultural Change and Reformers The spectacular religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening reversed a trend toward secular rationalism in American.

AGE OF JACKSON

Cultural Change and Reformers

The spectacular religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening reversed a trend toward secular rationalism in American culture, and fueled a spirit of social reform

ERA OF REFORM1790-1860 1794: Thomas Paine attacks hierarchical

religion Deism and Unitarianism spreadsCOUNTER-REACTION

is the Second Great Awakening (1800-1830’s)

Reform Movements:1. Evangelicalism2. Prison Reform3. Care of the mentally ill (Dorothy Dix)4. Temperance (Neal Dow, Maine Law - 1851)5. Women’s Movement6. Abolitionism

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REVIVALISM

CHARLES G. FINNEY

http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/images/CharlesGrandisonFinney.html

REVIVALISM AND CLASS

Revivals are: More common on frontier, South and

West Less common among elites Creates more democratic churches, i.e.

Methodists, Baptists, Adventists, etc. “Canary” for societal attitudes toward

slavery:Churches Split,

Parties Split, Union

Splits.

The spirit of optimism and reform affected nearly all areas of American life and culture, including education, the role of women and the family, and literature and the arts.

FREE SCHOOLS Spread of Democracy Public Education Education Stability CATALYST: Universal white male

suffrage Basic public schools spread 1825-1850 Horace Mann reforms/upgrades schools Webster’s “lessons” & McGuffey

“readers” State supported colleges spread, esp.UVA

NOTE: schools still rare in West and esp. for free African-Americans, slaves prohibited.

Women struggle for equality in Education

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FREE SCHOOLS

NOTE: Schools still rare in West and esp. for free African-Americans, slaves prohibited.

Women also struggle for equality in Education.

NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS: Emma Willard est. Troy Female Seminary Oberlin College Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Seminary

DEMOCRATIC CULTURE

Artists’ audience was broad citizenry of democracy, not refined elite

Romanticism in America appealed to feelings and intuitions of ordinary Americans

DEMOCRATIC CULTURE

Popular literature sensationalized Genres included Gothic horror and

romantic fiction Much popular literature written by and

for women Melodrama dominated popular theater

By 1830s, subject of paintings switched from great events and people to scenes from everyday life

LITERATURE Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet

Song of Hiawatha The Courtship of Miles Standish

James Russell Lowell, poet Bigelow Papers, re. Mexican War

Oliver Wendell Holmes, writer Louisa May Alcott - Little Women Emily Dickinson, poet Edgar Allen Poe, author, “The Raven” William Gilmore Simms, Southern writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville, Moby Dick

DEMOCRATIC CULTURE

Architectural style reflected the tenets of ancient Greek democracy

Purpose of art in democratic society was to encourage virtue and proper sentiment Landscape painters believed

representations of untamed nature would elevate popular taste and convey moral truth

Only a few truly avant-garde, romantic artists, like Edgar Allan Poe

“The Hudson River School, first identified at the end of its heyday, was a fraternity of artists who worked principally in New York City from about 1840 to 1875. Together, they raised landscape painting to preeminent status in America in the mid-nineteenth century. Originally attracted by the grandeur of natural scenery along the Hudson River and in New England, the painters interpreted both the wilderness and the pastoral face of a growing and changing nation.”

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ARTS AND SCIENCES Asa Gray, botanist James Audubon, naturalist Thomas Jefferson, philosophy and

architecture Gilbert Stuart, painter Charles Wilson Peale, painter (from MD) John Trumbull, painter Hudson River School of painting Stephen C. Foster, American folk music Washington Irving, writer James Fenimore Cooper, writer William Cullen Bryant, poet

TRANSCENDENTALISTS (1830’S)

TRUTH IS NOT OBJECTIVE ALONE –DISCOVERED BY “INNER LIGHT”

Individualism, Self-reliance, Self-Discipline Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist Henry David Thoreau

Walden Civil Disobedience

Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass

RADICAL IDEAS AND EXPERIMENTS: UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES Utopian socialism

Inspired by Robert Owen, Charles Fourier

New Harmony, Indiana—Owenite Fourierite phalanxes

Religious utopianism Shakers Oneida Community

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UTOPIAS

New Harmony, Indiana –fails

Brook Farm, MA – transcendentalists – destroyed by fire

Oneida Community, NY – eugenics, lasts 30 years – famous for metalwork

Shakers, Mother Ann Lee, 1770’s – peak in 1840’s, slow decline after

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THE SHAKERS

What is evidence of Shaker spirituality do you

see in the pictures

here?

JOSEPH SMITH AND THE MORMONS

All American religion, created in US Mormons move from Ohio to Missouri & Illinois. Communitarian sect not popular Mormon militia arouses fear Polygamy unpopular 1844 Mormons flee Illinois after mobs murder

Smith Brigham Young leads Mormons west to Utah,

1846-1847, est. frontier cooperative theocracy Conflict with federal govt. over polygamy,

threatens fighting, over polygamy delays statehood to 1896

REFORM TURNS RADICAL

Most reform aimed to improve society Some radical reformers sought

destruction of old society, creation of perfect social order

DIVISIONS IN THE BENEVOLENT EMPIRE

Radical perfectionists impatient by 1830s, split from moderate reform Temperance movement Peace movement Antislavery movement

Moderates sought gradual end to slavery and colonization of freed slaves to its colony of Liberia

WOMEN’S CHANGING ROLES

Women experience more freedom, esp. on frontier

Lucretia Mott, Quaker, Abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, organizer Susan B. Anthony, lecturer Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, first MD Margaret Fuller, editor 1848 “Declaration of Sentiments,” Seneca

Falls, NY, “all men and women are created equal,”LAUNCHES WOMEN”S RIGHTS MOVEMENT

DOMESTICITY AND CHANGESIN THE AMERICAN FAMILY

New conception of family’s role in society

Child-rearing seen as essential preparation for self-disciplined Christian life

Women confined to domestic sphere Women assumed crucial role within

home

THE CULT OF DOMESTICITY

“The Cult of True Womanhood” Placed women in the home Glorified home as center of all efforts to

civilize and “Christianize” society Middle- and upper-class women

became increasingly dedicated to the home as mothers

Women of leisure entered reform movements

MARRIAGE FOR LOVE

Mutual love must characterize marriage Wives became more of a companion to

their husbands and less of a servant Legally, the husband was the

unchallenged head of the household

THE DISCOVERY OF CHILDHOOD

Nineteenth-century child the center of family

Each child seen as unique, irreplaceable

Ideal to form child’s character with affection

Parental discipline to instill guilt, not fear

Train child to learn self-discipline Family size declines from average of

7.04 children to 5.42 by 1850

ABOLITIONISM Roots in Second Great Awakening – see

impact of Charles Grandison Finney BEFORE 1820 antislavery societies are more

numerous in the South. Slave revolts end Southern toleration of abolition.

1835 Congress forbids use of mail to send abolitionist material through the mail.

1836 House of Reps passes the “gag rule,” John Quincy Adams defeats this in court after

8 yrs. South advances theory that slavery “civilizes”

Africans, compares slave’s quality of life to “wage slaves” in the North

FROM ABOLITIONISM TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Abolitionism opened to women’s participation

Involvement raised awareness of women’s inequality

FROM ABOLITIONISM TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 Organized by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth

Cady Stanton Prompted by experience of inequality in

abolition movement Began movement for women’s rights

SHIFT FROM GRADUALISM TO ABOLITIONISM

Urgency of the Reform Movement following 2nd Great Awakening

Increasing number of manumissions Failure of “Re-Colonization” efforts Tensions Increase following Turner’s 1831

Rebellion Free Blacks loose rights/sometimes

freedom Impact of Garrison Propaganda War Gag Rule

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This handbill urging opponents of abolitionists to obstruct an anti-slavery meeting demonstrates the depth of pro-slavery feeling. Although the handbill advocates peaceful means, violence sometimes erupted between the two factions. An emotion-laden handbill was a factor in the well-known Boston riot of October 21, 1835. In that incident, a mob broke into the hall where the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society was meeting, and threatened William Lloyd Garrison's life. "Outrage," February 2, 1837 Handbill

DIVISIONS IN THE BENEVOLENT EMPIRE Radicals like William Lloyd Garrison

demanded immediate emancipation 1831: Garrison founded The Liberator 1833: American Anti-Slavery Society

THE ABOLITIONIST ENTERPRISE: PUBLIC RECEPTION

Appealed to hard-working small town folk

Opposition in cities and near Mason-Dixon line

Opposition from the working class Disliked blacks Feared black economic and social

competition Solid citizens saw abolitionists as

anarchists

THE ABOLITIONIST ENTERPRISE: THEODORE DWIGHT WELD

Weld an itinerant minister converted by Finney

Adapted his revivalist techniques to abolition

Successful mass meetings in Ohio, New York

BLACK ABOLITIONISTS

Former slaves related the horrible realities of bondage Prominent figures included Frederick

Douglass and Sojourner Truth Black newspapers, books, and

pamphlets publicized abolitionism to a wider audience

Blacks were also active in the Underground Railroad

DAVID WALKER

Free black from North Carolina

Urged slaves to rise up and revolt for their freedom.

Found dead outside of his printing office“Southern slave masters hated Walker and put a price on his head. In 1829, 50 unsolicited copies of Walker's Appeal were delivered to a black minister in Savannah, Ga. The frightened minister, understandably concerned for his welfare, informed the police. The police, in turn, informed the governor of Georgia. As a result, the state legislature met in secret session and passed a bill making the circulation of materials that might incite slaves to riot a capital offense. The legislature also offered a reward for Walker's capture, $10,000 alive and $1,000 dead.”http://www.africawithin.com/bios/david_walker.htm

FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1817-1895)

“I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free state….It was a moment of the highest excitement I ever experienced…. This state of mind, however, very soon subsided; and I was again seized with a feeling of great insecurity and loneliness. I was yet liable to be taken back, and subjected to all the tortures of slavery. This in itself was enough to damp the

ardor of my enthusiasm.” Narrative of the Life of

Frederick Douglass, 1845http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/images/4fred16m.jpg

THE ABOLITIONIST ENTERPRISE: OBSTACLES

Abolitionists hampered by infighting William Lloyd Garrison disrupted

movement by associating with radical reform efforts Urged abolitionists to abstain from

participating in the political process Also involved in women’s rights movement

Some abolitionists helped form the Liberty Party in 1840

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON (1805-1879)

“ I am earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I will be heard.” (The Liberator, 1831)

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COMPARE AND CONTRAST

GARRISON F. DOUGLASS

DAVID WALKER