The Ferment of Reform1820-1860

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Second Great Awakening Caused new divisions with

the older Protestant churches

Original sin replaced with optimistic belief that willingness to be saved could ensure salvation

Conversion and repentance now part of the community experience

Reached people who needed help adjusting to social changes

Evangelism

• The religion of the middle class

• Stressed self-discipline and individual achievement

• Women take a more active role – Finney encouraged to pray publicly which violated a long tradition

Charles G. Finney -New York• Appealed to people’s

emotions, and fear of damnation and persuaded thousands to publicly declare their revived faith

• Under his guidance prayer meetings were held in schools and businesses

Joseph Smith, 1830

• Founder of the Mormon religion

• Published The Book of Mormon –traced a connection between the Native Americans and the lost tribes of Israel

• He ruled a church of 18,000 members and practiced polygamy

• Led followers from New York to Illinois

Mormons (cont)

• After mob murdered Joseph Smith – mormons fled under the leadership of Brigham Young

• Established New Zion on the banks of the Great Salt Lake

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Transcendentalism• Transcendentalism was reaction to Enlightenment

– see God as a creative force within man which fostered an optimistic belief in the goodness of man –chief characteristic of transcendentalism

• Although it was based in part on ancient ideas (the philosophy of Plato, for example), Transcendentalism was in many ways a radical movement, threatening established religion.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Philosopher - Emerson emphasized individualism and rejected traditional authority

• leader of the transcendentalism movement

• " All creation is one, people should try to live a simple life in harmony with nature and with others. "

Henry David Thoreau

• His book Walden describes a two year experiment in self-reliance while living near Walden Pond

• Outspoken advocate of abolition – conductor for the underground railroad

• Jailed for refusal to pay poll tax and wrote “Civil Disobedience” leading work on passive resistance

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Novelists and writer of tales

• The Scarlet Letter most famous work explores good and evil in a Puritan town

• Explored the dark side of life

Social Utopianism• Withdrawing from

conventional society to create an ideal community or “utopia”

• Open lands in the U.S. was fertile ground for such communities– Shakers – kept men

and women separate– Oneida Community –

prospered economically by producing and selling silverware

Shaker style furniture

Oneida silverware

Reforming Society

Antislavery Movement, Temperance, Education, Family, Marriage, Women

William Lloyd Garrison

• Founder and publisher of “The Liberator” - 1831

• Sparked the beginning of the radical abolitionist movement

• Demanded immediate and complete emancipation of slaves

• Founder of New England Antislavery Society and American Antislavery Society

Grimke Sisters

• Born in Charleston, SC family wealthy plantation and slave owners

• Abolitionists and Reformers

• Member of American Anti-slavery Society

• Wrote a series of antislavery books and pamphlets - women’s rights and the evils of slavery – went on a speaking tour of many cities in U.S. Angelina first woman to speak before

the Massachusetts Legislature

Temperance Movement

American Temperance Society– founded by:

Protestant ministers – Concern: excessive

drinking – threat to public morality – initiated crime and threatened the family

Public Asylums

• Dorothea Dix– Horrified at the

treatment of the mentally ill called for reforms

– States began rebuilding mental hospitals and patients began receiving professional treatment at state expense

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EducationHorace Mann Leading advocate of the

common (public) school movement

reformers believed schools were important for immigrants and poor children

Moral education just as important as 3 “R’s”

Advocated compulsory attendance, longer school year, and training for teachers

Schools for deaf and blind

• Special institutions founded for people with disabilities– Dr. Samuel Gridley

Howe – school for blind

– Thomas Gallaudet founded school for deaf

Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe

Thomas Gallaudet

American Family

• Family and the role of the mother increasingly more important

• Lower birthrates and smaller families – new forms of birth control, abortion, and conscious family planning

• Child – received more affection

Marriage and Family Life

• Love became more important in choosing a marital partner

• Wives became companions rather than servants

• Husband, however still head of household legally and socially

Women’s Role in Mid 1800’s

• Cult of Domesticity – Men were the primarily responsible for supporting family – men toiled away in the

world– Women provided a

welcoming home• Women were entrusted to

the rearing of children then they could make the world a better place through reforms

Elizabeth Stanton

– Planned the women’s right convention in the U.S. with Lucretia Mott

– Led the campaign for equal voting, legal and property rights for women

– Involved in the Abolition and Temperance Movements

Lucretia Mott

• Campaigned for women’s rights after being barred from speaking at an antislavery convention

• Her and Stanton started the women’s right movement and held the Women’s Right Convention

Women’s Right ConventionSeneca Falls, NY July 19-20, 1848

• Discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of women

• Declaration of Sentiment– 12 resolutions for action

• Attendees (300)– Men and women – Average age 35– White– Middle class– Abolitionist