Religion and Reform In the early 1800’s a new

Protestant religious movement began in New England, it became known as the Second Great Awakening

Within a few years it had reached Kentucky and frontier America

The “camp meetings often lasted a week or more and the sermons asked sinners to be “saved” to create a better society

The meetings provided a social outlet to isolated people on the frontier

Results of the Second Great Awakening Affected many areas of American life from

prison reform, the women’s movement and abolition of slavery

Converted souls, reorganized churches and spawned numerous new sects

More people became members of Protestant churches- 20% in 1800, 50% in 1840

The Methodist and Baptist Churches grew in the south

The African Methodist-Episcopal Church was founded in Philadelphia

The Mormon Church and the Utopian movements began

The Mormon Church The Mormon Church was organized in

1830 in upstate New York- in a very short time it attracted many followers and negative attention because of their beliefs

The Mormon community eventually settled Nauvoo, Illinois.

They were prosperous, owned land and had political power.

Social demands and religious beliefs led to the arrest of their leader and founder Joseph Smith, who was killed by a mob outside of jail

The new Mormon leader Brigham Young led the group to the Great Salt Lake

The Mormon Church

Mormons in Utah Brigham Young led them to a desolate desert

where the Mormons thrived Young was the political and theocratic

authority The built irrigation systems and their

settlements were located near the Oregon Trail and other routes west

They called their land Desert Deseret became United States territory in

1850 Many Americans saw the Mormons as un-

American because of their practice of bloc-voting and polygamy

The United States government and the Mormons struggled over control of the territory until 1857

Under the threat of the United States military they gave in to federal control and outlawed polygamy and other religious practices

Utopian Communities These were communities that promised

equality for all members Many of these communities were in rural,

isolated areas Many were based on religious ideas and

principles The members typically worked common

land and property Many Utopian communities produced

crafts such as plates, chairs, etc. Many quickly ran into futility and failed

because after the founder passed away each idealist had their own vision

Reform Movements

Prisons, Mental Health, Temperance, Education, Women’s Movement and Abolition and the Romantic Movement

Reform Movements pages 42-52

“ What is man born for, but to be a reformer, a remaker of what man has made?” Ralph Waldo Emerson

The urge to reform America and eradicate evil had its roots in the religious movements of the early 1800’s and was based in the beliefs of individuality and the perfectibility of man.

Prison and Mental Health Reform

Prison in America in the early 1800’s were places where criminals and the mentally ill were housed together. Punishment and discipline were severe

The optimism of reform led to the belief that people were basically good and capable of improvement, this brought change to the way prisoners and the mentally ill were treated

Dorthea Dix was a prison reformer that traveled across the country to encourage states to build humane prisons and mental health institutions . Her efforts led to the creation of the earliest mental health hospitals

Education Reform Literacy was widespread in early but there were few

state supported schools◦ In the south and the frontier the rural population did

not allow for development of schools Many began to support tax supported public schools

◦ would provide the decision making tools for members of a democracy and provide educated workers for the growing economy

Horace Mann was an early leader in the establishment of public schools, standardized education and the need for trained teachers

Within a few decades public schools were wide spread across the north and the percentage of children attending school doubled. The south and west embraced this movement after the Civil War

Temperance MovementMany reformers viewed alcohol

as the reason for social ills There was a tradition in

America of people drinking and working.

In the emerging industrial economy drinking was a problem more than it had been in the simple economy before this time

Factories were dangerous places

Alcohol was blamed for poverty, crime, sickness and abuse.

The American Temperance Society was formed in the 1830’s where they urged people to refrain from drinking alcohol

This movement met with limited success

Women’s MovementWomen took an active role in the social

movements of the early 1800’sMany women began to enter the

workplace as industrialization spread across the northeast. Many left home and gained social and economic independence

Working women had more time to think about the society and many women became involved in the abolitionist movement and they began to their restrictions as comparable to slavery

Fight for EqualityReformers began to publish ideas in books and

pamphlets. Angela Grimke wrote that “God made men and women equal” and they should be treated equally

Two leading abolitionist women were also leaders in the women’s rights movement- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucrectia Mott

organized a the nation’s first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York◦ The convention attracted hundreds of men and women◦ The delegates to the convention adopted the Declaration of

Sentiments that was modeled after the Declaration of Independence

◦ Called for greater independence for greater social and economic opportunity for women

The convention did not lead to immediate improvement for women but it was the beginning of the women’s rights movement

The Seneca Falls Convention inspired leaders like Susan B. Anthony to fight for women's rights and suffrage.

Growth of Slavery In the first half of the 1800s

slavery expanded for the following reasons:I. The invention of the cotton gin

which allowed for the planting and harvesting of larger quantities of cotton

II. The demand for cotton from the textile mills in both England and New England

III.  The availability of large quantities of land in the Southeast to enable cotton's expansion. 

IV. The removal of Indians from the Southeast allowing the expansion of cotton plantations

Cotton and Slaves

Abolitionist MovementMany Americans disagreed with

slavery yet few spoke out against it before 1830

There were early efforts to send freed slaves to Africa and money was raised to build a colony there- this became the future country of Liberia

In 1804 slavery was banned in most states north of Maryland and in 1807 bringing new slaves to America was outlawed

Slavery was an established part of the economic system in the south, especially with the growth of cotton farming in the early 1800’s

Abolition MovementWith the growth of the United States

and new territory opened up for statehood the slavery question became a political one.

Many people thought slavery would die out gradually through industrialization

The Second Great Awakening provided a moral ground to stand against slavery, and the gradualism turned into an abolition movement

Slave Lifeo Slaves endure hardship- hard labor, brutal

beatings, inadequate food and shelter. Slave families were occasionally split up.

o Many showed remarkable spirit reflected in religious worship and family ties

o Some slaves fought against their oppressors and slave rebellions occasionally occurred.

o Terrified by the idea of a successful slave revolt passed harsh laws to prevent them.

o Gatherings of slaves, teaching them to read were some of the laws passed

o The Underground Railroad was a loosely organized network to help slaves to escape to freedom. Harriet Tubman, a freed slave, led hundreds of slaves to freedom.

Underground Railroad

The Abolition movement beginsA growing number of

people were speaking out against slavery

1831 William Lloyd Garrison began to publish the Liberator a pro- abolition newspaper. ◦ demanded immediate

Emancipation for enslaved people and full political and social

Fredrick Douglass, an escaped slave, spoke out against slavery across the United States and England◦ published an abolitionist

newspaper and wrote a book Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass

Thought the political system should be used to end slavery

Abolitionist OrganizationsAnti slavery groups began to

spring up across the Northeast and Midwest during the 1830’s and 1840’s.

They insisted that having slaves was counter to the religious ideals that Americans embraced, viewed it as immoral

Many religious groups supported the abolition movement

Many women were prominent abolitionists

Opposition to AbolitionEven though the abolition movement

was growing many Americans opposed abolition, in the north and the south

In the north freed slaves faced discrimination and prejudice.

Many northerners feared that African Americans would take their jobs and industrialists feared that without slaves the supply of cotton for the textile mills would be cutoff

Opposition to AbolitionIn the south there was a defense of

slavery- it benefited the textile mills in the north

It was the foundation of the south’s economy

Argued that slavery in the south was better than the “wage slavery” of the north

Argued that Africans were inferior to whites

Some said that slavery freed white men to pursue higher things , like the formation of democracy

These arguments were clearly racist but many people at the time believed them

Slavery divides the nationThe abolition movement was

small but vocalCongress was not permitted to

debate the issue of slavery (Gag Resolutions)

It caused a divide between the industrial north and the rural, agrarian south

The antislavery groups contested every national election until Lincoln won in 1860

Transcendentalism and RomanticismThe movement began as a

response to Enlightenment thinkers that the world was a well ordered place- everything could be solved with logic and reason

Romanticism expressed moods, impressions, feelings

Americans easily accepted these ideas. They put an emphasis on the individual and the virtues of the common man.

Transcendentalism meant that some things were beyond reason- fundamental truth came from experience

Romanticism in Art and Literature

Romantic art emphasized nature- it depicted wild landscapes, mist and sunlight. Man looked small in the paintings

Romantic Literature- criticism of the past, heroic isolation of the narrator or main character, respect for wild untamed nature, writings based on the supernatural

Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson,. Henry David

Thoreau, Walt Whitman were the leading authors and thinkers of this movement

Their writings reflected self- sufficiency. Thoreau lived in a cabin on Walden Pond

for one year as an experiment in self sufficiency and to prove that a person could free himself from the trappings of commercialism and industrialism

Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax during the Mexican War as a statement of opposition because he thought the war supported slavery

Thoreau wrote an essay called Civil Disobedience that promoted ideas of nonviolence

Influenced Gandhi, and civil rights activists of the 1960’s.

Thoreau saw civil disobedience as the right of individuals to refuse to obey laws they feel are unjust