Transcript The Ferment of Reform 1820-1860

The Ferment of Reform
1820-1860
Second Great Awakening
Causes
 Reaction to rationalism fashioned during
Enlightenment
 Puritan teachings had been rejected by
believers in more liberal and forgiving
doctrines
 Counter attack on liberal viewpoints
Diests
 Paine promoted anticlericalism
 Jefferson and Franklin not that extreme
 Relied on reason rather than revelation
 Reject concept of original sin and denied
Christ’s divinity
 Did believe in Supreme Being and
endowed humans with moral behavior
Unitarians
 Spin off of Puritans
 Mostly in New England
 God exists in only one person
 Stressed goodness of human nature
 Salvation thru good works
 Appealed to intellectuals
The Age of Reason
 Rejected many traditional and
conservative theological practices.
 Thomas Paine declared it was set up to
control the masses and make money
 New ways to approach religion, divinity,
deity of Christ
Timothy Dwight
 President of Yale College
 Began campus revivals
 Attacked liberal points of view
(Unitarians and Deists)
 Motivated generation to become
evangelical preachers
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Allowed free will to play role in salvation
Revival in New York
 Charles Finney
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Appealed to people’s emotions in sermons
Persuaded many to make public
declaration of faith
Appealed to rising middle class
Burned over district
 So
many revivals that converted so many
Baptists and Methodists
 South and western frontier
 Circuit preachers
 Attend “camp meetings”
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Converted many
By 1850 become the largest Protestant
denominations
Peter Cartwright
 Best known Methodist circuit preacher
 Converts thousands of souls
 Powerful and muscular
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Would fight disruptions with fists
Feminizing religion
 Women were first and most fervent
members of church
 Make up majority of church membership
 Offered women active role in bringing
husbands back to God
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When that was accomplished they turned
to saving the rest of the country
 Spearhead
many reform crusades
Diversity
 Fragmentation of religious faiths
 Millerites
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From Burned Over District
Believed Christ would return October 22,
1844
Did not destroy the movement when He
doesn’t
More diversity
 Widens gap between rich and poor
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Wealthy and better educatedEpiscopalians, Presbyterians,
Congregationalists
Baptists and Methodist were less
prosperous
 Split over slavery issue between North
and South
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Churches split
Mormons
 From Burned Over District
 Joseph Smith
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Visionary
Received Book of Mormon
Native religion
Problems
 Opposition in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois
 Cooperative sect
 Voted as a unit
 Militia drilled
 Accusations of polygamy
 Smith murdered in 1844
Brigham Young
 Took control of Mormons
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Aggressive leader
Eloquent preacher
 Led Mormons to Utah
 Made desert bloom
 5,000 settle and many more to come
Mormons and Government
 US government could not control Young
 Army marched on Mormons
 Antipolygamy laws stopped Congress
from accepting Utah as a state until 1896
Results of Great Awakening
 Divisions in society between newer and
older Protestant churches
 Affected all areas of the country
 Social reform in the North begins
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Church leaders provide leadership for
reform movement
Well organized
Drive reform movement
Education in America
Common Schools
 Middle class feared for future of republic
with too many uneducated children
 Support tax supported public schools
Horace Mann
 Massachusetts Board of Education
 Leading advocate of common school movement
 Compulsory attendance
 Longer school year
 Increased teacher preparation
 Spread to other states
 Father of public education system
Noah Webster
 Schoomaster of the republic
 Dictionary
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Standardizes the American English
language
William McGuffey
 Teacher - preacher
 Grade school readers
 122 million copies
 Read by generations of Americans
 Taught morality, patriotism, and idealism
Higher Education
 2nd Great Awakening
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Led to planting small, denominational,
liberal arts colleges
 South
and West
 Mostly to satisfy local pride to have a college
 Narrow curriculum
State supported colleges
 North Carolina in 1795
 University of Virginia in 1819
 Mostly in South
Women and education
 Frowned upon
 Too much learning injured the female
mind, undermined health, unfit for
marriage
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Take that to your parents
Women’s schools
 Emma Willard establishes Troy Female
Seminary in 1837
 Oberlin College in Ohio
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Also admitted blacks
 Mount Holyoke Seminary in
Massachusetts
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“they’ll be educating cows”
Lyceum movement
 For adults yearning for more learning
 Traveling lectures
 Educated masses
 Platform for speakers in all fields
 Emerson lectured here
Magazines flourish
 Huge followings for short period of time
 Women devoured these
Reform Movements
Origin
 Crackpots to idealists
 Touched by fire of evangelicalism and
religion
 2nd Great Awakening inspired many to
fight against earthly evils
 Want to revive the old Puritan idealism
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Many middle class women participate
Industrial Revolution and
reform
 Reformers want to reaffirm traditional
values in the new market economy
 Industrial revolution presents many new
problems which need solving
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Reformers want to solve these problems
Try to reestablish old order of things
Temperance
 Social problems at public events
 Hurt workers performance
 Many spent wages on liquor and not on
family
 Ruined families and creates poverty
American Temperance Society
 Concerned with excessive drinking and
it’s problems
 Persuade drinkers to take a pledge of
abstinence
 Used many methods to teach
propaganda
 “Cold water army”
Temperance vs Prohibition
 Temperance wants moderate use or non
at all
 Prohibition wants to out-law alcohol
Neal S. Dow
 “Father of Prohibition”
 Sponsored Maine Law on Prohibition
 Maine first to have prohibition
 Other states soon follow
 Will not last long
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Civil War gives it a comeback
 Did make inspiring gains
Other reforms
Debtor’s prisons
 Hit poor and working class
 In prison for very little debt
 Changed thru the ballot and pressure on
legislators
Criminal codes
 Number of capital offenses reduced
 Brutal punishments lessened
 Prisons should reform as well as punish
Public Asylums
 Criminals live in wretched conditions
 Abused regularly
 New public institutions
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Hope to cure inmates
Dorothea Dix
 Horrified of conditions of mentally ill
persons locked with criminals
 Dedicated her life to improving
conditions of disturbed persons
 Mental patients began receiving
professional help in better facilities
William Ladd
 Leading spirit in American Peace Society
 War on war
 Will play out in 20th century collective
security organizations
Women’s Movement
View in 1800
 Woman’s place in home
 Could not vote
 Legal minors
Changing Roles of Women
 Changes happening in urban areas
 Roles of women and men redefined in
job situations in cities
 Keepers of societies conscience
 Teach young how to be good citizens
Cult of Domesticity
 New definition for women
 Men responsible for economic and
political affairs while women
concentrated on the care of home and
children
 Idealized view of women as moral
leaders in home and educators of
children
Forces gather
 Cult of domesticity
 2nd Great Awakening
 Industrialization
 Changing roles and changing society
Lucretia Mott
 Founder of women’s rights movement
 Gets involved when not allowed to
attend antislavery convention
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
 Advocated suffrage for women
 Issued Declaration of Sentiments
 Helped begin the women’s rights
movement
Susan B. Anthony
 Also present at Seneca Falls Convention
 Began women’s rights movement
 Militant lecturer on women’s rights
Susan and Angelina Grimke
 Antislavery advocates
 Wrote Letter on the Condition of Women
and the Equality of the Sexes (1837)
Elizabeth Blackwell
 First female graduate of a medical
college
Margaret Fuller
 Transcendentalist journalist
 The Dial
Lucy Stone
 Kept her maiden name after marriage
Amelia Bloomer
 Revolts against current female attire
 Donned semi-masculine short skirt
called bloomers
Seneca Falls Convention
(1848)
 Declaration of Women’s Sentiments
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“all men and women are created equal”
 Demand votes for women
 Launched the modern women’s rights
movement
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Eclipsed by anti-slavery movement
Utopias
 Withdrawing from society to set up
idealistic community
 Very numerous
 Reflect diversity of reform in America
 Escaping new industrialization and
market economy
New Harmony
 Robert Owen
 1825
 Indiana
 Seeks human betterment
 Lost in contradiction and confusion
Brook Farm
 Massachusetts
 1841
 Transcendentalists
 Fire destroys community
 Collapsed in debt
Onieda Community
 New York
 1848
 Perfect social and economic equality
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Free love
Birth control
 John Humphrey Noyes
 Prospered by producing and selling
silverware
Shakers
 Religious communal society
 Held property in common
 Separated men and women
 Died out for lack of new recruits
 6,000 members in 1840s
Fourier Phalanxes
 1840s
 Based on theories of Frenchman
Charles Fourier
 People share work and living
arrangements
 Americans too individualistic for it to
succeed
Results
 Showed American diversity in many
areas
 Showed struggle Americans were having
with new industrial society
 Many ideas kept alive into the 20th
century
Scientific Achievements
Nathaniel Bowditch
 1733-1838
 Mathematician
 Writings on Navigation
Matthew F. Maury
 1806-1873
 Mathematician
 Oceanography
Benjamin Stillman
 1779-1864
 Pioneer chemist and geologist
 Taught at Yale
Professor Louis Agassiz
 1807-1873
 Served at Harvard
 Biology
 Insisted on original research
Professor Asa Gray
 1810-1888
 Harvard
 Botany
 Textbooks set new standards for clarity
and interest
John J. Audubon
 1785-1851
 Naturalist
 Painted birds
 Audubon Society for protection of birds
named for him
Medicine
 Still primitive
 Bleeding still common
 Plagues still feared
Aches and pains
 Smallpox
 Rheumatics
 Poor diets
 40 year life expectancy in 1840s
 Bad teeth
Medicines
 Self prescribed medicines common
 Fad diets
 Home remedies
 Sawing off limbs to prevent disease
Advances
 Most important was deployment of
laughing gas in surgeries
Architecture
 Greek revival came between 1820 and
1850
 Out of place in public buildings in
wilderness
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Columned facades on public buildings
 Glorify democratic spirit of republic
 Stimulated by Greeks resistance to
Turks in 1820s
 Gothic forms come back also
Thomas Jefferson
 Talented architect
 Monticello
 University of Virginia
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Fine example of classical architecture
Art
 Still suffered
 Lack of leisure class and wealthy class
 Exported artists and art
 Puritan ethics thought it a waste of time
and money
Painters
 Gilbert Stuart
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In Britain
Washington
 Charles Willson Peale
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60 portraits of Washington
 John Turmbull
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Paintings of Revolutionary War
Hudson River School
 Genre painting - painting scenes from everyday
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life
First school of painting in America
Upstate New York painters
Landscape painting
Romantic, uplifting, dramatic scenes
Thomas Cole and Frederick Church
Captures Americas romantic age of natural
wonders
Music
 Minstrel shows
 Black music - religious spirituals
 Stephen Foster
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Wrote famous black songs
“Old Folks Home”
“Camptown Races”
Valuable contribution to American folk
music
Literature
American Literature
 Prior to War of 1812 mostly practical
outlets
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Federalist Papers
Common Sense
BF’s autobiography
 After War of 1812
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Literature and nationalism together
Older seaboard areas can now support
authors
American Literature
 Using American themes
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American themes now respected
 Created American characters
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With American values
 American setting
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Not Europe
Knickerbocker Group
 New York authors in the early years of
the Republic
 Created American literature that gained
world respect
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Washington Irving
James Fenimore Cooper
William Cullen Bryant
Washington Irving
 Knickerbocker History of New York
 The Sketch Book
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Rip Van Winkle
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
 World fame
 American themes and language
James Fenimore Cooper
 First American novelist
 The Spy
 Leatherstocking Tales
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Last of Mohicans
 Using American themes and creating a
lasting American character
William Cullen Bryant
 Thanatopsis
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High quality poems from US
 Edited New York Evening Post
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Taught languages at Harvard
 Popular poet
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The Song of Hiawatha
The Courtship of Miles Standish
John Greenlief Whittier
 Quaker
 Poet laureate of antislavery crusade
 Poems against inhumanity and injustice
 Moving force of his generation
James Russel Lowell
 Professor at Harvard
 One of America’s better poets
 Biglow Papers
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Condemned slavery expansion of Polk
administration
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes
 Teacher at Harvard
 Poet, novelist, lecturer and wit
 Nonconformist
 Popular literary light
Louisa May Alcott
 Massachusetts
 Transcendentalist to some extent
 Little Women
Emily Dickinson
 Recluse
 Poet
 Did not publish in her lifetime
 Over 2000 published later
Edgar Allen Poe
 Southerner
 Eccentric
 Lyric poems
 The Raven
 A Tell Tale Heart
 Set new standards in detective tales
William Gilmore Simms
 Southerner
 82 books
 Southern frontier themes
 Neglected by the South
Herman Melville
 Fresh tales of the South Seas
 Moby Dick (1851)
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Allegory of good and evil
Ignored at the time
Masterpiece
History
 Mostly New Englanders
 Well stocked libraries in Boston
 Unsympathetic to slavery and the South
 Anti Southern bias for decades
Transcendentalism
 Believed in a mystical and intuitive way
of thinking as a means to discovering
one’s inner self and looking for the
essence of God in nature.
 Artistic expression was more important
than wealth
 Best expressed the ideas of romantic
period
Common Characteristics
 Based in New England
 Writers and reformers
 Individualistic
 Organized institutions were unimportant
Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Evoked nationalistic spirit of Americans
by urging them not to imitate European
culture but to create a unique American
culture.
Background
 Grew up poor
 Became a Unitarian minister
 Phi Beta Kappa address at Harvard
urges American writers to reject
European traditions and develop an
American literature.
 Taught and lectured throughout the
country
Teachings
 Self reliance
 Independent thinking
 Spiritual matters more important than
material matters
 Critic of slavery
Sayings
 “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself”
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Be free from outside influences when developing
your own identity
 “To be great is to be misunderstood”
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People will not understand your nonconformity.
 “The less government we have, the better-fewer
laws, and the less confided power.”
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Government restricts ones freedom and a
concentration of power and wealth in a few hands
hurts the masses.
Henry David Thoreau
 Graduated from Harvard
 Studied nature and poetry
 Moved to a small cabin on Walden to
discover many truths
 Carpenter, masonry, painter, surveyer
Lessons
 Advocate of non-violence
 Argued for not obeying unjust laws and
paying taxes
 Advocate for civil disobedience
‘the mass of men lead lives of
quiet desperation”
 Most men have resigned themselves to
lead lives that are dictated by society
and its notions of what a man is
supposed to do with his life.
 Men choose the common mode of living
rather than following their inner selves.
Walden
 Helped him to discover truths about life
and nature.
 Became a pioneer ecologist and
conservationist.
“That government is best
which governs not at all”
 Governments trying to improve its
citizens lives has to give up some of its
integrity.
 Government sometimes gets in the way
of advancing society.
 Governments are oppressive even
democracies
What kind of government
 One that commands a man’s respect
 Wants a government in the hands of
every man not a small elite
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Otherwise minority rights are not protected
by the more powerful majority
Influence
 Encouraged Mahatma Gandhi to resist
British rule in India
 Inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and the
civil rights movement
 Influences idealistic thought all over the
world
Thoughts
 Under a government which imprisons any
unjustly, the true place for a just man is in
prison.
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By being true to yourself and your integrity you are
obliged to resist the evil of government
 That man is richest whose pleasures are the
cheapest
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Material wealth will not bring true pleasure
 Do not be moral
 Wants men to do something with their lives rather
than just stand for something, do something with
what you stand for
Walt Whitman
 Controversial
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Dispensed with traditions of poetry
Frank about sex and other subjects
Books banned in Boston
 Leaves of Grass
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Brought him fame
Caught the new enthusiasm of an
expanding America
Native art critics had been yearning