Transcript Chapter 17
Chapter 17 Ferment of Reform and Culture • Goals • 1. The religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening helped to fuel a spirit of social reform • 2. The spirit of optimism and reform affected nearly all areas of American life and culture, including education, the role of women and family, and literature and the arts Reviving Religion • Comparing religion in 1850 to the colonial times • Calvinist values still important • Severity not as prevalent • Ideas from the Age of Reason also prevalent – Thomas Paine said churches only set up to enslave and keep power • Deism also still prevalent – Denied Christ’s divinity and original sin – Humans are basically good an can be more – Science more important then bible – Accepted a supreme being as creator – Founding fathers were believers • Unitarian evolved from Deism – Denied trinity and divinity – Free will – Salvation through good works – God is a loving God – Appealed to intellectuals The Second Great Awakening • Began about 1800 • Reaction to liberal trends in religion • Reaction to Puritan Conservatism • Opposed rationalism of Enlightenment • Awakening against the Catholic Church because it was democratic • Said that humans have free will • Ministers must get people to live right • All who wanted to could be saved: Conversion important • Methodists and Baptists – New protestant denominations started at this time – Stressed personal conversion instead of predestination – Democratic control of church – Emotionalism – Circuit riders Who were Circuit Riders • Peter Cartwright • Beat God into you • Charles Grandison Finney – – – – Billy Graham of his time Begin preaching in NY Against slavery and alcohol Anxious Bench Denominational Diversity • So much preaching some areas get called Burned Over district • Millerites/Adventists – God was coming Oct 22 1844 Religion, classes, Regions • Eastern part of country stayed untouched • Poorer classes tended to identify with newer religion and awakening • Rich and poor gap • Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Unitarians: Wealthy • Methodists and Baptists came from less prosperous and less educated, rural south Mormon • Distinctly American Religion • Joseph Smith gets plates from Angel • Book of Mormon • Oligarchy – Not accepted in a Democratic society – Voted as a unit – Had own militia – Polygamy – Challenged American ideals • Smith and brother killed by mob • Young new leader • Takes people west • Gets to Utah 46-47 • Crops saved by Seagulls, so they decided to stay • 27 wives, 56 children • 1857 US gov. march against Mormons • 1896 Statehood Free Schools/Free People • Early fears of public education • Do we want a country of Paupers • Educate young, not pay for them later • Taxes to pay • 1825-50: education triumphed, not in south • Both ignorant and free we will never be • Schoolhouses – – – – – – One room Male teacher Boarded at houses Not educated Likin’ than larnin’ Three R’s Leading Learners • Horace Mann – MA – 1837: Statewide Education – Noah Webster • Reading lessons • Patriotism • 1828 dictionary • McGuffey: readers that young people read and learned values from Higher Goals for Learning • Colleges start growing • Small denominational colleges in south and west • Local pride than education sometimes • Basic courses: Latin, Greek, philosophy • State supported: – North Carolina: 1795 – University of Vg. TJ Women and Education • At first frowned upon to have women were too educated • Too much learning hurts female brain • Emma Willard: Troy Female Seminary • Mary Lyon: Holyoke • Oberlin: allowed Af/Am and Women Other educational options • Private libraries • House to House peddlers • Lyceums Age of Reform • Everything could be reformed • Fad Diets: Graham to important social issues like slavery • Spurred on by 2nd GA • Women large part of Reform Prisons and Mentally Ill • Stop debtors prison • Soften criminal codes • Capital punishment eased • Reformatories v. penitentiaries • Mentally Ill – End of the treatment as if they were evil and chained – Dorthea Dix Peace and Rum • American Peace Society – Started out with a lot of support – But wars in Crimea and the Civil War the party loses support • Consumption of alcohol in 1820 triple what it is today • Alcohol, cheaper then milk and safer then water • American Temperance Society – – – – 1826 Temperance not prohibition Propertied class fear mobs Prohibition also in favor in some states – Maine 1851: Neal S. Dow Father of Prohibition – Ten Nights in a Barroom and What I saw There: T.S. Arthur Women in Revolt • 18th century women were not sup. To be public • Women were sup. To be pure, domestic, and submissive • 19th century – Men and women in different roles – Women’s job positions declining – Thought to be emotionally and physically weak • Women were concentrated in NE • Middle and upper class • Well educated, Quakers, and Congressionalist's • Mott, Stanton, and Susan B • Blackwell, Bloomer, Grimke's and Stone • Seneca Falls 1848 – Declaration of Sentiments Wilderness Utopias • Stop the world! I want to get off! • Utopian communities • Religious and Political/Economic • Focus is on the group not individual • New Harmony: Indiana: Owen – Cooperative ideals – Everyone working together – Fell apart • Brook Farm – Intellectuals – Lost building in fire and fell apart – Plain living and high thinking – Debt • Oneida – Free love and complex marriage – Eugenics – Leader was an adulterer – Lasted 30 years Shakers – Christ was everywhere – Mother Ann Stanley – Female embodiment of Christ – Segregate the men and women • Dawn of Scientific Achievement • People in America want practical gadgets • Copy European ideas • American Ingenuity • Nature – Audubon – Scientist and naturalist – Creating a record by observation • Medicine – Needed to be revamped – Antiquated ways of dealing with people, bleeding – Surgery, laughing gas, but not pain killers – Patent medicines Art • Architecture – Greek Revival – Capital architecture • University of VG • TJ • Designed in Greek Model Painting • Stuart: Washington • Peale: Washington • Trumbell: Revolution • Hudson River School • Bierstadt – Landscapes, nationalism, romanticism and emotionalism – Nature beauty – Panoramic Pictures and Music • Music: – More upbeat – Stephen Foster – Daguerreotypes 1831 • Named after Louis Daguerre Literature • Knickerbockers – Irving and Cooper – Nobility of frontier – Bryant: Thonatopsis – One of first European accepted poems Transcendentalism • 1830s • Against Age of Reason • All knowledge and truth not through observation, but emotion, idealism • Individualists and optimistic • Power in person to find Oversoul (God) • Thoreau – Nature is happiness – Walden – Civil Disobedience: Influence MLK • Emerson • Self reliance, self confidence, optimism • Whitman – Poet – Changed accepted definitions of what was poetry Literary Lights • Longfellow – epic poems • Whittier – Abolitionist poet • Lowell – Poet and essayist: condemns Mexican War • Holmes – Poet and novelist Dissenters and Individualists • Hawthorne – Cannot escape evil – World imperfect – Attacked reformers • Poe – Difficult life – Died with nothing – Focused on dark stories • Melville – Moby Dick – Good and evil – Ambition – Historians Bancroft, Parkman, Weems