Transcript Antebellum Reform Movements

Antebellum
Reform
Movements
A New Wave of Reform Before the Civil War
CHANGE
YOUR REALMS OF CHANGE:
*RELIGIOUS CHANGE
*ABOLITION CHANGE
SOCIAL CHANGE
*LITERARY CHANGE
*WOMEN’S RIGHTS CHANGE
*EDUCATIONAL CHANGE
*JACKSONIAN POLITICAL CHANGE
EACH OF THESE CHANGES AFFECTED THE NEW
COUNTRY.
Reasons for Reform
• Similar to reasons for Cult of True Womanhood /
Domesticity–
o Barbara Welter – Women were supposed to be
• Pious
• Purity
• Submission
• Domesticity
• Fear of rapid change (urbanization, industrialization,
immigration…)
• Desire to return to a less materialistic (money and “thing”
centered) lifestyle
• Religious fervor – “When things are wrong with society
or there is progress, turn to GOD!”
Second Great Awakening
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Renewed interest in religion
Traveling (itinerant) preachers
Religious revivals
Focus on emotion
Idea that anyone could be saved, anyone could preach
Participation of many social groups (African-Americans,
women, slaves, etc.)
• Influenced by Alex de Tocqueville’s – Democracy in America
o “…. there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater
influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no greater proof of its
utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt
over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.”
Camp Meetings
• Multi-denominational
gatherings that demonstrate
fanatical fervor about God
• Fiery speakers taught that the
return of Jesus was imminent
• Speakers were not college
educated and opposed the
orthodox customs – why?
Popularity?
• Methodism – fastest growing
denomination 1800 – 70,000
1844– over 1 million
• Charles G. Finney – Father of
American Revivalism
New York
• “Burned – over District”
o Charles Finney, the father of
American revivalism, who
explained in the 1870′s that
the region had seen so many
revivals in the previous
decades that it no longer had
any more “fuel” (the
unconverted) to “burn”
(convert).
o Western New York
o Welcomed women into active
public life in the church
o Rejected Pre-destination;
human effort in salvation
Religious Sects
Unitarians
Universalists
• God as ONE person –
contrast with Trinitarians
(God as 3 persons)
• Jesus was a Prophet not
necessarily the Son of God
as a God
• Did not believe in the
concept of “original sin” –
that man was inherently
sinful from the dawn of time
• No belief in Hell
• Living truth is much more
important than national,
cultural, or religious
boundaries
• All religions are true and are
therefore worthy of dignity
and respect
• Uphold principles, ethics,
and actions that promote
living right
Mormonism
• Joseph Smith grew up in the “Burned Over District” in NY
and continued to question traditional religious customs and
orthodoxy
• Angel led him to interpret a book of revelation and – Book of
Mormon
• Seen by his followers as a prophet
• Belief that Jesus and God are two separate beings – differed
from orthodox Christianity – Trinitarianism
• Persecuted because of polygamy – moved the church to
Illinois – Joseph Smith killed
• Brigham Young moves the church and followers to UTAH
Religious Utopian
Societies
• Utopia- a community designed to create a perfect
society -- idea formed by Sir Thomas More
• Often wanted to bring the kingdom of heaven into
reality on earth
• Shakers- stressed simple, communal lifestyle (shared
everything), equality, celibacy (What could be 1
problem with this?)
• Mormons- founded by Joseph Smith, practiced plural
marriage, mob in Carthage, IL. killed Smith in 1844.
• Moved west under Brigham Young to Great Salt Lake
Valley
Oneida in New York
• Founded by John Humphrey Noyes
• Believed in equality of men and women
• Practices
o Complex marriage and communal child-rearing
o Birth control through male continence & ascending
fellowship (older people with younger)
o Stirpiculture- selective breeding to produce “better”
offspring
• How might this have been liberating for women? How
might it have been oppressive? Downfall?
New Harmony in Indiana
• Goal – a planned environment will improve social behavior
and misery will eventually banish
• Based on SOCIALISM / COLLECTIVISM and
COMMUNISM
o Equal distribution of wealth
o Cooperation NOT Competition
Brook Farm in Massachusetts
• Founded near Boston by Transcendentalists – commune with
nature / protest technology
• Founded for people to personally connect with divinity (God)
rather than participate in organized ritualistic religion
• Intellectuals such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel
Hawthorne
Shakers
• Founded by Mother Ann Lee
o Sex was the main cause of EVIL in the world
o Named because of convulsive dances
o Isolationist communities based of separation of genders and
equality
o Population growth due to converts and adoption of orphans
Transcendentalists
• Romantic movement, early 1800’s
• Protest movement
• Emphasized importance of individual, natural simplicity, spiritual
renewal
• Belief that people could transcend (rise above) material things in
life
• Emerson- Self Reliance -- rely on oneself instead of new
technology / commune with nature
• Henry David Thoreau- Walden (about his time living in the
woods, getting away from technology, big cities), Civil
Disobedience -- PROTEST
Poem of Emily Dickinson
“Some keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink (bird) for a chorister (choir),
And an orchard for a dome.”
How does this reflect the themes of transcendentalists?
Literary Reform
• Emily Dickinson – emotional poetry
• James Fennimore Cooper – The Last of the Mohicans –
American Historical Fiction
• Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter
• Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass
• Edgar Allan Poe – The Raven
• American authors writing distinctly American stories and
poems about American culture
Hudson River School
• Philosophy or “school” of thought – People sharing ideas
about ART
• Artists painting or depicting distinctly American landscapes,
figures, CULTURE!!!
• Thomas Cole / Asher Durand
Other Reform Movements
• Temperance (persuade people to temper or limit alcohol
consumption)
• Education- Horace Mann, common schools, uniform curriculum
& teacher training, bigger impact in the North.
• Mentally ill- Dorothea Dix; advocated better treatment,
separation of criminals, mentally ill
• Prisons- try to rehabilitate, penitentiary new institution
• Abolitionism – attempt to rid the South of slavery
• Women’s Rights – attempt to gain the right to vote
Temperance Movement
• By 1830, Americans were drinking 7 gallons of alcohol per
person, per year on average
• Men spent too much $$$, avoided their families, and beat their
wives (domestic violence)
• Lyman Beecher and Protestant churches formed Temperance
societies
• Economic PANIC of 1837 caused workers to question their
drinking habits
• Women’s Christian Temperance Union – protest organization
that pushes for legalizing morality (outlawing drinking)
Temperance
“The Bar of
Destruction”
Thomas Nast
Original Date:
March 21, 1874
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Source:
http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=Mar
ch&Date=21
Reforms
• In each small group cooperatively investigate and discuss
who were the leaders of these movements and how did
their reforms change / shape American society. Lets look at
each reform area and discuss one / two that is found on the
next several slides. This will give each group an idea of
what is expected – after your chart is completely filled out
think about today’s reforms in your particular area.
Women’s Rights / Seneca Falls Convention
• Women’s Movement –Seneca Falls Convention NYcall for suffrage- Lucretia Mott/ Elizabeth Cady
Stanton / Sojourner Truth
• Declaration of Sentiments – many men respected the
drafting of this document but conventional thinking
would not permit women the right to vote
• “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men
and women are created equal”
• 1900’s Women’s Rights – Carrie Chapman Catt/
Susan B. Anthony – culminated in 19th Amendment
(women’s suffrage in 1920)
Seneca Falls Convention- Lucretia Mott/ Elizabeth
Cady Stanton
•Caption: "Get Thee
Behind Me, (Mrs.)
Satan!”
•Wife (with heavy
burden). "I'd rather travel
the hardest path of
matrimony than follow
your footsteps."
•Satan: Victoria
Woodhull, an advocate
of women’s rights and
free love, who ran for
President in 1872.
Date: February 17, 1872
Source:
http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateC
artoon.asp?Month=February&Date=17
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Abolitionist Movement
• Abolition – Freedom from slavery
• American Colonization Society – wanted free slaves then
move ALL blacks to Liberia (in Africa) / didn’t work – slaves
are from America
• American Anti-Slavery Society (1833-1870) – founded by
Wm. Lloyd Garrison believed in IMMEDIATE abolition of the
slave / slave owners are sinful / criticized the A.C.S. (above)
• Lucy Stone / women’s rights / maiden name / divorce rights
etc.
Fredrick Douglass
• American abolitionist, author, women’s
suffragist
• Wrote and published The North Star
• Purchased his freedom and became an ardent
abolitionist
• In thinking of America, I sometimes
find myself admiring her bright blue
sky-her grand old woods-her fertile
fields-her beautiful rivers-her mighty
lakes and star-crowned mountains.
But my rapture is soon checked when
I remember that all is cursed with the
infernal spirit of slave-holding and
wrong; When I remember that with
the waters of her noblest rivers, the
tears of my brethren are borne to the
ocean, disregarded and forgotten; That
her most fertile fields drink daily of
the warm blood of my outraged
sisters, I am filled with unutterable
loathing.”
William Lloyd Garrison – The Liberator
Believed in IMMEDIATE
ABOLITION
NOT GRADUALISM
Sarah and Angelina Grimke• Abolitionists who moved
from South Carolina
(daughters of slave owner)
to the North to promote the
abolitionist movement
• AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY- END
SLAVERY – HEADED BY
WILLIAM LLYOD
GARRISON
Education Reform
• Horace Mann- (Massachusetts)
pressed for more public
education and helped create a
state board of education in
1837.
• He was secretary of the new
board – he doubled teacher
salaries, opened 50 new high
schools, and establish training
schools for teachers.
• 1st State School Superintendent
• Pushed COMPULSORY
EDUCATION
Dorothea Dix
• Led Sunday school classes
for prisoners.
• Saw the mentally ill in the
prisons and saw how
neglected they were as they
lay on the floor.
• Started the crusade to
improve the conditions for
the mentally ill- hospital.
Elizabeth Blackwell
• First woman to earn a
medical degree.
Nativism – Feelings of anger and
hatred toward immigrants
• Know – Nothing Party – political party aimed at
promoting “native” American views and ideals.
Fear of Irish Catholics helped fuel this party.
• Most of their program goals and aims were NOT
achieved.
• Wanted increased naturalization requirements.
Election of 1840
• William Henry Harrison (Whig) vs. Martin Van Buren
(Democrat) LOG CABIN ELECTION
• Whigs (Party formed chiefly out of dislike for Jackson
– viewed him as a king)
• “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” – Harrison and Tyler
promoted the idea of the “common man” just as
Jackson had before them (WON)
• E.C. Booze – distilled hard apple cider and poured
them in log cabin bottles to pass out at political
functions – BOOZE
“Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”
Spirit of Reform
• You are to participate and find
changes/ reforms in American
history from 1828- 1845 in the areas
listed on the prior slide. Each
cooperative group have a specific
area to show the reforms. Follow the
flow charts in each area. Then relate
these changes to the changes of
today – (EX. – Changes today in the
area of education. )
Spirit of Reform
• Looking Forward: The
United States in 1850
…Manifest Destiny
brought western lands
into the country which
helped bring about
sectionalism which was
apart of the reforms
Americans had to dealt
with in society.
(abolition)
spreads westward. Painting by John Gast- The American
Progress.
Spirit of Reforms
• VOCABULARY : Standard Course of Study:
reform, transcendentalism, utopia, romanticism,
nativists, Second Great Awakening, abolition,
emancipation.
• Group activity – help one another
complete the assignment –
vocabulary on Jacksonian
Democracy and Reforms. Work with
one another in your groups to
complete each term and discuss the
terms while you define them…this will
be graded.