Transcript The Second Great Awakening and Utopian Societies PPT

The Second Great Awakening
and Utopian Societies
The Second Great Awakening
 Around 1800 – 1830’s
 Revival of the Great Awakening of the early 18th
century
 Emphasis on personal piety over schooling and
theology
 A religious movement during the 19th century which
expressed that every person could be saved through
revivals
 Led to the formation of new denominations
 Surge in church membership of Methodists and
Baptists
 Arose in several places:
 New England – social activism

New York – growth of new denominations

Appalachian region (KY and TN) – energized Presbyterians,
Methodists and Baptists
Camp meetings
 First in South-Central KY in June 1800

 Revival’s effects consisted of two main strains:

The virtues and behavior of the middle class – a strong work
ethic, frugality – were encouraged

The ability of individuals to make changes to their lives
sparked reform movements
 The movement spread through southern OH, KY,
and TN
 Among Baptists, ordinary farmers frequently felt
they were called by God to become preachers
 The Bible Belt of the South was born
 The Second Great Awakening left a lasting impact on
American Society

Established Churches

Social Reform
Utopian Societies
 In the early 1800’s, more than 100,000 individuals
formed utopian societies
 Utopian Society – Ideal or perfect society
 1820-1860 – large attempt to create numerous
communities that would serve as perfect societies
 The people that formed these communities believed
that the way to a better life was to separate
themselves from the corrupting influence of the
larger society
 Practiced cooperative or communal living and
rejected the idea of private property
 Mormons
 Oneida Community
 The Shakers
 New Harmony
 Brook Farm
The Shakers
 Located in several states
 Got their name from a ritual shaking dance that
members performed
 Reached their peak in the mid-1800’s with 6,000
members
 Began in England in 1747
 Led by Ann Lee – “Mother Ann”
 Lee moved with her followers to America in 1774
 The community quickly grew
 Believed in absolute celibacy
 Eventually, the numbers dwindled
 3 Shakers left today
 Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, KY
– living history museum
Brook Farm
 Community near Boston
 Based on social or political ideologies
 Founded by George Ripley in 1841
 Harmony with nature, communal living, and hard
work
 Collapsed in 1846 after a huge fire destroyed a large
building that was uninsured
 The Farm could not continue
 Influential in fights for women’s and labor rights