The Ferment of Reform1820-1860

Second Great Awakening Caused new divisions with the older Protestant churches Original sin replaced with optimistic belief that

willingness to be saved could ensure salvation Conversion and repentance now part of the community

experience Reached people who needed help adjusting to social

changes

Evangelism

• The religion of the middle class

• Stressed self-discipline and individual achievement

• Women take a more active role

Charles G. Finney -New York• Appealed to people’s emotions and

fear of damnation

• Persuaded thousands to publicly declare their revived faith

• Prayer meetings were held in schools and businesses

Joseph Smith, 1830• Founder of the Mormon religion• Published The Book of Mormon –

traced a connection between the Native Americans and the lost tribes of Israel

• Church of 18,000 members, practiced polygamy

• Led followers from New York to Illinois

Brigham Young• After mob murdered Joseph

Smith – Mormons fled under the leadership of Brigham Young

• Established New Zion on the banks of the Great Salt Lake

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Emerson and Transcendentalism• Transcendentalism was reaction

to Enlightenment

– see God as a creative force within man which fostered an optimistic belief in the goodness of man

• Led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a philosopher who emphasized individualism and rejected traditional authority

" All creation is one, people should try to live a simple life in harmony with nature and with others. "

Henry David Thoreau• Henry David Thoreau’s

Walden describes a 2-year experiment in self-reliance while living near Walden Pond

• Outspoken advocate of abolition – conductor for the underground railroad

• Jailed for refusal to pay poll tax and wrote “Civil Disobedience” leading work on passive resistance

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Scarlet Letter, most famous work explores good and evil in a Puritan town

• Explored the dark side of life

Social Utopianism• Withdrawing from

conventional society to create an ideal community or “utopia”

• Open lands in the U.S. was fertile ground for such communities– Shakers– Oneida Community– Brook Farm– New Harmony

William Lloyd Garrison

• Founder and publisher of “The Liberator” - 1831

• Demanded immediate and complete emancipation of slaves

• Founder of New England Antislavery Society and American Antislavery Society

Grimke Sisters

• Members of American Anti-slavery Society

• Wrote a series of antislavery books and pamphlets

• Advocated women’s rights

Angelina first woman to speak before the Massachusetts Legislature

Temperance MovementAmerican Temperance Society

– Felt that excessive drinking was a threat to public morality and the family

Public Asylums

• Dorothea Dix– Horrified at the

treatment of the mentally ill called for reforms

– States began rebuilding mental hospitals and patients began receiving professional treatment at state expense

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EducationHorace Mann Leading advocate of the

common (public) school movement

Reformers believed schools were important for immigrants and poor children

Moral education Advocated compulsory

attendance, longer school year, and training for teachers

•Special schools founded for people with disabilities

American Family

• Family and the role of the mother increasingly more important

• “Cult of Domesticity”

• Lower birthrates and smaller families

• Children received more affection

Elizabeth Stanton

– Led the campaign for equal voting, legal and property rights for women

– Also involved in the Abolition and Temperance Movements

Lucretia Mott• Campaigned for women’s

rights after being barred from speaking at an antislavery convention

• With Stanton, she started the women’s right movement

Women’s Right ConventionSeneca Falls, NY July 19-20, 1848

• Discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of women

• Declaration of Sentiments– 12 resolutions for action