SOCIETY, CULTURE, AND REFORM

Essential Question Evaluate the extent to which reform movements in the United States from contributed to maintaining continuity as well as fostering change in American society.

Religion: The 2 nd Great Awakening Causes: – Reaction to: Rationalism/Enlightenment ideals Materialism of Market Revolution Rejection of Puritan foundations – Original Sin – Predestination Characteristics: – Camp meetings/revivals – Grass-roots organization – Individual salvation – Democratic, egalitarian

Revivalism Expands The “Burned Over District” – New York Charles G. Finney – Sermons based on fear and damnation Expansion of Denominations – Baptists and Methodists Offshoots: – Millennialism/Millerites 7 th Day Adventists – The Mormons Joseph Smith, Bringham Young NY  OH  MO  Nauvoo  SLC

American Culture Transcendentalism – Characteristics: Challenged materialism Self-cultivation – Examples: Emerson – Reject European traditions; Spiritual over material; abolitionist Thoreau – “On Civil Disobedience,” and WaldenOn Civil Disobedience » Advocated nonviolent protest

Utopian Experiments – Brook Farm Transcendentalist – The Shakers Forbid marriage and sexual relations – New Harmony Secular, push back against inequity and alienation brought by the Ind. Rev. – Oneida Free-love Successful

Arts and Literature – Painting Hudson River School – Cole and Church – Architecture Greek revival – Literature Irving & Cooper, – Set stories in American Landscapes Hawthorne – Criticized intolerance and conformity Melville – Theological & Cultural conflicts Performance

Reforming Society Temperance – Causes: Overconsumption/alcoholism (5 gal/person) Nativism – Organizations and Methods American Temperance Society Neal Dow and the Maine Law Penal Reform – Punishment vs. Rehabilitation – Mental Hospitals Dorthea Dix – Pennsylvania System – Auburn System

Educational Reform – Public Schools & Teacher Training Horace Mann – Moral Education McGuffey Readers – Hard work – Punctuality – Sobriety – Higher Education Denominational colleges. College education for women: Mount Holyoke & Oberlin

Changing Role of Women and Families Gender Roles: – Cult of Domesticity Took charge of household and children Strengthened by men’s absence Movement for Women’s Rights – Grimké Sisters, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Connection to abolitionist movement – Seneca Falls Convention (1848) Declaration of Sentiments – All women and men are created equal – Listed grievances of male dominated society

Antislavery Movement American Colonization Society (1817) American Antislavery Society (1831) – William Lloyd Garrison The Liberator Liberty Party (1840) Abolitionists – Immediatists vs. Gradualists – Black Abolitionists Frederick Douglass – The North Star Tubman, Truth – Rebellions Denmark Vesey (1822) Nat Turner (1831) – Underground Railroad

Reaction and Legacy Sectionalism: – Southerners viewed northern reforms as alarming Threats to: – Slavery – Way of life Legacy: – Birth of “American” culture and ideals Religion, education, arts, and entertainment – Widespread reform movements both united and divided the country.