Religion, Culture and Reform Movements in Antebellum America

Charles Finney “Burned Over” District Evangelism & Social Activism

New American Religions and Utopian Societies: Mormons Product of the Burned Over District Founder Joseph Smith Angel and the tablets Book of Mormon Targets of persecution Theocratic cohesion Polygamy Smith murdered Young leads exodus to the “New Zion” Joseph Smith Brigham Young

The Shakers

Utopian Communities

Oneida Colony

The Millerites Founded by Vermont farmer, William Miller Miller had joined the Baptists in 1818 Believed every word of the Bible, especially the part about the second coming-millenial His followers become 7th Day Adventists they combine the beliefs of Sylvester Graham

Intellectual & Cultural Developments Transcendentalism Literature Art

Romantic Challenge Revolt against the age of reason Started in the late 1700s Change was good Valued feelings and intuition over pure thought Interest in nature

Henry David Thoreau & Transcendentalism

Walden Pond

Margaret Fuller “high priestess” of the transcendental movement published Women in the 19th Century argued for equality for women

Ralph Waldo Emerson Harvard educated Minister--gave it up Went to Europe to meet the romantic authors Came back to write and speak

Walt Whitman

Literary Developments Uniquely American themes Washington Irving Nathaniel Hawthorne Edgar Allen Poe Herman Melville

Hudson River School

Gilbert Stuart

Reform Movements: Temperance Crusade targeted alcohol consumption Led by religious leaders and employers Seen as an effort to protect home and prevent the squandering of wages by men Alcohol seen as the cause of poverty

Reform Movements: Women’s Rights Mid-19th Century—inferior status to men Denied right to vote Limited educational opportunities Limited right to own property Grimke sisters Began as abolitionist Gradually adopted a women’s rights platform Compared to slavery

Women’s Rights continued Struggle for suffrage Seneca Falls Convention— 1848 Improvements made by: Democratic spirit of the age of Jackson Leaders Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone (Henry Blackwell), Lucretia Mott Bound with Abolitionism Increased educational opportunity Oberlin College

Reform Movements: Abolition Movement American Colonization Society—1816-17 Early anti-slavery society Sought to send freed slaves to Liberia Abolitionists differed from early anti-slavery groups in their emphasis on racial equality

Abolition Organized in Two Camps Gradualists Theodore Weld Gradual erasure by the southern legislatures Financial compensation Avoid social and economic problems through gradual emancipation Militants Garrison & Douglass Immediate emancipation without compensation Garrison published The Liberator Attacked slavery Government collusion with the institution