The Ferment Of Reform and Culture

1a. Religion  We spent time talking about the industrial and economic factors that changed the country between 1790 and 1860  What about socially and culturally?  Religion  American religion reached a height under the Puritans and Pilgrims, but then wore off as Deism was brought in during the later 1700s under men like Franklin and Jefferson  Liberalism was on the rise  Deists believed in a higher being, but relied on reason, not religion, science and not miracles.  The reaction? In 1800 a wave of religious revivals took place again, starting in the South and moving up North – a 2 nd Great Awakening.

1b. Religion  The Second Great Awakening excited the Methodists and the Baptists particularly.  Charles Grandison Finney was the greatest of the revival preachers during this time  It was very popular along the Erie Canal – in fact, the place where the revivals took place in the Burned Over District  “hellfire and damnation” sermons  Led to new denominations  Mormon religion  Started in New York by Joseph Smith but then moved to Utah under Brigham Young

Charles Grandison Finney

2a., b Education and Reform  Reform movements sprung up in the early to mid-1800s.  Publicly funded education  Tax supported  Horace Mann, Emma Willard, Mary Lyon  These ladies led efforts to increase educational opportunities in the United States.  Dorothea Dix – reformer who fought for better treatment of the mentally ill  B. American Peace Society, formed in 1828 – a reform movement against war

3a., b., c. Women’s Rights and Utopian Movements  Women struggled in the 19 th century to have equal rights  19 th Century U.S. was a man’s world  1) They could not vote  2) They could be legally beaten by their husbands  3) If they owned property when they married, it went to their husband.  B) Women were considered “keepers of society’s conscience”, or society’s morality  C) Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony were three important feminist movement leaders  Two of these women were quakers  Seneca Falls, New York; site of the Seneca Falls Convention – where the women’s movement officially started  1848  Feminist leaders signed the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence  Men and women are equal…

2a., b Education and Reform  Utopian societies began springing up in the early 1800s  Communities that existed for human betterment  Early versions of what we call today “cults”  New Harmony, Indiana  Brook Farm, Mass  Oneida Community, New York – 1848

4a. Blossoming of a National Literature  “Who reads an American book” said a British critic in 1820  Painful truth – Most early American intellectual writings are political in nature. But…enter:  Washington Irving  James Fenimore Cooper  William Cullen Bryant  Ralph Waldo Emerson  Henry David Thoreau  Transcendentalism  Definition – Every person possesses an inner light that can help them discover truth and connect with “God”.  Implementation – Self-reliance, self-culture, self- discipline, individualism.

The Authors  1) Irving – Used charm and humor; interpreted American ideals to Europe and vice versa.  2) Cooper – Wrote about the frontier, the natural man, the wilderness, and the artificiality of civilization.  3) Bryant – set a standard for American newspaper editors (journalism)

Essay for Unit 3 Exam Choose ONE  Suppose you were a Republican adviser to President Jefferson in What arguments would you present in favor of the Louisiana Purchase? What arguments opposing the Purchase do you think you would have to counter?  Write your definition of a great president. Then use this definition to argue that Andrew Jackson was OR was not a great president. USE HISTORICAL EXAMPLES.  What do you find was the single most worthwhile reform movement of the early 19 th century. Why?