Reforms of The Antebellum Period

The Second Great Awakening - The 2 nd great awakening refers to a time period in the 1830's-50's where many people felt that America had lost its way and had rejected God. - In response there were many religious revivals that had 2 purposes - These purposes were opposed to each other and they were 1. To oppose Women's suffrage and keep the idea of the traditional family and religion being the center of people's lives 2. To promote reforms that will help society become more equal and more like heaven on earth

The Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening “Spiritual Reform From Within” [Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Temperance Asylum & Penal Reform Education Women’s Rights Abolitionism

The “Burned-Over” District in Upstate New York

Second Great Awakening Revival Meeting

Republican Motherhood The idea that an American woman, who was a mother was a mother to all Americans It was her job to raise a good, moral, democracy loving child Women were seen as vital to the Republic

“Separate Spheres” Concept “Cult of Domesticity”  A woman’s “sphere” was in the home (it was a refuge from the cruel world outside).  Her role was to “civilize” her husband and family.  An 1830s MA minister: The power of woman is her dependence. A woman who gives up that dependence on man to become a reformer yields the power God has given her for her protection, and her character becomes unnatural!

What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own Way! R2-8

Women’s Rights Women of the time period had few rights, they could not vote, or hold political office There were many women and some men who tried to get female suffrage or the right to vote Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a Suffragist She and Lucretia Mott held the Seneca Falls Convention in order to discuss women getting the right to vote The Convention wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, which called for equal rights between men and women

Mental + Prison Reform In the 1840’s poor insane people lived in terrible conditions often being chained in pens to be supervised and whipped if they misbehaved In the 1840’s poor insane people lived in terrible conditions often being chained in pens to be supervised and whipped if they misbehaved Dorthea Dix moved forward the idea of Mental Asylums Dorthea Dix moved forward the idea of Mental Asylums She also put forth the idea of Rehabilitation which would change or “reform” prisoners so they can re-enter society She also put forth the idea of Rehabilitation which would change or “reform” prisoners so they can re-enter society

Dorothea Dix Asylum

Education Reform In the 1840’s in order to get a higher education than 8 th grade you needed money. In the 1840’s in order to get a higher education than 8 th grade you needed money. Horace Mann pushed forward the idea of free education through twelfth grade Horace Mann pushed forward the idea of free education through twelfth grade He will eventually succeed in universal education He will eventually succeed in universal education

Temperance There will be some who wish to restrict the sales and drinking of alcohol There will be some who wish to restrict the sales and drinking of alcohol This idea is known as Temperance This idea is known as Temperance Temperance Societies will be made mostly of women who believe alcohol ruins society Temperance Societies will be made mostly of women who believe alcohol ruins society

Click to add text Temperance Movement Frances Willard The Beecher Family American Temperance Society “Demon Rum”! R1-6

Abolitionists ► They believed in slaves being set free ► Many abolitionists were also women’s rights activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton

William Lloyd Garrison ( )  Immediate emancipation with NO compensation. ► William Lloyd Garrison founded the Liberator an abolitionist newspaper R2-4

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass was a free black and a leader of the abolitionist movement Frederick Douglass was a free black and a leader of the abolitionist movement Very good speaker, leader, and eventual friend of Abraham Lincoln Very good speaker, leader, and eventual friend of Abraham Lincoln

Click to add text Harriet Tubman ( )  Helped over 300 slaves to freedom.  $40,000 bounty on her head.  A main “conductor” of the “underground railroad”. “Moses”

Click to add text Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Railroad

Transcendentalism -“Transcend” the limits of intellect and allow the emotions, the SOUL, to create an original relationship with the Universe. -There are moral truths that must be understood, do not trust what you are told

Transcendentalist Thinking  Man must acknowledge a body of moral truths that were intuitive and must TRANSCEND what organizations tell you: 1.The infinite benevolence of God. 2.The infinite benevolence of nature. 3.The divinity of man. 4.They instinctively rejected all secular authority and the authority of organized churches and the Scriptures, of law, or of conventions

Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers Concord, MA Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Nature (1832) Walden (1854) Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849) R3-1/3/4/5

Utopian Communities Some in the 1840’s attempted Utopian Communities Some in the 1840’s attempted Utopian Communities Attempting communal living Brook Farm, Oneida, and New Harmony were created Attempting communal living Brook Farm, Oneida, and New Harmony were created All will fail, often because of the idea of plural marriage All will fail, often because of the idea of plural marriage

The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) Joseph Smith ( )  1823  Golden Tablets  1830  Book of Mormon  1844  Murdered in Carthage, IL

The Mormon “Trek”

The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)  Deseret community.  Salt Lake City, Utah Brigham Young ( )

Social Life in the South During this Antebellum period America North and South began to polarize In the South there was the Plantation System An aristocracy of wealthy southern planters ruled, under them were poor white planters, under them the slaves The south grew increasingly Agrarian and distant from the north Because of this Agricultural base the south grew slower in population than the north and had fewer railroads and telegraphs

Life in the North  In the North there was an Industrial Revolution..  Factories brought in unskilled labor  Many immigrants flocked to the north to fill these jobs  Germans and Irish were discriminated against as they began to move in and take jobs, many believed that only those born in the U.S. deserved these freedoms, this belief was called Nativism  Nativism led to the creation of the “Know Nothing” party  The Know Nothings tried to oppose Irish Catholic immigration