1. The Pursuit of Perfection12
The Pursuit of Perfection

2. Antebellum Period Period before the Civil War Dedication to new causes
Establishment of free public schools
Treatment for mentally ill
Controlling the sale and production of alcohol
Equal rights for women
Abolishing slavery

3. Antebellum Period (continued)
Enthusiasm for reform comes from several sources:
Puritan sense of mission
Enlightenment belief in the goodness of people
Changing relationship between men and women, social classes, and ethnic groups
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

4. The Rise of Evangelicalism
Separation of church and state gave all churches the chance to compete for converts
Pious Protestants formed voluntary associations to combat sin, “infidelity”

5. The Second Great Awakening: The Frontier Phase
Second Great Awakening began on the southern frontier around 1800
Camp meetings contributed to frontier life (Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians)
Provided emotional religion since local churches were difficult to sustain.
Offered opportunity for social life
Camp meeting revivals conveyed intensely personal religious message
Camp meetings rarely led to social reform
By 1850, Baptists and Methodists were the largest Protestant denominations in the country.

6. The Second Great Awakening in the North
New England reformers led by Timothy Dwight defended Calvinism (predestination) against the Enlightenment and motivated young men to become evangelical preachers
Nathaniel Taylor: Individuals are free agents and can overcome natural inclination to sin

7. The Second Great Awakening in the North
Charles G. Finney – New York - Presbyterian
Departed radically from Calvinist doctrine
Appeal based in emotion, not reason – focused on damnation
Preached that every individual could be saved through faith and hard work – “hell & brimstone” revivals
Revivals led to organization of more churches

8. The Second Great Awakening – Millenialism
Widespread belief the world was about to end with the second coming of Jesus
William Miller
October 21, 1844 – second coming
Nothing happened
Millerites became Seventh-Day Adventists

9. The Second Great Awakening - Mormons
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) – Joseph Smith
Book of Mormon
Traced a connection between natives and lost tribes of Israel
Joseph Smith – murdered in Illinois
New leader – Brigham Young
Established the New Zion – banks of the Great Salt Lake in Utah
polygamy

10. The Second Great Awakening
Caused new divisions in society between newer evangelical sects and the older Protestant churches.
Activist religious groups provided the leadership and the well-organized, voluntary societies that drove the reform movements of the antebellum era.

11. Domesticity and Changes in the American Family
Industrial Revolution in the cities redefined family
Reduced the economic value of children
Birth control was used from 7 family members to 5 within 30 years.

12. Marriage for Love Mutual love must characterize marriage
Wives became more of a companion to their husbands and less of a servant
Legally, the husband was the unchallenged head of the household

13. The Cult of Domesticity
“The Cult of True Womanhood”
Placed women in the home
Glorified home as center of all efforts to civilize and “Christianize” society
Middle- and upper-class women became increasingly dedicated to the home as mothers
Women of leisure entered reform movements

14. The Discovery of Childhood
Nineteenth-century child the center of family
Each child seen as unique, irreplaceable
Ideal to form child’s character with affection
Parental discipline to instill guilt, not fear
Train child to learn self-discipline
Family size declines from average of 7.04 children to 5.42 by 1830

15. Institutional Reform Domesticity informed public institutions
Schools continued what family began
Asylums, prisons mended family’s failures

16. The Extension of Education
Public schools expanded rapidly from 1820 to 1850
Means of advancement for working class
Means of inculcating values of hard work, responsibility to middle-class reformers
Free Common Schools – Horace Mann
Attendance for all children
Longer school year
Increase in teacher preparation
Basic literacy AND moral principles
William Holmes McGuffey – virtues of hard work, punctuality, and sobriety
Catholics founded private schools

17. The Extension of Education
Horace Mann argued that schools saved immigrants, poor children from parents’ bad influence
Many parents believed public schools alienated children from their parents

18. Discovering the Asylum
1820s and 1830s see an increase in criminal behavior, emotionally disturbed people and paupers.
Poor, criminal, insane seen as lacking self-discipline
Harsh measures to promote rehabilitation
Solitary confinement of prisoners
Strict daily schedule
Mental hospitals
Public support for rehabilitation skimpy
Prisons, asylums, poorhouses became warehouses for the unwanted
Dorthea Dix – fought for improvement of mental hospitals

19. Reform Turns Radical Most reform aimed to improve society
Some radical reformers sought destruction of old society, creation of perfect social order

20. Divisions in the Benevolent Empire
Radical perfectionists impatient by 1830s, split from moderate reform
Temperance movement – five gallons of hard liquor per person – target alcohol as the cause of social ills
Creation of the American Temperance Society – total abstinence
Germans and Italians against it
Many women worked
Peace movement
Antislavery movement
Moderates sought gradual end to slavery and colonization of freed slaves to its colony of Liberia

21. Divisions in the Benevolent Empire
Radicals like William Lloyd Garrison demanded immediate emancipation
1831: Garrison founded The Liberator – an event that marked the beginning of the radical abolitionist movement
Advocated for immediate abolition of slavery in every slave and state with no compensation
1833: American Anti-Slavery Society
Condemned and burned the US Constitution as a proslavery document

22. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Theodore Dwight Weld
Weld an itinerant minister converted by Finney
Adapted his revivalist techniques to abolition
Successful mass meetings in Ohio, New York

23. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Public Reception
Appealed to hard-working small town folk
Opposition in cities and near Mason-Dixon line
Opposition from the working class
Disliked blacks
Feared black economic and social competition
Solid citizens saw abolitionists as anarchists

24. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Obstacles
Abolitionists hampered by infighting
William Lloyd Garrison disrupted movement by associating with radical reform efforts
Urged abolitionists to abstain from participating in the political process
Also involved in women’s rights movement
Some abolitionists helped form the Liberty Party in 1840

25. Black Abolitionists
Former slaves related the horrible realities of bondage
Prominent figures included Frederick Douglass (The North Star) and Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman
Black newspapers, books, and pamphlets publicized abolitionism to a wider audience
Blacks were also active in the Underground Railroad

26. From Abolitionism to Women’s Rights
Abolitionism opened to women’s participation
Involvement raised awareness of women’s inequality

27. From Abolitionism to Women’s Rights
Seneca Falls Convention in 1848
Organized by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Prompted by experience of inequality in abolition movement
Began movement for women’s rights
Signed “Declaration of Sentiments” – all men and women are created equal
List of grievances of laws and customs that discriminated against them

28. Radical Ideas and Experiments: Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson – create a distinct culture from Europe – Americanize
Henry David Thoreau and Walden
two year experiment of living simply in a cabin in the woods
Also wrote essay “On Civil Disobedience”
Advocate for non violent protest
Motivates Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

29. Counterpoint on Reform
Reform encountered perceptive critics
Nathaniel Hawthorne allegorically refuted perfectionist movements, suggesting the world was inherently an imperfect place
Reform prompted necessary changes in American life