1. Religion Sparks Reform
Section 8*1 pp

2. Preview Questions What was the Second Great Awakening?
What was transcendentalism?
What did Americans attempt to reform?

3. I. The Second Great Awakening
Evangelical movement
Dramatic religious conversions
Focus on individual salvation and social reform
Dramatic Religious

4. I. The Second Great Awakening
Revivalism
Roving preachers set up revival camps
Charles Finney: “Father of modern revivalism”
Increase in church membership

5. I. The Second Great Awakening
The Burned-Over-District
Epicenter of revivalism: Western New York
Many new denominations
Communal societies
Reforms like abolitionism and temperance

6. I. The Second Great Awakening
The African American Church
“Democratic Churches” expand religion
Social, political, cultural centers

7. II. Transcendentalism Transcendentalism Unitarianism
Led by Emerson and Thoreau
Truth found in nature, emotion, and imagination
Dignity of the individual
Promoted self-reliance, optimism, freedom
Civil Disobedience
Unitarianism
Faith in the individual
Reason and conscience as path to perfection

8. III. Ideal Communities Utopian Communities
Goal: create a perfect place
Inspired by idealism to improve mankind
Not long-lasting

9. III. Ideal Communities Shaker Communities
Value sharing, gender equality, peace
No marriage or children

10. IV. School & Prison Reform
Asylums and Prisons
Dorothea Dix
Reformers emphasize
rehabilitation and hope
Education
Set up publicly supported schools
Education is essential to democracy