SECOND GREAT
AWAKENING AND
REFORM MOVEMENTS
Religious Skepticism
■ Many had moved away from traditional church (enlightenment thought)
– With the Revolution came the ideas “rational theology”
– Some practiced deism—the idea that God exists but has withdrawn from
interaction with humans and their sin
– Some historians argue that Jefferson was a deist
■ “I have little doubt that the whole of our country will soon be rallied to the Unity of
the Creator, and, I hope, to the pure doctrines of Jesus also.”
-Thomas Jefferson
■ Does this quote show him as a deist? Explain
Second Great Awakening
■ Conservative theologians tried to revitalize their organizations
– Methodism (lead by John Wesley) sent itinerant preachers throughout the nation to
convert recruits
– Baptists were also successful, more so in the South
■ The Presbyterians (lead by Timothy Dwight from Yale) spread westward
– Cane Ridge, KY was the site of a large revival (25K)
– They created a religious frenzy with fits, convulsions, and “holy jerks”
– Recollection from a young man at Cane Ridge:
■
The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be
agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers, all preaching at one time, some on
stumps, others on wagons ... Some of the people were singing, others praying, some
crying for mercy. A peculiarly strange sensation came over me. My heart beat
tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lips quivered, and I felt as though I must fall to the
ground.
Second Great Awakening
■ They believed that you had to reject skeptical rationalism and embrace active piety
– Many moved back towards the church but they would not accept the old ideas
of predestination, etc.
■ General Beliefs and ideas
– Favored ordinary people over elite
– Salvation was available to all (no pre-destination)
– Placed emphasis on peoples ability to make choices and change their lifestyles
and communities (important for its effect on the reform movements)
Cultural Changes
■ Transcendentalism
– Characteristics:
■
■
Challenged materialism
Mystical and intuitive self-discovery
– Examples:
■
■
■
Emerson
– Reject European traditions;
Spiritual over material; abolitionist
Thoreau
– “On Civil Disobedience,” and
Walden
Margaret Fuller
■ Utopian Experiments
– Brook Farm
– The Shakers
– Oneida
■ Arts and Literature
– Painting
■
Hudson River School
– Cole and Church
– Architecture
■
Greek revival
– Literature
■
Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville
– Performance
■
Minstrel shows
Reforming Society
■ Temperance
– Causes:
■
Overconsumption/alcoholism
■
Domestic violence
■
Absenteeism/loss of jobs
■
Nativism
– Organizations and Methods
■
American Temperance Society
■
Neal Dow and the Maine Law
■ Penal Reform
– Punishment vs. Rehabilitation
– Mental Hospitals
■
Dorthea Dix
■ Educational Reform
– Public Schools & Teacher Training
■
Horace Mann
– Moral Education
■
McGuffey Readers
– Higher Education
■
Denominational colleges in the
west.
■
College education for women:
Mount Holyoke & Oberlin
Women’s Movement
■ Gender Roles:
–
Cult of Domesticity
■
–
–
Strengthened by men’s absence
Women in the Workplace
■ Effects on marriage and children
Conformity/Dress
■ Amelia Bloomer
■ Movement for Women’s Rights
–
Grimké Sisters, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
■
Connection to abolitionist movement
–
Rejection at World Anti-Slavery Society, 1839
– Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
Anti-Slavery Movement
■ American Colonization Society (1817)
■ American Antislavery Society (1831)
– William Lloyd Garrison
■
The Liberator
■ Liberty Party (1840)
■ Abolitionists
– Immediatists vs. Gradualists
– Arthur & Lewis Tappan
– Black Abolitionists
■
Frederick Douglass
–
■
The North Star
Walker, Tubman, Truth
– Rebellions
■
Denmark Vesey (1822)
■
Nat Turner (1831)
– Underground Railroad