SOCIETY AND CULTURE OF
THE 1800S
SOCIETY
 Social structure
– Favorable social mobility
– Three classes; Elite, Middle, Poor
 Families
– Change in marriage
– Change in parenting
– “Cult of Domesticity”
 Emphasized gender roles, especially in Middle Class homes
 Men work outside the home, Women work inside the home
– “Republican Motherhood”
 Women show their patriotism and political values by raising
sons to be good citizens
ARTS & LITERATURE
 Painting
– Hudson River School-fascination with natural world,
landscapes
 Architecture
– Greek style columns
 Literature
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Nationalism-American authors & themes
Washington Irving wrote?
James Fennimore Cooper wrote ?
Nathaniel Hawthorn wrote?
Herman Melville wrote?
ENTERTAINMENT
 Museums
– Charles Wilson Peale
 American Lyceum Movement
– Traveling “lecture” program
 “Bowery Boys & Gals”
– Urban underground city life
 Minstrel Shows
– Comedic, racist, nativist
RELIGION
 1820s-1830s-2nd Great
Awakening
 North-”Burned-over District”
(NY)
– Groups played major role
in social reforms
 Revivals
 Charles Finney-Perfection
and helping society
 South-increase in Baptists &
Methodists, by 1850 largest
protestant groups in US
RELIGION
 Examples of new religions
– Millennialism
 Also called “Millerites”
 Prominent beliefworld would end on
Oct. 21, 1844
 After the datereligion declined
 Led to Seventh-Day
Adventists
RELIGION
– Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints
 Known as Mormons
 Established in
Burned-over district
 Utopian community
– Common
property
– Polygamy
 Helped to settle the
west
RELIGION
 Shakers
– 6000 in 1840s
– Believed in common property
– Separated men & women
– Women equal to men
– Financially stable due to furniture making
– Died out in the mid 1900s-no new recruits
TRANSCENDENTALISTS
 Movement in Literature that led to change in
society
 Famous authors
– Ralph Waldo Emerson-Leaves of Grass
– Henry David Thoreau-Walden
 Essay-”On Civil Disobedience” influenced Gandhi & MLK jr.
 Questioned established religions
 Believed artistic expression more important then
the pursuit of wealth
 Supported variety of reforms-especially abolition of
slavery
TRANSCENDENTALISTS
TRANSCENDENTALISTS
 Formed 1st Utopian experiment
– 1841
– Brook farm in
Massachusetts
– Led by George Ripley
– Study the natural union
between intelligence &
manual labor
– Most famous memberNathaniel Hawthorn
– Attracted the New England
elite
– Ended in 1849-due to debts
and a fire
COMMUNAL EXPERIMENTS
 New Harmony
– Indiana
– Robert Owen
– Political-Socialists
 Common property
– Failed due to finances
& arguments
COMMUNAL EXPERIMENTS
 Grahamanites
– Sylvester Graham
– 1830s in
Massachusetts
– Purity of body
– First vegetarian
– Believed in whole
wheat “graham” bread,
fruits, vegetables, cold
water, & exercise
– Condemned tobacco,
coffee, tea, alcohol, &
white flour
COMMUNAL EXPERIMENTS

Oneida
– Highly Controversial
– John Noyes
– New York (1848)
– Common property-included
partners
 Religious belief-marriage
interfered with love of God
– Planned reproduction & childrearing
– Equality to women
– Economically prosperous due to
production of high quality
silverware
REFORMS
 All began as persuasion through sermons &
pamphlets, then moved to political action
 Temperance-prohibit alcohol
– 1826-American Termperance Society
– 1840s-water served during parties in middle class
households
– Immigrants largely opposed-no political power
– Factory Owners & politicians joined with reformersWhy?
– 1851; Maine becomes 1st state to prohibit the
manufacture & sale of alcohol
– Late 1850s, overshadowed by anti-slavery reforms
REFORMS
 Mental Hospitals
– Dorothea Dix
– Professional treatment at state expense
 Prisons
– Structure & discipline would bring moral reform
– Auburn System (NY)-discipline but also moral instruction and work
programs
 Education
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Horace Mann
1840s-tax supported public school system
Compulsory attendance
Longer school year
Teacher Preparation Academies
McGuffey Reader-virtues of hard work & sobriety
REFORMS
 Women’s Rights Movement
– Many women participated in reform movements
– Sarah & Angelina Grimke-”Letter on the Condition of
Women & the Equity of the Sexes” (1837)
– Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton
– Seneca Fall Convention (1848) in NY
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Wrote document modeled after Declaration of Independence
“Declaration of Sentiments”
Listed women’s grievances against the government
Stanton & Susan B. Anthony begin the campaign for voting
rights
– 1850s overshadowed by Abolitionists