AP US History
THE FERMENT OF REFORM AND
CULTURE: 1790-1860
Introduction
 We have seen two revolutions involving the
shaping of America up to this time now we
have a third.
Revolution 1: Political (Rise of Mass Democracy)
2. Revolution 2: Economic (Self-Sufficient System)
3. Revolution 3: Cultural (Religion, social)
1.
Reviving Religion
 1850: ¾ of the population still attends church
 Over time the zeal of the old-time (Calvinism) had
been fading
 Thomas Paine “Age of Reason”
 Churches are “set up to terrify and enslave mankind
and monopolize power and profit”
Reviving Religion
 Deism- Believed in a supreme being who
created mankind with a capacity for moral
behavior
 CLOCKMAKER THEORY
 This was the belief of many founding fathers
 Jefferson (Jefferson Bible)
 Franklin
Reviving Religion
 Unitarianism- Believe in a God (1 Person not
Trinity) and that human nature is good.
 Salvation through good works
 Essentially believe what ever you want
RELIGION IS BECOMING MORE LIBERIAL AS IT
STRAYS FROM ITS FOUNDATION!
Reviving Religion
 Reaction to Liberalism = 2nd Great Awakening
 2nd Great Awakening- A wave of religious
revivals which spread to the masses with
“camp meetings”
 Lager then 1st Great Awakening
 One of the most monumental episodes in
American Religion!
Reviving Religion
 Results of 2nd Great Awakening
 Spurred on missionary work (Hawaii, Indians,
Foreign)
 Created splits in denominations
 EX: Southern Baptists and Baptists
 How do we see sectionalism through this?
Reviving Religion
 Charles Finney
 Greatest revival preacher
 Kept Audiences captive with his mix of old-time
religion and innovative thoughts.
 Denounced alcohol/slavery
 President of Oberlin College (hotbed for abolitionist
movement)
Reviving Religion
 Women in 2nd Great Awakening
 KEY of the 2nd Great Awakening=feminization of
religion (membership/theology)
 Middle class women = strongest supporters and
largest population
 IMPORTANCE: SPREAD RELIGION FROM HOME
OUTWARD
Denominational Diversity
 Revivals fragmented religious faiths
 EX: Burned-Over District, NY
 Sectionalism
 EAST: wealthier, more conservative, well educated
tended to not be effected as much.
 South/West: poorer, less learned, rural, they were
more affected by revival waves.
 WHY?
 They need something to bolster their spirits.
 Slavery is a huge issue
Review
 What are the three different revolutions we
see come about in the United States from
1790-1860?
 How did we see the rise in sectionalism
displayed through the 2nd Great Awakening?
A Desert Zion
 Mormons- members of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints.
 Founded by Joseph Smith (NY)
 After his murder the mission is picked up by
Brigham Young as they moved west to Utah.
 Great example of Westward expansion.
Free Schools for a Free
People
 Tax supported schools are scarce early on in
United States early on.
 REASON: They are associated w/ poor b/c that is
who they were for. “ragged schools”
 Wealthy eventually saw the light.
 REASON: if they did not educate the ignorant they
would eventually be dangerous and have the vote.
 This is their insurance for a stable democracy
Free Schools for a Free
People
 Public education triumphed between 1825-1850
 Lagged behind in the South (rural, spread out)
 Early free schools were very bad
One room school house
2. Open only a few months a year
3. Teachers ill trained, under paid, bad tempers (men)
4. Taught the Three R’s
1.
1.
Readin, ritin and rithmatic
Free Schools for a Free People
 School Reform
 Horace Mann (1796-1859)
 “Father of public education”
 Proposed




More/Better Schools
Longer Terms
Better pay for teachers
Expanded Curriculum
 Noah Webster: Webster’s Dictionary, Reading books
 William H. McGuffy: McGuffy’s Reader
Higher Goals for Higher
Education
 The main goal of higher education at this
time is religious training (Ivy League)
 Spurred on by zeal from 2nd Great Awakening
 State Supported Schools
 First in the South (Univ. of Virginia 1819)
 Women schooling still rare
Age of Reform
 2nd Great Awakening led to many social
reforms (3 Main)
 Temperance Movement (Anti-Drinking)
 Women’s Rights Movement
 Abolitionists Movement (Anti-Slavery)
Women are prominent in reform movements.
REASON: Allows them to escape the confines of
the home and have voice heard.
Age of Reform
Demon Rum-The “Old Deluder”
 Reasons for increased drinking:
 Customs of the day
 Hard/monotonous labor (factories/agriculture)
 PROBLEMS CAUSED BY ALCOHOL
 Decreased efficiency of labor
 Danger of accidents at work
 Fouled the sanctity of marriage
 Threatened spirituality/safety in home
Demon Rum-The “Old Deluder”
 American Temperance Society (Boston
1826)
 Group of reformers against the use/manufacturing
of alcohol.
 Thy used print, pictures and lectures very effectively.
 T.S.Arthur: wrote Ten Nights in Barroom and What I
Saw There (1854).
 Told of how entire town ruined by a tavern
 What did taverns mean at time of Revolution?
 2nd highest selling book at the time.
Demon Rum-The “Old Deluder”
 Two Major Lines of Attack
To stiffen the will of the people to resist drinking
2. To remove alcohol altogether by legislation
1.

Neal S. Dow (Maine): “The Father of Prohibition”

Maine Law of 1851- prohibited the manufacturing
and sale of liquor in the state.
REVIEW
 WHAT ARE THE THREE REVOLUTIONS THAT
TOOK PLACE IN THE US FROM 1790-1860?
 WHAT ARE THE THREE MAIN REFORMS
THAT THE 2ND GREAT AWAKENING HELPED
AID?
Women in Revolt
 Role of women at beginning of 19th century
= subordinate housewives
 They couldn’t vote
 Couldn’t inherit land
 They could be legally beaten by their husbands
 This sounds a lot like the life of blacks at the same
time.
Women in Revolt
 Even with all the negatives they still faired
better then European women.
 Marriage is a choice (unlike colonial times)
 10% were spinsters at the time of the Civil war
 Women were thought to be keepers of “societies
conscience”
 Home belonged to the women
 They are responsible for raising good and productive
citizens of the Republic
Women in Revolt
 Women’s Rights Movement
 Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
 Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.
 Declaration of Sentiments
 “ all men and women are created equal”
 WHAT RIGHTS THEY WANTED
 Women’s suffrage
 Women’s right to retain property after marriage
 Greater divorce and child custody rights
 Equal education opportunities
Women in Revolt
 Leaders of Women’s Rights
 Lucretia Mott
 Susan B. Anthony
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
 Importance:
 Launched the modern day women’s rights
movement.
Wilderness Utopia
 There was a small group of reformers who
sought a communitarian lifestyle
 Utopia- A perfect society
 Robert Owen- 1825 founded New Harmony
 Brook Farm- Massachusetts in 1841
 Oneida Community- NY 1848, most radical
attempt. “Free Love”
 Shakers- longest est. sect of communitarians.
 Didn’t believe in marriage or procreation, died out by
1940’s.
The Dawn of Scientific
Achievement
 Early American’s are more concerned w/
practical gadgets then pure science.
 REASON: Inventions solved their problems
 THERE IS SCIENCE BUT VERY LITTLE!
The Dawn of Scientific
Achievement
 Professor Benjamin Silliman (1799-1864)
 Chemist/Geologist
 Taught and wrote at Yale for 50 years.
The Dawn of Scientific
Achievement
 John J. Audubon (1785-1851)
 Studied birds in America
 “Birds of America”
The Dawn of Scientific
Achievement
 Advances in Medicine?
 Medicine is still in its infancy
 Bleeding was still the preferred method of healing
 Disease is still a huge problem
 Epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793. “Bring out your dead”
 Lifespan = 40 years for whites, less for blacks in 1850
 Surgery is very brutal
Artistic Achievement
 Painting
 Painting is still handicapped
 REASON:
 Not enough people w/ money to pay/sit for
paintings in US.
 Some good artists still emerge
 Gilbert Staurt
 Charles Willson Peale
 John Trumball
Artistic Achievement
 Hudson River School
 A group of artists led by Thomas Cole, who
painted landscapes emphasizing America’s
national beauty (uniqueness)
 America’s first coherent school of art!
Blossoming of National
Literature
 What type of writing have we seen thus far?
 Political (most successful early writing)
 American literature receives a boost from
nationalism post-Revolution/1812
 Why do you think this is?
Blossoming of National
Literature
 Knickerbocker Group (3 New Yorkers)
1. Washington Erving (1783-1859)


1st to earn international recognition
He interpreted America to Europe


The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Rip Van Winkle
Blossoming of National
Literature
 James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
 1st American Novelist
 The Last of the Mohicans
Blossoming of National
Literature
 William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
 American Poet
 THE KNICKERBOCKERS GAVE AMERICA ITS OWN
STYLE IN MULTIPLE GENRES OF WRITING.
Trumpeters of
Transcendentalism
 Transcendentalism
 A philosophy and literary movement of the 1800’s
that emphasized living a simple life while
celebrating the truth found in nature and in
personal emotion and imagination.
 Golden Age of American Literature = 2nd quarter
of 19th century.
Trumpeters of
Transcendentalism
 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
 He urged writers to do away w/
European tradition and search the
riches of America for inspiration.
 “I hate quotations. Tell me what you
know.”
Trumpeters of
Transcendentalism
 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1863)
 He was thrown in prison for not paying his
Massachusetts poll tax.
 Civil Disobedience (1849)
 Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
 Leaves of Grass (1855)
Growing Literary Lights
 Female Literary achievements
 Louisa May Alcott (1832-188)
 Little Women (1868)
 Emily Dickenson (1830-1886)
 Extraordinary talent in poetry
 Over 2,000 poems published after her death.
Growing Literary Lights
 Other contributors
 Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
 The Scarlet Letter
 Herman Melville (1819-1891)
 Moby Dick, Billy Budd
 Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
 The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado
Growing Literary Lights
 Literature from the south
 The South did not contribute much to early
literary movements.
 WHY?
 Poor schooling
 Illiterate
Portrayers of the Past
 Many notable historians came from this era
 George Bancroft (1800-1891)
 “Father of American History”
 Wrote a 6 volume history in 1789
 Others of note
 William H. Prescott
 Francis Parkman
 There is a heavy NE bias to early histories.