James A. Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History
Eighth Edition
America: A Concise History
Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 11
Religion and Reform
1800–1860
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s
I. Individualism: The Ethic of the
Middle Class
A. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism
1. Transcendentalism
-Rejected Enlightenment thinking. Explored
“individuality.” Balance between Man, Nature, and
God.
2. The lyceum movement
-Way to reach people through public lectures.
Fostered discussion. Attractive to middle class in
North and Midwest, not the South. Emerson most
popular speaker.
I. Individualism: The Ethic of the
Middle Class
B. Emerson’s Literary Influence
1. Thoreau, Fuller, and Whitman
-Thoreau lived in cabin for 2 years, published
Walden, or Life in the Woods about his search for
meaning in the woods. Fuller explored freedom for
women. Men and women capable of a relationship
with God. Women deserved Independence.
Whitman: printer, teacher, journalist, newspaper
editor. Writes Leaves of Grass, poems celebrating
desire to break from tradition.
2. Darker Visions
I. Individualism: The Ethic of the
Middle Class
B. Emerson’s Literary Influence
1. Thoreau, Fuller, and Whitman
2. Darker Visions
-Nathaniel Hawthorne: pessimistic worldview.
The Scarlet Letter criticized excessive
individualism. Herman Melville: critic of
transcendentalist focus on individual. Moby Dick
personal quest brings death.
II. Rural Communalism and Urban
Popular Culture
A. The Utopian Impulse
1. Mother Ann and the Shakers
-Lee Ann Stanley founds Shakers, 1st American
communal movement. Believed sexual lust had
been downfall of Adam and Eve. “Shakers” dance
during service. Disdain for intercourse led to
conversation and adoptions of orphans to increase
numbers. 1900 they virtually disappeared.
2. Albert Brisbane and Fourierism
II. Rural Communalism and Urban
Popular Culture
A. The Utopian Impulse
1. Mother Ann and the Shakers
2. Albert Brisbane and Fourierism
-Charles Fourier predicted decline of
individual property rights + capitalist values.
Leading disciple Albert Brisbane believed socialism
would liberate workers from capitalist employers.
Phalanxes would own property in common.
Liberation in women and men. Founded
cooperatives in w. NY and midwest. Most
collapsed.
II. Rural Communalism and Urban
Popular Culture
A. The Utopian Impulse (cont.)
3. John Humphrey Noyes and Oneida
-Noyes: Charismatic and religious.
Rejected marriage. Embraced “complex marriage”
where all members of community are married to one
another. Rejected monogamy (women free from status
of property to husband). Females cut hair short + wore
pantaloons. Founded community near Oneida. 200
residents. Noyes fled to Canada to avoid prosecution
for adultery. Community abandoned complex marriage.
Retained cooperative spirit.
II. Rural Communalism and Urban
Popular Culture
B. Joseph Smith and the Mormon Experience
1. Joseph Smith
-Book of Mormon: ancient civ. Migrated
west + visited by Christ after Resurrection.
Encouraged patriarchy, frugality, hard work, church
directed society. Revelation justified polygamy.
Charged with treason (believed trying to build
community in Mexico). Murdered in jail.
2. Brigham Young and Utah
-Led disciples. Settles in UT. Young named
governor in 1850/ Led short “Mormon War” over
issue of polygamy + possible nullification.
II. Rural Communalism and Urban
Popular Culture
C. Urban Popular Culture
1. Sex in the City
-Pop. Growth in cities = new urban culture. Rural
men+women go to cities and find life difficult. Low
wages for men. Women working domestic jobs
sexually exploited. Sex for $ common (mistresses
+ “bawdy houses” Prostitutes advertised in open.
No parents to control daily lives.
2. Minstrelsy
3. Immigrant Masses and Nativist Reaction
II. Rural Communalism and Urban
Popular Culture
C. Urban Popular Culture
1. Sex in the City
2. Minstrelsy
-Rat+ Terrier fights and traditional theater
popular. Minstrel shows with blackface common.
John Dartmouth Rice’s character “Jim Crow”
famous in NY. Also stereotyped Irish drinking
alcohol. Made fun of womens rights activists + elite
white men.
3. Immigrant Masses and Nativist Reaction
II. Rural Communalism and Urban
Popular Culture
C. Urban Popular Culture
1. Sex in the City
2. Minstrelsy
3. Immigrant Masses and Nativist Reaction
-Immigrants want to be viewed as white. Irish
join American Catholic Churches + join Democratic
Party. Nativists want to stop immigration. Gangs
form in NYC. Violence between immigrant groups +
native born whites.
III. Abolitionism
A. Black Social Thought: Uplift, Race Equality, and
Rebellion
1. David Walker’s Appeal
-N. free blacks focus on social uplift. White mobs
attack blacks in N. cities. Walkers (free black from
NC, self educated) writing respond to attacks.
Ridiculed religious arguments of slaveholders.
Justified rebellion. Convention for free black
leaders in Philadelphia demanded race equality.
2. Nat Turner’s Revolt
III. Abolitionism
A. Black Social Thought: Uplift, Race Equality, and
Rebellion
1. David Walker’s Appeal
2. Nat Turner’s Revolt
-Slave in VA separated from wife has religious
vision. Led revolt killing 55 whites. Caught and
hanged. VA increased slave codes, prohibited
teaching to slaves to read, limited black movement
in state.
III. Abolitionism
B. Evangelical Abolitionism
1. William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Weld, and
Angelina and Sarah Grimké
-Garrison founded New England Anti-Slavery
Society. Published The Liberator. Appealed to
religious people. Weld published Bible Against
Slavery. Grimke + Weld American Slavery as It Is:
Testimony of a Thousand Witness
2. The American Anti-Slavery Society
-”Great Postal Campaign” sent over a million
pamphlets. Urged fugitive slaves to tell their story.
Established Underground Railroad.
III. Abolitionism
C. Opposition and Internal Conflict
1. Attacks on Abolitionism
-Movement was minority. Slaveholders attack
movement. Many oppose “amalgamation” or racial
mixing. N. Whites attack churches, temperance
halls, homes, etc. of abolitionists.
2. Internal Divisions
-w/ in movement activists disagree. Some
oppose Garrison’s support for women’s rights.
They form American and Foreign Anti-Slavery
Society.
IV. The Women’s Rights Movement
A. Origins of the Women’s Movement
1. Moral Reform
-Religious women wanted to help other women.
Female Reform Society aims to curb prostitution +
protect single women from moral corruption.
2. Improving Prisons, Creating Asylums, Expanding
Education
-Dorothea Dix wanted to save children from vice.
Campaigned to improve care for mentally ill.
Started asylum building movement to separate
mentally ill from criminals. Horace Mann and many
women support school movement.
IV. The Women’s Rights Movement
B. From Black Rights to Women’s Rights
1. Abolitionist Women
-Central to anti-slavery movement. Harriet
Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
describes forced sexual relations w/ her master.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Toms Cabin: sex
abuse of women is moral failing of slavery. Grimke
sisters attack slavery + claim women should have
equal rights. Abolitionist women claim traditional
gender roles = domestic slavery of women.
2. Seneca Falls and Beyond
IV. The Women’s Rights Movement
B. From Black Rights to Women’s Rights
1. Abolitionist Women
2. Seneca Falls and Beyond
-Women’s rights activists demand stronger legal
rights for women (property ownership: MI, ME, MA,
NY adopt). Elizabeth Cady Stanton + Lucrieta Mott
organize Seneca Falls Convention. 70 women 30
men attend. “Declaration of Sentiments” made
claim for women in public life + criticized idea of
“separate spheres” (women’s place is in home as
mother/wife). 1851 began effort to gain voting
rights. Susan B. Anthony leads movement.