Ferment of Reform and
Culture
Chapter 15
Reviving Religion
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Religion was still popular, but not as strict as colonial churches
– Rationalist ideas soften religious zeal; question orthodoxy
The Age of Reason – Thomas Paine
– Argued churches enslave mankind and are run for profit (Marx?)
Deism
– Emphasized reason and science to understand universe and Supreme
Being’s relationship with it
– Knowable universe and human capacity for morality
Unitarianism
– Spun off from Deism
– Denied divinity of God; believe in free will; salvation through good
works; God is loving creator – not vengeful, stern God
Second Great Awakening
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Americans saw themselves as an example for the world
to follow
– Wanted to create ideal society
Conservative response to liberal reforms
Relied on emotional evangelical spirit.
Camp “revival” meetings
– Mass meetings where people found Jesus. Inspired
missionary and reform movements
– Fire and brimstone speeches
Peter Cartwright led Methodist revival
Charles Finney
– Had huge crowds and brought back traditional
views of religion
– Denounced alcohol and slavery – encouraged
women to pray and participate in church
– Women formed backbone of reform movements
Millerites – predicted end of world inspiring reform
Second Great Awakening increased class and social
divisions
Charles Finney
Mormons
Church of Latter Day Saints
Founder:
Joseph Smith
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Joseph Smith claimed to find secret writings of Bible in
upstate New York (Book of Mormon)
– Challenged traditional beliefs with polygamy,
economic cooperation, shared property
Mormons were persecuted for beliefs forced to move to
Illinois
– Voted as a bloc and formed militia to defend selves
Smith was killed by a mob in 1844
Brigham Young
– Led Mormons to Salt Lake City Utah to avoid
persecution
– Developed successful theocracy
– Encouraged to marry young and have lots of kids
Utah becomes state in 1896
HILL CUMORAH AND MANCHESTER
Education
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Wealthy conservative Americans opposed free public education because it
might increase poor influence over political system
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Eventually taxes were used to fund education to help insure stability of
democracy
– Thomas Jefferson – a civilized nation that was both ignorant and free
“never was and never will be”
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Early education was weak and focused on obedience and discipline
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Universities
– Land grant state universities created in early 1800s (UNC, UVA)
– Coeducational universities were rare – belief men and women thought
differently
– Attracted people to towns
– Technical schools also developed
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Libraries, magazines and lectures also spread education
Education
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Believed literacy was key to democracy
Public Education
– Horace Mann
• Leader of education reform
movement
• Argued for free public education
Horace Mann
– Educational reformer campaigned for
effective education, paying teachers
and better curriculum
Noah Webster
– Wrote a definitive reading textbook and
the first American dictionary
William McGuffey
– Published elementary school reader
that emphasized morality, patriotism
and idealism
Education of Women
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Many were only taught household
skills
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Some feared too much learning could hurt
women or make them not feminine
By 1840 most women could read and
write
1821 Troy Female Seminary created
by Emma Willard
1925
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1836 Wesleyan College in Georgia
first women’s college
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1837 Oberlin College in Ohio first
coeducational college
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1837 Mount Holyoke College
Oberlin College
Reformer Movements
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Inspired by Second Great Awakening and rise of middle
class.
– Women played major role in reforms
Many reforms sought to protect traditional values
Prison reform
– First national leader was Louis Dwight, also Francis
Lieber, Samuel Gridley Howe and Dorothea Dix were
also influential
– Push for prisons to reform, not just punish
– Debtors prisons gradually disappeared as laborers won
right to vote
Mentally Ill
– Many prisoned and chained; treated like animals or as
possessed
– Dorothea Dix
• Argued for people to treat mentally ill medically
and humanely
– Dr. John Galt 1841
• Eastern Lunatic Asylum – first psychiatric hospital
Anti War Movements
– American Peace Society (1828) by William Ladd
Temperance
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American Temperance Society
1826 created to stop people
from drinking
– Used pictures, postcards,
lectures to spread message
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Ten Nights in a Barroom and
What I Saw There (1854)
– novel that described
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problems with alcohol
abuse
Maine Law of 1851 – Neal Dow
– First law to prohibit
manufacture or sale of
liquor
– Other states followed
Women’s Rights
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Women denied legal rights, were treated as minors, could
be beaten, but treated better than in Europe
– Women seen as artistic, refined, moral, keepers of
society, responsible for instilling republican virtue
– Home was focal point of woman’s world (cult of
domesticity)
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Industrial Revolution allowed women to work and interact
outside of home
– Women became active leaders in education and reform
movements
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Seneca Falls Convention 1848
– Led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
– Demanded equal rights and right to vote (suffrage)
– Declared all men and women are equal
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Susan B Anthony
Sojourner Truth (former slave) and Susan B Anthony were
leaders of women’s movement as well
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was first female doctor
Sara and Angelina Grimke led abolition movement
Sojourner Truth
Utopians
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Communities where work and property was shared
(communitarian, communist, cooperative)
– Eliminate divisions of wealth, therefore eliminate
cause of conflict
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Robert Owens, factory owner
– Created Harmony Indiana in 1825
– Tried to prove can make a profit while treating
workers well
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Brook Farm Massachusetts 1841
– Focused on transcendentalism
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Oneida Community New York in 1848
– Founded by John Humphrey Noyes
– Focus on suppression of selfishness to lead to
happiness
– Practiced free love, birth control and eugenics
(superior breeding)
Most societies eventually fail
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Science and Art
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Early American scientific
advancements were improvements
on European ideas
Famous scientists:
– Benjamin Sillman – Chemistry
– Louis Agassiz – Biology
– Asa Gray – Botany
– John Audubon Birds of America.
Audubon Society created for
protection of birds
Medical knowledge was primitive;
home remedies and fads popular
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Greek revival architecture
became popular in 1820s
Painting was limited by lack of
supporters and Puritan ideals
– Gilbert Stuart became
famous for portraits
– Charles Willson Peale
painted portraits of
Washington
– John Trumbull painted
Revolutionary war themes
Literature
– Most early writing was practical or political ideology
– Literature spawns from nationalism of War of 1812
– Washington Irving
• Knickerbockers History of New York (1809)
• “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
– James Fenimore Cooper
• Last of the Mohicans
• Leatherstocking Tales with Natty Bummpo
Transcendentalists
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Believed people needed to understand themselves
– Truths “transcend” human understanding and senses
– Cannot be discovered through observation alone
– Strong emphasis on individualism and self reliance
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
– Unitarian minister, poet and philosopher
– “American Scholar” Emerson argued for unique American
advancements in literature and philosophy
Henry David Thoreau
– Lived on Walden Pond
– Wrote Walden: Or Life in the Woods (1854) and Essay on
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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the Duty of Civil Disobedience
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• Inspired Gandhi, MLK and others
– Believed in importance of meditation and self reflection
– Argued against slavery
Walt Whitman
– Leaves of Grass (1855)
– Became known as “Poet Laureate for Democracy” for his
unconventional styles and subjects
Literature
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
– Popular American poet
– “Evangeline”, “The Song of
Hiawatha”
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John Greenleaf Whittier
– Used poetry to argue against
slavery
– Poet of human freedom and
morality
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James Russell Lowell
– Poet, essayist, critic, editor
– Wrote Biglow Papers – political
satire about Mexican War
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Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes
– Medical professor and poet
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Louisa may Alcott
– Wrote Little Women
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Emily Dickinson
– Poet focused on spare language
on themes of nature, death,
love and immortality
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Edgar Allen Poe
– Father of detective and horror
novels
– “The Raven”, “The Fall of the
House of Usher”
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
– Scarlet Letter
– Examines psychological effects
of sin
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Herman Melville
– Moby Dick – allegory of good
and evil