Ch. 15 PPT
Ferment and Reform of Culture
Dorothea Dix
Charles G. Finney
Great
Awakening
TMWK CH 15
1. Pg 321 What were the Protestant camp
meetings like and what did they spark?
2. Pg 322 Picture & Quote Describe Charles
G. Finney’s work as an evangelist and
his beliefs
Liberalism & Revival of Religion
• Deism: Relied on reason instead of revelation,
science rather than Bible. Denied Christ’s divinity.
• Unitarianism: God existed in one person (uni) and
not in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, Holy
Spirit.) Denied Christ’s divinity. Salvation through good
works.
• Transcendentalism: Leader Ralph Waldo Emerson
Belief in ideal spirituality that "transcends" the physical
and empirical - Realized only through the individual's
intuition (inner light) instead of doctrines of
established religions. Rose up as protest against
Unitarianism. Growing liberalism (Deism and
Unitarianism) in religion brought religious revival in
1800.
Second Great Awakening
• Religious revival brought: conversion of souls,
shattered and reorganized churches, new sects of
religion, reform movements.
• Spread to frontier by huge “camp meetings.”
• Preachers taught spiritual worth of women and their
role in bringing their family back to God.
• Feminization of religion: Middle-class women were
1st and most fervent revivalists - made up most of
new church members.
• Women formed charitable organizations and began
crusades for reforms.
Leaders in the Awakening
• Methodist Peter Cartwright: traveling frontier circuit
preacher–thousands of souls converted to Christianity
• Charles Finney 1830s: led revivals in NY.
Denounced alcohol & slavery. Encouraged women to
pray in public. Later became Pres of Oberlin College.
Charles G. Finney
Denominational Diversity
• 1830s Central and Western NY – “Burned-Over
District”: this area was heavily evangelized.
• Millerites or “Adventists”: named after William
Miller - 1830s several hundred thousand believers
in “Burned Over District,”
• 1857 Presbyterians of North and South divided.
TMWK
3. Pg 325 Where did the Mormons move
after Joseph Smith’s death? Name two
Mormon settlements.
Mormonism – Latter Day Saints
• Founder Joseph Smith: received Book of Mormon
from an angel.
• Issues: Polygamy, voting as a church unit, drilling
their militia for defense
• Joseph Smith murdered; Brigham Young became
leader of Mormons.
• 1846-1847: led Mormons to Utah; became a
prosperous frontier theocracy.
• Congress passes anti-polygamy law in 1862 & 1882.
Free Schools
• “Free” public schools opposed by many, since tax
money needed to be used to pay for schools.
• 1825-1850: tax supported education grew – needed
for social stability and democracy. Early schools
stayed open only few months.
• Horace Mann: campaigned for more & better
schoolhouses, longer school terms, higher pay for
teachers.
• 1828 Noah Webster (improved textbooks): reading
lessons used by millions of students. Developed
dictionary which standardized American language.
• William McGuffey: McGuffey’s grade-school readers
TMWK
4. Pg 327 Which was the first
co-educational school for higher
education that accepted women?
Higher Learning
• Religious zeal led to planting of denominational liberal
arts colleges in South and West.
• 1st state supported universities sprang up in South,
beginning with N. Carolina.
• 1819: Univ of Virginia – Thomas Jefferson
• Emma Willard: established the Troy, Female
Seminary Oberlin College in Ohio
• Mary Lyon: established women’s school – Mount
Holyoke Seminary (College) in MA.
• Lyceum Lecture Associations: Traveling lecturers
gave talks on science, literature, philosophy (ie Ralph
Waldo Emerson)
TMWK
5. Pg 329 What reform did Dorothea
Dix champion?
Age of Reform
• Imprisonment for debt continued thru 1830; gradually
state legislatures abolished debtor’s prisons.
• Capital offenses reduced - brutal punishments slowly
being eliminated. New idea: prisons shouldn’t only
punish, but reform criminals.
• Dorothea Dix: New England teacher – traveled &
gathered data on poor treatment of mentally ill;
became their advocate. Resulted in improving
mental health care conditions in asylums.
• American Peace Society 1828: Leader William Ladd
- Established to make war on war
Prominent Women Mary Lyon
Emma Willard
Dorothea Dix
Reforms Cont.
• American Temperance Society 1826: temperance
pledge to abstain from drinking distilled beverages.
• Neal Dow: “Father of Prohibition” sponsored 1851
Maine Law - prohibited manufacture/sale of liquor. 12
states passed similar laws; some were repealed or
declared unconstitutional.
TMWK
6. Pg 331 Which two prominent
women played an important role in
women’s rights? In what spheres did
they work for women’s rights?
Women in Society
• Women = keepers of society’s consciences responsibility to teach children how to be good and
productive citizens.
• “Cult of Domesticity” – home was woman’s sphere.
• Gender differences strongly emphasized.
• Women’s Rights Movement:
1. Lucretia Mott – Quaker, abolitionist, social reformer,
pro women’s rights.
2. Elizabeth Cady Stanton – Leader of women’s rights:
Declaration of Sentiments written at 1st Women’s
Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, NY.
Leaders in Women’s Rights
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Lucretia Mott
Utopias
• More than 40 utopian (cooperative & communistic)
communities set up – people living together sharing
common beliefs, possessions, resources, sometimes
income/work.
- Robert Owen: New Harmony, Indiana – set up by
religious group = Harmonists.
- Oneida Community 1848: Religious commune
(communal property and possessions) in NY;
manufactured silverware and steel animal traps. All
expected to work.
- Shakers 1770s: Leader Ann Lee; religious
communities set up – Celibacy and gender equality.
TMWK
7. Pg 341 Quote Describe two points of
Henry David Thoreau’s argument for
Civil Disobedience.
National Literature
• Washington Irving: “Rip Van Winkle,” “Legend of
Sleepy Hollow,” and Knickerbocker’s History of NY.
• James Fenimore Cooper: 1st American novelist,
Leatherstocking Tales, Last of the Mohicans.
• Henry David Thoreau: Walden: Or Life in the
Woods, Civil Disobedience (Influenced Gandhi
and Dr. MLK, Jr.)
• Louisa May Alcott: Little Women
• Poet Emily Dickinson: Refused to publish poems.
At her death - 2,000 poems found and printed.