Baggett/Carr/Neithercut
APUSH (Unit 5, #5)
Name ____________________________
Date ________________ Pd ________
The Pursuit of Perfection: Social Changes & Reforms from 1820s to 1850s
I. The Rise of Evangelicalism
A. The end of established churches led to competition for converts & evangelicalism based on self-improvement
B. Second Great Awakening (1800-1830s)
1. Era of religious revivalism that preached saving souls through conversion & repentance
2. Charles G. Finney used dramatic “soul-shaking” revivals emotionalism, & week-long tent meetings
3. The impact of the Second Great Awakening
a. The burned-over district of New York state became a center for new religious ideas & social reformers
b. New churches were formed in the North & South (Mormons, Millerites, Onedia community, Shakers)
c. Revivalism focused on combating sin & led to an era of social reform in the 1830s
II. Moderate Social Reforms
A. Northern revivals inspired social reforms to save lost souls through conversion, morality, & temperance
B. Evangelism brought new changes to white, middle-class families by emphasizing “Cult of Domesticity”
C. Growth of free public schools from 1820-1850 to promote moral training
1. Means of social advancement, teaching the “3 R’s”, & the protestant work ethic
2. Horace Mann saw schools as means to teach virtue to immigrant & poor children
D. Reformers built new prisons & poorhouses; Dorothea Dix was the most important advocate for mental asylum reform
III. Radical Social Reform
A. Radical reformers split from moderates in the 1830s
B. Abolitionism
1. William Lloyd Garrison & his American Anti-Slave Society demanded immediate emancipation (The Liberator)
2. Black abolitionists like Frederick Douglass & Sojourner Truth related the realities of slavery & helped runaways
3. Not all Northerners wanted to end slavery, especially in urban areas & near Mason-Dixon line
4. Radical abolitionists were hurt by in-fighting & many left Garrison to form the Liberty Party in 1840
C. Women’s Rights
1. Abolitionism raised awareness of women’s inequality
2. At Seneca Falls in 1848, Mott & Stanton rejected cult of domesticity & advocated gender equality & suffrage
D. Utopian communities were formed by reformers tired of trying to change society
1. Utopian Socialism
2. Shakers & Oneida Community were religious utopian communities based on the second coming of Christ
E. Transcendentalism was a philosophic movement, led by Emerson, that connected individuals to universal spiritual forces
IV. Conclusions