“The Pursuit
of Perfection”
In
Antebellum
America
1820 to 1860
The Mormons
• During this time period, groups sought to
remake society at large
• Mormons – The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints
• Founded by Joseph Smith, a young
farmer, in western NY
• In 1827, Smith announced that he was given a set of
golden tablets by an angel named Moroni
•He wrote his revelations in the Book of Mormon
• Proclaiming that he had a commission from God to
reestablish the true church (New Jerusalem), Smith
gathered a group of devoted followers
Mormons
• Mormon culture upheld the middle-class values of hard
work & self-control
• They moved to Kirkland, Ohio to await the second coming
of Jesus. Belived only the Mormons would be saved
• However, they to move because their popularity created
antagonism
• They then went to Independence, Missouri, but had to
leave because Smith grew in political power. Governor of
Missouri charged Smith with intent to overthrow the
government
Mormons
• They then moved to Nauvoo, Illinois
• They were able to set up a city charter that made them selfgoverning and authorized a militia
• However, when Smith’s practice of polygamy was introduced,
he drew strong opposition from other political members
• Smith’s unorthodox teachings led to persecution and mob
violence.
• Smith was murdered in 1844 by an anti-Mormon mob in
Carthage, Illinois.
Brigham Young was Smith’s
successor.
He led the Mormons westward in 1846-1847 to Utah where
they could live and worship without interference
• There, they settled and transformed the area from desert into
farmland through extensive irrigation - gave land according to
family size
• The Mormons’ success was largely attributable to the settlers’
strong sense of community
• Through their united efforts, they came to dominate the Utah
territory.
Relgious convictions fortified the
Latter-day Saints to withstand
persecution
• The Mormons offered success to anyone who would
join
• Many of the recruits were poor and uneducated
• To those who rejected existing churches, the
Mormons offered fellowship and religious certainty
within a tight-knit society and cooperative economic
system
The Shakers
• They were the largest of the communal utopian
experiments, reaching their peak between 1820
and 1860.
• Mother Ann Lee: Founder
– The Shakers used dancing as a worship practice
– Shakers practiced celibacy, separating the sexes as
far as practical
– Shakers worked hard, lived simply, and impressed
outsiders with their cleanliness and order
– 6,000 members lived in 20 settlements in 8 states
The Shakers, a utopian group that
splintered from the Quakers, believed that
they and all other churches had grown too
interested in this world and too neglectful
of their afterlives.
• The Shakers
isolated
themselves in
communes where
they shared work
and its rewards
Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784)
The Shakers
 Emphasized agriculture and hand crafts; most
managed to become self-sufficient and profitable
enterprises
 Shaker furniture became famous for its simplicity,
beauty of design, and excellent construction
 Many of their settlements became temporary
refuges for orphans, runaways, abused wives, and
unemployed workers during hard times
They also granted near-equal rights to
women, even allowing them to attain
priesthood
• Believing the end of the world was at hand & that sex was
an instrument of evil, the Shakers practiced celibacy.
• The Shaker revival ended during the 1840s and 1850s.
Shaker Meeting
Shaker Hymn
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'Tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
'Till by turning, turning we come round right.
Secular Utopian Communities
Individual
Freedom
Demands of
Community Life
 spontaneity
 discipline
 self-fulfillment
 organizational
hierarchy
George Ripley (1802-1880)
Brook Farm
West Roxbury, MA
Basis of Brook Farm:
Transcendentalism
 “Liberation from understanding and
the cultivation of reasoning.”
 “Transcend” the limits of intellect
and allow the emotions, the SOUL,
to create an original relationship
with the Universe.
• People of Brook Farm rejected materialism
• Their rural communalism combined spirituality, manual
labor, intellectual life, and play.
Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers
Concord, MA
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Nature
(1832)
Self-Reliance
(1841)
“The American
Scholar” (1837)
Henry David
Thoreau
Walden
(1854)
Resistance to Civil
Disobedience
(1849)