Reform and Culture In
Antebellum America: 18201860
Chapter 13
Religion in the Antebellum Period
Increased role of rationalism in religion: Deism, Unitarians, and
Universalists
Enlightenment in Europe plus the Deist movement of colonial times led
to an increase in rationalism in religion
Unitarianism
popular in New England (especially Mass) during the 1820’s and onward
Rejected the trinity, said divinity was contained in one deity (Unitarian)
People were essentially good, everyone could achieve salvation, key to a
moral life was to do what you judged to be right using your own intellect
and rationality
Upper class movement, appealed to intellectuals, old Congregationalists
Universalism
God was kind and good, not vengeful and angry
All people (rich and poor) had equal value in God’s eyes and would be
saved
A lower class movement, appealed to the poor and workers
Unitarians and Universalists would eventually join their churches
together
Religion (Cont.)
Rational Religions—Deism, Unitarianism, Universalism—were chiefly
popular among a minority of people centered on the east coast
The Second Great Awakening (1820s-1850s)
Reaction to increased rationalism in religion emerged during the 1820’s—
return to more traditional views of God and salvation—a little less friendly
Believed all people could be saved (unlike First Great Awakening) if they
turned toward God
Very evangelical in nature (go out and bring your message to the people)
Very emotional attitude toward religion (unlike the rationalism of the
Unitarians)
Camp meetings (big revivals in the country)
Most influential in the West and South, less influential in the
East/Northeast
Charles Grandison Finney—major figure
Impact of the 2nd Great Awakening
Increased membership for more “evangelical”
churches, Baptists, Methodists, decreased membership
for older churches—Congregationalists
Burned Over District
Area of western NY state that was particularly
influenced by the 2nd Great Awakening, several new
religious movements sprung up here
New Religious Sects
Adventists
Mormons (more on them later)
Gave a lot of force to movements to reform different
elements of US society
Public Schools, temperance, women’s rights, prison
reform, mental health reform, abolition of slavery
The Mormons
Founded 1830, Palmyra NY (burned over district) by Joseph Smith, Church
of Latter Day Saints
Received a revelation from an angel that guided him to a lost book of the
Bible, the Book of Mormon
Contained the basis for Smith’s religion
Believed that the Indians of North America were one of the lost tribes of
Israel
Uniquely American religion—not based on a religion from the old world
Grew rapidly (more rapidly than any of the other new religions of this time)
Faced persecution, why? New religion, tight nit community, voted as a large
unified block in elections, had their own militia, rumors of polygamy
Forced from NY to Ohio, to Missouri, and eventually to Illinois (Nauvoo),
Joseph Smith killed by an angry mob in Nauvoo
Brigham Young became the leader of the Mormon community, agreed to
move the Mormons out west, eventually settled in Utah by the Great Salt
Lake formed modern day Salt Lake City
Reform Movements
Antebellum period saw many movements arise to improve the “morality” of
ordinary Americans and to fix real or perceived problems with US society
Examples:
Temperance—ban alcohol
State funded public schools—Horace Mann
Prison reform
Mental health reform—Dorothea Dix
Women’s rights
Seneca Falls Declaration 1848
Utopian Communities—create ideal self-sufficient communities
Oneida Community, Brook Farm Association
Abolition of slavery
Why the 1820s?
2nd Great Awakening
Democratic Reforms of the Jacksonian era
National-Republicans/Anti-Masons/Whigs—using government to solve social
problems
Rise of an urban middle class—time on their hands to advocate for reforms
Women’s Rights
Antebellum attitudes about women
Increasing calls for women’s education—but no role given to women in the public
sphere
Woman’s place regarded as in the home, helping to forge the values of her family
Legal limitations: couldn’t own property, sign wills, make contracts, etc
Elizabeth Cady Stanton—Seneca Falls Convention 1848
Declaration of Sentiments—equality before the law of men and women
Susan B. Anthony
Why women’s rights?
Middle class women involved in many of the other reform movements of the time,
began to advocate for their own rights
Successes/limitations
By 1860 12 states had granted women control over their property, given them legal
status as individuals
In no state could women vote
In 21 states women could NOT own property
Culture during the Antebellum Period: An
American Renaissance
Enlightenment: rationality, reason, etc.
Response to the enlightenment: Romanticism
Emotion, feeling
Power of the individual
Being one with nature
American Romanticism: Transcendentalism
Transcend reason I order to reach the truth
God, and the truth were all around in the world, the
individual had to use his/her emotion and intuition to
channel into this truth
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau
Civil Disobedience (1849) – Individuality “ the majority of one”
Walden (1854) – Individual communing with nature
Other Romantic Writers
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
Edgar Allen Poe: numerous short stories and poems
Emily Dickinson: New England poet
Herman Melville: Moby Dick
Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass
Major Growth in newspapers during this time
Increasing urban nature of US, plus new advances in
communication and printing made publishing newspapers
easier
Recap: What Caused The Push For
Democracy During the Era of Jackson?
Possible Theories/Explanations
1-Demographic Shifts: Move out West?
2-Economic Shifts: The rise of industry in the East?
3-Religious Shifts: The 2nd Great Awakening?
4-Cultural Shifts: Romanticism?