Chapter 8: Reforming
American Society
Religion Sparks reform
Question of the Day
Based on your guided reading
assignment from Chapter 8-1, who
do you believe is the most important
reformer in the section? Why are
the accomplishments of this
individual important?
Agenda: March 12
 Period F:
 Question of the Day
 Homework: People and Ideas: Charles Finney, Dorothea Dix and 8-2 Guided
Reading
 Go over Chapter 8-1 Guided Reading
 Answers on Board
 PPT Notes Chapter 8-1
 Period A/B:
 Question of the Day
 Homework: Chapter 8-2 Guided Reading
 Go over Chapter 8-1 packet.
 Chapter 8-1 PPT notes
 Period C:
 Chapter 7 Test.
 Homework: Chapter 8-1 Packet
People and Ideas: Charles Finney
1. How did Finney’s Views on Salvation differ from those of
other ministers? How might this have contributed to his
desire for reform?
 Unlike other ministers, Finney believed that it was the
responsibility of the people to repent and act. The old
Calvinist belief stated that the “spirit” would come to you.
Disagreed with predestination.
2. In what ways did Finney reach out to the community?
How did he expand the role of women in the Church?
 Finney worked as the president of Oberlin College which
was the first college to accept blacks and women. He also
encouraged women and men to go to church together and
discuss religion together. Other preachers of the time
considered these meetings as “promiscuous” He also
encouraged social reform and promoted abolitionism
People and Ideas: Charles Finney
1. According to Finney, what moral obligations did women
and men have? How did his actions as the president of
Oberlin College reflect his desire to put his plans into
action?
 Men and women have the obligation to actively reform
society. His role at Oberlin College backed up his views by
accepting Blacks and women.
2. Explain why Finney became such a controversial figure
in the Presbyterian Church.
 His views that sinning is voluntary is a departure of
Presbyterian beliefs. His preaching of revivals and social
actions went against the old belief.
Primary Source: Dorothea Dix
1. According to Dix’s Report, How were the mentally ill
forced to live?
 The mentally ill were forced to live in filthy jail cells, cages,
and stalls where they were chained or confined without being
let outside.
2. Why do you think Dix took her findings to the MA
legislature?
 She believed it was the legislators’ moral obligation to protect
the mentally ill and hoped to convince them to take action to
provide adequate and humane provisions for their case.
3. Do you think the examples of abuse drawn from Dix’s
Notebook and journal strengthened or weakened the
case? Explain
 The examples strengthened her case because they graphically
and persuasively demonstrated the need for reform
1. Ante-Bellum—1820 to 1860
• Romantic age
• Reformers pointed out the inequality in society
• Industrialization vs. progress in human rights
• Primarily a Northern movement
• Southerners refused reforms to protect
slavery
• Educated society through
• newspaper and lectures
• Areas to reform:
Slavery
women’s rights
Industrialization
public school
Male domination
temperance (alcohol)
War
prison reform
2. 2nd Great Awakening---1820’s to 1840’s
•religious revival vs. deists
•Rise of Unitarians---believed in a God of love
•Denied the trinity
•heaven through good works and helping others
•social conscience = social gospel
•apply Christ’s teachings to bettering society
•Contrasted with salvation by grace and getting to heaven through Christ
• Baptists, Methodists, etc.
3. Formed utopian societies = collective ownership
The Second Great Awakening
“Spiritual Reform From Within”
[Religious Revivalism]
Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal
of Equality
Temperance
Education
Abolitionism
Asylum &
Penal Reform
Women’s
Rights
Charles Finney
Charles Finney
conducted his own
revivals in the mid
1820s and early 1830s
He rejected the Calvinist
doctrine of
predestination
adopted ideas of free will
and salvation to all
Really popularized the
new form of revival
Charles Finney and the Conversion
Experience
New form of revival
Meeting night after night to build
excitement
Speaking bluntly
Praying for sinners by name
Encouraging women to testify in public
Placing those struggling with conversion
on the “anxious bench” at the front of
the church
2. Transcendentalism
(European Romanticism)
• 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.
Transcendentalist Thinking
 Man must acknowledge a body of moral
truths that were intuitive and must
TRANSCEND more sensational proof:
1. The infinite benevolence of God.
2. The infinite benevolence of nature.
3. The divinity of man.
The Transcendentalist Agenda
 Give freedom to the slave.
 Give well-being to the poor and the
miserable.
 Give learning to the ignorant.
 Give health to the sick.
 Give peace and justice to society.
The Rise of African
American Churches
 Revivalism also
spread to the
African American
community
 The Second Great
Awakening has
been called the
"central and
defining event in
the development
of AfroChristianity“
•
During these revivals Baptists and Methodists converted large numbers of
blacks
The Rise of African
American Churches
This led to the formation of all-black
Methodist and Baptist churches,
primarily in the North
African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.)
had over 17,000 members by 1846
Beginning in 1830, Began holding
Conferences of freed African
Americans in the North
Educational Reform
•
In 1800
Massachusetts was
the only state
requiring free
public schools
supported by
community funds
Middle-class reformers
called for tax-supported
education, arguing to
business leaders that the
new economic order needed
educated workers
Horace Mann (1796-1859)
“Father of
American Education”
 children were clay in the
hands of teachers and school
officials
 children should be “molded”
into a state of perfection
 established state teachertraining programs
R3-6
Educational Reform
Under Horace Mann’s
leadership in the 1830s,
Massachusetts created a state
board of education and adopted
a minimum-length school year.
Provided for training of
teachers, and expanded the
curriculum to include subjects
such as history and geography
Educational Reform
School reformers enjoyed their greatest success
in the Northeast and the least in the South
Southern planters opposed paying taxes to
educate poorer white children
Educational opportunities for women also
expanded
In 1833 Oberlin College in Ohio became the
first coeducational college.
Four years later the first all-female college was
founded — Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts
The Asylum
Movement
Dorothea Dix, a Boston
schoolteacher, took the lead
in advocating state supported asylums for the
mentally ill
She attracted much attention to the movement by
her report detailing the horrors to which the mentally
ill were subjected
being chained, kept in cages and closets, and beaten with
rods
In response to her efforts, 28 states maintained
mental institutions by 1860
Asylums and Prison Reform
Dorothea Dix also discovered that
people were placed in prisons for debt,
people were subjected to cruel
punishment and children were not
treated any different than adults
She is responsible for helping eliminate
sentencing for debt, ending cruel
punishment and getting states to
establish juvenile court systems
She argues that people can change if
they are placed in proper environments
and given an education
Chapter 8: Reforming
American Society
Religion Sparks reform
1. Ante-Bellum—1820 to 1860
• Romantic age
• _____________________________________
• Industrialization vs. progress in human rights
• Primarily a Northern movement
• ____________________________________
_________________________________
• Educated society through
• newspaper and lyceum meetings
• Areas to reform:
_____________
______________
_____________
_______________
_____________
_______________
_____________
_______________
2. 2nd Great Awakening---1820’s to 1840’s
•religious revival vs. deists
•Rise of Unitarians---believed in a God of love
•____________________________
•heaven through
____________________________
•social conscience = social gospel
•apply Christ’s
_______________________________
•Contrasted with salvation by ____________
____________________________________
• Baptists, Methodists, etc.
3. Formed utopian societies = _____________________
The Second Great Awakening
“Spiritual Reform From Within”
[Religious Revivalism]
Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal
of Equality
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
Charles Finney
Charles Finney
conducted his own
revivals in the mid
1820s and early 1830s
He rejected the ______
doctrine of __________
adopted ideas of free will
and salvation to all
___________________
___________________
Charles Finney and the Conversion
Experience
New form of revival
Meeting _________________________
________________________________
Speaking bluntly
______________________________
______________________________
Placing those struggling with conversion
on the “anxious bench” at the front of
the church
2. Transcendentalism
(European Romanticism)
• Liberation from understanding
and the cultivation of
reasoning.”
• “__________________________
__________________________
__________________________
__________________________
Transcendentalist Thinking
 Man must acknowledge a body of moral
truths that were intuitive and must
TRANSCEND more sensational proof:
1. ___________________________.
2. ___________________________.
3. ___________________________.
The Transcendentalist Agenda
 Give _______________________.
 Give
____________________________
 Give _______________________.
 Give _______________________.
 Give peace and justice to society.
The Rise of African
American Churches
 Revivalism also
spread to the
______________
______________
 The Second Great
Awakening has
been called the
“_____________
______________
___________“
•
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
The Rise of African
American Churches
This led to the formation of all-black
______________________________
______________________________
African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.)
had over _____________________
Beginning in 1830, Began holding
Conferences of
______________________________
______________________________
Educational Reform
•
In 1800
Massachusetts was
the only state
requiring free
public schools
supported by
community funds
Middle-class reformers
called for
____________________
____________________
____________________
educated workers
Horace Mann (1796-1859)
“Father of
American Education”
 children were clay in the
hands of teachers and school
officials
 children should be ________
__________________________
_
established state

__________________________
R3-6
Educational Reform
School reformers enjoyed their greatest
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Southern planters opposed paying taxes to
educate poorer white children
Educational opportunities for women also
expanded
In 1833 Oberlin College in Ohio became the
first coeducational college.
________________________________________
_________________________________________
The Asylum
Movement
Dorothea Dix, a Boston
schoolteacher, took the lead
in advocating ______________________________
_________________________________________
She attracted much attention to the movement by
her report detailing the horrors to which the mentally
ill were subjected
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
In response to her efforts,
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Asylums and Prison Reform
Dorothea Dix also discovered that
people were placed in __________,
people were subjected to cruel
punishment and
________________________________
___________________
She is responsible for helping eliminate
sentencing for debt, ending cruel
punishment and getting states to
establish juvenile court systems
She argues that people can change if
they are placed in proper environments
and given an education