Chapter 7 Section 1
Cultural, Social and Religious Life
What makes a society unique?
• Scholarship
• Art
• Education
Education
• Noah Webster compiles
the American Dictionary
of the English Language
• Some states required
free education for
children
Benjamin Rush
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•
•
•
Doctor
Scientist
Revolutionary
Represented PA in
Continental Congress
Charles Wilson Peale
• Artist
Phillis Wheatley
• Young enslaved woman
from Senegal
• Became a poet
Republican virtues
•
•
•
•
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Self reliance
Hard work
Frugality
Harmony
Sacrificing for the good
of the community
Why were Republican Virtues
considered important?
• It was believed that
Americans would
need these in order
to form the new
Republic
Republican Woman
• One who had the
virtues that would help
her contribute to the
success of the republic.
Social changes
• Population growth
• Social mobility- people
were free to move place
to place
What factors drove population growth
in the early 1800s?
• A great increase in the
number of births
Religious Renewal
• Second Great
Awakening- Powerful
religious movement
from the early 1800s
– Evangelical in nature
Evangelical
• The Bible is the final
authority
• Salvation is achieved
only through personal
belief in Jesus Christ
• People demonstrate
beliefs by living a
“transformed lifestyle”
Congregation
• Members of the church
– Focus was on the
congregation rather than
the ministers
• SGA was very democratic
because of this
Revival
• Common feature of SGA
• Gathering where people
were “revived” or
brought back to a
religious life
– Listening to preachers
– Accepting Jesus
New Denominations
• Religious subgroups
• Experienced rapid
growth during SGA
• Baptists, Methodists,
Unitarians, Mormons,
etc…
How did the Second Great Awakening
lead to the growth of new Christian
denominations?
• Baptist churches
grew because they
reflected the
evangelical zeal of
the 2nd Great
Awakening
• Methodism was well
suited to frontier life
and appealed to
common people
• Unitarianism offered
hope and appealed to
reason
• The Mormon faith also
gained followers due to
the simplicity of its
doctrine
Mercy Otis Warren
• Was Mercy Otis warren
a good example of a
“republican woman”?
Why or why not?