Religion Sparks Reform
Reform rooted (caused) by religious
Revival
Second Great Awakening (after 1790’s)
1st Great Awakening Mid 1700’s
Protestant Pastors seek emotional and
intellectual response of parishioners
Second Great Awakening
Frontier Evangelism
Conversion, personal salvation,
spreading the word
Individualism, responsibility V.
Predestination (Jacksonian Democracy)
Religion Sparks Reform
Revivals -Large Gatherings
Often outdoors to
accommodate large crowds
over several days
1800 1/15 belong to church1850 1/6
Religion Sparks Reform
Groups bring revival to
enslaved Blacks
Democratic impulse
Baptists and Methodists
believe Black or White same
god
Segregated churches
“Promise of Freedom”
Separate Black churches
1816 AME in Philadelphia
Develops social services and
political voice
Religion Sparks Reform
Some sought alternative to
religion
Revivals to public
Transcendentalism
Philosophical and literary
movement that found truth
in nature, imagination and
the individual, self reliance
civil disobediance
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Religion Sparks Reform
Unitarianism
Religion appealed to reason
and conscience rather than
emotion
Centered in New England
Conversion a gradual
process
Agreed with revivalists that
reform possible and
necessary
Universalism
Religion Sparks Reform
Optimism of religion and
Social reform leads to
attempts at Utopian
communities
Varied in Philosophies
New Harmony, Indiana
Brooks Farm, Ma.
Shakers
Religious Utopian
communities
Shared goods, pacifism,
equality, celibacy
Religion Sparks Reform
DeTocqueville writes about
horrors of American prisons
Reformers take up cause
Dorothea Dix advocates for
mentally ill
Mental hospitals
Rehabilitation of prisoners
Religion Sparks Reform
School conditions vary across regions
Ma. and Vermont pass compulsory
education
1830 Public calls for Public
supported education
Horace Mann
If we don’t create citizens , Republic
doomed for destruction
Establishes teaching training
programs, curriculum reform, helps
to double funding
Some states follow others do not