Essen%al Ques%on: To what extent was religious revivalism effec%ve in reforming American society in the early 1800s? The Benevolent Empire With all the new immigrants crowding into ci%es, there was an increase in crime & social problems such as pros%tu%on & drunkenness Police seemed unable to handle the problems This alarmed the rising middle classes, who wanted safe ci%es and a disciplined workforce To improve the world around them, many upwardly mobile men and women embraced religious benevolence Led by Congrega%onalist & Presbyterian ministers, they created organiza%ons for social reform called the Benevolent Empire A Religious AMempt to Change Society The Benevolent Empire became prominent in the 1820s, about the same %me as the na%onwide religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening The reformer’s goal: Restore “the moral government of God” by reducing the consump%on of alcohol & other vices Reform-­‐minded individuals regulated their own behavior, and now they tried to control the lives of working people—by persuasion if possible, by law if necessary Using New Methods to Change Lives The Benevolent Empire targeted the evils of drunkenness, pros%tu%on, adultery, and crime, but used new methods Instead of relying on sermons and admoni%ons from community leaders to combat evil, the reformers created large-­‐scale organiza%ons Thus were born the Prison Discipline Society, and the American Society for the Promo%on of Temperance, aboli%onist socie%es, & many others Each organiza%on had a staff, a network of chapters, thousands of volunteers, & a newspaper Taking the Offensive Against Evil First, Benevolent Empire groups encouraged people to live disciplined lives & “regular habits” They persuaded local governments to ban carnivals of drinking & dancing such as Negro Elec%on Day These were fes%vi%es in which blacks symbolically took control of the government, something that had been enjoyed by blacks & whites alike Posi%ve Ac%ons Reformers devised new ins%tu%ons to help the needy and control the unruly For instance, they provided homes of refuge for abandoned children and asylums for the insane, who had previously been confined by their families in a_cs or cellars They campaigned to end corporal punishment-­‐such as flogging-­‐of criminals, and to rehabilitate them in specially-­‐
designed peniten%aries Women Were the Prime Movers Since the 1790s, upper-­‐class women had used the freedom provided by church ac%vi%es to sponsor charitable organiza%ons such as the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows With Small Children Other groups, founded by devout Presbyterians, called themselves the Orphan Asylum Society and the Society for the Promo%on of Industry This last group found jobs for hundreds of poor women as spinners & seamstresses Remembering the Lord’s Day Reformers thought declining church aMendance on Sundays was the greatest threat to the “moral government of God” Some merchants & storekeepers were conduc%ng business on Sundays, & city saloons provided drink & entertainment 1828-­‐Minister Lyman Beecher & others founded the General Union for Promo%ng the Observance of the Chris%an Sabbath They also demanded Congress repeal an 1810 law allowing the transporta%on of mail on Sunday, & boycoMed shipping companies that did business on Sunday They also campaigned for municipal laws forbidding games & fes%vals on the Lord’s day Not Everyone Agreed “Freethinkers” & some workers who labored 12-­‐14 hours per day, 6 days a week, wanted freedom to spend their one day of leisure as they wished To keep goods moving, shipping companies demanded lockkeepers on the Erie Canal stay on the job on Sundays They argued that using laws to enforce a par%cular set of moral beliefs was contrary to “the free spirit of our ins%tu%ons” When evangelical reformers proposed teaching Chris%anity to slaves, they aroused hos%lity from slaveholders Charles Grandison Finney: Revivalism Presbyterian minister Charles Finney was not part of the tradi%onal religious elite He was born into a poor Connec%cut farm family, & had planned to become a middle-­‐class lawyer 1823-­‐Finney underwent an intense religious experience during the Second Great Awakening & chose to become a minister In towns along the Erie Canal, he conducted revival mee%ngs that stressed conversion rather than doctrine-­‐God would accept anyone who submiMed to the Holy Spirit Evangelical Beliefs Finney’s message: God has made man a moral free agent who could choose salva%on This doctrine of free will was par%cularly aMrac%ve to the middle class, who had accepted responsibility for their lives Finney also had success conver%ng the rich & poor Both the haughty rich who had placed themselves above God, & the abject poor who seemed lost to sin listened when Finney described their common fellowship in Christ By doing so, he maneuvered both rich & poor into accep%ng middle-­‐class values Conver%ng Rochester, New York 1830-­‐Finney moved his revival from small towns to Rochester, NY, a major milling city on Lake Erie Preaching every day for 6 months, he promoted prayer groups in private homes, & won over the influen%al merchants & manufacturers They promised to aMend church, give up intoxica%ng beverages, & work hard The businessmen founded a Free Presbyterian Church— “free” because members did not to pay for pew space The Revival Grows Other evangelical Protestants founded their own churches to serve the rough canal laborers Pious businessmen set up a savings bank to encourage thrih among the working classes Finney’s wife Lydia & other middle-­‐class women carried the Chris%an message to the wives of the unconverted They set up Sunday Schools to teach poor children to read the Bible, & formed socie%es to assist the unemployed Not Everyone Is Converted Skilled workers such as boot makers, carpenters, stone masons, & boat builders had already formed labor unions by 1830 They protested they needed higher wages & beMer schools more urgently than sermons & prayers Irish Catholics, who were beginning to flood into the US, already hated Protestants as religious here%cs & poli%cal oppressors from the old country Nevertheless, revivalists from New England to the Midwest copied Finney’s evangelical message & techniques Temperance The temperance movement-­‐
which wanted to limit the use of alcohol-­‐was one of the most successful outgrowths of the 2nd Great Awakening Beer & run had been standard fare in American rituals, consumed at patrio%c ceremonies, barn raisings, work breaks, & games Beer-­‐drinking Germans & whiskey-­‐swilling Irish liked their grogshops on every corner in working-­‐class districts These liquor vendors were ohen the source of disorder America-­‐A Na%on of Drunks 1820s-­‐Alcohol consump%on reached new heights, at about 7 gallons per capita Alcohol killed Pres. Monroe’s vice president, Daniel Tomkins, & undermined Henry Clay’s bid for president in 1824 Wage earners could not afford to drink away their paychecks—but they did anyway during the tradi%onal 11 am & 4 pm “refreshers” Curbing the Consump%on of Alcohol Evangelical Protestants took over the American Temperance Society in 1832 They quickly grew to 2000 chapters & more than 200,000 members They used revivalist methods such as group confession & prayer to bring about sudden emo%onal conversions Their methods had astonishing success, as on one day alone in New York City, 4000 people took “the pledge” Alcohol consump%on dropped to 2 gallons per capita by 1845 Kicking the Lazy into Ac%on Religion was the key to moral improvement Harkening back to Benjamin Franklin, evangelical reformers believed laziness & drunkenness could be cured by self-­‐discipline Religious conversion would ensure a profound change of heart Thus religious discipline & the ideology of social mobility served as powerful bonding cements between the middle class & wage earners Immigra%on & Cultural Conflicts Between 1840 and 1860, more than 2-­‐million Irish, 1.5-­‐million Germans, & 750,000 Britons poured into the US Bri%sh immigrants were primarily Protestants & rela%vely prosperous trained professionals, proper%ed farmers, or skilled workers Many Germans had also come from proper%ed farm & ar%san families
—they moved to Missouri, Wisconsin, & Iowa Poorer Germans & Irish seMled in the Northeastern ci%es, where by 1860 they made up nearly 1/3 of white adults They didn’t migrate to the South, because they feared compe%%on for jobs from enslaved workers Irish Poverty 1845-­‐A plant fungus wiped out the en%re potato crop in Ireland, leading to mass starva%on & sending millions to immigrate to the ci%es of New England & New York In despera%on they took low-­‐paying jobs as factory hands, construc%on workers, & canal diggers Irish women became washerwomen & maids Irish families were crammed into cheap tenement buildings with primi%ve sanita%on systems They were the first to die when disease struck, such as the 1849 cholera epidemic that killed thousands in St. Louis and New York City The American Catholic Church In %mes of hardship & sorrow, immigrants turned to their churches The Irish & many Germans were Catholics 1840-­‐There were 16 Catholic dioceses & 700 churches By 1860, there were 45 dioceses & 2500 churches Catholics built an impressive set of ins%tu%ons-­‐charitable socie%es, orphanages, parochial schools, & poli%cal organiza%ons that helped them maintain their iden%%es Na%vism Confronted by the flood of Roman Catholic immigrants, some American-­‐born ci%zens formed na%vist movements These groups condemned immigra%on & asserted the superiority of Protestant religious & cultural values 1834-­‐The man who would invent the telegraph in 1844 published Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liber4es of the United States It warned of a Catholic threat to American republican ins%tu%ons Catholics Might Take Over Morse argued Catholic immigrants would obey the dictates of Pope Gregory XVI, who urged Catholics to reject republicanism Instead, Catholics should only submit to princes & the papacy Republican-­‐minded Protestants of many denomina%ons shared Morse’s fears of papal interference in American life & poli%cs Foreign Conspiracy became their handbook I Lost My Job to an Immigrant Unemployed Protestant mechanics & factory workers joined mobs that aMacked Catholic immigrants, accusing them of taking jobs & driving down wages The cultural conflict undercut trade unionism, because many Protestant wage earners sides more with their Protestant employers than with their Catholic co-­‐workers Those in the Benevolent Empire found themselves lined up against Catholic immigrants—who they saw as rowdy drunken Irish There Was Violence 1834-­‐In Charlestown, MassachuseMs, a quarrel between Catholic laborers repairing a convent & Protestant workers in a nearby brickyard led to a full-­‐scale riot The convent was destroyed 1844-­‐Riots broke out in Philadelphia when the Catholic bishop persuaded public schools to use both the Catholic & Protestant versions of the Bible (yes, they used the Bible in class then) Even as the American economy was booming, the country was divided along ethnic, religious, & class lines