America: A Narrative History (Ninth Edition)
Chapter 13 - Religion, Romanticism, and Reform
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I. Rational religion
o A. The concept of mission in the American character
o B. The development of Deism
 1. Roots in rationalism and Calvinism
 2. Nature of the beliefs
o C. The development of Unitarianism
 1. Nature of the beliefs
 2. Role of William Ellery Channing
 3. Creation of American Unitarian Association
o D. The development of Universalism
 1. Role of John Murray
 2. Nature of the beliefs
 3. Comparison with Unitarianism
II. The Second Great Awakening
o A. Origins of the revival movement
 1. Fears of secularism
o B. The frontier phase of revivalism
 1. Frontier reception of the revivals
 2. Emergence of the Presbyterians
 3. Role of the Baptists
 4. The Methodists’ impact
 5. Appeal to African Americans
 6. Spread of revivals on the frontier
 7. The camp meeting
 8. Women and revivalism
o C. Revivals in upstate New York
 1. Role of Charles Grandison Finney
 2. Connection to Oberlin College
o D. The rise of the Mormons
 1. Role of Joseph Smith
 2. Characteristics of the church and its members
 3. Persecution of Mormons
 4. Role of Brigham Young
 5. The move to Utah
III. Romanticism in America
o A. Nature of the Romantic revolt
o B. Transcendentalism as a Romantic expression
 1. Nature of transcendentalism
 2. The Transcendental Club and its members
 3. Ralph Waldo Emerson
 4. Henry David Thoreau
 5. The impact of transcendentalism
IV. The flowering of American literature
o A. Nathaniel Hawthorne
o B. Emily Dickinson
o C. Edgar Allan Poe
o D. Herman Melville
o E. Walt Whitman
o F. The popular press
 1. Impact of advances in printing technology
 2. Proliferation of newspapers
V. Education
o A. Level of literacy
o B. Early public schools
 1. Rising demand for public schools in the 1830s
 2. Role of Horace Mann in Massachusetts
 3. Leadership of North Carolina in the South
 4. Limited progress before the Civil War
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America: A Narrative History (Ninth Edition)
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C. Developments in higher education
 1. Post-Revolutionary surge in college formation
 2. State vs. religious colleges
 a. Conflicts over funding and curriculum
 3. Slow growth of technical education
o D. Education for women
VI. Movements for reform
o A. Roots of reform
o B. Temperance
 1. Heavy consumption of alcohol in the United States
 2. Arguments for temperance
 3. Early efforts at reform
 4. The American Temperance Union
o C. Prison reform
 1. Growth of public institutions to treat social ills
 2. Prevention and rehabilitation versus punishment for crime
 3. Auburn prison system
o D. Reform in treatment of the insane
 1. Early state institutions for the insane
 2. Work of Dorothea Dix
o E. Crusade for women’s rights
 1. Catharine Beecher and the cult of domesticity
 2. Development of domestic role for women
 3. Subordinate status of women in the antebellum period
 4. Seneca Falls (1848) and subsequent conventions
 5. Limited successes
 6. Limited job opportunities for educated women
o F. Utopian communities
 1. Proliferation of utopian communities
 2. Nature of the Shaker communities
 3. Development and contributions of the Oneida Community
 4. Robert Owen and New Harmony
 5. The importance of Brook Farm
 6. The decline of utopia
VII. Anti-slavery movements
o A. Early opposition to slavery
 1. Establishment of the American Colonization Society
 2. Establishment of Liberia
o B. The movement toward abolition
 1. William Lloyd Garrison’s call for immediate emancipation
 2. The Liberator
o C. Creation of the American Anti-Slavery Society
o D. The anti-slavery movement split
 1. Garrison and the radical wing demand comprehensive societal reforms
 2. Others want to focus only on slavery
 3. Showdown in 1840 over women’s rights
 4. Garrisonians win the right of women to participate
 5. New Yorkers group and Liberty party break away
o E. Black anti-slavery advocates
 1. Conflicts over the right of blacks to participate in anti-slavery activities
 2. Former slaves who became public speakers
 a. Frederick Douglass
 b. Sojourner Truth
VIII. Reactions to abolitionism
o A. Pro-slavery mob kills Elijah Lovejoy
o B. The “gag rule“ in Congress
o C. Development of the Liberty party (1840)
o D. Defenses of slavery
 1. Biblical arguments
 2. Inferiority of blacks
 3. Practical considerations
 4. George Fitzhugh’s comparison to northern wage slavery
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