The Reforming
Spirit
We would have every path laid
open to Woman as freely as to
Man… As the friend of the Negro
assumes that one man cannot by
right hold another in bondage, so
should the friend of Woman
assume that Man cannot by right
lay even well-meant restrictions on
Woman.
-Margaret Fuller, 1845
Significant Movements 1820-1860
• A diverse mixture of reformers dedicated
themselves to such causes as establishing free
(tax-supported) public schools, improving the
treatment of the mentally ill, controlling or
abolishing the sale of liquors or beers, winning
equal legal and political rights for women, and
abolishing slavery.
The enthusiasm for reform has many historical sources:
(1) Puritan sense of mission
(2) Enlightenment thinking
(3) politics of Jacksonian democracy
(4) changing relationship among men/women, ethnic
groups, and social classes
Categories of Reform
• Moral and Social Reform: the
temperance movement; the
movement to rescue prostitutes;
efforts to eliminate activities such as
gambling; extension of education
• Humanitarian Reform: prison
reform, relief for the poor, care of
orphans, mental institution reform,
and the 10-hour day movement
A political cartoon from 1787
jesting about the notion of
taxation affecting prostitutes
Categories of Reform
continued…
• Health reform: health food
craze (graham crackers),
effort to improve medical
competence
•
The Reverend Sylvester Graham was an American
dietary reformer. He was an early advocate of dietary
reform in the United States and was most notable for
his emphasis on vegetarianism and the temperance
movement. Today, Graham is best known as the father
of graham crackers.
Political reform: suffrage
for all adult white males;
reduction of qualifications to
run for office; change
nomination process from
caucus to convention;
women’s suffrage
Categories of Reform continued…
• Utopian: experimental
living arrangements at New
Harmony, Brook Farm, and
Oneida; could also place
some religious movements
here such as the Shakers
and the Mormons
• Radical: abolition of
slavery!!!!!
"Am I Not A Man And A Brother?"
1787 medallion designed by
Josiah Wedgwood for the antislavery campaign
Categories of Reform
continued…
• Economic: rise of
banking; change from
subsistence to market
farming
1839 Methodist camp meeting
• Evangelical movement:
the Second Great
Awakening; Millennialism
Religious Movements
• The Second Great
Awakening: First
Half of the 19th
Century (Charles G.
Finney)
• Millennialism (also
called Millerism)
founded by William
Miller
Charles
Grandison
Finney has been
called The
Father of Modern
Revivalism
The “Millerites” were
the followers of the
teachings of William
Miller who, in 1833,
first shared publicly
his belief in the
coming Second
Advent of Jesus
Christ in roughly the
year 1843.
The Second Great Awakening
• In some regards, the Second Great Awakening
was a reaction against the rationalism that was
fashioned during the Enlightenment and the
American Revolution
• Rejected the traditional Calvinist (Puritan) view
of original sin and predestination and preached
that any good Christian could attain salvation
(Unitarian Church)
• Characteristic doctrine was perfectionism – the
idea that human beings could overcome sin
altogether.
A "Women's Awakening"
• Women outnumbered men in being converts and played
a decisive role in leading men back to established
churches or into new ones.
• Mothers proved especially influential in converting their
husbands and sons.
• But the most characteristic converts were adolescent
girls.
• The affirmation or reaffirmation of religious belief and
commitment seems to have offered them a powerful
sense of identity and purpose at a time in which their
brothers and male peers could look forward to identifying
themselves with jobs or careers, while girls prepared for
domesticity.
Old and New Denominations
Peter Cartwright was an
American Methodist revivalist
and politician in Illinois.
Cartwright was a missionary
who helped start the Second
Great Awakening and
personally baptized twelve
thousand converts.
• Membership rapidly increased for old
denominations such as the Baptists and
Methodists.
• In the South and western frontier, Baptist and
Methodist circuit preachers, such as Peter
Cartwright, would travel to attract thousands
• These preachers used dramatic sermons at
outdoor revivals, or camp meetings (1850,
largest Protestant denomination)
• The movement also gave rise to new groups.
• One of the most active areas for religious
fervor was a poor farming area in upstate New
York, an area which became known as “the
burned-over district.”
“The Burned-Over District”
The burned-over district
was the religious scene in
the western and central
regions of New York in the
early 19th century, where
religious revivals and
Pentecostal movements of
the Second Great
Awakening took place.
The term was coined by
Charles G. Finney who in
his 1876 book
Autobiography of Charles G.
Finney referred to a "burnt
district" to denote this area.
New Denominations
(Communal Experiments)
• Shakers – brought to this country in
1774 by Ann Lee, they believed that
Lee had received direct revelations
from God and that the arrival of
Christ on earth was imminent
(millennialism) and therefore they
did not need to procreate (6,000
Shaker dance and worship
members)
(1) Property held in common
(2) Women and men separated
(3) For lack of recruits, the movement
died out by the mid-1900s
New Denominations continued…
• Mormons – founded by
Joseph Smith in 1830 when
he published the Book of
Mormon; facing severe
persecution, the Mormons
traveled to Utah Territory
under the leadership of
Brigham Young; by 1877
they had 350 settlements
with 140,000 residents; in
1890 they renounced
polygamy to attain
statehood
A stained glass window showing
Joseph Smith's First Vision.
Millennialism
• Foremost exponent was William Miller, a
farmer in upstate New York
• Miller predicted that the Second Coming would
occur in 1843, but refused to give an exact
date; when nothing happened in 1843, he
named March of 1844 as the crucial month;
when nothing happened, his followers
pressured him to give a new date; he chose
October 21, 1844, as the new “Advent Day.”
• People prepared by making “ascension robes”
and neglecting secular business; they
gathered on hilltops on October 21 to await
the event, but again nothing occurred except
an earthquake and thunderstorms.
• This “Day of Delusion” effectively ended the
Adventist movement, although a few isolated
sects continued.
Secular Communitarianism
George Ripley founded
Brook Farm based on
Transcendental ideals.
• New Harmony: created by Robert Owen
in 1825 in Indiana in an effort to create a
prosperous, self-governing community;
stressed common ownership of land and
the elimination of selfishness. Quarrels
and dissatisfaction forced Owen to
abandon his misnamed experiment.
• Brook Farm: founded by George Ripley
in the 1840s, it had followers such as
Nathaniel Hawthorne and was influenced
by transcendentalism; they aimed at
combining manual and intellectual work
to develop and enrich the inner self; a
fire destroyed the farm and it was not
restarted.
A bird's eye view of a community in New
Harmony, Indiana, United States, as proposed by
Robert Owen.
Secular Communitarianism
continued…
John Humphrey Noyes was an
American utopian socialist. He
founded the Oneida
Community in 1848.
• The Oneida Community:
founded by John Humphrey
Noyes who wanted to substitute
cooperativeness for competitive
individualism and prohibited
“special love”. Instead they
established “complex marriage.”
Oneida developed a thriving
silver plate business enterprise;
eventually abandoning complex
marriage in the face of attacks
from moral critics
Secular Communitarianism
continued…
Charles Fourier was a
French philosopher. An
influential thinker, some of
Fourier's social and moral
views, held to be radical in
his lifetime, have become
main currents in modern
society. Fourier is, for
instance, credited with
having originated the word
feminism in 1837.
• Fourier Phalanxes: In the
1840s, many Americans,
including Horace Greely,
became interested in the
theories of the French socialist
Charles Fourier
(1) It was advocated that
followers share work and
living arrangements in
communities
(2) The movement died out
because Americans were
proved too individualistic
The Impetus for Social Reform
• Many believed there was a decline of religion in
American life
• There was worry that the Catholic presence in the
Midwest would lead to the loss of that section to
“Romanism”
• Taverns served all comers
• Growth of cities led to indistinctness and thus
disreputable behavior
• Growth of crime, especially the rise of gangs
• At first, leaders of reform hoped to improve
people’s behavior through moral persuasion
• When this failed reformers moved on to political
action
The Temperance Movement
Temperance movements typically
criticize excessive alcohol use,
promote complete abstinence, or
pressure the government to enact
anti-alcohol legislation or complete
prohibition of alcohol.
• Americans have always loved their
liquor!
• In many places it was safer to drink
alcoholic beverages than water.
• Reformers used techniques borrowed
from religious revivals and mass
politics – passed out leaflets, held “cold
water parades,” organized lecture
circuits of reformed drunkards who
made emotional appeals for converts
to sign temperance pledges
• Moral appeals gave way to political
action: under the leadership of Neal
Dow, Maine in 1851 passed the first
statewide prohibition statute
A lithograph by Nathaniel Currier supporting the temperance movement. (1846)
Important Temperance Groups
• Washingtonians (1840): a society
began by recovering alcoholics who
argued that alcoholism was a
disease that needed treatment
• Women’s Christian Temperance
Union (1870s): wanted prohibition
of alcohol
This 1902 illustration from the
Hawaiian Gazette newspaper
humorously illustrates the
Anti-Saloon League and the
Women's Christian
Temperance Union's
campaign against the
producers and sellers of beers
in Hawaii.
* German and Irish immigrants were
largely opposed to the temperance
reformer’s campaigns
Education Reform
Horace Mann:
Arguing that universal public
education was the best way to
turn the nation's unruly children
into disciplined, judicious
republican citizens, Mann won
widespread approval from
modernizers, especially in his
Whig Party, for building public
schools.
• Horace Mann, the first superintendent of
education in Massachusetts, crusaded for
state-financed education to provide moral
guidance, encourage social mobility, lessen
class differences, and to create an
intelligent informed citizenry.
• By 1850, every state had at least some
public elementary and secondary schools,
with the North surpassing the South in the
number of white children enrolled.
• Public schools required a new, more
practical curriculum which included
reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography.
• University curriculum changed from heavy
doses of theology and the classics in favor
of modern languages, politics, economics,
and the sciences.
Reform of Prisons and Asylums
Dix circa 1850-55
• Penal codes were rewritten to abolish imprisonment for
debt and restricting the death penalty to those
convicted of murder.
• Pennsylvania penitentiaries adopted a movement of
structure and discipline that would bring moral reform
• The Auburn system enforced rigid rules for discipline
and provided moral instruction along with work
programs
• States began to build more modern prisons
(Connecticut had housed felons in an abandoned
copper mine).
• States created special correctional facilities for
juveniles.
• Dorothea Dix would be responsible for uncovering the
abuse of the mentally ill, convincing Massachusetts to
enlarge and improve the state’s facilities for the
mentally ill. She would travel over 30,000 miles in her
cause. As a result, nearly every state made some
provision for improved care of the mentally ill.
The Changing American Family
American society was still overwhelmingly rural
in the mid-19th century. Even so, the growing
part of society that was urban and industrial
underwent fundamental changes.
(1) Office jobs and factory work created by the
Industrial Revolution redefined the roles of men
and women/husbands and wives
(2) Men left home to work for salaries or wages
(3) Middle-class women remained at home (took
care of children)
Cult of Domesticity
Godey's Lady's Book was a
highly influential women's
magazine which reinforced the
values of the Cult of
Domesticity
• The new definition of men’s and
women’s roles soon became an
established norm in urban, middle-class
households.
(1) Men were expected to be responsible
for economic and political affairs
(2) Women concentrated on the care of
home and children
Women reformers, especially those
involved in the antislavery movement,
resented the way men relegated them to
secondary roles in the movement or policy
discussions
Women’s Right Movement
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
Lucretia Mott was
described as "the moving
spirit of the occasion".
• Two sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, objected
to male opposition to their antislavery activities.
In protest, Sarah Grimke wrote her Letter on the
Condition of Women and Equality of the Sexes
(1837)
• Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began
campaigning for women’s rights after being barred
from speaking at an antislavery convention
• Leading feminists met at Seneca Falls, New York
(Seneca Falls Convention-1848)
(1) First women’s rights convention
(2) Issues “Declaration of Sentiments” (all men
and women were equal)
Antislavery Movement
• Opponents of slavery ranged from moderates who proposed gradual
abolition to radicals who urged immediate abolition
• The Second Great Awakening encouraged many northerners to view
slavery as a sin.
Important abolition groups:
(1) American Colonization Society: promoted the idea of
transporting slaves to an African colony (Monrovia, Liberia)
(2) American Antislavery Society: In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison
began the publication of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator
(created this group to attack slavery)
(3) Liberty Party: Garrison’s radicalism led to a split in the movement
and this party believed in political action (ran James Birney for
president in 1840 and 1844)
Black Abolitionists
• Escaped slaves and free blacks were
among the most outspoken and
convincing critics of slavery.
Frederick Douglass
stood up to speak in
favor of women's
right to vote.
Frederick Douglas: former slave, friend
to Garrison, and editor of The North
Star
Harriet Tubman: former slave
(Underground Railroad)
Sojourner Truth, David Ruggles, and
William Still all helped assist runaway
slaves
Violent Abolition
PICTURE TITLED CAPTURE
OF TURNER
On November 5, 1831, he was
tried for "conspiring to rebel and
making insurrection", convicted
and sentenced to death. Turner
was hanged on November 11 in
Jerusalem, Virginia, now known
as Courtland, Virginia. His body
was flayed, beheaded and
quartered.
• David Walker and Henry Highland
Garnet were two northern blacks who
advocated the most radical solution to
the slavery question- armed resistance
by rising up and revolting.
• In 1831, a Virginia slave named Nat
Turner led a revolt in which 55 whites
were killed.
(1) In retaliation whites killed hundreds of
blacks
(2) After the revolt, fear of future
uprisings put an end to antislavery
talk in the South
Southern Reaction to Reform
William Lloyd Garrison
(1805–1879), publisher
of the abolitionist
newspaper The Liberator
and one of the founders
of the American AntiSlavery Society.
• While “modernizers” worked to perfect
society in the North, southerners were
more committed to tradition and slow
to support public education and
humanitarian reforms.
• Southerners were alarmed to see
northerners join forces to support the
antislavery movement .
• Increasingly, southerners viewed
social reform as a northern conspiracy
against the southern way of life.
The General Nature of the
Reform Movements
What they did not
advocate:
• No movement against
the institution of private
property
• Did not advocate
government control of
business
• Did not support labor
organizations
• Did not attack child
labor
What they did advocate:
• Advocated laissez faire
and the doctrines of
Adam Smith
• Believed that labor
creates wealth and that
labor has a right to the
fruits of a more
sensitive social
conscience by the
businessman
Key Names, Events, and
Terms
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Second Great Awakening
Revivalism; camp meetings
Millennialism
Church of Latter Day Saints;
Mormons
Joseph Smith; Brigham Young
Brook Farm; George Ripley
Feminists
Margret Fuller
Utopian communities
Shakers
Robert Owen; New Harmony
Joseph Henry Noyes; Onieda
community
Charles Fourier; phalanxes
Horace Greeley
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Temperance
American Temperance Society
Women’s Christian Temperance
Union (WCTU)
Asylum movement
Dorothea Dix
Horace Mann
Public school movement
Women’s rights movement
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
Lucretia Mott
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
Susan B. Anthony
American Colonization Society
American Antislavery Society
Key Names, Events, and
Terms
• Abolition
• William Llyod Garrison; The
Liberator
• Liberty Party
• Frederick Douglass; The North
Star
• Harriet Tubman
• Sojourner Truth
• Nat Turner
• American Peace Society
• Sylvester Graham
Question
The abolitionist movement had the effect of
(a) weakening white southerner’s attachment to
slavery
(b) converting most Americans to the abolitionist
movement
(c) increasing the chances for compromise
between North and South
(d) proving moral persuasion was more effective
than political action
(e) bring the issue of slavery to the forefront of the
reform movement
Answer
E: Bring the issue of slavery to the forefront
of the reform movement
Question
The Seneca Falls Convention was significant
because it
(a) initiated the religious revivals in the “burnedover district”
(b) demanded the immediate abolition of slavery
(c) issued a historic declaration of women’s rights
(d) addressed concerns for the education of
children
(e) concluded that the Auburn system was a failure
Answer
C: issued a historic declaration of women’s
rights