Chapter 8-1


US religious movement after 1790

Rejected 18 th century belief that God predetermined if a person would go to heaven or hell

Individual responsibility: people could improve themselves and society

Promoted individualism and responsibility – power of the common citizen


Revival: emotional meeting to promote religious faith

Excited preaching and prayer

Charles Grandison Finney: “father of modern revivalism”

1800: 1 in 15 Americans belonged to a church

1850: 1 in 6 Americans belonged to a church


SGA brought Christianity to enslaved African-Americans

Belief that all people belonged to the same God

Gave members spiritual support to oppose slavery

1 st black national convention: September 1830 in
Philadelphia led by Richard Allen– later became an annual convention


Rural South: Slaves worshipped in same churches, heard same sermons, and sang same hymns as their owners – but in segregated pews

Christian message = promise of freedom

East: free African Americans had their own churches – became political, cultural, and social center


Philosophical and literary movement
 emphasized living a simple life
 highlighted the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination

Transcendentalists: stressed American ideas of optimism, self-reliance, and freedom


Ralph Waldo Emerson: nurtured newly emerging pride in
American culture

Henry David Thoreau: put idea of self-reliance into practice by living alone in woods for 2 years and abandoning community life
 individual conscience important – urged people not to obey laws they considered to be unjust

Civil disobedience: peaceful protest as opposed to protesting unjust laws with violence

Ex: Thoreau didn’t pay his taxes because he didn’t want to support the US gov’t. (which allowed slavery and fought a war with Mexico) – went to jail


Emphasized reason and appeals to conscience as the paths to perfection, rather than appealing to the emotions

New England: wealthy and educated followers

Believed conversion was a gradual process (revivals had dramatic conversions)

Believed individual and social reform were possible and important (agreed with revivalists)


Groups tried to create a “utopia” (perfect place) inspired by the optimism of religious and social reform

Common goal: self-sufficiency

Best-known: New Harmony, Indiana and Brook
Farm near Boston

Most lasted no more than a few years


Shakers shared their goods with each other, believed that men and women are equal, and refused to fight for any reason

Shakers vowed not to marry or have children – depended on converts and adopting children to expand their communities

1840s: 6,000 members (highest number)

1999: 7 members in the entire US


Dorothea Dix: discovered that jails housed mentally ill people

“I proceed, gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within this
Commonwealth…Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!...Injustice is also done to the convicts: it is certainly very wrong that they should be doomed day after day and night after night to listen to the ravings of madmen and mad women.” – 1843 letter to MA Legislature


1843: Dix sent a report to MA Legislature = law to improve conditions was passed

1845-1852: Dix persuaded 9 Southern states to create hospitals for the mentally ill

Prison reformers emphasized rehabilitation
 could reform the sick or imprisoned person into a useful societal member = hope for everyone (revivalists)


Before mid-1800s: no uniform education policy in US

School conditions varied from region to region

Before Civil War: MA and VT were only states to pass a compulsory school attendance law

Classrooms weren’t divided by grade

Most students stopped attending school by age 10


1830s: Americans demanded tax-supported public schools

Opposition:
 wealthy tax payers who enrolled their children in private schools

German immigrants who were afraid their children would lose their German language and culture

By 1850s: every state had provided some form of publically funded elementary schools


Horace Mann: first secretary of MA Board of Education in 1837

Established teacher-training programs, instituted curriculum reforms, and doubled money that MA spent on schools

1848: introduced age-grading:
 grouped students based on their ages rather than one large classroom where ages could range from 6-
14