I. Second Great Awakening
I. Second Great Awakening
A. This was a religious reform
movement
1.Preachers of this era rejected
Calvinistic ideals like predestination
b. Insisted people could improve
themselves and society
B. Revivalism
1. Large gatherings where preachers
might draw up to 10,000 or more
listeners
2. Designed to awaken religious fervor
in listener through impassioned
preaching and prayer
C. African American Church
1. Second Great Awakening brings religion to
enslaved African Americans on a large scale
2.There was a belief that all people belonged
to the same God
3. Slaves and whites worshipped in the same
church at the same time
4. Slaves saw the sermons as a promise of
freedom
• Salvation was a matter of choice
• It focused on the second coming of Christ
• There was felt a need to reform society to
hasten the new kingdom of God
African American Church
5.Slaves and whites worshipped in the
same church at the same time
6.Slaves saw the sermons as a promise
of freedom
African American Church
7.In the East many free African
Americans had separate churches
8.Churches became a center for
politics
D. Transcendentalism
What?!?
–Many people wanted a change
from traditional religion but
thought revivalism was too public
Transcendentalism
1.A philosophical and literary movement
that was based upon simple living and
the truth found in nature used emotion
a.This was started by Ralph Waldo
Emerson
–A New England writer
Transcendentalism
2. Led to a new literacy movement
a.Henry David Thoreau – Walden
i.Based on self reliance
3. Civil Disobedience
3. Civil Disobedience- form of protest
where you peacefully refuse to obey laws
a.Based upon the ideas of
transcendentalism
i.Thoreau chose not to pay his taxes
and went to jail
E. Unitarianism
1.Focused on reason and the conscience as
the path to perfection
a. William Henry Channing
i. Purpose of Christianity was “the
perfection of human nature, the
elevation of men into nobler beings”
F.Similarities
1.Both Unitarianism and
Transcendentalism agreed that
individual and social reform were
possible and important
G. Utopian societies
1. Utopian communities- experimental
groups who tried to create “utopia” or a
perfect place
a. They shared a common goal: selfsufficiency
b. Withdrawal from society
Non-religious Examples
• New Harmony, Illinois
– Set up by Robert Owen in 1825
– Supposed to be self-sufficient and exist without
currency
– Failed after several years
George Ripley
b. Non-Religious
Examples were:
Brook Farm
Brook Farm was
established by
George Ripley
It was
transcendentalist
in nature
Contributors were
Thoreau,
Hawthorne,
Melville, and
Emerson
Oneida
Commune
• Founded by John Noyes
– Practiced eugenics, complex
marriages, and communal
living
– Supported through
manufacture of silverware
– Corporation still exists today
Religious Examples:
• Shakers and the Mormons
were religious examples of
Utopian Societies
H. Shakers
1.Set up by Ann Lee
a. Believed:
i. Men and Women are equal
ii. Non-violence
iii. Vow to never have children or
marry
• Why did they disappear?
II. Reform
A. Prison Reform
1. Prisons included mentally ill
a. Dorothea Dix
i. Wanted to reform the conditions
A. Prison Reform
1. Prisons included mentally ill
a. Dorothea Dix
i. iii. Between 1845 and 1852 she persuaded
nine Southern states to set up hospitals for
the mentally insane
Prison Reform
• She also set to help reform criminals
– Rehabilitation attempted to not create hardened
criminals
– Work seen as a way to reform
Legal Code Reforms
Reduction in crimes punishable by death
• Abolishing of public hangings in many states
• Abandoning flogging and other cruel
punishments
B. School Reform
1.Before the 1850s there was no
education policy
a. Conditions varied
2. School attendance was uncommon
beyond the age of 10 in 1830
School Reform
3. By 1850 every
state provided
some degree of
elementary
schooling funded
by taxpayers
(public education)
School Reform
4. Horace Mann of
Massachusetts was
a leader in the
reform movement
– Established
teacher training
b.Other states
followed his
examples
Books
• Noah Webster’s
dictionary
– Standardized the English
language
• Willaim McGuffey
– His books taught reading
in stages
Quiz
Make your own chart and fill in the
different parts of the Second Great
Awakening.
Under each add one key person from
each movement.
Second
Great
Awakening
Music
Transcendentalism
The African
American
Church
Revivalism
Literature
Unitarian
Movement
Utopian
Societies
Abolition
Mentally ill care
reform
Women’s
Rights
Prison Reform
School Reform
Second
Great
Awakening
Temperance
Trade
Unions
C. Abolition
1. Abolition- the call to outlaw slavery
2. Many termed it “a great national sin”
3. Some antislavery groups wanted to
resettle African American slaves in Africa
Abolition
4. William Lloyd Garrison
a. Started his own newspaper named the Liberator
in 1831
b. His message was:
• immediate emancipation
c. He founded the New England Anti-slavery
Society
Abolition
5. David Walker
a. He was a free black
b. Blacks should fight for their freedom
Abolition
6. Frederick Douglas
a.Was born a slave
b. He was taught to read and write
c.He realized knowledge was his
“pathway from slavery to freedom”
Abolition
Frederick Douglas
d. He escaped to New York
e. Garrison sponsored him as a lecturer
f. He wanted abolition to be achieved through political action
g.Made his own newspaper The North Star
Abolition
6. By 1830 most slaves had been born in the
United States and spoke English
D. Slavery
1. Rural Slavery
a) Most worked in the fields under an
overseer
b) Some slaves worked on small farms beside
their owners
Slavery
2. Urban Slavery
a) Slaves with skills were in demand for the
factories
b) Slaves were “hired out” by their owners
c) City slaves had more freedom
i. They weren’t watched as closely
ii. There were less beatings
E. Rebellion of Slaves
Ways Slaves Rebelled
1. Slaves rebelled in a variety of ways
a) Nonviolent
b) Violent
E. Rebellion of Slaves
1. Nat Turner’s Rebellion
a) Turner was born a slave in South
Hampton Virginia in 1800
b) He was a preacher
c) He believed he was chosen to lead his
people from bondage
Rebellion of Slaves
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
d. In 1831 after seeing an eclipse he began a
rebellion
e. He had 80 followers
f. They attacked 4 plantations
g. They killed 60 whites
Rebellion of Slaves
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
h. They were captured by federal and state
troops
i. They were tried and hung
j. In retaliation as many as 200 blacks most
innocent were killed
2. Outcome of Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Turner’s Rebellion strengthened the
resolve of Southern whites to
defend slavery and control their
slaves
Outcome of Nat Turner’s Rebellion
b. Owners wanted more control on
African Americans
i. These became known as slave codes
Outcome of Nat Turner’s Rebellion
c. Slave Codes
i. Examples
 Most slave owners stopped educating their slaves
 Slaves were forbidden from learning to read
 Alabama forbade African Americans from preaching
 Free blacks were denied the right to vote
 Could not own property
La Amistad Revolt
• In 1839 a slave revolt happened on the ship
• - 53 African natives were kidnapped and sold
into Spanish slavery
• They were sent to Cuba and purchased by two
Spaniards
• These men put them on the ship La Amistad
and planned to move them to a different part
of Cuba
La Amistad
• Two days into the journey two of the slaves
broke free and freed the other slaves
• The slaves took over the ship killing the
captain and the cook- but not their owners
• They planned to return to Africa and set sail
using the sun however the Spainish men
changed course at night
• The ship ended up in New York and was seized
by the U.S. government
• This ended in a legal battle over what to do
with the slaves
F. Defending Slavery
1. Virginia Debate
a) A motion was made in the Virginia
legislature to abolish slavery
a) The motion lost and the issue was closed
Defending Slavery
2. Used the Bible
3. Myth of a happy slave
G. Abolishing Slavery
a. Abolitionists swamped Congress with
petitions to end slavery
b. Congress put a gag rule into effect
i. Ended debate on the issue
H. American Colonization Society
• Wanted to gradually emancipate blacks and
settle them in Africa
• Started in 1816
H. Limits on Women’s Lives
Widely held views
1. Women were inferior to
men.
2. Women should attend only
to household and family
duties—and to their
husbands.
3. Matters of business,
government, and politics
should be handled by men.
I. Women Abolitionists
1. Sarah and Angelina Grimke were the
daughters of a South Carolina slave owner
a. Raised money, distributed literature, collected
signatures petitioning congress to end slavery
b. The abolitionist movement became a
powerful beginning to other reform causes
such as the women’s rights movement
Seneca Falls Convention
• Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton
• Focused on women’s rights
• In 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention the
Seneca Fall Statement was drawn up it was a
statement of the mistreatment of women by
men
Declaration of Sentiments
• Called for the social and legal equality of
women
Women’s Rights
• Lucy Stone began speaking out for women’s
rights in 1847 and organized a series of
national conventions
• Susan B. Anthony joined the cause in 1851
and worked ceaselessly for women’s rights
J. Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth
1. Was a slave for the first 30 years of her life
2. She went throughout the country
preaching
3. She wanted women’s rights and abolition
a. Many women feared taking on the
slavery issue
K. Temperance Movement
a. Religiously based
in violation of the
Sabbath
b. Movement
included
abstinence and
prohibition
Temperance
• Included Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union and Carrie Nation
L. Education for Women
1. Few opportunities exist for women prior to 1820
1821 – first all girls school opens in Troy, New
York
1837 – Mount Holyoke Female Seminary is
founded in Mass.
1837 – Oberlin College accepts 4 women to its
degree program and becomes the first coeducational college in the U.S.
M. Women’s Rights Movement
1. Seneca Falls Convention – 1848 –
Women’s rights convention
a.“Declaration of Sentiments” – Women
should participate in all public issues
on an equal basis with men.
b. Women’s suffrage
N. The Changing Workplace
1. Strikes began to happen
2. Workers wanted better conditions in which
to work
3. Trade unions were made
a. Workers banned together for changes
4. The court backed the strikers