Chapter 15
Notes
Mrs. Marshall
Second Great Awakening
 Began
in 1790’s
 Revival meetings, erection of new
churches and founding of new
colleges/universities
 Derived its religious strength from
the popular preaching of evangelical
revivalists in both the west and
eastern cities

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
Grew out of opposition to Deism
Strengthened Methodists and
Baptist
Camp meetings
Promoted religious diversity
Peter Cartwright
A
Methodist “circuit rider’
 Converted thousands of people
Charles Grandison Finney
 lawyer
turned preacher
Advocated:
 opposition to slavery
 perfect Christian kingdom on
earth
 opposition to alcohol
 public prayer by women
Deists
 Thomas
Jefferson, Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Paine
 relied on reason rather than
revelation
 on science rather than the Bible
 rejected the concept of original
sin and denied Christ’s divinity

Believed in Supreme Being who had
created a knowable universe and
endowed human beings with a
capacity for moral behavior
Unitarianism
 denied
the divinity of Jesus and
held that God existed in only one
person.
 William Ellery Channing
 An early 19th century religious
rationalist sect devoted to the
rule of reason and free will.
 Ralph Waldo Emerson
Millerites(Adventists)
William Miller
 this “burned over” district group
interpreted the Bible to mean Christ
would return to earth on October 22,
1844.
 Nothing happened-became known as
the “Great disappointment.”
Movement splintered over doctrinal
differences

Mormons
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
Joseph Smith
Book of Mormons
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Block voting polygamy (plural marriages)
Brigham Young
1847 edge of desert near the Great Salt
Lake
Utah became a state in 1896
Education
 Many
did not support public
education because it educated
primarily the poor
 Began supporting because
education deemed essential for
social stability and democracy
 Horace
Mann- promoter of tax
supported system of public
education for all children
 Successful in: extending school
year, raising teacher salaries,
changing curriculum
 Noah Webster- dictionary and
reading lessons
 William
McGuffey- McGuffey’s
Readers (1830’s) primers for
grades 1-6
 Higher education
– Small, denominational, liberal arts
colleges
– 1st state universities were in South
Education for Women
 their
place was in the home- no
need for education
 Emma Willard-Troy Female
Seminary- 1821
 Oberlin College- 1st university to
admit African Americans.
Admitted women-1837
Lyceum Movement
 Josiah
Holbrook
 Adult education and selfimprovement traveling lecture
programs.
 Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Topics- science, literature,
morals
Dorothea Dix
 New
England teacher and author,
 Worked to improve the treatment
of the mentally ill. Encourages
legislatures to build institutions
to treat mentally ill.
Temperance Movement
 1826-
the American Society for
the Prohibition of Temperance.
 Aimed at hard liquor, whiskey,
rum, bourbon and hard cider.
 Neil Dow’s Maine law in 1851- 1st
state to outlaw intoxicating
liquor.
 Consumption
stemmed from the
hard and monotonous life many
people lead.
 18th Amendment- 1919Prohibition
 21st Amendment- 1933- repealed
the 18th
Ways in which women were
discriminated
 Could
not vote
 Could not own property once
married
 Could be beaten by her
overlord(just as slaves)
 Were inferior to men
 Elizabeth
Cady Stanton- a
leading feminist who wrote
“Declaration of Sentiment”-1848
Pushed for women’s suffrage
 Lucretia
Mott- a Quaker and
women’s rights advocate.
Strongly supported the abolition
of slavery
 Susan
B. Anthonysocial reformer for temperanceachieved world-wide fame as a
crusader for women’s rights
 Dr.
Elizabeth Blackwell- 1st
female doctor in the US- barred
from practicing in most hospitals
 Sarah
and Angelina Grimkeabolitionist movement
 Mary Lyon- pioneer in the field of
higher education-established the
1st women’s college Mount
Holyoke in Massachusetts.
 Emma Willard- established the
first female high school in the
United States in 1821
 Lucy
Stone- American reformer
who was a pioneer in the
movement for women’s rights.
Graduated from Oberlin College.
Toured the country, lecturing
against slavery and advocating
equality for women
Amelia Bloomer- revolted against
the women’s attire-best known
for her support for the outfit of
the tunic and full “pantaloons”.
Later called “The Bloomer
Costume”, later Bloomers
 Seneca
Falls Convention 1848 in
New York
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
Issued a “Declaration of
Sentiment” Demanded the right
of women to vote
Launched the modern women’s
rights movement
Utopian Communities
 an
experimental community
designed to be a perfect society,
in which its members could live
together in harmony.
 They were seeking human
betterment.
New Harmony
 Robert
Owen- Indiana
 Constitution called for absolute
equality and freedom of speech
and action. Absence of authority
led to its failure.
Brook Farm
 George
Ripley and other
transcendentalists- 1841.
 Fire destroyed building, led to
financial problems and commune
failed.
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
Oneida
 most
radical experiment in social
and religious thinking.
 New York-1848- John Noyes
 Complex Marriage- every man
married to every woman and vice
versa.
 Successful
economically but by
1879 internal dissension had
arisen and outside hostility
became so strong Noyes went to
Canada.
 The most successful of the
utopian communities
John J. Audubon
For half a century he was the
country’s dominant wildlife artist.
 Birds of America- a collection of 435
life-size prints
 Audubon Society- Audubon’s widow
tutored one of the founders of this
society. Purpose of the Audubon
Society is to conserve and restore
natural ecosystems focusing on birds
and other wildlife.

America’s artistic achievement
was barely notable in the 1st half
of the 19th century.
Public buildings followed Greek
and Roman lines
Thomas Jefferson- Monticello and
the University of Virginia
Hudson River School
Excelled in the art of painting
landscapes
 Dating from the 1820’s a group of
painters who took as their subjects
the unique naturalness of the
American continent, starting with the
Hudson River in New York but
eventually extending all the way to
California.

After the war of 1812 a wave of
Nationalism contributed to the
development of American
literature.
Washington Irving
 His
Knickerbockers' History of
New York and Sketch Book along
with individual short tales like
Rip Van Winkle and The Legend
of Sleepy Hollow described the
Dutch experience in New York
and made him the 1st American
writer to achieve world fame.
James Fenimore Cooper
Created an original American
literature with his Leatherstocking
Tales and The Last of the Mohicans.
His depiction of the contrasting
values of the rugged men of the
wilderness with modern civilization
became a reoccurring theme in
American literature.
 He gained world fame and made New
World themes respectable.

 Transcendentalists
believed that
all knowledge came through an
inner light.
 Transcendental thought was
influenced by:
 German philosophers, Oriental
religions, individualism and the
love of nature.
Transcendentalists Writers
 Ralph
Waldo Emersonemphasized individuality and an
intuitive spirituality. Balked at
the emerging industrial society
around him.
Henry David Thoreau- removed
himself from society-Walden(1854)“civil disobedience”-this influenced
such people as Mahatma Gandhi and
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 Walt Whitman- collection of poem
Leaves of Grass (1855). His fame
increased after his death. Gained the
informal title “Poet Laureate of
Democracy”

 Nathaniel
Hawthorne- The
Scarlet Letter (1850) and The
House of the Seven Gables
(1851) Rejected the
transcendentalist.
Transcendental movement was
short-lived, dying out in the
1850’s but it influenced other
individuals and movements
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Harvard
professor
 “Evangeline” ,”The Song of
Hiawatha”, “The Courtship of
Miles Standish”
 Only American to ever be
honored with a bust in the Poet’s
Corner of Westminster Abbey
John Greenleaf Whitter
 Quaker
 Influential
in social action
 Poems about inhumanity,
injustice and intolerance
James Russell Lowell
 Ranks
among America’s best
poets
 Distinguished essayists, literacy
critic, editor and diplomat
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes
 Taught
anatomy at Harvard
Medical School
 Prominent poet, essayist,
novelist and lecturer
Two female writers:
 Louisa May Alcott - wrote Little
Women (1868)
 Emily Dickinson -her poems were
published after her death.
Edgar Allan Poe
 Did
not believe in human
goodness and social progress
 Poet and also excelled in short
stories
 “The Raven”
Two other writes who also
reflected the continuing obsession
of never ending struggle between
good and evil:
 Nathaniel Hawthorne- Puritanism
were dominant themes in his
works like The Scarlet Letter
 Herman Melville-his work Moby
Dick was a tale of good and evil
 Most
all distinguished historians
of the early nineteenth century
came from the New England
states because the Boston area
provided well-stocked libraries
and a stimulating literacy
tradition.
Impact on the South:
 Northern
writers heavily
influenced by the abolitionist and
they were opposed to the
southern way of life. For many
generations of history writings
had an anti-southern bias.