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Religion Sparks Reform

Religion Sparks Reform. Second Great Awakening. Post-1790, religious movement sweeps through the country Preachers focused on individualism and personal responsibility rather than predestination Mirrored the ideals of Jacksonian democracy which stressed the power of the common man.

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Religion Sparks Reform

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  1. Religion Sparks Reform

  2. Second Great Awakening • Post-1790, religious movement sweeps through the country • Preachers focused on individualism and personal responsibility rather than predestination • Mirrored the ideals of Jacksonian democracy which stressed the power of the common man

  3. Revivals • Churches split and formed new denominations over these issues • Preachers traveled the country speaking at large gatherings called revivals (like a 19th century church retreat) • Charles Grandison Finney and others become well known speakers • 1800: 1 in 15 belonged to a church • 1850: 1 in 6 belonged to a church

  4. African-American Church • Second Great Awakening brought the message that God was for all, black or white • Baptist and Methodist churches throughout the South welcomed slaves to their services • Slaves interpreted the message of Christianity as one of promised freedom for their people • Many free African Americans in the East worshipped in their own congregations

  5. The Black Church Influences Politics • Membership in Richard Allen’s African Methodist Episcopal Church grew rapidly • Became a political, cultural, and social center • Provided education and health services • Through the church, African Americans began to develop a political voice • Black National Convention held in Philadelphia in 1830, became an annual event

  6. Transcendentalism • Philosophical and literary movement • Stressed living a simple life • Celebrated truth in nature, personal emotion, and imagination • Authors like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau led the movement • Emphasized American ideals of optimism, freedom, and self reliance

  7. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” • Henry David Thoreau

  8. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” • Henry David Thoreau

  9. “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” • Ralph Waldo Emerson

  10. “Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” • Ralph Waldo Emerson

  11. Unitarianism • Rather than looking to emotions, Unitarians stressed reason and conscience • Many wealthy, educated New Englanders subscribed to these belief systems • Believed that the purpose of Christianity was to perfect human nature and make men “nobler beings”

  12. Utopian Communities • Utopia: a perfect place • Many communities emerged across the country, following different philosophies • Shaker Communities • Shared all of their goods • Men and women were equal • Pacifists • Could not marry or have children

  13. Prison Reform • Dorothea Dix: led a movement that founded public hospitals for the mentally ill • Prison reformers emphasized rehabilitation rather than just punishment • Like revivalists, believed there was hope for everyone

  14. Education Reform • No uniform educational policy existed • Only Vermont and Massachusetts had school attendance laws • Classrooms were not divided by grade • Few children stayed in school beyond age 10

  15. Education Reform • 1830s: Americans begin to demand tax-supported public schools • Horace Mann: “If we do not prepare children to become good citizens, … if we do not enrich their minds with knowledge, then our republic must go down to destruction, as others have gone before it.” • By 1850s every state had publicly funded schools of some kind

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