ROOTS OF REFORM

1. ROOTS OF REFORM

2. Why change? • Second Great Awakening – generally early 1800’s, ends around Civil War • Stressed mercy and love of God • Importance of personal salvation • Evangelical leaders • Charles Grandison Finney • Combined sermons, personal testimonials of salvation, hymn singing. • Salvation available to everyone (not just the “elect”) • Appealed to working classes and middle class women who felt responsible for the spiritual well-being of their families.

3. What is a “Great Awakening”? • a profound cultural transformation that affects all Americans and extends over a generation or more

4. Era of Associations • Voluntary associations as pillar of emerging middle class • Promoted various philanthropic and religious causes • Leaders came from upper classes • Bulk of membership came from middle class

5. Revivals/Camp Meetings • A good revival doesn’t just bring back the good old days, it helps you understand what’s going on now and put it into religious perspective – that’s an awakening! • Sometimes went on for days, torches at night • Reactions often undisciplined and direct • Faint, give self up to spirit, dance, laugh, bark, run around on all fours and tree the devil. • Preachers had to be good to be heard over the commotion!

6. Northern Revivals • Didn’t have the same intensity as southern or western • Charles G. Finney • From “burned over district” – area of NY where many revivals were held • Charismatic • Massive affairs • 100,000 converts in a year • Techniques were new • Most modern evangelists owe their techniques to him • All night prayer meetings, pray for sinners by name, allowed women to pray when men were present, denounced old school ministers as cold and stupid, anxious seat/bench • Preached man to man, eyeball to eyeball, used the word “hell” – appealled to emotions and fear of damnation • Excitement rivets attention • Reached out to urban dwellers, recruited lay workers and organized prayer before his arrival, posted placards, advertised in the papers, distributed door to door notices, practiced house to house visitations

7. Charles G. Finney(1792 – 1895) The ranges of tents, the fires, reflecting light…; the candles and lamps illuminating the encampment; hundreds moving to and fro…;the preaching, praying, singing, and shouting,… like the sound of many waters, was enough to swallow up all the powers of contemplation. “soul-shaking” conversion R1-2

8. The “Burned-Over” Districtin Upstate New York

9. SOUTHERN REVIVALS • Camp meeting under the trees • Church as center of community life, fellowship • New churches formed to sustain the power of the meetings • Particularly Baptist and Methodist – by 1850 they were the largest denominations in the country. • Baptist – total immersion, more democratic, no higher ecclesiastical control or authority • Methodist – bishops elected, chose circuit riders and changed them regularly for variety • Both gave lay people a prominent role, open to new talent, encouraged ministers to be close to the people, act as force for sobriety, charity, and order

10. Second Great AwakeningRevival Meeting

11. Social Revolution • Late 18th Century, Early 19th Century • Transportation revolution • Moving west in tremendous numbers • Break up of communities • Wagons, canals, railroad • Young males moving out in droves, New England losing population • Causes a great deal of change • Eastern establishment felt it was losing control • Period of emerging new states • Birth of “old maid”/ “spinster” stereotype – as men moved west and some women never married (New England)

12. Social Revolution • Industrial Revolution • Emergence of textile mills • Ex: Lowell (Mass.) • Changed people • Young women took jobs at Lowell • Young men moved from farms to mill jobs • Different life • Industrial environment replacing old agricultural ways • Growth of cities • Increased crime, poverty, etc.

13. Social Revolution • Erosion of deference and authority • Era of common man • Everyone is as good as everyone else • Symbol of era – Andrew Jackson • Concern for discipline and control • Social Reform was an attempt to restore order, stability and control • Second Great Awakening was also an attempt to restore control. • Attempt to reform morals and create a more stable society

14. The Second Great Awakening “Spiritual Reform From Within”[Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Education Temperance Abolitionism Asylum &Penal Reform Women’s Rights

15. Spreading Influence of Churches • Evangelism • Spread church to the west • Need benefit of an educated ministry • Timothy Dwight, President of Yale – began training missionaries to send west. • Conservative forces wanted to restore order to the lower classes!

16. Abolition • Second Great Awakening – encouraged northerners to think of slavery as a sin. • Made compromise difficult • 1817 – American Colonization Society – • Wanted to transport freed slaves to African colony (Liberia) - never caught on.

17. Abolition • American Antislavery Society (1831) • William Lloyd Garrison • The Liberator (newspaper) • Beginning of radical abolitionist movement • Wanted immediate abolition in every state and territory without compensating slaveholders. • Condemned and burned Constitution as a proslavery document. • Wanted no Union with slaveholders until they repented for their sins by freeing their slaves.

18. Black Abolitionists • Frederick Douglass • Could speak about brutality of slavery first hand. • Wanted political action and direct action to free slaves and end racial prejudice. • Antislavery journal – The North Star. • Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth

19. Violent Abolitionists • David Walker • Henry Highland Garnet • Argued slaves should take action themselves – rise up in revolt • Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) – killed 44 whites, and led to hundreds of slaves killed putting down the revolt. • Led to fear of future uprisings and the end of any antislavery talk in the south.

20. Women’s Movement • Second Great Awakening - got women involved in many other movements (abolition, temperance, asylum, education, etc. • Women resented the secondary roles men allowed them in the movements… • Industrial Revolution – got men out of the home and left women in charge of more, as well as opening up some jobs to women.

21. Early Years • Abigail Adams – early proponent for women’s rights – encouraged her husband to “remember the ladies”. Didn’t happen, but shows some women hoped to benefit from early ideas of equality and individual rights. • Cult of Domesticity/Republican Motherhood • Women idealized in roles as wives and mothers. • Women responsible for rearing children to be good citizens of the new republic.

22. Lowell System • - relied on labor force of women • Young farm girls, hoping to save money for marriage. • Strictly monitored - dormitory, church attendance, house mother, classes to attend, work! • 1820’s and 1830’s • Early labor organizers - tried to protest wage cut and lost. Irish workers took their place.

23. Seneca Falls Convention 1848 • Organized and led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. • Called for women’s rights in the following areas: • Suffrage • Right to keep property after marriage • Divorce and child custody rights • Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions • Demanded greater rights for women • Patterned after the Declaration of Independence • Declared all men and women are created equal!

24. Women’s Movement • Led by middle class women • Promoted legal and educational rights • Close ties with anti-slavery and temperance movements • Held conventions in the Northeast and Midwest, but not in the South. • Supported • Right of women to vote • Abolition of slavery • Passage of temperance laws • Right of married women to own property

25. TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT • Encourage moderate drinking • Alcoholism becoming a problem • Escape lives in industrial society • At first try moral argument to get people to stay away from drink • Later use the law to keep drink away from people! • Movement grew drastically in the 1840’s and 1850’s – immigrants who drank too much, people who joined were often anti-Irish, anti-immigrant. • Might have moved to full scale prohibition if not for the Civil War.

26. 5.Temperance Movement 1826 - American Temperance Society“Demon Rum”! Frances Willard The Beecher Family R1-6

27. Annual Consumption of Alcohol

28. “The Drunkard’s Progress” From the first glass to the grave, 1846

29. EDUCATION MOVEMENT • Movement for common education • Starts in New England (Horace Mann) – leader of movement for public schools • Compulsory attendance, longer school year, increased teacher preparation • Feared class conflict, thought answer was universal education • Teach immigrants order and structure, principles of morality • Help deal with problem of child labor

30. The McGuffey Eclectic Readers Used to teach American values, respect for order, 3 R’s, Protestant ethic – frugality, hard work, sobriety! R3-8

31. ASYLUM MOVEMENT • Dorothea Dix • Concern over conditions for mentally ill • Growing problem • Used to be dealt with by families/communities • Stress and strain of emerging industrial life was causing problems • Asylums located in countryside • Orderly regimen, work and order • Central State (Milledgeville) founded in 1841 – pastoral environment

32. Emergence of penitentiary • Idea that people can be restored to right thinking in an orderly, structured environment • Before this, in 18th Century, if accused of a crime – either acquitted, fined, whipped, or spent time in stocks or hanged. • Jails were only for holding • Penitentiaries were places to be penitent. • Isolation – time to think • Georgia had one of the first experiments in modern penology. Opened in 1817 – located where Georgia College is today. Innovative!

33. 4.Penitentiary Reform Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) R1-5/7

34. Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849

35. HEALTH/DIET • Diet as key to health and well-being • Minister – Sylvester Graham • Believed young men were going wild in cities b/c of diet! Too many stimulating foods. • Need bland diet to calm you down. • Self-discipline / control • His recipe for unleavened crackers led to GRAHAM CRACKERS!

36. UTOPIAN MOVEMENTS • Some reformers tried to achieve social reorganization and personal reform through establishing small-scale communities outside of American Society.

37. 3.Utopian Communities

38. Shakers • Started by Ann Lee (England) • Believers thought she was the female incarnation of God. • Held property in common • Made a virtue of living simply • Practiced celibacy – married converts separated, adopted children into the community • Community dormitories, segregated by sex • Mutual criticism – discuss spiritual lives • Ritual dances, religious fervor, they would shake • Renounced artificial stimulants – alcohol, tobacco, dietary restrictions – very healthy • Known for furniture – simple, plain, beautiful • Movement died out during Civil War

39. Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784) The Shakers • If you will take up your crosses against the works of generations, and follow Christ in theregeneration, God will cleanse you from allunrighteousness. • Remember the cries of those who are in need and trouble, that when you are in trouble, God may hear your cries. • If you improve in one talent, God will give you more. R1-4

40. Shaker Meeting

41. Shaker Hymn 'Tis the gift to be simple, 'Tis the gift to be free,'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,And when we find ourselves in the place just right,'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.When true simplicity is gainedTo bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,To turn, turn will be our delight,'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

42. Shaker Simplicity & Utility

43. Amana and Oneida communities • Prospered by developing manufacturing skills • Oneida community founded by John Humphrey Noyes (from “burned over district”) • practiced “complex marriage” – every man was married to every woman, monogamy selfish • Manufactured flatware • Women had unusual amount of equality

44. Mormons • Founder – Joseph Smith (from “burned over district” of NY. • Late teens – had a vision about tablets hidden in hills. Revealed hidden history of America. Jesus appeared in this country after ascension. Indians were one of the Lost Tribes. Smith saw the tablets in a dream, dug them up, friends said they saw them too. He translated the tablets, what was inscribed on them became the Book of Mormon. • Unorthodox religious views and exclusivism caused resentment among non-Mormons. • Hostility and violence in Ohio and Illinois led them to move westward. Smith and his brother were jailed and lynched. • Brigham Young led followers to Utah. • Buchanan sent military to try to get them to get rid of polygamy. Lost steam in Civil War.

45. The Mormons(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) 1823  Golden Tablets 1830 Book of Mormon 1844  Murdered in Carthage, I Joseph Smith(1805-1844)