The Ferment of Reform and Culture

1. The Ferment of Reform and Culture Chapter 15

2. Essential Questions? • What characteristics define a perfect society? • How did the art, literature, and language of 1801-1850 reflect a collective sense of nationalism and sectionalism?

3. Reform Movement • Reformers promoted improving many areas of life: • Education • Women’s rights • Religion • Morals

4. Reviving Religion • Tocqueville declared, “ no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence than US” • What, in America’s past, has been the driving force behind religion?

5. Reviving Religion • Deism popular among founding fathers. • What is Deism? • 2nd Great Awakening is used to describe the rebirth of religious fervor across the nation (1820-1850) • New religious groups • Revivals (camp meetings) flourish • Methodists and Baptists see increase in membership

6. Charles Finney • Best known 2nd GA preacher • “Fire and Brimstone” • Denounced alcohol and slavery • Persuaded thousands toward “salvation”

7. Burning Desires • Middle-class women were frightened by the changing world (IR), driven toward religious movements to find answers. • Poor also flocked to religion for direction. • NY state the hotbed of activity, “Burned-Over District” • Disputes over slavery split the Baptists and Methodists • Are any of you Southern Baptists? What does that mean?

8. The Desert Zion in Utah • 1830: Joseph Smith sees a vision, directs him toward “golden plates” • Smith translates them into the Book of Mormon • Mormons believed in polygamy, neighbors didn’t • Driven from NY to Illinois • Mob murders Smith • Brigham Young becomes leader of Mormons, wants to get far away from persecution of non-Mormons. • 1846: Mormons move to Utah • Forced to abandon polygamy for statehood • Estimated 6 million in US today.

9. Smith and Young

10. Free Schools for Free People • Jefferson an early advocate for free education • How could a democracy flourish without a knowledgeable base? • Public Ed. Is expensive, taxpayers objected • Horace Mann is an education reformer • Better facilities, higher pay for teachers, expanded curriculum • Slaves legally forbidden from education. Why? • Noah Webster: the dictionary guy!

11. The Way it Was

12. Higher Learning • UNC 1st state college, 1795 • Jefferson built UVA in 1819 • “Too much learning injured the female brain” • Women excluded from higher learning • Oberlin College accepted women, men, and AA by 1837 • Textbook page 327

13. Age of Reform • States outlaw debtors’ prison • Changing standards for capital punishment • Prisons cleaned up, efforts made to actually rehabilitate inmates. • Dorothea Dix campaigned for the mentally ill • Got them out of prisons and into hospitals

14. Dorothea Dix

15. Demon Rum • Few laws against drinking, lead to people being drunk, a lot! • Weddings, funerals, court cases, congressional assemblies often delayed or ruined • Decreased efficiency and lead to injuries in factories • Drunk dads spent paychecks on booze, beat wives and kids • Reformers want to change this “blight” on society.

16. Demon Rum • 2 methods of change • 1. strengthen the morals of drunks • 2. create laws that prohibited, or restricted alcohol • Several states prohibit alcohol, but later reverse their decisions

17. Women in Revolt • Women have few rights • No suffrage • Husbands could beat • No property • Thought to be emotionally weak • “Cult of domesticity” • Women begin to push for change in early 1800s • Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Grimke Sisters push for suffrage • Organize the Seneca Falls Convention 1848 • The dumbest white man could vote, why not the smartest women? • “all men and women are created equal”

18. Changing Fashion

19. Wilderness Utopias • The drive for perfection enticed many to leave society and start from scratch with high ideals. • These communities became known as Utopias • New Harmony, IN • Brook Farm, MA • Oneida, NY • Often failed do to radicals, lazy people and opportunists • Based on different theories including sexual promescuity.

20. Oneida Silverware

21. Artistic Achievement Hudson River school of art = landscape Daguerreotype: early photography

22. National Literature Blooms • Early US Literature • The Federlist • Common Sense • Autobiography, by Franklin • New Masters of literature: • The Knickerbocker Club: NY writers that contributed to sense of nationalism • Washington Irving: played on Dutch decedents in NY • “Rip Van Winkle” • “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” • James Fenimore Cooper: 1st US novelist to gain worldwide fame. • The Spy • The Last of the Mohicans”

23. Transcendentalism • Writing style that resulted in loosening of Puritan values in New England, influenced by Buddhism. • Truth doesn't have to be learned, it can be experienced. • Promoted self-reliance, self-discipline • Henry David Thoreau • Refused to pay taxes because they supported slavery, went to jail. • Wrote Civil Disobedience, inspired Gandhi and King. Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass Poet, Romantic Ralph Waldo Emerson

24. Thoreau and Whitman

25. American Masters • Edgar Allan Poe • Orphan, sickly, wife dies, Debtor • Lyrical poet • “The Raven” • “Tell Tale Heart” • “The Fall of the House of Usher” • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Wrote of Americas’ contradictory past • The Scarlett Letter • James Fennimore Cooper • 1st great US novelist recognized by Europe • Last of the Mohicans • Washington Irving • “Sleepy Hollow” • “Rip Van Winkle”

26. Essential Questions? • What characteristics define a perfect society? • How did the art, literature, and language of 1801-1850 reflect a collective sense of nationalism and sectionalism?