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Religion Spark Reform

Religion Spark Reform. Chapter 8-1. Second Great Awakening. US religious movement after 1790 Rejected 18 th century belief that God predetermined if a person would go to heaven or hell Individual responsibility: people could improve themselves and society

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Religion Spark Reform

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  1. Religion Spark Reform Chapter 8-1

  2. Second Great Awakening • US religious movement after 1790 • Rejected 18th century belief that God predetermined if a person would go to heaven or hell • Individual responsibility: people could improve themselves and society • Promoted individualism and responsibility – power of the common citizen

  3. Revivalism • Revival: emotional meeting to promote religious faith • Excited preaching and prayer • Charles Grandison Finney: “father of modern revivalism” • 1800: 1 in 15 Americans belonged to a church • 1850: 1 in 6 Americans belonged to a church

  4. African-American Church • SGA brought Christianity to enslaved African-Americans • Belief that all people belonged to the same God • Gave members spiritual support to oppose slavery • 1stblack national convention: September 1830 in Philadelphia led by Richard Allen– later became an annual convention

  5. Rural South: Slaves worshipped in same churches, heard same sermons, and sang same hymns as their owners – but in segregated pews • Christian message =promise of freedom • East: free African Americans had their own churches – became political, cultural, and social center

  6. Transcendentalism • Philosophical and literary movement • emphasized living a simple life • highlighted the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination • Transcendentalists: stressed American ideas of optimism, self-reliance, and freedom

  7. Ralph Waldo Emerson:nurtured newly emerging pride in American culture • Henry David Thoreau: put idea of self-reliance into practice by living alone in woods for 2 years and abandoning community life • individual conscience important – urged people not to obey laws they considered to be unjust • Civil disobedience: peaceful protest as opposed to protesting unjust laws with violence • Ex: Thoreau didn’t pay his taxes because he didn’t want to support the US gov’t. (which allowed slavery and fought a war with Mexico) – went to jail

  8. Unitarianism • Emphasized reason and appeals to conscience as the paths to perfection, rather than appealing to the emotions • New England: wealthy and educated followers • Believed conversion was a gradual process (revivals had dramatic conversions) • Believed individual and social reform were possible and important (agreed with revivalists)

  9. Utopian Communities • Groups tried to create a “utopia” (perfect place) inspired by the optimism of religious and social reform • Common goal: self-sufficiency • Best-known: New Harmony, Indiana and Brook Farm near Boston • Most lasted no more than a few years

  10. Shaker Communities • Shakers shared their goods with each other, believed that men and women are equal, and refused to fight for any reason • Shakers vowed not to marry or have children – depended on converts and adopting children to expand their communities • 1840s: 6,000 members (highest number) • 1999: 7 members in the entire US

  11. Prison & Asylum Reform Dorothea Dix: discovered that jails housed mentally ill people “I proceed, gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within this Commonwealth…Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!...Injustice is also done to the convicts: it is certainly very wrong that they should be doomed day after day and night after night to listen to the ravings of madmen and mad women.” – 1843 letter to MA Legislature

  12. 1843: Dix sent a report to MA Legislature = law to improve conditions was passed • 1845-1852: Dix persuaded 9 Southern states to create hospitals for the mentally ill • Prison reformers emphasized rehabilitation • could reform the sick or imprisoned person into a useful societal member = hope for everyone (revivalists)

  13. Education Reform • Before mid-1800s: no uniform education policy in US • School conditions varied from region to region • Before Civil War: MA and VT were only states to pass a compulsory school attendance law • Classrooms weren’t divided by grade • Most students stopped attending school by age 10

  14. 1830s: Americans demanded tax-supported public schools • Opposition: • wealthy tax payers who enrolled their children in private schools • German immigrants who were afraid their children would lose their German language and culture • By 1850s: every state had provided some form of publically funded elementary schools

  15. Horace Mann: first secretary of MA Board of Education in 1837 • Established teacher-training programs, instituted curriculum reforms, and doubled money that MA spent on schools • 1848: introduced age-grading: • grouped students based on their ages rather than one large classroom where ages could range from 6-14

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