The Ferment of Reform

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The Ferment of Reform Culture1790-1860

• The American Pageant
• Chapter 16

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Reviving Religion

• Rationalism, Deism, Unitarian faith led to
  growing liberalism in religion.
• Response 2nd Great Awakening, larger than 1st,
  spread through camp meetings.

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Reviving Religion (2)

• Result boosted church membership, led to
  humanitarian reforms.
• Methodists Baptists benefited the most
  stressed emotional-ism personal conversion
  rather than predestination.

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Reviving Religion (3)

• Peter Cartwright was best known Methodist
  circuit rider.
• Charles Finney was greatest revival preacher,
  called for perfect Christian kingdom on earth,
  led to reform efforts (alcohol, slavery).

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Denominational Diversity

• Western NY became known as Burned-Over
  District, gave birth to Adventists, predicted
  Christs return.
• Like 1st, 2nd Awakening widened gaps between
  classes and religions.

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Denominational Diversity (2)

• Rich, conservative, eastern den. were not
  affected (Episc., Presb., Cong., Unit.)
• Methodist/Baptist drew from poorer classes in
  South, West.
• Split of churches over slavery foreshadowed
  political split.

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A Desert Zion in Utah

• 1830 Burned-Over District produced Joseph Smith,
  Book of Mormon.
• Cooperation, polygamy, militia created conflict
  with neighbors in Ohio MO.

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A Desert Zion in Utah (2)

• 1846-47 After Smiths murder, Brigham Young
  leads LDS to Utah.
• Utah grew quickly from LDS, European immigration
• Conflict with fed. govt over territorial
  control, polygamy.

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Free Schools/Free People

• Early public schools were only for poor, but came
  to be viewed by rich as necessary for stable
  democracy.
• 1825-1850 Public schooling grew due to white
  manhood suffrage.

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Free Schools/Free People (2)

• Quality of early schools sporadic, needed reform.
• Horace Mann (MA Board of Ed.) argued for longer
  terms, better pay, broader curriculum.

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Free Schools/Free People (3)

• Despite Mann, only 100 public secondary schools
  by 1860, education a luxury for many.
• Webster provided improved textbooks, dictionary
  (standardized language)
• McGuffeys readers taught morality, patriotism.

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Higher Learning

• 2nd Great Awakening led to small denominational
  schools which, like ivy league taught
  traditional subjects.
• 1st state schools began in South (N. Carolina in
  1795).

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Higher Learning (2)

• UVA founded in 1819, brainchild of Jefferson.
  Dedicated to freedom from denominational control,
  modern languages, sciences.
• Womens higher ed frowned upon, but some schools
  developed in 1820-30s.

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Higher Learning (3)

• 1837 Oberlin allowed women, previously blacks.
• Adult education grew through lyceum lecture
  associations (3000 by 1835).
• Magazines flourished, e.g. North American Review.

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An Age of Reform

• Various reform campaigns developed, most as a
  result of 2nd Great Awakening.
• Puritan vision of perfected society fueled
  crusades against war, alcohol, discrimination,
  slavery.

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An Age of Reform (2)

• State leg. gradually abolished debtors prisons.
• Capital offenses and brutal punishments reduced,
  idea that prisons should reform rather than just
  punish grew.

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An Age of Reform (3)

• Dorothea Dix led reforms to improve treatment of
  mentally ill (1843 petition to Mass. leg.).
• William Ladd led peace movement, American Peace
  Society formed in 1828.

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Demon Rum

• Alcohol a problem, even among women, clergy
  problem at weddings, funerals, work.
• 1826 American Temperance Society formed in
  Boston, thousands followed.

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Demon Rum (2)

• Anti-alcohol novel Ten Nights in a Barroom was
  bestseller in 1850s.
• Moderate reformers stressed temperance
  (moderation) rather than abstinence, but others
  favored prohibition.

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Demon Rum (3)

• Neal S. Dow, Father of Prohibition, sponsored
  Maine Law of 1851no manufacture or sale.
• Other states followed, but many laws were struck
  down or ignored. However, drinking was reduced
  overall.

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Women in Revolt

• Women had few rights, but treated better than in
  Europe, partly due to their scarcity on frontier.
• Distinctive gender roles, especially economically
• Homemakers glorified, e.g. cult of domesticity

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Women in Revolt (2)

• Midcentury more women involved in reform
  (womens rights, temperance, slavery).
• E. Cady Stanton advocated womens suffrage.
• Susan B. Anthony was militant lecturer,
  progressive women called Suzy Bs.

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Women in Revolt (3)

• 1848 Feminist reform led to Seneca Falls
  Convention.
• Declared that all men and women are created
  equal, demanded suffrage.
• Significance launched modern womens rights
  movement.

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Wilderness Utopias

• Utopian spirit led to creation of over 40
  cooperative communities.
• New Harmony, Robert Owen, 1825 failed due to
  lack of unity.
• Brook Farm, 1841 20 transcen-dentalists,
  collapsed in debt after fire. Inspired Hawthorne.

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Wilderness Utopias (2)

• Oneida, 1848, John H. Noyes complex marriage,
  eugenics. Survived for 30 years due to silver,
  traps.
• Shakers, 1770, Mother Ann Lee Peaked in 1840,
  prohibited marriage/sex, gone by 1940.

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Scientific Achievement

• Early Americans interested only in
  practical/gadget science, e.g. plowing, ocean
  navigation.
• But a few real scientists were influential, e.g.
  Silliman (Yale) Agassiz (Harvard).

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Scientific Achievement (2)

• John J. Audobon published Birds of America. Bird
  protection society named after him.
• Medicine bleeding as treat-ment plagues still
  common.
• 1850 Life exp. only 40 years.

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Scientific Achievement (3)

• Use of medicine often harmful, surgeries painful
  (whiskey).
• Early 1840s MDs DDSs began using laughing
  gas/ether as anesthetics.

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Artistic Achievements

• Architecture generally followed Greek/Roman
  models.
• Jefferson (Monticello, UVA) was best architect of
  his time.
• Art suffered b/c lack of wealthy class leisure
  time, Puritan view of art.

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Artistic Achievements (2)

• Notable American painters Gilbert Stuart (in
  England), Charles Wilson Peale (G. Washington),
  John Trumball (Rev. War).
• After 1812, nationalism led to portraits of
  landscapes, e.g. Hudson River School.

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National Literature

• Early lit. was practical, e.g. political essays
  (Federalist).
• Nationalism and economic dev. of older eastern
  areas produced support for US lit.
• Knickerbocker Group in NY produced 1st US lit.
  comparable to Europe.

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National Literature (2)

• Knickerbockers
• Washington Irving impressed Europe, The Sketch
  Book
• James Fenimore Cooper 1st novelist,
  Leatherstocking Tales
• William Cullen Bryant poetry (Thanatopsis), NY
  Post

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Transcendentalism

• 1830 Rejected Lockes theory that knowledge
  comes only through senseswe all have inner light
  to give knowledge and put us in touch with God.
• Led to social religious individualism
  self-reliance, self-discipline.

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Transcendentalism (2)

• Ralph Waldo Emerson most famous former minister,
  writer, speaker (lyceum).
• Speech The American Scholar urged Americans to
  have intellectual independence from Europe.

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Transcendentalism (3)

• Henry David Thoreau like Emerson opposed to
  slavery, developed ideas of civil disobedience.
• Gifted writer Walden described experience of
  simple life.

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Transcendentalism (4)

• Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass (1855) - collection
  of poetry.
• Poet Laureate of Democracy he described love
  for masses, expansion of America.

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Glowing Literary Lights

• Longfellow popular poet both in US Europe,
  popular works based on American themes.
• Whittier poet laureate of antislavery effort.
• Lowell great poet, essayist, political satirist
  condemned slavery expansion of Polk.

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Glowing Literary Lights (2)

• Holmes saw Boston as central, poet, essayist,
  novelist, lecturer.
• Alcott wrote Little Women to support family.
• Dickinson recluse, would not publish poems
  during lifetime.
• Simms Cooper of the South, 82 books, southern
  themes.

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Literary Individualists

• Some writers were not reform oriented, but were
  dissenters, e.g.
• Poe Life of suffering, alcohol, wrote horror
  short stories, poems (The Raven).

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Literary Individualists (2)

• Hawthorne Scarlet Letter, Puritan
  influence/themes.
• Melville Adventurer, Moby Dick was not initially
  popular, most liked more upbeat novels, died in
  poverty.

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Portrayers of the Past

• Early American historians (Bancroft, Prescott,
  Parkmann) were New Englanders, due to Bostons
  libraries, literary tradition.
• Result many works reflected anti-southern bias.

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