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THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION. America: Past and Present Chapter 12. The Rise of Evangelicalism. Separation of church and state gives all churches the chance to compete for converts Pious Protestants form voluntary associations to combat sin, “infidelity”.

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THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

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  1. THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION America: Past and Present Chapter 12

  2. The Rise of Evangelicalism • Separation of church and state gives all churches the chance to compete for converts • Pious Protestants form voluntary associations to combat sin, “infidelity”

  3. The Second Great Awakening: The Frontier Phase • Camp meetings contribute to frontier life • provide emotional religion • offer opportunity for social life • Camp meeting revivals convey intensely personal religious message • Camp meetings rarely lead to social reform

  4. The Second Great Awakening in the North • In New England reformers defend Calvinism against the Enlightenment • Charles G. Finney rejects Calvinism to preach free will • Finney preaches in upstate New York • Finney stresses revival techniques • Revivals lead to organization of more churches

  5. From Revivalism to Reform • Northern revivals stimulate reform • Middle-class participants adapt evangelical religion to preserve traditional values • "The benevolent empire" of evangelical reform movements alter American life • e.g. temperance movement cuts alcohol consumption by more than fifty percent

  6. Domesticity and Changes in the American Family • New conception of family’s role in society • Child rearing seen as essential preparation for self-disciplined Christian life • Women confined to domestic sphere • Women assume crucial role within home

  7. Marriage for Love • Mutual love must characterize marriage • Wives became more of a companion to their husbands and less of a servant • Legally, the husband was the unchallenged head of the household

  8. The Cult of Domesticity • "The Cult of True Womanhood" • places women in the home • glorifies home as center of all efforts to civilize and Christianize society • Middle- and upper-class women increasingly dedicated to the home as mothers • Women of leisure enter reform movements

  9. The Discovery of Childhood • Nineteenth-century child the center of family • Each child seen as unique, irreplaceable • Ideal to form child’s character with affection • Parental discipline to instill guilt, not fear • Train child to learn self-discipline

  10. Institutional Reform • Domesticity to inform public institutions • Schools continue what family begins • Asylums, prisons mend family’s failures

  11. The Extension of Education • Public schools expand rapidly 1820-1850 • Working class sees as means to advance • Middle-class reformers see as means for inculcating values of hard work, responsibility • Horace Mann argues schools save immigrants, poor children from parents’ bad influence • Many parents believe public schools alienate children from their parents

  12. Discovering the Asylum • Poor, criminal, insane seen as lacking self-discipline • Harsh measures to promote rehabilitation • solitary confinement of prisoners • strict daily schedule • Public support for rehabilitation skimpy • Prisons, asylums, poorhouses become warehouses for the unwanted

  13. Reform Turns Radical • Most reform aims to improve society • Some radical reformers seek destruction of old society, creation of perfect social order

  14. Divisions in the Benevolent Empire • Radical perfectionists impatient by 1830s, split from moderate reform • temperance movement • peace movement • antislavery movement • Moderates seek gradual end to slavery • Radicals demand immediate emancipation • 1833--American Anti-Slavery Society

  15. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Theodore Dwight Weld • Weld an itinerant minister converted by Finney • Adapted his revivalist techniques to abolition • Successful mass meetings in Ohio, New York

  16. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Public Reception • Appeal to hard-working small town folk • Opposition in cities & near Mason-Dixon line • Opposition from the working class • dislike blacks • fear black economic and social competition • Solid citizens see abolitionists as anarchists

  17. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Obstacles • Abolitionists hampered by in-fighting • William Lloyd Garrison disrupts movement by associating with radical reform efforts • urged abolitionists to abstain from participating in the political process • also got involved in women’s rights movement • Some abolitionists help form the Liberty Party in 1840

  18. Black Abolitionists • Former slaves related the horrible realities of bondage • prominent figures included Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth • Black newspapers, books, and pamphlets publicized abolitionism to a wider audience • Blacks were also active in the Underground Railroad

  19. From Abolitionism to Women's Rights • Abolitionism open to women’s participation • Involvement raises awareness of women’s inequality • Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 • Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton organize • prompted by experience of inequality in abolition movement • begins movement for women’s rights

  20. Radical Ideas & Experiments: Utopian Communities • Utopian socialism • Inspired by Robert Owen, Charles Fourier • New Harmony, Indiana—Owenite • Fourierite phalanxes • Religious utopianism • Shakers • Oneida Community

  21. Utopian Communities Before the Civil War

  22. Radical Ideas & Experiments: Transcendentalism • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Margaret Fuller • George Ripley • founded cooperative community at Brook Farm • Henry David Thoreau

  23. Counterpoint on Reform • Reform encounters perceptive critics • Nathaniel Hawthorne allegorically refuted perfectionist movements • Reform prompts necessary changes in American life

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