Chapter 15 Second Great Awakening and Reform

1. Chapter 15Second Great Awakening and Reform Many of the significant reform movements in American history began during the Jacksonian era and in the following decades. The goals of these reformers included temperance, suffrage, education and the abolition of slavery

2. Deism • Embraced by many of the Founding Fathers, including Jefferson and Franklin • Deists relied on the concept of reason rather than revelation, on science rather than the Bible • They rejected the concept of original sin and denied Christ’s divinity • Yet Deists believed in a Supreme Being who had created the universe

3. The Second Great Awakening • In response to the “liberalism” of religion, revivals sprang up • Religious revivals swept across the U.S. in the early 19th century • Successful preachers were audience centered and easily understood by the uneducated • They offered salvation for all

4. 1839 Methodist camp meeting

5. Revivalism in New York • In 1823, a Presbyterian minister named Charles G. Finney started a series of religious revivals in upstate NY • All were free to be saved through faith and hard work • Western NY became known as the “burned-over district” for its “hell and brimstone” revivals

6. The “Burned-Over District”

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

8. Finney and Rochester • Finney arrived in Rochester in Sept., 1830, after taking a “packet canal boat” on the Erie Canal • He would stay until June,1831 • Many historians claim that Rochester was his most successful revival

9. Revivalism • In the South, Baptist and Methodist preachers traveled and preached • Circuit preachers attracted thousands to outdoor revival meetings • These preachers converted many of the unchurched into respectable members of the community

10. Mormons (Church of the Latter-Day Saints) Joseph Smith Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 in upstate NY (Palmyra) Facing persecution, Mormons moved from NY to OH, MO and IL Facing more problems in IL, Brigham Young led the Mormons to the Great Salt Lake, UT

11. The Mormon “Trek”

13. Effects of the Second Great Awakening • Like the first, it caused new divisions in society between the newer, evangelical sects and the older Protestant churches • Only in northern states did the Great Awakening play a significant role in social reform • Activist religious groups provided the leadership that drove reform

14. Ideas, the Arts and Literature • Transcendentalists: individualistic, questioned doctrines of churches, challenged materialism, supported many reforms • Ralph Waldo Emerson: wrote essays and gave lectures evoking a nationalistic spirit for Americans by urging them not to imitate European culture but create an entirely original American culture. Against slavery

15. Ideas, the Arts and Literature • Henry David Thoreau: close friend to Emerson • Lived by himself for two years in woods outside Concord, MA • Walden, published in 1854 • Observation of nature , truths about life • Essay: “On Civil Disobedience” advocates nonviolent protest, not obeying unjust laws (Gandhi, King)

16. Communal Experiments Shaker Meeting, 1885 • Withdrawing from conventional society to create an ideal community or utopia • Open lands proved a fertile ground for over a hundred experimental communities • Shakers, New Harmony, Oneida community

17. Arts and Literature • Frederick Church emphasized the beauty of the American landscape • Twilight in the Wilderness (1859) • George Caleb Bingham paints common people in various settings • Raftsmen Playing Cards (1847)

18. Reforming Society - Temperance • American Temperance Society founded in 1826 • Protestant ministers and others felt alcohol led to many social ills (crime and poverty) • Total abstinence • Opposition by German and Irish immigrants • Path to middle-class respectability

20. Reforming Society – Public Asylums • What happens to the criminals, emotionally disturbed persons and paupers? • Often forced to live in horrendous conditions • Dorothea Dix (school teacher from MA) works tirelessly to improve conditions for emotionally disturbed persons – 1840s

21. Public Education • Middle class reformers focused on need for est. free public schools for children of all classes • Motivated by growing number of immigrants and poor • Horace Mann was leading advocate • Working in MA, for improved schools and tax supported schools

22. Higher Education • Second Great Awakening fuels the growth of private colleges • Protestant denominations founded schools in new states (OH, IL, IN) • Some schools begin to admit women (Oberlin College in OH)

23. Women’s Rights • Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 NY, leading women meet at the first women’s rights convention in American history • Issue a document modeled on Dec. of Indepedence • Declaration of Sentiments • “All men and women are created equal” • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony

24. Women’s Rights

25. Women’s Rights Susan B. Anthony House • Mostly a middle class movement • Campaigning for equal voting, legal and property rights • Susan B. Anthony lived in Rochester • Arrested for voting in 1872 • In 1850s, women’s rights is overshadowed by the slavery crisis

26. Anthony and Frederick Douglass “Let’s Have Tea”

27. Frederick Douglas-Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge

28. Antislavery Movement Second Great Awakening encourages movement • American Colonization Society: transporting freed slaves to Liberia in Africa • American Antislavery Society: in 1831 William Lloyd Garrison began to publish The Liberator • Wanted immediate emancipation • Founded Am. Antis. Soc.

29. Antislavery Movement James Birney • Liberty party: group of northerners look to take political action • Formed in1840 • Ran James Birney for president in 1840 and 1844 • In 1840 he received 7,000 popular votes and no electoral votes

30. Antislavery Movement • Frederick Douglass: escaped slave, lived in Rochester • In 1847 begins journal, The North Star • Underground Railroad • Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and William Still

31. Frederick Douglass and Rochester • “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. . . . What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than any other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.” • Frederick Douglass • Rochester, NY 1852

32. Anthony and Douglass Gravesites: Mt. Hope Cemetery

33. Antislavery Movement • Some African-Americans had a very radical view – slaves should rebel against their “masters” • Denmark Vesey led ill fated rebellion in NC in 1822 • In 1831, Nat Turner, a slave in VA, led a revolt that killed 55 whites • In retaliation, whites killed hundreds of blacks • Fear

34. Underground Railroad