Religious Reform and Cultural Revivals in 19th Century America

1. Chapter 15

2. Age of Reform and Culture

3. Religious reform accompanies political and economic • Want to improve the character of American life

4. All types of reform flourished • Public schools • Rights for Women • Medicine • Religious • Temperance • Slavery will eventually overshadow all of them

5. Religion is reason for a lot of reform • Most of reforms drew their zeal from religion • swept through America

6. Reviving Religion

7. 3/4 of Americans attend church regularly • Had impact on American lives • Not as much as in colonial times • Diesm abounds in America • Paine in the Age of Reason- churches set up to enslave minds and monopolize power • reason over religion, science over the bible • believed in a supreme being, but not necessarily Jesus

8. Helped inspire the Unitarian • New England in 18th century • God in only one person • Denied the deity of Christ • Stressed the essential goodness of human nature • appeal to intellectuals that contrasted with calvinists

9. Reaction against liberals brings fresh revivals • Began in South but rolled to the North • Called the Second Great Awakening • one of the most momentous episodes in American religious history • more people than the First G.A. • New souls, reorganizing churches, new sects • evangelism swept into other reform areas

10. Spread to masses through “Camp Meetings” • As many as 25,000 would gather for days • Many “got religion” • Revivals boosted church membership • Missionary work in Hawaii and Asia

11. Methodists and Baptists reap the most rewards • Stressed personal conversion • Democratic control of church • Emotionalism

12. Peter Cartwright • Best known Methodist circuit riding preacher • Converts thousands of souls to Christ • Used his fists, literally, if he had to

13. Charles Grandison Finney • Greatest of the revival preachers • left law to peach • massive revivals • Anxious bench-sinners sit in full veiw of the congregation • against alcohol and slavery • president of Oberlin College- revivalist activity and abolitionism

14. Feminization of religion • Women most enthusiastic toward revivalism • Majority of new church membership

15. Preachers talked of female worth in sermons • Women turned to saving the rest of society • formed charities and led crusades of reforms

16. Denominational Diversity

17. Churches fragmented • Burned over district Question: What does Burned over district refer to • Western New York • Preached to too much

18. Millerites or Adventists • Came from burned over district • named for william miller • Believed Christ would return Oct. 22, 1844 • Failure of return did not destroy movement

19. Widened lines between class and religion • Prosperous and conservative denominations of east were little affected • Methodists and Baptists saw their numbers swell • more rural less educated people

20. Reflected in widening social areas • Southern Methodists and Southern Baptists split with northern groups • Presbyterians split in 1857 • Religious split foreshadows the political split • religion, political parties and union split

21. A Desert Zion in Utah

22. Joseph Smith • Received some golden plates which became the book of Mormon • American Religion

23. Established a religious oligarchy • Non-Mormons were agitated by their communal attributes • voted as a unit • drilled their militia openly • polygamy accusations • moved to Ohio then Missouri

24. Smith Murdered in 1844 in Illinois • Brigham Young takes control of the Mormons • Good Leader • Led the ladder day saints to Utah

25. Overcame tough obstacles to create Oasis in the desert • Very cooperative • Sea gulls saved crops in 1848 by eating threatening crickets

26. By 1848 5,000 had moved into Utah • More were coming

27. Theocracy • Prosperous community • Immigrants from Europe to Utah after a successful missionary movement there

28. Washington unable to control Young and his gov’t as a territory • Army marches on Utah but no one hurt • Anti-polygamy movement laws delayed statehood until 1896

29. Free Schools for a Free People

30. Early public schools were bad • Had little public support

31. Well to do began to see the value in educating the general public • Uneducated would grow up with the vote • taxes for education was price for stability and democracy

32. White manhood suffrage • Flourishes between 1825 and 1860 • laborers demanded education for their children

33. Little red school house enshrined in Am. History • One teacher in one room with 8 grades • started out only a few months out of the year • many teachers knew less than older students • three R’s taught

34. Horace Mann • Secretary of Massachusetts Board of Education • Campaigned for better schools, longer terms, higher pay for teachers, expanded curriculum • reform followed in other states • education was still a luxury • only 100 secondary schools in 1860 • blacks in south were forbidden to learn to read and write • blacks in north usually excluded

35. Noah Webster • Helped improve education • schoolmaster of the republic • reading lessons promoted patriotism • dictionary in 1828 helped standardize the language

36. McGuffey Readers • Grade school readers • 1830’s • 122million copies • lessons in morality, patriotism and idealism

37. Higher Goals for Higher Learning

38. 2nd great awakening led to many small denominational schools • South and west • More for local pride than education • curriculum narrow and traditional (Latin, Greek, Math, Philosophy)

39. Southern states supported schools • University of Virginia • founded by Thomas Jefferson • designed its architecture • dedicated to freedom from religion and politics, and science and languages were taught

40. Women’s higher education frowned upon • Woman’s place is in the home • too much learning injured the female brain

41. Emma Willard • Established Troy female seminary • Oberlin College opened its doors to women in 1837 (also admitted black) • Mary Lyon established Mount Holyoke Seminary in Mass. (they’ll be educating cows next)

42. Tax supported libraries grew • House to house peddlers sold books • traveling lectures were popular • Lyceum lecture associations helped carry learning to masses • provide platform for speakers in many areas • Emerson lectured on Lyceum circuit

43. Magazines flourished in the pre-Civil War years • North American Review -1815 - leader to intellectuals • Godey’s Lady’s Book - 1830 - 150,000 in circulation

44. An Age of Reform

45. Reform campaigns flourished in all areas • Women’s rights - miracle medicines - communal living - polygamy • societies formed against alcohol,tobacco,profanity, and mail on the Sabbath • Fad Diet

46. Idealist touched by 2nd great awakening • Want to improve society • women prominent in reform movement • escape home and enter public affairs

47. Want to reaffirm traditional values • Middle class pioneer families unaware of dawning of industrial era • single mindedness and naïve -apply conventional virtue to new era

48. Imprisonment for debt gradually abolished • Criminal codes softened • Capital offenses reduced • cruel punishments ease • prison reform was a new movement

49. Insane treated cruelly • Were unclean spirits • chained • Dorthea Dix • researched and reported cruelty of insane asylums • gained improved conditions • changed attitude that the insane were ill, not afflicted

50. Peace Movement • American Peace society • William Ladd led war on war • worked with European movement