Culture and Reform in the 1800s

Arts and Science Mercy Otis Warren –Political leader during the Revolution Benjamin Rush –Doctor and Scientist –Suggested mental illness is caused by physical disease, not demons Benjamin Banneker –Surveyed land for nation’s capital

Arts and Sciences Charles Wilson Peale –Painter –Spread art and science to ordinary people Phillis Wheatly –African American poet Daniel Webster –American Spelling Book –American Dictionary of the English Language

Changes in Society Republican Virtues: piety, justice, truth, patriotism, chastity, moderation, temperance, self-reliance, hard work, frugality, harmony, sacrifice Population Growth –1780: 2.7 million in 13 states –1830: 12 million in 24 states –Immigration from Germany and Ireland Mobility – moving from place to place Courtship and Marriage

Religious Revival Main Ideas –Second Great Awakening (early 1800s) Evangelical Christian movement Revivals and circuit riders New Denominations –Baptists –Methodists (John Wesley) –Unitarians –Mormons (Joseph Smith) –Millienialists –African American Worship Leaders –Charles Grandison Finney –Lyman Beecher

Transcendentalism Main Ideas –Spiritual discovery and insight leads to profound truths –Declared humans are naturally good Leaders –Ralph Waldo Emerson –Henry David Thoreau Civil Disobedience and Walden, or Life in the Woods

Temperance Main Ideas –Eliminate alcohol consumption –Preserve family Leaders –American Temperance Society : 7 gallons/year per person : 2 gallons/year per person

Public Education Main Ideas –Raised taxes to support public education –Divided schools into grade levels –Promoted moral education Leaders –Horace Mann McGuffey’s Readers –Promoted thrift, obedience, honesty, temperance Limited opportunities for women Segregation in schools

Prisons Main Idea –Poor conditions needed to be fixed –All criminals were housed together –Mentally ill were institutionalized with criminals Leaders –Dorothea Dix Toured Massachusetts prisons Campaigned for prison reform

Utopian Communities Main Idea –Small societies dedicated to perfection in social and political conditions –Free of human greed, sin, egotism, and urban and industrial growth New Harmony, Indiana (1825) Brook Farm (1841) Oneida Community (Vermont) Shakers (New York) (1787)

Abolitionists Main Idea –End slavery Leaders –Benjamin Lundy: gradual program of emancipation –American Colonization Society (1817) Liberia: colony in Africa created to be a home for free blacks and emancipated slaves –American Anti-Slavery Society (1833) –William Lloyd Garrison: The Liberator –Frederick Douglass: North Star

Abolitionists Divided tactics: Gradual program or political action –Liberty Party (1840) Underground Railroad –Network of escape routes –40,000 – 100,000 slaves escaped –Harriet Tubman –Routes: Mississippi River, Eastern Swamps, Appalachian Mountains

Abolitionists Resistance –North feared competition and bad relationship with South –South feared slave rebellions and created the gag rule 1800 – Gabriel Prosser’s Rebellion –Richmond, Va –Stop before the Rebellion got underway 1831 – Nat Turner Rebellion –He was a preacher who believed he had divine inspiration –Led raid on plantations in southeastern Va and Killed 50 White people

Women’s Rights Main Idea –Reform women’s roles at home and in society Limits on women –Couldn’t vote, own property, or have public jobs Hartford Female Seminary –Catherine and Mary Beecher Seneca Falls Convention –First women’s rights convention in the U.S. –Elizabeth Cady Stanton –Lucretia Mott

Women’s Rights Education –Elizabeth Blackwell Founded nursing school (1851) –Maria Mitchell First female astronomer in U.S. –Margaret Fuller Editor and writer Female Abolitionists –Sojourner Truth