Antebellum Reform Movements American History

Lyman Beecher Protestant minister Leads the Second Great Awakening Religious revival Women heavily involved and seen as moral saviors of men

Transcendentalism The ultimate truth transcends the physical world TRANSCENDENTALISM = a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the SPIRITUAL over the MATERIAL and EMPIRICAL The ultimate truth transcends the physical world

Transcendentalists and Nature Nature was the source of deep Human inspiration Helps individuals see truth within their souls Genuine Spirituality come through communion with nature

Ralph Waldo Emerson Leader, Unitarian Minister, devoted to Transcendentalism Wrote Essays, Lectures, Very Popular Advocated the commitment of the individual to full exploration of the inner capacities.

RW Emerson: essay 1841 “Self Reliance” Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind” Self Reliance: was a quest for unity of the Universe The wholeness of god The great spiritual force/essence of spiritual soul Each person has innate capacity to find divinity personally

Henry David Thoreau Transcendentalist Individuals should: Work for self-realization Resist conformity Should respond to own instincts Walden- in the Concord (Mass) Woods Most famous book Lived alone for 2 years

Thoreau “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to confront only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what It had to teach. And not when I came to die I discover that I had not lived”

Thoreau Went to jail briefly Refused to pay a Poll Tax Protested Slavery 1849: Essay “Resistance to Civil Government” An individual’s personal morality has first claim on his actions Government that violated personal morality had no legitimate authority An individual response should be Civil Disobedience or Passive Resistance

Temperance Religious based movement against Alcohol “The church must take… on subject of Temperance, the moral reform, all the subjects of practical morality.” Crime, disorder, poverty caused by alcoholism Drinking was especially a problem for Women- husband abuse them, and kids, and drink their money.

Temperance Will later evolve into national movement through the 19th century Eventually will lead to prohibition of alcohol 18th Amendment to the Constitution [1920-1933]

Education Public Education not widely established Some progress in Massachusetts New interest in Pub Ed To create a stable social values=conformity Horace Mann is the leader “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Education Mann “An educated electorate is essential to the working of a free Political system.” Education “only way to counter…the tendency to domination of capital and servility of labor.” Advocated protestant values- thrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority No wide spread change comes from this movement.

Asylum and Prison Reforms Rehabilitation is the key Asylum=mental health Prison= criminals Rise of the Penitentiary “A place to cultivate penitence” Through discipline Problem- Mentally ill and criminals kept in terrible conditions Reform is key Dorothea Dix Some progress

Women’s Rights Movement Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan B. Anthony Strong connection between Women’s Rights and Abolition movement

Seneca Falls Convention 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan B. Anthony Lucretia Mott Frederick Douglass Declaration of Sentiments Emulated Declaration of Independence

Abolitionism 1830s – Opposition to slavery begins to change Before, abolitionists would promote gradualism or colonization Abolition wants an immediate end to slavery with no compensation to slaveholders Garrison establishes the Liberator newspaper.

David Walker Publishes Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829. Speaks of the conditions of African Americans in the United States. [Read about it for homework]

Garrison in the Liberator “I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

Other Abolitionist Leaders Other protestant ministers Wealthy financers Followers of the women’s movement [Lucretia Mott] Grimke sisters Free African Americans Frederick Douglass

Response to Abolition Seen as a threat to labor and social system Economic problems for the North South is becoming increasingly reliant on slave labor Not industrializing Slave rebellion