15.1 Social Reform

Causes of Reform movements: Impact of Jacksonianism Celebration of common people Equality of white males Against elites Empowered working white men Political campaigns and expanded voting Held allies and celebrationss Anti-Bank – against concentrated wealth and power

Growth of the American Middle-Class Increase in middle-class, particularly in north associated with industrialization and urbanization Middle-class whites in northern towns and cities developed ideas about their role in society Open to new religious movements Organized and willing to project their ideas outwards on society: reform Attempted to both control and change society

Impact of the Second Great Awakening “Spiritual Reform From Within” [Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Temperance Education Abolitionism Asylum & Penal Reform Women’s Rights

Spread of Religious Revivals in Antebellum America

Revival Meeting

The Shakers Radical religious sect that began in 1740s or 1750s Led by Mother Ann Lee and Lucy Wright God is both male and female Equality of sexes under God Personal revelations from God Called “Shakers” because of ecstatic religious movements and dancing Members observed celibacy, simplicity, and creation of self-sufficient Shaker communities (utopian settlements) Celibate – do not take part in marriage or sexual activity

Shaker Religious Meeting Video – 8:00 VIDEO

Shakers Emphasized Simplicity, Practicality, and Utility

The Mormons (Church of Latter-Day Saints) Based on Joseph Smith’s revelations from the angel Moroni 1823  Golden Tablets 1830  Book of Mormon 1844  Murdered in Carthage, IL Persecution led to Mormon beliefs: chosen people, exile to Utah, self-reliance, and communitarianism Smith said he found the plates on September 22, 1823, at a Hill, near his home in Manchester, New York, after the angel Moroni directed him to a buried stone box. Smith said the angel at first prevented him from taking the plates but instructed him to return to the same location in a year. In September 1827, on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve the plates, Smith returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. Though he allowed others to heft the box, he said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian" language. Smith dictated the text of the Book of Mormon over the next several years, claiming that it was a translation of the plates. Shot and killed with his brother while awaiting trial. Shot, fell out of a window, died, and shot several more times. All suspects acquitted. Joseph Smith (1805-1844)

The Mormons (Church of Latter-Day Saints) Mormon Church mixed different strands of revival and reform New religious sect (1st wholly American religion?) Patriarchal church and family - stability Only males could be church or family leaders Polygamy as practice of patriarchal rule Originally excluded blacks and Native Americans, similar to Jacksonian democracy

Transcendentalism Major beliefs: “Transcend” the limits of intellect and allow the soul to create an original relationship with the Universe Moral authority and feeling over rationality Infinite benevolence (kindness) of God Appreciation for nature - God can be seen in nature, both power and benevolence Humans are divine, good, and changeable Rejection of formal authority Personal ethics and morality Similar to Romanticism in Europe

Transcendentalism The role of the reformer restore man to the divinity which God had endowed them Humans had power over their own lives - they could remake themselves and their world in God’s image

Transcendental Agenda All humans share part of a common soul; reconnect humans to one another and God Reconnect humans with nature (and god) Give freedom to the slave Give well-being to the poor and the miserable Give learning to the ignorant Give health to the sick Give peace and justice to society

Utopian Communities in America Remaking the world to fit God’s image Religious communities Secular communities Early socialist communes Related to Puritan “City on a Hill” – John Winthrop saying the world was watching

Utopian Communities in America

Temperance Movement American Temperance Society Attacked “demon rum” for: Men’s wasted earnings domestic violence Prevented men from rational political participation Prevented hard work and self-improvement Raised legal drinking age in many states “Do Everything” slogan for Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Frances Willard

Figure: Annual Consumption of Alcohol

“The Drunkard’s Progress” Step 1. A glass with a friend. Step 2. A glass to keep the cold out. Step 3. A glass too much. Step 4. Drunk and riotous. Step 5. The summit attained. Jolly companions. A confirmed drunkard. Step 6. Poverty and disease. Step 7. Forsaken by Friends. Step 8. Desperation and crime. Step 9. Death. From the first glass to the grave, 1846

Educational Reform Transition from religious training to secular education Widening of education to general population Massachusetts - always on the forefront of public educational reform 1st state to establish tax support for local public schools By 1860 every state offered free public education to whites US had one of the highest literacy rates in the world

“Father of American Education” Horace Mann (1796-1859) “Father of American Education” thought children were clay in the hands of teachers and school officials children should be “molded” into a state of perfection discouraged corporal punishment established state teacher-training programs R3-6

Prison Reform Dorothea Dix – educated the public about poor prison conditions Quakers and others concerned with brutality of prisons and capital punishment Separation of criminals and mentally ill Penitentiaries intended to reform inmates and heal sick Dix – school teacher that began visiting prisons in 1841. She found some prisoners chained to the walls with little or no clothing, often in unheated cells. She also learned that some inmates were guilty of no crime. Instead, they were suffering from mental illness. Dix made it her life’s work to educate the public about the poor conditions for prisoners and the mentally ill R1-5/7

First Penitentiary, 1849

VIDEO