Reform & Culture in Ante-Bellum America APUSH Unit 4

Motive for Reform Movements Time frame: Had many roots: Romantic Movement Quaker Religion Transcendentalists Second Great Awakening Time Frame: Reform Movements lasted from 1820-1860 Had many roots The Romantic Movement Stressed goodness of man kind Quaker Religion Stressed inconsistency between Declaration of Independence and actual US law Transcendentalists Questioned the value of industrialization if human problems were not being fixed. The Second Great Awakening Focus on second coming of Christ Need to reform society to hasten his return

The Second Great Awakening “Spiritual Reform From Within” [Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Temperance: Movement moved from moderation to abstinence Led by women but supported by factory owners Asylum & Penal reform: Dorthea Dix reported and investigated treatment of the insane Led to creation of humane institutions Legal Code Reforms Reduction in crimes punishable by death Abolishment of public hangings in many states. Abandoned flogging Abolitionism: American Colonization Society formed in 1816 Goal was to establish a colony in Liberia to send all the slaves. Was not successful – about 13,000 slaves were ultimately sent. Abolitionism rose in the 1830s with an emphasis on racial equality William Lloyd Garrison Theodore Weld Organized abolitionists smuggled 2,000 slaves a year out of the south to Canada. Women’s Rights: Women were considered inferior to men. Not allowed to: obtain a higher education Vote control their own property Grimke Sisters became leaders in the movement Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments (1848) Statement that women are mistreated by men Improvements made possible by: Democratic spirit of Jacksonian period Industrial Revolution Reform Movements (women crusading equally to men) Education: Argued for: Compulsory education in every state by 1860 Leader = Horace Mann Education being offered to some females Growth in education reforms seen primarily in the north Temperance Education Abolitionism Asylum & Penal Reform Women’s Rights

Artistic Achievements Thomas Jefferson Designed : Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Hudson River School of Art Thomas Jefferson Finest American architect of his generation Designed Monticello His home in Virginia Designed the University of Virginia Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Best American painter of his era Painted many portraits of Washington Hudson River School of Art Emphasized romantic mirroring of local landscapes.

Literature American Readers & Literature: The Knickerbocker Group in NYC American Readers and Literature: Few Americans read “polite” literature in the early 19th c. Much of their reading imported or plagiarized from England. American literature received a strong boost from nationalist wave after War of 1812. The Knickerbocker Group in NYC Boasted some of America’s greatest early writers. Washington Irving 1st American to win international recognition as a literary figure James Fennimore Cooper 1st American novelist to gain world fame.

Transcendentalism Birth of Philosophy Role of Education Emerged: Leaders: Philosophy Role of Education Birth of: Emerged in New England during the 2nd quarter of the 19th century. Resulted in part from a liberalizing of the austere Puritan theology. Owed much to foreign thinkers including German romantic philosophers Transcendentalists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Margaret Fuller Philosophy: Truth “transcends” the senses: cannot be found my empiricism alone. Proclaimed that God was in everyone, and that everyone had the ability of becoming “Christ like.” A person could transcend [rise above] his human weakness and achieve perfection. Role of Education: Perfection achieved through education which would raise a person’s consciousness about society’s imperfections. Believed once people were educated about society’s evils these problems would disappear.

Emerson and Thoreau Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Stressed Self-reliance, self confidence, self improvement, and self-discipline. Henry David Thoreau A poet, mystic, transcendentalist, and non-conformist. Wrote essay on Civil Disobedience Written as a result of his brief experience in jail when he refused to pay taxes to support the Mexican war effort. Encouraged writings of Ghandi and MLK, Jr.

Individualists and Dissenters Edgar Allen Poe Gifted lyric poet Nathaniel Hawthorne Reflected Calvinist obsession w/ original sin and struggle of good v. evil Herman Melville Lashed out at the popular optimism of his day. Nathaniel Hawthorne