CH. 8-1 NEW MOVEMENTS IN AMERICA American History

 Most famous preacher—Charles Grandison Finney  Led revivals designed to awaken religious feelings  THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING  —number of people attending church doubled  Movement called “Second Great Awakening”  “First Great Awakening” occurred in 1700s

 Many preachers were Protestant  They DID NOT teach strict adherence to church rules, or obedience to a minister.  Preachers said that destiny lay in their own hands  People were told to live well and work hard.  Second Great Awakening helped launch a remarkable period in American History  “The Reform Era”—

 Americans attempt to reshape American Society  THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT  One of the main goals of reformers was to reduce the use of alcoholic beverages  TEMPERANCE—moderation  Books, plays, songs written about evils of alcohol.  Reformers also started temperance societies.  1851—Maine outlaws alcohol  12 states follow in the next several years.

 Prior to 1840s—American schools were either private schools or common schools  Common Schools—free public schools where children learned basic reading, writing, and math skills  Most families couldn’t afford private schools  Quality of teaching in common schools was generally poor.

 THE COMMON-SCHOOL MOVEMENT  Reformers wanted children to be educated  Educated people made better decisions and that wide-spread education was fundamental to a democratic society  Education reformers organized themselves into “friends of education”

 HORACE MANN  The greatest education reformer of the era  Mann advocated a new, highly organized approach to education  He said states should fund education and schools should be controlled locally  Compulsory attendance  Creation of so-called normal schools where teachers would be trained

 1839—MA creates the first normal school  1852—MA passes first compulsory attendance law in the USA  Other states copied Mann’s work  1860– 6 out of 10 white children attended school (double from 30 years before)  Reformers didn’t or couldn’t help Native Americans or African Americans

 WILLIAM MCGUFFY  Another well-known reformer  Wrote and published a series of textbooks called “Eclectic Readers”  Became known as “McGuffy Readers”  Books written for different grade levels  Taught reading and moral and intellectual values  Over 100,000,000 were sold  Nearly every American student used them in the middle and late 1800s

 DORTHEA DIX—campaigned for humane treatment of prisoners  Taught Sunday school to prisoners 1841  Mentally ill and non-violent criminals were confined with violent criminals  Horrible overcrowding  Unsanitary conditions  Prisoners were abused by jailers  MA created state-supported institutions to treat and house mentally ill people, separate from criminals

 Dix and supporters convinced other state governments to create similar institutions  TRANSCENDENTALISM AND UTOPIANISM  TRANSCENDENTALISM—the belief that knowledge is found not only by observation of the world but also through reason

 Thus, by transcending, or going beyond, observation, people can have a deeper and truer understanding of the world  RALPH WALDO EMERSON  The leading transcendentalist  Gave sermons and lectures and wrote essays  Self-reliant and trust their intuition  Transcendentalists supported reform  America’s most renowned authors

 HENRY DAVID THOREAU  Firmly believed in the power of self- reliance and individual thought  1845—Thoreau lived in a small cabin by Walden Pond, MA  He thought simple living would lead to meaningful life  People should act according to their own beliefs, even if they had to break the law

 1846-Thoreau refused to pay a tax he thought would promote slavery  He spent a night in jail  In the essay “Civil Disobedience” he said “that government is best which governs least”  “Civil Disobedience” was very influential  Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.

 UTOPIANISM  Some reformers wanted to create new communities that were free from social ills  UPTOPIA— ”the perfect society”  One community was led by Robert Owen  1825—He purchased the town of Harmonie, IN

 Owen attempted to start a utopian community in Harmonie, IN  Residents failed to implement Owen’s ideals and the community failed 3 years later  Another community occurred in 1841 at Brook Farm, MA. It failed due to mounting debt in 1847  Most communities were small and short- lived.

 A notable exception were communities built by the Shakers  Shakers—Christian sect  Started building communities in the late 1700s  By the 1830s, nearly 6,000 Shakers lived in more than a dozen communities throughout the USA.  THE END