Chapter 12: The Fires of Perfection Preview: “The Second Great Awakening unleashed a cascade of reform during the 1820s and 1830s….Some reformers withdrew from everyday life to create utopian communities; others sought humanitarian reforms such as temperance, educational improvement, women’s rights, and—most disruptive to the political system—the abolition of slavery.” The Highlights: Revivalism and the Social Order Revivalism and the Social Order Women’s Sphere Women’s Sphere American Romanticism American Romanticism The Age of Reform The Age of Reform Abolitionism Abolitionism Reform Shakes the Party System Reform Shakes the Party System

I.Religious Revival and Reform Philosophy

Finney and the Second Great Awakening  From the late 1790s to the late 1830s, a wave of religious revivalism swept through the United States.  Personified by the flamboyant Charles Finney who preached every night for six months in Rochester, New York.  Revivalists toned down the Calvinist rhetoric and preached a religion of inclusiveness.

 Women and Revivalism  Women’s roles in the Awakening led to change in their social lives  The Ideal of Domesticity  Market growth put pressure on traditional women’s roles  “sisterhood” fueled reform movements  Domesticity prevalent in Europe, too Women’s Sphere

The Transcendentalists  A small but influential group of New England intellectuals who lived around Ralph Waldo Emerson, the era’s foremost thinker.  The group was called Transcendentalists because of their belief that truth was found in intuition beyond the senses.  They questioned slavery and the pursuit of wealth.  Members included Nathanial Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau (“On Civil Disobedience”)

III.Perfectionist Reform and Utopianism

Utopian Communities: Oneida and the Shakers  Many reformers of the age sought to create the perfect representation in miniature of what life should be.  John Humphrey Noyles founded a society of “free love” and socialism at Oneida, New York.  The Shakers believed in communal property, perfectionism, and celibacy.  Shaker worship featured a wild dance intended to release sin from the body.

 The Mormon Experience  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints founded by Joseph Smith  Movement to restore the ancient church  City of Zion: Nauvoo, Illinois  1846: Mormons left Nauvoo with Brigham Young and arrived in Utah  Socialist Communities  Robert Owen and New Harmony, Indiana  Brook Farm, Massachusetts organized by George Ripley

IV. Reforming Society

Temperance  Nineteenth century Americans drank to excess.  Early efforts at curbing the public’s consumption focused on moderation.  The American Temperance Society (1826) was dedicated to total abstinence.  The Society successfully used revival techniques of the Second Great Awakening to motivate “converts.”

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Humanizing the Asylum  Some efforts of reform were not aimed at the salvation of the individual but towards organizations such as hospitals or asylums.  Dorothea Dix championed the cause of the mentally ill, believing adequate facilities and proper living conditions would go far to produce some sort of a “cure.”

Working-Class Reform  In America, the institution most in need of reform was the factory.  The reform movement gradually was adapted to the plight of workers and trade unions began to appear.  Skilled workers began to organize to protect their crafts and to negotiate better conditions.  The National Trades Union (1834) was the first attempt at a nation-wide labor organization.

Tensions Within the Antislavery Movement  William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator—America’s first antislavery journal and helped establish the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Garrison’s message was an immediate end to slavery with no conditions.  The majority of abolitionists in America disagreed on how to reform slavery in America; most preferred religious education, political action, boycotts of slave-harvested goods, or downright rebellion.

 The Spread of Abolitionism  Abolitionists concentrated in the Northeast  Lane Seminary rebellion in 1834 a result of abolitionist fervor and reaction to it  Many black abolitionists such as Sojourner Truth and David Walker were important in the movement  Opponents and Divisions  Divisions among abolitionists grew out of disagreements over how best to end slavery and reform society

 Abolitionism and the Party System  1835: censorship of abolitionist mailings provoked nationwide controversy  “gag rule” in 1836 tabled petitions dealing with slavery in the House of Representatives  Liberty Party founded as the political arm of the abolitionist movement “After two decades of fiery revivals, benevolent crusades, utopian experiments, and Transcendental philosophizing, the ferment of reform had spread through urban streets, canal town churches, frontier clearings, and the halls of Congress”(386)

McGraw-Hill  The Women’s Rights Movement  Seneca Falls Convention (1848) raised the stature of the women’s rights movement  Few victories prior to 1860  The Schism of 1840  Division to allow female officeholders in the American Anti-Slavery Society caused a split in the abolitionist movement “When abolitionists divided over the issue of female participation, women found it easy to identify with situation of slaves, since both were victims of male tyranny”(383)

 Women and the Right to Vote  Participation in reform movements did not lead to suffrage for women  The Maine Law  1851: first law prohibiting liquor sales passed in Maine  Other states followed, but most laws struck down by courts Reform Shakes the Party System 12-19