Reviving Religion And the Birth of the Reform Movement

The Importance of Religion ä By ä By 1850, 3/4 of 23 million Americans regularly attended church ä Many ä Many changes in religious faith ä Deism ä Deism and the Unitarian Faith ä Unitarians: ä No ä No Trinity, Jesus a man, stressed man’s goodness, emphasized works ä Embraced ä Embraced by intellectuals

The Second Great Awakening äCäCäCäC A reaction against liberalism in religion äPäPäPäPervasive evangelicalism that sparks religious and social reform äGäGäGäGiant crusades (revival meetings) äMäMäMäMethodists and Baptists äEäEäEäEvangelical Christians = most active äPäPäPäPeter Cartwright ( ) - best known traveling Methodist preacher äCäCäCäCharles Finney - greatest of the revival preachers

The Church of Latter-Day Saints ä Joseph Smith founds Mormonism ä Known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints ä Brigham Young becomes the Mormon leader in 1844 ä Smith murdered by an Illinois mob ä The Mormons settle at the Great Salt Lake in Utah ä Believed Native Americans = descendants of lost tribes of Israel ä Established a close-knit communal social pattern ä Stressed work ethic

The Age of Reform ä American reformers promoted change in many areas of society ä Reform societies formed to take on the social evils of America ä The reform movement was a product of the Second Great Awakening

Prison Reform ä Debtors Prisons eventually eliminated ä The number of capital crimes was reduced ä Cruel and unusual punishments were outlawed ä Prisons became places of reform as well as punishment

Reforming the Treatment of Mental Illness ä Imprisonment and cruel treatment of the insane persisted into the 19th century ä Dorothea Dix the leading reformer in the field ä Fought for rights of mentally ill

The Temperance Movement ä Men as a group tended to drink liquor much more than women ä Economic & environmental reasons for the popularity of liquor ä Temperance movement led by women

The Temperance Movement ä One of the most successful reform movements ä By the 1840’s, the nation witnessed a sharp decline in alcohol consumption. ä Consumption was 1/2 the rate during the 1820’s

Abolition ä William Lloyd Garrison a leading voice against slavery ä Uncompromising in his immediate and uncompensated demand for emancipation ä Earned support of Black Abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth Abolitionists viewed slavery as a “great moral evil”

Left-Side Activity ä How does the anti-slavery movement in the 1830s differ from the earlier beliefs of people who opposed slavery? ä Many believed slaves should be released immediately and their owners should be compensated

Left-Side Activity ä With your group, make 4 bumper stickers that correspond to the four areas of reform in the early 1800s.

The Utopian Communities ä Experimental cooperative communities established by reformers ä Founders were intellectuals ä Alternatives to competitive economic society

Robert Owen & New Harmony ä Founded in 1825 in Indiana by British- born Owen residents ä Formed for the betterment of workers ä Community quickly fell apart ä Owenism survived beyond New Harmony

Brook Farm (1841) ä Experimental community in Mass. ä Formed by Transcendentalists ä Ex: Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Fenimore Cooper ä Alternative to competitive commercial life of cities ä Mecca for renowned writers ä Disbanded in never > 100 residents

Oneida Colony, NY ä Founded ä Founded by John Humphrey Noyes ä Most ä Most radical but long lived ä Practiced ä Practiced “complex marriage”, birth control, selective breeding, communism ä Dissolved ä Dissolved c. 1880

The Shakers ä Led by Mother Ann Lee in Lebanon, Ny ä Hostile to materialism ä Shaker furniture a hallmark of the group ä Shaker movement peaked in 1820’s

A woman’s sphere ä Catherine Beecher and “domestic economy” ä Treatise on Domestic Economy ä “The cult of domesticity” ä Socially assigned roles for men and women persist

The Legal Status of Women ä Legal status of women largely unchanged since the Revolution ä No suffrage on a national level ä Subordinate to husband ä Origin of women’s rights movement - abolition

The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 ä Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton ä Issued the Declaration of Sentiments based on Declaration of Independence ä “all men and women are created equal” ä Argued that laws placed women “in a position inferior to that of men” ä Convention = an important step in the Women’s Rights Movement

Susan B. Anthony ä A Quaker active in temperance and abolition groups ä Joined women’s rights cause in 1850s ä Labored alongside Stanton in the crusade for women’s rights

A long road to suffrage ä Progress toward voting rights is slow ä No national right to vote until 1920 with passage of the 19th Amendment ä Some legal gains made, especially regarding property ownership, wages, and child custody.

“Women’s Work” ä Careers open to women were limited ä Primary fields were nursing and teaching ä Difficult for women to break into traditionally male professions ä Those who did tended to excel beyond expectations of detractors