1. The Ferment of Reform and Culture
Chapter 15

2. Religious Denominations
Major Religions after Revolution
Congregationalists (Descendants of Puritans)
Anglicans (Church of England – Episcopalians)
Quakers
Impact of scientific thought
Deism (Science rather than religion) – Supreme Being created universe, gave people capacity for morality.
Unitarianism – God was single entity (no trinity)

3. Second Great Awakening (1800-)
Religion was separated from control of political leaders
SGA was spiritual resurgence that changed landscape of USA
Growth of Methodism, Baptist religions (common amongst poor)
Camp Meetings (enthusiastic preaching to large groups)
Peter Cartwright
Charles Finney
Opposite approach from FGA
People could change their situation for the better

5. Impact of SGA Embracement of more optimistic view of human condition
USA becomes increasingly Protestant
More likely to resist Catholicism of incoming Irish immigrants
Much higher participation by women and African Americans
Widened the gap between the rich and the poor
Slavery was divisive issue in many churches

6. Joseph Smith and the Golden Plates
In 1823 (NY), Smith claimed to have been visited by an angel
Spent 6 years translating text, publishes Book of Mormon in 1830
Founds Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Quickly attracts converts
Heavily criticized for unorthodox practices, Smith is killed (1844)
Brigham Young leads Mormons west to Utah

7. Improving Education
Public education develops more widely (1820s- 1850s)
Expensive, poorly run
Horace Mann advocates for better schools
“No one did more than he to establish in the minds of the American people the conception that education should be universal, non- sectarian, free, and that its aims should be social efficiency, civic virtue, and character”
Universities continue to develop
TJ – University of Virginia (1829)
Emma Willard  education for women

8. Society, Culture, Technology
Prisons should reform, not simply punish
Dorothy Dix campaigned for better conditions for mentally ill
American Temperance Society (1826) – eliminate alcohol
Maine Law of 1851 – outlawed alcohol in Maine until 1918
Scientific Advancement
Inventions
developments in medicine
American Literature (romanticism)
Washington Irving (Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
James Fenimore Cooper (Leatherstocking Tales)
Edgar Allan Poe
Herman Melville (Moby Dick)

9. Seneca Falls, NY Cult of Domesticity – Woman’s place was at home
Could not vote, lost property when married
Began to avoid marriage
Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls (1848)
Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances
Met opposition when pushed for enfranchisement
Marks the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement

10. Transcendentalism An idealistic philosophical and social movement
Influenced by romanticism
Knowledge comes from within
“Transcends" or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel.
Self-reliance and self-discipline, individualism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Stop imitating Europe and be yourself”
Henry David Thoreau - Walden