1. THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION
America: Past and Present
Chapter 12

2. The Rise of Evangelicalism
Separation of church and state gives all churches the chance to compete for converts
Pious Protestants form voluntary associations to combat sin, “infidelity”

3. The Second Great Awakening: The Frontier Phase
Camp meetings contribute to frontier life
provide emotional religion
offer opportunity for social life
Camp meeting revivals convey intensely personal religious message
Camp meetings rarely lead to social reform

4. The Second Great Awakening in the North
In New England reformers defend Calvinism against the Enlightenment
Charles G. Finney rejects Calvinism to preach free will
Finney preaches in upstate New York
Finney stresses revival techniques
Revivals lead to organization of more churches

5. From Revivalism to Reform
Northern revivals stimulate reform
Middle-class participants adapt evangelical religion to preserve traditional values
"The benevolent empire" of evangelical reform movements alter American life
e.g. temperance movement cuts alcohol consumption by more than fifty percent

6. Domesticity and Changes in the American Family
New conception of family’s role in society
Child rearing seen as essential preparation for self-disciplined Christian life
Women confined to domestic sphere
Women assume crucial role within home

7. Marriage for Love Mutual love must characterize marriage
Wives became more of a companion to their husbands and less of a servant
Legally, the husband was the unchallenged head of the household

8. The Cult of Domesticity
"The Cult of True Womanhood"
places women in the home
glorifies home as center of all efforts to civilize and Christianize society
Middle- and upper-class women increasingly dedicated to the home as mothers
Women of leisure enter reform movements

9. The Discovery of Childhood
Nineteenth-century child the center of family
Each child seen as unique, irreplaceable
Ideal to form child’s character with affection
Parental discipline to instill guilt, not fear
Train child to learn self-discipline

10. Institutional Reform Domesticity to inform public institutions
Schools continue what family begins
Asylums, prisons mend family’s failures

11. The Extension of Education
Public schools expand rapidly
Working class sees as means to advance
Middle-class reformers see as means for inculcating values of hard work, responsibility
Horace Mann argues schools save immigrants, poor children from parents’ bad influence
Many parents believe public schools alienate children from their parents

12. Discovering the Asylum
Poor, criminal, insane seen as lacking self-discipline
Harsh measures to promote rehabilitation
solitary confinement of prisoners
strict daily schedule
Public support for rehabilitation skimpy
Prisons, asylums, poorhouses become warehouses for the unwanted

13. Reform Turns Radical Most reform aims to improve society
Some radical reformers seek destruction of old society, creation of perfect social order

14. Divisions in the Benevolent Empire
Radical perfectionists impatient by 1830s, split from moderate reform
temperance movement
peace movement
antislavery movement
Moderates seek gradual end to slavery
Radicals demand immediate emancipation
1833--American Anti-Slavery Society

15. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Theodore Dwight Weld
Weld an itinerant minister converted by Finney
Adapted his revivalist techniques to abolition
Successful mass meetings in Ohio, New York

16. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Public Reception
Appeal to hard-working small town folk
Opposition in cities & near Mason-Dixon line
Opposition from the working class
dislike blacks
fear black economic and social competition
Solid citizens see abolitionists as anarchists

17. The Abolitionist Enterprise: Obstacles
Abolitionists hampered by in-fighting
William Lloyd Garrison disrupts movement by associating with radical reform efforts
urged abolitionists to abstain from participating in the political process
also got involved in women’s rights movement
Some abolitionists help form the Liberty Party in 1840

18. Black Abolitionists
Former slaves related the horrible realities of bondage
prominent figures included Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth
Black newspapers, books, and pamphlets publicized abolitionism to a wider audience
Blacks were also active in the Underground Railroad

19. From Abolitionism to Women's Rights
Abolitionism open to women’s participation
Involvement raises awareness of women’s inequality
Seneca Falls Convention in 1848
Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton organize
prompted by experience of inequality in abolition movement
begins movement for women’s rights

20. Radical Ideas & Experiments: Utopian Communities
Utopian socialism
Inspired by Robert Owen, Charles Fourier
New Harmony, Indiana—Owenite
Fourierite phalanxes
Religious utopianism
Shakers
Oneida Community

21. Utopian Communities Before the Civil War

22. Radical Ideas & Experiments: Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Margaret Fuller
George Ripley
founded cooperative community at Brook Farm
Henry David Thoreau

23. Counterpoint on Reform
Reform encounters perceptive critics
Nathaniel Hawthorne allegorically refuted perfectionist movements
Reform prompts necessary changes in American life