1. The Ferment of Reform & Culture 1790 - 1860

2. Reviving Religion 1850 – ¾ of population attended church regularly Deism – very popular Relied on reason Rejected original sin Denied Christ’s divinity but did believe in a supreme being

3. Unitarian Faith Formal Puritans God existed in only one person not in orthodox trinity Stressed goodness of human nature Belief in free will & salvation through good works Pictured God as a loving father Appealed to Intellectuals with rationalism & optimism

4. Second Great Awakening Started in 1800 Tidal wave of spiritual fervor resulted in: prison, church reform, temperance cause, women’s movement, & a push for abolish of slavery Spread through huge “camp meetings” Push to Christianize Indians Methodists & Baptists stressed personal conversion Peter Cartwright – “circuit riders” Charles Finney – great revival preacher

5. Denominational Diversity Revival furthered fragmentation of religious faith NY with Puritans preaching “hellfire” known as the “Burned-out District” Millerites (Adventists) – Christ would return on 10-22-1844 Widen lines between classes & region Split on slavery issue

6. A Desert Zion in Utah Joseph Smith (1830) - Mormons & The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Antagonism for polygamy, drilling militia, & voting as a unit Brigham Young took over after Smith’s death Led followers to Utah Grew quickly by 1850’s by birth & immigration from Europe

7. Problems in Utah 1857 – Federal government sent to Utah when Brigham Young became territorial governor No bloodshed Polygamy prevented Utah entrance to US till 1896

8. Free School for a Free People Free education Originally opposed Related to pauperism & used by poor Gradually supported because poor could vote Established 1825-1850 Ill taught & ill trained teachers Horace Mann fought for better schools Too expensive for many communities, blacks were exempted from education Noah Webster – dictionary Ohioan William H. McGuffey – McGuffey’s Readers

9. Higher Goals for Higher Learning Second Great Awakening led to the building of small denominational, liberal art colleges in South & West Taught Latin, Greek, math, & moral philosophy 1 st state supported university – 1795 in NC 1819 – T.Jefferson – University of Virginia Freedom from religion & political shackles Focus on modern languages & sciences

10. Women in Education Women were taught that too much education was bad Injured the feminine brain, undermined health, & rendered a young lady unfit for marriage Women’s Schools: Emma Willard - Tory Female Seminary (1821) Mary Lyon - Mount Holyoke Seminary (1837) Oberlin College – accepted women & men (1837)

11. Thirst for Knowledge Number of libraries increased Both private & tax-supported Lyceum lecture associations – traveling lectures 1835 – 3,000 Science, literature, & moral philosophy (Emerson) Magazines North American Review – 1815 ’s Book – 1830 - 1898 Godey’s Lady’s Book – 1830 - 1898

12. An Age of Reform Reformers attacked: (especially women) Tobacco, alcohol, profanity, transit of mail on Sabbath, women’s rights, polygamy, medicines Optimistic for a perfect society Naïve & ignored problems of industrialization Fought for no imprison for debt – gradually abolished Criminal codes soften & reformatories added Mentally insane treated badly – Dorothea Dix / classic petition of 1843 American Peace Society – 1828 / William Ladd

13. Demon Rum – The “Old Deluder” Drunkenness was wide spread 1826 - American Temperance Society – Boston Children’s clubs – “Cold Water Army” signed pledges Used pamphlets & anti-alcohol tracts Ten Nights in a Barroom and What I Saw There (1854) Two lines of attack Stressed temperance – individual will to resist Legislature-removed temptation Neal S. Dow – “Father of Prohibition” Sponsored Maine Law of 1851 – prohibited liquor Other states followed

14. Temperance pledge Pressured by his determined wife and pleading child, this reluctant tippler is about to submit to "moral suasion" and sign the pledge to abstain from alcohol. (Library of Congress) Temperance pledge Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

15. Women’s Roles Women stayed home with no voting rights Some women avoided marriage all together Gender differences separated women & men Women - weak physically & emotionally but were the keepers of society’s conscience & fit for teaching Men were strong but crude if not guided by women Home was the center Catharine Beecher – reformer agreed

16. Family group daguerreotype, 1852 This daguerreotype, taken about 1852, reveals the little things so important to etching a middle-class family's social status: curtains; a wall hanging; a piano with scrolled legs; a small desk with elegantly curved legs; a pet; ladies posed in nonproductive but "improving" activities (music, reading); and a young man seemingly staring into space--and perhaps pondering how to pay for it all. (George Eastman House) Family group daguerreotype, 1852 Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

17. Women’s Movement Fought for : Women’s rights, temperance, abolition of slavery Women’s Rights Convention – 1848 Seneca Falls – NY Declaration of Sentiments Demanded ballot for women Launched women’ rights movement Leaders: Lucretia Mott Susan B. Anthony (Suzy B’s) Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Blackwell (first female medical graduate) Margaret Fuller Grimké Sisters Amelia Bloomer (bloomerism)

18. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and sons, 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton posed in 1848 with two of her sons, Henry Jr., left, and Neil. Stanton, one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention, traveled widely and agitated for women's equality while raising five children. (Collection of Rhoda Jenkins) Elizabeth Cady Stanton and sons, 1848 Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

19. Angelina Grimké Born in the south to a prominent slaveholding family, Angelina Grimké moved to the north to distance herself from an institution she hated. When she discovered that northerners were no more sympathetic about the plight of slaves than southerners and would not give abolition a free hearing, she chose to do something about it. She toured the northeast, speaking first to groups of women and then to large mixed audiences. She capped her tour by becoming the first woman to address the Massachusetts state legislature. Her courage won new respect both for abolitionists and for women. (Library of Congress) Angelina Grimké Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

20. Wilderness Utopians Robert Owen – founded New Harmony – 1825 Confusion & contradiction Brook Farm – Mass –1841 20 intellectuals committed to transcendentalism Lasted until 1846 Oneida Community – NY – 1848 Practiced free love, birth control, eugenic selection of parents to produce superior offspring Shakers – 1770s – Mother Ann Lee Communistic community / Can’t marry so extinct

21. The Dawn of Scientific Achievement Early American interested in practical science rather than pure T. Jefferson - plow Nathaniel Bowditch – navigation & oceanographer Matthew Maury – ocean winds & currents Influential US scientists Benjamin Silliman – pioneer in chemist, geologist Louis Agassiz – Harvard, insisted on original research Asa Gray – Harvard – Botany John Audubon – painted birds

22. Medicine in America Primitive Bleeding – common cure/ curse Smallpox & yellow fever killed many Poor diet & ignorance of germs & sanitation Life expectancy – 1850 – 40 years old Self-prescribed patent medicine common & often harmful Surgery Tied down with a shot of whiskey for pain 1840s – laughing gas

23. Artistic Achievement US imitated European styles Thomas Jefferson – great architect Monticello & University of Virginia Painting suffered - No leisure time & Puritan prejudice Gilbert Stuart – painted Washington & competed with English artists Wilson Peale – portraits of Washington John Trumbull – painted American Revolution After War of 1812 – human landscapes & romanticism

24. Music Puritans frowned upon nonreligious singing “Darky” tunes became popular “Dixie” – 1859 Stephen C. Foster – “Old Folks at Home”

25. The Blossoming of a National Literature Reading plagiarized from England US literature was practical in nature The Federalist, Common Sense, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography Literature was revived after the War of 1812

26. The Knickerbocker Group – NY Washington Irving 1 st American to win international recognition The Sketch Book James Fenimore Cooper 1 st American novelist Leatherstocking Tales, The Last of the Mochicans William Cullen Bryant 1 st high quality poet in US “Thanatopsis”

27. Trumpeters of Transcendentalism Transcendentalists Rejected Locke’s theory that all knowledge comes to the mind through the senses Truth “transcends” the senses: it cannot be found by observation alone but with inner light Dignity of the individual – black & white

28. Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson Stressed self-reliance, self-improvement, self- confidence, optimism, & freedom Henry David Thoreau Condemned slavery On the Duty of Civil Disobedience – idealistic thought Walt Whitman “Poet Laureate of Democracy” – Leaves of Grass

29. Glowing Literary Lights Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Poet John Greenleaf Whittier – Poet Against inhumanity, injustice, & intolerance James Russell Lowell – political satirist Oliver Wendell Holmes – poet Louisa May Alcott – Little Women Emily Dickinson – poet William Gillmore Simms – southern themes

30. Literary Individualists & Dissenters Edgar Allan Poe – “The Raven” Fascinated with ghostly & ghastly Reflected Calvinist obsession on original sin & struggle between good & evil Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter Herman Melvile – Moby Dick

31. Portrayers of the Past George Bancroft Founded naval academy “Father of American History”