1. The Second Great Awakening and the Social Reform Movements of the 1800’s
Mr. Clowes
APUSH

2. Another Great Awakening?
In the early 1800’s another religious revival began to sweep through the US, and it would continue until the 1830’s
It was different from the First Great Awakening in that it was not uniform in its motivations and characteristics
The First – was meant to increase the memberships of churches and was based on emotional appeals
The Second – it was in response to American society’s movement away from religion and it was different in its message and tactics depending on what region of the US it was found in

3. The Two Awakenings
The Second Great Awakening was, however, similar to the First in some ways
It was emotional in its appeal as the First had been (evangelical)
Preachers were trained in the eastern regions to carry the evangelical message west, spreading the Awakening
Many of these evangelicals would not only take their faith with them, but also their experience and education, making them social and educational leaders in the frontier West

4. The Awakening As a Populist Movement
Though many preachers did preach intellectual messages of salvation of redemption, the most successful ministers were those who spoke on simple but emotional levels to the general public
For maximum success their message had to be understood by even the uneducated and it had to have a widespread appeal for all who heard

5. The Awakening As a Populist Movement
The Second Great Awakening, especially in the western frontier areas and in some regions of the South, truly was meant for all
Many preachers did not choose to preach prejudice sermons  they allowed all to hear their message and offered salvation for all, even both freed and enslaved African Americans
The Second Great Awakening was in many ways a more radical reflection of the democratization of America during the time

6. Finney and the Burnt Out District
The most prominent of the Second Great Awakening ministers was Charles G. Finney
Finney began holding revivals in the New York district in 1832
He preached very emotional sermons that taught any person could achieve salvation through hard work and repentance, something the members of the growing middle class strongly desire to hear
His sermons became so numerous through the years that west New York state became known as the Burnt Out District because of the numerous “hellfire and brimstone” sermons that had taken place there

7. The Baptists and Methodists
The Baptists and the Methodists focused on gaining memberships among those moving away from the eastern seaboard
Both used the camp meeting as a revival tool in the wilderness
During a camp meeting all from the surrounding area would come together for a number of days for a festival-like atmosphere where they would listen to revivalist sermons
By 1850 the Baptists and Methodists were the two largest Protestant denominations in the US

8. The Awakening and Reform
An important aspect of the Second Great Awakening in New England was its promotion of social reforms
The popular belief among religious denominations had moved from the Puritan idea of predestination to the belief that one achieved salvation through acts of good will  this made people want to ‘do right’ for society
For example, the temperance movement (those who wanted to ban alcohol) received heavy support from the Second Great Awakening

9. The Awakening and Reform
In the beginning, the reformers (who were most often associated with the Awakening) would try to use moral arguments to convince people to ‘do what’s right’
However, these moral arguments could only achieve so much before the reformers began using political tactics to achieve their reforms

10. Abolitionism
The abolitionist movement began around the same time as the Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening convinced many Northerners that slavery was a sin in the eyes of God, and mainly because of its idea that a person should “do what’s right for society and God”
This narrow view of slavery and abolition caused many Northerners to not be willing to compromise when it came for negotiations between the North and the South

11. Abolitionism
There were two levels of abolitionists, moderates who wanted a gradual reduction of slavery and radicals who wanted slavery banned immediately
Most moderates in the 1820’s adopted the policy of relocation of African Americans
The American Colonization Society began efforts to move freed blacks back to Africa in 1822, but their efforts were never successful
This policy of course appealed to racist whites who desired the removal of freed African Americans from American society

12. Radical Abolitionists
One of the most prominent radical abolitionists of the era was William Lloyd Garrison
He established the first abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator
Helped to found the American Antislavery Society in 1833
He made demands for the immediate abolition of slavery throughout the entirety of the US

13. An Abolitionist Political Party
In the late 1830’s abolitionists would band together to form the Liberty Party
They saw political means as the best method for gaining abolitionist laws
Their single political platform was the banning of slavery
They ran a presidential candidate in the elections of 1840 and 1844

14. Black Abolitionists
Some of the most radical and prominent of the abolitionists were former slaves
Their firsthand experience of the harsh conditions of slavery were much more powerful in gaining supporters for abolition
Frederick Douglass was the most recognized of these former slaves turned abolitionists
His journal The North Star would play an important role in the antislavery movement

15. The Temperance Movement
One of the main goals of the religious-based reformers was the banning of alcohol (temperance)
Though the movement took some time to build momentum, after it was realized that crime, poverty, and working output could all be improved through the ban of alcohol, many prominent political and business leaders began to support the movement

16. The Temperance Movement
Successes of the Temperance Movement
The Temperance Movement was led by the American Temperance Society
The Temperance supporters would achieve their largest victory in 1851 when Maine became the first state to adopt prohibition (banning the making and selling of alcohol)
The Temperance Movement would lose much of its appeal in the 1850’s after the abolitionist cause overshadowed it in importance

17. The Women’s Movement
Because of the changes taking place in American society, especially the beginning of America becoming an urban society, the roles of men and women in society changed
In the cities these changes were very prominent
Men were leaving home six days a week for 10 to 12 hours a day to work in factories or offices
Women were left at home (middle class women) to run the household and raise the children
Many women were left with little to do during the day
This idea that women were to care for the upbringing and education of their children has been called The Cult of Domesticity

18. The Women’s Movement
With the birth of the wage-earning class in American society children lost their economic value
Before, children had been an asset for their ability to work farmland  now many saw children as a burden because they were another mouth to feed
During the period of 1800 to 1850 the average American family decrease from 7 to 5

19. The Women’s Movement
With their new leisure time middle class women became the backbone of many reform movements
These first began as social gatherings among neighborhood wives, but many of these gatherings adopted specific social reforms to address
An example was the New York Female Reform Society which worked to keep young, lower class New York Women

20. The Women’s Movement
Many women were actually kept from joining in national reform movements because men viewed them as inferior… when they were allowed to participate it was most often in secondary roles
This led to resentment from the women
In 1837 Sarah Grimke, after being denied the right to participate in the Northern abolitionist movement, published Letter on the Condition of Women and the Equality of the Sexes, which spoke out against the perceived inferiorities of women in US society

21. The Women’s Movement
Many women in the period began pushing for women to be given the right to vote (suffrage)
The early women’s suffrage leaders were most often those who had been denied the right to participate in other reform movements
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (abolitionist) and Susan B. Anthony held the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848
Was a women’s rights convention but it did focus on suffrage
Published the “Declaration of Sentiments”
It took the language of the Declaration of Independence but reworded many passages to display the frustrations that women felt (i.e. “Men are created equal” to “Men and women are created equal”)

22. Educational Reform
Public education would be a major issue of the period
Tax-supported schools (public schools) were very rare, and there were many places in the South and West with no access to public education
Many in politics and the upper classes grew to support education after they considered the possibility of what uneducated and ignorant men with voting rights might do to society

23. Educational Reform
Horace Mann became the Secretary of Education for Massachusetts and began a series of reforms that would spread to other states
He pushed for tax-supported public education, a longer school year, and teacher preparation programs
Leaders of the educational movement also wanted morality to be incorporated into education
William Holmes McGuffey created a series of textbooks, called McGuffey Readers, for reading and moral instruction
These readers would be used for decades in the schools

24. Other Reforms of the Period
Mental Patients, Prisoners, and the Handicapped
Dorothea Dix fought endlessly to gain reforms for those mentally handicapped  states finally began to build mental hospitals (before that the mentally impaired most often shared prisons with criminals
Prisons during the earlier periods had been very harsh places that focused on punishment and not rehabilitation  reforms won during the period led many states to rebuild their prisons and offer new rehabilitative programs
Thomas Gallaudet founded the first school for the blind and Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe founded the first school for the blind

25. The South and Reform
Though many reform movements, especially abolitionism and temperance, were gaining strength in the North, for the most part reforms were ignored in the South
Most Southerners saw northern reforms as an assault against their way of life
By the 1830’s most states had gag orders (it was not allowed to even be brought up) against any talk of abolition in state legislatures