Antebellum Reform Movements

AP U.S. HISTORY

Mr. Sean McAtee Iroquois High School, Elma, NY December 2014 The Second Great Awakening

Protestant Revivalism Movement (circa 1790 - 1850) Camp Meetings / Emotional Preaching Universal Salvation

Led to the desire to improve society - Reform Movements

Temperance Abolitionism Education

Asylum & Women’s Penal Reform Rights The Rise of Popular Religion

In France, I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America, I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country… Religion was the foremost of the political institutions of the United States. -- Alexis de Tocqueville, 1832 The Second Great Awakening Rev. Charles Grandison Finney (1792 - 1875)

Finney believed that God offered Himself to everyone, and that one could be saved only through an active acceptance of God's invitation to grace.

The ranges of tents, the fires, reflecting light…; the candles and lamps illuminating the encampment; hundreds moving to and fro…; the preaching, praying, singing, and shouting,… like the sound of many waters, was enough to swallow up all Rev. Finney 1835 the powers of contemplation. The Second Great Awakening Revival Meeting The Second Great Awakening The Movement of Camp Meetings / Revivals The Mormons The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Smith was born into a poor Vermont family that moved to Palmyra, NY.

In 1820 Smith began to have religious experiences. He believed that God had chosen him to receive the divine truth

In 1835 Smith published The Book of Mormon. This book told the story of an ancient Jewish civilization that had migrated to the Western Hemisphere, Joseph Smith (1805-1844) and of the visit of Jesus Christ, soon after his resurrection, to that society The Mormons The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints People began to “follow” Smith - became converts to his church.

Smith saw himself as a prophet in a sinful, excessively individualistic society. He revived traditional social doctrines, including patriarchal authority.

Smith also stressed communal discipline to safeguard the Mormons.

Smith was killed by a mob in Smith justified the practice of polygamy - Carthage, Illinois in 1844 men having multiple wives After Smith was killed, Brigham Young led 6,500 converts West to Utah Established a community in what is now Salt Lake City Brigham Young (1870) The Shakers The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing

Founded in England in 1770

Lee’s followers believed that she was the female component of Christ’s spirit, and that she represented the Second appearance of Christ on earth. “Mother” Ann Lee Lee and nine followers emigrated to America Born-England 1736 in 1774. They built a community near Albany, which they named Niskeyuna. Died-Albany, NY 1784 There would be a total of 18 communities - stretching from Maine to Kentucky The Shakers Very Successful! Communities led by a man and a woman Church members were celibate Social discipline was important Contact between men and women was limited The Rise of Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism 19th century philosophical and literary movement

Proponents rejected the ordered, rational world of the Enlightenment. In its place they embraced human passion and sought deeper insight into the mysteries of existence

“Transcend” the limits of intellect Ralph Waldo Emerson and allow the emotions, the SOUL, (1803-1882) to create an original relationship with the Universe. Transcendentalist Thinking The spirit had gone out of the churches. Religion needed a new vision.

Each person is an extension of a universal spirit, that speaks through them in a unique and creative way.

Each individual has the right to follow the dictates of his or her own conscience.

Key ideas included optimism, freedom and self-reliance.

Emphasized living a simple life, and celebrated the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination GiveThe well-being Transcendentalist to the poor and the Agenda miserable.

Give learning to the ignorant.

Give health to the sick.

Give peace and justice to society. Ralph Waldo Henry David Emerson Thoreau

Nature Self-Reliance Walden (1832) Civil Disobedience (1841) (1854) (1849)

“The American Scholar” (1837) A Critic of Transcendentalism

A more pessimistic worldview. “The world is not a perfect place”

Pursuing one’s own self-interest has the potential to destroy individuals and those around them

In Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, two characters ignore societies rules by committing adultery. Instead of gaining freedom, their lives are destroyed. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) Secular Utopian Communities Owenite-Communities Owen and his followers established a number of communities organized around cooperative principles (sharing labor and resources)

Robert Owen (1771-1858) Owen’s plan for New Harmony, Indiana Brook Farm - near Boston, Ma. Community created in 1841 by a couple who adopted the philosophy of transcendentalism. Its key beliefs were equality and personal freedom. Community members would pool their labor and their resources.It lasted for five years.

Key transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau were frequent visitors The Oneida Community Established in 1848 in central New York State

Noyes was a graduate of Dartmouth College. He became a minister after being inspired by Charles Grandison Finney

Noyes became a believer in perfectionism - believed that Christ had already returned to earth. Therefore, people could aspire to sinless perfection in their earthy lives.

Noyes rejected traditional marriage. John Humphrey Noyes He felt that was a barrier to perfection (1811-1886) The Oneida Community

In 1848, the community had 87 members

Community members practiced what Noyes called Complex Marriage - Every man was married to every woman (and vice versa)

No two people were allowed to have exclusive attachment The Oneida Community to each other - as this was Mansion House deemed to be selfish (circa 1870) Albert Brisbane & Fourierism

Charles Fourier (1777-1837) was a French reformer. He predicted the decline of individual property rights and capitalist values.

Brisbane was Fourier’s leading disciple in America

Members would work for the community in cooperative groups called phalanxes; they Albert Brisbane would own property in common, including (circa 1840) stores, a bank, a school and a library Born in Batavia, NY During the 1840s nearly 100 communities were in 1809 established. Most of them quickly collapsed. Buried in Batavia Cemetery in 1809 The Temperance Movement

Annual Consumption of Alcohol (gallons per person) The Temperance Movement

The American Temperance Society was established in 1826. Its goal was to curb the consumption of alcohol.

Within a few years the organization had 200,000 members

Intemperance is the sin of our land, and, with our boundless prosperity, is coming in upon us like a flood; and if anything shall defeat the hopes of the world, which hang upon our experiment of civil liberty, it is that river of fire . . . . Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) — Lyman Beecher 1829 The Drunkard’s Progress: From the First Glass to the Grave (1846) The Abolition Movement Around 1800, those working to end slavery argued that slavery was contrary to the ideas of the American Revolution - republicanism & liberty

1816 - American Colonization Society was created. Goal - gradual, voluntary emancipation

David Walker (free black man) published Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829. It called for slaves to revolt agains their masters. Walker: Fight for Freedom. Don’t wait to be set free! The Abolition Movement

The abolition movement greatly expanded around 1830, inspired by the ideas of the Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists

By the 1830s, abolitionists argued that slavery was a sin / against God’s will. William Lloyd Garrison

Established the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831.

Helped to establish the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.

There is a law above all the enactments of human code . . . written by the finger of God upon the heart of man Wm. Lloyd Garrison (1829) — Wm. Lloyd Garrison 1859 William Lloyd Garrison

Called for the immediate emancipation of all people who were enslaved with no compensation for slave owners.

Slavery was a moral issue - not an economic issue

Slavery undermined republican values

Wm. Lloyd Garrison (1859) The Liberator (1831 - 1865)

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this issue I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation . . . urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD. — Wm Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator (Inaugural Issue) 1 Jan 1831) The Anti-Slavery Alphabet (1846) Written by abolitionist sisters Hannah and Mary Townsend, who were Quakers from Philadelphia Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895) Born on a plantation in Maryland

Escaped from slavery in 1838. Douglass disguised himself as a sailor, and boarded a northbound train in Baltimore. When he arrived in New York City Douglass declared himself a free man Earliest known photo - age 26 Became a leading abolitionist speaker

Published The Narrative of Frederick Douglass in 1845

Settled in Rochester, NY. Began publishing newspaper The North Star in 1847 1879 - age 61 Sojourner Truth (Isabella Baumfree) (1797 - 1883)

Born on an estate owned by a Dutch American in Ulster County, NY (95 miles North of NYC)

She “walked away” in 1827 when her owner refused to uphold the New York Anti-Slavery Law

Published The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave in 1850

May 1851, delivered a speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, which is today known as Ain’t I a Woman. Harriet Tubman (1820 - 1913)

Born a slave on a plantation on the eastern shore of Maryland

She married a free black man named John Tubman around 1844. Fearing that she was going to be sold, Tubman ran away in 1849. She ended up in Philadelphia

In 1850 Tubman rescued her sister and her sister’s two children

By1860 Tubman had made 19 trips to rescue people who had been enslaved. She helped more than 300 people obtain freedom!

Southern Abolitionists - The Grimke Sisters Eric Foner - Columbia University 1840 - Split in the abolitionist movement over the “proper” role of women London World Anti-Slavery Convention

Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Declaration of Sentiments Seneca Falls, NY 1848 Status of Women in early 19th century Legal status of a minor

Unable to vote

Single women could own her own property

Married women had no control over her property or her children

Could not initiate divorce

Couldn’t make wills, sign a contract, or bring suit in court without her husband’s permission “Separate Spheres” Concept - “Cult of Domesticity” A woman’s “sphere” was in the home (it was a refuge from the cruel world outside)

Her role was to “civilize” her husband and family.

Francis William Edmonds, The New Scholar (1845) The Discord (1865) A marriage dispute over who wears the Pants