Society, Culture, and Reform: 1820-1860

 

The Second Great Awakening was a reaction against rationalism of rev era, erosion of Calvinism.  It began among the educated; for example, the president of Yale college in Connecticut (Timothy Dwight) held campus "revivals" that motivated a generation of young men to become evangelical preachers.

The nature of the movement, however, adapted to the realities of the masses. To reach an audience of uneducated masses, preachers needed to devise audience centered sermons.

Charles Grandison Finney delivered sermons that appealed to people's emotions and fears of eternal damnation.  Preached that all could be saved thru faith and hard work-- very appealing to middle class.  So effective that Western NY came to be called the "burned over" district.

Baptists and Methodists in the south and on the advancing frontier, in areas that often lack a church or preacher, travel about holding outdoor revivals (camp meetings) that attract thousands. Numerous conversions led them to be the largest protestant denominations in the country by 1850.

William Miller gained thousands of followers by predicting that 21 Oct 1844 was the time of the second coming; much of the religious zeal was tied to the belief that this marked the coming of the end of the world.  While there was disappoint ment when the prediction proved untrue, Millerites continue to this day as Seventh-Day Adventists.

Joseph Smith based his religious thinking on a book of scripture (the book of Mormon) which traced a connection between native Americans and the lost tribes of Israel.  Subjected to violence and persecution by local mobs, Smith was murdered in Illinois; his followers were led by Brigham Young to the New Zion on the banks of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.  Polygamist practices aroused the hostility of the gov't, but the community prospered thru cooperative social organization.

While the second great awakening aroused religious fervor, the greatest impact was in the creation of reform movements in the northern tier (New England to Ohio).

Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau questioned the doctrines of established churches and the habits of capitalism's merchant class.  They argued for a mystical and intuitive way of thinking, emphasizing the essence of god in nature and the pursuit of artistic expression over wealth.

Emerson's Harvard address in 1837 (The American Scholar) evoked a spirit of nationalism, urging Americans to create a culture distinct from the Europeans.  He wrote of self reliance, independent thinking, and the primacy of spiritual matters over material gain.

Thoreau, a close personal friend of  Emerson's, conducted a two year experiment to test his transcendental philosophy by living in the woods outside town (Concord, Mass).  He "got in touch" with essential truths about life and the universe, is remembered thru his book Walden (1854)as a pioneer ecologist and conservationist, and was an early advocate of nonviolent protest thru civil disobedience (On Civil Disobedience).  He went to jail (one night) for refusing to pay a tax that would be used to finance the war with Mexico (1846-1848). 

George Ripley launched a communal experiment (1841) at Brook Farm in Mass. to create a more natural union between intellectual and manual labor.  While some of the leading minds of the era (Emerson, Hawthorne, feminist Margaret Fuller, radical reformer Theodore Parker) stayed there at different times, heavy debts and a fire forced its demise in 1849.

Mother Ann Lee led one of the earliest religious communal movements, the Shakers, who held property in common, forbade sex or marriage, and kept men and women separate.  Lack of new recruits led to the movement dying out by the mid 20th c.  German Pietists (Christian Metz, 1842) established the Amana colonies  in Iowa along much the same lines, save the provision regarding marriage, which helped ensure their survival.

Robert Owen, a philanthropic Welsh industrialist, established a Utopian Socialist community in New Harmony Indiana.  It failed due to financial problems.  The goal was to provide communal ownership of an industrial factory to eliminate exploitation of workers, end child labor, and provide to the needs of community members.

John Humphrey Noyes started a cooperative community in Oneida, NY dedicated to economic equality, shared property, free love, and even shared marriage partners.  The system of planned reproduction and communal child rearing was called sinful, but the community drew craftspeople who made and sold excellent quality silverware.

Horace Greeley (newspaper editor in NY) became interested in the theories of Charles Fourier, another (French) utopian socialist.  The goal was to solve the problems of industrialization thru shared work and living arrangements, called phalanxes.  Proved too much for the individualistic Americans to adapt to, and died out quickly.

George Caleb Bingham painted everyday life; William S Mount lively rural compositions; Thomas Cole and Frederic Church's Hudson River School expressed the romantic age's fascination with the natural world.

The American Temperance Society, founded in 1826, sought not only moderate consumption of alcohol, but total abstinence.  Temperance became a path for the working class to attain middle class respectability.

Dorothea Dix led the drive to distinguish between criminals and the mentally ill, leading to state supported reatment.

Prisons were transformed from crude jails and lock up to the modern idea of reform institutions called penitentiaries.  Penitents were held in solitary confinement to reflet upon their sins; while this approach led to high suicide rates among convicts, structure and discipline along with moral instruction were introduced.

Horace Mann led an 1840's movement for compulsory public school education for children, teacher preparation classes, a longer school year, and tax supported schools.

Beginning in the 1830's, protestant colleges emerged in Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.  New colleges in Mass. began to admit women, and lyceum lecture societies furthered adult education.

The Cult of domesticity idealized women as moral leaders in the home and educators of children.  Women grew frustrated with their relegation to minor roles in the abolition movement, leading to campaigns for women's rights (Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton) which culminated in the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.  There they issued a document called the Declaration of Sentiments modeled on the Declaration of Independence, arguing for equality.  Afterward, Susan B Anthony and E. Cady Stanton led the campaign for voting rights for women.

The American Colonization Society sought to return freed slaves to Monrovia, Liberia beginning in 1822.  !831, William Lloyd Garrison began publication of the Liberator, arguing for immediate abolition.  Frederick Douglass started the North Star in 1847 while Harriet Tubman, David Ruggles, Sojourner Truth and William Still helped organize the effort to assist fugitive slaves in their flight to freedom (underground railroad).  David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet went as far as to advocate slave revolts to overtake the "master".