Antebellum Reform Movements APUSH ReformChange for Improvement Main

Antebellum Reform Movements APUSH

Reform=Change for Improvement § Main impulses § Faith in human nature § Goodness of the individual § Desire for order and control § Desire to remake society § Religious/moral impulses § § § § Romanticism Transcendentalists Utopian Societies Second Great Awakening Temperance Crusade Feminism Abolitionism

Second Great Awakening § Similar to First Great Awakening: § Began in Conn and eventually spread to frontier § Shifted Back East to “Burned Over District” W. NY § Popular § Revival Meetings Camps § New Religious Sects Baptists and Methodists § Revivals increase popularity of reform movements

Second Great Awakening § How was the second Great Awakening Different § § § from First Great Awakening? 1 st: revivals seen as part of the miraculous work of God “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Jonathan Edwards 1739 2 nd Human inspired Opposed predestination and anyone could attain heaven Charles Finney: people choose to Sin is not natural but a voluntary Act

Revivals = “giving new life, ” to bring back to life specifically Popular Religion (1830 s) § § § Second Great Awakening Widespread Christian Movement Revival meetings= new life Emotional Sermons Increased the amount of people participating in churches (particularly women) § Abolition and Temperance movement are directly linked to 2 nd Great Awakening ►Spread Christian ideas of equality and morality.

Romanticism § § § § Artistic movement Emerges 1800 -1820 Message “That would express their nation’s special virtues. ” Discovering American Art as an American creation. § Nostalgic- looking § § § fondly back on earlier times Inspired by expression of inner spirit Nature and God together Work to unleash capacity for good and joy

Motifs in Romanticism § The Nostalgic (sympathetic fondness) § § § interpretation of the historic PAST Individual REBELLION Subjects from MYTH and FOLKLORE Glorification of NATURE, faraway settings Emotion-SENTIMENTALISM = Nobility of the uncivilized man and simple life Spiritual (GOTHIC themes – supernatural, mysterious)

Romanticism in Painting § Hudson River School § § § (NY) First Natural Landscapes Power of Nature Sublime (feeling of awe, feeling of wonderment) Grandeur of Nature offers promise Sense of Nostalgia in nature Church

Romanticism in Literature link § Washington Irving (1809) § Legend of Sleepy Hollow § American theme, Dutch in § § § New York, early America James Fenimore Cooper (1820 s) Wrote about American wilderness Leather Stocking Tales “Last of the Mohicans” Reflected American Ideals: § § § Independent Individual Natural Inner Goodness Need for order

Romanticism in Literature 2 § Walt Whitman (Link) § “Poet of American § § § § § Democracy” NYC Themes Celebrated Democracy Spirit of the Individual Liberation of individual Pleasures of the Flesh American Spirit Emotional and Physical Release Personal fulfillment Homosexual Leaves of Grass Greatest collection “When Lilacs Last in the dooryard bloom’d” Lincoln tribute Captain My Captain about Lincoln’s Assassination

Romanticism in Literature 3 § § § Herman Melville (link) NY, 1819 Best of his era Moby Dick pub 1851 Human spirit was troubled § Self Destructive § Man against nature

Romanticism in Literature 4 • Edgar Allen Poe (link) • Died 1849 • Poems and stories • Sad and Macabre • 1845 the Raven • Theme of individuals rising above to see deeper world of spirit and emotion Poe exposes… “the underside of the American dream of the self-made man and showed the price of materialism and excessive competition -loneliness, alienation, and images of death-in-life. ”

Transcendentalists § a philosophy started in the early 19 th century that § § § promotes intuitive, spiritual thinking instead of scientific thinking based on material things Emerges out of Romanticism New England Reaction against traditional Logic and Enlightenmentnon-conformist values Independent thinking Referred to reason as the ability to grasp beauty and truth through-- Instinct and Emotion § (the highest human faculties)

More Transcendentalism § TRANSCENDENTALISM = a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the SPIRITUAL over the MATERIAL and EMPIRICAL § The ultimate truth transcends the physical world

Transcendentalists and Nature § Nature was the source of deep Human inspiration § Helps individuals see truth within their souls § Genuine Spirituality come through communion with nature

Super individualism was at their core. § Philosophically though, there was a center and it was about the notion of spontaneous reason. § people are capable of discovering a truth solely on the basis of intuition.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (link) § Leader, Unitarian Minister, devoted to Transcendentalism § Wrote Essays, Lectures, Very Popular Advocated the commitment of the individual to full exploration of the inner capacities.

Emerson: the Nationalist § Wanted cultural Independence § 1837 “The American Scholar” § American dependence on culture & art is over § Truth & beauty can be derived from instinct & creative genius § “Let the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts there abide. And a huge world will come round to him. ”

R. W. Emerson Essay “Nature” 1836 § In the quest for Self-Fulfillment § Individuals should work for Communion with Nature § “In the woods, we return to reason and faith… Standing on the bare ground my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, all mean egotism vanishes… I am part and particle of God. ”

RW Emerson: essay 1841 “Self Reliance” § Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind” § Self Reliance: § was a quest for unity of the Universe § The wholeness of god § The great spiritual force/essence of spiritual soul § Each person has innate capacity to find divinity personally

Henry David Thoreau § Transcendentalist § Repudiated repressive forces § Individuals should: § § § Work for self-realization Resist conformity Should respond to own instincts § Walden- in the Concord (Mass) Woods § Most famous book § Lived alone for 2 years

Thoreau § “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to confront only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what It had to teach. § And not when I came to die I discover that I had not lived”

Thoreau § § § Went to jail briefly Refused to pay a Poll Tax Protested Slavery 1849: Essay “Resistance to Civil Government” An individual’s personal morality has first claim on his actions § Government that violated personal morality had no legitimate authority § An individual response should be § Civil Disobedience or Passive Resistence

Utopian Societies, Brook Farm, New Harmony, Oneida Community, Morman § Utopian movements are radical manifestations of the reform impulse. § They have the common vision to remake society in a “more perfect way” § Communal characteristics § Separate from mainstream society § Cooperative

Utopian Movements § § Brook Farm Massachusetts 1841 -47 Transcendentalists Individual strives for Self. Realization § Communal § Leisure is key § § § New Harmony Robert Owen “A village of cooperation” § § § Oneida Community 1848 NY Rejected traditional family and marriage values §

Oneida Community § § § § 1848 NY John Humphrey Noyes Rejected traditional family and marriage values All residents were married to all other residents § No permanent conjugal ties § Sexual behavior was monitored to prevent abuse. § Children raised communally § Liberation from the demands of male lust.

Shakers § § § Religious extremists Re-defined traditional sexuality Founded 1770 s Northeast + Northwest 1840 s “Shaking” ecstatic movementwould “shake themselves free from sin” while performing a loud chant. § Commitment to Celibacy!? § § § Voluntary No children born into Shakerism Contact between men and women was limited § Social discipline was important A view of Shaker Meeting from 1885. A photographer from the Poland Spring Hotel took this image. The Shakers are seated in the front benches. The spectators and guests from the Poland Spring Hotel are in the back rows.

Mormons § Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints § § § (LDS) Joseph Smith (prophet for Mormons) 1830 s Book of Mormon Translation of set of Golden Tablets Ancient Civilization in America (one of lost tribes of Israel) Dark Skin = Sin Story of “American Hebrews”

Joseph Smith Brigham Young

Mormons Continued § Smith creates the movement and obtains converts § Rigid way of life: § Polygamy § Secrecy § Life Style (very prescriptive, foods, behavior) § § § New York, Illinois, Smith Arrested and killed by mob Brigham Young takes the 12000 converts WEST to Utah

Temperance= Movement Against Alcohol (link) § Religious based Social Reform Movement § Crusade § “The church must take… on subject of Temperance, the moral reform, all the subjects of practical morality. ” § Crime, disorder, poverty caused by alcoholism § Drinking was especially a problem for Women- husband abuse them, and kids, and drink the money.

Temperance (Really good link) § 1826 American Society for the Promotion of § § § § Temperance Preached abstinence Large meetings “Going on the Wagon” Will later evolve into national movement Women’s Christian Temperance Union 1878 Anti-Saloon League 1880 s Eventually, under Progressives, will lead to prohibition of Alcohol 18 th Amendment to the Constitution last 1920 -1933.

Education § Public Education not widely established § Some progress in Massachusetts § New interest in Pub Ed § To create a stable social values=conformity § Horace Mann is the leader “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. ”

Education § Mann § “An educated electorate is essential to the working of a free Political system. ” § Education “only way to counter…the tendency to domination of capital and servility of labor. ” § Advocated protestant valuesthrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority § Not wide spread change comes from this movement.

Medical Reforms § Phrenology § Foolish § Germ Theory

Asylum (link) and Prison Reforms § § § Rehabilitation is the key Asylum=mental health Prison= criminals Rise of the Penitentiary “A place to cultivate penitence” Through discipline Problem- Mentally ill and criminals kept in terrible conditions Reform is key § Dorothea Dix § Some progress

Feminism § Women were active in reform § § § and Revival- 2 nd Great Awakening Temperance Abolition Women’s rights Many women begin to call for women’s rights “Men and women were created equal. They are both moral and accountable beings and whatever is right for man to do is right for women to do. ”

Women’s Rights Movement § Lucretia Mott § Elizabeth Cady § § Stanton Susan B. Anthony Strong connection between Women’s Rights and Abolition movement

Seneca Falls Convention 1848 (link) § Elizabeth Cady Stanton § Susan B. Anthony § Lucretia Mott § Fredrick Douglass § Declaration of Sentiments § Emulated Declaration of Independence