Reforming American Society A Spiritual Awakening Inspires Reform

Reforming American Society

A Spiritual Awakening Inspires Reform • The Second Great Awakening-Widespread Christian movement to awaken religious sentiments. • Revival meeting- Revive faith through impassioned preaching.

Unitarians and Transcendentalists • Unitarians- emphasized reason as a path to perfection. • Transcendentalism- emphasized that truth could be discovered intuitively by observing nature and relating it to one’s own emotional and spiritual experience. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The African American Church • Slaves in the south interpreted stories as a promise of freedom • Northern African Americans were able to form their own churches. These churches often became political, cultural, and social centers for African Americans.

Slavery and Abolition • Abolition- movement to free African Americans from slavery • William Lloyd Garrison- Editor of the Liberator • Frederick Douglass- Outspoken critic of slavery. Owned newspaper, The North Star

Writing an Article • • Address an injustice in the world today Advocates a course of action Be Written in a professional tone Two Paragraphs

Turner’s Rebellion • Nat Turner attacked four plantations and killed whites. • Slave owners oppose abolition- some wanted emancipation for slaves. Most chose to tighten restrictions on all African American to prevent them from plotting insurrections.

Women and Reform • Women mobilize for Reform- Women abolitionist raised money distributed literature, and collected signatures for anti slavery petitions to Congress.

Education for Women • Work for abolition and temperance accompanied gains in education. • Gain in education improved women’s health reform. • Women rights movements emerges- Male abolitionist discriminated against female abolitionist. Elizabeth Cady Stanton held the Women’s Rights convention.

Women and Reform • Seneca Falls convention- called for a resolution for a women’s right to vote • Sojourner Truth- outspoken abolitionist refuted the arguments that because she was a women she was weak, and because she was black, she was not feminine.