The Second Great Awakening Antebellum Reform Movements The

The Second Great Awakening & Antebellum Reform Movements

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 R 1 -1

Moving away from Traditional Anglican Church l Many Founding Fathers were Enlightenment Deists • Believed in Watch Maker metaphor • Believed man’s reason could figure everything out Congregational Churches- independent local churches l Unitarians split Congregational establishment in New England l • Took control of Harvard & wealthiest urban churches • Est. American Unitarian Association in 1826

Challenges to Anglican Church Dramatic increases in immigration -Irish Catholic, Scots-Irish Presbyterians, German and Northern European Lutherans ¢ Transcendentalism emphasized individualism & emotion/intuition over reason ¢ Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self Reliance) l Henry David Thoreau (Walden, Civil Disobedience) l

Changing Societal Conditions ¢ Educated clergy out of touch with frontier communities l l ¢ ¢ Clash of social class Calvinist theology too complex & restrictive for uneducated poor people Disestablishment & 1 st Amendment created competition among denominations Non seminary ministers needed to meet demands l l l 1775: 1, 800 ministers (1: 1, 500) 1845: 40, 000 ministers (1: 500) Revivalists used democratic rhetoric to attack “aristocratic” religious elites- signs of Jeffersonian Republic?

The Second Great Awakening “Spiritual Reform From Within” [Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Temperance Education Abolitionism Asylum & Penal Reform Women’s Rights

Second Great Awakening: Methodists ¢ Methodism came over to America after successfully transforming Great Britain in the late 1700 s l John & Charles Wesley began reform movement within the Anglican Church – later became Methodist Episcopal Church l Francis Asbury was 1 st Methodist Bishop in the U. S. l Peter Cartwright was leading circuit rider l preached salvation as a free gift to all l Set up Sunday Schools & bible studies John Wesley Francis Asbury

The Spread of Methodism

Methodist Camp Meeting

Second Great Awakening: Baptists ¢ Baptists also spread rapidly l l ¢ Both groups used popular mass culture l l ¢ Rejected Calvinist roots John Leland combined Jeffersonian democracy with Christian morality Took advantage of cheap printing to produce Bibles, tracts, Sunday School curricula, etc. Took popular songs and wrote new lyrics Created interdenominational organizations: l l l American Bible Society American Sunday School Union American Tract Society Leland Monument Cheshire, Mass.

Challenging Race & Gender Conventions ¢ Initially preached racial & gender equality l ¢ Richard Allen Mother Bethel AME Church ¢ Women & blacks allowed to preach Later backed off due to concern for respectability Richard Allen founded Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (A. M. E. ) after whites tried to segregate St. George’s Methodist Church in Philadelphia

Revival Preaching

Congregationalists & Presbyterians ¢ Charles G. Finney Presbyterians & Congregationalists adopted methods by 1830 s-40 s, bringing revival to Northeast l Lyman Beecher traveled around preaching conversion l Charles G. Finney developed system for revival, deliberately playing on emotions l Converted 100, 000 people in Rochester, NY in 1839

Come-Outer Sects: Mormons ¢ Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) l l l Joseph Smith, Jr. saw angel Moroni & found in gold tablets in 1823 Book of Mormon published in 1830 Established utopian communities: Joseph Smith, Jr. • Kirtland, OH 1831 -38 • Nauvoo, IL 1839 -45 l Hierarchical, male-dominated church • Polygamy encouraged l l Smith killed by mob in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1844 Brigham Young led migration to Deseret (Utah) in 1846 -48 Brigham Young

Hill Cumorah, Palmyra, NY

Reconstructed Temple Nauvoo, Illinois

Mormon Temple Salt Lake City, Utah

Come-Outer Sects: Shakers ¢ United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (Shakers) started in England in 1747 l l ¢ Mother Ann Lee Stanley claimed to be 2 nd, female incarnation of Jesus Christ Came to America with 8 disciples in 1774 Established 19 communities between 1783 -1836 l l 4, 000 – 5, 000 members at peak Lived communally & practiced celibacy Danced & experienced ecstasies in worship Embraced modern technology

Shaker Dance

Round Barn (1826) Hancock Shaker Village

Mill Powered by Water Turbine Hancock Shaker Village

Weave Shop Hancock Shaker Village

Elders’ Bedroom Hancock Shaker Village

Oneida Community ¢ ¢ ¢ Oneida Community founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 Noyes had been converted by Finney, but became an antinomian “Complex marriage” came to be eugenic breeding program Noyes fled to Canada in 1879 to avoid adultery charge Community became a jointstock company in 1881 John Humphrey Noyes Oneida Community Mansion

Antebellum Reform Movements: Abolition ¢ American Colonization Society (1817) favored gradual, compensated manumission & “returning” freed blacks to Africa l l ¢ Liberia founded in 1821 6, 000 immigrants, 1817 -67 William Lloyd Garrison American Antislavery Society (1833) demanded immediate, uncompensated emancipation & black citizenship l l William Lloyd Garrison began publishing The Liberator in 1831 Frederick Douglass was escaped slave who became eloquent spokesman Frederick Douglass

Antebellum Reform Movements: Temperance ¢ ¢ Temperance movement combated widespread evils of alcholism American Temperance Society & Washington Temperance Society led voluntary individual reform efforts l l l ¢ Parades featured water wagons Teetotalers pledged total abstinence Per capita consumption drastically reduced by 1850 Neal Dow got 13 states to pass “Maine laws, ” 1851 -55 l l Prohibited manufacture & sale of intoxicating liquor Did not apply to beer, wine or cider

Antebellum Reform Movements: Women’s Rights ¢ ¢ Women’s Rights movement grew out of other reform movements Many, like Susan B. Anthony, were Quakers Elizabeth Cady Stanton began as temperance advocate & abolitionist Seneca Falls Convention (1848) issued Women’s Declaration of Independence

Antebellum Reform Movements: Penitentiaries & Asylums ¢ ¢ Criminals, poor, etc. seen as result of societal failure Penitentiaries designed to remove criminals from corrupting influences & provide discipline through labor l l Dorothea Dix ¢ Auburn (1819 -23) Ossining (1825) Asylums isolated patients from outside influences in order to cure them l l Mental illness viewed as result of stress Asylums were utopias