The Ferment of Culture and Reform

1
The Ferment of Culture and Reform

• 1790-1860

2
Reviving Religion

• Vast changes in theology and religion
• Deism believed in a supreme being who had
  created the universe and enabled humans with
  capacity for moral behavior
• In God We Trust ??
• Reliance on reason, science (Enlightenment)
• Disbelief in original sin, divinity of Christ
• God as ONE not Father, Son and Holy Spirit
• Free will
• Salvation through good deeds
• Influenced many reforms temperance, suffrage,
  slavery

3
Second Great Awakening Revivals

• Second Great Awakening circa 1800
• Reached an even larger audience than did the
  First Great Awakening
• Revivals Traveling religious festivals
• BIG WHITE TENT
• Energetic, entertaining preachers
• Stimulated church membership in all parts of the
  country
• Growth of the Baptists and Methodists
• Feminization of religion

4
Denominational Diversity

• Religious affiliation tended to derive from
  class.
• Most intellectual, wealthy were Episcopalians,
  Presbyterians, Unitarians
• Concentrated in the North
• Most uneducated, poor were Baptists and
  Methodists
• Concentrated in the South
• First the churches split, then the political
  parties split, then the Union split.

5
A Desert Zion in Utah

• Joseph Smith
• Founder of the Mormon faith
• Oppression from those disapproving of Mormons
  forced them to constantly relocate
• Shot and killed by mob
• Brigham Young takes over
• Moves Mormons west to Salt Lake City, Utah

6
Free Schools for a Free People

• Public education originally seen as education
  of poor only looked down upon
• Rich people Why should my tax money go to these
  brats who will only cause me trouble?
• Expansion of suffrage cry for free education
• Laboring factory works on the Industrial
  Revolution demanded tax-supported education for
  children
• A civilized nation that was both ignorant and
  free never was and never will be Thomas
  Jefferson

7
Problems with early public schools

• South was very reluctant to enact public
  education system
• Schools only stayed open a few months a year
• Ill-trained, ill-paid, ill-tempered MALE teachers
• Eventually would be deemed essential to promote
  stability and democracy

8
Horace Mann (1796-1859)

• Secretary of Board of Education, MA
• Campaigned for more and better schoolhouses,
  better teachers, higher teacher pay, expanded
  curriculum
• Influence spread to other states (Constitution
  leaves education up to states)
• Blacks from all parts of country forbidden from
  schools
• Breeding of Citizens Pledge of Allegiance

9
Higher Goals for Higher Learning

• State supported universities spring up in the
  South (Jeffersons University of Virginia)
• Stark contrast to the private, Ivy League schools
  in the North
• Co-education of men/women looked down upon
• Female only colleges
• Tax-supported public libraries
• Network of educational speakers
• Magazines

10
An Age of Reform

• The optimistic promises of the Second Great
  Awakening inspired countless souls to do battle
  against earthly evil.
• Goal to create a perfected society (Utopia) free
  from cruelty, war, intoxicating drink,
  discrimination, and slavery.
• Dawn of Capitalism and adjusting socially to
  the changing world.

11
Dorothea Dix

• New England teacher
• Fought for rights of incarcerated prisoners and
  mentally ill
• Traveled cross-county collecting research on
  prison/hospital conditions
• Petitioned the MA legislature to pass measures
  for improvement of prisoner/patient treatment

12
Temperance

• Temperance movement to reduce alcohol
  consumption/abuse in US
• Excessive alcohol consumption caused fights,
  decrease in efficiency of labor, work accidents,
  sanctity of the family (safety of the children)
• Affected all walks of life Men, women, children,
  clergymen, politicians
• Maine Law of 1851 prohibited the sale and
  distribution of liquor in Maine other NE states
  followed eventually expired or ruled
  unconstitutional

13
Women in Revolt

• At the beginning of the 19th century, women were
  socially comparable to slaves
• They could not vote
• Expected to remain sub servant to a master
  (husband in this case)
• Beating of women was legal (Rule of Thumb)
• Could not retain property rights when wed all
  property went to husband
• Better than conditions of women in Europe rape
  was punishable by death here

14
Ticket out the Door

• Choose a reform movement. (Temperance, Public
  Schools or Womens Suffrage)
• On a blank piece of paper, I want you to divide
  the page in half.
• In each half I want you to draw a large outline
  of a face.
• In each face, I want you to draw opposing side
  REACTIONS to these reform movements.
• These are due at the end of class!