Revivalism

1
Revivalism

• 1800-1860

2
Second Great Awakening

• At the start of the 18th century many people
  wanted to improve the character of the American
  people
• Most Americans still attended Church, but it was
  not the Puritan religion
• Many leading figures Jefferson were Deists
• Helped create Unitarianism God existed in only
  one person, not the Trinity
• They stressed the goodness of human nature and
  saw God as loving and kind

3

• Unitarians tended to be intellectuals like Ralph
  Waldo Emerson, who were rational and optimistic
• Slowly a new emphasis on religion started to
  develop
• It was a tidal wave of spiritual fervor
• It destroyed old churches and created new sects
• It also influenced prison reform, temperance,
  womans movement and the abolition of slavery
• At camp meeting thousands would meet to hear
  evangelical speakers
• Most new believers became Baptists or Methodists

4

• Preachers like Peter Cartwright and Charles
  Goodison Finney appealed to thousands who wanted
  to be saved especially appealing to women
• Methodists and Baptists tended to come from the
  less wealthier segments of society
• In 1844 the Methodists and Baptists both split
  from their northern churches over the issue of
  slavery
• In 1857 the Presbyterians also split over the
  issue

5
Mormons

• In 1830 Joseph Smith claimed he had been given
  golden plates by an angel
• The plates became the Book of Mormon and launched
  the Church of Latter-Day Saints
• Smith was forced to move, first from Ohio then
  from Missouri, by other religious sects
• Accusations of polygamy led to continued
  hostility
• In 1844 Smith and his brother were murdered in
  Illinois the movement seemed in danger

6

• Brigham Young took over and in 1846-7 he led his
  people to Utah to avoid persecution
• The barren land of Utah was soon made to flourish
  by the Mormons and the community grew
• It was a frontier theocracy
• But problems occurred when Washington tried to
  control Young who had made himself governor
• Issues of polygamy prevented the territory from
  becoming a state until 1896

7
Education

• Most wealthy Americans opposed free education
• But fear of an uneducated mob with the power to
  vote forced many to consider public education
• The image of the school house became a common
  feature in many small towns
• Students in mixed grades usually learned the
  three Rs
• It was prohibited to teach blacks in the South

8

• Horace Mann campaigned for better schools, more
  pay for teachers, and more time in school
• Noah Webster the Schoolmaster of the republic
  created lessons that promoted patriotism
• The Second Great Awakening led to the opening of
  many small liberal arts colleges especially in
  the South and West
• In 1795 the state-run University of North
  Carolina opened
• In 1819 the University of Virginia was founded by
  Thomas Jefferson
• Womens education was frowned upon

9
Reforms

• The Second Great Awakening caused people to seek
  the creation of a morally-correct society
• Some of the most significant reforms were in the
  field of prison reform especially for debt
• By the 1830s hundreds of people were in prison
  for owing less than one dollar
• With the power of the ballot the poor people were
  able to remove the threat of debtors prison
• The Enlightenment led to a softening of harsh
  punishments

10

• The insane were locked up as animals
• Dorothy Dix wrote a report on insanity and
  asylums which revealed the true extent of the
  cruelty
• Because of her work the conditions did improve
• In 1828 the American Peace Society was formed
• The other big problem in America was alcoholism
• 1826 American Temperance Society formed in Boston
• They stressed temperance as opposed to
  teetotalism
• Neal S. Dow became known as the Father of
  Prohibition sponsored the Maine Law in 1851,
  prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol

11
Cult of Domesticity

• The 19th century was mans world
• Like slaves women were subordinate, could be
  legally beaten, and could not vote
• (Treated better than in Europe)
• Women were expected to create a cult of
  domesticity for the home
• Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton became
  prominent in the womens rights movement
• The most conspicuous advocate was Susan B. Anthony

12

• Feminists met at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848
  at the Womens Rights Convention
• Stanton read the Declaration of Sentiments
  that all men and women are created equal
• The Seneca Falls Convention was the start of the
  modern womens rights movement even though the
  call for the ballot was jeered
• Before the Civil War the movement closely tied
  itself to the antislavery campaign. Women say
  the treatment of slaves and women as being
  parallel
• After the war there was a great sense of
  disappointment over the lack of success for women

13
Literature

• Before 1820 much of the literature was British
  and few people actually had the time to read
• After the War of 1812 and the development of a
  national spirit, literature became important
• The Knickerbocker Group of New York encouraged
  American authors to write about American themes
• Washington Irving was the first American author
  to gain international recognition. He wrote Rip
  Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

14

• James Fenimore Cooper, was the first American
  novelist his greatest achievement was the
  Leatherstocking Tales which included The Last of
  the Mohicans
• One of the effects of the flowering of literature
  was the transcendental movement
• They rejected the traditional philosophies that
  knowledge comes from the senses and stressed that
  truth transcends the senses, not just through
  observations
• The theories of the transcendentalists were vague
  but they all agreed upon the necessity for
  self-discipline, self-reliance, and value of the
  individual which conflicted with authorities

15

• Ralph Waldo Emerson was the most famous
  transcendentalist
• Henry David Thoreau criticized the government for
  slavery and refused to pay his taxes
• In 1854 he wrote Walden Or Life in the Woods but
  more influential was his essay On the Duty of
  Civil Disobedience which later encouraged Gandhi
  and King
• The most famous poet was Walt Whitman who wrote
  Leaves of Grass and earned him the title Poet
  Laureate of Democracy