What were some reasons for the reform movements that took
place during the antebellum period?
·
Antebellum Period: time period before the Civil War
·
Puritan sense of mission to create an example of good living
·
The Enlightenment belief in human goodness and
perfectibility
·
Jacksonian Democracy
·
Expansion of equality
·
Religious movements
·
Reform movements had success at the state level in the
northern and western states
What was the Second Great Awakening?
·
Early nineteenth century religious revival movement
·
Charles G. Finney
o
Presbyterian Minister in NY
o
1823 began started a more radical form of revivals
o
Abandoned rational argument and appealed to emotion and fear
of damnation (hell-fire and brimstone)
o
Message of salvation through faith and hard work
o
Middle class appeal
·
Baptists & Methodists
o
Traveling circuit preachers traveled the south and western
frontier
o
By 1850 became the largest protestant denominations in the
country
·
Millennialism
o
Belief that the impending second coming of Christ meant the
end of the world was near
o
William Miller gained tens of thousands of followers by
predicting a specific date (10-21-1844)
o
Later became the Seven Day Adventists
·
Mormons
o
Also called the Church of Latter Day Saints
o
Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830
o
Mormons moved from NY to Ohio to Missouri and finally to
Illinois where Smith was murdered
o
To escape persecution, Brigham Young led the Mormons west
where they found New Zion on the Great Salt Lake in present day Utah
o
Polygamists
Who were the transcendentalists?
·
Questioned organized religion, materialism, and capitalism
·
Believed in an intuitive way of thinking as a means for
discovering truth and god, not through reason, but through introspection and
exposure to nature
·
Believed artistic expression was more important that
material wealth
·
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
o
Best known transcendentalist
o
Nationalism: urged Americans not to imitate European
Culture, but to create an American culture
o
Self-reliance: advocated individualism and independent
thinking
o
1850s became a leading critic of slavery
o
Supported the Union during the Civil War
·
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
o
Friend of Emerson
o
Thoreau’s book Walden
§
Written while living in the woods alone for two years
§
Used time alone to observe nature and introspect on “truth”
o
“On Civil Disobedience”
§
Advocated non-violent protest
§
Argued people should not obey unjust laws
§
Arrested for refusing to pay taxes that might be used to
support an unjust war with Mexico
§
Inspired later non-violent movements of Gandhi and Martin
Luther King Jr.
What were some examples of communal experiments in the
mid-1800s?
·
The idea of withdrawing from society and establishing an
ideal or utopian community
·
Brook Farm, Massachusetts
o
1841 George Ripley attempted to found a community based on
Transcendentalist ideas
o
Goal was to achieve “a more natural union between
intellectual and manual labor”
o
At different times some of the leading intellectuals of the
time lived at Brook Farm
o
A fire and heavy debts forced the communal experiment to end
in 1849
·
Shakers
o
Religious communal movement with 6,000 members by the 1840s
o
Held property in common (no private property)
o
Strict separation of men and women: forbid marriage and
sexual relations
o
Lack of recruits caused the Shakers to die out by the
mid-1900s
·
New Harmony, Indiana
o
Secular (non-religious) communal experiment in utopian
socialism
o
Founded by Welsh industrialist Robert Owen
o
Owen hoped his community would solve the problems of
inequality caused by industrialization and capitalism
o
Failed as a result of financial problems and disagreements
between community members
·
Oneida Community
o
Controversial utopian community founded by John Humphrey
Noyes in Oneida, NY
o
Dedicated to the ideas of perfect economic and social
equality
o
Members shared property (and later marriage partners)
o
Believed in planned reproduction and communal child-rearing
o
Prospered economically by producing and selling silverware
·
Fourier Phalanxes
o
1840s communities based on the theories of French socialist
Charles Fourier
o
Fourier advocated that people share work and living
arrangements in communities that became known as Fourier Phalanxes
o
Died out when Americans proved too individualistic for
communal living
How did reform movements move into the political realm
during the antebellum period?
·
Temperance movement: anti-alcohol
o
Switched from publicly shaming the evils of alcohol to
political action
o
1826 Protestant ministers formed the American Temperance
Society: tried to use moral arguments to persuade people to stop drinking
o
Another temperance society, the Washingtonians, argued in
the 1840s that alcoholism was a disease that needed to be treated
o
Temperance societies had greater than one million members by
the 1840s
o
Factory owners got involved to increase worker production
o
Politicians got involved to reduce crime and poverty related
to drinking
o
1851 Maine became the first state to ban the manufacturing
and sale of liquor
o
Temperance lost popularity during the Civil War, but made a
comeback in the 1870s, with the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement
·
Movement for Public Asylums
o
Advocated the creation of state supported prisons, mental
hospitals and poorhouses
o
Hoped to “cure” antisocial behavior
o
Mental Hospitals
§
Dorothea Dix: former Massachusetts school teacher
§
Began a movement to remove the mentally ill from prisons
§
Traveled nation wide convincing state legislatures to build
mental institutions
§
Mental treatment at state expense
·
Prisons
o
Reformers believed that structure and discipline could bring
moral reform
o
Pennsylvania began constructing prisons that placed
prisoners in solitary confinement to “reflect” on their sins and repent. Was
later dropped due to high suicide rates
o
The Auburn System in NY enforced rigid rules while providing
moral instruction and work programs
·
Public Education
o
The increased number of people voting during the Age of
Jackson led to a belief in the need for an educated electorate
o
Laborers and employers generally agreed on the benefits of
an educated workforce
o
Horace Mann (1769-1859): advocated tax-supported schools,
compulsory attendance for all children, longer school years and improved
teacher training in Massachusetts
·
McGuffey Readers: series of elementary school textbooks
developed by William Holmes McGuffey that became widely used for reading and
moral instruction (hard work, punctuality, sobriety, etc.)
·
Higher Education:
o
The Second Great Awakening sparked an increase in
denominational colleges, especially in the western states
o
Some of these new schools accepted women
What do you need to know about the changing roles of family
members in the mid-1800s?
·
Urbanization and industrialization redefined the roles of
men and women
·
Men left home to work in an office or factory, while middle
class women stayed home to take care of the household and children
·
The cult of domesticity: idealized view of women as the
moral leaders of the home and educators of children
·
Industrialization and the resulting decreased economic value
of children led to a decrease in the average family size: 7.04 in 1800 to 5.42
in 1830
What do you need to know about the women’s rights movement
of the mid-1800s?
·
Women reformers, especially those in the antislavery
movement, resented the secondary roles assigned to women
·
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
o
Objected to male opposition to their antislavery activities
o
1837 Sarah Grimke wrote Letter on the Condition of Women
and the Equality of the Sexes
·
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began campaigning
for women’s rights after being barred from campaigning at a antislavery
convention
·
The Seneca Falls Convention
o
Meeting of leading feminists at Seneca Falls, NY in 1848
o
First women’s rights convention in US History
o
Issued the “Declaration of Sentiments”
§
Closely modeled on the Declaration of Independence
§
Declared “all men and women created equally”
§
Listed grievances against discriminating laws and customs
·
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led a campaign
for women’s voting rights, legal rights and property rights after Seneca Falls
·
In the 1850’s the movement was overshadowed by the crisis
over slavery
What do you need to know about the antislavery
(abolitionist) movement?
·
The Second Great Awakening encouraged many northerners to
view slavery as a sin
·
American Colonization Society
o
Founded in 1817 on the idea of transporting freed slaves to
an African colony
o
Popular among antislavery reformers and politicians who
disliked slavery but did not want free African Americans in the US
o
1822 established the a settlement in Monrovia, Liberia
o
The movement was unsuccessful
§
Growth in the slave population made it impractical: from
1820 to 1860 the number of slaves increased from 1.5 to nearly 4 million
§
Only 12,000 African Americans were resettled in Africa
between 1820 & 1860
·
The American Antislavery Society
o
1831 William Lloyd Garrison began publishing The
Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper
o
Garrison advocated the immediate abolition of slavery in
every state, with no compensation for slave owners
o
1833 Garrison and other abolitionists formed the American
Antislavery Society
§
Believed in taking direct action to end slavery rather than
waiting for a political solution
§
Burned copies of the Constitution as a proslavery document
§
Advocated breaking of from slave states and forming an
anti-slavery nation
·
Liberty Party
o
Less radical than the American Antislavery Society
o
Pledged to bring an end to slavery by political and legal
means
o
Nominated James Birney in the 1840 Presidential election
·
Black Abolitionists
o
Fredrick Douglas
§
Former slave
§
Advocated political and direct action to end slavery and
racial prejudice
§
1847 started the antislavery journal The North Star
o
The Underground Railroad
§
Secret organization that assisted fugitive slaves escape to
free territory in the north or Canada
o
David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet: argued that slaves
should take action themselves by rising up in revolt
o
Nat Turners Rebellion (1831)
§
Turner, a Virginia slave, led a revolt that killed 55 whites
§
In retaliation whites killed hundreds of slaves in
retaliation
§
Fear of similar slave revolts ended antislavery movements in
the south