Chapter 8

Religion Sparks Reform – The 2nd Great Awakening The 2nd Great Awakening was a

religious-driven reform movement that began in earnest in the early 1830s… Rejected Puritan notion of

predestination By improving yourself and performing

good deeds, you could earn your salvation

Church Reform

Revivalism Transient preachers spoke to large

groups in informal settings Church membership increased 2 and ½

times

2nd Great Awakening brought Christianity to slaves on a large scale

SUSTAINING Bible sanctions slavery Whites on God’s mission to

help and protect the “inferior” races of the world

Separate churches provided slaves a diversion that slave owners used as a reward; carrot and stick approach

SUBVERSIVE Learn to read the Bible All are God’s children Gave slaves life skills –

preachers, organizers Baptist/Methodist camp

meeting open to all

Did Christianizing slaves sustain or subvert the institution of slavery?

Slavery and Abolition

Slavery is contradictory to the stated reasons for the creation and promise of America…

In the 1820s, about 100 anti-slave societies advocated resettlement...”inferior” races could not coexist with whites Free blacks considered America

home; few returned to Africa

William Lloyd Garrison

the most radical white abolitionist…editor of The Liberator (1831); called for immediate emancipation with no payment to slaveholders

attacked the church and government for not doing enough to end slavery “Is there not cause for

severity? I will be harsh as truth, as uncompromising as justice…I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD” The Liberator

Frederick Douglass

Maryland slave born in 1817

Taught to read by the wife of his owner; understands the power of reading and education

becomes a big supporter of Garrison and The Liberator

Garrison hears Douglass speak and is greatly impressed by his oratorical skills; Garrison sponsors Douglass as a speaker on tour for his antislavery society

Garrison uses Douglass to convince whites that blacks are not innately inferior

Frederick Douglass

Douglass believes slavery can end through political action

separates from Garrison in 1847 starts own liberation newspaper

called The North Star

Roughly 2 million slaves in 1830, almost doubled from 1810…most slaves now born in America since the slave trade ended in 1808

Nat Turner

slave born in 1800 in Virginia

a gifted leader, Turner believed he was chosen by God to lead his people out of bondage

Eclipse of the sun is a signal for Turner to act in August, 1831…

Turner leads 80 followers and attacks four nearby plantations…

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Turner and his group kill 60-70 whites, men, woman and children; escaped capture and hid out for several weeks

Turner and associates eventually all captured; Turner and many others hung; whites kill up to 200 blacks in retribution, many of them innocent

Turner portrayed by southerners as crazy/possessed

Reaction to Turner’s Rebellion Created more repressive conditions for

slaves (slave codes) no education, no reading, no more

preaching unless “respectable” whites were in attendance

Free blacks in the South lost several rights including right to own guns, to assemble in public, to purchase alcohol and testify in court

argument for emancipation as only way to prevent future incidents

Summary

Religions sparks a number of reform movements, including the abolitionist movement.

As slavery comes to the forefront of the national debate, both abolitionists and slaveholders increase their activism.