Religion, Intellectual

Growth and Reform in

Antebellum America

(Chapter 11)

http://www.learner.org/courses/amerhistory/units/8/video/

See first 23 minutes of video above for introduction to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t62fUZJvjOs&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s&index=15

Crash Course US History – 19th Century Reforms (Episode 15)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM1czS_VYDI&index=16&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s

Crash Course US History – Women in the 19th Century (Episode 16)

The religious revival known as “the 2nd Great

Awakening” during the 1820s, 30s & 40s sparks

many nationwide social reform movements

The emotional

appeal of the

new style of

religious

leaders during the

2nd Great Awakening

connects with the

“Common Man”

who want to find

more meaning

in life during

the new

industrial age

Charles G. Finney and

other evangelical

Protestant ministers of 2nd

Great Awakening stress

free will & good works in

order to “perfect”

mankind on earth instead

of just hoping for

salvation that was

predestined at birth.

They preach that people

were moral free agents

with free will to do good

works. This belief sparks

a “benevolent empire” of

new social reform

movements that aims at

perfectionism on earth.

Women play a greater roll

in these efforts to reform

& perfect their families

and society as a whole.

The New Religious Philosophy

of the 2nd Great Awakening

Outdoor evangelical Camp Meetings are a

popular new strategy aimed at the

“common man” who lived in rural areas

New Protestant

Denominations Grow

During the 2nd Great

Awakening

Ex: Unitarian,

Episcopalian &

Presbyterian Churches in

the North

Methodist & Baptist

Churches in the South

A famous example of the evangelical fervor of the

era was the so-called Burned Over District

in western NY (along the Erie Canal) that was

figuratively ablaze with revivalism

Each dot represents a camp style revival meeting

during the 1830’s & 1840’s

in the so-called Burned Over District

What were some major Antebellum

Intellectual and Literary Developments?

One example: Lyceums (Informational lectures open to the public

popular in many areas of antebellum America)

Chapter 11 HW: Antebellum Social & Intellectual Reformers Lyceum ActivityOn Friday this week we will simulate a lyceum in class. This activity will mimic the “teach-in” style events popular in many parts

of the United States during the later antebellum period. Before TV or the internet, lyceums were a way for average citizens to learn

about new ideas by listening to traveling lecturers who gave talks and answered questions on various subjects. The format for the

lyceum activity in our class will be a “Q & A” session. You will create questions and answers in the voice of a significant

intellectual or reformers from the antebellum period. You need to blend information from both primary & secondary sources in your

lyceum questions & answers.

Homework Assignment - DUE Friday 10/27

Read the primary source document posted on RHS website you are assigned, Chapter 11 and relevant

websites.

Write thought provoking questions for your reformer on their: Background, Motivations, Goals and

Actions. Your questions should help listeners understand the reformers beliefs and impacts on American

society during the 19th Century and beyond.

Write answers to the questions you create (a thoughtful paragraph each) in the first person. Include some

direct quotes from the primary source reading as well as appropriate outside information in your answers.

Historical Figure Reform or Intellectual Movement Primary Source Reading

Henry David Thoreau Transcendentalism Excerpt from Walden

A Shaker Believer Utopian Religious Community War & Peace – A Shaker Viewpoint

Frederick Douglass Abolitionism The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Women’s Rights Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Dorothea Dix Institutional Reform Report to the Massachusetts Legislature

Intellectual/Literary Movement Examples:

Ralph Waldo Emerson & TranscendentalismTranscendentalism was (and is) difficult to

categorize, as it could be viewed as a:

Spiritual movement

Philosophical movement &

Literary movement

Emerson himself provided a fairly open definition in

his 1842 essay “The Transcendentalist”:

The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection

of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the

perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx

of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in

ecstasy. He wishes that the spiritual principle should

be suffered to demonstrate itself to the end, in all

possible applications to the state of man, without the

admission of anything unspiritual; that is, anything

positive, dogmatic, personal. Thus, the spiritual

measure of inspiration is the depth of the thought,

and never, who said it? And so he resists all

attempts to mimic other rules and measures on the

spirit than its own.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden & Essay on

Civil Disobedience -

Reactions to

industrialization and

political changes

Another Definition of Transcendentalism: A 19th-century idealistic, philosophical and social

movement stressing that divinity pervades all nature.

Transcendentalists believed key to happiness was for

people to follow their own individual, intuitive beliefs

above scientific and empirical evidence.

In this way, individuals can “transcend” authority and

tradition to find their own truth by examining nature and

the human spirit

Walt Whitman – Non Conformist, transcendentalist

inspired poet

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more

than the metaphysics of books.

Be curious, not judgmental.

Do I contradict myself? Very

well, then I contradict myself, I

am large, I contain multitudes.

Freedom means to walk independently

and know no superior.

I say to mankind, be not curious about

God. For I, who am curious about

each, am not curious about God - I

hear and behold God in every object,

yet understand God not in the least.

Other major antebellum American literary figures

included Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville

who all were helping develop domestic intellectual analysis

but were split on support of transcendentalism

Antebellum Religious Evangelism &

Intellectualism Spawns New Social Activism

Example: the “Benevolent Empire”

The ideals of

the benevolent

empire are

expressed in

this image

Temperance Movement

Institutional Reform (Schools, Prisons & Hospitals)

Dorothea Dix and Insane Asylums

Women reformers realize that to change

society in a great way, they need to

vote…sparking the Suffrage Movement led by

Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony

at Seneca Falls Convention - 1848

However, the anti-slavery movement

(Abolitionism) becomes the most

widespread reform effort of the

antebellum periodAbolitionists were very diverse in motivations & goals

Examples:

American Colonization Society (Conservative)

Gradualists (Moderate)

Immediate Abolition & Social Equality for Africa-Americans (Radical)

All oppose slavery, but solutions differed greatly

Frederick Douglass William Lloyd Garrison

Most well known “radical” abolitionists:

Abolitionist

Strategies

Include

(in order of how

common they were:

1 - Appeal To Public

Opinion

Harriet Beecher Stowe

2 - Political Pressure

3 - Help slaves escapeEx: Underground Railroad

Map 12.3 The Underground Railroad in the 1850s (p. 356)

4 - Violent Uprising like Nat Turner’s Rebellion - 1831

A Growing Abolition Movement

Triggers Even Stronger Defense of SlaveryHistorical, Economic, Religious, Social & Racial arguments

from those who saw America’s “peculiar institution” not as a

“necessary evil”, but a “positive good”

Example:

John C. Calhoun

of South Carolina

becomes the major

antebellum voice in

Congress for slavery

& states rights who

promotes idea of

secession from union

to protect slavery

Religious Revivalism and a backlash

against industrialization spark the

creation of many unique American

utopian communities that separate from

society instead of trying to reform it.

Some

Examples•Mormons

• Shakers

• Oneida

• Brook Farm

Map 12.2 The Mormon Trek, 1830-1848 (p. 350)

Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Mormon Exodus to Utah

Short Lived Transcendentalist

Brook Farm Community in Mass.

Religious Utopian

community

The Shakers

seek a gender

equal “simple life”

Another more controversial religious utopian community founded

by John Humphry Noyes in Oneida, NY

Chapter 11 HW: Antebellum Social & Intellectual Reformers Lyceum ActivityOn Friday this week we will simulate a lyceum in class. This activity will mimic the “teach-in” style events popular in many parts

of the United States during the later antebellum period. Before TV or the internet, lyceums were a way for average citizens to learn

about new ideas by listening to traveling lecturers who gave talks and answered questions on various subjects. The format for the

lyceum activity in our class will be a “Q & A” session. You will create questions and answers in the voice of a significant

intellectual or reformers from the antebellum period. You need to blend information from both primary & secondary sources in your

lyceum questions & answers.

Homework Assignment - DUE Friday 10/27

Read the primary source document posted on RHS website you are assigned, Chapter 11 and relevant

websites.

Write thought provoking questions for your reformer on their: Background, Motivations, Goals and

Actions. Your questions should help listeners understand the reformers beliefs and impacts on American

society during the 19th Century and beyond.

Write answers to the questions you create (a thoughtful paragraph each) in the first person. Include some

direct quotes from the primary source reading as well as appropriate outside information in your answers.

Historical Figure Reform or Intellectual Movement Primary Source Reading

Henry David Thoreau Transcendentalism Excerpt from Walden

A Shaker Believer Utopian Religious Community War & Peace – A Shaker Viewpoint

Frederick Douglass Abolitionism The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Women’s Rights Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Dorothea Dix Institutional Reform Report to the Massachusetts Legislature

Dorthea Dix

Background

Motivation

Goals

Actions

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Background

Motivation

Goals

Actions

Henry David Thoreau

Background

Motivation

Goals

Actions

Frederick Douglass

Background

Motivation

Goals

Actions

Shaker Community MemberBackground Motivation

Goals Actions