The Second Great Awakening

-- Former Calvinist rigor was seeping out of American churches -- Taxation fo

-- Paine's The Age of Reason declared churches were set up to terrify and enslave
-- Early the
teach
pe
-- Rationalist ideas from French Revolutionary era soften old orthodoxy
Reformers:
The Idea of Deism: 1. Horace M
1. Liberal ideas preaching reason rather than revelation teachers, a
2. Embrace by many of the Founding Fathers
3. Believed in a Supreme Being who created all (Creationism)
2. Noah Web
Unitarianism (God in only one form):
1. A spin off of Deism, began late 18th century in N.E. 3. William Mc
2. Stressed the essential goodness of human nature (opposite of Puritanism)
-- Salvation attained through good works / God was a loving Father Higher Educat
3. Appealed to intellectuals and rationalists -- Increased f
-- Women's e
The "Awakening" Begins: 1. 1795: The
1. Spread to the masses on the frontier by huge "camp meetings" 2. 1819: The
-- Thousands of people gathered, exchanging frenzies of rolling, dancing, etc.
3. 1821: Emm
-- Many returned to sinful ways / Others took to missionary work 4. 1837: Obe
2. Methodists and Baptists were the most successful sects -- Traveling le
-- Both stressed personal conversion, democracy in church affairs, and emotionalism
provided pl

Preachers:
1. Peter Cartwright: Methodist "circuit rider" General:
-- Converted thousands of souls with his powerful preaching -- Reformers
-- Knocked around those who tried to break up his meetings rule by prop
2. Charles G. Finney: greatest revival preacher -- Societies fo
-- Led massive revivals with his powerful speeches in Rochester (1830) / NYC -- Allowed
(1831) ma
-- Used "anxious bench" to scrutinize sinners / denounced alcohol and slavery
Prison Reform
Results: 1. People con
1. Fragmented religious faiths, esp. in the "Burned-Over District" (West NY)
-- Ravaged by sermonizers preaching damnation 2. Criminal co
2. Millerites from B-O Districts, led by William Miller, interpreted Christ's return
3. toPeople
Earth dee
on
-- Jesus' failure to descend upon them greatly hurt the movement
3. Widened the lines between classes and religion
-- More prosperous / conservative denominations in East were touched little
-- Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Unitarians rose mostly from wea
-- Methodists, Baptists, and other new sects spawned from the less prosperous, rural are
4. Religious sects began to split up when facing slavery (North and South)
 Utopian Societies
Mormons: Drinking Prob
1. 1830: Joseph Smith (of the Burned Over District) found and deciphered golden
1. Custom
plates co
an
the Book of Mormon, or Latter Day Saints 2. Weddings
2. Opposed in OH, MO, and IL by individualistic and free enterprising Americans
3.for:
Other prob
-- Voting as a unit / openly drilling militia / practicing polygamy
Voyage to UT:
1. 1844: Joseph Smith was murdered in Carthage, IL Attempts at R
2. 1846-7: Brigham Young (the Mormon Moses) took control and led them to 1. Utah
1826: The
3. The Mormons lived in a prosperous theocracy and cooperative commonwealth
4. 1857: Federal army sent to UT to keep the threat of Young's hierarchy in check
2. Neal S. Do

The Oneida Commune:

-- 1848: Founded by John H. Noyes in NY
-- Emphasized free love, complex marriage, birth control, procreation, and shared everything
-- Virtually the opposite of the Puritans Early Status:
-- Merged with Sewell Newhouse, a steel trap manufacturer, which financially stabilized
1. Women the
wec
-- Children were put in Children's Houses from age 3-13, and given jobs within 2.
theOnce
commune
marr
Outside Pressure:
1. 1879: The Oneidans dropped their "complex marriage" under pressure from3. their
Thought
NY neig
to
2. Other unique aspects of the commune slowly withered away 4. Keepers of
3. Eventually developed into a joint-stock company Reformers:
(Mansion House still stands today in NY as a tourist attraction) 1. Catharine
2. Lucretia M
Other Utopias: 3. Elizabeth
1. 1825: Robert Owen established New Harmony 4. Susan B.
-- Little harmony existed 5. Elizabeth
-- Attracted radicals, scoundrels, and work-shy theorists 6. Margaret
2. 1841: Brook Farm established in MA by transcendentalists 7. Sarah and
-- 1846: Lost a large new building to a fire, then collapsed in debt 8. Amelia Bl
3. 1770s: Mother Ann Lee created the Shakers Seneca Falls C
-- 1840: The Shakers boasted a population of six thousand -- 1848: Femi
-- 1940: Extinct due to monastic customs (no sex / no marriage) -- Stanton rea
-- Demanded
 Triumphs in the Arts
The Dawn of Science: -- Result of th
-- In terms of basic science, Americans borrowed and adapted European findings -- Rejected pr
-- Medicine was still a primitive science, bleeding remained common cure and curse
-- Taught the
-- Some Americans even developed their own remedies for themselves that could i
-- 1840s: American doctors successfully developed laughing gas Prominent Fol
Noteworthy Accomplishments: 1. Ralph Wa
1. Nathaniel Bowditch: mathematician, writings on practical navigation
2. Matthew Maury: oceanographer, writings on ocean winds and currents
3. Benjamin Silliman: chemist / geologist, taught over 50 years at Yale
4. Louis Agassiz: French-Swiss immigrant, served for 25 years at Harvard 2. Henry Da
5. Asa Gray: published over 350 works on botany
6. John Audubon: French naturalist, illustrated Birds of America, society in his name protec

Artistic Achievements: 3. Walt Whit

1. Thomas Jefferson: architect, used classical design on his hilltop home, Monticello
-- Also developed the quadrangle at the U of VA
2. Gilbert Stuart [RI]: competed with the best artists in ENG / painted several portraits
Bright Literary
of Wa
3. Charles W. Peale [MD]: painted some 60 portraits of Washington 1. Henry Wa
4. John Trumbull: recaptured scenes of the Revolutionary War
5. Hudson River School: tutored artists mostly on the mirroring of landscapes 2. John Green
6. 1839: Louis Daguerre invented the photograph
7. 1851: Stephen Foster [PA], a white northerner, wrote one of the most famous 3. James
black Low
son
-- "Old Folks at Home" was a valuable contribution to American folk music

Literature: 4. Dr. Oliver H

Knickerbocker Group:
1. Washington Irving [NY]: the first American writer to win international recognition,
5. Louisa
using
May
Am
themes, as well as English themes 6. Emily Dic
-- "Rip Van Winkle" / "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
2. James Fenimore Cooper: the first general writer to gain worldwide fame, brought
Individualists
respect
New World themes 1. Edgar Alla
-- The Spy / Leatherstocking Tales / The Last of the Mohicans
3. William Bryant: wrote numerous poems, edited for the NY Evening Post
-- "Thanatopsis" 2. Nathaniel

Historians: 3. Herman M
1. George Bancroft: secretary of the navy, "Father of American History", published history
-- 1845: Founded the Naval Academy at Annapolis (MD)
2. William Prescott: published classical accounts of the conquest of Mexico and Peru
3. Francis Parkman: basically blind, chronicled struggle between England and France for N.A
 Education
-- Taxation for education was an insurance premium that the wealthy paid for stability and demo
-- Early teachers were ill trained, ill tempered, and ill paid
-- Teachers usually only taught the three R's: readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic
Reformers:
1. Horace Mann [MA]: campaigned for better schoolhouses, longer school terms, higher pay for
teachers, and an expanded curriculum
-- His influence radiated to other states, helping spur some improvements
-- Education still remained a expensive luxury
2. Noah Webster [CT]: designed reading lessons promoting patriotism
-- 1825: helped standardize the American language with his dictionary
3. William McGuffey [OH]: preached morality, patriotism, and idealism through McGuffey's Rea

Higher Education:
-- Increased federal land grants supported institutions of higher learning
-- Women's education was still frowned upon
1. 1795: The first state supported university opened in NC
2. 1819: The University of VA was founded, largely influenced by Thomas Jefferson
3. 1821: Emma Willard established Troy (NY) Female Seminary
4. 1837: Oberlin College (OH) was the first opened to women, men, and blacks
-- Traveling lecturers helped carry learning to the masses through lyceum associations, which
provided platforms in science, literature, and moral philosophy

Early Reformers
General:
-- Reformers promoted women's rights, miracle medicines, communal living, polygamy, celibacy
rule by prophets, and guidance by spirits
-- Societies formed against alcohol, tobacco, profanity, and most importantly, slavery
-- Allowed many middle-class women to enter public affairs

Prison Reform:
1. People continued to be imprisoned for debt (even for the smallest debts)
-- As the laborers began to win the ballot, legislatures gradually abolished this practice
2. Criminal codes were softened, capital offenses reduced, and brutal punishments eliminated
3. People deemed insane or mentally unstable were still chained with sane people
-- Dorothea Dix passionately fought these injustices
-- She traveled over 60,000 miles assembling her firsthand observations of insane asylums
-- Her persistency improved conditions and swayed public view on the insane
se mostly from wealthy
rosperous, rural areas
 The Temperance Movement
Drinking Problem:
1. Custom and hard, monotonous lives led many to excessive drinking
2. Weddings and funerals were common sites of drinking
3. Other problems resulted from excessive drinking
-- Decreased labor efficiency / increased already high vulnerability of accidents at factories
-- Fouled the sanctity of family, threatening spiritual welfare and physical safety
Attempts at Reform:
1. 1826: The American Temperance Society formed in Boston
-- Used pictures, pamphlets, lectures, etc. to persuade reformation among drinkers
2. Neal S. Dow [ME] "Father of Prohibition" sponsored the ME Law of 1851
-- Prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor
-- Others follow ME's example, but some were repealed or declared unconstitutional

Reform for Women

Early Status:
1. Women were supposed to immerse themselves in the home and her husband (lord)
2. Once married, women could not retain their property , and could be legally beaten
-- However, women in America were protected better than in other places
3. Thought to be physically and emotionally weak
4. Keepers of society's conscience, responsible to educate youth in good morals
Reformers:
1. Catharine Beecher: encouraged women to seek employment as teachers
2. Lucretia Mott: attended, but not recognized at a London antislavery convention
3. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: advocated women's suffrage
4. Susan B. Anthony: militant lecturer for women's rights; endured countless insults for her vie
5. Elizabeth Blackwell: first female to graduate from a medical college
6. Margaret Fuller: struggled to bring unity and republican government to Italy
7. Sarah and Angelina Grimke: championed antislavery
8. Amelia Bloomer: revolted against the current female attire; wore a short skirt with bloomers
Seneca Falls Convention:
-- 1848: Feminists met in NY for a Women's Rights Convention
-- Stanton read a Declaration of Sentiments declaring women's full equality
-- Demanded women's suffrage / launched first modern women's rights movement
 Transcendentalism
-- Result of the liberalizing of the straitjacket Puritan theology
-- Rejected prevailing theory of John Locke, that all knowledge comes through the senses
-- Taught the truth could not be found by observation alone; every person contained an inner ligh
that could illuminate the highest truth and allow for direct touch with God
Prominent Followers:
1. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Unitarian minister, lyceum lecturer, took a western tour every winte
-- 1837: Delivered "The American Scholar" at Harvard College
-- Stressed self-reliance, self-improvement, self-confidence, optimism, and freedom
-- Poet, philosopher, and open critic of slavery
2. Henry David Thoreau: poet, mystic, nonconformist, and transcendentalist
-- Condemned slavery, lived for two years in a simple hut, Walden: Or Life in the Woods
-- Individualist, believed in reduction of bodily wants to gain time for a pursuit of truth
-- Preached civil disobedience, preceding Mahatma Gandhi and MLK Jr.
3. Walt Whitman: poet, romantic, emotional, unconventional
-- Lost early, but eventually won enormous fame for Leaves of Grass in America and Europe

Bright Literary Lights:

1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: poet, appealed to the less cultured, used themes of Euro. Li
-- "Evangeline" / "The Song of the Hiawatha" / "The Courtship of Miles Standish"
2. John Greenleaf Whittier: poems cried out against inhumanity, injustice, and intolerance
-- Moving force of his generation, moral, humanitarian, and spiritual
3. James Lowell: essayist, literary critic, editor, diplomat
-- Political satirist Biglow Papers esp. regarding Mexican War
-- Condemned alleged slavery-expansion designs of Polk
4. Dr. Oliver Holmes: taught anatomy at Harvard, poet, essayist, novelist, lecturer, wit
-- "The Last Leaf" honored the Boston Tea Party
5. Louisa May Alcott: wrote Little Women, daughter of a philosopher, who influenced her
6. Emily Dickinson: explored universal themes of nature, love, death, and immortality in her po

Individualists and Dissenters:

1. Edgar Allan Poe: eccentric genius, suffered hunger, cold, poverty, debt, failed suicide, alcoh
-- Gifted poet, master stylist, reflection of a morbid sensibility
-- Set new standards in his detective novel "The Gold Bug" and numerous horror stories
2. Nathaniel Hawthorne: obsessed struggle between good and evil, haunted by Puritan forebe
-- The Scarlet Letter / The Marble Faun
3. Herman Melville: ventured to sea as a youth, served as a whaler
-- Known for masterpiece Moby Dick (widely ignored at the time)
-- It wasn't as straightforward and upbeat as people at that time were accustomed to
o and Peru
and France for N.A.
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