Religion and Reform

1
Religion and Reform

• 1815-1855

2
Protestant Revivalists

• Reform Movement was largely rooted in religion
• Believed God was all powerful but that God
  allowed people to make their own destinies
• Supported by the 2nd Great Awakening
• Charles Grandison Finney
• a lawyer from New York known for his passionate
  sermons that brought many back to the church
• Lyman Beecher
• Wanted to evangelize the West
• Taught in simple terms, good people make a good
  country
• Had some famous children

3
Transcendentalists (rise above)

• Philosophers and writers that rejected
  traditional religion taught that the process of
  spiritual discovery and insights would lead a
  person to truths more profound than what could be
  reached through reason
• Humans are naturally good, should have the
  courage to act on their own beliefs and live a
  moral life
• Leaders of movement were Ralph Waldo Emerson and
  Henry David Thoreau
• Ralph Waldo Emerson people can transcend the
  material world and become conscious of the spirit
  that is in nature began American Renaissance in
  literature
• Henry David Thoreau famous stay _at_ Waldon Pond
  experienced living simply
• Later, Thoreau devoted himself to the
  anti-slavery movement, helping escaped slaves
  flee north
• Civil Disobedience not paying taxes to show
  opposition to the War with Mexico

4
Temperance Movement

• Campaign to eliminate alcohol consumption
• American Temperance Society

• Impact of the Movement
• Maine banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol
  and other states followed but protests led to
  repeal of lack of enforcement of most laws
• Reformers promoted the moral, social, and health
  benefits of alcohol abstinence as well as
  economic benefits
• Alcohol consumption decreased dramatically
  between the 1830s and the 1860s

5
Public Education

• Support had declined for public education leading
  to old buildings, textbooks, and other materials
  Quality of teaching was inadequate
• Geography of mid-Atlantic and southern states
  discouraged building of schools
• Horace Mann became Mass. 1st Secretary of the
  Board of Education
• Mass 1st public HS in the USA
• By 1860 there were 300 plus HS in the USA
• William Holmes McGuffey readers were popular
  textbooks that promoted moral values of thrift,
  obedience, honesty, and termperance

6
Limits to Educational Reform

• Not all parts of the country moved at the same
  pace
• More common in the North and in urban areas
• Girls discouraged from attending and denied any
  further education beyond learning to read and
  write
• Frequently excluded black students or segregated
  them
• Some private colleges opened for these groups

7
Reforming Prisons

• Early 1800s prisons started being used
• Hope was that prisoners would use the time to
  lead regular, disciplined lives, reflect on their
  sins and perhaps become law-abiding citizens
• Dorothea Dix convinced Massachusetts to improve
  prison conditions and create separate
  institutions for the mentally ill
• Led 15 states to build hospitals for the mentally
  ill

8
Utopian Communities

• Small societies dedicated to perfection in social
  and political conditions where people lived in
  prosperity as equals
• Most were religiously oriented
• People believed these communities would eliminate
  the ill effects of urban and industrial growth
• Examples New Harmony, Indiana (Robert Owen,
  1825), Brook Farm, Massachusetts (1841), Ephrata
  Cloister, PA (1732), the Oneida community in
  Putney, Vermont, Zoar community in OH, and Armana
  Colony, IO
• Shakers a group that strived to lead lives of
  productive labor, moral perfection, and equality
  among men and women

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Section 2 Antislavery Movement

• Roots of Abolitionism
• In the late 1700s, several antislavery societies
  formed in the North, while abolitionist
  newspapers appeared in both the North and South
  calling for emancipation, or freeing of enslaved
  persons
• From 1777 to 1807, every state north of Maryland
  passed laws that abolished slavery
• Legal importation of slaves ended in 1808
• American Colonization Society colonization of
  Africa send free and emancipated slaves to
  Africa (1822)
• Antislavery advocates established the African
  country of Liberia
• Most were offended by the idea and opposed
  leaving America adopted a more aggressive fight
  against slavery

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Abolitionists

• William Lloyd Garrison founded the American
  Anti-Slavery Society and published The Liberator,
  an antislavery newspaper, wanted immediate end of
  slavery
• Frederick Douglass an escaped slave, leader of
  American Anti-Slavery Society, supported a
  gradual end to slavery
• At age 8, he was taught how to read by his
  owners wife
• Douglasss cruel experiences while enslaved
  inspired him to become a brilliant writer and
  speaker when he escaped at age 21
• He began an abolitionist newspaper, the North
  Star

11
Divisions Among Abolitionists

• Gender, race, and political action
• Sarah and Angelina Grimké prominent
  womenspeakers, southern Quakers who wrote against
  slavery and prompted states to ban and burn their
  publications
• Sojourner Truth former slave, became involved in
  several reform movements then abolitionism
• Martin Delaney abolitionist, one of 1st African
  Americans to graduate from Harvard Medical
  School, worked closely with Douglass, supported
  colonization, frequent critic of white
  abolitionists
• Liberty Party Tappans and Birney formed it in
  1840
• Wanted states to pass laws that would emancipate
  the slaves
• Drew enough votes from Whigs in NY and OH in 1844
  to give the election to Polk, a Democrat

12
Underground Railroad

• secret paths
• A network of escape routes that provided
  protection and transportation for slaves fleeing
  north to freedom
• Harriet Tubman Black Moses
• Tubman escaped herself in 1849 and conductor on
  Underground RR
• She alone rescued more than 300 slaves without
  losing one passenger

13
Underground Railroad Routes

• Underground Railroad used many pathways to free
  slaves
• Mississippi River valley
• Eastern Swamps
• Appalachian Mountains

14
Resistance to Abolitionism

• Most viewed as radical idea
• Despite abolitionist successes, the movement was
  opposed in both the Northern and Southern states
• Opposition in the North
• Northern merchants worried that the antislavery
  movement would worsen relations between the
  North and South, causing damage to trade between
  them
• White workers also feared the job competition of
  escaped slaves willing to work for lower wages
• Most northerners did not want African Americans
  living in their communities because they viewed
  them as socially inferior
• Opposition turned violent

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Resistance to Abolitionism

• Turners Rebellion
• Nat Turner, an African American preacher planned
  and carried out a violent uprising in August 1831
• He led 70 slaves on raids of white families in
  Virginia, killing more than 50 white people
• Opposition in the South
• Outraged by criticisms made more determined to
  defend slavery
• Southern postmasters refused to deliver
  abolitionist literature
• 1836 gag rule passed in Congress no antislavery
  petitions read or acted upon in House of
  Representatives for 8 years
• Abolitionists pointed to gag rule as example of
  how slavery threatened the rights of black and
  white people

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Section 3 Womens Rights

• Cultural and Legal Limits
• The growing population in the 1800s made it
  easier to see the inequalities between men and
  women
• Women could not vote, own property, or make a
  will
• Women were generally not allowed to keep the
  money they made
• Reformers began to see that women were central to
  the success of a strong, democratic nation

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Womens Rights Movement

• Seneca Falls Convention July 1848
• First womens rights convention in US history
• Produced the Declaration of Sentiments
• 12 resolutions altogether
• 9 was controversial womens suffrage
• Women working in areas where they had been
  excluded
• Elizabeth Blackwell 1st American woman to earn
  medical degree
• Maria Mitchell 1st female astronomer
• Margaret Fuller editor of philosophical journal,
  wrote book criticizing cultural traditions that
  restricted womens roles in society
• Sarah Josepha Hale published articles about
  womens issues for almost 50 years

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African American Women

• The issue of slavery was more important to most
  African American women at the time
• Only a handful attended womens rights
  conventions there were none at Seneca Falls
• Spent their time working toward ending slavery
• Sojourner Truth participated in many abolition
  and womens rights movements
• Reminded white women that African American women
  also had a place in the movement
• Speech excerpt p. 331

19
Immigration

• Economic changes created demand for more labor in
  factories and in building of canals and RR lines
• Attracted immigrants
• Immigration increased dramatically in 1830s
• By 1850s immigration s rose to almost 2.6
  million!

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Where are they from?Where did they settle?

• Almost all settled in the east and the west (not
  much paying work available in the South)
• Almost all came from Northern Europe
• Some from Scandinavia and England
• Most from Ireland and Germany

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Irish Immigrants

• Soared in mid-1840s because of Irish Potato
  Famine
• Most settled in northeastern cities like Boston
  and NYC
• Most became naturalized citizens
• Men took manual labor jobs in factories or on
  canals/RRs
• Irish became a political force because most
  became Jacksonian Democrats

22
German Immigrants

• Came for political freedome
• Most were peasants and settled in midwest
  especially in Wisconsin and Missouri, some in
  Texas
• Artisans and intellectuals tended to settle in
  the northern cities like NYC, Chicago, and
  Milwaukee

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Mixing with those already here

• Brought new cultural traditions to the USA
• Most were Roman Catholic
• Worked long hours in tedious jobs
• Often faced discrimination
• Unequal treatment of a group of people because of
  their nationality, race, sex, or religion
• Some Americans felt threatened by newcomers and
  some disapproved of their cultures

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Sources of Tension

• Economics
• Irish worked for lower wages, were used as strike
  breakers, many of New England girls replaced with
  Irish men
• Religion Protestant v. Roman Catholic
• Protestantism taught in schools
• RC followers didnt like many of the reforms to
  enact laws (restricting drinking, gambling, and
  sports) thought ok in moderation

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American Republican Party

• Formed by anti-immigrant citizens
• Wanted new naturalization law (21 years living
  here before could become a citizen)
• Violence between Irish Catholics and American
  Republicans
• American Republicans trying to vote in
  Philadelphias Irish districts were attacked
• Led to riots in the city in May 1844

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Reform brought tensions between North and South

• Divided Churches
• Methodist
• Churches in slave holding states split and formed
  Methodist Episcopal Church South, which endorsed
  slavery (1842)
• Baptist
• About 300 churches formed Southern Baptist
  Convention (1845)

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South Resists Reform

• Most untouched by social turmoil that came with
  urbanization and industrialization in the North
• Saw no need for reform in their society
• Southern men were head of their property and
  households (including wives and children)

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A few southern women saw a parallel between their
lives and those of slaves but they had important
roles to play

• Small Farms

• Large Plantations

• Worked with husbands, children, and slaves in
  field
• Opportunities for women to participate in reform
  organizations and community meetings were rare
• Farms/plantations spread out difficult to get
  together

• Supervised household, sometimes helped manage
  plantation
• With all of these tensions, bonds between the
  areas of the nation were weakening
• North and South found it more challenging to
  resolve differences through negotiation and
  compromise