American society, culture changes until its is today.

1. Chapter 11:
Society, Culture & Reform
1820-1860

2. The Second Great Awakening
• Religious revivals that were a reaction against rationalism&
Calvinist(Puritan) teachings of original sin & predestination were
rejected
• Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College, helped usher in the
second Great awakening by conducting campus revivals that led
hundreds of young men to become evangelist preachers
• In 1823, minister Charles G. Finney sparked numerous revivals in
New York where he appealed to people’s emotions and preached
that people could be saved through faith and hard work
• This religious movement also developed the Baptist and Methodist
religion
• William Miller founded the religion the Seventh Day Adventists by
claiming the world would end on October21, 1844 so people must
immediately be saved but nothing happened
• Joseph Smith also created a new religion called Mormons in 1830
and led people west and when he died, Brigham Young took over
and led people to Utah where they founded some colonies

3. The Second Great
Awakening(Con.)
• This religious movement also developed
the Baptist and Methodist religion
• William Miller founded the religion the
Seventh Day Adventists by claiming the
world would end on October21, 1844 so
people must immediately be saved but
nothing happened
• Joseph Smith also created a new
religion called Mormons in 1830 and led
people west and when he died, Brigham
Young took over and led people to Utah

4. Transcendentalists
• Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau believed in
looking for one’s inner self and God in nature
• Thoreau conducted an experiment where he lived in the
woods for two years to discover essential truths about life
• Brook Farm: George Ripley conducted a communal
experiment to see how well people could interact living
with each other
– More experiments occurred because people wanted to create a
utopia—resulted in the formation of the Shakers, the New
Harmony experiment and the Fourier Phalanxes

5. Public Asylums/ Important
Legislation
Public Asylums
• Important events also concerned the
erecting of public facilities like
schools, prisons, hospitals, mental
hospitals, etc.
Important Legislation
• In 1851, Maine was the first state to
prohibit alcohol and laws were enacted to
protect seamen from being flogged

6. Women’s Rights
Movement/Antislavery Movement
Women’s Rights
• Sarah and Angelina Grimke objected to the male opposition to
their antislavery activities
– Sarah wrote: Letter on the Condition of Women and the
Equality of the Sexes
• Seneca Falls: Feminists met at Seneca Falls, New York, which
was the first Women’s Rights Convention in the history of
America
Antislavery Movement
• The U.S. tried to move freed blacks out of the colonies by
creating a settlement for them in Monrovia, Liberia
• In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison published a newspaper
called, The Liberator, which marked the beginning of the radical
abolitionist movement which caused a split in the abolitionist
movement
• Nat Turner, a Virginia slave, led a revolt, killing fifty five white
males and the whites retaliated by killing hundreds of blacks

7. Southern Reaction to
Reform
• Antebellum Reform Movement had little impact on the
South
• Southerners were committed to tradition and they were
alarmed to see northerners support antislavery
• They viewed reform as a northern conspiracy against the
southern way of life
• Southerners strongly opposed the antislavery movement

8. Political Issues
•Development of religious reforms derived from political
beliefs, such as the policies of the Jacksonian democracy.
•All of the religious revivals led to the Second Great
Awakening.
•Aside from religion, political ideas started to lead to a
development of new institutions within the United States.
•Mental hospitals, schools for the blind and deaf, prisons, and
public schools started to come into consideration through
governments because of humanitarian reformers.

9. Social issues/ changes
• The Second Great Awakening led to divisions in society. More
religions came into place separating the moral beliefs of citizens.
• There were many activists and religious groups that provided
leadership within people and created organized voluntary society.
–Baptists & Methodists
–Millennialism
–Mormons
• Communal experiments: widespread more throughout the 19th
century than ever. It was attempts to withdraw from conventional
society into ideal communities, or utopias. The survival of these
communities was minimal, but somewhat attainable with the
extensive efforts.
• Arts, literature, and ideas formed a new type of culture within the
people of the United States.

10. Social issues/ changes
(continued)
• The new way of thinking morally led to the importance of artistic
expression over the pursuit of wealth.
• Transcendentalists, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, questioned
doctrines of established churches and sought more for
individualistic institutions through the essence of God.
• Women’s rights and changing the American families also started
to come into play.
• There were many women’s rights movements that were initiated
by the women reformers in the 19th century during a time where
new definitions of male and female roles started to form.
• Antislavery movements also affected society perspectives. There
were multiple abolitionists fighting to put an end to slavery, which
reflected negative views of southern states.

11. Economic Issues/ changes
• As reforms increased, so did economic changes. With all of the proposals to create
new institutions, more government funding was required to fill it.
• Public schools, for example, were campaigned through hopes of achieving “free’’
tax-supported school systems
Religious issues/ changes
•There was a strong reaction against rationalism during the 19th century.
•More religions began to form around personal beliefs. There was a
development of religions that were formed by educated people, leading
to the Second Great Awakening.
•This was sight of the independency and individual views of society that
began to come into acceptation.

12. Agricultural issues/ changes
• With the artistic movements arising, agriculture coincided with it. Classical Greek
styles formed into the structure of the modern Jacksonian era. It glorified the
democratic spirit of the republic.
• One of the most identifying characteristics of Greek society still noticeable today
is the columns that began to grace the common architectures.
Industrial issues/ changes
•Industrial American started to build up with all of the reforms
proposing new institutions.
•All of the new institutions, such as the prisons and hospitals,
contributed to the ideas still alive in modern society.

13. Religion
• Charles G. Finney: a
Presbyterian minister who in
1823, led a series of revivals in
upstate New York; delivered
sermons that appealed to
people’s emotions
• Preached that “anyone can be
saved through hard work and
faith”
• Joseph Smith: founded the
Mormon religion in 1830;
based the Book of Mormon on
Native Americans and the lost
tribes of Israel; faced
opposition; murdered;
Brigham Young took over and
led the followers to Utah

14. Ideas, Arts, and Literature
• Ralph Waldo Emerson: 19th
century essayist and
lecturer, evoked nationalist
spirit of Americans ; urged
Americans to not imitate
European culture by creating a
unique American culture
• Henry David Thoreau:
transcendentalist philosopher;
observe nature to discover
truths about life and universe;
advocate for nonviolent
protest
– Works influenced activists
such as Gandhi and MLK.

15. Temperance: Public Asylums
• Dorothea Dix: former
schoolteacher whom
dedicated most of her adult
life to improving living
conditions for the mentally ill;
traveled across the nation to
convince state legislatures to
build mental institutions
• Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe:
founded a school for the blind
• Thomas Gallaudet :
established a school for the
deaf

16. Temperance: Public
Education/Women’s Rights
• Horace Mann: advocated for
free public schools; worked for
better students’
attendance, longer school
year, and better teacher
preparation; led to tax
supported schools
• Susan B. Anthony and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: led
for equal voting, legal, and
property rights of women

17. Antislavery Movement
• William Lloyd Garrison:
abolitionist newspaper The
Liberator; argued for an
immediate end to
slavery, founded American
Antislavery Society; burned
the Constitution in protest;
radical
• Frederick Douglass: former
slave, author, spoke out
against brutality and
degradation of slaves, started
antislavery journal The North
Star