American Arts Section 2 Transcendentalists Transcendentalism was the belief that people could...

American Arts

Section 2

Transcendentalists

Transcendentalism was the belief that people could transcend, or rise above, material things. Transcendentalism became popular with American

artists in the mid-1800s.

Transcendentalists

Important transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau.

1840s: Some of them tried to form a utopian community at Brook Farm, MA utopian communities are places

where people tried to form a perfect society. in reality, most members did not work together well and the communities did not last long.

Brook Farm, MA – how perfect

Transcendentalists

Main Idea 1: Transcendentalists and utopian

communities withdrew from American society.

American Romanticism

Romanticism was a part of transcendentalists.

Romantic artists had a deep appreciation for the beauty and wonder of nature.


Some Romantic artists, like Thomas Cole, painted the American landscape.

Their images were in contrast with the huge cities and corruption that many Americans saw as typical of Europe.

Thomas Cole was a Hudson River painter. We learned about these painters in a previous chapter.


• Nathaniel Hawthorne was a famous romantic author. He wrote The Scarlet Letter, one of the great classics of Romantic literature.


Herman Melville was also a famous author. Melville wrote Moby Dick

which is the tale of a whaling captain’s search for revenge against a whale.


• American Romantic authors also wrote poetry, including Edgar Allen Poe, who became famous for “The Raven.”


Other Great American Poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson

Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Main Idea 2: American Romantic painters and writers made

important contributions to art and literature.

Reforming Society

Section 3

Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was a Christian renewal movement during 1790s and early 1800s. The religious movement swept upstate New York and

frontier regions and later spread to New England and the South.


Church membership increased significantly during this period. The Second Great

Awakening renewed religious faith of people throughout America

Charles Grandison Finney was important leader of the movement.


Main Idea 1: The Second Great Awakening sparked

interest in religion.

Reform movements in America included religious meetings called revivals, where preachers urged crowds of people to seek salvation.

Social Reformers Speak Out

Renewed religious faith led to movements to reform society.

Members of the middle class, especially women, led the efforts to reform society.

They tackled alcohol abuse, prison and education reform, and slavery.


The Temperance Movement was effort to have people stop drinking hard liquor Many Americans thought alcohol abuse caused family

violence, poverty, and criminal behavior. Beer here.

Wow. Ill never drink

another beer.

I’ll take 10!


Some states passed laws that banned alcohol for awhile, but those laws were later repealed (removed) and those states allowed alcohol again.


Dorothea Dix led movement to reform prison system Reformers worked to remove the mentally ill, runaway

children, and orphans from prisons where many had been put.

Governments responded to her reforms by building mental hospitals, reform schools for children, and houses of correction that provided education for prisoners.

Dorothea Dix


Main Idea 2: Social reformers began to speak out about

temperance (drinking) and prison reform.

Improvements in Education

Education in America was lacking in the early 1800s Few teachers were trained, and schoolhouses were

small and had only one room for all students. Social background and wealth affected education

quality. Wealthy kids received a good education, and poorer kids did not.


New Colleges were created in the 1800s. Most colleges were founded by religious groups Most were for men only, though slowly some began to

accept women


People in the Common-School Movement wanted all children taught in a common place regardless of wealth.

Horace Mann was a leader in this movement. He became Massachusetts’s first

secretary of education Convinced the state to double the school

budget, raise teachers’ salaries, lengthen the school year, and begin the first school for teacher training

He believed education was important for democracy to succeed


Education reform created opportunities for women.

1837: The first women’s colleges opened

Catharine Beecher started an all-women academy.


Education reform also helped people with special needs.

Thomas Gallaudet opened a school for the hearing impaired in 1817; a school for the blind opened in 1831.


Main Idea 3: Improvements in education reform affected many

segments of the population.

African American Communities

Many influential African Americans pushed for the creation of schools for black Americans.

New York, Philadelphia, and Boston opened elementary schools for African American children.

Few colleges would accept African Americans, however.


The Free African Religious Society, founded by former slave Richard Allen, became a model for other groups that worked for racial equality and education for blacks. Richard Allen also became the first bishop of the AME Church

(African Methodist Episcopal Church)

RichardAllen


In the South, laws barred most enslaved people from receiving any education.


Main Idea 4: Northern African

American communities became involved in reform efforts.

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