America’s HistorySixth Edition

CHAPTER 11

Religion and Reform, 1820-1860

Copyright © 2008 by Bedford/St. Martin’s and Matthew Ellington, Ruben S. Ayala High School

Henretta • Brody • Dumenil

1. IndividualismA. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the TranscendentalistsB. Emerson’s Literary InfluenceC. Brook Farm

2. Rural Communalism and Urban Popular CultureA. Mother Ann Lee and the ShakersB. Arthur Brisbane and FourierismC. John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida CommunityD. Joseph Smith and the Mormon ExperienceE. Urban Popular Culture

3. AbolitionismA. Black Social Thought: Uplift, Race Equality, RebellionB. Evangelical AbolitionismC. Opposition and Internal Conflict

4. The Women’s Rights MovementA. Origins of the Women’s MovementB. Abolitionist WomenC. The Program of Seneca Falls and Beyond

Chapter 11: Religion and Reform, 1820-1860

Part 1: Individualism1A: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism

• Transcendentalists believed that truth transcended the senses and celebrated individualism and freedom

• Lyceum movement spread transcendentalist ideas

• Emerson’s & Finney’s personal improvement through self-discipline appealed to middle class Americans

Part 1: Individualism1B: Emerson’s Literary Influence

• Thoreau called for civil disobedience and nonconformity and Fuller for greater rights for women

• Hawthorne and Melville rejected transcendentalism

Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond

Part 1: Individualism1C: Brook Farm

• An influential transcendentalist community that failed

• Hawthorne Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller all visited

• Emersonians shifted efforts to reforming society, especially education and abolitionism

Painting of Brook Farm

utopian society

Part 2: Rural Communalism & Urban Popular Culture 2A: Mother Ann Lee and the Shakers

• Founded in late 1700s by Mother Ann

• Believed in gender equality, celibacy, pacifism, etc.

• Peaked at 3000 members, known for furniture

Part 2: Rural Communalism & Urban Popular Culture

2B: Arthur Brisbane and Fourierism

• Fourierists preached socialism and gender equity

• Panic of 1837 made communal experiments appealing to farmers in New York and the Midwest

New Jersey Phalanx building

photograph

Part 2: Rural Communalism & Urban Popular Culture

2C: John Humphrey Noyes & the Oneida Community

• Perfectionists believed that Christ had already returned and people could live sinless lives

• Complex marriages and communal nurseries set them apart

• Oneida community became famous for silver plate and spawned a for profit company

Part 2: Rural Communalism & Urban Popular Culture 2D: Joseph Smith and the Mormon Experience

• Communalism, secrecy, prosperity, bloc voting and polygamy led to harassment of Mormons and Smith

• Brigham Young led 10,000 Mormons to Utah desert

• Traditional values (except polygamy) and hard work allowed Mormons to succeed where others had failed

Part 2: Rural Communalism & Urban Popular Culture 2E: Urban Popular Culture

• Urban popular culture changed dramatically as cities grew from immigration and urbanization

• Poverty, commercialized sex, prostitution, and new forms of entertainment characterized this new culture

• Nativist backlash arose against immigrants in 1830s

Part 3: Abolitionism3A: Black Social Thought: Uplift, Race, Equality, Rebellion

• Blacks’ attempts to “elevate” themselves and gain equality were met with hostility by most whites

• Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1830) led Virginia and other southern states to impose stricter slave codes

Part 3: Abolitionism3B: Evangelical Abolitionism

• William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator (1830) and called for the immediate end to slavery

• Abolitionists appealed to evangelical Christians, formed an underground RR, and pushed for new laws

• By 1840, over 200,000 Americans had joined abolitionist societies

Part 3: Abolitionism3C: Opposition and Internal Conflict

• Most conservatives, the wealthy, and wage earners were racist and opposed abolitionism

• Postmasters stopped delivering abolitionist mail in the South and the House passed the Gag rule

• The fight over women’s roles split abolitionists

Part 4: The Women’s Rights Movement4A: Origins of the Women’s Movement

• Cult of domesticity followed republican motherhood and encouraged a separate sphere for women

• Second Great Awakening allowed women to transcend their rigid cultural boundaries

• Dorthea Dix fought to improve care of mentally ill

From Godey’s Ladies Book

Chair used to tranquilize mentally ill in mid 1800s

Part 4: The Women’s Rights Movement4B: Abolitionist Women

• Women such as Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Tubman played an outspoken abolitionist role

• Many men resisted women like the Grimke sisters speaking before mixed audiences

Picture from Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Part 4: The Women’s Rights Movement4C: The Program of Seneca Falls and Beyond

• Reformers fought for married women’s property rights

• 1840 Seneca Falls Declaration called for equal rights

• Stanton, Anthony, and others had an uphill fight

Susan B. AnthonyElizabeth Cady Stanton at Seneca Falls Convention