Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Ferment of Reform and Culture (1790-1860)

I. Reviving Religion

a. Church attendance were regular in 1850(3/4 pop)

b. Many relied on Deism (reason rather revelation); rejected original sin, denied Christ’s divinity but believed in supreme being that created universe

c. Puritans of the past now-Unitarian faith(New Eng.)

-god existed in only 1 person not in orthodox trinity; stressed goodness of human nature

-belief n free will & salvation through good work; pictured God as loving father

-appealed to intellectuals w/ rationalism & optimism

d. liberalism in relig started in 1800

-tidal wave of spiritual fervor that result prison, church reform, temperance cause, women’s movement, abolish slavery

-spread to mass through huge “camp meetings”

-E went to W to Christianize Indians

-Methodists & Baptist stressed personal conversion, demo in church affairs, emotionalism

-Peter Cartwright-best known of “circuit riders”

-Charles Grandison Finney were greatest of revival preachers

-led massive revivals in Rochester & New York

II. Denominational Diversity

a. revival furthered fragmentation of religious faith

-New York w/ Puritans preaching “hellfire” known as “Burned-out District”

-Millerites(Adventists)-Christ return to earth on Oct 22,1844 (didn’t come)

b. widen lines bet. classes & region(like 1st)

-conservatives, propertied-Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Congregationalists, Unitarians

-less learned of S & E-Methodists, Baptists

c. Religious further split w/ issue on slavery (Methodist, Presbyterians split)

III. A Desert Zion in Utah

a. Joseph Smith(1830) came up(NY) w. Mormon & Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

-antagonism toward Mormons for polygamy, drilling militia, voting as a unit

-Smith died but succeeded by Brigham Young who led followers to Utah

-grew quickly by 1850s by birth & immigration from Euro

-federal gov. marched to Utah when Young became govnr. But no bloodshed

-polygamy prevented Utah entrance to US till 1896

IV. Free School for a Free People

a. Tax-supported primary school was opposed bec, relate to pauperism & used by poor

b. Gradually support bec. “brats” might grow up to be rabbles w. voting rights

c. Free pub edu, triumphed in 1825 w/ vote power in Jackson elect

-ill taught & ill trained teachers

-Horace Mann fought for better school

-too expensive for many community; blacks exempt from edu.

d. imp people-Noah Webster(dictionary); (Ohioan William H. McGuffey-Mcguffey’s readers)

V. Higher Goals for Higher Learning

a. 2nd great awakening led to building of small schools in S & W (mainly for pride)

-mainly on Latin, Greek, Math, moral philosophy (boredom)

b. 1st state supported uni. in N. Carolina by Jefferson (dedication freedom from relig., poli)

c. women thought to be bad if too educated

d. Emma Willard-estab Tory Female Seminary (1821) &(Mount holyoke Seminary (1837)

e. Libraries, public lectures, magazines flourished

VI. An Age of Reform

a. reformers vs. tobacco, alcohol, profanity, transit of mail on Sabbath, women’s rights, polygamy, medicines

b. optimistic for a perfect society (women imp. in reforms)

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