CH.12 ANTEBELLUM

CULTURE AND

REFORM

REFORM OUTLINE Reform movements during Jacksonian

era until the Civil War. Period before the Civil War is known as

the antebellum period.

Major reforms include free public schools, improved treatment for mentally ill, temperance movements, equality for women, and abolishing slavery.

RELIGIOUS REFORMThe Second Great Awakening

Reaction to Rationalism (belief in human reasoning)

Preach in easy to understand sermon Individual responsibility for salvation

EXAMPLES OF RELIGIOUS REFORM Revivalism in New York- Presbyterian minister:

Charles G. Finney. Appealed to emotions instead of rational (damnation)

-Saved through faith and hard work

Baptists and Methodists- Southern preachers would travel and preach outdoor revival sermons. By 1850, Baptist and Methodist = Largest Protestant denomination in the US.

Millennialism- William Miller predicted world was going to end and Jesus was coming back. Followers became known as Millerites or (Seventh-Day Adventists)

EXAMPLE OF REFORM CONT… Mormons- Church of Latter-Day Saints Founded by Joseph Smith Book of Mormon Moved to Illinois but Smith was

murdered. Brigham Young took their group to Utah

to flea persecution.

CULTURE: IDEAS, THE ARTS, AND LITERATURE Transcendentalists- Discovery of

one’s inner self and looking for the essence of God in nature.

Challenged capitalism Challenged Established churches

TRANSCENDENTALISTS Ralph Waldo Emerson -Spoke on making

our own American culture

-Argued for- Self-reliance, independent thinking, spiritual matters over material, opposed slavery.

Henry David Thoreau- Two- year

experiment in the woods. Wrote the book Walden. -Essay “On Civil Disobedience” –

Non-violent protest.

BROOK FARM (VISION OF UTOPIA) Attempt to live out transcendentalism George Ripley (Protestant minister) Experiment at Brook Farm in

Massachusetts. Many writers came to the farm for

artistic creativity and schooling

COMMUNAL EXPERIMENTSPeople bought into removal from society in order to reach

utopia.

Shakers- Religious community, separated men and women, had trouble recruiting people to join.

New Harmony- Secular experiment in New Harmony Indiana. Robert Owen wanted to start a utopian socialist society. Experiment failed

Oneida community- John Humphrey Noyes-Started a community in Oneida, New York. -Pursued social and economic equality and shared land and even marriage partners. “Free love”-Redefined gender roles

Fourier Phalanxes- Charles Fourier- share living arrangements in a community known as Fourier Phalanxes. Died out.

REFORMING SOCIETYTemperance

1820- 5 gallons of hard liquor per person. -American Temperance Society- Morally

wrong to drink. -Convinced most of society to abstain from

liquor-Sales tax put on liquor -Germans and Irish protest the movement-Maine made the sale or manufacturing of

liquor illegal.

MOVEMENT FOR PUBLIC ASYLUMS Mental Hospitals- Provide hospitals for

mentally ill instead of jails.

Schools for blind and deaf persons- Benevolent Empire

Prisons- Replacing jails and lock-ups, tried to implement structure and discipline.

PUBLIC EDUCATION Free common schools- Horace Mann led

the charge for free public schools. Attendance requirement, Longer school year,

and increased teacher preparation.

Moral Education- William McGuffey, led the push for instruction of principles and morality in schools.

Higher Education- Second Great Awakening pushed the growth of private higher education.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Margaret Fuller- Redefined gender roles

Seneca Fall Convention (1848)- Feminists met at Seneca Falls, New York.

Issued a document called “Declaration of Sentiments”

“Declared all men and women were created equal.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led a campaign for equal voting, legal, and property rights for women.

ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENTGradual abolitionist & Radical

abolitionist

American Colonization Society-Gradual abolition-Compensate slave owners for slaves-Transport freed slaves back to Africa.

Didn’t work because of how fast the slave population increased.

*ACS fails and antislavery movement almost ceases

AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY American Antislavery Society-

William Lloyd Garrison- Published an abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator

View slavery from the perspective of the black man not the white

Immediate abolition and no compensation for slave owners.

LIBERTY PARTY Influenced by Garrison Less radical and more focused on

politics James Birney ran for president in 1840

and championed abolition for slaves.

ABOLITIONISM How were free black viewed in the

North???

Black abolitionists- Frederick Douglass spoke first hand on the brutality and degradation of slavery. Started an antislavery journal The North Star

Harriet Tubman, David Ruggles, Sojourner Truth, helped fugitive slaves escape to free territory in the North.

Violent abolitionism- David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet argued slaves should be able to rise up and revolt.

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

Wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin Published into a book in 1852. Preached the message of abolitionism Attacked the emotions of the reader Very popular in the north.

AMISTAD CASE Abolitionist first argued morality against

slavery Turned to the legal system

Amistad Case- Slave ship going to Cuba took over their ship and were caught by the U.S.

Supreme Court declared Africans free in 1841 and paid for them to go back to Africa.

PHRENOLOGY Serious Cholera breakouts

Doctors had few theories as to why!!!

Turn to phrenology- Shape of your skull was an indicator of your intelligence.

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS Vaccines against small pox- Edward

Jenner Anesthetics- From a dentist William

Morton

Oliver Wendell Holmes proposed that disease spread from person to person.

Ignaz Semmelweis concurred.