Chapter 12 Religion and Reform, 1820-1860

Reform was hard because of rigid race, gender, wealth, and religious belief restrictions, social changes and hardships, and the imposition of greater discipline on workers Powerful wave of reform spilled to submerge traditional values and institutions, challenged social order and won attention First Reform Movement 1820s Church attendance Temperance - abstinence from alcohol (leads to Prohibition [18th+21st amendment]) Moral/ethics Obstacles to Utopian Societies Laws (formal) Gender roles Religion Social norms Time/effort Race Economical status/wealth Religious channels

Second Reform Movement 1830s-1840s - More powerful wave of reform, threatened traditional values and institution Majority were middle class northerners and Midwesterners (small minority, close enough for comfort to reform) Communalism - living together in a community Individualism Self-reliance Women's roles/rights/expectations Sexual relationships (to have or not to have) Race roles/rights/expectations Radical ideals

Individualism
Individualism (Tocqueville): to describe native-born whites as living a more solitary existence o No longer bound to community, have freedom/rights (religion, speech), inspired by Romanticism, space Ralph Waldo Emerson (da boss of Transcendentalism) celebrated the liberation of the individual from traditional social and institutional constraints, balanced by the vision of individual freedom and responsibility Transcendentalism: an intellectual movement rooted in religious NE, English Romantics and Unitarians o Drew from European Romanticism (vs. Enlightenment) that you had to capture the passionate character of the human spirit and the mysteries of existence by transcending rational comprehension Withdrew from organized religion (unitarian ministers [Holy Trinity]), wrote radical essays on the free individual o Saw people as being trapped in inherited customs and traditions, purpose to reform o Ideal setting in solitude in nature, to become one with nature Appealing to ordinary Americans by translated his ideas while attacking organized religion and industrial society, ideas spread through writings and public lectures American Lyceum Circuit organized tours by speakers and became very popular (styled like Aristotle) Nature was saturated with God; new industrial society would drain the nation's spiritual energy Celebrated rejection of traditional social restraints but retained self-discipline and responsibility/citizenship

Emerson and Transcendentalism

Emersons Literary Influence

Henry David Thoreau. Margaret Fuller, and Walt Whitman Depressed Thoreau lives in cabin alone and writes about spiritual search ( Walden), social nonconformity, self-reliance/independence of material life, pro-nature, civil disobedience against unjust laws Wealthy Fuller writes that women have mystical relationship with God that gave identity and dignity, deserved psychological and social independence, opening more paths for women as one of the first female reformers Uptight Whitman turned to write strong poetry about democracy, perfect communion with others, boundaries between solitude and community, life and death, being one with nature, and human suffering ( Leaves of Grass) Darker Visions Hawthorne and Melville pessimistic, addressed opposition between individual transcendence and requirements of social order, unfettered egoism could destroy individuals and those around them, leading to personal guilt and communal condemnation (Hawthorne: Scarlet Letter, individual freedom is degradation and guilt; Melville: Moby Dick, Ahab lacked self-restraint and ended in failure) Americans refused to be depressed, appealed more to modest examples i.e. Emerson to feel better

Abolitionism:
Abolitionism drew on the religious energy and ideas generated by the Second Great Awakening Condemned slavery as a sin and saw it as their moral duty to end this violation of Gods law Slave Rebellion:

Leaders in the North encouraged free blacks to elevate themselves with white citizenry: education, temperance, moral discipline, and hard work Black leaders: James Forten, Prince Hall, Hosea Easton, and James Allen, founded churches, schools, and self-help associations 1827, John Russwurm and Samuel D. Cornish published the first African American newspaper in NY= Freedoms Journal 1829, David Walker, a free black from NC published a pamphlet called An Appeal to the Colored Citizen of the World 1. His pamphlet ridiculed the religious pretensions of slaveholders, justified slave rebellion, and in biblical language warned white Americans that the slaves would revolt if justice was delayed 1830, Walker and other African American activists called a national convention in Philly 1. The delegates made collective equality for all blacks their fundamental demand Martin Delaney urged free blacks to use every legal means to improve the condition of their race and break the shackles of slavery August 1831, Nat Turner, a slave in VA, and his followers rose in rebellion and killed almost 60 whites 1. He was captured and hung 2. VA legislation debated a bill for gradual emancipation and colonization 3. The bill was rejected in 1832, 73 to 58 Garrison and Evangelical Abolitionism: Racial revolution mobilized a dedicated group f northern and Midwestern whites who belonged to evangelical churches They launched a moral crusade to abolish slavery William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Weld, and Angelina and Sarah Grimk: William Garrison 1. MA born printer 2. Worked in Baltimore during the 1820s with Quaker, Benjamin Lundy= Genius of Universal Emancipation, the leading antislavery newspaper of the decade 3. 1831, moved to Boston and created The Liberator 4. 1832, founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society 5. Assailed the US Constitution for its implicit acceptance of racial bondage Theodore Weld: 1. Song of the Congregationalist minister, Charles Finney 2. Worked in northern Presbyterian and Congregational churches 3. Inspired a group of students at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati to form an antislavery society in 1834 4. The Bible against Slavery, 1837 5. Married Angelina Grimk, a Quaker and abolitionist Weld and Garrison wrote the American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, 1839 The American Anti-Slavery Society: 1833, Weld and Garrison met in Philly with 60 delegates black and white to form the American Anti-Slavery Society received financial support from Arthur and Lewis Tappan, wealthy NY silk merchants Women created separate organizations Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (Lucretia Mott, 1833) and the Anti-Slavery Conventions of American Women (1830s) Womens societies raised money for The Liberator Three Pronged Plan: Large rallies led by stirring speakers, constant agitation by local antislavery chapters, and home visits by agents of the movement 1. Used the latest techniques of mass communication stem-powered printing press 2. Assist the African Americans who fled slavery underground railroad 3. Seek support among state and national legislators1835, the American Anti-Slavery Society began to gather petitions demanding the abolition of slavery in DC, an end to domestic slave trade, and a ban on the admission of new slave states A. 1838, had nearly 500,000 signatures Emerson condemned society for tolerating slavery Thoreau after witnessing the Mexican War, in1848 he wrote Civil Disobedience Opposition and Internal Conflict: Men of wealth feared that the abolitionist attack on slave property might become a general assault on all property rights Clergymen condemned the public roles assumed by abolitionist women Northern merchants and textile manufactures rallied to the support of the southern planters who supplied them with cotton Northern wage earners feared that the freed slaves would work for subsistence wages and take their jobs Whites, universally, opposed of amalgamation- racial mixing and intermarriage Attacks on Abolitionism: 1833, abolitionist mob of 1,500 New Yorkers stormed a church in search of Garrison and Arthur Tappan 1834, a group of laborers vandalized and set fire to Lewis Tappans house

A white mob went through Phillys African American neighborhoods, clubbing and stoning residents and destroying homes and churches forced people to flee their homes 1835, Utica NY, a group of lawyers, politicians, merchants, and bankers broke up an abolitionist convention and beat several delegates 1837, Alton Illinois, and mob shot and killed abolitionist editor, Elijah P. Lovejoy The GA Legislature offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who kidnapped Garrison and brought him to the south for inciting rebellion 1835, southern postmasters refused to deliver mail suspected of abolitionist origin 1836 (went into effect-1844), House of Reps adopted the Gag Rule antislavery petitions were automatically tabbed when they were received so that they couldnt become subject of debate Internal Divisions: Garrison supported pacifism and abolition of prisons and asylums Demanded that the American Anti-Slavery Society adopt a policy that included support for womens rights 1. Abby Kelly- elected to business committee 2. When the movement split Lucy Stone was recruited to proclaim the common interests of enslaved blacks and free women Garrisons opponents founded the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which focused on ending slavery Created the Liberty Party- nominated James G. Birney for president in 1840 (future was dim)

The Womens Rights Movement:

Argued that women had rights individuals and within marriage that were equal to those of men Origins of the Womens movement: Mary Walker Ostram: 1. Joined the Second Great Awakening and became a guardian of morality 2. Helped found the first Sabbath School in Utica, NY Godeys Ladys Book and Treatise on Domestic Economy taught women how to make their homes more efficient and justified a life of middle class domesticity Independent Order of Good Templars protected homes and husbands from the evils of alcohol excess and safeguarded family life 1834, New York Female Moral Reform Society, elected Lydia Finny as president 1. Goals were to end prostitution, redeem fallen women, and protect single women from moral corruption 2. Made seduction a crime in MA (1846) and NY (1848) Worked to reform social institutions, improve conditions in almshouses, asylums, hospitals, and jails Dorothea Dix: 1. Persuaded legislators to expand state hospitals to accommodate poor people and mentally ill women rather than jail them with criminals NY 1849, the Female Guardian Society secured the authority to take charge of the children of abusive/unfit parents and to supervise their upbringing and education Horace Mann: 1. Increased the number of public elementary schools and improve their quality 2. Lengthened the school year, established teaching standards in reading, writing, and arithmetic 3. Improved instruction by recruiting well-educated women as teachers Catherine Breecher- founded academies for young women in Hartford and Cincinnati Abolitionism and Women: One of the first Garrisonian abolitionists was Maria W. Stewart, and African American, who spoke to mixed audiences of men and women in Boston (1830s) Angelina and Sarah Grimk- antislavery lecturers 1840, asserted that traditional gender roles amounted to the domestic slavery of women Harriet Jacobs, a slave, confessed her masters abuse and sexual assault upon her- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) Harriet Beecher Stowe charged that the among the greatest moral failings of slavery was its destruction of family and the degradation of slave women- Uncle Toms Cabin (1852) The Program of Seneca Falls: MS, ME, and MA enacted Married Womens Property Acts between 1839-1845 In NY, 1848, women were given full legal control over the property she bought to a marriage Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized a gathering at Seneca Falls in NY in 1848 (70 women, 30 men) 1. Stated all men and women are created equal 2. Repudiated the idea that the assignment of separate spheres for men and women was the natural order of society 1850, convened the first national womens rights convention in Worcester, MA Susan B. Anthony: 1. Created a network of political women who lobbied the legislature in NY and other states

2.

1860, NY granted women the right to collect and spend their won wages, bring suit to court, and if widowed able to acquire full control of the property they had bought in marriage