US History Chapter 15 Notes
· The Ferment of Reform and Culture (1790-1860)
o In addition to political and economic reform in this age, there was also a character reform.
§ People were encouraged to be better, more god-fearing citizens. Also literate!
o Religious revivals and reform movements were very important during this time.
o Some people didn’t like involvement of uneducated masses in democracy.
o Women were upset about being entirely excluded from politics.
o Reformers were everywhere and wanted public schools, women’s rights, polygamy, celibacy, etc.
§ There were also societies formed which discouraged alcohol, tobacco, etc.
§ They were greatly inspired by religion with the Second Great Awakening.
· Reviving Religion
o 1850- ¾ of Americans still regularly went to church.
§ But this wasn’t colonial religion. It was religion meets rationalism.
§ Thomas Paine published ‘The Age of Reason’, which said churches were made to monopolize power and enslave humankind.
§ Many of the founding fathers were also Deists, who worked on reason instead of revelation.
· They didn’t like original sin and didn’t think Christ was God.
o Deism spurred Unitarianism! (God only existed in one person, not in three.)
§ They thought humans were good, not evil, and liked free will and salvation through good works.
§ They thought God was nice. Ralph Waldo Emerson and other intellectuals followed this.
o 1800- Revivals began on the southern frontier and moved north- it was even more popular than 1st one.
§ Churches were made and destroyed, new sects formed, and there was more evangelicalism which affected prisons, and led to temperance and women’s rights movements (and abolitionism, too.)
§ Second Great Awakening was spread through ‘Camp Meetings’. Many would meet for a few days and hear the gospel. They would act crazy and people would be converted.
· Converts often went back to sin, but churches spurred reforms.
· This led to more missionary work with Indians, Hawaiians, and Asians.
o Methodists and Baptists profited most from this. They wanted personal conversion, not predestination, and were democratic in church business. They were also very energetic.
§ Peter Cartwright was a Methodist ‘circuit rider’- he went along frontier preaching.
· He did this for fifty years and converted many people.
§ Charles Grandison Finney- best revival preacher. He was a great orator.
· 1830-1831- He did revivals in Rochester and NYC. Old time with some new ideas.
· He said women should pray aloud in public. He hated alcohol and slavery.
o Most converts were middle-class women. They stayed longer in the church too.
§ They had a different viewpoint on changing economy, and also evangelicals gave women a place in the religious movement. The women made charitable organizations and such.
· Denominational Diversity
o Millerites (Adventists) sprung up in Western New York’s ‘Burned-Over region’.
§ William Miller had created them. They predicted the return of Christ at a certain time.
· Christ not showing up did not destroy the movement.
o More prosperous/conservative sects didn’t change.
§ Less prosperous Methodists, Baptists, etc. were not as educated.
o 1844-1845- Southern Baptists and Methodists split with northern ones over slavery.
o 1857- Northern and Southern Presbyterians split up.
· A Desert Zion in Utah
o 1830- Joseph Smith said he got golden plates from an angel- the Book of Mormon.
§ This was a new, American religion. Smith made a religious oligarchy to lead his new church.
o Joseph Smith faced trouble from others in OH, MO, and IL. People were too individualistic.
o Mormons also voted as a unit and had a militia. There were rumors of polygamy. People were mad.
o 1844- Joseph Smith and brother were murdered. Religion was in danger of falling apart.
§ But Brigham Young brought it back. He was cold and mean, but also a good leader.
o 1846-1847- Young led Mormons to Utah. They made excellent irrigation systems, allowing them to grow crops in a desert.
o 1848- 5000 people had come. They just kept coming.
o Young led the community to greatness and also married many, many wives.
o 1850- Young was made territorial governor, but there was a problem because he got out of control and the federal government had trouble stopping them.
o 1857- The federal army came in. There was little bloodshed, but later thy kept violating antipolygamy laws, stopping Utah from being a state for a while.
· Free Schools for a Free People
o Early on, public schools were rare and poorly-designed for the impoverished families.
o Richer people eventual decided to accept it when they realized that they didn’t want uneducated people getting the vote. So education improved from 1825 to 1850.
o All white men had gotten the vote during Jackson’s administration, leading to free education.
o One-room schoolhouses became very important. Early schools were only open a few months of the year, and the first school teachers were angry, poorly paid and trained men. They taught three R’s.
o Horace Mann wanted better schools, longer terms, higher pay, and more curricula.
o 1860- Still only 100 public secondary schools. Lots of illiteracy, and Clack slaves weren’t even allowed to read or write. Blacks in general probably couldn’t get into schools.
o Noah Webster issued reading lessons to help children. He promoted patriotism.
§ He also made the first dictionary in 1828.
o William H. McGuffey made grade school readers encouraging patriotism.
· Higher Goals for Higher Learning
o Many small, religious liberal arts schools were built in the South and West.
§ They weren’t usually very good. They still offered just Latin, Greek, math, and philosophy.
o 1795- First state-supported university in North Carolina.
o After that, there were federal land grants to make universities.
§ 1819- University of VA made- it was especially good.
· TJ made it without religion and politics, with extra science and modern languages.
o Early 1800s- people didn’t want women to go to university, since they did housework.
§ They also thought it was bad for their brains to learn.
o 1820s- Women’s secondary schools started to be made, thanks to Emma Willard.
§ She made the Female Seminary in 1821.
o 1837- Oberlin College started admitting women (it was already admitting blacks).
o 1837- Mary Lyon made Mount Holyoke Seminary, a women’s school, in MA.
o Private and public libraries also became more prominent, and so did book-peddlers.
o There were also traveling lecturers- lyceum lecture associations helped with this.
o There were lots of magazines, but they were ephemeral.
§ 1815- North American Review was made, and it lasted a while.
§ 1830- Godey’s Lady’s Book was very popular.
· An Age of Reform
o There were lots of reforms- intelligent ones and silly ones.
§ Many were from idealists who had been influenced by the Great Awakening.
· They were kind of like Puritans in a lot of ways.
o Many reformers hated war, liquors, discrimination, and slavery.
§ Women were often reformers, fighting for rights and suffrage.
o Reformers had the fatal flaw of ignoring the Industrial Revolution and the new factory establishments.
§ They tried to be traditionalists in atypical times.
o Imprisonment for debt was still common, but states were slowly getting rid of the debtor’s prisons.
§ Criminal codes in general were being lessened, especially capital offenses.
§ The states realized that prison need to reform people.
o Conditions for the mentally ill were still terrible. Instead of thinking the mentally ill were possessed by demons, society now thought they were purposely acting irrationally, and should be put in jail.
§ Dorothea Dix showed up, and traveled great distances to report on conditions regarding insanity and asylums. She petitioned MA gov’t with horrifying information.
§ Her work led to a reasonable improvement in conditions (but conditions still were awful).
o People also wanted peace.
§ 1828- American Peace Society was made. William Ladd helped out.
· The Crimean War and the Civil War didn’t help the cause.
· Demon Rum- The “Old Deluder”
o There was serious alcoholism among Americans, since work was hard and boring.
o Alcohol consumption decreased factory productivity and led to serious accidents.
o Alcohol also undermined families.
o 1826- American Temperance Society was formed at Boston. This was followed by many more societies.
§ They had a temperance pledge and the “Cold Water Army” for kids.
o T.S. Arthur published a book about a town falling into oblivion because of a tavern.
o The temperance advocates fought in two main ways:
§ Getting people to avoid drink mostly- temperance and not complete shunning of alcohol.
· But other people, like Neal S. Dow, thought laws should prohibit it entirely.
· Maine Law of 1851 prohibited manufacture and sale of alcohol.
o Other states followed, but the laws were repealed or unconstitutional.
§ But…they did achieve less alcohol consumption among women.
· Women in Revolt
o Women couldn’t vote- they stayed in the home and were subordinate to their husbands.
§ Women could be beaten by their husbands. Married women had no title to property.
o But women were better in America, where rape was punished by death.
o Women in this time didn’t always marry- 10% remained spinsters.
o Industrial Revolution split up male and female roles. Women were supposedly weak but artistic.
§ Women were supposed to be very moral, and would teach kids to behave.
§ Women were supposed to keep their husbands on the path of good.
o Homes were the “cult of domesticity”.
§ Catharine Beecher valued homemakers as well as women teachers.
§ But many women felt trapped and wanted out.
o Most female reformers were rich whites. They weren’t just for women’s rights, but also abolition/temperance/other things. Evangelicalism influenced them.
o Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the way- they even wanted women’s suffrage.
o Susan B. Anthony stopped at nothing to lecture for women’s rights.
o Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was first female graduate from medical school.
o Margaret Fuller was editor of transcendentalist journal called ‘The Dial’.
§ She fought for republicanism in Italy.
o Sarah and Angelina Grimké fought for antislavery. Lucy Stone kept her maiden name.
o Amelia Bloomer changed women’s fashion to something more masculine.
o 1848- Feminists met at Seneca Falls (NY) for the Woman’s Rights Convention.
§ Declaration of Sentiments declared that men and women are equal.
§ There was a resolution calling for women’s suffrage.
o Thought they were drowned out by abolitionist movements, states were giving them more rights.
· Wilderness Utopias.
o More than 40 in a ‘communitarian’ style.
o 1825- Robert Owen made a society at New Harmony, Indiana.
§ Radicals and evil people destroyed this community.
o 1841- Brook Farm, MA, was made seeking transcendentalist society. They were successful until there was a fire, and then they fell apart.
o 1848- Oneida Community was made in NY allowing for ‘free love’, birth control, and purposeful selection of traits for offspring by using the best parents.
§ This actually lasted a while, since they made silver stuff.
o Most utopian communities fell apart or changed.
§ 1770s- Shaker communities were started by Mother Ann Lee and lasted awhile, but fell apart since there was no reproduction.
· The Dawn of Scientific Achievement
o Practicality was valued over theory in science. Math was used for ocean navigating, etc.
§ Science writers helped make things more efficient and successful.
o Most ideas were thought of by Europeans, and then adapted by Americans.
o First half of 1800s- Benjamin Silliman was a chemist and geologist who helped greatly.
o Louis Agassiz taught at Harvard College and conducted biology research.
o Asa Gray from Harvard worked on botany and made many books.
o John J. Audubon painted birds and made bird guidebooks.
o Medicine was still bad. They still did bloodletting, and smallpox was a major threat.
§ 1793- Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia killed thousands.
§ Illness was widespread and often caused by poor sanitation and poor diet.
§ Life expectancy was still only about 40 years- teeth were especially bad.
§ Invented medicines and fad diets were often used.
§ Home remedies and real doctors were both harmful.
§ Surgery- patients got alcohol, and then surgeons sawed them quickly, ignoring their screaming.
· 1840s- First anesthetics- ether and laughing gas- were developed.
o Artistic Achievements
§ America wasn’t a good architect at first since they were just trying to survive.
· They usually imitated the Europeans- like the Greeks and Romans.
· 1820-1850- Greek revival, since Greeks were fighting the evil Turks.
· 1850s- Gothic architecture got popular.
· TJ was a very good architect (see Monticello).
§ Painting was not very popular still because people had no money.
· Also, Puritans thought painting and theater were sins and a waste of time.
· Good painters were Gilbert Stuart, Charles Willson Peale, and John Trumball.
o They did GW, GW, and Revolutionary War, respectively.
· Painters painted lots of natural landscapes. Poor photographs were coming out.
§ Music was getting free from Puritan chains, and becoming sad and secular.
· The Blossoming of a National Literature
o At first, American literature was plagiarized or simply bad.
§ They did much more work with political essays, speeches, and pamphlets.
§ Important secular book before 1820 was BF’s autobiography.
o After the War of Independence and the War of 1812, there was nationalism, spurring literature.
§ Northeast had time and money to pursue literature, and Knickerbocker Group (NY) helped.
o Washington Irving was the first real writer, and facilitated understanding between Europe and US.
o James Fenimore Cooper was first American novelist, writing about American Revolution story, etc.
§ Even Europeans liked his novels. They got a skewed perception of Americans, though.