19th-Century American Reform Movements and the Second Great Awakening

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the Second Great Awakening, 19th-century social reform movements, utopian experiments, abolitionism, women's rights, and the Lowell Mill labor movements.

Second Great Awakening

A series of Protestant Christian revivals stretching from the 1790s to the 1830s that swept across America, promoting personal salvation through individual choice, self-reliance, and social reform.

The Age of Reason

A widely circulated book written by Thomas Paine that attacked traditional faith, asserting that all churches were set up to terrify and enslave mankind and to monopolize power and profit.

Peter Cartwright

A revivalist preacher who documented an 1801 camp meeting in Kentucky that lasted for weeks and kindled a religious fervor across multiple states.

Burned Over District

A region in Western New York named for its intense concentration of evangelical revivals during the Second Great Awakening.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

A religious movement founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith following his visions and revelations, whose members eventually migrated west to Salt Lake City in the Utah territory after facing violent opposition.

Charles Grandison Finney

The most famous preacher of the Second Great Awakening, known for his bellowing voice, piercing blue eyes, giant camp meetings in Upstate New York, and democratic message of individual choice in salvation.

Perfectionism

The religious concept popularized during the Second Great Awakening that Christians could not only improve themselves by rejecting sin, but also perfect society as a whole by combating social ills.

Dorothea Dix

A 19th-century reformer whose crusade was sparked by the horrifying treatment of the mentally ill, leading to improved care and public institutions.

American Temperance Society

An activist organization founded in Boston in 1826 whose members pledged to abstain from alcohol, expanding to 8,000 local chapters and over 1,000,000 members in fifteen years.

Sojourner Truth

A former slave, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate famous for her 1852 speech in Akron, Ohio, where she declared, "ain't I a woman?"

Transcendentalism

An artistic and philosophical movement during the Industrial Revolution that celebrated connection to nature, personal emotions, self-reliance, and individual human worth.

Seneca Falls Convention

A convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, focused on women's rights and organized by prominent leaders including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Lucy Stone.

Declaration of Sentiments

A formal document produced at the Seneca Falls Convention that modeled the Declaration of Independence by stating "all men and women are created equal" and outlining grievances regarding women's rights.

The Liberator

An anti-slavery newspaper published widely across the North starting in 1831 by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, calling for immediate action against slavery.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

An anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in the early 1850s that depicted graphic scenes of slavery, selling over a million copies between 1851 and 1854.

Shakers

A religious utopian community that practiced complete celibacy, embraced equality of the sexes, engaged in dancing to sublimate libidinous urges, and became renowned for high-quality furniture.

Brook Farm

A utopian community established in 1841 by transcendentalists to combine manual labor with intellectual engagement, based on the ideas of French socialist Charles Fourier.

Oneida Community

A utopian religious group founded in Upstate New York by John Humphrey Noyes that practiced free love and complex social arrangements before evolving into a major silverware company.

Common Schools

Compulsory, state-funded public schools advocated by reformers like Horace Mann in the mid-19th century to instill moral character and essential knowledge in children across social classes.

American Colonization Society

An organization formed in the early 19th century that promoted sending former slaves back to Africa, successfully establishing Liberia as an independent homeland.

Gag Rule

A rule passed by the United States Congress in 1836 that prohibited members from reading aloud or discussing petitions regarding the emancipation of slaves.

Frederick Douglass

A former slave who became a leading abolitionist writer and orator, famous for his autobiography and his renowned 1852 Independence Day address.

David Walker

An African American abolitionist author who published an appeal referencing Hannibal, Carthage, and the Haitian Revolution to warn against tyranny and champion black freedom.

Lowell Mill Girls

Young women and children who worked in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, between 1823 and 1841 under grueling conditions and organized early labor strikes.

Lucy Larcombe

An 11-year-old hired as a doffer in the Lowell Mills in 1835 who wrote poetry about her experiences in the factory and later became a writer and teacher.

Harriet Hanson Robinson

An 11-year-old worker who helped lead a textile strike in Lowell against wage cuts and rent increases, later becoming an author and suffragist.

Sarah Bagley

A Lowell factory worker who founded the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA) and testified before the Massachusetts legislature demanding a ten-hour workday.

Mary Paul

A Lowell mill worker whose surviving personal letters provided an authentic historical record of factory conditions, exhaustion, low compensation, and workplace accidents.