second great awakening, american culture, and age of reform

second great awakening

series of religious revivals among protestant Christians emphasizing righteous living , personal restraint, and moral rectitude that would lead a person and society to salvation

Methodist and Baptist preachers

Spread the Second Great Awakening rapidly through “camp meetings” which were public religious sermons that greatly increased church attendance specifically for Methodist and Baptist churches

Market Revolution

Shifted focus to individual economic success and self improvement. Linking of Northern industries and Southern farms created by agriculture, industry, and transportation

Democratization

Growing desire for expanded inclusion in democratic processes(ex: voting, laws) especially among lower white class

Romanticism

Favored over rationalism, emphasizing warmth of emotion and desire

influenced the second great awakening and social reforms

Charles Grandison Finney

Preacher of sermons who emphasized moral salvation and societal moral reformation

Enlightenment thought

European influence on American art, philosophy, literature, and culture.

Greek and Roman revival in architecture

transition from restrained Georgian style to breathtaking domes and columns

American Literature

emphasize themes of opportunity, danger, and mystery, launching the American fantasy genre

Hudson River School

captured the beauty and vastness of America, incorporating hints of innovation and civilization which they believed spoiled it

Transcendentalism

emphasized human perfect ability and spirituality through nature, advocated by Emerson and Thoreau.

Utopian Communities

groups like Shakers and Oneida that emphasized common prosperity in human perfectibility through work

Mormons

devout group led by Joseph Smith, aiming to bring the teachings of Jesus back to their true purpose.

Temperance

avoidance of alcoholic beverages

Abolitionism

movement to end slavery

women’s rights movement

advocated for gender equality

Seneca Falls Convention

1st women’s national rights convention led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Frederick Douglass

an escaped slave, who became an important abolitionist speaker

William Lloyd Garrison

prominent white American abolitionist and journalist. He was an editor of the radical abolitionist newspaper “the liberator”.

Radical abolitionism

called for the immediate emancipation (freedom) of all slaves

Declaration of Sentiments

stated that all men AND women are created equal. written at the Seneca Falls Convention and was modeled by the Declaration of Independence

Causes of the Second Great Awakening

• market revolution - economic success or failures (or salvation) was in your own hands

• democratization - growing desire for participation in democratic processes, same for spiritual desires with camp meetings

• romanticism - emotional reality, Finney preached sermons with emotion that commoners could understand

teetotaler

person in favor of the complete banning of alcohol

American Colonization Society

A society that thought slavery was bad. They would buy land in Africa and get free blacks to move there.

Horace Mann

The secretary of education in Massachusetts and let the education reform movement. He argued for free public schools funded by tax dollars, standardized textbooks, and mandatory attendance. “Father of the public school system”

Education Reforms

1. lengthened academic year

2. teacher training

3. higher salaries to teachers

Sojourner Truth

United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women.

19th Amendment (1920)

gave women the right to vote

18th Amendment (1919)

prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages

cult of domesticity

system of cultural beliefs or ideals in the 19th century that governed gender roles in upper/middle class society. believed women should stay at home and take care of kids and exist for their husbands refuge

Cotton Gin (1793)

Eli Whitney’s invention that sped up process of harvesting cotton, increased demand for slaves. was originally made to reduce slave labor

Carrie Nation

when her husband died of alcoholism, she became active in the temperance movement, claiming she had a calling from God to literally destroy alcohol. She was arrested over 32 times and became well known across the country, leading temperance marches, as well as women’s rights marches.