Study Notes: Religion, Reform, and Westward Expansion in 19th Century America
The Second Great Awakening and Religious Transformation
Context of Expansion: In the early to mid- century, the United States underwent significant economical, political, demographic, and territorial transformations. These changes led to obvious inequalities in gender, race, and class, making religion and reform central to managing the nation's identity.
The Transition from Deism: At the end of the century, many Founding Fathers were deists. They believed God created the universe but that natural law and reason, rather than the Bible, governed existence. God was viewed through the lenses of nature and science.
Characteristics of the Second Great Awakening: This movement was a massive religious revival based on emotionalism, appealing to the "heart" rather than the "head." It preached that the path to heaven through accepting Christ was open to everyone, including enslaved people.
Camp Meetings: These revivals featured dramatic preachers who engaged the audience with shouting and praying. They were particularly popular in western settlements and New York.
The Burned Over District: Western New York earned this name because "religious fires" spread so rapidly through the region, especially after the construction of the Erie Canal led to increased migration and settlement.
Baptist Faith: This denomination stressed simplicity of doctrine and local congregational autonomy. It became the most popular religion in the South and among the frontiersmen. Key beliefs included:
The Bible is the literal word of God.
Salvation through baptism.
Independence from centralized church hierarchy.
Methodist Faith: Unlike Baptists, Methodists answered to a central leader. They were famous for "circuit riders"—ministers on horseback who traveled to remote areas to reach "lost souls."
Francis Asbury: A British-born minister who traveled for years across states on horseback, preaching thousands of sermons despite extreme weather.
The Rise of Mormonism
Joseph Smith: At age , Smith claimed to have a vision informing him that all existing denominations were false. In , an angel led him to golden tablets buried in a hill.
The Book of Mormon: Published in , this was the translated text of those tablets. It described a lost section of the Bible regarding tribes of Israel that migrated to the New World and became indigenous tribes.
Persecution and Migration:
The Mormons were driven out of New York and fled to Kirtland, Ohio, where they stayed for years.
In Ohio, Smith survived being beaten, strangled, poisoned, and tarred and feathered. His young child died five days after a mob attack.
Economic Failure: In , Smith formed the Kirtland Safety Bank under Andrew Jackson’s regulations, but it failed during the Panic of . Smith was accused of financial misconduct and sexual impropriety.
The Missouri and Illinois periods: Hostility continued in Missouri, where an anti-Mormon mob killed members. Smith was sentenced to death for treason but escaped to Nauvoo, Illinois.
Later Doctrines and the Death of Smith:
By , Smith declared polygamy permissible (he had between and wives).
He introduced proxy baptism for the dead, leading to the church's modern emphasis on genealogical research.
After ordering the destruction of a local newspaper that opposed him, Smith and his brother were arrested and subsequently murdered by a mob while in jail.
Brigham Young and Utah: Young led the Mormons to Utah (then Oregon Territory) in . They founded Salt Lake City on a grid system, transforming the desert into a livable area. By , there were approximately Mormons in Utah.
Utopian Communities and Romanticism
Romanticism: This movement was a reaction against the Age of Reason. It proposed that the world was haphazard and non-rational, emphasizing that unique individuals could achieve anything they put their minds to.
The Shakers (United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing):
Founded in , they were known for dancing wildly during meetings.
They practice communal property and viewed God as both male and female, asserting gender equality.
Celibacy: They rejected marriage and family, believing celibacy was a source of female power. This eventually led to their decline as they relied solely on conversion for new members.
They supported themselves through high-quality furniture building.
The Oneida Community: Founded by John Humphrey Noyes, a radical preacher.
Theology: Noyes believed true Christians must be perfect and rejected slavery as immoral.
Social Practices: They practiced "free love" (non-procreational sex with everyone in the community) but discouraged long-term relationships.
Environmental/Economic Success: Women had short hair and wore pants, working as journalists or accountants. They were highly successful in manufacturing silk, mousetraps, and silverware (Oneida silverware remains popular today).
Decline: Problems arose when Noyes began a selective breeding program in ; he eventually fled, and the community transitioned into a joint-stock company.
The Era of Social Reform
Core Philosophies:
Perfectionism: The belief that humans can achieve perfection through effort.
Millennialism: The belief that Jesus would return for a -year reign once society was sufficiently reformed.
Temperance: This was the first widespread reform movement, targeting the consumption of alcohol ( gallons per person annually at the time).
American Society for the Promotion of Temperance ($1826$): Founded by ministers in Boston.
Etymology: The word "teetotaler" originated from members putting a "T" for "Total Abstinence" next to their names.
Legislation: By , states banned the sale of small quantities of alcohol (less than gallons).
Prison and Asylum Reform: Historically, criminals were viewed as irredeemably evil and kept in terrible conditions.
Inequity: In , people could be jailed in New York for an unpaid debt of only , where they were housed with violent offenders.
Dorothea Lynde Dix: A Boston schoolteacher who investigated an East Cambridge House of Corrections in . She found the mentally ill neglected in unheated rooms and treated like animals. Through her advocacy, states adopted new approaches to mental health by .
The Women's Rights Movement
Victorian Ideology: The "Doctrine of Separate Spheres" dictated that women belonged in the home. Law and custom viewed women as emotional and weak, essentially "wards" (similar to children or enslaved people) under the concept of coverture.
Legal Disabilities: Women could not vote, serve on juries, sign contracts, or own property without permission. In divorce cases, men usually received custody of children.
Seneca Falls Convention ($1848$): Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in New York.
Context: Mott had been refused entry to an anti-slavery conference in London in because of her gender.
Declaration of Sentiments: Modeled after the Declaration of Independence, it stated that "all men and women are created equal." It listed grievances and resolutions, including the demand for the right to vote.
Signatories: women and men signed the document.
Susan B. Anthony: Joined the movement in , bringing experience from temperance and anti-slavery groups.
Abolition and the Institution of Slavery
The Lost Cause Narrative: This false history, promoted by groups like the Daughters of the Confederacy, claimed masters were kind and enslaved people were happy. They were responsible for Southern school textbooks and Confederate statues.
Northern Slavery Statistics: While the North outlawed slavery by , it persisted for decades. In , up to of the population in southern Illinois and New York City were still enslaved. In , New York’s enslaved population was still up to .
The Cotton Gin: Invented by Eli Whitney, this technology exponentially increased the demand for enslaved labor as more land was cleared for cotton.
The American Colonization Society ($1816$): Founded by Robert Finley. Included figures like James Monroe and Andrew Jackson. They received from Congress in to send free Black people to Liberia.
Liberia: Land was acquired by Robert Stockton through threats against local leaders. The capital was named Monrovia. Only about people emigrated, declaring independence in .
William Lloyd Garrison: Published The Liberator in Boston. He demanded immediate emancipation without compensation for enslavers and full equality for Black Americans.
The Gag Rule: The House of Representatives passed a rule stating that slavery could not even be discussed on the floor of Congress.
Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion
Definition: The belief that white Christian Americans were destined by God to possess the entire North American continent and spread Protestantism and democracy.
Symbolism: John Gast’s painting American Progress depicts "Lady Liberty" moving west, bringing telegraph lines and light to a "dark" wilderness inhabited by Native Americans.
Bison (Buffalo): Native tribes depended on the migrating bison for food, skins, homes, and tools. The process of expansion led to the near-eradication of the species.
Mount Rushmore: Historically known as "Six Grandfathers," this mountain was sacred to the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Lakota Sioux before it was carved with presidential faces.
The Fur Trade: Men like John Jacob Astor (worth over in ) grew wealthy from beaver pelts. This trade led to the mapping of the Rockies before the beaver population was depleted by the s.
The Hardships of the Overland Trail
Migration Routes: The Oregon Trail (Overland Trail) was a -mile trek starting in Independence, Missouri, taking about six months.
Fort Laramie Treaty ($1851$): Ten thousand Native Americans met with officials. The government promised annual cash payments for damages caused by settlers in exchange for whites being allowed to build forts and travel unmolested.
Death and Ecology: There was an average of one grave every yards along the trail. Wagon trains changed the ecology by destroying vegetation and introducing drought via soil compaction.
The Donner Party ($1846$): Led by George Donner ( years old).
They started too late and took an ill-advised "shortcut" through Utah.
They were trapped by December snow in the Truckee Pass.
Of the members (half of whom were children), many turned to cannibalism to survive. Only of the members who went for help reached the Sacramento Valley.
Regional Expansion: New Mexico, California, and Texas
New Mexico: Economically tied to the U.S. via the Santa Fe Trail. Trade opened in after Mexican independence.
California: Settlement was centered around Franciscan missions and three presidios (San Francisco, San Diego, and Monterrey). By , it was economically dependent on sea trade (cattle hides) with New England and Britain.
Texas:
Empresarios: Spain, then Mexico, gave land grants to businessmen like Moses Austin (and later his son Stephen F. Austin) to settle Northern Mexico.
Conflict: By , there were Anglos and Mexicans in the region. Disagreements over slavery (which was illegal in Mexico) led to the Texas Revolution in .
Political Gridlock: The U.S. initially refused to annex Texas to avoid upsetting the balance of slave vs. free states.
John Tyler's "Accidency": President Tyler (called "His Accidency" because he was not elected) attempted to annex Texas in . He appointed John C. Calhoun to negotiate the treaty, but a leaked letter suggesting the annexation was a conspiracy to expand slave power resulted in the Senate rejecting the treaty.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty ($1842$): Settled the boundary between the U.S. and Canada through Maine and the Lake of the Woods.