Reforming America PDF

8 Reforming America Reforming America 8 In the early 1800s, a new burst of religious enthusiasm swept America Second Great Awakening Believing that Americans had become immoral, revivalist preachers urged a renewal of faith Re...

8 Reforming America Reforming America 8 In the early 1800s, a new burst of religious enthusiasm swept America Second Great Awakening Believing that Americans had become immoral, revivalist preachers urged a renewal of faith Religious fervor was fanned at outdoor religious inspiration services As Church membership skyrocketed, a social reform movement closely followed Reforming America 8 Some said government should endorse religion to encourage As religious morality (debate over church and fervor grew: state) African Americans embraced religion—following their enslavement, it promised an afterlife of eternal freedom Reforming America 8 Several new religious groups formed A liberal Christian group, Unitarians which influenced many subsequent religious movements Church of Jesus Christ Also known as Mormons, this of Latter-day Saints church quickly attracted new members Reforming America 8 Most Americans were Protestant. Some were intolerant of other religions. One group targeted for intolerance was the Mormons, founded by Joseph Smith The Mormons were They fled to Nauvoo, Finally, Brigham Young led them attacked in New York Illinois, where Smith was to the Great Salt Lake in and fled to Illinois murdered in 1844 Mexican territory Reforming America 8 Catholics and Jewish people were also targeted Some believed that State constitutions Catholic loyalty to the prohibited Jews from Pope was incompatible holding office with American democracy Reforming America 8 Transcendentalists believed people could go beyond their senses, or transcend them, to learn universal truths and become closer to God They found inspiration through nature and one’s own conscience, rather than in religious doctrine The leading Transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, celebrated his beliefs in sermons, essays, and poems Reforming America 8 Henry David Thoreau, one of the most important Transcendentalists In Civil Disobedience, he argued that a person must be true to his conscience even if it means breaking the law In Walden, he wrote about the religious inspiration he derived from nature by living alone in the woods for two years Reforming America 8 Leaders of the Second Great Awakening preached the need to improve life on Earth through social reform Public education, the mentally ill, and prisoners were all beneficiaries of reformers The temperance movement sought to moderate or end the use of alcohol Reforming America 8 The public school movement advocated for a taxpayer-supported He called for: system of public schools state control of schools standard school calendars In the 1830s, Horace Mann Standard curriculum of Massachusetts mandatory attendance advocated for the first state board of education elimination of corporal punishment. and for free public schools well-educated teachers Reforming America 8 Reformers had special concern for those with no voice After visiting prisons, almshouses, and hospitals, Dorothea Dix began a national campaign for the humane treatment of the mentally ill and prisoners Reforming America 8 As the South’s cotton-based economy grew, so did its reliance on slavery By 1830, there were 2 million African American slaves in the South Most did back-breaking labor: cultivating cotton fields, loading freight, or working in hot kitchens Reforming America 8 Brutal overseers enforced work routines with whipping, beating, maiming, and humiliation Often, the basics for survival, including clothing, food, and shelter, were barely provided Family members were often separated, and slaves could not be taught to read or write Reforming America 8 Most slaves found ways to maintain their hope and dignity Many relied on their religious faith to endure Others resisted their bondage by breaking tools or outwitting overseers Few violent revolts: best known was Nat Turner in 1831 Thousands escaped to the North or to Mexico using a network of paths and safe houses called the Underground Railroad Reforming America 8 By the early 1800s, there was a growing anti slavery or abolition movement fostered by religious revival of Second Great Awakening Some called Others called for slaves and for their full free blacks to inclusion in be helped back American to Africa society Reforming America 8 William Lloyd Garrison, a leader of the abolitionist movement, began his own newspaper: The Liberator Garrison used the paper to advocate for immediate freedom and full political and social rights for African Americans Support for anti-slavery movement increased over the 1830s& 1840s due to political issues Reforming America 8 In 1845, Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, published his autobiography Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass An eloquent and stirring speaker convinced many of evils of slavery limiting freedom and social advancement of blacks He later became an advisor to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and raised black regiments Reforming America 8 Southerners defended slavery from abolitionist attacks: “The Peculiar Institution" They maintained that northern textile mills also depended on southern cotton They claimed that slaves were treated better than northern factory workers They declared that slavery was supported by the Bible Reforming America 8 Most northerners were also opposed to White workers feared that abolition freedmen were going to take their jobs Northern businessmen resented black competitors Factory owners worried about the loss of Southern cotton for their mills Reforming America 8 What steps did American women take to advance their rights in the mid-1800s? In the early and mid-1800s, women took active roles in the abolition and other reform movements Some also worked to gain equality for women, laying the groundwork for the equal rights struggle over the next hundred years Reforming America 8 In the 1800s, Women could not own women’s rights property. and freedoms rights were Women rarely received a severely limited formal education. Women were deprived of the right to vote. Women could not hold office. Women contributed to society privately by influencing their husbands and raising good children Reforming America 8 New opportunities for women grew from the Second Great Awakening reform movements Many women joined Women played key Similarities in the church-sponsored roles in reforming the plight of women and reform groups treatment of the of slaves led many mentally ill, public abolitionists to education, abolition, support women’s and temperance rights Reforming America 8 A few women advocated full equality Two that did were also active abolitionists Lucretia Mott had helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society. At an abolitionist convention in London, Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were outraged by the limits placed on their participation in the proceedings. Reforming America 8 In 1848, Mott and Stanton organized the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls Delegates adopted a “Declaration of Sentiments” modeled after the Declaration of Independence Although it produced few real changes in women’s rights, the convention marked the beginning of the women’s movement in the United States One delegate: Susan B. Anthony, began a lifelong campaign to get women’s suffrage