Chapter 81 US religious movement after 1790 Rejected 18 th century belief that God predetermined if a person would go to heaven or hell Individual responsibility people could improve themselves and society ID: 498423
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Slide1
Religion Spark Reform
Chapter 8-1Slide2
US religious movement after 1790
Rejected 18
th century belief that God predetermined if a person would go to heaven or hellIndividual responsibility: people could improve themselves and societyPromoted individualism and responsibility – power of the common citizen
Second Great AwakeningSlide3
Revival: emotional meeting to promote religious faith
Excited preaching and
prayerCharles Grandison Finney: “father of modern revivalism”1800: 1 in 15 Americans belonged to a church1850: 1 in 6 Americans
belonged to a
church
RevivalismSlide4
SGA brought Christianity to enslaved African-Americans
Belief that all people belonged to the same God
Gave members spiritual support to oppose slavery 1st black national convention: September 1830 in Philadelphia led by Richard Allen– later became an annual convention
African-American ChurchSlide5
Rural South: Slaves worshipped in same churches, heard same sermons, and sang same hymns as their owners – but in segregated pews
Christian
message = promise of freedomEast: free African Americans had their own churches – became political, cultural, and social centerSlide6
P
hilosophical
and literary movementemphasized living a simple lifehighlighted the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination
Transcendentalists: stressed American ideas of optimism, self-reliance, and freedom
Transcendentalism Slide7
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
nurtured newly emerging pride in American cultureHenry David Thoreau: put idea of self-reliance into practice by living alone in woods for 2 years and abandoning
community life
individual conscience important – urged people not to obey laws they considered to be unjust
Civil
disobedience:
peaceful protest as opposed to protesting unjust laws with violence
Ex: Thoreau
didn’t
pay his taxes because he
didn’t
want to support the US gov’t. (which allowed slavery and fought a war with Mexico) – went to jailSlide8
E
mphasized
reason and appeals to conscience as the paths to perfection, rather than appealing to the emotionsNew England: wealthy and educated followersBelieved conversion was a gradual process (revivals had dramatic conversions)Believed individual and social reform were possible and important (agreed with revivalists)
UnitarianismSlide9
Groups tried
to create a “utopia” (perfect place) inspired by the optimism of religious and social reform
Common goal: self-sufficiency Best-known: New Harmony, Indiana and Brook Farm near BostonMost lasted no more than a few yearsUtopian CommunitiesSlide10
Shakers
shared
their goods with each other, believed that men and women are equal, and refused to fight for any reasonShakers vowed not to marry or have children – depended on converts and adopting children to expand their communities1840s: 6,000 members (highest number) 1999: 7 members in the entire US
Shaker CommunitiesSlide11
Dorothea Dix: discovered that jails housed mentally ill people
“I proceed, gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within this Commonwealth…Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!...Injustice is also done to the convicts: it is certainly very wrong that they should be doomed day after day and night after night to listen to the ravings of madmen and mad women.”
– 1843 letter to MA Legislature
Prison & Asylum ReformSlide12
1843: Dix sent a report to MA Legislature
= law to improve conditions was passed
1845-1852: Dix persuaded 9 Southern states to create hospitals for the mentally ill Prison reformers emphasized rehabilitation
could
reform the sick or imprisoned person into a useful societal member = hope for everyone (revivalists)Slide13
Before mid-1800s: no uniform education policy in US
School conditions varied from region to region
Before Civil War: MA and VT were only states to pass a compulsory school attendance lawClassrooms weren’t divided by gradeMost students stopped attending school by age 10
Education ReformSlide14
1830s: Americans demanded tax-supported public schools
Opposition:
wealthy tax payers who enrolled their children in private schoolsGerman immigrants who were afraid their children would lose their German language and cultureBy 1850s: every state had provided some form of publically funded elementary schools Slide15
Horace Mann: first secretary of MA Board of Education in 1837
Established teacher-training programs, instituted curriculum reforms, and doubled money that MA spent on schools
1848: introduced age-grading:grouped students based on their ages rather than one large classroom where ages could range from 6-14