Social Reforms of the - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Social Reforms of the

Early to Mid-1800sSlide2

1.Impact

of the

Second Great Awakening

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Second Great Awakening

: Protestant religious revival emphasizing individual responsibility -Focused on evangelism or spreading one’s beliefsHeld tent revivals throughout the US intended to “awaken” faith in people-Charles Finney was the most famous preacher of the movement Gave emotional sermons that appealed to people’s conscience-Encouraged women to have a voice in the church, which spread to other areasEncouraged Christians to do good deeds and improve society-Encouraged the temperance movement (to ban alcohol) and the abolition movement

“There must be excitement sufficient to wake up the dormant moral powers and roll back the tide of degradation and sin. And precisely so far as our own land approximates to heathenism, it is impossible for God or man to promote religion in such a state of things but by powerful excitements.—Where mankind are so reluctant to obey God, they will not obey until they are excited…persons will never give up their false shame…till they are so excited that they cannot contain themselves any longer…”

~Charles G. Finney~Slide3

When Charles Finney preached, his listeners shrieked, moaned, and fainted. He inspired emotional religious faith. Converted at the age of 29, Finney traveled on horseback to deliver his messages. He seated the most likely converts in his audiences on a special “anxious bench” where he could fasten his eyes on them. The converts’ duty was to spread the word about personal salvation.

Charles Finney believed that if Christian ideas reformed people from within, society would become better, but if people remained selfish and immoral, political reforms would not make any difference.

“I know this is all so much algebra to those who have never felt it. But to those who have experienced the agony of wrestling, prevailing prayer, for the conversion of a soul, you may depend upon it, that soul…appears as dear as a child is to the mother who brought it forth with pain.”

~Charles Finney~

from Letters on RevivalSlide4

2.Movement

Toward Utopias

-Some people believed society had corrupted human nature and formed

utopian communities

(experimental groups who tried to create perfect societies) based on the BibleBelieved in cooperative living with no private property-Brook Farm (1841-1847 in Mass.) Communal farming, intellectual thought-Oneida (1848-1880 in NY) Did not believe in exclusive marital relationships, made silver products-New Harmony (1825-1828 in IN) Members shared work; paid for the amount of time worked

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The Shakers

(1770-1940)

Gender equality, no marriage/children

“I have already assisted to load twenty or thirty carts of manure, and shall take part in loading nearly three hundred more. Besides, I have planted potatoes and peas, cut straw and hay for the cattle, and done various other mighty works. This very morning, I milked three cows; and I milk two or three every night and morning…I have gained strength wonderfully and can do a day’s work without the slightest inconvenience. In short, I am transformed into a complete farmer.”

~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Brook Farm ~Slide5

John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of Oneida, believed that God was kind, that people were essentially good, and in the possibility of a perfect Christian community. He believed the key to happiness was the suppression of selfishness. He thought true Christians should possess no private property or participate in exclusive emotional relationships, which bred jealousy and quarrels. He believed material things and sexual partners should be shared, thus all members should be free to love one another in a “complex marriage.” All the members of Oneida lived under one roof known as Mansion House. At the age of 3, children were removed from direct parental care and raised communally in the children’s house until age 13. The parents in the community also practiced selective breeding– only allowing or ordering certain men and women to have children. Eventually people in the neighboring communities became horrified at the practices. The Oneida community would end in 1880. Today Mansion House still exists as a museum and private residence. It is also the location for the annual stockholders meeting of the Oneida Company, which makes silver. Slide6

Founded by Mother Ann Lee, the Shakers settled in New York, New England, and on the frontier. They believed in gender equality, were pacifists, and took a vow never to marry or have children. Shakers depended on converts and adopting children to keep their community going. In the 1840s, the Shakers had 6,000 members. In 1999, only seven Shakers remained the in entire US.Slide7

3.Public

Education Movement

-Few children went to school beyond age 10, if at all, before 1830

-America began demanding

public education

(schools paid for by taxes and managed by local government for the good of the public)-Horace Mann became the “Father of Public Education” after starting public schools in MassachusettsArgued that all citizens need to be educated to have an effective nationBy 1850 most states had public elementary schools and improved textbooks-Noah Webster wrote the dictionary that standardized English-William McGuffey

published school books teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, and moral lessons

The spread of public education created the first real career opportunity for women. Horace Mann insisted that to learn well, children needed schools with a pleasant and friendly atmosphere. One way to achieve that was to group children by ages and to pay special attention to the needs of the youngest students. Women taught in the years between their own schooling and marriage. They were paid half of what male teachers earned and were heavily supervised by the community.Slide8

4.Prison

Reform Movement

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Dorothea Dix

traveled throughout Massachusetts visiting jails/prisons and prepared a report for the legislatureInmates in cages and chains, were brutally punishedMinor juvenile offenders were locked away with hardened criminalsMentally ill were locked away with criminals and had no medical care-Her findings changed prisons across the nationLed to the development of mental institutions and juvenile detention centers-The goal of prisons became rehabilitation (turning people away from their lives of crime and helping them start over)“I proceed, gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens ! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!” ~Dorothea Dix~Slide9

Woodcut of Sing

Prison

in 1828

Inmates walked hand-on-shoulder in lockstep into dining hall without speaking

Eastern State Penitentiary, constructed in the 1820s during the first major wave of penitentiary building in the United States

First drawing of Dorothea Dix Hospital in NCSlide10

5.Labor

Reform Movement

-Workers in industry began to form

labor unions

(a group of workers dedicated to the common goal of improving the workplace)-Labor unions used strikes (stopping work) to get what they wantedFirst strikes occurred in Lowell MillsMost strikes did not work because owners could hire cheap immigrant labor to replace workers-National Trades Union was the first union to combine workers from across various skilled trades-Two greatest victories for labor in mid 1800s:1. Reduction in workday hours for federal employees

2. Commonwealth

v. Hunt

rules that strikes were legal

The motto of the General Society of Mechanics (above) was “By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand.” Unions such as this and the National Trades Union criticized the “unjustifiable distribution of the wealth of society in the hands of a few individuals” which had created for working people “a humiliating, servile dependency, incompatible with …natural equality.”