New Movements in America

1. Ch. 13 New Movements in
America
Section 1 America’s Spiritual Awakening

2. The Second Great Awakening
• New Interest in Christian Religion called The Second
Great Awakening 1820s-30s America
• Charles Grandison Finney – Most Important Leader
– Challenged Traditional Protestant Beliefs
– Advocated Individual Responsibility for own Salvation
– Sin Was Avoidable
– Demonstrate Faith by Good Deeds
• Church membership grew
– Many new church members were WOMEN
– And African Americans

3. Transcendentalism & Utopian
Communities
• What Is A Utopia?
• Transcendentalism – belief that people could transcend,
or rise above, the material things in life like money
• Ralph Waldo Emerson – Believed in Self-Reliance rather
than Institutions
– Wanted people to use own personal beliefs & judgement
– 1841 Essay “Self-Reliance”
– “What I Must Do Concerns Me, Not What the People Think”
• Thoreau – Wrote Famous Book Walden – About Living
Alone in the Woods for 2 Years In Order to Live More
Simply

4. The American Romantics
• 1800s Romantic Movement – Movement among Painters
& Writers drawing upon ideas about the simple life,
spirituality, & nature
– Beliefs: American Individualism, Nature over City, Democracy
• Romantic Artists – Painted the American landscape
– Contrasted w large cities & corruption
• Thomas Cole (painter), Nathaniel Hawthorne (The
Scarlett Letter), Edgar Allan Poe (The Raven), Emily
Dickenson (Poet), Walt Whitman (Poet)

6. Ch. 13 New Movements in
America
Section 2 Immigrants and Cities

7. Waves of Immigrants
• 4 Million European Immigrants settled in U.S. between
1840 & 1860
• 3 Million were German or Irish
• Fleeing economic or political troubles
• Searching for new economic opportunity & freedom from
govt control
• Chicago Daily Tribune: declared that the German
immigrant population was “fitted to do the cheap labor of
the country.”

8. The Nativist Response
• Industrialization & Immigrant greatly changed the
American labor force
• However, many native-born citizens (nativists) feared
losing the new jobs being created to immigrants willing to
work for lower wages
– Know-Nothing Party – nativists founded a secret society in 1849
that became a political organization to limit immigration
– Not very successful
• Rise of industry & growth of cities changed American life
created a new Middle Class – a social & economic level
between the wealthy & the poor

9. Ch. 13 New Movements in
America
Section 3 Reforming Society

10. Prison Reform
• Teachings of the Second Great Awakening inspired ppl to
improve society
• Growth of cities caused social problems many Americans
(especially women) wanted to correct
• Dorothea Dix – Middle Class prison system reformer
– Reported on terrible prison conditions
– Massachusetts State Govt responded by creating separate
facilities for mentally ill (rather than criminal)
• Correction Houses created – did not simply punish, tried
to change prisoners’ behavior through education
• Thoughts?

11. Campaigning Against Alcohol
Abuse
• Temperance Movement – Social Reform effort urging
people to limit hard drinking
• Many people believed Americans consumed too much
liquor in early & mid 1800s
• The Common-School Movement – Social reform efforts
promoting the idea of having all children educated in a
common place regardless of social class or background
• Unusual idea at the TIME

13. Ch. 13 New Movements in
America
Section 4 The Movement to End Slavery

14. Abolition
• 1830s – Anti-Slavery Americans Take Action
• Formed Movement to Support Abolition – or the complete
end of slavery & emancipation
• Quakers – First Group to Challenge Slavery on Religious
Grounds– Seen as Morally Wrong
• William Lloyd Garrison – Outspoken leader for Abolition
– published the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator
• Grimke Sisters Write: Appeal to Christian Women of the
South p. 409
• How did the Grimke sisters believe women could help

15. The Underground Railroad
• By 1830s loosely organized group helped slaves
escape from the South
• Free African Americans, former slaves, some white
abolitionists worked together to create the Underground
Railroad
– Network of people arranged transportation & hiding places for
fugitives/escaped slaves
– Harriet Tubman – Most famous & daring conductor
– of the Underground Railroad
• Led her family & 300 + slaves to freedom

18. Ch. 13 New Movements in
America
Section 5 Women’s Rights