The document summarizes social, religious, and cultural developments in the United States between 1790-1860. Key points include: 1) The Second Great Awakening led to growth in Methodist and Baptist denominations and influenced social reform movements. Deism and Unitarianism also grew. 2) Reforms addressed issues like prisons, debtors, the mentally ill, temperance, and women's rights. Dorothea Dix advocated for humane treatment of the mentally ill. 3) The Transcendentalist movement, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, rejected religious institutions and emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and a connection with nature.

1. The Ferment of
Reform & Culture
1790-1860
Partial Lecture
Chapter 15
The American Pageant, 13th edition

2. Main Themes
Deism & Unitarianism Temperance Movement
2nd Great Awakening Maine Law, 1851
Mormons Women’s Movement
Public Education Seneca Falls Convention
Lyceum Lecture series Utopian Movements
Treatment of debtors, Transcendentalism
prisoners & “insane” Literary & artistic trends
Hudson River School

3. Quickwrite
2. How did the Second Great Awakening affect
existing religion in American life, and how did
it reflect the trends leading to the Civil War?
OR
10. How did social reform movements arise out of
the Second Great Awakening, & what were
other influences?
OR
18. How did the Transcendentalist Movement
reflect and differ from general American
attitudes of the time?

4. Deism & Unitarianism
Deism: religious philosophy influenced by Enlightenment
belief in Supreme Being who had created universe and given
humans capacity for moral behavior
rejected divinity of Christ and original sin
Franklin and Jefferson were deists
Influenced development of Unitarianism
Unitarianism: new denomination
believed God existed in one being, not a trinity
rejected divinity of Jesus
stressed basic goodness of human nature, and belief in free will
and salvation thru good works
Appealed to intellectuals like Emerson

5. The Second Great Awakening
Mass religious movement began in the
early years of the 1800s
even bigger than the First Great Awakening of
the early 1700s.
100,000s of converted souls, shattered and
reorganized churches many new sects,
missionary work overseas;
also influenced reform movts such as prisons,
temperance. women’s movt and abolitionism.

6. “Camp meetings”
especially on the frontier for days at a time; group ecstasy
many of the “saved” fell back into old “sinning” ways
Methodists and Baptists saw the largest
increases in numbers
personal conversion
democratic control
emotionalism

7. Education Goes Public
5. What led the wealthier classes to
favor tax-supported public education
after their initial resistance?
6. What were some of the weaknesses
of the earliest public schools?
7. How did Horace Mann and Noah
Webster influence public education?

8. Education continued
8. How did the colleges founded by
religious reformers differ from the
established institutions of the time?
9. What were thought to be the negative
affects of education on women?

9. Social Reforms
10. How did the social reform
movements arise out of the Second
Great Awakening, and what were other
influences?
11. What was Dorothea Dix’s argument
in favor of the “insane” and what was
its influence?

10. Reforms continued
12. What spurred the rise of the
temperance Movement in America,
and how was it different from Dow’s
Prohibition Movement?
13. What was accomplished at the
Seneca Falls Convention, and why
was its message unsuccessful in the
short term?

11. Utopias
14. How did the Utopian movements of
the early 19th century reflect long-
standing American attitudes and
ideals?
15. Which Utopian movements were
most successful, and why?

12. Cultural Achievements
16. What were the limitations on American
art and architecture during this period?
17. What were the characteristics of the
artistic movements that did arise?
18. How did the Transcendentalist
Movement reflect and differ from general
American attitudes of the time?

13. The Oxbow, by Thomas Cole, 1836

14. Shroon Mountain,
by Thomas Cole, 1838

15. Falls of
Kaaterskill,
by Thomas
Cole,
1826

16. Mrs. Harrison
Gray Otis, by
Gilbert Stuart,
1809

17. Monticello, by Thomas Jefferson

18. Transcendentalism
Intellectual movement, started in New England in
1830’s
Influenced by
loosening of Puritan theology in New England
German Romantic philosophy
Asian religions

19. Transcendentalism
Characterized by
Rejection of Enlightenment theory that all knowledge
comes to the senses from the mind
Belief that truth “transcends” the senses and can be
known from each person’s “inner light” which puts one
in direct touch with God or the “oversoul”
Emphasis on individualism; self-sufficiency & self-
discipline
Belief in human dignity led them to embrace
humanitarian reforms (abolitionism); rejected
institutional authority.
Love of nature

20. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Leading Transcendentalist
Tremendous impact thru his writings
(popular essay series) & his Lyceum lecture
tours
His ideas became so popular because they
reflected the general attitudes in the expanding
US at the time: individualism, self-reliance,
freedom and optimism, etc.
Spoke out strongly against slavery.
“That the government is best which governs
least.”

21. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Poet, mystic, transcendentalist & nonconformist;
Famous for his 2 years in a tiny hut at Walden Pond (on
Emerson’s property) and the resulting book, Walden
(wanted to reduce his physical needs in order to have
time to pursue truth thru study and meditation)
Ended up in jail overnight because he would not pay
Mass poll tax as a protest against a government that
would allow slavery
Very influential on Gandhi and later MLK Jr. thanks
to his book, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.

22. Culture continued
19. What were the contributions of
Emerson and Thoreau in particular?
20. What trends can be observed in
American literature in the first half of
the 19th century?