Crash Course U.S. History: Religious and Moral Reform Movements in 19th Century America

Introduction

• Presenter: John Green
• Topic: Religious and moral reform movements in 19th century America, with a hint of sexual discussion.

Utopian Communities

Shakers

• Famous for furniture
• Celibate communities; growth through recruitment
• Equality of sexes
• Peaked at 6,000 members; now only 3 members remain

Latter Day Saints (Mormons)

• Holy scripture: Book of Mormon
• Persecuted; moved from New York to Utah
• Continues to grow

Brook Farm

• Founded in 1841 by transcendentalists
• Based on ideas of French socialist Charles Fourier
• Failed due to impracticality (intellectuals disliking manual labor)

Utopia, Ohio and Modern Times, New York

• Established by Josiah Warren
• Unregulated voluntary communities
• Rapid collapse due to extreme individualism

Second Great Awakening

• Height in 1820s and 1830s
• Charles Grandison Finney's giant camp meetings in New York
• Dramatic increase in Christian ministers (2,000 in 1770s to 40,000 in 1845)
• Influential in creating the Oneida Community (later a silverware company)

Ideals and Reform

• Mostly Protestant-based
• Perfectionism: belief in unlimited improvement
• View of freedom: internal self-discipline vs. unrestricted behavior

Temperance Movement

• High alcohol consumption in early 19th century (7 gallons of liquor per capita as of 1830)
• Advocated for by reformers; opposed by Catholic immigrants

Asylums and Education

Asylums

• Built by the hundreds for mental ill, poor, and prisoners.
• Seen as means to free individuals from sin

Education Reform

• Horace Mann advocate for compulsory state-funded education (common schools)
• Met with opposition from some parents
• By 1860, public schools established in all northern states

Abolition Movement

• Biggest reform movement of the first half of the 19th century
• Colonization: Idea to send former slaves back to Africa; Liberia established
• Radical Abolitionists: William Lloyd Garrison (The Liberator), Frederick Douglass, etc.
• Radical message: equality and sins of slavery
• Sometimes met with violent resistance

Black Abolitionists

• Notable figures: Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnett, David Walker
• Frederick Douglass' Speech (1852): Highlighting the inherent wrongness of slavery

Influence on Other Movements

• Women in Abolition: Significant female involvement, foreshadowing later women's rights movements

Miscellaneous

• Various reform efforts also included public speeches, pamphleteering, and widespread community involvement