Age of Reform (1790-1860)

Key Movements and Ideas

• Second Great Awakening: A religious revival movement beginning in the 1790s.
  • Response to perceived lack of religious zeal.
  • Led by figures like Charles Finney.
  • Key developments:
    • Rise of new religious sects, e.g. Methodists and Baptists.
    • Increase in church attendance and emotionalism in worship.
    • Inspired various reform movements, including abolition, temperance, and women's rights.
• Liberal Social Ideas:
  • Influence from the Enlightenment, promoting reason over revelation.
  • Emergence of Deism: Belief in God with reliance on science and reason.
  • Unitarianism: Emphasized free will and salvation through good works, contrasting with Calvinist doctrines.
• Romantic Beliefs in Human Perfectibility:
  • Fostered voluntary organizations promoting reforms.
  • Focused on abolition and women's rights.

Cultural Developments

• Development of distinct cultures by various groups:
  • American Indians, women, and religious followers shaped their own cultures.
  • Growth of an urban middle class.

Important Figures and Movements

• Joseph Smith:
  • Founded Mormonism; faced persecution.
  • Succeeded by Brigham Young, who led Mormons to Utah.
• Dorothea Dix:
  • Advocated for mental health reform.
  • Promoted professional treatment for the mentally ill.
• Horace Mann:
  • Key figure in education reform.
  • Advocated for public schooling with longer terms, compulsory attendance, and expanded curricula.

Reform Movements

• Temperance Movement:
  • Aimed to reduce alcohol consumption.
  • Legislation like the Maine Law of 1851 prohibited liquor.
• Women's Movement:
  • Addressed women's rights and suffrage.
  • Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were key advocates.
  • Seneca Falls Convention (1848) marked the start of organized women's rights movement.
• Transcendentalism:
  • Belief that truth transcends the senses.
  • Prominent figures included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
  • Inspired civil disobedience and utopian community experiments.

Utopian Communities

• Emerged as responses to societal issues.
• Examples include:
  • Mormons: A religious community.
  • Brook Farm: A secular, humanistic community.
  • New Harmony: A socialist experiment addressing industrialization challenges.

Summary

• The Age of Reform was marked by broad religious and social changes.
• Movements fostered a variety of reforms aimed at improving society.
• Influenced by both religious motivations and secular ideas.