Chapter 15: The Ferment of Reform and Culture, 1790-1860

Louisa May Alcott

A leading female transcendentalist who wrote Little Women and other novels to help support her family.

Greek revival

Architectural style that borrowed from classical Greek and Roman examples which emphasized symmetry, balance and restraint.

Burned over District

Area of western New York state where frequent, fervent religious revivals produced intense religious controversies and numerous new sects

Women abolitionists' anger at being ignored by male reformers

Aroused hostility and scorn in most of the make press and pulpit

The Mormon practice of polygamy

Aroused persecution from morally traditionalist American and delayed statehood for Utah

romantisms

Art movement of the 1820-1830 lead by Thomas Cole, which celebrated the grand divinity of nature.

John Humphrey Noyes

Bold, unconventional poet who celebrated American democracy.

Walt Whitman

Bold, unconventional poet who celebrated American democracy.

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass

Captured, in one long poem, the exuberant and optimistic spirit of popular American democracy.

Unrealistic expectations and conflict within perfectionist communes

Caused most utopian experiments to decline or collapse in a few years.

The Knickerbocker and transcendentalist use of a new American themes in their writing

Created the first literature genuinely native to America

Edgar Allan Poe

Eccentric genius whose tales of mystery suffering and supernatural departed from general American literary trends.

Oberlin College

Evangelical college in Ohio that was the first institution of higher education to admit black san women

Amelia Bloomer

Female reformer who promoted short skirts and trousers as a replacement for highly restrictive women's clothing.

Charles Grandson, Finney

Influential evangelical revivalist of the Second Great Awakening.

The Second Great Awakening

Inspired a widespread spirit of evangelical reform in many areas of American Life

Henry David Thoreau's theory of civil disobedience

Inspired late practitioners of nonviolence like Gandhi and King

The Transcendentalist movement

Inspired writs like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller

Elizabeth Cay Stanton

Leading feminist who wrote the 'Declaration of Sentiments' in 1848 and pushed for women's suffrage

The women's rights movement

Led to expanding the crusade for equal rights to include women

Deism

Liberal religious belief, held by many of the Founders such as Paine, Jefferson and Franklin, that stressed rationalism and moral behavior rather than Christian revelation while retaining belief in a Supreme being.

Define: theocracy

Literally, rule by God; the term is often applied to a state where religious leaders exercise direct or indirect political authority " .. community became prosperous frontier theocracy and a cooperative commonwealth"

Shakers

Long-lived communal religious group, founded by Mother Ann Lee, that emphasized simple living and prohibited all marriage and sexual relationships

Herman Melville's and Edgar Allan Poe's concern with evil and suffering

Made their works little understood in their lifetimes by generally optimistic Americans

Women's right convention at Seneca Falls

Memorable 1848 meeting in New York where women made an appeal based on the Declaration of Independence

Herman Melville

New York writer whose romantic sea tales were more popular than his dark literary masterpiece

Define: zealot

One who is carried away by a cause to an extreme or excessive degree. 'But less patient zealots came to believe that temptation should be removed by legislation/"

James Fenimore Cooper

Path-breaking American novelist who contrasted the natural person of the forest with the values of modern civilization

Transcendent

Philosophical and literary movement ,centered in New England, that greatly influence many American writers of the early nineteenth century

Mary Lyon

Pioneering women's educator, founder of Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts.

Monstrel Shows

Popular nineteenth century musical entertainments that featured white actors and singers with painted black faces.

Lucretia Mott

Quaker women's rights advocate who also strongly supported abolition of slavery

Dorothea Dix

Quietly determined reformer who substantially improved conditions for the mentally ill.

Emily Dickinson

Reclusive new England poet who wrote about love, death and immortality

Define: utopian

Referring to any theoretical plan that aims to establish an ideal social order, or a place founded on such principles. "Bolstered by the utopian spirit of the age, "various reformers.. set up more than forty communities.."

Define: communitarian

Referring to the belief in or practice of the superiority of community life or values over individual life, but not necessarily the common ownership for material goods.

Define: communistic

Referring to the economic theory or practice in which the means of production are owned by the community as a whole "various reformers.. set up more than forty communities of a .. communistic nature.."

Mormans

Religious group founded by Joseph Smith that eventually established cooperative commonwealth in Utah

2nd Great Awakening

Religious revival that began on the frontier and swept eastward, stirring an evangelical spirit in many areas of American life

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Second-rate poet and philosopher, but first-rate promoter of transcendentalist ideals and American culture.

Brook Farm

Short lived intellectual commune in Massachusetts based on 'Plain living and high thinking'

Brigham Young

The 'Mormon Moses' who led persecuted latter day saints to their promised land in Utah

Describe the cause of the most important American reform movements of the period, identifying which were most successful and why.

The cause of the most important American reform movements of the period was the Second Great Awakening. The most important and successful reform movements were instigated to combat earthly evils. The modern idealists dreamed of a perfected society: free from cruelty (imprisonment and mentally ill), war, intoxication drink, discrimination, and--ultimately--slavery.

Walden

The doctrine, promoted by American writer Henry David Thoreau in an assay of the same name, that later influence Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Identify the most notable early American achievements in science, medicine, the visual arts and music and explain why advanced science and culture had difficulty taking hold on American soil.

The most notable early American achievements in science, medicine, the visual arts, and music were evident in the time period. From gifted inventors, mathematicians, oceanographers, chemists, and naturalists increased the achievements of their prospective fields. Medicine in America was still primitive, thus resulting to bleeding. In addition, surgery was painful and resulted in infection leading to death. The visual arts were products to the shift from portraits to landscape.

Explain the origins of American feminism describe its essential principles and summarize its early successes and failures.

The origins of feminism began at the Second Great Awakening when many women turned to saving the rest of society from their evils. They formed a host of benevolent and charitable organization and spearheaded crusades for most, if not all, of the era's ambitious reforms. In addition, women stressed a higher education for women and all children (for public). Large successes were evident in Dorothea Dix movement to reform the treatment of prisoners and medically challenged.

Define: Polygamy

The practice of having two or more spouses at one time. Polygyny-two or more wives Polyandry-two or more husbands

Define: free love

The principle or practice of open sexual relations unrestricted by law, marriage or religious constraints.

Analyze the American literary flowering of the early nineteenth century, especially the transcendentalist movement, and identify the most important writers who dissented from the optimistic spirit of the time.

The transcendentalist movement of the 1830s resulted in part from a liberalized of the straight jacket Puritan theology. The main message each transcendentalist movement contained was the idea that every person possessed an inner light that could illuminate the highest truth and put him or her in direct touch with God. Two important writers were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Describe the utopian and communitarian experiments of the period, and indicate how they reflected the essential spirit of early American culture despite their small size.

The utopian and communitarian experiences of the period indicated the period of religious change due to the excessive speculation groups (religious) sought pureness and fled from persecution. Groups like the Mormons sought peace from the terrors of the east.

Describe the widespread revival of religion in the 19th century and its effects on American culture and social reform.

The widespread revival of religion in the early nineteenth century and its effects on American culture and social reform was begun due to the Second Great Awakening. Through the new ideas of a tidal wave of spiritual fervor, it left its wake converting countless souls. Methodists and Baptists reaped the most abundant harvest of souls from the fields fertilized by revivalism. Middle-class women, the wives and daughters of businessmen, were the first and most fervent enthusiasts of religious revivalism.

Monticello

Thomas Jefferson's stately self-designed home in Virginia that became a model of American architecture

Methodist and Baptist

Two religious denominations that benefited most from the evangelical revivals of the early nineteenth century