The Second Great Awakening
and
Social Reform
History 103
Nov. 2, 1998
Social Bases of the Second Party System
Rhetoric of partisanship
- Class struggle vs. class cooperation
- Beyond class: other factors in voting behavior
American Protestantism after the Revolution
Disestablishment
Denominationalism
Origins of the Second Great Awakening
Cane Ridge revival (1801)
Frontier camp meetings
The spread of Methodism
The Second Great Awakening in the Northeast
New England Congregationalism in crisis
The rise of Unitarianism
Lyman Beecher and restrained revivalism
Charles Grandison Finney, "new measures," and Christian Perfectionism
From Revivalism to Reform:
the "Benevolent Empire"
American Education Society (est. 1815)
American Bible Society (est. 1816)
American Sunday School Union (est. 1824)
American Tract Society (est. 1825)
American Home Missionary Society (est. 1826)
The Temperance Movement
Beecher’s sermons
American Temperance Society (est. 1826)
American Temperance Union’s Teetotal Pledge (1836)
Washington Societies (early 1840s)
From conversion to coercion: The Maine Law (1851)
Other Reform Efforts
Abolitionism
Feminism
Pacifism
Public education
Asylums for the mentally ill
Better treatment of deaf and blind
Dietary reform
Penitentiaries for reforming criminals
Orphanages, reform schools for poor and delinquent children
Utopian communities
Continuing controversy
Were the primary aims and achievements of antebellum reform movements
(1) personal improvement and promotion of the public good, especially for the benefit of the disadvantaged and oppressed, or
(2) social control and preservation of social order, mainly for the benefit of the established social and economic elites?
Origins of Oberlin Colony and College
John Jay Shipherd’s mission and vision
Initial settlement (1833)
Launching the Manual Labor Institute (1833)
Opening of collegiate department (1834)
Controversy over abolitionism at Lane Seminary (1834)
Shipherd’s negotiations with Asa Mahan and Lane Rebels
Tappans’ money, free speech, color-blind admissions, "Finney Compact" (1835)
Admission of women to the collegiate department (1837)