15: The Ferment of Reform and Culture

Figure 1 painting by Audubon

Figure 2 Dorothea Dix

Quotes
There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America (320) If the medicines, as then employed, were thrown into the sea, humans would be better off and the fish worse off Churches were set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit Alexis de Tocqueville Indicates that religion is still strong in America. (Rephrased) Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason

People
Thomas Paine Peter Cartwright -writes The Age of Reason -in general, has Deist ideas -most famous Methodist traveling preacher in frontier (Tennessee-IL) -asks sinners to repent; beats up people who try to end his speeches -most imp. revival preacher; hosts 2 big revivals in Rochester & NYC [1830 & 31] -radical ideas: anxious bench for sinners, women can pray in public, alcohol/slavery are bad - Becomes president of Oberlin the college is big on revivalism & abolition -claims to have received golden plates from an angel (the Book of Mormon); founds the Church of Latter Day Saints -demands more/improved schools, longer school years, better pay (teachers) & bigger curriculums

Charles Grandison Finney

Joseph Smith

Horace Mann

Noah Webster

William H. McGuffey

-(Schoolmaster of the Republic) designs better textbooks w/ good reading lessons (which stress patriotism) -[1828] publishes a dictionary to make American language more standard (An American Dictionary of the English Language) -William H. McGuffey = teacher/preacher in Ohio; writes McGuffeys Readers for grade-school (also encourages patriotism, morality & idealistic views) [1821] est. the Troy Female seminary [1837] est. Mount Holyoke Seminary in MA -travels 60k miles in 8 yrs. & reports on terrible conditions in asylums -[1843] petitions to MA legislature, writing of cells that smell terrible -Est. American Peace Society -leg ulcers force him to sit on a stool -[1854] writes Ten Nights in a Barroom and What I Saw There (describes how Sam Slades tavern ruins a village) -(Father of Prohibition) mayor of Portland, ME & labor employer -Approves Maine Law of [1851]- totally prohibiting making/selling liquor -Quaker; angry when she/other female delegates not recognized @ London antislavery convention -wanted suffrage; refused to say obey during her marriage -Quaker; strong womens rights advocate, unafraid to face criticism -1st female graduate of a med. College - editor for The Dial (transcendentalist journal) -Also fights for Italian unity/republicanism -sisters who fight slavery -keeps maiden name when married Lucy Stoners -wears a short skirt w/ trousers to protest annoying, long skirts -est. utopian community @ New Harmony, Indiana -leads Shakers in est. religious communities -founder of the Oneida Community -basically preaches that everything (and everyone) should be shared -mathematician who wrote on practical navigation -oceanographer who wrote on ocean winds & currents -pioneering chemist & geologist who taught @ Yale -French Swiss immigrant -biologist who insists on original research (not memory work); teacher @ Harvard -botany professor @ Harvard -good textbooks, etc. -best ornithologist in U.S.; wrote Birds of America -Audubon Society was founded in his honor (not by him)

Emma Willard Mary Lyon Dorothea Dix

William Ladd T.S. Arthur

Neal S. Dow

Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan B. Anthony Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell Margaret Fuller Sarah & Angelina Grimke Lucy Stone Amelia Bloomer Robert Owen Mother Ann Lee John Humphrey Noyes

Nathaniel Bowditch Matthew F. Maury Professor Benjamin Silliman Professor Louis Agassiz

Professor Asa Gray John J. Audubon

Thomas Jefferson Gilbert Stuart (the Washington-painters) Charles Willson Peale (the Washington-painters) John Trumbull (the Washington-painters) Louis Daguerre Stephen C. Foster

-notable for architecture- designed Monticello & The University of VA -(RI) works in Britain -paints several portraits of Washington -(MD) paints ~60 portraits of Washington -paints revolutionary war scenes (incl. Washington Crossing the Delaware) -inventor of the daguerreotype -wrote the most famous black songs (notably Old Folks at Home) -captured slaves plaintive spirit in his works -was a secretary of the navy; helped found the Naval Academy @ Annapolis -Father of American History publishes a 6-volume history of the U.S. -publishes famous histories of the conquest of Mexico & Peru -writes a brilliant series of volumes starting [1851] -deals w/ French-British struggle for North America

George Bancroft

William H. Prescott Francis Parkman

Authors
Washington Irving Knickerbocker Group -influences: New Netherland tradition -publishes Knickerbockers History of New York -The Sketch Book incl. Dutch American tales (i.e. The Sleepy Hollow & Rip van Winkle) -romanticist popular in Europe -publishes The Leatherstocking Tales (incl. The Last of the Mohicans) on Natty Bumppo, a rifleman -editor of the NY Evening Post who publishes Thanatopsis a quality poem w/ recognition overseas -trained as a minister; instead becomes a lyceum lecturer -poet & philosopher- important b/c he connects w/ people (stresses their ideals of self[reliance/improvement/confidence] & optimism/freedom) -abolitionist -inspires MLK & Gandhi -writes Walden: Or Life in the Woods about living near a pond 2 yrs -On the Duty of Civil Disobedience- essay discussing citizens duty to disobey laws they think are unjust -poet; unconventional (gives up normal titles, stanzas, rhymes, meter) -writes Leaves of Grass (collection of poems) which is controversial (Whitman writes frankly about sex) but succeeds after he dies -Southern novelist, The Cooper of the South -not read in the South, because he was orig. poor -unhealthy orphan who marries 13-year-old cousin who dies of TB -fails @ suicide; alcoholic; Gothic horror -dies after found drunk in a gutter -explores evil, sin, & dead hand of the past weighing upon the present -writes Moby Dick & stories about the South Seas - Quaker poet, not great writer but is a strong abolitionist

James Fenimore Cooper Knickerbocker Group William Cullen Bryant Knickerbocker Group Ralph Waldo Emerson Transcendentalist

Henry David Thoreau Transcendentalist

Walt Whitman

William Gilmore Simms Edgar Allen Poe

Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville John Greenleaf Whittier

Professor James Russell Lowell

Louisa May Alcott Emily Dickinson

& fighter of general injustice 1) - Harvard teacher; poet, essay writer, lit. critic, editor, diplomat a) Biglow Papers = polit. satire that criticizes Polks fear of expansion (b/c of slavery) [1846] papers on Mexican war are esp. famous -writes Little Women to help out her family (her dad couldnt/didnt support them) -poet; uses simple language but writes about imp. themes (love/death/nature/immortality) -most imp. writer in the S.; writes 82 books, mostly about the frontier & the S. (during Rev. War)

William Gilmore Simms

Groups
Deists -reason/science more imp. than the Bible -orig. sin & Christs divinity = false -However: a Supreme Being did create humans & humanity has a capacity for moral behavior -God is only one entity (no Trinity) -Christs divinity = false -human nature = essentially good; salvation b/c of good deeds is possible -appeal to intellectuals (i.e. Ralph Waldo Emerson) -advertise personal conversion (alt. to predest.) -gen. from agricultural areas in S. & W. -[1844-1845] Methodists/Baptists in S. separate from Northern ones due to slavery -(aka Adventists) form; named after William Miller -think Christ will return Oct 22, 1844 (based on Bible) -later become the Seventh-Day Adventists - By [1840] have 60k members; but prohibit marriage/sex ~gone by [1940] -originally the Putney Association, the community relocated to Oneida after Noyes was indicted for adultery -Struggled until Sewell Newhouse (steel trap inventor) joins -reject idea that all knowledge comes through the senses- believe truth transcends senses- is w/in (inner light or Oversoul that connects w/ God) -incl. Emerson

Unitarians

Baptists & Methodists

Millerites

Shakers Oneidans (The Oneida Community)

Transcendentalists

Things
[1794] The Age of Reason [1800] 2nd Great Awakening -book by Thomas Paine -arg: all churches are organized to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit -causes formation of new sects, reorganization of churches, conversions, est. of liberal arts colleges in S. & W., humanitarian work in the E. -gains most converts for Baptists/Methodists (both advertise personal conversion)

Burned-Over District [1819] University of VA

Lyceum lecture associations

-camp meetings entail hellfire speeches & rolling/jerking -District in W. NYC famous for its hellfire sermons - home to Millerites & Oneidans (see Groups) -founded by TJ -has no political or religious ties -stresses modern languages & science Host speakers in science/lit/moral philosophy (i.e. Ralph Waldo Emerson) -big intellectual magazine -magazine w/ 150k readers - Godey's Lady's Book WAS NOT FEMINIST. Its editor (Sara Josepha Hale) believed that woman's role was strictly domestic; that she had a responsibility to raise virtuous children. Yet, in order to do so properly, they would need an education. Ultimately, Hale's views, while conventional, helped advance women's education and thus provided them, indirectly, with the opportunity to take on their own careers in male-dominated fields. -est. by William Ladd (whose leg ulcers force him to sit on a stool)

[1815 on] North American Review [1826] American Temperance Society [1830-1898] Godeys Ladys Book

[1828] American Peace Society