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Adam Kim, Shivam Kollur, Neil Parikh

Topic: In what ways did the Great Awakening in the North Influence TWO of the following?
Abolitionism
Temperance
The cult of domesticity
Utopian communities

1. Second Great Awakening: (1790-1850)


a. Religious revival movement in the 19th century in the United
States.
b. Reflected the Romanticism of the period
c. Began in the southern frontier and moved to Northeast
d. Spiritual fervor and shattered/reorganized churches
e. Led to several humanitarian reforms: abolitionism, womens rights, desperatepastor.blogspot.com
temperance
f. Mass gatherings helped promote the objective of this movement
g. Boosted church membership
h. Methodists and Baptists had the greatest increase in followers
i. Deepened the divide between the classes and religions
2. Abolitionism:
a. The Movement:
i.
Radical abolitionism was fueled by religious fervor
ii.
Immediate emancipation for the slaves
b. Advocates for Abolitionism:
i.
Became increasingly prominent in Northern churches
1. Emancipation was required on religious grounds
2. Women made a significant difference
ii.
American Colonization Society
1. Gradual Emancipation (gaining freedom upon a certain age)
2. Potentially sending slaves to Liberia in Africa
iii.
William Floyd Garrison
1. Called for an immediate end to slavery and equal rights for all African Americans
2. Anti-Slavery newspaper called the Liberator to educate the whites about the cruelties of slavery
c. Arguments for abolition:
i.
Slavery was immoral on religious grounds
ii.
Slavery violated the basic principles laid out by the founding fathers
1. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness for slaves
iii.
No longer cost-effective:
1. Over-production meant that farmers spent more for growing than income made in selling
d. Movements Formation:
i.
Quakers formed the Society of Friends
ii.
Gained more traction as abolitionists called slave-owners hypocrites for fighting for their own
freedom and then oppressing another group
iii.
Slave-owners began to realize that over-production was not cost-effective
iv. Some, who advocated for gradual ends to slavery (ACS), attempted to send slaves to Liberia
v. Garrison begins a more radical movement, and creates the newspaper The Liberator

vi.
vii.
1.
viii.
3.
a.
i.
1.
ii.
1.
iii.
1.
iv.
1.
b.
i.
1.
ii.
1.
a.
2.
iii.
1.
a.

Garrison then established the American Anti-Slavery Society


The Society then split, as some felt that Garrisons call for the North to secede were too radical
One group maintained Garrisons radical stance while the other pursued more moderate ways to
end slavery (particularly public office)
The moderates would form the Liberty Party, which would become the Free-Soil Party and
eventually evolve into the Republican Party
Temperance:
Advocates:
Women:
Concern that husbands spent family money on alcohol
Business owners:
Needed workers to maintain schedules
Churches who religiously opposed drinking:
Wanted to put a focus on the evil aspects of indulgence
macmccanntx.com
Societies created to oppose drinking (i.e. American
Temperance Society):
Over 6000 temperance groups in various states by 1830
Arguments for Temperance:
Health:
Benjamin Rush published an article that prompted health concerns associated with alcohol
Family Stability:
Women joined the movement largely because they felt that inebriated husbands were more likely
to lose their jobs
Men were the breadwinners in this time period
Many also believed that men who were drinkers were more likely to physically abuse the women
and children in the family
Workplace Productivity:
During the industrial period, demands for workplace productivity were high, as opposed to
colonial times where a worker could get away with being drunk
Many business owners joined the movement because of this issue.

4. The Cult of Domesticity:


a. Description: A conservative ideology regarding women's role
formed along with religious revival, in which the woman is
celebrated as the homemaker.
i.
Reaction against urbanization and industrialization
b. Components of the Ideology:
i.
Women should stay home and be protected from the vulgarities of
the world.
ii.
Women should provide emotional refuge to men and children.
iii.
Women are given more power over family morals.
americainclass.org
iv. Women were in charge of child educations
c. Effects:
i.
Women in the labor force no more factory jobs
ii.
Single women pressured to settle down with family
iii.
Lower fertility rate smaller and child-centered
families
5. Utopian Communities:
a. Description: Communities founded on utopian ideals of cooperation and communitarianism.
Many communities encouraged virtues and lifestyles unique to their own.
b. Examples:
i.
New Harmony: Sought human betterment, but the community failed to survive because it lacked
harmony and a commonly shared goal amongst the members.
ii.
Brook Farm: Intellectual community founded on Transcendentalism that sought to integrate the
intellectual and physical aspects of man.
iii.
Oneida Community: Advocated controversial lifestyle, such as polygamy (Complex Marriage),
birth control, and pre-arranged parents for superior offspring. This community also produced
silverware and steel traps that allowed for this community to survive.
iv. Shakers: A community that boasts in its long existence, but eventually fails because it refused to
change its methods and practices, especially the prohibition of marriage and sexual relationships.
Abolitionism

Temperance

The Cult of Domesticity

Utopian Communities

Date

19th Century

19th Century

19th century

New Harmony: 18251828


Brook Farm: 1841 - 1846
Oneida Community:
1848 - 1880
Shakers: 1774 - 1940

Location

Throughout
America, however
largely focused in
the Northern States

Throughouth the
US, but largely in
the Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic,
some societies in

Widespread phenomenon

New Harmony: Indiana


Brook Farm:
Massachusetts
Oneida: New York
Shakers: New York

South

Leaders

William Floyd
Garrison
Liberty Party

American
Temperance
Society

N/A

New Harmony: Robert


Owen
Brook Farm: George
Ripley
Oneida: John Humphrey
Noyes
Shakers: Mother Ann Lee

Legislation

Eventually the 13th


Amendment

Alcohol
completely banned
in 1920, but
repealed in 1933

N/A

N/A

Effects of
Religion

The beginning of
the abolitionist
movement was
founded by the
Quaker religious
beliefs, and a large
argument was that
slavery was
religiously immoral.

Churches against
temperance were
motivated by their
religious stance
against drinking
and that
inebriation could
be a sin.

The Second Great


Awakening brought back the
conservatism associated with
religion. Womens role as a
homemaker and not as an
individual worker is a
conservative idea probably
brought forth with the onset
of the Great Awakening.

Many of the virtues that


these communities
propose are based on
religious precepts,
although the utopian
communities were
founded to escape
societal influences
(which included those of
the church).

1. Thesis: The Second Great Awakening brought forth a new era of emotional reasoning that
became the fundamental ideology of both the abolitionism and temperance movements. This
introduction of emotion provided religious justification for not only the establishment of these
movements, but also the arguments in which these movements put forth in response to their
community environments.
2. Outline:
a. Introduction: Prior to the Second Great Awakening
i.
Background information First Great Awakening
ii.
Background information Competing ideologies and trends (industrial
revolution, transportation revolution, market revolution, and communications
revolution)
b. Body 1: Second Great Awakening Ideals
i.
Topic 1: Introduction to Second Great Awakening
ii.
Topic 2: General revival of religious values
iii.
Topic 3: Prevalence of emotional values and rationale
c. Body 2: Abolitionism
i.
Topic 1: The effect of religious values in establishing human rights

ii.
iii.
iv.
d.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
e.
3.
a.

Topic 2: The role of religious groups and leaders in establishing abolitionist organizations
Topic 3: Religious elements in the foundations of the American government and legislation
Topic 4: Religious AND ideological hypocrisy of the slave institution
Body 3: Temperance
Topic 1: Summary of temperance movement
Topic 2: Role of religion in the promotion of temperance
Topic 3: The role of women in the temperance movement
Topic 4: Legislation as a result of the temperance movement
Conclusion: Restate the thesis and end with the synthesis point
Synthesis:
The religious ideals of Abolitionism provided the foundations for Northern abolitionists counter
against the Souths religious argument for keeping slaves. In this way, the political and economic
conflict between the North and the South, which eventually amounted to the Civil War,
transitioned into a moral conflict regarding the issue of slavery.
b. Both Abolitionism and Temperance attracted many women to the workings of public life.
Because much of these movements were run and supported by women, women gained a degree
of social independence and acquired very effective organizational skills that they later put to use
in advocating for their own suffrage movement.

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