The 2 nd Great Awakening & Transcendentalism

1. The 2nd Great Awakening & Transcendentalism APUSH LEAVENWORTH HIGH SCHOOL

2. The 2nd Great Awakening

3. RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION • There is a third revolution in the early 1800s besides politics and the economy • It was a commitment to reform the character of Americans into more upstanding, God fearing, and literate • Church attendance still a regular ritual for Americans • ¾ of 23 million people attend church in 1850

4. Second Great Awakening • As a result of the Second Great Awakening (a series of revivals in the 1790s-early 1800s), the dominant form of Christianity in America became evangelical Protestantism • Membership in the major Protestant churches—Congregational, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist—soared • the Methodists emerged as the largest denomination in both the North and the South

5. DEISM • The nature of American religion was changing though, the French Revolution had softened the orthodoxy • Many Founding Fathers, including Jefferson and Franklin, and anticlerics embraced the liberal doctrines of Deism • Relied on reason rather than revelation, on science rather than the Bible • They rejected the concept of original sin, denied Christ’s divinity • Deism helped inspire a New England spinoff from its severe Puritan past at the end of the 1700s: the Unitarians • Believed God existed only in one person and not the trinity; denied divinity of Jesus • appealed to intellectuals whose optimism contrasted sharply with hellfire doctrines of Calvinism

6. 1816 -> American Bible Society Founded

7. Revivalism and the Social Order • Society during the Jacksonian era was undergoing deep and rapid change • The revolution in markets brought both economic expansion and periodic depressions. • To combat this uncertainty reformers sought stability and order in religion • Religion provided a means of social control in a disordered society • Churchgoers embraced the values of hard work, punctuality, and sobriety • Revivals brought unity and strength and a sense of peace

8. Second Great Awakening • The reactive 1800s movement against this growing liberalism in faith was known as the Second Great Awakening: • Fresh wave of revivals beginning in the south and moving north • Also began a new spirit of evangelicalism that spread into prison reform, the temperance cause, and the abolition movement • Started with large “camp meetings” in the south • As many as 25,000 people would gather for several days • “fire and brimstone” atmosphere with attendees dancing, rolling, and shouting – EMOTIONALLY INTENSE • These revivals spread across the nation • The largest affected denominations were Baptist and Methodists • Revivals boosted church membership

9. Charles Finney • Charles Finney conducted his own revivals in the NE in the 1830s • Greatest revivalist preacher • He rejected the Calvinist doctrine of predestination • adopted ideas of free will and salvation to all

10. Charles Finney and the Conversion Experience • New form of revival • Meeting night after night to build excitement • Speaking bluntly • Praying for sinners by name • Encouraging women to testify (pray) in public • Denounced alcohol and slavery

13. EFFECTS • Feminization of religion • In terms of membership and theology • Middle class women were the most fervent revival enthusiasts • Were the wives and daughters of businessmen • Evangelicals preached a gospel that appealed to them: female spiritual worth and the role of bringing their husbands back to God • With that message many women turned their effort into saving the rest of society • They formed charitable organizations and spearheaded many of the era’s reform movements

14. Burned Over District • Burned over district in Western NY got its name from a “wild fire of new religions” • Gave birth to Seventh Day Adventists • The Millerites believed the 2nd coming of Christ would occur on October 22, 1843 • Members sold belonging, bought white robes for the ascension into heaven • Believers formed new church on October 23rd

16. Other Churches Founded • In 1844 Smith and his brother were murdered by a mob in Carthage Illinois • The movement seemed near collapse • The leadership torch was picked up by Brigham Young While the Protestant revivals sought to reform individual sinners, others sought to remake society at large Mormons – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Founded by Joseph Smith in western NY in 1830

17. Mormons • Brigham Young, Smith’s successor, led the Mormons westward in 1846-1847 to Utah where they could live and worship without interference • Through irrigation methods they made the Utah desert bloom and they became a populated and prosperous group

19. Other Religious Groups • The Shakers • Ann Lee – 1774 • The Shakers used dancing as a worship practice • Shakers practiced celibacy, separating the sexes as far as practical • Shakers worked hard, lived simply (built furniture), and impressed outsiders with their cleanliness and order • Lacking any natural increase, membership began to decline after 1850, from a peak of about 6000 members

20. Utopian Communities The Oneida Community Brook Farm New Harmony

21. The Oneida CommunityNew York, 1848 • Millenarianism --> the 2ndcoming of Christ had already occurred. • Humans were no longer obliged to follow the moral rules of the past. • Key to happiness is suppression of selfishness • No private property • No private relationships • All of these breed jealousy and quarreling • Practiced “free love” all residents married to each other. • Prospered due to steel and silver work • Communal work according to skill John Humphrey Noyes(1811-1886)

22. Transcendentalism

23. ROMANTICISM • Early American writing was sneered and lampooned internationally • Much was plagiarized from Great Britain • After 1820 young American authors began to answer the call for authentic literature • Much was influenced by the arrival of Romanticism in America • Emphasized imagination over reason; Nature over civilization • Intuition over calculation; Self over society • Emotion, expression were core values • Washington Irving (1783 – 1859) • The Sketch Book • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • Rip Van Winkle • James Fenimore Cooper (1789 – 1851) • Last of the Mohicans (1826)

24. Transcendentalism • Golden Age of American literature • Began in New England (Concord, Mass.) in 1830’s • From 1830 to 1855 transcendentalists argued that humans are naturally good • To transcend means to “rise above” • Every person possesses an inner light that puts you in touch with God/“Oversoul” • Self reliance, self culture, self discipline • Taught that the process of spiritual discovery would lead a person to profound truths • Reject outward rituals, favor inward searching • This would help lead a moral life where you could help society

25. Ralph Waldo Emerson1803 - 1882 • Leader of the transcendentalists movement • Trained as a Unitarian Boston minister • He began an “American Renaissance” in literature • He stressed self reliance, self improvement, self confidence, optimism, and freedom • Try to improve the world around; spent much time in reflection • In “The America Scholar” speech at Harvard in 1837 he urged American writers throw off European traditions and delve into rich American tales • Many of his essays started as lectures

26. Henry David Thoreau1817 - 1862 • Among his themes were the value of leisure, living in nature, anti-slavery, and working for common good • Condemned a government that supported slavery • Refused to pay Mass. Poll tax and was jailed for a night • Walden: Or Life in the Woods (1854) • Records two years of simple life spent in a hut that he built on Walden Pond in Concord Mass • Favored quest for isolation in nature to get away from corruptions of society • Influenced Gandhi and MLK

27. Transcendentalist Intellectuals/WritersConcord, MA Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Nature(1832) Resistance to Civil Disobedience(1849) Self-Reliance (1841) Walden(1854) “The American Scholar” (1837)

28. Walt Whitman • From Brooklyn – more bold, confident, swagger • Leaves of Grass (1855) • Collection of poems • Gave divinity to nature and human body • Glorification of self • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABOae1jGB3w&feature=related

29. ABOUT POP CULTURE • Transcendentalists writers Emerson and Thoreau wrote about that the modern newspapers & novels just contained murderous stories, carried a haunted nature, and ruined the works of mankind

30. LITERARY LIGHTS • Other great works were created during this age by literary giants who were not associated with transcendentalism • Professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) • One of most popular American poets; popular in Europe as well • Evangeline (1847); The Song of Hiawatha (1855) • Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) • Little Women (1868) • Emily Dickinson (1820-1886) • Explored universal themes of love, death, nature, immortality

31. DISSENTERS • There were also contrary writers who did not believe so keenly in human progress and goodness • They explored darker realms of human experience with pain, fear, grief, and the supernatural • Edgar Allen Poe (1808-1849) • Specialized in gothic horror and detective stories • The Raven (1845); The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) • His career was cut short when found drunk in a Baltimore gutter; dying shortly after • Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 1864) • Lived in Salem, Mass. • Grew up with the heavy atmosphere of Puritan ancestry • The Scarlet Letter (1850) • Puritan sin, romance • Herman Melville (1819 – 1891) • Went to sea as a youth; served 18-months as a whaler • Moby Dick (1851) • Conflict between Captain Ahab and giant white whale Moby Dick

32. EDGAR ALLEN POE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIp4m_v9xGs