Nation of Nations 3/e Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, and Stoff
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THE CHAPTER IN PERSPECTIVE

The rise of democracy in the Jacksonian era was only one indication of a deeper impulse to improve American society. Equally important were the various reform movements of the period. These grew out of the religious changes that began on the frontier around the turn of the century and were first seen in camp meetings such as the revival at Cane Ridge, Kentucky (Chapter 9). The revivalists' new methods of converting "sinners"--as well as reformers' more direct attempts to change society--addressed many problems that were directly connected to the expansion of the economy and the dislocation experienced by many Americans during the market revolution. The mixture of religious revivalism, perfectionist reform, new democratic politics, and an expanding commercial economy--all these currents created an unusual ferment in American society in the years after 1820.

OVERVIEW

The Jacksonian era witnessed the greatest number of significant reform movements in American history. This chapter examines the nature of the reform impulse and the close ties between reform, religion, and the redefinition of women's sphere in American life. Not by coincidence women dominated church membership and played a critical role in the reform movements of the period. Not by coincidence were so many leaders of reform inspired by a millennial vision of Protestant Christianity. The chapter opens with Lyman Beecher, who along with his children was destined to play such a large role in many of the movements striving for perfection. Beecher viewed religion and reform as forces of stability, order and control, but to his children they increasingly became ways to liberate the individual. In the process, they also became forces for social change. The varied activities of Beecher and his children illustrated both the diversity of the reform impulse and its growing radicalism.

Revivalism and the Social Order

The reform movements drew upon two intellectual developments: revivalism and romanticism. The Second Great Awakening represented the final repudiation of Calvinism and the doctrine of predestination. In their place, revivalists led by Charles Grandison Finney preached the doctrine of salvation available to all, if only sinners would exercise their free will and choose it. Spurred on by this optimistic message, revivalists eventually endorsed the ideals of perfectionism--that individuals and society could become perfect--and the belief in millennialism--the reign of a thousand years of peace on earth prophesied in the Bible. Finney also adopted "new measures" to convert sinners--measures that had first been developed in frontier camp meetings. Among the most important of these was the active inclusion of women in the revivals and church work. Independent black churches grew as well. Blacks established churches like the African Methodist Episcopal Church where they were free to worship without discrimination. Finney's revivals helped people adjust to the new market economy and the pressures they experienced in their daily lives by giving them the internal discipline necessary to succeed in the new competitive economy. The revivals strengthened the American belief in individualism and equality.

Women's Sphere

Women made up the greater number of converts at these revivals. Women's role in society increasingly centered on the home and the family--the ideal of domesticity. Denied employment opportunities and political rights, and often receiving little emotional support within their domestic circle, women turned to religion and reform as ways to shape society. They also reached out to other women, joining together in benevolent organizations, church socials and prayer meetings, in a common experience of "sisterhood." Industrialization and the market revolution created a new middle class that embraced the doctrine of privacy, separating the home and family from society. Middle-class families adopted new techniques to assure the success of their children, including reduced family size, greater education, and equal inheritance.

American Romanticism

Romanticism also stimulated the quest for perfectionism. An intellectual movement that began in Europe, romanticism emphasized the unlimited potential of each individual. Like the revivals, it viewed emotion as a source of truth. Romanticism stimulated the emergence of a distinct American literature that wrestled with questions about the source of truth and the clash between the individual and society. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the leading romantic thinker of the age. He called for a distinctive national literature and was a prominent Transcendentalist, an intensely individualistic philosophical movement that emphasized human dignity and the power of emotion. The romantic movement produced a number of major writers who explored, with uniquely American voices, some of the complexities and contradictions of American culture.

The Age of Reform

Some reformers turned to utopian communities to build a model society for the rest of the world to follow. Many of these communities, like the Shakers and the Oneida community, were based in religion; others, like the community at New Harmony, were secular and socialist in their orientation. All shared the belief in being able to perfect human character and remove evil from society. Other reformers turned to humanitarian movements that sought to save individuals by combating social evils, which they identified with sin. Movements like temperance, educational reform, and the establishment of asylums all gained significant support and typified the approach of perfecting society by reforming individuals.

Abolitionism

In the long run, the most important humanitarian reform movement of the period was abolitionism. William Lloyd Garrison, a Boston editor, laid the ideals and program of the abolitionist movement. Viewing slavery as the greatest sin in the Republic, abolitionists called for the immediate end to the institution, and championed rights for African-Americans. Other important leaders of the abolitionist movement included Lewis Tappan, James Birney, and Theodore Dwight Weld (Weld quickly clashed with Lyman Beecher when both were at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati). Free African-Americans in northern communities were always an important source of support for the movement. Abolitionism drew on the crusading idealism of the revivals and the ideals of millennialism and perfectionism. Yet abolitionism attacked powerful groups in American society and championed African-Americans in the face of a pervasive racism. In doing so, abolitionism precipitated strong and often violent opposition. Abolitionists always remained a small minority of northern society.

Abolitionism attracted considerable support from women who were active in church work. Eventually several prominent female abolitionists, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, launched the women's rights movement at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848. Drawing a parallel between the oppression of women and slaves in American society, they called for greater educational and employment opportunities for women, enhanced legal rights in marriage, and most controversially, the right to vote.

The women's rights movement reflected the growing internal divisions in the abolitionist movement. In 1840 the movement split into a radical wing, headed by Garrison, and a more conservative wing, led by Tappan, that sought to end slavery through the political process. The anti-Garrisonians founded the Liberty party, the first of several antislavery political parties that would take shape in the next two decades, and nominated James Birney for president.

Reform Shakes the Party System

Increasingly, reformers turned to political action. Advocates of temperance, antislavery, and women's rights all sought to achieve their goals by passing legislation. The passage of the first statewide prohibition law in Maine in 1851 prompted the drive to pass similar laws in other states. The intrusion of these moral questions increasingly disrupted the two national parties; antislavery especially made it difficult to preserve support in both sections of the country. Although the party system still functioned, it was seriously weakened by these reform movements, as the political upheaval of the early 1850s would demonstrate.

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