Summary Of A Shopkeeper's Millennium

The book A Shopkeeper’s Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 touches upon many of the social, political, religious and economical changes that occurred in Rochester, New York from1815 to 1837.The author Paul E. Johnson, organizes the data collected into sections to help the reader better understand certain aspects of the different stages of the revival. He starts the book off with a man named Charles Finney traveling down the Erie Canal to the town of Rochester, NY. The Erie Canal places Rochester, NY in the center of the trade markets, which in turn pushes the town’s craftsmen to develop a new style of business. This new form of business is one of starting points of the revival as the change is business led to

At this point in time employers are in no way providing alcohol for their employees, but instead are supplying them with Bibles. Politicians are petitioning to stop mail and locks on Sundays, showing the strong influence religion has on politics at this point. Religion is also a driving force in personal and work relationships. Women converted their husbands into joining the church, because the converted bore the weight of the non-converted on their shoulders, to the point where some died. Shopkeepers also tried to convert their workers, they changed their standards of hiring, and promised better wages to those who went to church and were temperate.
There is one particular part of the book, that stands out and should be looked a little closer, as it contains key information and questions on understanding the revival. Chapter Two is called “Society” and it focuses on four main points that all return back to an overarching question. How did the higher level merchant and master-craftsman class lose dominance over the working class society and how does that factor into the revival? By looking at the individual data for each point Johnson presents, the answer to this question can be

Between 1827-1834 business owners begin to move into homes that are separate from their businesses. This was often in the center of town, not too far away from the business they owned. The working class followed suit however they ended up more spread out across the town. The working class neighborhoods stretch from the outskirts of the town, to the edge of the middle class neighborhoods, where they may share a street. The final point is the society of drinking, which was the base cause of all problems in the eyes of the middle class revivalists. The middle class started attributing problems in their neighborhoods and with their employees to drinking. The employers began to stop serving alcohol to their employees, and started demanding more from them. This was matched with drinking at home and sneaking it into the work day. Drinking also led to an increase in violence including times when police officers were killed, trying to apprehend intoxicated persons off the