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The Second Great Awakening: A Period Of Reform

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To reform is to make changes in something, typically a social, political, or economic institution or practice in order to improve it. America has reformed itself in multiple ways throughout history. In the era surrounding the Second Great Awakening, America was undergoing a period of reform. This period of reformation included new and, at the time, radical ideas. Examples include: evangelists, tax-supported public education, and the advocation for women’s suffrage. Furthermore, the temperance movement, abolitionists, and transcendentalism were other examples of reform during this time. Evangelists, tax-supported public education, and the advocation for women’s suffrage were all examples of America’s reformation. An evangelist is a person …show more content…

The American Temperance Society was formed at Boston in 1826 and within a few years, about a thousand local groups existed. Temperance crusaders made effective use of pictures, pamphlets, and lecturers. The temperance movement reformed America in line with the other movements of the time. In fact, many of the same people were fighting for multiple causes. According to northern historians writing in the late nineteenth century, “Abolitionists were courageous men and women so devoted to uprooting the evil of slavery that they were willing to dedicate their lives to a cause that often ostracized them from their communities.” This quote shows how the people working to reform had to work at it full-time. The abolitionists working to abolish slavery, eventually had one of the greatest affects on the reformation of America. The reform of abolishing slavery was able to change the course of history. Transcendentalism, by definition, is the literary and intellectual movement that emphasized individualism and self-reliance, predicated upon a belief that each person possesses an “inner-light” that can point the way to truth and direct contact with God. This idea reformed America through its affect on the government. People involved with the transcendentalism reformed America through the spread of this new idea. The idea of self-reliance and individualism led to people living out on their own out and discovering how to survive, a change in society. America’s reformation during the period surrounding the Second Great Awakening involved the temperance movement, abolitionists, and

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The book American Reformers, 1815-1860 by Ronald G. Waters was originally published in 1978 by Hill and Wang publishing company. This book describes the reformation that took place in America, its affects, and what was necessary to get the word out about its ideas. The reformation was an important step in the development of the idea that the negative aspect of a nation’s society could be done away with through an individual’s endeavors. The first chapter of the book deals with how economics, transportation revolution, and politics played a part in the antebellum reformation. It explained how reformers felt about America’s immoral leaders and the laws that they thought would make Americans “behave.”

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Transcendentalism is a highly competitive world of the market revolution which strongly encouraged the identification of American freedom without any restraints on people who were seeking financial improvement and personal development. It was a world in which regional developments along with the market revolution crushed traditional and social borders. For example moving from one place to another was a common characteristic of the American life. Transcendentalism believed in individual judgment over existing social traditions and institutions.

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In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s reformers in the United States were trying different methods to advance the country. The reformers had different goals such as earning women suffrage and assisting the poor. The reformers had their methods to help bring about change in society. Reformers had different goals and methods to help change the society.

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The awakening prompted changes in the value of politics and daily life, which enabled America to

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Abolitionism was a well-known movement around the time of the Civil War and its aim was to put an end to slavery. The people of the early nineteenth century viewed the elimination of slavery in numerous ways. Some fought against the end of slavery, some appeared to mildly support the cause and yet others wholeheartedly supported the ending of slavery until their dying day. Charles Finney was a religious leader who promoted social reforms such as the abolition of slavery. He also fought for equality in education for women as well as for African Americans.

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Many transcendentalists were also important figures in fighting social reforms including women's suffrage, to some degree religious freedom, and abolition. Transcendentalism had a large impact on the growing abolition movement through transcendentalist beliefs spreading abolitionist ideas, and by many transcendentalists taking action against slavery. Transcendentalism helped greatly to spread the ideas of abolition across New England. At an address Ralph Waldo Emerson made on the anniversary of abolition of slavery in the British West Indies he talked about how in America everyone is promised equal rights, yet these slaves are denied these rights and are instead kept in horrible conditions. He speaks about how these conditions make him sick and that he believes everyone should get what they are promised (Document A).

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Cause and Effect Essay Although the Second Great Awakening was immediately caused by heightened religious fervor, and although it left the country with many Christian denominations, the acts of leaders such as Charles Finney had more influential causes, and reform movements had more powerful effects on the United States. The first spark of the Second Great Awakening was lit when President Thomas Jefferson, in the early 1800s, acknowledged the “wall of separation between church and state,” the budding republican ideal that politics and religion should not interlock. By coining this phrase, Jefferson was ridding the country of state-controlled established churches that expected loyalty from all citizens, thus paving the way for religious freedom. Also, Jefferson identified as a deist, which was a recent and nontraditional religious orientation that rejected divine revelation and focused on nature to reveal God’s scheme for the universe.

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To those living in British America in the 1700’s, religion was a central fixture of everyday life. One’s denomination was intrinsically tied up in one’s ethnic and social identity, and local churches in the mid-Atlantic depended upon the participation and donations of their parishioners to survive. However, as the 18th century progressed, poorer farmers and ministers across the diverse sects of colonial America came to resent the domination of church life by the upper class. In a parallel development, a split had grown between the rationalists, who were typically wealthy, educated and influential men who represented the status quo, and the evangelicals, who disdained the impersonal pretention of the rationalists and promoted a spiritual and

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Richard Kaplan also said, “the theological belief in the potential mutability, indeed perfectibility, of people also encouraged a reforming attitude toward social institutions. Humanity and earthly society were not inherently sinful and, thus, could and should be reformed.” With the new quantity of religious people, the belief that there should no longer be sinful or unjust things grew tremendously. With this belief, people began to believe that things that needed to be reformed, should be reformed. The Second Great Awakening sparked a nationwide wave of reform movements that had a huge impact on American society throughout the 19th century.

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In the wake of the second Great Awakening in the early 1800’s, societal morals regarding slavery, lack of rights for women, the prison system, education, and other institutions were questioned. Unitarianism stressed salvation through good works, and both religious converts and transcendentalists initiated social reform movements in an attempt to improve the moral state of America. Two of these movements that included perhaps the most controversy and struggle included abolitionism and women’s rights. Although both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements were able to eventually create lasting societal and political change, the fact that only a small portion of the population had any democratic rights showed the initial weaknesses of American democracy.

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Transcendentalists were Americans that believed everyone should be treated equally, so they began six major reform movements. There were many Transcendentalist movements, but the six most important reforms were the prison movement, women’s rights, anti-slavery, temperance, insane and education movement. The prison reform movement was started by the Transcendentalists because they felt that the system was wrong unfair and cruel. All prisoners suffered the same consequences regardless of his or her crime.

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The reformation is the action or process of the reforming of an institution or practice. “Martin Luther was a German theologian who brought on the Reformation by demanding changes in the Catholic Church” (Martin Luther). “Martin Luther was born in November 10, 1483. His parents were very strict and punished him very well” (Marthin Luther).

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Temperance movements in America are the campaigns and efforts targeted at the reduction of alcohol and then later, prohibition. These movements took part for the whole 1800s, with the eventual end of the movement with the 18th and 21st amendments. The increase in women's political activism and worries about the detrimental effects of alcohol on society, the economy, and health were two elements that fueled the temperance campaigns. In this essay, you can find a broad description of the temperance movements that took place in America. The discussion includes their origins, significant individuals involved, tactics, accomplishments, as well as their shortcomings

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The reformation and the effect it creates on the founding of America is surprisingly momentous. It started with Martin Luther during the early sixteenth

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The Second Great Awakening, beginning in about 1790, influenced a reform movement that encouraged mandatory, free, public education. In 1805, the New York Public School Society was created by wealthy businessmen and was intended to provide education for poor children. In 1817, a town meeting in Boston, Massachusetts called for establishment of free public primary schools. Many wage earners opposed this proposal. Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston, supported the idea that education should be a priority by saying, “(By) 1820, an English classical school is established, having for its object to enable the mercantile and mechanical classes to obtain an education adapted for those children whom their parents wished to qualify for active life, and thus

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