Rizwan Alam

Period 0

A.P.U.S.History

The Ferment of Reform and Culture

A. Reviving Religion

Background: Attending the church was a regular ritual for more then seventy five percent

of twenty-three people living in 1850. Even though majority of the people were Deist and

were influenced by Christianity or any other belief, they were moving away from

revelation and towards reasoning and science.

1. The severe Puritans believing the idea of a supreme being that created everything

helped inspire the Unitarian faith in New England during the end of 18nth century. Their

simple belief was that they believed that God was their father, and will beat them down

hard if they don’t perform the right way shown by their father.

2. Liberalism in religion started in 1800 spawned the second Great Awakening; even

more people then before.

3.This made many changes in America such as, church reform, women’s rights and

crusade to abolish slavery.

4. The second Great Awakening was spread to the masses as its meeting gathered more

then twenty-five thousand men and women, and their basic goal is to get everyone a

belief.

5. A muscular Christianity was presented by Peter Cartwright, who eventually turned

many starved souls towards a lord. He also had to battle through other people and ideas

other people were trying to present, or whoever tried interrupting his meetings.
Importance: Not long before people had no gatherings and weren’t thinking of religion or

beliefs, but were hunting and looking for a meal. This tells how strong America had

gotten, that now it had so many qualities that people had enough time to worry of other

problems. The solution to problems is due to a majority of votes, when majority unites

more ideas start to build up and the more ideas the more competition, and competition is

necessary for the succession of every country.

B. Denominational Diversity

Background: Most of the descendants of New England puritans settled in the Western

New York became so blistered to hear the change and it came to be known as “ Burned-

Over District”.

1. Millerites in their meetings interrupted the Bible by predicted the return of Christ on

October 22, 1844.

2. Similar to the First Great Awakening, the second one widened the lines and

understanding between classes and regions.

3. In 1857 the Presbyterians, North and South parted company. The succession of the

Southern churches reflected the succession of Southern states. First the churches split,

then the political parties split, then the Union split.

Importance: These events of hatred towards its own people brings more gap between the

states. The hatred toward fellow people probably led to slower transportation, not as

much communication, gathering, and every other way of uniting might have been slowed

because everyone believed that their religion is the most importance and should be the

lead religion of America. there is always a conflict when the opinions clash, whether it is

a war or a debates, but as we all know this would most likely lead to America’s only civil
war. This could extremely cause a punch in America’s economy for many reasons, some

could be just stupid enough to just leave everything on God and not do anything to feed

themselves and their families, the transportation could be slowed which would harm the

whole nation because each part attracts the other. Some leaders of the religions, in trying

to make it popular, could motivate people to look at the littlest problems between states,

such as the way of transportation, and to choose one between railroad and canals.

C: A desert Zion in Utah

Background: The competition between the religions continued as the religions kept on

reforming or the creating and spreading it. Joseph Smith, in 1830, reported that he had

received some golden plates from an angel. After this even the Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-Day Saints was released, and once again the motivating people towards this new

religion began. Which would eventually lead to clashing of ideas with the other well

established religions or beliefs.

1. Antagonism towards Mormons emerged due to their polygamy, drilling militia, and

voting as a unit.

2. Hostilities drove Mormons to a point where there leader and his brother were both

murdered in 1844.

3. After his death a remarkable Mormon Moses named Brigham Young became the savior

of his religion and led its followers into Utah. Their religion soon became one of the most

famous and one of the largest and established one by the fast birthrate and the migration

from Europe.

4. A federal army launched an attack on the Morons because they harassed their lines.

Fortunately it was talked out before serious bloodshed.

5. The antipoligamy laws passed by congress in 1862 and 1882 delayed Utah’s entrance

into the United States until 1896.

Importance: This is just another example of small conflicts between the states. This also

is another reason that sets the stage up for the civil war.

D. Free Schools for a free people

Background: Tax-supported public schools only provided education for the poor.

1. Tax- supported public education triumphed between 1825-1850.

2. Schools often were very poorly organized and mostly overcrowded, creating an

uncomfortable sight for parents and environment for kids.

3. Teachers were mostly ill trained, ill tempered, and ill paid. They usually are just

concerned on reading, riting, and arithmetic, known as the three R’s.

4. Horace Mann became the light of American Education, He was a graduate of Brown

University and held a respected position of secretary in Massachusetts Board of

Education. There were little improvements made in education due to Mann actively

demanding for better school houses, longer school terms, and higher wages for the

respected job of teachers.

5. Noah Webster a Yale-educated Connecticut Yankee, contributed significantly towards

the improvement in education, by making much more improved textbooks, the unique

reading lessons, and his popular dictionary published in 1828.

6. Ohioan William H. McGuffey made text to teach morality, patriotism, and idealism.

Importance: Education is the most important aspect of a Republic nation. This would

make people improve their goals, and the more they improve their goals the more

energetic America gets because of all the new ideas and from that what will be delivered
is new technologies. They would learn literature, and language and the way to approach

someone without violence and how to have an impact on your speech.

E. Higher Goals for Higher Learning

Background: After the Great Awakening some of the region and societies build up

colleges for the sake of pride rather than learning. Most of these school’s curriculum was

to focus on Greek, Latin, Math, and moral philosophy.

1. The first ever University in United States was found in North Carolina in 1795, then

shortly afterwards Jefferson started University of Virginia in 1819. It was based on all of

Jefferson’s ideas, his architecture, and he made it known that the university was free from

religious or political shackles.

2. Because at that time women’s position was believed to be in home, or working the

needle and the sewing machine. They had to be excluded from schools if they seemed to

be getting too smart then a normal women should get.

3. In 1821 Emma Willard established the Troy seminary to give women’s education some

studies. Oberlin College in Ohio opened its arms to women in 1837. In the same year

Mary Lyon established a well organized school for women.

4. Libraries, public lectures, and magazines all were flourishing and feeding the

knowledge hungry men and women.

Importance: This is a huge step forward for a young nation. Now America has some well

organized programs that offered higher education not only to men but for women and

Blacks. They also have extra ways to get help in their education and magazine business is

starting to show up. This is really astonishingly amazing to me that a young nation like

America at that time starting a business of magazines. Majority of people, or at least one
person in the family, could do the three R’s.

F. An Age of Reform

Background: Some of these new reforms were just revelations but most were in fact

reasonable, most still came from religion, such as opposing of tobacco, alcohol, profanity,

discrimination, brutality, rape, wars, slavery, and came out for women’s rights. It also

gave the women hope to get out of a squared home to the outside affairs.

1. From ignoring factory problems to reducing punishment of criminals, and no

imprisonment for debts.

2. Doretha Dix wanted to eliminate the fact that the people to this day treated special or

mental disordered people with cruelty.

3. In 1828 the American Peace Society was formed, as the civil war was soon to hit

America. William Ladd had some impact until Civil War and Crimean War.

Importance: These are some ideas being put on test. Doretha Dix not knowingly was

observing the mentally disordered and that is a contribution itself to a new study that will

be introduced later in the nineteenth century called Psychology. These events also proves

that America is a very strong nation because it went through all of these ideas without any

breakout violence or depression.

G. Demon Rum__ The “Old Deluder

Background: Drunkenness, even among the women and respected men in the congress,

was widespread and it became the hardest challenge the reformers had to face. Alcohol

caused many accidents while working the machines, and decreased the efficiency of the

labor in industries.

1. In 1826 American Temperance Society was formed at Boston. Local groups soon
implored drinkers to sign the temperance and organize children’s clubs to make them

understand the consequences of drinking.

2. In 1854 T.S Arthur came up with the novel named “ Ten Nights in a Barroom and What

I Saw There.”

3. Foes of Demon Drinks adopted to stress temperance and temptation should be removed

by the legislation.

4. Maine Law of 1851 prohibited the making and sale of others was followed by a dozen

more states by 1857.

Importance: This would awake and make the people more cautious and eventually lead to

less accidents and unfortunate events, but I think this law would hit America’s economy

because it was a very popular among everyone and now when people get educated about

it they would think at least twice before even touching it.

H. Women in Revolt

Background: When the nineteenth century opened, women still didn’t had any rights,

both in America and Europe. They were nothing but housewives, even though America

promoted democracy, they still were unable to vote, and men could legally beat her

women, and her property before marriage was turned to her husband afterwards. In my

words even after the shades of Democracy, they were still in very uncomfortable

environment.

1. Even under these circumstances, they still fared better then the Europeans. An example

of which is, the weigh of punishment of a Rape.

2. The Women’s rights movement was led by many established and well performed

women in society. Their leaders were Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony (Suzy Bs),
Elizabeth Candy

Stanton, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (1st female medical graduate), Margaret Fuller, the

Grimke sisters (anti-slavery advocates), and Amelia Bloomer (semi-short skirts).

3. These leaders met at Seneca Falls, New York, in a Women’s Rights Convention of

1848. They came up with the “ Declaration of Sentiments”, and demanded the rights and

freedom the men had by pointing out the phrase, “ all men and women are created equal.”

Importance: These protests could lead the women to actually getting more freedom and

they could contribute to the idea of free slaves, because they have presented the phrase, “

all men and women are created equal”.

I. Wilderness Utopias

Background: Various reformers gathered and set up more then forty communities for the

betterment of humans.

1. Robert Owen founded a communal society of more then a thousand people in New

Harmony, Indiana. Its goals were to reform for the betterment but soon got confused

when they couldn’t perform their ideas.

2. Brook Farm founded another in Massachusetts, where twenty intellectual committed to

transcendentalism in 1841, but collapsed due to confusion and debts.

3. Oneida community was found at New York in 1848. This one was more radical and

practiced love, birth control, and eugenic selection of parents to produce superior

offspring. This community lasted about thirty years because its artisans made superior

steel traps.

4. Shakers were the longest-lived sects, led by Ann Lee, started in 1770 to 1940, because
their monastic customs were against both marriage and sexual relationships.

Importance: It shows their were many communities for the betterment of American

people and it also shows that even with so many protests and competition between ideas,

Democracy was working fine.

J. The Dawn of Scientific Achievement

Background: Early Americans were interested in practical science rather than pure. For

example, Thomas Jefferson won a gold medal on designing the new plow, Nathaniel

Bowditch studied practical navigation, and Mathew Maury was interested in ocean winds

and currents.

1. Thw four most influential United States scientist of the first half of nineteenth century

were Benjamin Silliman, a pioneer chemist and geologist and taught brilliantly at Yale,

Louis Agassiz, served at Harvard; insisted original research, Asa Gray of Harvard,

published more then 350 books, monographs, and papers for clarity and interest, John

Audubon, painted birds with exact details.

2. Medicine in America was primitive compared to its neighbors in Europe. Even with

modernization life was still not a guarantee, people everywhere were ill with different

diseases, but not many surgeons and doctors were available to assist the patients.

3. Self-prescribed patent medicines were common, they were usually were mostly alcohol

and often as harmful as helpful.

Importance: The disease cannot be overlooked, they must find cures or the diseases

would eventually spread and life would become a fear to live just like in many states of

Europe.

K. Artistic Achievements
Background: The rustic republic couldn’t think of their own ideas and kept copying

European artistic models. One highlighted person that contributed little to American

architecture was the talented Thomas Jefferson, who made one of the finest hilltop homes

and the University of Virginia.

1. Art of painting couldn’t work because no one in America had enough time or weren’t

wealthy enough to buy portraits.

2. Creative art like theater couldn’t survive thank to the puritan’s belief of , painting as

sinful waste of time and obscene.

3. During the nationalism upsurge after War of 1812, U.S. painters portrayed human

landscapes and Romanticism

4. Music was also shunned by the puritans thinking of it as “darky” tunes.

Importance: The Puritans had so much effect that even if people knew that they could

achieve some flavor to their lives with art, they refused because it was found unreligious

to Puritans.

L. The Blossoming of a National Literature

Background: America didn’t had its own identity when it came to books. They always

had been plagiarizing stories from the Great Britain.

1. American literature received a significant boost following the war of independence and

especially after the war of 1812.

2. The knickerbockers of new York were the heart and soul of American Literature during

the 1820’s.

3. New York born Washington Irving was recognized as the international literary figure.

In 1809 he published,” Knickerbockers History of New York” and later on he wrote the
Sketch Book, which immediately brought him fame .

Importance: America was still a very young nation, but still had started on its own

literature. People will have another thing that they will be able to major in and that will

be the cause of more colleges being built, which will result in more exploration and the

more educated the more republic America gets, and Republicanization is the most

important part of United States.