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Guided Reading & Analysis: Society, Culture, and Reform 1820-1860

Chapter 11- Social Changes in Antebellum America pp 207-217
Reading Assignment:
Ch. 11 AMSCO or other resource for Period 4 content

Purpose:
This guide is not only a place to record notes as you read, but also to provide a place and structure for
reflections and analysis using higher level thinking skills with new knowledge gained from the reading.

Basic Directions:
1. Pre-Read: Read the prompts/questions within this guide before you read the chapter.
2. Skim: Flip through the chapter and note the titles and subtitles. Look at images and their read
captions. Get a feel for the content you are about to read.
3. Read/Analyze: Read the chapter. Remember, the goal is not to “fish” for a specific answer(s) to reading
guide questions, but to consider questions in order
to critically understand what you read!
4. Write Write your notes and analysis in the spaces provided.

(image captured from http://www.librarycompany.org)

Key Concepts FOR PERIOD 4:

Key Concept 4.1: The United States began to develop a modern democracy and celebrated a new national culture, while
Americans sought to define the nation’s democratic ideals and change their society and institutions to match them.
Key Concept 4.2: Innovations in technology, agriculture, and commerce powerfully accelerated the American economy,
precipitating profound changes to U.S. society and to national and regional identities.
Key Concept 4.3: The U.S. interest in increasing foreign trade and expanding its national borders shaped the nation’s foreign policy
and spurred government and private initiatives.

Section 1 Guided Reading, pp207-217

As you read the chapter, jot down your notes in the middle column. Consider your notes to be elaborations on the Objectives and Main Ideas presented in the left column. When you
finish the section, analyze what you read by answering the question in the right hand column.

1. Religion: The Second Great Awakening pp 207-208

Key Concepts &
Main Ideas Notes Analysis

Concurrent with an Read the first paragraph on page 207. List the four causes for the Antebellum Era How did the Second Great Awakening
increasing international reform movements. Highlight the cause that is most significant. illustrate the democratization of American
exchange of goods and society?
ideas, larger numbers of
Americans began 1. The Puritan sense of mission Preachers were audience
struggling with how to 2. The Enlightenment belief in human goodness centered and easily understood
match democratic political
ideals to political
3. The politics of Jacksonian democracy by the uneducated. They spoke
institutions and social 4. Changing relationships among men and women, among about the opportunity for
realities. social classes, and among ethnic groups. salvation to all
The Second Great
Awakening, liberal social
ideas from abroad, and
Romantic beliefs in human Religion: The Second Great Awakening…
perfectibility fostered the
rise of voluntary A series of religious revival. 1801. Spread religious philosophy of
organizations to promote salvation by good deeds and tolerance for protestant Sects.
religious and secular
Attracted women, blacks and Native Americans. Timothy Dwight
reforms, including
abolition and women’s reverend that helped initiate the second awakening
rights.

Religion Continued…
Are you using ink? Remember… no pencil!

Key Concepts &

Main Ideas Notes Analysis
Concurrent with an
Revivalism in New York… Compare and contrast Antebellum Era Church doctrines
increasing
international among Mormons, Baptists, Methodists to those of Colonial
exchange of goods and 1823.  a Presbyterian minister named Charles G. Era Congregational and Calvinist.
ideas, larger numbers Finney started a series of revivals in upstate New Mormon, Baptist, and Methodist doctrines
of Americans began
struggling with how to York. They had gatherings where preists would were more "religions of the common man"
match democratic yell at sinners and people would roll in the snow and appealed to people who had never
political ideals to and scream. He had people declare their revived belonged to a church. They were easier to
political institutions
faith. All free to be saved through faith and
and social realities.
hardwork. His influence was known as “burned
understand to the uneducated and drew
The Second Great over district”. more of a following.
Awakening, liberal
social ideas from
abroad, and Romantic
beliefs in human
perfectibility fostered
the rise of voluntary
Baptists and Methodists…
organizations to
promote religious and
secular reforms, Camp meetings. Circuit preachers would travel
including abolition from one location to another and attract thousand
and women’s rights. to hear their preaching at revivals. Converted non
While Americans church goers into members of the community. Explain the impact of this change in belief system on
celebrated their 1850 became the largest protestant denominations American identity.
nation’s progress in the country.
toward a unified new
national culture that social reform added to the American
blended Old World Identity and they were founded in America.
forms with New
World ideas, various They were added to the identity because
groups of the nation’s
Millennialism… they were something created separate
inhabitants developed
distinctive cultures of
from Europe.
their own much of religious enthusiasm of the time was
Various groups of based on the widespread belief that the world
American Indians, was about to end with the second coming of
women, and Christ; preacher William Miller gained tens of
religious followers
developed cultures thousands of followers by predicting a specific
reflecting their date when the second coming would occur (didn't
interests and
experiences, as did
happen-Millerites will become Seventh Day
regional groups and Adventists)
an emerging urban
middle class. Explain one way government reaction to the Mormon Church
contradicted the Antebellum Era trend of increased
Mormons… democratization.

By pushing away a religion, it goes

Church of latter- day saints against the freedom of religion the
government promises and contradicts
founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Smith based democratization because another group is
his religious thinking on a book of Scripture—the being persecuted.
Book of Mormon—which traced a connection
between the Native Americans and the lost tribes
of Israel. Smith gathered a following and moved
from New York State to Ohio, Missouri, and,
finally, Illinois. There, the Mormon founder was
murdered by a local mob. To escape persecution,
the Mormons under the leadership of Brigham
Young migrated to the far western frontier, where
they established the New Zion (as they called
their religious community) on the banks of the
Great Salt Lake in Utah. Their cooperative social
 organization helped the Mormons to prosper in
the wilderness. Their practice of polygamy
(allowing a man to have more tha one wife),
however, aroused the hostility of the U.S.
government.
Joseph Smith; Brigham Young
Religous leaders of the Mormons. Smith was the
founder, but was murdered by a local mob.
Young took over the leadership role and migrated
the Mormons to the far western frontier, settling in
Utah.
This was a religious community established by
the Mormons on the banks of the Great Salt Lake
in Utah.
New Zion

New religions = one result of SGA!

2. Culture: Ideas, the Arts, and Literature, pp 208-211

Key Concepts &

Main Ideas Notes Analysis
A new national
Culture: Ideas, the Arts, and Literature… How did Antebellum Era romanticism contrast with the culture
culture emerged,
of the Age of Reason in the previous Revolutionary Era?
with various
Americans creating
art, architecture, and Because romanticism emphasized
literature that The Transcendentalists… intuition, feelings, individual acts of
combined European
heroism, and the study of nature
forms with local and New England writers and reformers who questioned
regional cultural whereas the age of reason emphasized
established churches and capitalistic habits of the
sensibilities. balance, order, and reason.
merchant class; they challenged the materialism of
American society by suggesting artistic expression
was better than pursuit of wealth. They championed
mystical and intuitive ways of thinking - discovering
one's inner self and looking for the essence of God in
nature.
Culture: Ideas, the Arts, and Literature Continued…
Key Concepts
& Main Ideas
The Second Great
Awakening, liberal social
ideas from abroad, and
Romantic beliefs in human
perfectibility fostered the rise
of voluntary organizations to
promote religious and secular
reforms, including abolition
and women’s rights.
While Americans celebrated
their nation’s progress
toward a unified new
national culture that
blended Old World forms
with New World ideas,
various groups of the
nation’s inhabitants
developed distinctive
cultures of their own
A new national culture
emerged, with various
Americans creating art,
architecture, and literature
that combined European
forms with local and regional
cultural sensibilities.
Notes
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)…
The best-known transcendentalist, the most popular
American lecturers of the 19th century. His essays and
lectures expressed the individualistic mood of the period.
In an 1837 address at Harvard College ("The American Because transcendentalism
Scholar"), Emerson evoked the nationalistic spirit of
Americans by urging them not to imitate European
culture but to create an entirely new and original
American culture. His essays and poems argued for self- in nature, which goes against
reliance, independent thinking, and the primacy of
spiritual matters over material ones. As a northerner,
Emerson became a leading critic of slavery in the 1850s
and then an ardent supporter of the Union during the
Civil War.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)…
conducted a two-year experiment of living by himself in
the woods outside town. His writings from these years
were published in the book for which he is best known,
Walden (1854). Because of this book, Thoreau is
remembered today as a pioneer ecologist and
conservationist. Through his essay "On Civil
Disobedience," Thoreau established himself as an early
advocate of nonviolent protest. The philosopher's own
act of civil disobedience was to refuse to pay a tax that
might be used in an "immoral" war—the U.S. war with
Mexico
Brook Farm…
In 1841, George Ripley, a Protestant minister, launched
a communal experiment at Brook Farm in MA. His goal
was to achieve "a more natural union between
intellectual and manual labor." Living at Brook Farm at
different times were some of the leading intellectuals of
the period. Emerson went, as did Margaret Fuller, a
feminist (advocate of women's rights) writer and editor;
Theodore Parker, a theologian and radical reformer; and
Nathaniel Hawthorne, the novelist. A bad fire and heavy
debts forced the end of the experiment in 1849. But
Brook Farm was remembered for its atmosphere of
artistic creativity and an innovative school that attracted
the sons and daughters of New England's intellectual
elite.
Analysis
How did transcendentalism differ from the
mainstream American culture which was
centered on capitalism and Church
membership?
rejected materialism and the
pursuit of wealth, which contradicts
capitalism, and they look for God
traditional church doctrines
How did transcendentalists impact reform
movements?
Transcendentalists supported a
variety of reforms, especially
antislavery. Influential
transcendentalists like Henry
David Thoreau spoke out. For
example, Thoreau advocated for
nonviolent protest.
How did George Ripley combine religion and
transcendentalism?
George Ripley launched a
transcendentalist community that
appealed to the intellectual elite,
but he was also a protestant
minister, and the community
attracted many theologians.
How were Antebellum Era Utopian
experiments similar to the Colonial Era
Puritan settlers’ vision of Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay?
The sense of community and the
sense of sharing workload was the
same in both, but Utopian
societies had more emphasis on
harmony while the puritan settlers
didn't think that was the main
priority.
Culture: Ideas, the Arts, and Literature Continued…

Communal Experiments… UTOPIAS

Support, Refute, or Modify the assertion that
liberty and utopia cannot co-exist.
Shakers…
had about 6,000 members in various communities by the
1840s. Shakers held property in common and kept Liberty and Utopia cannot co-
women and men strictly separate (forbidding marriage exist. In a Utopian society,
and sexual relations). For lack of new recruits, the everything is controlled because
Shaker communities virtually died out by the mid-1900 in order for perfect peace, very
specific parameters must be in
place. This leaves no room for
liberty.
The Amana Colonies…

New Harmony…

This secular (nonreligious) experiment was intended to

provide the answer to the problems of inequity and
alienation caused by the Industrial Revolution; it failed for
financial reasons and arguments among community
members.

Oneida Community…
The secular (nonreligious) experiment in New Harmony,
Indiana, was the work of the Welsh industrialist and
reformer Robert Owen. Owen hoped his utopian socialist
community would provide an answer to the problems of
inequity and alienation caused by the Industrial
Revolution. The experiment failed, however, as a result
of both financial problems and disagreements among
members of the community.
After undergoing a religious conversion, John Humphrey
Noyes in 1848 started a cooperative community in
Oneida, New York, that became highly controversial.
Dedicated to an ideal of perfect social and economic
equality, members of the community shared property—
and later even shared marriage partners. Critics attacked
the Oneida system of planned reproduction and
communal child-rearing as a sinful experiment in "free
love." Even so, the community managed to prosper
economically by producing and selling silverware of
excellent quality

Fourier Phalanxes…

In the 1840s, many Americans, including the newspaper

editor Horace Greeley, became interested in the theories
of the French socialist Charles Fourier. To solve the
problems of a fiercely competitive society, Fourier
advocated that people share work and living
Culture: Ideas, the Arts, and Literature Continued…
arrangements in communities popularly known as
Fourier Phalanxes. This movement died out, however,
almost as quickly as it appeared. Americans proved too
individualistic to adapt to communal living

“Equality, as understood by the American Founders, is the natural right of every

individual to live freely under self-government, to acquire and retain the property
he creates through his own labor, and to be treated impartially before a just law.
Moreover, equality should not be confused with perfection, for man is also
imperfect, making his application of equality, even in the most just society,
imperfect…” Mark R. Levin, 2012
Key Concepts &
Main Ideas Notes

Arts and Literature …

A new national
culture emerged, Painting…
with various
Americans
creating art, Genre painting (portraying the everyday life of ordinary people) became the vogue of artists in the 1830s.
architecture, and
literature that
George Caleb Bingham, for example, depicted the common people in various settings: riding riverboats,
combined voting on election day, and carrying out domestic chores
European forms
with local and
regional cultural Architecture…
sensibilities.
Hudson River School
Frederick Church
Thomas Cole
Literature…

Washington Irving
James Fenimore Cooper
Nathaniel Hawthorne

3. Reforming Society, pp 212-217

Key Concepts
& Main Ideas Notes Analysis
The Second Great
Awakening, Reforming Society… Explain how temperance inflamed nativism.
liberal social ideas Because the groups who were against
from abroad, and temperance were immigrants. Nativist
Romantic beliefs sentiments got stronger as the
in human temperance movement gained
perfectibility
Temperance…
fostered the rise of
momentum.
voluntary
organizations to
promote religious
and secular
reforms,
including
abolition and
women’s rights.

Movement for Public Asylums…

Were goals of prison reform consistent with the
goals of utopias? Explain your reasoning.
They aimed to reduce prisoner
suicides and to make prison life more
humane. A perfect society would have
Mental Hospitals… more moral prisons (utopias).

Schools for Blind and Deaf Persons…

Prisons…
Reforming Society Continued…
Key Concepts &
Main Ideas Notes Analysis

Public Education… To what extent did Antebellum Era reformers

successfully “make the world a better place?”
Made the world better for example, a better
A new national
education system. Many of these reforms
culture emerged,
with various didn't apply to minority groups.
Americans creating
art, architecture, and Free Common Schools…
literature that
combined European
forms with local and
regional cultural
sensibilities. Moral Education…

Explain how Horace Mann’s work reflects ongoing

impact of Puritan culture and beliefs.
The Second Great Higher Education… It reflected that education was one of the most
Awakening, liberal powerful tools and that it was important for all
social ideas from
abroad, and children to be educated.
Romantic beliefs in
human perfectibility
fostered the rise of
voluntary
organizations to
promote religious
and secular reforms,
Changes in Families and Roles for Women…
including abolition
Explain how industrialization in some areas impacted
and women’s rights.
the way of life for some women.
gave women a bigger role in the household
because husbands were home less because of
factory jobs.

Cult of Domesticity…

To what extent was the Antebellum Era’s Cult of

Women’s Rights… Domesticity different from Revolutionary Era’s
Republican Motherhood? Explain clearly?

In the cult of domesticity, women who

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)…
remained at home and took charge of the
household and children. women had the job of
raising their children, but she was still
subservient to her husband in the household
this would be an example of Republican
motherhood.

Antislavery Movement…
To what extent was the Seneca Falls Convention a
turning point in United States history?

It set a precedent for women's rights

conversations. It also forwarded the
women's rights efforts. nothing came from
the convention because of the issue was it
was overshadowed by the crisis of slavery in
the 1850s.
Reforming Society Continued…

Key Concepts &

Main Ideas Notes Analysis

The Second Great American Colonization Society… Why did the American Colonization Society fail to solve
Awakening, liberal the slavery “problem?”
social ideas from
abroad, and Romantic Because not very many African Americans
beliefs in human went to the colony, because they identified as
perfectibility fostered Americans and didn't want to leave the only
the rise of voluntary home they knew.
organizations to
promote religious and
secular reforms, American Antislavery Society…
including abolition
and women’s rights.
Compare William Lloyd Garrison’s work as an
abolitionist to that of Nat Turner.
both radical abolitionists, but Nat Turner
advocated for a violent approach and Garrison
didn't.
Liberty Party…

Why was Garrison deemed “radical?”

he wanted immediate abolition with no
compensation for slave owners.

Black Abolitionists…

What other Third Parties emerged in the Antebellum

Era? (see page 7 of the chapter 10 reading guide)

1. Anti-Masonic Party

Violent Abolitionism… 2. Free Soil Party

3. American PArty

4. Liberty Party

How did the Liberty Party differ from the other four?
Founded on the principle of abolition
Other Reforms…

American Peace Society:

Compare the efforts of Frederick Douglass and Harriet
New Laws: Tubman to those of David Walker and Henry Highland
Garnet.
Dietary Reforms: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman took
a more peaceful approach to abolition and
Dress Reform: David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet
didn’t take a peaceful approach.
Phrenology:

Support, Refute or Modify the assertion that violent

Southern Reaction to Reform…
abolitionists did not succeed in helping to increase
equality in the United States. Explain your reasoning.
Violent abolitionists didn't succeed in helping
achieve equality because often their revolts
ended up with the tightening of southern
slave codes.
 4. Historical Perspectives: What Motivated Reformers?

Viewpoint: Motivated by Humanitarian Concerns Viewpoint: Motivated by Desire of Upper and Middle Class Citizens
Freedom’s Ferment (1944) to Increase Conformity and Control the Masses

Temperance was a humanitarian effort because… Temperance was an effort to control the masses because…

Prison Reform was a humanitarian effort because… Prison Reform was an effort to control the masses because…

Public Schools were a humanitarian effort because… Prison Reform was an effort to control the masses because…

Reform for the treatment of the mentally ill was a humanitarian effort Reform for the treatment of the mentally ill was an effort to control the
because… masses because…

What do you think? Were the reformers genuinely concerned about improving the welfare and happiness of others or were they more motivated by creating
conformity and control of the masses?

Modern Day reforms include government programs to provide health care services such as the Affordable Care Act (aka: Obamacare) as well as new policies
and laws aimed at either providing humanitarian aid or control of the masses. How do you judge each of these efforts?
Government welfare programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Women-Infants-Children, etc.
Laws limiting student access to soda, sugar, and fried foods or cities banning large size fast food and sodas.

What other reforms or policies impact modern day Americans that could be judges as either humanitarian or control?

Write one or two complete sentences contextualizing Antebellum Era reform efforts and comparing it to modern day reform.
Remember when you contextualize, consider local, broad, and other context.

Reading Guide written by Rebecca Richardson, Allen High School

Sources include but are not limited to: 2015 edition of AMSCO’s United States History Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination, College
Board Advanced Placement United States History Framework and other sources as cited in document and collected/adapted over 20 years of teaching and collaborating.