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Chapter 12

Religion, Romanticism, and Cultural Reform: 1820–1860

Book Version 23
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Boundless U.S. History
U.S. History
by Boundless
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Section 1
The Age of Cultural Reforms
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Movements and Reforms

Transcendentalism was among the more radical social philosophies of the nineteenth century.

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Women's Rights

Women's rights in the nineteenth century focused primarily on women's suffrage, or the right to vote.

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Abolitionists and the American Ideal

The abolitionist movement intensified in the first half of the nineteenth century, and tensions between the North and the South continued to rise.

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The Temperance Movement

The temperance movement of the early nineteenth century advocated for alcohol moderation or complete abstinence from alcohol.

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Prisons and Asylums

In the nineteenth century, a series of important social movements sought to reform both prisons and asylums in the United States.

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Utopian Communities

After the Second Great Awakening, many religious groups formed utopian communities in which they attempted to live governed by their creeds.

Section 2
The Second Great Awakening
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The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements.

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Unitarianism and Universalism

Unitarianism and Universalism were early Christian denominations that spread quickly during the nineteenth century.

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Women and Church Governance

Women constituted the majority of converts and participants in the Second Great Awakening and played an important informal role in religious revivals.

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Frontier Revivals

In the new frontier regions, the revivals of the Second Great Awakening took the form of vast and exhilarating camp meetings.

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Charles Finney and the Burned-Over District

The "Burned-Over District" in central and western New York was so named due to the rampant religious revivals of the nineteenth century.

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The Mormons

Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint religious and cultural movement, emerged in the 1800s in upstate New York.

Section 3
The Emergence of "American" Literature
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The Emergence of "American" Literature

The mid-nineteenth century often has been considered an "American Renaissance" due to the number and quality of literary works produced.

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Romanticism in America

American Romanticism emphasized emotion, individualism, and personality over rationalism and the constraints of religion.

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Newspapers

During the middle of the nineteenth century, newspapers went from serving as mouthpieces of political parties to addressing broader public interests.

Section 4
Educational Reforms
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Educational Reforms

Horace Mann championed education reform that helped to expand state-sponsored public education in the 1800s.

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Early Public Schools

Early public schools in the United States took the form of "common schools," which were meant to serve individuals of all social classes and religions.

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Higher Education

During the nineteenth century, many small colleges helped young men make the transition from rural farms to complex urban occupations.

Section 5
Immigration
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Immigration to the United States

The pace of immigration accelerated in the 1840s and 1850s, as people from Europe sought land, freedom, opportunity, and jobs in the United States. 

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Irish Immigration

A second wave of Irish Catholic immigration began in the 1840s following the potato famine in Ireland.

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German Immigration

Between 1820 and World War I, many German political refugees came to America following a series of German revolutions.

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Nativism

Nativism was an anti-immigration movement that favored those descended from the inhabitants of the original thirteen colonies.

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Immigrant Labor

Many of the economic gains in the United States during the nineteenth century were made possible by immigrant labor.

Section 6
Conclusion: A Maturing Society
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Conclusion: A Maturing Society

Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States underwent vast cultural, religious, and demographic transformations.

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The Market Revolution: 1815–1840
  • The Market Revolution
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Chapter 12
Religion, Romanticism, and Cultural Reform: 1820–1860
  • The Age of Cultural Reforms
  • The Second Great Awakening
  • The Emergence of "American" Literature
  • Educational Reforms
  • Immigration
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The Westward Movement and Manifest Destiny: 1812–1860
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