Unit 6: Reform Era
Term / DefinitionJoseph Smith / Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; believed an angel (Moroni) led him to a book of special stones that was a book of revelation, which he translated. He believed that Jesus had actually appeared in the New World and performed miracles. Mormonism is one of the few religions that originated in America. American Protestants believed Smith had undermined the scriptures of the Bible. Smith built a model city in Nauvoo, Illinois. Smith and his followers were persecuted for their beliefs, especially their practice of polygamy. Smith was killed by an angry mob.
Brigham Young / Took over when Joseph Smith was murdered. He led the Mormons into Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mormons / See Joseph Smith definition.
Utopia / Supported by the idea that there was the possibility of human perfection. Began to surface in 1820s, and flourished during the next few decades. Most utopian communities focused on offering alternatives to the selfish excesses of social and economic competitions..Communities, such as Modern Times on Long Island, North American Phalanx in New Jersey wee influenced by the ideas of Charles Fouirer who believed in the establishment of a society where workers could find “attractive labor”. In 1825, Robert Owen founded New Harmony in Indiana. He believed that society could be perfected and vice and misery would disappear. He believed that human character was formed by environment. Transcendentalists who sought to revitalize Christianity by proclaiming the infinite spiritual capacities of ordinary men and women created Brook Farm, near Boston. Believed that competitive commercial life of cities was unnatural, and sought to balance mental and manual labor. Attracted writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne. John Humphrey Noyes established Oneida, most controversial community, in 1848. He was a theological perfectionist. He advocated a form of Christian communism that challenged notions of religion and property, gender roles, child rearing. Practiced “complex marriage” where every member was married to every other member.
Unitarians / Criticized the revivalists of the Second Great Awakening; basic doctrine was that Jesus was a human model for the moral life-not divine; Emerged as a separate denomination in New England. Argued that moral goodness should be cultivated through a gradual process of character building in which believers modeled their behavior on that of Jesus. Shared the belief with revivalists that human behavior could be changed for the better. William Ellery Channing, a major Unitarian leader, influenced Dorothea Dix. He claimed that Christianity had one purpose: “the perfection of human nature, the elevation of men into nobler beings.”
Transcendentalists / A group of religious philosophers who sought to revitalize Christianity by proclaiming the infinite spiritual capacities of ordinary men and women. Writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau were transcendentalists.
Ralph Waldo Emerson / A transcendentalist writer; Self Reliance, Nature
Henry David Thoreau / A transcendentalist writer; Walden, Civil Disobedience
Second Great Awakening / Pushed a wave of reforms in the 1820s, 30s, and 40s, includes temperance, abolition, education, women’s rights, and utopian communities. Raised fundamental questions about the proper balance of order and freedom in American democracy.
Charles Grandison Finny / “Father of modern revivalism”; pioneer of cooperation among Protestant denominations. Introduced new devices for speeding conversions. Preached in New York; believed that religion and economic self-advancements were compatible as long as people were honest, temperate, and bound by conscience.
Horace Mann / Leader of education reform; created the Massachusetts Board of Education, believed in public education, extending the school year to 10 months, standardizing textbooks, grades-based education focused on age and achievement, and compulsory attendance.
Dorothea Dix / Reform for the mentally ill; visited jails and almshouses to study living conditions of the insane. Presented evidence of abuse to the state legislature. Massachusetts’s legislature responded by funding an expansion of the stat’s mental hospital. She traveled over the US to push for reform. By the Civil War, 28 states, 4 cities, and the federal government had built public mental institutions.
Temperance Movement / 1825, advocates pushed for moderation in comsuming alcohol. Lyman Beecher, however, condemned the use of alcoholic beverages. This led to the creation of the American Temperance Society. Promoted total abstinence. Membership was usually 1/3 to ½ women because of the ties of alcohol to domestic violence. The main strategy was to use “moral suasion” to persuade people to “take the pledge” againstalcohol. The targets of the movement were the laboring classes, primarily. Supporters of the movement were women, factory owners/industrial employers, some workers (following the Panic of 1837). Ultimately, the movement embraced legal prohibition.
Nat Turner / 1831, led a slave revolt in Virginia. This led to stricter laws regulating the lives of slaves.
William Lloyd Garrison / Abolitionist; founder of an abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator.
Frederick Douglas / Former slave; abolitionist; autobiography spoke out against slavery; his newspaper, The North Star, promoted abolition; public lecturer.
Sojourner Truth / Born into slavery in New York; became an abolitionist and women’s rights supporter; became an evangelical preacher;
Lucretia Mott / Abolitionist and women’s rights advocate;attended the World’s anti-Slavery Convention in London; organized the Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton / Women’s rights advocate; organized the Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights; help author the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments.
Seneca Falls Convention / 1848 women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. The convention’s Declaration of Rights and Sentiments was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. Promoted women’s suffrage.
Turnpike / Part of Henry Clay’s American system; national road
National Road / First road to be built entirely with federal funds. Completed by 1818 and stretched from Cumberland, Maryland to the Ohio River in Wheeling. Opened the Ohio River Valley and the Midwest to settlement and commerce.
Erie Canal / Part of the American System. Designed to open up trade between New York and the Midwest. Depended on state funding.
Industrial Revolution / Samuel Slater smuggled the plans for the factory system into America; industrialization focused on textiles and led to the development of the Lowell Mills and Waltham factory villages. Inventions such as Eli Whitney’s interchangeable parts led to the American System of Manufacturing.
Samuel Slater / Father of the factory system in America
Francis Cabot Lowell / Developed mill towns that focused on the textile industry; hired young farm women to work in the mills and live in the mill towns
Interchangeable parts / Invented by Eli Whitney; major impact on industrialization; allowed a greater reliance on machine work.
Eli Whitney / Interchangeable parts and cotton gin
Samuel F.B. Morse / Invented telegraph and Morse Code
Labor unions / Workers found the need to organize for higher wages, safety in the workplace, better working conditions, and shorter workweeks.
Nativist / Favored white, Anglo Saxon, Protestants; feared immigrants taking over jobs; groups such as the American Republican Party rose up; the Know Nothing Party (American Party) became a major political force in the 1850s.
Cotton gin / Invented by Eli Whitney to make the process of ginning cotton easier