Chapter 15 - The Ferment of Reform and Culture, 1790-1860

Question 1

Second Great Awakening

Answer 1

A Christian religious revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States, which expressed every person could be saved through revivals. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform movements designed to remedy the evils of society before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Question 2

Transcendentalists

Answer 2

Believed in Transcendentalism, they included Emerson (who pioneered the movement) and Thoreau. Many of them formed cooperative communities such as Brook Farm and Fruitlands, in which they lived and farmed together with the philosophy as their guide. “They sympathize with each other in the hope that the future will not always be as the past.” It was more literary than practical - Brook Farm lasted only from 1841 to 1847.

Question 3

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Answer 3

American lecturer, essayist and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

Question 4

Henry David Thoreau

Answer 4

He was a poet, a mystic, a transcendentalist, a nonconformist, and a close friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson who lived from 1817-1862. He condemned government for supporting slavery and was jailed when he refused to pay his Mass. poll tax. He is well known for his novel about the two years of simple living he spent on the edge of Walden Pond called “Walden” , Or Life in the Woods. This novel furthered many idealistic thoughts. He was a great transcendentalist writer who not only wrote many great things, but who also encouraged, by his writings, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Question 5

Utopia

Answer 5

an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.

Question 6

Brook Farm

Answer 6

An experiment in Utopian socialism, it lasted for six years (1841-1847) in New Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Question 7

New Harmony

Answer 7

A utopian settlement in Indiana lasting from 1825 to 1827. It had 1,000 settlers, but a lack of authority caused it to break up.

Question 8

Oneida Community

Answer 8

A group of socio-religious perfectionists who lived in New York. Practiced polygamy, communal property, and communal raising of children.

Question 9

Temperance Crusade/ American Temperance Society

Answer 9

An organization group in which reformers are trying to help the ever present drink problem. This group was formed in Boston in 1826, and it was the first well-organized group created to deal with the problems drunkards had on societies well being, and the possible well-being of the individuals that are heavily influenced by alcohol.

Question 10

Seneca Falls Convention

Answer 10

July, 1848 - Site of the first modern women’s right convention. At the gathering, Elizabeth Cady Stanton read a Declaration of Sentiment listing the many discriminations against women, and adopted eleven resolutions, one of which called for women’s suffrage.

Question 11

American Colonization Society

Answer 11

Founded in Liberia 1816 by Robert Finley. The founding purpose of the society was to assist freed Southern American slaves to emigrate to Liberia, in an effort to remove them from the United States.

Question 12

Hudson River School

Answer 12

In about 1825, a group of American painters, led by Thomas Cole, used their talents to do landscapes, which were not highly regarded. They painted many scenes of New York’s Hudson River. Mystical overtones.

Question 13

The Age of Reason

Answer 13

Written by Thomas Paine. The Age of Reason was published in three parts between 1794 and 1807. A critique of organized religion, the book was criticized as a defense of Atheism. Paine’s argument is a prime example of the rationalist approach to religion inspired by Enlightenment ideals.

Question 14

Deism

Answer 14

The religion of the Enlightenment (1700s). Followers believed that God existed and had created the world, but that afterwards He left it to run by its own natural laws. Denied that God communicated to man or in any way influenced his life.

Question 15

Unitarians

Answer 15

A religious cult constructed in New England at the end of the eighteenth century and believed God existed in only one person and not in the holy trinity. They focused more on the essential goodness of human nature rather than its vileness and pictured God as a loving father. The Unitarians were comprised of mostly the upper class and their contradicting beliefs began a reaction of revivals known as the Second Great Awakening.

Question 16

Camp Meetings

Answer 16

ead the Second Great Awakening to the frontier. As many as 25,000 people would gather for an encampment of several days to drink the hell-fire gospel as served up by an itinerant preacher. Sometimes frenzies of rolling, dancing, barking, and jerking. Revivals boosted church membership and stimulated a variety of humanitarian reforms.

Question 17

Charles Grandison Finney

Answer 17

Known as the “father of modern revivalism,” he was a pioneer of cooperation among Protestant denominations. He believed that conversions were human creations instead of the divine works of God, and that people’s destinies were in their own hands. His “Social Gospel” offered salvation to all

Question 18

Burned-Over-District

Answer 18

Term applied to the region of western New York along the Erie Canal, and refers to the religious fervor of its inhabitants. In the 1800’s, farmers there were susceptible to revivalist and tent rallies by the pentecostals (religious groups).

Question 19

Millerites (Adventists)

Answer 19

(Adventists) Predicted Christ’s return on October 22, 1844. When this prophecy failed to materialize, the movement lost credibility.

Question 20

Joseph Smith

Answer 20

Reported to being visited by an angel and given golden plates in 1840; the plates, when deciphered, brought about the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Book of Mormon; he ran into opposition from Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri when he attempted to spread the Mormon beliefs; he was killed by those who opposed him.

Question 21

Book of Mormon

Answer 21

The sacred texts of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is regarded by Latter Day Saints as divinely revealed and is named after the prophet-historian Mormon who, according to the text, compiled most of the book. It was published by the founder of the LDS movement, Joseph Smith, who said the book was a translation of golden plates that only made possible by god and the angel Moroni.

Question 22

Brigham Young

Answer 22

A Mormon leader that led his oppressed followers to Utah in 1846. Under Young’s management, his Mormon community became a prosperous frontier theocracy and a cooperative commonwealth. He became the territorial governor in 1850. Unable to control the hierarchy of Young, Washington sent a federal army in 1857 against the harassing Mormons.

Question 23

Three R’s

Answer 23

Readin’, Ritin’, and ‘Rithmetic. The basics of what was taught in American schoolhouses.

Question 24

Horace Mann

Answer 24

Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, he was a prominent proponent of public school reform, and set the standard for public schools throughout the nation.

Question 25

Noah Webster

Answer 25

Born in Connecticut. Educated at Yale. Lived 1758-1843. Called “Schoolmaster of the Republic.” Wrote reading primers and texts for school use. He was most famous for his dictionary, first published in 1828, which standardized the English language in America.

Question 26

McGuffey’s Readers

Answer 26

Nearly every schoolchild read from, also had contained both English lessons as well as patriotic and moral lessons

Question 27

University of Virginia

Answer 27

University in Virginia started by Thomas Jefferson who lived nearby and designed some of the architecture of the University.

Question 28

Oberlin College

Answer 28

Evangelical college in Ohio that was the first institution of higher education to admit Blacks and women.

Question 29

Mary Lyon

Answer 29

Established Mount Holyoke Seminary

Question 30

Lyceum

Answer 30

Public lecture hall that hosted speakers on topics ranging from science to moral philosophy. Part of a broader flourishing of higher education the mid-ninteenth century.

Question 31

Sylvester Graham

Answer 31

American clergyman whose advocacy of health regimen emphasizing temperance and vegetarianism found lasting recognition in graham cracker

Question 32

Penitentiaries

Answer 32

Pennsylvania, new prisons taking place of crude jails, experimented with placing prisoners in solitary confinement to repent and reflect

Question 33

Dorothea Dix

Answer 33

A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820’s, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S. and Canada. She succeeded in persuading many states to assume responsibility for the care of the mentally ill. She served as the Superintendant of Nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War.

Question 34

Neil S. Dow

Answer 34

the mayor of Portland, Maine who, in 1851, sponsored a law that helped earn his nickname “Father of Prohibition.”

Question 35

Maine Law of 1851

Answer 35

prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol. A dozen other states followed Maine’s lead, though most statutes proved ineffective and were repealed within the decade

Question 36

Spinsters

Answer 36

Widows and unmarried women who spun for a living often recruited into a family enterprise by the wife of the family.

Question 37

Cult of Domesticity

Answer 37

According to the Cult of Domesticity, women were supposed to abide by a set of virtues and responsibilities. They were the “moral guardians” of society, meaning they were supposed to be loving, faithful to their husbands, and good mothers who taught their children to be responsible, righteous human beings. Women were thought to be more spiritual and pure than men

Question 38

Catherine Beecher

Answer 38

Female reformer that pushed for female employment as teachers; however, she still embraced the role of a good homemaker for women. She was an example of the fact that not all women were pushing for radical reforms.

Question 39

Lucretia Mott

Answer 39

A Quaker who attended an anti-slavery convention in 1840 and her party of women was not recognized. She and Stanton called the first women’s right convention in New York in 1848

Question 40

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Answer 40

United States suffragist and feminist

Question 41

Susan B. Anthony

Answer 41

Key leader of woman suffrage movement, social reformer who campaigned for womens rights, the temperance, and was an abolitionist, helped form the National Woman Suffrage Assosiation

Question 42

Elizabeth Blackwell

Answer 42

First woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S.

Question 43

Margaret Fuller

Answer 43

Social reformer, leader in women’s movement and a transcendentalist.

Question 44

Sarah and Angelina Grimke

Answer 44

Sisters who were leaders in the abolitionist movement

Question 45

Amelia Bloomer

Answer 45

The mid-19th century woman who objected to the long skirts of her day and took to wearing a shorter skirt with Turkish trousers.

Question 46

Declaration of Sentiments

Answer 46

Declared that all “people are created equal”; used the Declaration of Independence to argue for women’s rights.

Question 47

Complex Marriage

Answer 47

John Humphery Noyes led Oneida community based on belief that all members were wedded to each other.

Question 48

Shakers

Answer 48

A religious group who believed in both Jesus and a mystic named Ann Lee. Since they were celibate and could only increase their numbers through recruitment and conversion, they eventually ceased to exist.

Question 49

John James Audubon

Answer 49

John James Audubon was an American ornithologist, artist and naturalist known for his studies, drawings and paintings of North American birds.

Question 50

Gilbert Stuart

Answer 50

A Rhode Islander, one of the most gifted painters of his time. He competed in England against other brilliant artists and did many portraits of Washington, all of which were somewhat idealized and dehumanized.

Question 51

Charles Wilson Peale

Answer 51

A Marylander, did about sixty portraits of Washington.

Question 52

John Trumball

Answer 52

A Revolutionary War veteran, captured its scenes and spirit on scores of striking canvases.

Question 53

Daguerreotype

Answer 53

A crude photograph invented by Frenchman Louis Daguerre.

Question 54

Stephen C. Foster

Answer 54

A legendary contributor to American folk music. Wrote songs like Oh Susanna, Old Folks At Home, and Slumber my Darling. His music was very popular with Southern blacks. After losing his popularity, he died as a sad alcoholic in a charity ward.

Question 55

Knickerbocker Group

Answer 55

A group of writers based in New York started by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant.

Question 56

Washington Irving

Answer 56

After the family business had failed, he had turned to the pen and achieved international acclaim for such works as The Knickerbocker’s History of New York, and The Sketch Book. He was probably the first respected, American general writer. He was one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Group as well.

Question 57

James Fenimore Cooper

Answer 57

The first American novelist, Cooper was reading to his wife when disgustedly remarked that he could write a better novel. His wife challenged him on this and he had initially failed at it until later in his career when he wrote The Last of The Mohicans and other novels of the Leatherstocking Tales.

Question 58

William Cullen Bryant

Answer 58

At age sixteen, he wrote one of the first high-quality poems of America, called “Thanatopsis.” He went on to be an editor for the New York Evening Post to sustain himself. During his job there, he set a standard for American journalism.

Question 59

Walden: Or Life in the Woods

Answer 59

A sort of autobiography of Henry David Thoreau’s that is a record of his two years of simple existence in a hut that he built on the edge of Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts.

Question 60

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Answer 60

Exercised strong influence in furthering idealistic thought, both in America and abroad. This encouraged Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.’s thinking about nonviolence.

Question 61

Walt Whitman

Answer 61

Wrote the famous collection of poems, Leaves of Grass. He was bold, brassy, swaggering, emotional, romantic, and unconventional. Despite its genius, Leaves of Grass was an economic failure, banned in Boston.

Question 62

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Answer 62

Harvard professor who was a very successful poet and was even honored in Europe with a bust in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. He wrote “Evangeline,” “The Song of Hiawatha,” and “The Courtship of Miles Standish.”

Question 63

John Greenleaf Whittier

Answer 63

While not as great a writer as Longfellow, he inspired much more action. He was the uncrowned laureate of the antislavery crusade. His poems cried aloud against inhumanity, injustice, and intolerance.

Question 64

James Russell Lowell

Answer 64

Succeeding Longfellow at Harvard, he ranks among America’s better poets. He wore many hats as diplomat, essayist, literary critic, and editor and starred as a political satirist in his Biglow Papers.

Question 65

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Answer 65

Taught anatomy at Harvard Medical School. He was a witty poet, essayist, novelist, and lecturer. He wrote many universally respected poems.

Question 66

Emily Dickinson

Answer 66

A great woman writer whose work remains enormously popular today. She had a deceptively simple writing style that explored deep themes like love, death, and immortality. She refused to publish any of her works during her life, but nearly two thousand works of hers were found and published after she died.

Question 67

Edgar Allan Poe

Answer 67

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.

Question 68

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Answer 68

A dark poet who lived in Massachusetts. He grew up in a tragic environment without his father who died on an ocean voyage. He wrote “The Scarlet Letter,” and many of his works had to do with the omnipresence of evil and the dead hand of the past weighing upon the present.

Question 69

Herman Melville

Answer 69

An orphaned and ill-educated New Yorker, he went to sea as a youth and served eighteen adventuresome months as a whaler. He lived and wrote of his charming adventures that were immediate successes, except for his masterpiece Moby Dick.

Question 70

George Bancroft

Answer 70

secretary of the navy who helped found the naval academy at annapolis in 1845, he was given the title “father of american history”. He published six volumes of super patriotic history of the united states.