Causes of the Second Great Awakening: Deism (Thomas Paine)- believed in a Supreme Being who created the world

and gave humans the capacity for moral behavior, but denied the divinity of Christ and the original sin of man and relied on science over the Bible Unitarianism- a spin-off of Deism that appealed mostly to intellectuals, Unitarianism espoused the belief that God existed in only one person Second Great Awakening (1800): Camp meetings and circuit riders- made religion more accessible as huge meetings opened religion to the masses (especially in the South) and preachers traveled from place to place spreading their ideas Christianizing Native Americans became popular and many religious Easterners went westward for missionary purposes Charles Grandison Finney the greatest revival preacher who led massive revivals in Rochester, NY Peter Cartwright- a revivalist who was the most famous of the circuit riders and converted thousands to Christianity New Denominations/Beliefs: Methodists and Baptists stressed personal conversion, democracy in church affairs, and emotionalism The Second Great Awakening catalyzed the splitting off of more denominations Denominations tended to wider the class and regional gaps (prosperous/conservative/East= Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Unitarians continue to rise as revival movements have little effect , lower class/liberal/West/South= revivalist movements have more effect (Methodists/Baptists) Religions also split over the issue of slavery (ex. Methodist and Presbyterian split) New York, with its Puritans, preached hellfire and was known as the Burned-Over District Millerites (Adventists) predicted Christ to return to earth on Oct 22, 1844. When this prophesy failed to materialize, the movement lost credibility. Moromons (Joseph Smith ,1830) - claimed to have found golden tablets in NY with the Book of Mormon inscribed on them and created the Church of Mormon or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members were persecuted due to their polygamy, drilling militia, and voting as a unit and whose new leader Brigham Young led them to Utah after the death of Joseph Smith to escape persecution. Education:

Free schools (Horace Mann, 1825-1850)- tax-supported compulsory education, previously viewed as giving handouts to the poor, became a reality as people realized good of the country; teachers (mostly male) received no instruction in how to teach and schools were expensive for their communities, so Horace Mann successfully urged the creation of a better schooling system the need to educate future voters for the

William H. McGuffey- made readers that were the standard in schools of the time Noah Webster- made the Blueback Speller popular in schools and created Websters dictionary State-supported universities (started in 1795)1820s) Reform of Government Institutions: Punishment- criminal laws softened , debtors prisons shut down (grassroots) originated in the South, some important people were

Thomas Jefferson ( University of VA ), Emma Willard (campaigned for secondary schools for women,

Dorothea Dix- went undercover to asylums across the country and released a detailed report on conditions in asylums, causing improvement in the quality of life for the mentally ill American Peace Society (William Ladd, 1828) Temperance:

Alcoholism was found in women, clergymen, and members of Congress. American Temperance Society (1826)- supported temperance on the grounds that it destroyed family values Neal S. Dow- wanted prohibition, supported the Maine Law of 1851, which banned the manufacture and sale of liquor in Maine Utopias: In the wilderness, often a reaction to the ills of society, all failed Robert Owen(1825)- founded a communal society in order to seek human betterment. Architecture: Most ideas of art/painting/architecture at this time taken from Europe Greek revivalist period (1820-1850)- Greek architecture and art became popular

Music: "Dixie"(1859)- eventually became the battle hymn of the Confederacy Transcendentalism (1830s): Causes- liberalizing of the previously harsh Puritan ideaology, foreign changes in philosophy Beliefs- truth transcends the senses and all knowledge cant be gained with only your senses; self-reliance and self-discipline are important Ralph Waldo Emerson- transcendentalist poet and philosopher; urged Americans to write about American rather than European interests and ideas, lived a solitary life

Henry David Thoreau (student of Emerson)-believed that bodily wants should be reduced to the bare minimum to gain time for finding truth through study and meditation; wrote about his journey and ideas in Walden

Literature: James Fenimore Cooper & Washington Irving (see Knickerbocker Group)- some of the first American writers to be internationally recognized; paved the way for many more Henry Wadsworth Longfellow- famous American poet, who, though he wrote for the upper class, was read by and became popular in the lower classes as well Edgar Allan Poe- wrote with a pessimistic tone unlike that of the epoch Herman Melville- wrote the novel Moby Dick. American historians- during this time period, a group of American historians emerged and wrote works that were internationally recognized