AHIS 100

Religion and Reform

Dr. Kane

mkane2@albany.edu

Office Hrs: W 10:30-11:30 & F 11:30-12:30

Social Science 60S


maevekane.net/ahis100/lecture-slides

October 28

to recap

  • boom and bust cycles endemic
  • US economy affected by European credit crunch
  • US economic booms built on expansion of slavery
  • expansion of middle class and impoverished working class
  • booms and busts exacerbate class divisions

today

  • major in history!
  • rise of religious revivals
  • religious & secular reform movements
    • public schools
    • almshouses
    • prisons
    • temperance
    • reform and labor
  • gender & reform movements
  • divisions within abolitionism

why major in history?

  • 7 University-wide teaching awards in the last 4 years
  • classes next semester:
    • HIS290 Intro to Digital History, Prof Kane
    • HIS290 Drugs and Alcohol in America, Prof Beech
    • HIS290 History of the Hudson Valley, Prof Pastore
    • HIS310 History of Women in the US, Prof Graves
  • tracks in US, European and World history
  • one-on-one personal advising with history faculty

what do history majors do?

  • oral communication
  • clear and strong writing
  • the ability to conduct research
  • how to argue and how to present evidence
  • how to effectively distill and summarize large amounts of information

where do history majors go?

  • business management, data and intelligence analysis, law, medicine, advertising and marketing, editing and publishing, teaching, environmental impact assessment

  • Biology, Criminal Justice, Business Administration, and History majors all have comparable 10-year earning

how did the new Protestant denominations of the Second Great Awakening differ from older denominations?

(more than one right answer)

      A. The new denominations focused more on hellfire and punishments sinners would face
      B. The new denominations explicitly rejected ties to English and French churches
      C. Preachers in new denominations did not need licenses or university degrees
      D. In some denominations, women and people of color were recognized as preachers in new congregations

the Second Great Awakening - 1790 - 1850

  • begins in New York and Ohio (Burned Over District)
  • emotional, personal, direct connection to God
  • radical inclusion of women and people of color as leaders
  • millenarianism - perfection and purification of the world will bring Christ's return

why were the religious revivals of the early 19th century so popular?

      A. Americans looked to religion and religious reform as a way of asserting control over social and economic changes
      B. white Americans feared slave uprisings and sought to convert enslaved people
      C. poverty caused by economic panics and the boom-bust cycle drove many Americans to rely on their churches for support
      D. British churches evangelized in the United States in an effort to reassert imperial influence

religion and secular reform

  • anxiety over emotional and social change drove religious revival
  • rise of public schools - UAlbany founded in 1844 to educate teachers
  • temperance movement - Albany the beer capital of the US!
  • rise of almshouses
  • first prisons - Auburn (NY) system
  • what kind of workers will there be?
  • leadership roles of women

religion and secular reform

  • anxiety over emotional and social change drove religious revival
  • rise of public schools - UAlbany founded in 1844 to educate teachers
  • temperance movement - Albany the beer capital of the US!
  • rise of almshouses
  • first prisons - Auburn (NY) system
  • what kind of workers will there be?
  • leadership roles of women

how did women claim leadership roles in these political reform movements?

      A. women married to politicians and preachers used their roles as 'helpmates' to leverage leadership positions
      B. women were considered responsible for raising healthy families as 'republican mothers', and early reform movements aimed to improve the social and physical health of all families
      C. white women who owned slaves wanted to make sure their slaves were educated, baptized as Christians, and didn't drink too much
      D. women argued that they were too weak for other kinds of political work, but religious reform was safer

the path to women's suffrage

  • Seneca Falls, NY - 1848
  • Declaration of the Rights of Women
  • initial focus on women's right to own property, work, and lead in families - NOT the vote!
  • voting comes later, because social and economic aims could not be achieved without the vote

split in abolitionist activism

  • overlap between temperance, school, abolition and women's rights activists
  • who gets to vote first - white women or black men? (where are black women?)
  • free black abolitionists instrumental in getting white Northerners to care about slavery - PR and shame
  • white Northern reformers fear losing the money and support of white Southerners
  • split over vote and 'moral suasion'