Antebellum Reform 1820-1850
In the early 19th century, the challenges of independence and forming a new nation combined with the forces of expansionism and industrialization were putting tremendous stress on American society. It seemed everything was in flux. Many Americans felt American society was overly rationalist and turned to renewed spiritualism. Some Americans sought a return to religion but one that rejected Calvinist predestination in favor of individual agency. This 2nd Great Awakening was at once a conservative traditionalist movement in that adherents wanted to get back in touch with religion but also a force of change as they did so in a new way. Others found a more secular spiritualism in Transcendentalism—a movement that emphasized truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination. The reawakened spiritualism, religious or secular, emphasized individual responsibility to do right and launched an age of reform in which many traditional social arrangements were challenged
Unit Materials
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Spiritual Reawakening stuff:
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Antebellum Reform stuff:
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*Abolitionism |
*Women's Rights |
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