Prompt #9 Analyze how changing religious ideals, Enlightenment beliefs and republican thought shaped political and social trends from the colonial through reconstruction periods. Matt Levy,
Context


During the 18th Century, new ideas about politics and society led to debates about religion and governance and ultimately inspired experiments with new governmental structures.
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The colonists’ belief in the superiority of republican self-government based on the natural rights of the people found its clearest American expression in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
and in the Declaration of Independence.
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Many new state constitutions and the national Articles of Confederation, reflecting republican fears of both centralized power and excessive popular influence, place power in the hands of
the legislative branch and maintained property qualifications for voting and citizenship.
Protestant evangelical religious fervor strengthened many British colonists’ understandings of themselves as a chosen people blessed with liberty, while Enlightenment philosophers
and ideas inspired many American political thinkers to emphasize individual talent over hereditary privilege. (John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith)
Thesis Statement
Changing religious ideals, Enlightenment beliefs and republican thought shaped political and social trends from the colonial through reconstruction periods as new experiments with democratic
ideas and republican forms of government challenged traditional imperial systems in the United States (or “across the Atlantic World”).
Evidence
Religious
1. Enlightenment beliefs
Analysis
Religious
1. Enlightenment beliefs

Encouraged men and women to look to themselves, not to
God, for guidance as to how to live their lives and to shape
society
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This idea of opening their mind to not just to follow their lives based around God and encouraged men and
women to look to themselves for guidance as to how to live their lives and to shape society. This slowly helped
undermine the power of traditional authority.

Encouraged a new emphasis on education and a
heightened interest in politics and government figures did
not challenge religion and insisted that rational inquiry
would support, not undermine, Christianity

With its emphasis on human rationality, encouraged a new emphasis on education and a heightened interest
in politics and government (for through governments, the believers in reason argued, society had its best
chance of bettering itself)

During the Enlightenment people started to challenged the notion of some religious groups that all answers
such as human society should come from God and not through traditional religious groups.

But they challenged the notion of some religious groups
that the answer to all questions about human society
should, or could, come directly from God.
Religious
2. First Great Awakening
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English minister George Whitefield transformed the local
revival of Edward and the Tenants into a Great
Awakening.
Began in earnest in the 1730s, reached its climax in the
1740s, and brought a new spirit of religious fervor to the
colonies.

The Great Awakening undermined legally established
churches and their tax-supported ministers.
Republican-Social
3. Common man era
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Andrew Jackson
o Had a reputation as a "plain solid
republican," which attracted voters in all
regions
o His visions were thought as "the Sovereignty of
the People, the Rights of the States, and a Light
and Simple Government."
o His message of equal rights and popular rule
appealed to many social groups
Future
o
In the future, more and more people were
being elected for presidency, congress, etc. that
were common men like Andrew Jackson was
Religious
4. Second Great Awakening
Religious
2.First Great Awakening

After George Whitefield had his own religious revival in England he traveled to America where he then
preached to the colonial people. Edwards and Tenants used Pietism which many colonial people embraced
but when Whitefield came to America the Great Awakening begun.

This religious revival increased in religious devotion in being very passionate more of a preaching style. Less
relation with church and more of a direct relation with God.

During this time there were many tax-supported ministers in the Catholic churches. The Great Awakening
challenged the authority of all ministers, whose status rested on respect for their education and knowledge of
the Bible.
Republican-Social
3. Common man era
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
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The people during this era were looking for a leader that they could relate too so more of the “common man”
was able to participate in these religious revivals that lead to the second great awakening.

After a long period of time of smaller religious revivals that either excluded some social classes. The Second
great awakening was one that changed the United States into a Christian society that had a lot of people of all
different social classes come together and form a unified religious group.
During this time many people started to feel a sense of independent and able to govern themselves as a group,
so they would govern themselves democratically. Also many people wanted to be in a community that
preached equality and spiritually, this idea appealed to many people.
Based around the idea of a common man
After decades long of religious revivals Second Great
Awakening Made the United States a genuinely Christian
society.
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Successful churches were those that preached spiritual
equality and governed themselves democratically.

Protestants were allowed to join the Catholic Church but
some didn’t choose to.
Republican-Social
5. Utopian Societies
Shaped social trends because future presidents were nominated based on the idea of the “common man,”
including Andrew Jackson’s mentor James K. Polk:
o Nicknamed "Young Hickory"- shared Andrew Jackson's iron will, boundless ambition and
determination to help open land for white settlement
o Was well-liked because he was relatable
Jacksonian era lead to 20 states writing new and more democratic constitutions
o Brought government “near to the people” by mandating the election, instead of the appointment, of
most officials
o Embodied principles of classical liberalism, or laissez-faire, by limiting the government’s role in
economy
Religious
4. Second Great Awakening
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Helped lead to the Second Great Awakening
Since bishops and priests controlled it, the Roman Catholic Church attracted few Protestants, who preferred
Luther's doctrine of the priesthood. They were allowed to join the Catholic church but choose not to because
they wanted to say with what religion past generations followed.
Republican-Social
5.Utopian Societies

Religious revivalism and a backlash against industrialization spark the creation of many unique American


These societies were created to escape life in America’s
emerging market society.
utopian communities that separate from society instead of trying to reform it. These societies were created to
escape life in America’s emerging market society, transcendentalists and other reformers created ideal
communities.
mormons- founded by Joseph Smith. The Church of the
Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, in
1830.
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Shakers- a significant portion of Shakers was founded by
(Mother) Ann Lee in 1758, in England. Oneida-The founder
and leader of the communal Oneida Community, John
Humphreys Noyes in 1831.
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Brook Farm- Some Transcendentalists practiced theory
of “plain living “communal living was established at West
Roxbury, Massachusetts, on some 200 acres of land from
1841 to 1847.
Shakers- values of American society they were associated with many of the reform movements of the 19th
century, including feminism, and abolitionism. Believers in Christ's Second Coming, the Shakers developed
their own religious expression, which included communal living, productive labor, celibacy, pacifism, and the
equality of the sexes.

Oneida-Perfectionists practicing "complex marriage" considered they married to the group, not a single
partner. The skills of the artisan members were channeled into broom manufacturing, shoe manufacturing,
flour processing, lumber milling and trap manufacturing.
Republican-Political
6. American Antislavery Society

To spread their message, the abolitionists used the latest
techniques of mass communication.

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Secondly they want to aid fugitive slaves.
Many fugitive slaves faced an uncertain future because
most whites did not favor civic or social equality for
African Americans.

Brook farm- attracted intellectuals, but also carpenters, farmers, shoemakers and printers. The community
provided to all members, their children and family dependents, housing, fuel, wages, clothing and food. There
was an infant school, a primary school and college preparatory course covering six years.
Republican-Political
6. American Anti-slavery Society

The Abolitionists were desperate to send their message out to the majority people so they therefore used
techniques of mass communication to spread their message using new steam-powered presses, the
American Anti-slavery Society printed thousands of pieces of literature in 1834. In 1835, the society launched a
“great postal campaign” to flood the nation, including the South, with million pamphlets.

They provided lodging and jobs for escaped blacks in free states and created Underground Railroad, an
informal network of whites and free blacks in southern towns that assisted fugitives from the lower south.

Many whites in the north during this time did not want the slaves to be in the north, even though they might
have not supported slavery. Whites did not favor civic or social equality for African Americans.

Fugitive slave law of 1793 allowed owners and their hired
slave catchers to seize suspected runaway and return them
to bondage.

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A final political campaign was the last element of the
abolitionist program.
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Such activities drew support from thousands of deeply
religious farmers and small-town proprietors.
Republican-Political
7. Women's rights
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Seneca Falls
o
o
o
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Wanted equality of women in public life
Declaration of Sentiments stated that "all
men and women are created equal"
Even though the convention wasn't taken
seriously by many at first, it helped the
women's rights movement grow in strength
and purpose
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
o Helped organize the convention
o Prominent social reformer
o Helped pass 13th amendment, which ended
slavery
Susan B. Anthony
o Helped pass a law that allowed women the
right to control their own wages to own
property acquired by "trade, business, labors,
or services"
Republican-political
8. Rights of Freedmen
•The Freedmen’s Bureau supported Reconstruction efforts.
•Bureau men kept an eye out for injustice against freedmen.
•the founding of African American colleges
Mormons- smith claimed that God had led him to a new set of scriptures called the Book of Mormon. Further,
Smith espoused polygamy as part of his utopian society. Smith and his followers were persecuted in Ohio and
the Midwest.
The outcome of this law was that many white abolitionists and free blacks in northern cities formed mobs that
attacked slave catchers, released their captive, and often deported them off to Canada, which refused to
extradite fugitive slaves.
With this last political campaign for Abolitionists in 1835, the society bombarded congress with petitions
demanding the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, an end to the interstate slave trade, and a ban on
admission of new slave states. By 1838, petitions with nearly 500,000 signatures had arrived in Washington.
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With support from farmers and small towns the number of local abolitionist societies grew from 200 in 1835
to 2000 by 1840, with nearly 200000 members, including many transcendentalists.
Republican-Political
7. Women's rights

Women's rights activists helped women of the future in many ways:
o
o
o
o
Laws that gave men and women equal rights in certain aspects
Altered the character of the American culture because it changed many peoples views on women's
rights
A lot more women were geocmingmore and more involved with society such as most women being
teachers
Dorothea Dix, by visiting jails and asylums prompted many states to expand their public hospitals
and improve their prisons
Republican-political
8. Rights of Freedmen
• Sympathized with planters’ interests, most were dedicated, often idealistic men who tried valiantly to reconcile opposing
interests.
•Bureau men kept an eye out for unfair labor contracts and often forced landowners to bargain with workers and tenants.
The leaders advised freedmen on economic matters; provided direct payment to desperate families; especially women
and children; and helped establish freedpeople’s schools.
•In cooperation with northern aid societies, the bureau played a key role in founding African American colleges and
universities. By 1869 there were more than three thousand teachers instructing freedpeople in the South. More than half
were black.