Created by Angela Zorn @kyteacher

THE AGE OF JACKSON

ANTEBELLUM REFORM MOVEMENTS

Essential Standard

Learning Target

HS.UH.I.UE.2 Gather information and evidence from credible sources representing a variety of perspectives relevant to compelling and/or supporting questions in U.S. history.

We will describe the social changes that took place in the United States from 1790 to 1850, & we will analyze their effects on the nation.

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• In the years after the American Revolution, the ideals of liberty & equality in the Declaration of Independence inspired people to work to improve society.
• This led to the gradual introduction of universal white manhood suffrage
• For some, this shift in the electorate highlighted the injustice of slavery as a violation of these democratic ideals

Directions: Use the text box to answer the following question.

• How did changes in the electorate highlight the political inequality of the period?

POLITICAL INFLUENCES

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• These political changes were reinforced in the teachings of the Second Great Awakening.
• Led by men like Charles Finney who used plain language & emphasized the moral reformation of society
• Pushed the idea of individual salvation & free will over predestination → good works
• Linked to the expansion of democratic ideals in the political sphere
• Increased the number of Christians both in New England & on the frontier
• Tent revivals led by Methodists & Baptists became social events

RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES

Directions: Use the text box to answer the following questions:

• How did the political & economic changes of the period contribute to the Second Great Awakening?
• How did the Second Great Awakening lead to the reform movements of the period?

Learn more about the Second Great Awakening.

• Finally, it was in this period that a truly unique American culture began to emerge.
• The rational thought that led to the Enlightenment began to give way to Romanticism
• Expressed in the art, architecture, & literature of the period
• Hudson River School: Artists portrayed dramatic renditions of the American landscape
• James Fenimore Cooper: Romanticized the danger & opportunity of the American west
• Washington Irving: Developed an American mythology
• Led to Transcendentalism whose authors emphasized the belief in human perfectibility
• Ralph Waldo Emerson: Emphasized self-reliance
• Henry David Thoreau: Wrote Civil Disobedience

OTHER INFLUENCES

Learn more about Henry David Thoreau.

Directions: Use the text box to answer the following questions:

• How did Romanticism differ from the Enlightenment?
• How did Transcendentalist thought influence the reform movements of the period?