THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION
I. The Second Great Awakening - 1801 - 1831
A. The Frontier Phase
1. camp Meeting - emotional outlet
2. conversion - physical
B. The Northern Phase
1. small to mid-size towns - active middle class
2. redemption societies
3. limited appeal - committed to freedom & progress
C. Lyman Beecher - new evangelical Calvinism
1. 'Free Agent'
2. acknowledge sinfulness & surrender to God
D. Charles G. Finney - "Burned Over District"
1. more radical - indifferent to theological issues
2. free agency = free will - as perfect as The Father
3. strong & active churches in his wake
II. Reforms
A. Changing Society
1.livelihood
2. leisure time
3. voluntary associations - role of women
B. Family
1. marriage for love but man still in charge
2. Cult of True Womanhood - spiritual head of home
3. role of children - family size decreases
C. Education 1820 - 1850 free public schooling expands
1. pre 1820's schooling haphazard - New England
2. free public schools; close gap between rich & poor
3. Horace Mann most influential supporter - taxes
4. engines of change - adult education as well
D. Special Institutions
1. Gallaudet - school for deaf 1817
2. Howe - Perkins Institute 1832 for the blind
3. prisons - Auburn System - Dorothea Dix
4. asylums - separate mentally challenged/criminals