The Pursuit of Perfection Reform in Antebellum America 10 31 2013 Belief in Progress Religious convictions Revolutionary ideology Rising standards of living o Declining birth rates Faith in technology The Roots in Reform Confidence in Progress and the human will o Herman Melville White Jacket 1850 Says the past is dead progress is inevitable the change can be done by them Fears for the Future Immigration o After 1820 increasing immigration from Germany Ireland and England o 1830 s 600 000 immigrants to U S o 1840 s 1 700 000 o 1850 s 2 600 000 Urbanization o 1810 46 urban areas 2500 or more residents o 1860 393 urban areas Religious Roots of Reform Calvinism vs Arminianism Perfectionism a k a Sanctification o John Wesley and the Methodists Premillennialism and Postmillennialism Temperance per year By 1830 Americans consumed 5 gallons of distilled spirits per capita Declined to 2 gallons per capita per year by 1865 Case Study The U S S Constitution Left Boston July 27th 1798 with o 475 officers and men o 48 600 gallons of fresh water o 11 600 pounds of black powder o 79 400 gallons of rum Jamaica October 6th took on o 826 pounds of flour o 300 gallons of rum Azores November 12th took on o 550 pounds of beef o 63 300 gallons of Portuguese wine November 18th set sail for England o Defeated 5 British men of war o Scuttled 12 merchant ships after salvaging the rum on board each January 26th Arrived in Boston February 20th 1799 with o No cannon shot o No food o No powder o No rum o No wine o No whiskey o 38 600 gallons of stagnant water Temperance Goals of early temperance advocates Shift in 1830s to total abstinence o Lyman Beecher and the American Temperance Union o Washington Temperance Society Abolitionism Antislavery movement before 1820 o American Colonization Society founded 1816 William Lloyd Garrison o Beings publishing the Liberator January 1st 1831 Immediate vs gradual emancipation New England Anti Slavery Society 1832 American Anti Slavery Society 1822 Other leaders Theodore Dwight Weld Frederick Douglass Sojourner Truth Charles Finney Oberlin College Proslavery reactions to abolitionism after 1830 Abolitionist schisms o Garrison and Christian Anarchism o The women s rights movement Women s Rights Angelina and Sarah Grimke o The investigation of the rights of slaves has led me to a better understanding of my own Angelina Grimke Redefining the cult of domesticity and Republican motherhood Seneca Falls meeting of 1848 o Organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Coffin Mott raised on Nantucket o Adopted resolutions calling for sexual equality and women s right to vote o 10 31 2013 10 31 2013