American Studies 335
New England
Roger Williams University
CAS 228
M, W. &  F  11:00-12:00
Fall Semester, 2008
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office:  CAS 110
Hours: M, F,   9:00-10:00
T, Th 11:--12:30 or by appointment
Phone:  254 3230
E-mail:  amst335@gmail.com
The Week's Work
For Monday, November 10
For Wednesday, November 12
For Friday, November 14
Read, in Hanson,
Chapter 6, “Getting Religion: The Church as a Social Institution”
pp. 137 - 164
Keep your eyes open for several themes here.  First, thinking in the broadest of terms, what did it mean to be religious in 19th century New England?  The question implies that it meant more than one thing, and we need to have a sense of the various functions the church fulfilled in the life of the New England town and for New England citizens.  Second, be aware of the concept of “sectarianism” and the role it played in New England life.  Don’t think of this as an uncomplicated role, however.  You’re going to want to look at the implications of the table on page 152.  An explanation of the findings in the table appears on the previous page.  Finally, be aware of the relationship between religious institutions and social reform of all sorts.  In was ways were religious institutions in competition with the “public sphere”.
Confirming the importance of religion and social reform in New England, (and by example, the rest of the North), I want everyone to go on a treasure hunt once again.  Having absorbed the references to abolitionism, temperance, and other crusades, as well as the importance of revivalism and the lyceum movement, I want each to find at least one document, image, or pamphet or essay related to this element of New England Life, and put it in your journal.  We’ll look at these Wednesday, and, as necessary, continuing into Friday.
We’ll continue exploring evidence of the wide influence of Religion on the Social Sphere.   Keep up the treasure hunting!  As time allows, we’ll also discuss projects and how they’re coming along.  By request, I’ll have some more specific parameters to share with you.  Hopefully, I’ll have them posted by Monday the 10th.  Some of you may have located religious poetry, sermons, or lyceum lectures.  If you’re feeling brave and would like to recite them to your “congregation” I’ll encourage you in that.
Compare the 18th century Rockingham, VT, Meetinghouse (above) with the 19th North Cornwall, CT, Church to the left.  Meetinghouses didn't look that much  different from  large houses on the exterior.  The primary door was on the broad side of the building.  The pulpit would be directly across from it.  This meant that  the average distance from  the preacher's mouth to the listeners' ears was considerably less.  Sermons were the centerpiece of the religious services.

By the 19th century the form of the building changed.  The entrance was on the narrow dimension of the rectangle, returning to traditional  church  design.  Buildings like these would serve throughout the 19th and 20th centuries down  to today.  They would be joined by buildings built to current tastes and fashions as towns grew and the religious lives of them grew more complex.
Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist, feminist, and author, was active in Transcendentalist circles and many of the reform causes her own day.  She began her career as an author of romantic novels and chidren's books, but her publication of an anti-slavery treatise, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, got  her in trouble even in liberal Boston.  She and her equally radical  husband moved to Wayland, Massachusetts in 1853, where she took an active role in the social life of the town, especially with members of the First Parish Church.  Her portrait links to a more extended biography provided by the Wayland Historical Society.