American Studies 335
New England
Roger Williams University
GHH 109
M, Th  3:30 - 4:50
Spring Semester, 2010
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office:  GHH 215
Hours: M, W, F  1:00-2:00
T, 9:00 - 10:00 or by appointment
Phone:  254 3230
E-mail:  amst335@gmail.com
Index
Gossip may be one of the most universal forms  of human behavior. If it is so pervasive, it must  have some social purpose, even if persons generally condemn its practice.Hansen looks at this question from a sociological and anthropological point of view, and this forms the focus of Chapter 5. We’ll want to look at the content of gossip, at the reasons why reputation was so jealously guarded, at what kind of sanctions arose against persons based on “community juries,” and how all of these tended to enforce the solidarity of communities.

Communities as close knit as New England communities are become subject to all sorts of stresses. Often these stresses lead to varieties of anti-social behavior:  drunkenness, abuse of children and spouses, and the like. Against those forces of disintegration are arraigned informal practices like gossip and formal social institutions like the Church.  We’ll look at religion Thursday.
Norman Rockwell, America's favorite illustrator in his time, was coincidentally a New Englandter.  It seems he understood the idea of gossip quite well.
Read, in Hansen,
Chapter 5, “True Opinion, Clear of Polish114 - 136
For Monday, April 26
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”.
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.
For Thursday, April 29
The plan of the meeting house in Alma, Maine.  The function of this kind of planning was to get everyone as close to the minister as possible.  The spoken word--scriptures and sermons dominated and hearing was all important.  The same would have been true of other meetings held in the structure, of course.  Click on the image for other drawings and pictures
Below is the floor plan of the Burlington Congregational (later, Unitarian) church).  Notice the difference.  Calculate how much further away the persons in the back pew are.  Click on the drawing for more drawings and pictures.
You can imagine the congrecations in A Very Social Time singing something like this.  People still gather to keep the tradition of shape note singing alive.