Moralist And Modernizers Mintz Summary

Religion is a set of practices and beliefs that have often been a safe haven that people have turn to for centuries in time of severe needs, guidance, or just for religious fulfillment. In a time were immorality ruled the streets and impurity filled the lives of many in America, duringthe decade leading to the civil war, people turned to religion to attempt to reform everyday life. In the book Moralist and Modernizers by Steven Mintz, the author attempts to bring together religious themes as well as worldly views in which those who are trying to reform appear as “at once religious moralist and social and cultural organizers” (Mintz XIX). In the book, Mintz starts describing the issues that threatened to break down the very fabric of the nation if not stopped. These problems included poverty, prostitution, violence and irreligion. The dramatic transformation that the American religion underwent during the early/ mid 1800 created a moral and social foundation that society was able to build its morals on to combat the impurities that filled the country. This religious transformation came by swiftly and in large waves motored by the ideas of evangelical revivalism, which swept the
To the slave and slaveholders in the south for example, they had completely different interpretation of the revivals. The revival catered to the ideological wants of people, when dealing with north and south, revivals suggested to each “that only their region clung to God’s faith.” The slave masters feared at first that the slaves might start to get ideas and fight for their freedom, after a while they thought that the bible would say otherwise and that slave should be happy in their place. Slaves on the other hand were waiting for their “Moses” to come and lead them to the promise land. To young women, “it gave them a sense of identity and purpose.” During the revival period, women were more involved than men outnumbering them three to