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The Face of Social Transformation: 1848 in Upstate New York

May 8, 2:00 PM

Upstate New York in the 19th century was a hotbed of reform: religious revivalism, abolition, women’s rights, utopian communal experiments, temperance and prison reform. How did upstate New York come to play this role? Dolores Hayden, an architectural historian, has argued that central New York was receptive to reform movements because it represented a “middle landscape.” That is, it was an open space, that at a particular historical juncture was unusually welcoming to not just economic and scientific advances but also to social and religious experimentation. It was a place where individuals and ideas and social structures were fluid and could increasingly cross-fertilize each other in positive ways. This lecture will attempt to support the Hayden thesis by drawing upon some of the intersecting links that bound together such seemingly disparate people and movements as Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman (abolition), Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (women’s movement), John Humphrey Noyes and Joseph Smith (Perfectionism and Mormon movements respectively).

Clermont State Historic Site

For further information about this event, please contact:

Audrey Reifler
Phone: (518) 537-6622

http://www.friendsofclermont.org

This lecture is a part of the Speakers in the Humanities program.