NPG: American Origins; Moral Identity

During the antebellum period (1840-60, the United States became a vast laboratory of experimentation that sought to attain a just society through individual and social reform. Encouraged by a Protestantism that preached salvation through good works, Americans discovered all kinds of ways – from ecstatic religious revivals to temperance and dietary reforms – to give a larger moral purpose to their lives.

www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/origins/index.htm l

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items are from 26 Aug 2008.