The "Amelioration of society" : Alexander Campbell and educational reform in antebellum America

Religious leaders furnished an important impetus in the movement for social reform in the antebellum era of American history. This study examines the role of Alexander Campbell, the primary founder of the Disciples of Christ religious movement, in this effort to reform American society. Whereas Campbell's achievements as a religious reformer have been well documented, his accomplishments in the social realm have been often overlooked in studies of antebellum reform. In this work, I compare Campbell to other religious leaders who were associated with social reform, such as Lyman Beecher, Charles Finney, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and identify his imperative for the reformation of society: an emphasis on the visible church as the agent for social reform, an alternative to the individualism and voluntary societies of the Emersonian and the revivalist traditions. Although Campbell addressed nearly all of the social issues of his day, his most prominent work was in education. Campbell had a well-defined philosophy of education which reflected the influence of Lockean and Scottish Common Sense principles, his theological and millennial views, and the theories of the leading European and American educators of his day. The pillars of Campbell's program were nonsectarian education, use of the Bible as a textbook. moral education, and a broad definition of education which included the family and the church as well as the school. Campbell was a part of a network of educators who campaigned for the establishment of government-supported common schools. Whether involved as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention, a member of the Western Literary Institute and College of Teachers, a public debater, a popular speaker at lyceums, colleges, educational conventions, and legislatures, or a publisher of new educational ideas in his journal, The Millennial Harbinger. Campbell was a persuasive figure in the effort to establish common schools and improve existing pedagogy. He embodied his theory of education within his own private schools, Buffalo Seminary and Bethany College. Campbell was a multidimensional figure who not only had an important influence on the American religious scene but also was one of the leading educators and reformers of the antebellum period.