Revivalism, Social Conscience and Community in the Burned-Over District: The Trial of Rhoda Bement focuses on the trial in Seneca Falls in 1843 of Rhoda Bement. Bement, a member of the First Presbytarian Church, was charged with "uncristian and unladylike behavior," because she had criticized her inister when he refused to publicize the speech of a feminist abolitionist, Abigail Kelley. The book is broken into three parts. First, an essay by Jan Saltzgaber sets the stage for revivalism in the "burned-over district" of upstate New York, where women took a major role in pushing forward the Second Great Awakening. Second, the transcript of the trial of Rhoda Bement reveals the underlying causes and tensions which resulted in Bement's expulsion from the church. Third, Glenn Altschuler examines the tensions that existed within religious communities.

Discussion Questions:

1) What was the basis for the case against Rhoda Bement? What kind of evidence did those accusing her produce?

2) What does the trial of Rhoda Bement reveal about the connections and interstices between the Second Great Awakening and reform movements for abolitionism, temperance, and woman's rights?

3) What is the thesis of Saltzgarber's essay on revivalism and reform in Seneca Falls, NY? What is the thesis of Altschuler's essay on conflict and community in revivialist churches?

4) In what ways does the trial of Rhoda Bement reflect a search for order and stability in the midst of social upheaval? In what ways does it also reflect the desire for change and the new opportunities afforded by changing social mores? How does the tension between these two competing desires play out in Bement's trial?

5) In what way does Calvinist theology and the debate over human volition come into play in Bement's trial? What is the broader social significance of this debate, beyond the church and into the town at large?

6) How does the debate over emancipation--the desire to free Blacks from slavery and whites from the control of Southern "Slave Power" --appear in the trial? Who feels what about each issue? Why do they feel that way?

7) What were the connections that the temperance movement made between rum and sin?

8) What role does gender and expectations of how Bement should comport herself "as a woman" play in the trial?

9) There is room in this book for a third essay, one which would focus on the trial of Rhoda Bement as a document of women's history. Asking the sorts of questions a women's historian would, how might you have used the trial differently than does Altschuler? For example, what is the significance that this trial took place in Seneca Falls, a site which would soon after become famous as the place where feminists gathered to write the 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration? In what ways was this a trial focused more on the proper place of a woman within the middle-class household than about religious issues? What does the trial reveal about the ideas and activities of women opposed to slavery? How might the community responded differently to Rhoda Bement's rebellions had had she been a man in this society?

Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for History 286 (American Women's History), The Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York.
Last modified: Thursday 26 February 1998