N E W E N G L A N D
This was the time of the Second Great Awakening and emphasized now were beliefs that man was master of his fate, and 
Charles Finney's evangelical revivals were inspiring morality in all those who converted. New religions were created, like Joseph Smith's Mormonism, Ann Lee's Shakers, and Unitarianism.
A great dissatisfaction with society erupted into the massive reform movements such as Abolition, Temperence, Public Schools, Penitentaries,and Women's Rights. More drastic steps were taken by those who created thier own societies (called "utopian societies") such as Brook Farm and Hopedale.
Technology created during this era rushed in Industrialization and aided in elevating the standard of life for many Americans and made time and capital for investment in new leisures.
The Railroad Boom 
made travel between distant cities faster than ever before, and much commerce once directed to the South became centered in New England because of the railways constructed there. The introduction of the mechanical reaper 
increased wheat production. The gradual introduction of steam power reduced the vulnerabily of factories to the vagaries of the weather, stretched out the employment season, and increased both productivity and annual income. The widespread introduction of coal-burning stoves not only warmed houses but in conjunction with the spread of railroads, brought greater variety to the American diet. By bringing down the cost of printing, technical advancements stimulated the rise of the penny press and the inexpensive novel, vastly increased the size of the reading public, and encouraged efforts to popularize knowledge.
This was also the time of the American Renaissance, when America developed its artistic culture. The Hudson River School of painters came about in this time, painters like Frederic Church and George Caitlin. The American Renaissance also included the Flowering of New England, in which America found an identity in the world of literature with such great writers as Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and others.
Even dissenters usually directed thier fire at technologies effects then at technology itself. Sylvester Graham wanted Americans to return to simpler lives but he understood that vegetarianism depended in railroads to bring fresh produce into cities. The bright possibilities rather than the dark potential of technology impressed most antebellem Americans. Yet it scarcley obliterated class and ethnic differences, nor did it quiet sectional strife. Even as the penny press and the telegraph spread throughout the nation, American were finding that speedier communication cannot bridge their differences over slavery.
Table Of Contents
Timeline of New England between 1840-1860
A Brief Overview of the Social and Political Developments of the Period
The Flowering of New England
Short Biographies on the Key Writers
The Quality of Life
Links to other helpful sites
Who's Responsible For This Mess Anyway? 
