Horace, born 4 May 1796 to Thomas and Rebecca (Stanley) Mann, worked hard. As an adult Horace Mann regretted the loss of his childhood to ceaseless labor, but he learned from it the Yankee industry and piety that shaped his life as a social reformer and moralist.
The meetinghouse in Franklin provided a place to worship God, hold town meetings after the Sunday services, and reinforce shared social and religious values. The Reverend Nathaniel Emmons, who ministered to the town for fifty-four years beginning in 1773, belonged to the "New Light" school of Congregationalism, begun in response to the preaching of Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening. Emmons characterized God as austere, exacting, and unforgiving. He saw human creatures, on the other hand, as morally depraved, unworthy of mercy, and likely to backslide if not constantly prodded by a vigilant minister. Whereas traditional Congregationalists taught that people could increase their chance to obtain grace through such pious acts as prayer, Bible reading, and church attendance, New Lights believed that men are so thoroughly steeped in evil that even their quest for salvation stems from pride and sinful self-preservation.
New Lights thought their theology more consistently Calvinist than that of other Congregationalists.
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