Reforms and Reformers: Chapter 8, Section 4

Reactions to social injustice can lead to reform movements. Many Americans worked for reform

in education and other areas.

The Reforming Spirit

• Main idea: Religious and philosophical ideas inspired various reform movements.

• Reform: change for the better

Henry David Thoreau & Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Thoreau refused to pay $1 tax to vote so was jailed. He didn’t want his money to support the Mexican American War

• When friend Ralph Waldo Emerson asked: “Why are you here?” He responded: “Why are you NOT here?” indicating that “under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison”

Utopias• Thoreau represented spirit of reform• New direction in US toward true liberty

and equality in religion, politics, education, art, and literature

• Nation should live up to goals created in the beginning

• Some took it as far as forming utopian communities like Robert Owen’s New Harmony, Indiana (high hopes and impractical ideas) lasted only a few years

The Second Great Awakening• Religious revivals• People gathered to hear

“eloquent” speeches by preachers like Charles Finney

• Eager to reform lives • People became more religious

and more active in bettering their own lives

Temperance Movement• Religious leaders spoke out

against the evils of drinking as it cause poverty, breaks up families, and crime

• Temperance = drinking little or no alcohol

• 1851, Maine (and other states) passed laws banning production and sale of alcohol

1. What were the effects of the Second Great Awakening?2. Utopia comes from the Greek word that means “nowhere”.

Why are perfect communities (utopias) called “nowhere”?

Reforming Education• Main Idea: Reformers wanted

to make education accessible to all citizens.

• 1800s, only NE had free schooling, other areas had to pay or kids simply didn’t go• Parents either needed to pay

for education or send children to school “for the poor”

Reforming Education

• Horace Mann, a lawyer, wanted education to be free and government funded. He lengthened school year, increased wages for teachers, and improved teacher training and curriculum

• MA founded nation’s 1st state supported normal school (teacher training)

How Did Education Change?• By 1850s, educational principles

included (1) should be free and supported by taxes, (2) teachers should be trained, and (3) children should be required to attend

• It was hard to meet all 3 principles and education was inequitable between genders

• Limited education for girls, studied music and needlework instead of “mens” core subjects

Higher Education• More colleges created during

age of reform• Mostly men’s colleges and

many funded by religious groups, but slowly more and more colleges opened for women and African Americans (Oberlin, Mount Holyoke, Ashmun, etc.)

People with Special Needs• Thomas Gallaudet: developed methods

to educate people who were hearing impaired, opened college too

• Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe: made advances in the education for the blind so people could “read with fingers”

• Dorothea Dix: educated public about poor conditions for the mentally ill and those in prison

1. How did Dr. Samuel Howe help the visually impaired?2. Why do you think people of the early 1800s opposed making

children attend school?3. How do you think Horace Mann responded to those people?

Cultural Trends• Main idea: A new wave of literature

that was distinctly American swept the United States.

• Changes in society influenced art and literature

• Looked to Europe for inspiration before new style was formed

Transcendentalism• Stressed the relationship between

humans and nature, and importance of individual conscience

• Margaret Fuller, Emerson, Thoreau• Movement toward more active and

introspective citizens• Being one with nature• Nonconformity • Education• Common sense • Civil disobedience

Transcendentalists

• Ralph Waldo Emerson: listen to inner conscience

• Henry David Thoreau: civil disobedience

• Margaret Fuller: supported women’s rights

American Writers Emerge• First writings about “American” subjects• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: story poems• John Greenleaf Whittier: description in

poem• Edgar Allan Poe: imagination and terror• Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass - reflects

his love of nature, common people, and American Democracy

• Emily Dickinson: simple, personal, emotional poetry

Hope

“Hope is a thing with feathers -That preaches in the soul -And sings the tune without the wordsAnd never stopsat all--”

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: explored injustice of slavery

- Women writers not taken seriously, yet had some of the most popular works

1. What was one of the subjects that Margaret Fuller wrote about?

2. What did Horace Mann accomplish?3. How did Thoreau act on his beliefs? What impact might such

acts have had on the government?