Journal

Prompt: “Amendment”

The Reformers Part IThe Movement to Improve the World

The Second Great Awakening

Defined: The religious movement of the early 1800s including revivals

and missionary ideals.

“Humanism”

Also part of the cultural driving force, but “humanism” has too many meanings today.

Just remember, the Reformers fit within a larger movement geared towards the improvement or even perfection of the human condition.

Three Areas of Interest

Education

Abolition

Women’s Rights

EDUCATIONNew School for the U.S.A.

Education

Early 1800s- Only New England provided free elementary education.

Horace Mann- Head of Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837

Lengthened the school year, improved curriculum, doubled teacher salaries, developed new ways to train teachers.

1839- First state supported “normal school”

THANKS HORACE!

By 1850s

Three Principles are generally accepted1) School should be free (supported by taxes)

2) Teachers should be trained

3) Compulsory attendance (required)

Higher Education

More colleges and universities

Oberlin College of Ohio -1833First to admit women and African-Americans

Mount Holyoke- 1837First permanent Women’s College

Ashmun Institute (later Lincoln University) 1854

First African-American college

New Types of Schools

Hartford School for the Deaf- 1817

Perkins Institute- School for the Blind

Hartford

ABOLITIONISTSThose who spoke against the “peculiar institution”

Early Efforts

Constitutional Convention of 1787No abolition, but ended the slave trade in 1808

Gradual abolition in the North

New Jersey- Last Northern state to abolish slavery (officially) in 1804. Final thirteen slaves freed by the 13th Amendment in 1865.

American Colonization Society

Founded by group of Virginians in 1816

Sought to emancipate and relocate African-Americans

To Africa

1822- First African-Americans arrive in Liberia

Proble

ms?

The Cause Changes

By 1830s, Gradual emancipation is no longer reasonable.

More people enlist in the cause to end slavery.White men, women, and African-Americans

Frederick Douglass edited the North Star

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

New Reformers Included

Opposition in the North

Many Northerners saw abolition as a:Threat to social order.

Threat to northern economy.

Threat to national peace.

Opposition could turn violentElijah Lovejoy’s print shop was wrecked four times.

The fourth time, opposition forces set fire to his shop.

Lovejoy was shot.

Opposition in the South

Defense of slavery:Essential to Southern economy and culture

“Good for slaves” (compared to “wage slavery”)

“Providence has placed [the slave] in our hands for his own good”