REFORM MOVEMENTS

1820-1860

SOCIAL REFORM

ORGANIZED ATTEMPT TO IMPROVE WHAT IS UNJUST OR IMPERFECT

RELIGIOUS

INFLUENCES

THE GREAT AWAKENING

1730-1740 Religious movement that swept through the

colonies Led by Jonathan Edwards Impact: 1-Growth of churches forced colonists

to be more tolerant of religious differences Spread of democratic feelings in the colonies

SECOND GREAT AWAKENING

1800S Stresses free will rather than

predestination Revivals encourage people to reform

their lives Charles Finney taught that individual

salvation is the first step to the reform of a society

POLITICAL

ORIGINS

DOROTHEA DIX

Fights for mentally ill and prisons Legislature funds mental hospitals Persuades nation to treat mentally ill as patients, not

prisoners Improves prison’s conditions (low supplies, went

hungry, multiple people per cell) ; banned cruel punishments; shorter sentences for minor crimes;

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT

This was a campaign against alcohol abuse in 1820.

Alcohol abuse and drunkenness was widespread throughout the nation in the 1800s among men, women, children.

Families faced wife beatings, child abuse, and the breakup of families.

As a result many states outlawed sale of alcohol.

EDUCATION

Public Schools:• Horace Mann fought for rights in Mass.

• Training for teachers

• Higher wages

• States passed laws requiring education

• Taxed-supported school districts

• Built colleges

African American• North: separate school houses

• Many Americans were very hostile towards these schools; burning school, attacking the teachers

• 1854, 1st African-American college in Penn.

Disabilities• 1817: 1st school for the deaf

• 1832: 1st school for the blind; the system of Braille was constructed

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Sojourner Truth• Free slave in 1827

• Effective women’s rights leader

• Fought against slavery

• Traveled all over the nation, giving speeches

• Pres. Lincoln chose her to be a counselor to the freedmen in Washington

Elizabeth Stanton • Fought for women’s rights

• Women’s suffrage (the right to vote)

• Women’s equality in the home, work, education, church, own property

• Seneca Falls Convention

• Wrote “Declaration of Sentiments”

• Similar to the Declaration of Independence

• Advocated that women were created equal, too.

ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT: 1830 a person who wants to end slavery nationwide

Frederick Douglas• Runaway slaved that spoke out against

slavery as a slave and while in hiding.

• Taught himself how to read and write.

• Wrote a book about his life as a slave.

• 1847, white friends bought his freedom.

Harriet Tubman• “Black Moses”

• Runaway slave

• Risking her freedom and life, she returned to the South 19 times, freeing over 300 slaves

• Underground Railroad: network of abolitionists, helping slaves escape to North or Canada (STORY) It was a chain of homes and farms where escaped slaves could go her help.

William Lloyd Garrison• White abolitionist

• 1831 Wrote “The Liberator” antislavery newspaper• Told Congress and the world that slavery must be

abolished

• Est. National Antislavery Society

Harriet Beecher Stowe• “Uncle’s Tom Cabin” 1852

• Was a slave who was whipped to death by his master

• Shows the evils of slavery and the injustice of the Fugitive Slave Act.

• The gains wide support in the North: saw slavery as a moral issue

• South objective to the book: did not show the true picture of a slave’s life. Book was banned in the South