Reform Movements of

the 1800sTo what extent did the reform movements of the mid-1800s improve life for Americans?

Mrs. MataNYOS Charter School

Transcendentali

sm

The movement based on the belief that the world around us "transcends" or goes beyond what we see, hear, taste, touch or feel and based on intuition and

imagination

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

RALPH WALDO

EMERSON

find the truth within yourself

WALTWHITMAN

Transcendentalists believe that every human being

has unlimited potential, that they can find the

answers to life’s mysteries only by learning to trust

their emotions and intuitions.

Urged people to question society’s

rules and institutions. DO DO

NOT CONFORM NOT CONFORM to others’

expectations.

ABOLITIONISTSThe movement to ban slavery

Fighters the ABOLITION of Slavery

William Lloyd Garrison•Publisher of The LIBERATOR newspaper

•Wanted full equality for African Americans

•“I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard!”

•Proslavery groups destroyed his printing press and burned his house

William Lloyd Garrison•Publisher of The LIBERATOR newspaper

•Wanted full equality for African Americans

•“I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard!”

•Proslavery groups destroyed his printing press and burned his house

Frederick Douglass

• Former slave• Voice like thunder• Independent thinker• Published autobiography• Started his own

newspaper, North Star

Speakers and Activists for WOMEN’S RIGHTS and the ABOLITION of Slavery Sarah & Angelina Grimke

I ask no favors for my sex, I surrender not our claim to equality.  All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on the ground which God has designed us to occupy.

~ Sarah Grimke

• Southern sisters born to a slaveholding family in South Carolina

• Only spoke to crowds of women at first, later to both men & women

• Proslavery mobs burned down the building that Angelina gave a speech

“Abolitionists never sought place or power. All they asked was freedom; all they wanted was that the white man should take his foot off the negro's neck.”

—Angelina Grimke

Conductor on the Underground Railroad HARRIET TUBMAN

Henry “Box” BrownMailed himself to FREEDOM!

“I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.”

~ Harriet Tubman

Female abolitionists were in a strange position. 1.They were trying to convince lawmakers that slavery was illegal, yet they themselves could not vote or hold office. 2.They worked to raise money for the abolition movement, yet their fathers and husbands controlled their money and property. 3.They spoke out against slave beatings, yet their husbands could “discipline” them however they wanted.

These women saw that they had much in common with enslaved people.

““What then can woman do for the slave,” What then can woman do for the slave,” asked Angelina Grimke, asked Angelina Grimke,

“when she is herself under the feet of man and shamed into “when she is herself under the feet of man and shamed into silence?”silence?”

WOMEN’S

RIGHTSThe movement for equal treatment

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON

LUCRETIA MOTT

These two women met in 1840 at the World Anti-

Slavery Convention in

London, England. When they

arrived, they were outraged to discover that women were not allowed to speak at the meeting.

• 47 years old• 4 children• Quaker• Preached

against slavery in both black & white churches

• Helped black girls attend school

• 25 years old• Newly wed• Never spoke

in public • Attended 1st

high school for girls in U.S.

LUCRETIA MOTT

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON

1848 SENECA FALLS CONVENTION

Seneca Falls, New York

On July 19, 1848, nearly 300 people, including 40 men, arrived for the Seneca Falls Convention. The convention organizers modeled their proposal for women’s rights, called the Declaration of SentimentsDeclaration of Sentiments, on the Declaration of Independence. Just as the D.O.IL listed King George’s acts of tyranny over the colonists, the Declaration of Sentiments listed acts of tyranny by men over women.

• Man did not let women vote• He did not give her the right to own property• He did not allow her to practice professions like medicine and

law

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and WOMEN are created equal.”

During the Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, proposed that women demand the right to vote. Stanton received powerful support from Frederick Douglass, a participant at the Convention. He believed that if black men had the right to vote, then so should black women—and all

women.

SOJOURNER TRUTHBorn a New York slave in 1797.  At birth, her name was Isabelle. She was freed by a New York law which proclaimed that all slaves twenty-eight years of age and over were to be freed. In her later life, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Sojourner means traveler. She joined the Anti-Slavery Society and became an abolitionist lecturer and a speaker for women's rights both black and white. She spoke out at religious meetings in the North and on street corners.

SOJOURNER TRUTHBorn a New York slave in 1797.  At birth, her name was Isabelle. She was freed by a New York law which proclaimed that all slaves twenty-eight years of age and over were to be freed. In her later life, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Sojourner means traveler. She joined the Anti-Slavery Society and became an abolitionist lecturer and a speaker for women's rights both black and white. She spoke out at religious meetings in the North and on street corners.

..

AIN'T I A WOMAN? by Sojourner Truth

Delivered in 1851 at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman?

I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

TEMPERANCEThe movement to ban alcohol

                       

                                                          

SALOON

Education Reform

The movement to make

education available to all children

School life in the 1800s:School life in the 1800s:

Wealthy parents sent their children to private schools or hired tutors in the east coast

On the western frontier, students might attend a public school, part of the day, in one room, with 60 other students. Most children did not go to school at all.

In the big cities, like New York, some poor children stole, destroyed property and set fires. Education reformers believed that schooling would help these children escape poverty and become good citizens.

Horace Mann spoke out on the need for public schools in the state of Massachusetts. Citizens of the Massachusetts agreed and voted to pay taxes to build school, pay and train teachers.

Most high schools and

colleges only accepted boys. Some states, mostly in the South, passed laws to keep African Americans out of public schools.

GROUP WORK

HAVE WE FIXED THIS YET?

“He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise [vote]. He has compelled her to submit to laws, the formation of which she had no voice.”

Discuss with your group how to rewrite the following in words a classmate could understand.

Has this grievance been redressed today?

FIXED NOT FIXED

“He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise [vote]. He has compelled her to submit to laws, the formation of which she had no voice.”

“He has monopolized [dominated] nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration [pay].”

Discuss with your group how to rewrite the following in words a classmate could understand.

Has this grievance been redressed today?

FIXED NOT FIXED

“He has monopolized [dominated] nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration [pay].”

“He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.”

Discuss with your group how to rewrite the following in words a classmate could understand.

Has this grievance been redressed today?

FIXED NOT FIXED

“He has created a false sense of public sentiment by giving the world a different code of morals for men and women.”

Discuss with your group how to rewrite the following in words a classmate could understand.

Has this grievance been redressed today?

FIXED NOT FIXED