Antebellum Period Chapter 18- Reform Movements of the 1800’s

In the early 1800s, the United States grew rapidly in size and population. Many Americans worried about the social problems they saw growing around them. To help solve these problems, some people started reform movements (efforts to improve society). From the 1830s through the 1850s, reformers try to improve American society in many ways. Some of their efforts met with great resistance, while others found supporters that helped the movement.

• Second Great Awakening- increase religion in life • Temperance movement- to end alcohol drinking • Health Care- for the mental illness/prisoner rights • Women’s Rights • Public Education • Abolish slavery

Religion Many people turn to religion to help with problems they sound society. Throughout the US history, the majority of Americans have been Christians. The First Great Awakening happened earlier in the 1730s through 1740s. From about 1790s to 1840s, religious enthusiasm increased during an era called the Second Great Awakening. During this period ministers traveled the country preaching new religious ideas. Some of the religious ideas were expressed in hymns or a religious song. One religious hymn was extremely popular was Amazing Grace. They encouraged people, that with gods help they can improve their lives. People who had a religious experience that led to commitment to God were called Born-again Christians.

The Temperance Movement One of the largest reform movements was called a temperance movement. This movement tried to convince people to drink alcohol in small quantities or to avoid alcohol all together. They wanted to show people that temperance lead to health, happiness, strength of body and mind, and prosperity (well-being).

They showed images to discourage people from alcohol. Showing it leads to gambling, robbery, disease, misery, and sanity. Employers complained that their employees at the factories wouldn’t show up to work on time due to their alcohol problems. Wives and mothers complained about the men and their families who drank and abused their family members or would waste the family’s money. Mental illness

A Boston woman, Dorothea Dix, led a movement to build mental hospitals where people could get treatment if they needed it. Most people with a mental illness were often abused or kept in prisons. For two years she gathered information about the horrors she had seen in prisons. Then she prepared a detail report for Massachusetts state legislator. She stated, “I come as an advocate for helpless, forgotten, insane… Men and women, I call to your attention to present state of insane persons, confined… In cages, closets, cellars, … chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!” The Massachusetts Congress was shocked by her report and voted to create public asylums for the mentally ill. She also helped to reform prisons. She wanted to stop cruel punishment and jail time for minor crimes. She also pushed to educate the prisoners in religion and a trade so when they left, jail they would be productive in society.

Women’s rights The women’s right movement demanded equal rights for women. Only white men were allowed to vote. In the 1800s, laws limited women’s rights especially if married. Once a woman got married:

• Their husbands gain control of their property • Women also lost the ability to sign contracts for themselves, making it hard

to run a business. • It was difficult to afford a lawyer • In most cases when a woman was divorced she lost custody of her children • Divorced woman had few rights

For these reasons, most women stayed in bad marriages where they were abused and mistreated.

Women Advocates: A common and acceptable job for most women was teaching. Many teachers got involved in reforms movements. One activist, Susan B Anthony, was a teacher who became outraged by the unequal pay she received compared to male teachers. She met Elizabeth Caddy Stanton, met at the world anti-slavery convention in 1840. At the London convention, but they were not allowed to be full participants. The women had sit in the balcony, behind a curtain.

• Lucreita Mott had preached against slavery in both white and black churches.

She also helped Prudence Crandall try to find black girls students for her school.

• Elizabeth Blackwell wanted to be a doctor. She had studied mathematics, science and history. 29 medical schools rejected her before one finally accepted her. She graduated top of her class and becoming the first female doctor in 1849. Still no hospitals or doctors office would hire her.

Seneca Falls Convention Stanton and Mott organized a conference seeking equal rights for women. On July 19, 1848, nearly 300 women including 40 men arrived in the Seneca Falls convention. Many were abolitionists, Quakers or other reformers. This is where organized movement for women’s rights was about to begin. The convention organizers modeled their proposal for women’s rights, the declaration of sentiments, on a declaration of independence. “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men and women are created equal.“ The declaration of sentiments was a formal statement of injustices suffered by women written by the organizers of the Seneca Falls convention. Sentiments mean beliefs or convictions.

Abolishment The abolition movement worked to make all people United States free. Millions of African American people were enslaved in the United States. Many Northerners, as well as many white Southerners, knew that slavery was morally wrong. However, the South’s economy depended on slave labor in overtime that dependence grew. Sojourner Truth was born a slave. When she was 29 years old she ran away and escape to her freedom. Inspired by her faith during the Second Great Awakening, she traveled the country giving anti-slavery sermons. Fredrick Douglas was an abolitionist leader. He was born into slavery sometime around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. He became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a range of causes, including women's rights. Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Other famous abolitionists were:

• David Walker • William Lloyd Garrison • Henry Highland Garnet • Harriet Beecher Stowe • John Brown

Education

A reform that was an easy one to support in the 1800s was the effort to make education available to more children. The man who would become known as the “father of American public schools “was Horace Mann. He led the movement in Massachusetts that spread across the north and to the west. In the early 1800s, few other areas had public schools (schools paid for by taxes). Puritans had established town schools during their first settlements. Wealthy family’s sent their children to private schools or hired tutors. In the west/frontier, 60 children might attend a part time, one room school. In the cities, children in poverty did not go to school because they were causing issues such as stealing, destroying property and even setting fires. New York set up a public elementary school in the early 1800s to help children escape poverty and become good citizens.

In Massachusetts Horace Mann became the state superintendent of education. By 1850, many states in the north and west begin adopting man‘s idea of public education. Soon most white children especially boys, attended free public schools. Unfortunately girls were not admitted into high schools or colleges. African-Americans were kept out of public schools. And if they did go to school they were separated from white children. African-American girls very few were to none in schools. One exception was Prudence Crandall. She admitted black girls to her school in Connecticut in 1833. White parents took their children out of school. Many angry white people threw stones at the school and had Crandall thrown jail. In 1834, she was forced to close her school. Horace Mann realized that much more needed to be done to increase educational opportunities for women and African-Americans. In 1853 became the first president of a new college for men and women, in Ohio. He urged his students to become involved in improving society. He had said, “be ashamed to die, until you have won some victory for humanity.”