Reform Movements Ch. 6 Sec. 3

Temperance Movement Alcoholism was widespread during the early 1800’s Temperance – moderation in the consumption of alcohol American Temperance Union – mainly women Argued that no social vice caused more crime, disorder, and poverty than the excessive use of alcohol Men who drank excessively… Spent money on liquor rather than food and other family necessities Abused their wives and children 1851 Maine passed Prohibition law

Prison Reform Prisons were literally holes in the ground in some cases Ex. – abandoned mineshafts, etc. Overcrowded Many began to call for a better environment for inmates Belief in rehabilitating prisoners rather than just locking them up

Prison Reform New institutions… Dorothea Dix Rigid discipline – rid criminals of the laxness Solitary confinement and silence on work crews Think about what they had done - Penitentiaries- prisoners could achieve remorse Dorothea Dix Led prison reform after seeing poor conditions Created special institutions called asylums for the mentally ill

Education Reform 1800- Push for public education Govt. funded schools open to all citizens A democratic republic could only survive if the voters well educated and informed Horace Mann (Massachusetts legislator) Created a state board of education Established training for teachers Doubled teacher salaries

Education Reform 1852 – Massachusetts passed the first mandatory school attendance law School was to teach the basics of… Reading, writing, arithmetic, and instill a work ethic Local and state taxes supported tuition The South as a whole responded less quickly to education to the North

“True Womanhood” The idea that women should be homemakers and should take responsibility for developing their children's characters Women were… Viewed as more moral and charitable than men Expected to be models of piety and virtue to their children and husbands

Women’s Movement “True womanhood” implied that wives were now partners with their husbands and morally superior to them They needed greater political rights to make society more virtuous 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention Organized by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Marked the beginnning of an organized women’s movement

Seneca Falls Convention Issued a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions Declaration of Ind.  “…that all men and women (added in) are created equal…” Stanton proposed that they focus on women’s suffrage Women gaining the right to vote Women gained some property rights but no voting until 1920!

Gradualism Early antislavery societies supported gradualism End slavery gradually 1st – stop new slaves from being brought into the US 2nd – phase out slavery in the North and Upper South 3rd – end slavery in the Lower South

Antislavery Colonization American Colonization Society (ACS) Best solution to end slavery was to send AA back to their ancestral homelands in Africa ACS acquired land in West Africa and b/g shipping free AA back to Africa Established a colony that eventually b/c Liberia B/c a country in 1847 – adopted a constitution based on the US – capital Monrovia named after president Monroe Colonization was never a realistic solution b/c the cost of transporting the AA was high and AA were now assimilated

Abolitionist Movement Abolitionists argued that enslaved AA should be freed immediately W/o compensation to slaveholders David Walker First well-known advocate of abolition Advocated violence and rebellion as the only way to end slavery

Abolition Movement William Lloyd Garrison 1830’s – Began a large national abolitionist movement Founded Boston’s antislavery newspaper the Liberator Demanded an immediate end to slavery Believed slavery was immoral and slaveholders were evil Only option was immediate and complete emancipation! Emancipation – freeing of all enslaved people

AA Abolitionist Frederick Douglass Sojourner Truth Escaped from slavery in Maryland, brilliant thinker and speaker Published his own antislavery newspaper, the North Star and wrote an autobiography Sojourner Truth Gained freedom in 1827 when NY freed all remaining enslaved people in the state Her antislavery speeches drew large crowds Joyous, deeply religious, full of stories and song