1. Antebellum Reform Movements

2. The Roots of Reform
“It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson led the transcendentalist movement  an American philosophical movement which taught that all humans – like all nature – was created good
If people became corrupt it was because an institution of society made them corrupt
This philosophy had a strong influence on American society in the 1830’s and 1840’s
Along with Protestants from the Second Great Awakening, many successful reform movements were initiated during the antebellum period
Many Americans turned their attention to making society a better place
This was a founding principle!

3. The Roots of Reform
The first half of the 1800s brought rapid social, economic, and technological changes, which laid the groundwork for reform.
At the time of the American Revolution it cost about as much to move goods ten miles on land in a wagon as it did to ship them across the Atlantic
By the 1830’s the transportation revolution, the rise of manufacturing, and the cotton gin made it more lucrative to produce and move crops and goods
This economic revolution began to divide the nation
The gap between rich and poor widened
Tens of thousands of immigrants (many of them Catholics from Ireland and Germany) arrived annually
North and South began to distinguish themselves as urban v. rural
Industrialization brought profound cultural change to the North
Working-class life was difficult and regimented
Factory workers produced goods for a new middle class (soap, clothing, household goods)
Middle class women were freed from the Cult of Domesticity with their new free time and began to focus on matters outside the home

4. The Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening, a religious revival of the early 1800s, contributed to the reform impulse by emphasizing individual responsibility and perfection.
Many members of the middle class to grow concerned about the rapid rate of change
The were also optimistic about human capacity to shape their environment
That anxiety and optimism contributed to a religious revival with broad social implications
The movement began in the backcountry and then spread east and north in the 1820’s
Tent-meeting revivals (Charles Grandison Finney)
Dual focus
“Emotionalism”  passionate preaching which emphasized humans’ ability to seize salvation
Precision  the converted Christian was expected to become a productive, orderly, moral member of the community
This rang true at a time when anything seemed possible

5. The Second Great Awakening
The evangelical revival spawned a number of reforms aimed at curbing a broad range of social ills
Many middle-class Protestants joined Finney in believing that God expected Christians to make heaven on Earth
But reform movements became more divergent and contentious as their numbers and causes swelled
The Second Great Awakening
Many urged radical changes in society (communal living, celibacy, or the destruction of monogamy)
Others focused on purging society, rather than the individual, from sin (ending poverty, slavery, women’s subjugation)
Abolitionism was a particularly diverse and divisive movement (members disagreed over whether slavery would be ended through moral suasion, political pressure, or violent slave revolts)

13. Using Primary Sources
Use the handout “Religion and Social Reform in the Antebellum Era” to complete the following:
Read each quote (Readings 1-10).
Determine which of the following social issues the author is addressing and how they want to see that issue reformed. (You may have to draw conclusions based on their words regarding what kinds of reforms they would have wanted.) Create a chart/table/graphic organizer to organize your findings.
Education Reform
Prison & Mental Health Reform
Women’s Rights
Temperance Reform (anti-alcohol)
Other Reforms
Use the information you’ve collected to respond to the questions.

14. The Temperance Movement
Sought to limit or even ban the consumption of alcohol
Strongly supported by American Protestants
Thousands of individual temperance societies at the local level by 1830’s
Members could be affiliated with any political party (not structured around partisanship)
Alcohol was considered a social evil and was blamed for more of society’s problems than any other vice
Restrictions on alcohol would limit crime, pregnancy, childe abuse, poverty, and suicide
Opposed by many immigrants and became linked with nativism and anti-immigrant sentiments
After nearly a century the movement was successful with the ratification of the 18th Amendment (called Prohibition)

15. Education Reform
In early America, few schools existed outside of Massachusetts
Children were taught at home by parents or tutors or sent away to boarding school
By the 1830’s a growing number of Americans began to advocate at all levels for free public education (at least for white boys)
In 1837 Horace Mann took control of the new Massachusetts Board of Education and pursued free, equal, non-religious schooling for all social classes
Provided by trained, well-paid, professional teachers
Set the standard for public education in the U.S. (by 1870 all states had at leas some free elementary schools)
College opportunities were also expanding beyond the few, exclusive, religious-based universities of the colonial era
By 1840 there were more than 70 institutions of higher education
Oberlin College in Ohio was the first coeducational college in America (women were admitted in 1833)

16. Prisons and Asylums Early America had very few prisons
If you were caught stealing in the early 1700’s you would have been publicly whipped
100 years later you would have been thrown into a large common cell
Reformers – influenced by the Second Great Awakening and transcendentalism – believed there was a better way to rehabilitate criminals
Lasting reforms began in the 1830’s (literacy programs, prison libraries, less physical punishment)
Americans with all kinds of disabilities had also been kept in prison-like warehouses
Dorothea Dix in 1843 helped in the creation of public institutions (asylums) in Massachusetts dedicated to the treatment of mental illness

17. Abolition Abolition  the effort to end slavery in the United States
Quakers and a vocal minority had tried to abolish slavery with the founding of the nation
Slavery itself changed with the invention of the cotton gin and the wealth earned from “King Cotton”
Southerners became more committed to maintaining and expanding the peculiar institution
Many Northerners began to see slavery as a moral evil
In the first half of the 19th century there were many different voices calling for the end of slavery
The American Colonization Society advocated purchasing all existing slaves and relocating them back to Africa (established the colony of Liberia in 1822)
William Lloyd Garrison in his newspaper The Liberator suggested that slaves should immediately be set free without compensation to owners and freedmen granted full citizenship rights
Another push came from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
So many Americans sent petitions to Congress advocating so many theories about abolition that a so called gag rule had to be instituted in order for them to be able to talk about anything else!
The movement was successful with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865

20. Women’s Rights
19th century ideas on women took root in the period of the American Revolution
“Republican Motherhood”  women should take republican ideals (freedom, virtue, public morals) and instill them in their children (primarily sons) who would grow to be good citizens
Republican Motherhood developed into the “domestic ideal” – the home as the sphere of women
Women as the moral/emotional center
Husband can forget the trials of the world outside
Kids return home from school
Woman is the “angel” who doesn’t discuss the world or negative issues
Literature is used to reinforce this ideal  Catherine Beecher’s Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841)
This ALSO gives women the sense that they are capable of handling responsibilities similar to their husbands

21. Women’s Rights Beecher also argued for the education of women
Proposes women be educated as teachers until married
By 1883, 63% of American teachers are women
Women (primarily middle-class women from the Northeast) who have increased amounts of time must first solve the dilemma of getting out of the home
Reform-minded women argue that the role of women is to instill proper values both in and out of the home
Seneca Falls Convention, New York (1848)
Birth of the women’s rights and suffrage movement
Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott
The Declaration of Sentiments
Intentionally modelled on the Declaration of Independence
Emphasized the fact that men AND women are created equal
Complaints About Women’s Status
Demands
Can’t vote
Can’t get into college
Can be taxed with no input into the construction of laws
Give women the right to vote
Women should have all the rights of men
Since women are supposedly man’s moral equal (if not superior), they should be speaking in public, preaching in pulpits, etc. – it is in the country’s best interest to give them a public role

24. Transcendentalism
While watching the clip about the Transcendentalists, respond to the following questions:
Why do you think Thoreau went to live in the woods?
In what ways did the Industrial Revolution sometimes make life worse instead of better?
Why do you think so many writers and creative thinkers were drawn to the anti-slavery movement?
What aspects of Thoreau’s philosophy can be seen in the voluntary simplicity movement?
Do you think that in our modern-day lives we are disconnected from the natural world around us?
What are some of the criticisms about Thoreau and his writings expressed by his contemporaries and also by later critics?
What was the nature of Thoreau’s relationship with Ralph Waldo Emerson?
Do you think Thoreau found what he was looking for at Walden Pond?
What is civil disobedience?
Why do critics celebrate Thoreau’s night in jail, even though we now know that a relative had paid his taxes and he was in jail only because the jailer had gone home for the day?
How did the coming of the railroad affect pristine locations like Walden Pond?
Why is it ironic that Thoreau is now used for commercial purposes all over Concord?

25. Reformer
Area they Tried to Change
What they did to Improve Society
Sojourner Truth
Lyman Beecher
Dorthea Dix
William Lloyd Garrison
Theodore Weld
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Tubman
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Horace Mann
Nat Turner
Harriet Beecher Stowe

26. Reformer
Area they Tried to Change
What they did to Improve Society
Neal Dow
Theodore Weld
Lucretia Mott
George Ripley
John Humphrey Noyes
Joseph Smith
Brigham Young
Robert Owen
Elijah Lovejoy
Father Theobald Matthew
Mother Ann Lee
Sojourner Truth

27. Reviewing Key Themes

28. How evidence proves claim
AP #1- How did the 2nd Great Awakening inspire religious fervor that initiated reform during the 19th century.
Answer the question by completing ACES.
Academic provide at least 2 claims, Honors 3 claims
Answer
Question with claim
Cite
Textual Evidence
Explain
How evidence proves claim
Summarize
Idea