1. Reforming Society Essential Questions: Homework:
What motivated reformers to tackle society’s problems?
How do you think the lives of women changed from the colonial period to the mid-1800s?
Homework:
The Abolitionist Movement pg. 176, do questions in your packets.

2. Why do some people want to reform society?
“ God has made the human body to be sustained by food and sleep, and the mind to be invigorated by effort and the regular healthfulness of the moral system, and the cheering influence of his moral government. And whoever applies habitually the stimulus of ardent spirits, does violence to the laws of his nature and is intemperate long before the intellect falters. ”
—from Reverend Lyman Beecher, “Six Sermons about Intemperance”
Why do some people want to reform society?

3. Education Believed literacy was key to democracy Public Education
Horace Mann
Leader of education reform movement
Argued for free public education
Higher Education
Colleges were founded
Attracted people to towns
Technical schools also developed

4. Education of Women Many were only taught household skills
1925
Many were only taught household skills
By 1840 most women could read and write
1836 Wesleyan College in Georgia first women’s college
1837 Oberlin College in Ohio first coeducational college
Oberlin College

5. Treatment of Mentally Ill and Challenged
Had been stigmatized and frequently put in prison
Dorothea Dix
Argued for better treatment of mentally ill
Wanted mentally ill to be treated medically not as prisoners

6. Women’s Rights
Industrial Revolution allowed women to work and interact outside of home
Women became active leaders in education and reform movements
Seneca Falls Convention 1848
Led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Demanded equal rights and right to vote (suffrage)

7. Women’s Rights
Sojourner Truth (former slave) and Susan B Anthony were leaders of women’s movement as well

8. Reform Movements Reform movements evolved
from the religious fervor of the
Second Great Awakening.
Mental Institutions: Dorothea Dix led reform to create special asylums for the mentally ill.
Temperance: The temperance movement grew from discouraging excessive alcohol use to promoting prohibition laws that made it illegal to buy or sell alcohol.
Prison Reform: Prison reformers believed that criminals should be rehabilitated, not just punished.
Education: Reformers believed that public education was needed to create an informed voting public. Mary Lyon founded the first institute of higher education for only women in 1837.