An Age of Reform

1. An Age of Reform 1820-1860

2. Social Reform • 1830s Americans became interested in social reform • Organized attempts to improve conditions of life • Trying to create better society

3. Jacksonian Democracy • Expansion of democracy during Jackson’s presidency • States dropping property requirements for voting, resulting in more white men being able to vote • Some trying to make political system fairer by believing and trying to get all men to vote and have opportunity to hold office • Supporting more rights for women • Reformers speaking out strongly against slavery

4. Second Great Awakening • A movement where new generation of ministers were challenging some traditional views • During colonial days, Protestants believed in predestination, idea that God decided the fate of a person’s soul even before birth • Leaders of Second Great Awakening preached people’s own actions determined their salvation • Revivals (large outdoor religious meeting) began being held • could go on for several days, week • Attempting to convert sinners, urge people to reform their lives • People began believing that if they could improve themselves, they could also improve society

5. Utopian Communities • Utopia, a book about fictional ideal society • Reformers began forming communities based on their desire to create a more perfect society • New Harmony, Indiana (1825) utopian community founded • Common ownership of property • Residents raise their own food and manufacture their own goods • Not successful, dissolved after 2 years • Arguing over goals/actions • Most utopian communities did not last long

6. Reforming Society • Temperance Movement, organized effort to end alcohol abuse and problems created by it • Alcohol abuse reaching high numbers • Whiskey cheaper than milk, whiskey is safer to drink than contaminated water in some areas • Women drawn to the movement • Told how women and children suffered from effects of alcohol bc husbands and fathers drank too much • American Temperance Society, one organization that was formed • Published pamphlets to denounce drinking alcohol

7. Prohibition • Total ban on sale and consumption of alcohol • Not all reformers wanted a TOTAL BAN such as prohibition, but rather moderation in drinking • 1850s 9 states passed laws banning sale of alcohol • Interrupted by Civil War

8. Prison Reform • Prisons were undesirable places, in hopes of creating conditions that people would not want to be placed in • Majority of prisoners were sent there because they owed money, or they were mentally ill • Reformers began investigating conditions in jails • Dorothea Dix, school teacher, was leader of this reform • Worked to convince state legislatures to build new, more sanitary, more humane prisons

9. Reforms for Mentally Ill • Dorothea Dix reported on horrific conditions and punishments on these people in prisons • Massachusetts legislature agreed to fund a new mental hospital • She moved onto other states to spread the reform • She urged city and state governments to create asylums, separate institutions for those with mental illnesses • To provide treatment rather than punishment

10. Education Reform • Early 1800s, Massachusetts only state to require public education • Wealthy families had their children educated privately • Poor children received no education outside the home • Many Americans could not read or write 2 main arguments for education reform: • (1) Reformers argued that education was necessary to ensure that voters were intelligently informed • (2) Better schools would help immigrants to assimilate (become part of American culture)

11. Horace Mann • 1837, head of the state board of education in Massachusetts • Convinced the state to improve public school system • State responded by creating colleges to train teachers, raised salaries of teachers, lengthened school year • Other states followed what Massachusetts did • Mainly states in the northeast • Southern and Western states would not make changes for a couple decades

12. Education and African Americans • Very little improvements for African Americans • Southern states did not allow enslaved person to learn to read/write • In North, free black children not allowed to attend same schools as white children • When reformers would try to bring the improvements to the African American community, they were met with resistance from other whites in their communities

13. Women’s rights

14. Women In The 1820s • Could not vote, serve on juries, attend college or enter professions as medicine or law • Married women could not own property • Married women could not keep their own wages they earned • Belief was that the woman’s place was in the private world of the home

15. Mini-Research Activity & Presentation In your groups, you are going to research and create a timeline for the historical woman that you select. You will create this timeline in (timeline js). The links will be shared with the rest of the class. Think of how this individual was important to women’s roles during this time period. Include any dates or information that you feel are important.

16. Women To Research • Sojourner Truth • Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Susan B. Anthony • Lucretia Mott • Emma Willard • Mary Lyon • Margaret Fuller

17. Fight against slavery

18. “All Men Are Created Equal”??? • But are they???? • Declaration of Independence contained that statement, but it wasn’t exactly true • Some prominent leaders opposed slavery because it violated this basic principle

19. Slavery Ends In The North • 1780 Pennsylvania • First state to pass law that gradually eliminated slavery • By 1804, every northern state had ended or pledged to end slavery • Congress outlawed slavery in Northwest Territory • Ohio entered union in 1803, banned slavery in its Constitution (first state to do so)

20. American Colonization Society • Established in 1817 • Early antislavery organization • Wanted slaves to be freed gradually and transported to Liberia off the west coast of Africa • This was not successful • Most slaves born in this country, no desire to go to Africa

21. Abolitionists • Reformers who wanted to abolish, or end, slavery • Called for a complete and immediate end to slavery • Prominent African Americans in the North took leading role in abolitionist movement • Urged enslaved people to rebel, if necessary, to gain their freedom

22. Frederick Douglass • Most powerful speaker for abolitionism • Born into slavery • Broke the law by learning to read • Escaped to freedom in the North • Spoke in public about his experience as a slave • Appearing in public he risked being sent back into slavery • Published antislavery newspaper, The North Star

23. John Quincy Adams • Former President, a member of Congress at this time • 1839 proposed Constitutional amendment that would ban slavery in any new state joining the Union • Did not pass • 1841, Amistad was a ship sailing to United States from Africa • Slaves on board rebelled, killed the Captain, ordered crew to sail back to Africa • Crew sailed to America • Adams spoke to Supreme Court for 9 hours to help captives regain their freedom

24. Underground Railroad • It was NOT underground and it was NOT a railroad • It was a network of people (black & white) northerners and southerners who secretly helped slaves reach freedom • Working for RR was illegal and dangerous • “Conductors” led fugitive slaves from one “station” to the next • Stations were homes of abolitionists, could also be churches/caves

25. Harriet Tubman • “Black Moses”, after biblical leader who led Israelites out of slavery in Egypt • Escorted more than 300 people to freedom through Underground RR • Slave owners promised $40,000 reward for her capture