Era of Reform

reform

to change or to try to improve

transcendentalism

A movement that sought to explore the relationship between humans and nature through emotions rather than through reason

Hudson River School

Group of American landscape painters

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

(1815-1902) A suffragette who, with Lucretia Mott, organized the first convention on women's rights, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Issued the Declaration of Sentiments which declared men and women to be equal and demanded the right to vote for women. Co-founded the National Women's Suffrage Association with Susan B. Anthony in 1869.

Frederick Douglas

(1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Dorothea Dix

Rights activist on behalf of mentally ill patients - created first wave of US mental asylums

Sojourner Truth

United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women (1797-1883)

Horace Mann

Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, he was a prominent proponent of public school reform, and set the standard for public schools throughout the nation.

Henry David Thoreau

Transcendentalist; civil disobedience; gov. that violates individual morality has no legit authority

Civil Disobedience

A nonviolent, public refusal to obey allegedly unjust laws.

Seneca Falls convention

(1848) the first national women's rights convention at which the Declaration of Sentiments was written

suffrage

The right to vote

Second Great Awakening

Inspired many to achieve perfection on earth; helped influence reform movements (abolitionism, women's rights, temperance, etc.)

Declaration of Sentiments

declared that all "people are created equal"; used the Declaration of Independence to argue for women's rights

Underground Railroad

A system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North

Liberator

Anti-slavery (abolitionist) newspaper founded by New Englander William Lloyd Garrison/Liberator was outspoken and controversial because of their unwavering stand on slavery.

abolitionists

People who wanted to end slavery