Social Reforms

Second Great awakening

major religious revival in the US

• emphasized person salvation

• democratic, emotional worship on large public revivals and camp meetings

• belief that humans could improve themselves and society

• Impact on reforms:

  • encouraged volunteerism and activism through church groups and societies

  • democratize religion—giving people voices

  • strengthened belief that faith should inspire action

Women’s rights

struggle for social, political, and economic equality between men and women

• women could not vote, limited education and work, bound to husbands, could not own property, and had few rights in divorce and child custody

Goals: suffrage, legal rights (property, marriage, guardianship), education, employment

Separate spheres

belief that women and men have separate spheres of work that should not intersect

• reformers pushed the boundaries of what women are “supposed to do”

• declaration of sentiments rejected this notion

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• leader of Women’s rights movement

• women’s rights and abolitionist

• alongside Mott held the first women’s rights convention at Seneca falls

• wrote the Declaration of Sentiments

• Founded National Women’s Royal League in 1863, with Susan B Anthony

• Advocated for 13th amendment (abolition of slavery)

Susan B Anthony

• abolitionist and women’s rights activist

• quaker—equality of everyone under God

• petitioned for married women’s property rights

• called for the first woman suffrage convention

• fought for women’s rights to vote and co-founded National Women’s suffrage association

• 19th amendment “Susan B Anthony Amendment” (grants women right to vote)

Lucretia Mott

• women’s right activist and abolitionist

• quaker—equality of everyone under God

• criticized for speaking out against slavery and fighting for women’s rights

  • this behavior did not align with being a woman

• part of declaration of sentiments

• helped establish Swarthmore college—co ed

• first president of the American Equal Rights Association

Elizabeth Blackwell

• first American women to earn medical degree and become a physician

• promoted gender equality in education

• necessary for female doctors to make female patients comfortable

Lucy Stone

• women’s suffrage

• against slavery

• refused to take husbands last name

• didn’t pay property taxes bc no taxation w o representation

• called for equal rights of race and sex

Women’s right Achievements

• Seneca falls convention: first women’s rights convention

  • discusses women’s right and created Deceleration of Sentiments

• American female delegates who wanted to join anti slavery convention turned away bc they were women

• Married women’s property acts: 1839 allowing women to own property, keep own wages and enter contract independent of their husbands—passed state by state

• fight for the right to vote—launched women’s suffrage amendment

  • eventually gained the right to vote in 1920

Seneca Falls

• Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony and others begin drawing parallel between plight of women and slaves

• 1848 organized convention in Seneca Falls NY discuss women’s rights

• Declaration of Sentiments created here

Declaration of Sentiments

document written at Seneca Falls Convention that demanded equal rights for women, modeled after Declaration of Independence

• Written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• called for right to vote, equal treatment, educational and economic opportunities, property rights, etc.

  • women are no less than men, educational, have same inalienable rights of Constitution

• signed by Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass (68 women and 32 men)

• impact: sparked more conventions yet limited immediate change, inspired women’s suffrage movement and influenced 19th amendment

Abolition

called for the immediate end of slavery

• pushing for complete emancipation of enslaved people and recognizing their humanity and civil rights

Goals: end slavery, end the slave trade, emancipation

Frederick Douglass

• abolitionist and women’s rights supporter

• formerly enslaved African American

• learned to read and write in secret

• many speeches about brutality of slavery

• 3 autobiographies—Native Life of Frederick Douglass

• founded the North Star Newspaper

• attended Seneca falls convention and signed Declaration of Sentiments

William Lloyd Garrison

• abolitionist and journalist

• supported immediate abolition after exposure to realities of slavery

• 1831 The Liberator—abolitionist newspaper

• argued slavery was a sin and a crime

• founded American Anti-slavery society

Harriet tubman

• abolitionist and women’s rights advocate

• escaped slavery

• underground railroad conductor—rescued around 70 slaves

• spy and nurse in the civil war

• spoke out about women’s right and equality—especially black women

Sojourner Truth

• abolitionist and women’s rights activist

• escaped slavery

• successfully sued white man in court to get back her son

• delivered speeches about her experience in slavery

• Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850)

• helped recruit black troops in civil war

• “Ain’t I a Woman?” —sexists and racist notions about women’s inferiority

Harriet Beecher Stow

• wrote uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

• brought awareness of the hardships of slavery

Abolition: Achievements

• America anti-slavery society (1833)

• underground railroad—network of secret routes and safe houses for enslaved people escaping the south

• Civil war—initial goal to preserve union but later turned into fight for freedom of slaves

• emancipation proclamation—issued by Lincoln declaring all slaves in confederate states free

• 13th amendment—officially abolished slavery in the US

• laid groundwork for civil rights movement

Gradual Emancipation

• some argued abolition could be achieved with long peaceful struggle

• moderates—”moral suasion”

  • appeal to conscience of slave holders→ convince slavery sinful and federal government to aid the cause

• PA gradual Abolition act (1780): ensured that children born into slavery after it’s passage would eventually gain freedom, but only after serving their enslavers until adulthood

Immediate emancipation

• called for instant and unconditional release of slaves people

• abolitionists—Garrison who argued slavery was moral evil

• radical and faced stronger resistance

• both gradual and immediate had social and economic impacts shaping the abolitionist movements

Education reforms

aimed to expand public education and make it more accessible

• children, girls, african americans, and natives had limited to no access to education

Goals: universal access, free public education, standard curriculum, teacher training

Horace Mann

• father of American Public school

• common school movement

• advocated for universal public education

• fought for government support for schools and state funding

• lengthened school year

• normal schools—teacher training

• education was essential for a functioning democracy

Catherine Beecher

• advocate for women’s education

• promoted teaching as a profession for women

• emphasized role of women shaping moral character through education

• created women’s normal school

Education Achievements

• Common schools: public schools funded by local taxes open to all children—basic education that was universal and free

• expansion of public school systens

• literacy increased across the US

• teacher profession strengthened

• showing education was a right not a privliege

Temperance

social and political campaign that aimed at reducing/eliminating consumption of alcohol beverages

• antebellum period of America—alcoholism was a serious problem

• concerns over social, moral, health and economic harms from alcohol

  • caused poverty, crime, and family breakdown

• Second Great Awakening showed that a “sin” was alcohol abuse and this led to the Temperance movement–making it like their Christian duty

Goals: reduce alcohol consumption, promote moral and family duties, protect women and children from domestic abuse, improve health and productivity

Frances Willard

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union

• advocate for temperance women’s suffrage, and education reforms

Lyman Beecher

• prominent protestant minister

• early temperance leader

• founded American Temperance Society

Carrie Nation

• dramatic and militant actions

• entered saloons to smash alcohol bottles and barrels

• said to have divine mission to destroy liquor establishments

Neal S Dow

• “Maine Law” in 1851 banned manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages

• showing legal prohibition

Temperance Achievements

• increase public awareness

• Washington temperance society created in 1840

• linked to religious revivalism and middle class values

• local and state prohibition laws— “dry laws” and “Maine law”

• growth of women’s power—ability to organize → suffrage movement

• groundwork for 18th amendment

Utopian Movement

social reform effort where groups tried to create ideal communities (utopias) reflecting a perfect society

• responses to problems and sought to build a better society from scratch—felt alone and replaceable in industrial America

Goals: create perfect/ideal society, live by moral/ spiritual principles, new forms of living—gender equality, abolition, pacifism, etc., escape problems of modern society, focus on inspiring hope in people by proving how powerful the individual was as part of harmonious communities

Robert Owen

• Utopian socialist

• founded New Harmony (1825)—secular utopia focused on education, science, and communal living—collapsed bc of internal conflicts

  • emphasized education, equality, and scientific thinking

• advocated for equality and shared labor

• strong belief in economic fairness

George Ripely

• transcendentalism minister

• established experiment with goals of uniting labor with manual work

• self-reliance, equality and merging work with philosophy

• brook farm—agricultural and intellectual pursuits

  • collapsed due to internal disagreements

John Humphry Noyes

• founder of Oneida community—collapsed due to internal tensions

• “Perfectionism” idea that people could live free from sin in the present

• complex marriage, mutual criticism, and communal child rearing

Utopian Achevements

• introduced progressive ideas of education, gender roles, and economic cooperation → influenced later reforms

• despite conflicts, external pressures, and eventual splits, these groups introduces idea of social justice and progression

Penal institutions Reform

place where people have been charged of a crime and are sent to serve their sentence

• old prisons grouped mentally ill, elderly, debtors, and murders together—uncontrolled space

• 1820s proper prisons replace these institutions

Goals: improve conditions in prisons—eliminate overcrowding and filth, separate inmates, promote, rehabilitation, end imprisonment of the mentally ill

Dorothea Dix

• advocate for the mentally ill and prison reform

• exposed abuse and neglect of mentally ill people in jail

• lobbied the government to build mental hospitals and build jails

• established state run hospitals for mentally ill instead of being in these institutions

Eliza Farmham

• prison reform activist

• advocated for education and moral rehabilitation

• introduces reading programs and human inmate treatment

Penal Institution Reform Achievements

• developed penitentiaries, asylums, houses of Refuge, and workhouses

• improved living conditions—cleaner, better food, less abuse

• mental health care reform—state funded asylums

• reform schools for juveniles

• shift from punishment to rehabilitation