Era of Reform - U.S. 1800s

Second Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals starting in 1801; stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds

reform

to make changes in order to bring about improvement, end abuses, or correct injustices.

transcendentalism

A movement that sought to explore the relationship between humans and nature through emotions rather than through reason and included writers like Raplh Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau

abolitionists

People who wanted to end slavery

Seneca Falls Convention

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

Declaration of Sentiments

Revision of the Declaration of Independence to include women and men (equal). It was the grand basis of attaining civil, social, political, and religious rights for women.

Sojourner Truth

Runaway slave who became a leader of the abolitionist and women's movements; best-known for her *Ain't I a Woman?* speech (1851).

individualism

The idea that the individual is more important than the state or any other group.

prison reform

movement to improve condition and treatment of prisoners and to stop people from being jailed for reasons like debt or mental illness

Dorothea Dix

A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S.

debtors prison

a prison for people unable to pay debt

Horace Mann

education reformer from Massachusetts who favored public schooling for all children.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A prominent advocate of women's rights, Stanton organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention with Lucretia Mott

Lucretia Mott

Quaker activist in both the abolitionist and women's movements; w/ Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she was a principal organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention

Susan B. Anthony

Women's right leader who spoke passionately for the right of women to vote

Elizabeth Blackwell

First woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S.

Oberlin College

first college to teach women and African Americans

Temperance Movement

A social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages