Reformers

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Believed in the Over-Soul and intuition and criticized formal religious traditions as dead and left a legacy as the leader of Transcendentalism with major works including Nature and Self-Reliance

Henry David Thoreau

Believed in simple living and individual conscience and criticized government overreach and the Mexican American War and left a legacy in environmentalism and civil disobedience through Walden

Margaret Fuller

Believed in women’s intellectual equality and criticized the restriction of women to domestic roles and left a legacy as the first female American foreign war correspondent with Woman in the Nineteenth Century

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Believed in the reality of sin and human guilt and criticized the naive optimism of Transcendentalists and left a legacy as a master of Dark Romanticism through The Scarlet Letter

George Ripley

Believed in balancing manual labor with intellectual growth and criticized competitive capitalism and left a legacy as the founder of Brook Farm and editor of The Dial

Robert Owen

Believed environment determines character and criticized private property and organized religion and left a legacy as founder of New Harmony and the cooperative movement with A New View of Society

John Humphrey Noyes

Believed in Perfectionism and communal living and criticized traditional marriage and left a legacy as founder of the Oneida Community with writings in The Berean

Charles Fourier

Believed society should be organized into self sufficient phalanxes and criticized commercial competition and left a legacy inspiring over forty American utopian experiments through The Social Destiny of Man

Theodore Parker

Believed in Permanent Christianity centered on social justice and criticized the Fugitive Slave Act and left a legacy as a member of the Secret Six and author of A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion

Mother Ann Lee

Believed in celibacy and the dual gender nature of God and criticized traditional families and left a legacy as leader of the Shakers known for simple living

Timothy Dwight

Believed in orthodox Calvinism and criticized Enlightenment Deism and left a legacy revitalizing Yale and igniting the Second Great Awakening

Dwight L Moody

Believed in simple urban evangelism and criticized complex theology and left a legacy founding the Moody Bible Institute and modern revival methods

Charles Grandison Finney

Believed salvation was a human choice and criticized predestination and left a legacy as Father of Modern Revivalism with Lectures on Revivals of Religion

Peter Cartwright

Believed in frontier Methodist revivalism and criticized rival sects and left a legacy as the most famous circuit rider preacher in the West

William Miller

Believed the Bible predicted Christ’s return in 1844 and was criticized after the Great Disappointment and left a legacy founding the Adventist movement

Joseph Smith

Believed in modern prophecy and restoration of the ancient church and was criticized by mainstream denominations and left a legacy founding Mormonism with The Book of Mormon

Brigham Young

Believed in a Mormon Zion in the West and was criticized for polygamy and left a legacy as the American Moses who led the migration to Utah and founded Salt Lake City

Lyman Beecher

Believed in voluntary societies to reform morals and criticized Catholic influence and left a legacy co founding the American Temperance Society with Six Sermons on Intemperance

George Caleb Bingham

Believed in portraying common citizens in democracy and criticized eastern art elitism and left a legacy through frontier genre paintings like The County Election

William S Mount

Believed American art should reflect rural life and criticized European grandeur and left a legacy establishing American genre painting with The Banjo Player

Thomas Cole

Believed nature was a divine spiritual force and criticized industrial destruction and left a legacy founding the Hudson River School with The Oxbow

Frederick Church

Believed in the sublime majesty of nature and criticized lack of scientific detail and left a legacy through massive landscapes like The Heart of the Andes

Washington Irving

Believed America needed a unique folklore and criticized cultural imitation and left a legacy as the first internationally famous American author with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

James Fenimore Cooper

Believed in the noble frontier and vanishing wilderness and criticized rapid civilization and left a legacy creating Natty Bumppo in The Last of the Mohicans

Herman Melville

Believed in the complexity of evil and criticized Transcendentalist optimism and left a legacy as a symbolic literary master with Moby Dick

Edgar Allan Poe

Believed literature should create a single emotional effect and criticized moralizing poetry and left a legacy inventing detective fiction with The Raven

Neal S Dow

Believed alcohol caused social ruin and criticized the liquor trade and left a legacy as Father of Prohibition through the Maine Law of 1851

Dorothea Dix

Believed the state must care for the mentally ill and criticized their imprisonment and left a legacy revolutionizing asylum systems

Thomas Gallaudet

Believed the deaf deserved full education and criticized neglect of communication and left a legacy founding the first permanent American school for the deaf

Dr Samuel Gridley Howe

Believed the blind could integrate into society and criticized institutional warehousing and left a legacy directing Perkins and educating Laura Bridgman

Horace Mann

Believed public education was the great equalizer and criticized sectarian schooling and left a legacy as father of the Common School Movement

William Holmes McGuffey

Believed literacy should include moral instruction and criticized unstandardized education and left a legacy through the Eclectic Readers

Sylvester Graham

Believed health came from whole grains and temperance and criticized meat and white flour consumption and left a legacy in health reform and graham crackers

Lucretia Mott

Believed women’s rights and abolition were inseparable and criticized women’s exclusion from conventions and left a legacy co organizing Seneca Falls

Sarah and Angelina Grimké

Believed women had a divine right to speak publicly and criticized church silencing and left a legacy as the first women to address a state legislature with Letters on the Equality of the Sexes

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Believed suffrage was the foundation of all rights and criticized the cult of domesticity and left a legacy writing the Declaration of Sentiments and The Woman’s Bible

Lucy Stone

Believed marriage should not erase legal identity and criticized coverture laws and left a legacy founding the AWSA and keeping her maiden name

Susan B Anthony

Believed voting was essential for equality and criticized the Fourteenth Amendment and left a legacy as the face of the suffrage movement and the Nineteenth Amendment

Catharine Beecher

Believed women should dominate education and domestic life and criticized radical suffrage and left a legacy professionalizing teaching with A Treatise on Domestic Economy

Mary Lyon

Believed women deserved rigorous affordable higher education and criticized limited access and left a legacy founding Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

William Lloyd Garrison

Believed in immediate uncompensated emancipation and criticized the Constitution as pro slavery and left a legacy founding the American Anti Slavery Society and The Liberator

James Birney

Believed slavery must end through political action and criticized Garrisonian anti government views and left a legacy as Liberty Party presidential candidate

Frederick Douglass

Believed the Constitution could be used against slavery and criticized Northern racism and left a legacy as the most influential Black leader of the nineteenth century through The North Star

Harriet Tubman

Believed in direct physical liberation and criticized the Fugitive Slave Act and left a legacy conducting thirteen Underground Railroad missions and serving as a Union spy

Sojourner Truth

Believed she was called by God to fight slavery and sexism and criticized exclusion of Black women and left a legacy through her Ain’t I a Woman speech

William Still

Believed documenting fugitives preserved Black agency and criticized historical erasure and left a legacy as Father of the Underground Railroad with The Underground Railroad Records

David Walker

Believed enslaved people had a moral right to violent resistance and criticized Black passivity and white hypocrisy and left a legacy radicalizing abolition through his Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World

Henry Highland Garnet

Believed enslaved people should launch a general strike and criticized calls for patience and left a legacy through his militant Call to Rebellion speech

Nat Turner

Believed he was divinely chosen to enact judgment and was criticized for the violence of his revolt and left a legacy causing harsher Southern slave laws

Lydia Maria Child

Believed in immediate emancipation and racial integration and criticized colonization and left a legacy as a prolific reform author with An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans

Wendell Phillips

Believed in full political equality and criticized Lincoln’s moderation and left a legacy as Abolition’s Golden Trumpet

Elijah Lovejoy

Believed freedom of the press was essential to reform and criticized mob violence and left a legacy as the first martyr of abolition

Lewis Tappan

Believed religious communities must fund abolition and criticized compromise with slavery and left a legacy funding the Amistad case and founding the American Missionary Association

Theodore Weld

Believed factual eyewitness testimony would change public opinion and criticized elite reform approaches and left a legacy training abolitionist agents and authoring *American Slavery as It Is