C18: An Era of Reform

C18.2 The Spirit of Reform

Second Great Awakening

• religious movement

• Leader – Charles Finney (preacher)

Beliefs:• Everyone can gain forgiveness• Do good works• Build heaven on Earth

Achievements

• got people working to improve society

• inspired some to oppose slavery

Transcendentalism

Leaders of Transcendentalism

Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau

Beliefs

• people have unlimited potential

• can “transcend” (go beyond) logical thinking

• trust your emotions and intuition

• question society’s rules• do not conform

Accomplishments

• created model communities (utopian societies)– shared labor– lived together– no competition

Example: Brook Farm, MA

C18.3 Reforming the Treatment of Prisoners and the Mentally Ill

Leader - Dorothea Dix

Problems • prisoners in chains• some locked in cages• children jailed with adults• debtors put in prison• mentally ill locked up,

beaten

Beliefs• prisoners should be treated

better• separate children and adults• keep debtors out of prisons• treat the mentally ill, don’t

punish

Achievements• Removed debtors from

prisons• Special justice system

for children• Outlawed cruel

punishment• Hospitals for the

mentally ill

C18.4 Improving Education

Leader - Horace Mann“The Father of American Public Schools”

Problems • Few children attended school

• Teachers had little education, poorly paid

• Less education for girls• African Americans

banned from most schools

Beliefs • make education available

• education helps children escape poverty, be good citizens

Achievements• NY set up elementary

schools in all towns• MA paid taxes to

improve schools, teachers’ pay, training

• 1850: most white kids in North and West went to school

• 1837: Oberlin College admitted women

C18.5 Abolition (fighting slavery)

Abolitionists (abolition leaders)

Quakers William Lloyd Garrison

Abolitionists

Frederick Douglass

Abolitionists

Angelina & Sarah Grimke Sojourner Truth

Problems• People supported

slavery for cheap cotton• Slavery was cruel• Abolitionists disagreed

on how to end slavery

Beliefs • slavery didn’t fit land of the free

• radical abolitionists wanted slaves to rebel

• others said end slavery peacefully

• moderates said give slaveholders time to adjust to no slaves

Partial Achievement: Slavery ended in the North but not in the South.

C18.6-7: Women’s Rights

Leaders

Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Leaders

Lucy Stone Elizabeth Blackwell

Leaders

Frederick Douglass Sojourner Truth

Susan B. Anthony

Problems • Women couldn’t vote, hold public office

• Money & property controlled by men

• Couldn’t speak publicly• Banned from most jobs,

colleges• Husbands could beat

wives

Beliefs • women should vote• equal treatment• equal opportunities

Achievements • Seneca Falls Convention, NY, 1848

• wrote “Declaration of Sentiments”

• created women’s rights movement

• NY gave women control of property, wages

• MA & IN passed divorce laws

• Elizabeth Blackwell set up a hospital & medical school