PUSH TOWARDS REFORMChapter 3 Section 2

The Reform Era

• The 2nd Great Awakening jump-started the Reform Era during the Antebellum period within the United States.

• The Reform Era (1830-1860) attempted to reshape American society.

The Temperance Movement

• Temperance= “moderation”• Goal of Movement:

– Eliminate or lessen the use of alcoholic beverages.• Leader:

• Lyman Beecher- a Connecticut minister and crusader against alcohol.

• Reformers wrote about the evils of alcohol, which they linked to sickness, poverty and the breakup of families.

• 1826- The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance was formed.

The Temperance Movement

The leaders utilized the revival-style rallies to warn people about the dangers of alcohol.

1851- Temperance Movement gained a victory when Maine passed a law that banned the manufacturing and distribution of alcohol.

Temperance Movement

You uphold the rum-traders madly

When you cannot hold up yourself

You swallow their poison, and gladly

You aid them in robbing yourself.

• The Opposer of Temperance. Hand-colored woodcut. Philadelphia, circa 1855.

Temperance Movement

The Moral Thermometer from Benjamin Rush's An Inquiry

into the Effects of Spirituous Liquors on the Human Body

and the Mind. Boston: Thomas and Andrews, 1790.

Rush first published his Inquiry as a newspaper article

in 1784. Its anti-alcohol message was hugely popular,

and the book, in various editions, sold more than 170,000 copies by 1850.

According to Rush, "A people corrupted with strong drink

cannot long be a free people." He hoped to start a

temperance movement so that by the 20th century " a

drunkard…will be as infamous in society as a liar or a thief,

and the use of spirits as uncommon in families as a drink made of a solution of arsenic or a decoction of

hemlock."

Education Reform

In the early 1800’s, only New England provided free education primarily elementary education.

You were expected to pay fees for your children to attend the schools available.

You could send your children to schools for the poor

In some communities, you would find no schools.

Education Reform

• Horace Mann- lawyer who became the head of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Under Mann:

– School year went to six months

– Doubled teachers salaries– Improved training for

teachers– Improved school

curriculum • 1839- Massachusetts

founded the 1st Normal School. Normal Schools trained high school graduates to be teachers.

Education Reform

• 1850s- Three guiding principles for public education:

– Schools should be free and supported by taxes – Teachers should be trained– Children should be required to attend school

• These principles of education in the beginning didn’t work very well due to:

– Poorly funded schools– Education for women wasn’t seen as a necessity

because of the role of women– In the West, there were very few schools due to the

settlers being far apart.

Higher Education

• Colleges continue to develop during this time period.

• Several religious groups founded the schools between 1820-1850:

• Amherst• Holy Cross• Trinity and Wesleyan

Special Needs and Education Thomas Gallaudet developed a method

to educate people who were hearing impaired as well as opened the Hartford School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut in 1817.

Dr. Samuel Girdly Howe developed a method to help those who were visually impaired to read through raised letters. Headed the Perkins Institute, a school for the blind.

Prison Reforms

• 1841- Dorothea Dix- a school teacher visited prisons and saw the very inhumane conditions of the prisons.

• Some of these prisoners had committed no crime but were simply mentally ill.

• It became her life work to educate society about the conditions of the mentally ill.

• Massachusetts created state-supported institutions to house and treat the mentally ill people, separate from criminals.

Early Immigration and Urban Reform

• Many people immigrated to the United States during the early 1800’s to escape poor conditions in their homelands.

• Irish and German immigrants came to the US in large numbers.

• 1860- US was home to 3 million Irish and German immigrants.

The Know-Nothings

• Anti-Immigrant sentiment was promoted by well-funded and organized social and political groups.

• One of these groups was the Know-Nothings which was a secret fraternal organization.

• Organized into the American Party which had 1 million members by 1850’s.

Irish v. German Immigrants

• The Irish immigrants faced a lot of hostility opposed to the Germans.

• Irish immigrants were mainly poor and Catholic.

• German immigrants had money and tended to be Protestant.

• German immigrants could afford to move inland opposed to the Irish. They worked as farmers, artisans, in factories, and etc.

Urban Reform

• Since there was mass migration of immigrants, many lived in a tenement houses. Reforms would become an issue during this time period due to the poor conditions such as:

• Poorly made• Lacked adequate light• Lacked adequate

ventilation• Lacked adequate

sanitation