Age of Reform

Second Great Awakening Revival of religious movements…1790-1830s Individual responsibility for seeking salvation People could improve themselves and society Sparked a nationwide wave of reform movements

Revival Movements:1825 - 1846

The Second Great Awakening “Spiritual Reform From Within” [Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Temperance Education Abolitionism Asylum & Penal Reform Women’s Rights

Abolitionist Movement

American Colonization Society 1816  created gradual, voluntary emancipation Create a free slave state in Liberia, West Africa. British Colonization Society symbol

Abolitionist Movement No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North in the 1820s & 1830s. Gradualists Immediatists

Anti-Slavery Arguments Morally wrong Violated ethics of the Bible Resulted in inhuman treatment of slaves Degraded slave owners Violated democracy

Pro-Slavery Arguments Always existed and the economic basis for the great civilizations such as Greece and Rome Sanctioned by the Bible Assured continued cotton production and southern prosperity Provided better life than in Africa Provided more security than the North granted its free factory workers

William Lloyd Garrison Radical white abolitionist Owned newspaper-The Liberator Called for immediate emancipation Slavery was a moral, not an economic issue.

Frederick Douglass Former slave Taught to read and write by the wife of his slave owner Realized that knowledge was “pathway from slavery to freedom” 1838… escapes to New York Sponsored by Garrison as a lecturer… thrilled audiences Founded his own newspaper… The North Star

David Walker 1829  Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites.

Sojourner Truth Slave for the first 30 years of her life… Isabella Baumfree Decided to travel through the country preaching for abolition She made a profound impression wherever she went with her forceful rhetoric and moving tales of slavery Supported herself by selling copies of her autobiography, Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave (1850)

Underground Railroad Informal network of abolitionists (mostly free African-Americans in the North) Guided fugitive slaves to the North and across the Canadian border Conductors like Harriet Tubman helped slaves to elude capture by hiding them at safe houses and other secret places, known as stations on the railroad.

Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad : Video http://blip.tv/tripodi/episode-3540846

Women and Reform

“Separate Spheres” Concept “Cult of Domesticity” A woman’s “sphere” was in the home (it was a refuge from the cruel world outside) Her role was to “civilize” her husband and family. An 1830s MA minister: The power of woman is her dependence. A woman who gives up that dependence on man to become a reformer yields the power God has given her for her protection, and her character becomes unnatural!

Early 1800s Women Unable to vote. Legal status of a minor. Single  could own her own property. Married  no control over her property or her children. Could not initiate divorce. Couldn’t make wills, sign a contract, or bring suit in court without her husband’s permission.

Reforms Sought by Women Temperance movement The effort to prohibit the drinking of alcohol Abolition of slavery Improved conditions in prison Reform prostitutes and promote abstinence before marriage

Annual Consumption of Alcohol

1826 - American Temperance Society “Demon Rum”! Temperance Movement 1826 - American Temperance Society “Demon Rum”! Frances Willard The Beecher Family R1-6

“The Drunkard’s Progress” From the first glass to the grave, 1846

Social Reform  Prostitution: The “Fallen Woman” Sarah Ingraham (1802-1887) 1835  Advocate of Moral Reform Female Moral Reform Society focused on the “Johns” & pimps, not the girls. R2-1

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Women’s Rights 1840  split in the abolitionist movement over women’s role in it. London  World Anti-Slavery Convention Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1848  Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments

Seneca Falls Convention (1848) Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s rights convention “Declaration of Sentiments” Detailed statement of grievances modeled after the Declaration of Independence Right to vote Equal wages Equal custody of children

Prison/ Hospital Reform Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) 1821  first penitentiary founded in Auburn, NY

Religious Training  Secular Education Educational Reform Religious Training  Secular Education MA  always on the forefront of public educational reform * 1st state to establish tax support for local public schools. By 1860 every state offered free public education to whites. * US had one of the highest literacy rates.

Horace Mann “Father of American Education” children were clay in the hands of teachers and school officials children should be “molded” into a state of perfection discouraged corporal punishment established state teacher-training programs

Transcendentalism

The Transcendentalist Philosophy A philosophical and literary movement that emphasized living a simple life and celebrated the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination Began as a protest against the general state of culture and society at the time

The Transcendentalist Agenda Give freedom to the slave. Give well-being to the poor and the miserable. Give learning to the ignorant. Give health to the sick. Give peace and justice to society.

Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849) “The American Scholar” (1837) Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers Concord, MA Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Nature (1832) Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849) Self-Reliance (1841) Walden (1854) “The American Scholar” (1837) R3-1/3/4/5

Utopian Communities