The Age of Reform Changing American Life in the 19 th Century

Revival – frontier camp meeting to reawaken religious faith People came to hear preachers People came to hear preachers People came to pray, sing, weep, & shout Men & women became eager to reform their lives & the world…led to new reform movements

Many workers were spending most of their wages on alcohol Many workers were spending most of their wages on alcohol Reformers blamed alcohol for society’s problems Reformers blamed alcohol for society’s problems Poverty, breakup of families, crime, & insanity Reformers called for temperance Reformers called for temperance Drinking little or no alcohol Drinking little or no alcohol Temperance crusaders used many methods Lectures, pamphlets, & revival-style rallies Many states passed temperance laws Many states passed temperance laws banning manufacturing & sale of alcoholic beverages

Industries & Labor Factory work was noisy, boring, & unsafe Workers organized for better conditions Example: Lowell girls went on strike in 1836 demanding lowered rent and better conditions Other workers called for shorter hours and higher wages In 1835 & 1836, 140 strikes took place in the eastern U.S. Seal for the Knights of Labor, first organized union in America

"Convinced that the people are the only safe depositories of their own liberty, and that they are not safe unless enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people could be informed to a certain degree." - Thomas Jefferson, 1805 Only New England provided free elementary school Others had to pay or send to schools for the poor – some refused out of pride Some communities had NO SCHOOLS AT ALL Illegal in the south to teach slaves to read Southerners feared a rebellion by educated slaves Area where Pilgrims & Puritans settled (placed a premium on education)

Leader of education reform Horace Mann Massachusetts Board of Education He offered many ideas to promote higher learning Lengthened school year to 6 months Improved the curriculum Doubled teacher’s salaries Developed better teacher training methods Three basic principles of public education (by the 1850’s) Should be free & supported by taxes Teachers should be trained Children should be required to attend school

Dorothea Dix – discovered mentally ill often received no treatment Often times they were chained or beaten Treated like criminals Dorothea travelled around the country on behalf of the mentally ill Others tried to help people with other disabilities Deaf/Blind Others tried to improve prisons

Abolitionist Reformers worked to abolish, or end, slavery American Colonization Society 1 st large-scale antislavery effort Resettling black Americans in Africa Raised money & settled a colony in 1822 called Liberia Latin for “place of freedom” Many enslaved did not want to go back to Africa Simply wanted to be free in American society

William Lloyd Garrison White abolitionist who called for the “immediate & complete emancipation” The Liberator Country’s leading antislavery newspaper Frederick Douglass Most widely known black abolitionist/former slave Edited an antislavery newspaper called the North Star Counseled Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War Sojourner Truth Used personal narratives and worked for abolitionism & women’s rights/former slave Southerners fought abolition continuously

Underground Railroad Network of escape routes from the South to the North Traveled through the night on foot Harriet Tubman Most famous conductor of the Railroad

Many wanted to improve the lives of women Lucretia Mott Quaker women who lectured in Philadelphia Spoke for temperance, peace, worker’s rights, & abolition Elizabeth Cady Stanton Worked with Lucretia Mott

Susan B. Anthony Daughter of a Quaker abolitionist Called for equal pay & coeducation Special contribution – give married women rights to their own property and wages Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Sentiments Mott, Stanton, & others called for women’s equal rights Every right was unanimous except women’s suffrage