NCSCOS 2.05 Michael Quiñones, NBCT

 Reform  Equality  Status  The method of fixing, improving and correcting [change for the better]  The act of leveling and balancing fairness  The rank or grade of a person’s place in society

 Suffrage  Nationalism  Sectionalism  Perfectionism  Freedom  Slavery  Abolition  The right, act and privilege of voting  Extreme love for your nation and exaggerated patriotism  Loyalty to certain section of a country [South, North, East, West]  A religious and social movement that sought gender equality and communalism  The right and protection from servitude  The deprivation of freedom  The movement seeking the elimination of slavery

 Dorothea Dix taught Sunday School at a prison in Massachusetts during the 1800s.  While there she witnessed appalling conditions for the prisoners.  She saw terrible treatment of mentally ill inmates.  After her experience she wrote letters to lawmakers and crusaded to improve the conditions of prisoners and mentally ill persons across the United States.  As a result conditions and facilities for these people improved.

 Horace Mann was a lawmaker from Massachusetts who led the fight for expanded public education.  His legislative leadership led to the expansion of school construction, teacher training and higher teacher pay.  Massachusetts passed a mandatory school attendance law  Because of Mann’s reforms other states expanded public education as well.

 Many American women were tired of witnessing the devastation that alcohol wrought on families.  Rural men were especially prone to alcoholism because of isolation and depression. Domestic violence was also a problem.  Christian religious women were the most active in trying to have alcohol banned.  Eventually states began to prohibit alcohol culminating in the 18 th Amendment in 1919

 In the 1800s several women fought for property and voting rights for women. The Seneca Falls Convention was the first well known national meeting to discuss and plan women’s rights.  Lucretia Mott-religious Quaker wife of a minister who believed slavery was evil. Favored women’s voting/property rights.  Susan B. Anthony-an “angry” feminist who demanded and fought for voting rights which led to passage of the 19 th Amendment.  Sojourner Truth-former slave who spoke out against slavery in speeches and letters. Supported women’s voting and property rights.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton-abolitionist and women’s voting rights supporter emphasized religious conviction.

Utopian Communities  Groups of communities gathered together to separate themselves from the rest of society [Brook Farm, Oneida and New Harmony].  The whole point was to make perfect worlds, perfect societies based on unique religious beliefs. They believed the outside world was evil and impure.  Shared child raring, shared spouses, shared homes and shared property were strategies they employed.  Many Americans thought these citizens were weird, freakish and unusual because of their beliefs. The word Utopian means to be pure or perfect without sin influence from evil. The term refers a fictional place created by a English writer named Thomas More who created a perfect place where people were “selfless.”

 Joseph Smith-The founder of the Mormon religious movement. He was presented golden tablets in the woods in New York by an angel according to his accounts. He published these tablets into the Book of Mormon that was added to the Mormons’ Bible. He traveled with his followers to different states and was eventually murdered by an angry mob.  Brigham Young-Lead the pilgrimage of Mormons Westward to their permanent home in Utah.  Controversial beliefs included plural marriages and separatism.

The time when Christian religious involvement and church membership soared in the United States! Different types of denominations increased by large numbers [Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and others]. Ministers and pastors lead spiritual revivals and preached that people should live more devout lives in order to avoid the fires of hell.

Reformers Assignment Write a letter to someone as if you were one of the reformers [or a critic/enemy of a reformer] you learned about in the lesson. Write to your family, friends, neighbors or the federal/state/local government. The purpose of your letter should be to express how much you hate or admire the ideas of any of the reformers in this lesson. Your letter should have an opening salutation [Dear John] and a closing salutation [Yours Truly]. Your letter must include detailed and specific examples the explain why you have the opinion(s) you do.

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