 Social reform is an attempt to improve what is unjust or imperfect about society

 INCLUDED:  Religion  Education  Prisons  Alcohol (Temperance)  Women’s Rights  Abolition of Slavery

POLITICAL ORIGINS  The Declaration of Independence inspires people to try to improve society  During Jackson’s era, more people can vote than ever before  Critics say slavery and other injustices violate democratic ideals RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES  Second Great Awakening stresses free will rather than predestination  Revivals encourage people to reform their lives  Min. Charles Finney teaches that individual salvation is the first step to the reform of a society

 When?  Early 1800s  What?  Renewed interest in religion  Individuals can choose to save their souls  How?  Revivals and camp meetings  NY was the “burned over district”

 Reform of prisons  Mentally ill persons  Temperance  Education  Slavery  Women’s Rights

 Early 1800s  Prisoners were often crammed together  Conditions were cold and damp  Prisoners might go hungry  Five out of six people in jail were debtors

 Some prisoners were mentally ill persons  I proceed gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of Insane Persons confined…in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.” Dorothea Dix (Boston School teacher to the Mass. State Legislature)  Dorothea Dix worked to improve the conditions for these persons  She convinced states to build mental hospitals

 Rum was the safest drink in the colonies  Alcohol abuse became widespread  The Temperance Movement campaigned against alcohol  Plays, speeches, and articles were written  Women were the chief supporters

 In 1800, few children attended school  Massachusetts was the only state to require public school  Reformers said a republic needed educated citizens  Horace Mann championed the cause in Massachusetts  By 1850, most northern states had public schools

 Some separate schools for Blacks were created, but in most areas there was little chance for schooling for African Americans  Women worked to teach girls “men’s” subjects like math and physics  A few colleges began to accept women  1817, Thomas Gallaudet started a school for the deaf  1832 Samuel Howe started the first American school for the blind

 The Hudson Bay River School  Art became a romantic vision of life and the West

 Philosopher and Teacher Ralph Waldo Emerson  Student and practitioner

 “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” ~ Thoreau

 Abolitionists: People who wanted to “abolish” (end) slavery  Many abolitionists began to speak out in the North  Quakers were among some of the strongest abolitionists  Many Free Blacks worked to abolish the practice.

 Religion:  Minister Charles Finney called on Christians to stamp out slavery  All Northern states outlawed slavery by 1804-but takes time  Anti-Slavery  Anti-slavery organizations began  Relocation ▪ Some people wanted to send former slaves back to Africa ▪ The colony of Liberia was started with some former slaves ▪ Some slaves felt they were Americans and not Africans

 The Liberty Bell  Abolitionists used it as a symbol of liberty.  The inscription on the bell, which was cast in 1751, reads: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" from Leviticus 25:10

 Escaped slave  Learned to read and write  Speaks against slavery at Anti-slavery meetings  Published an anti- slavery paper called the North Star

Grimké Sisters  Raised with slaves  Became Quakers  Some of the first women to speak against slavery publicly  Later speak for women’s rights. William Lloyd Garrison  White newspaper man  Started The Liberator anti- slavery paper in 1831  Called for immediate emancipation of all slaves

 Sojourner Truth  Isabella Baumfree was her given name.  Sold 4 times  Walked away to freedom  Joined religion and became fervent in her beliefs

 Could not vote  Could not hold political office  Husband owned all the property—including rights to the children  All wages belonged to the husband  Husbands could hit wives  Was not educated with the same subjects  Had to wear a hat in public

Lucretia Mott Sojourner Truth Susan B. Anthony Elizabeth C. Stanton

“They’ve taken a notion to speak for themselves, …And are wielding the tongue and the pen; they’ve mounted the rostrum; the [quarrelsome] elves! …And – oh horrid!— are talking to men!” Maria Chapman, “The Times That Try Men’s Souls”

 Seneca Falls Convention held in 1848  200 women and 40 men attended  Women wrote their own “Declaration of Independence”  Declaration of Sentiments  “ All men and women are created equal”  Demanded equality in school, work, and church  Some wanted to ask for the right to vote.  Very Controversially even among women

1920  Women fought for the right to vote in the early 1900s.  Women were jailed for speaking out  Rallies were held  Finally the 19th amendment was passed which gave women the legal right to vote