1. Reform Movements of the Early 19th Century

2. Educational reform
Public schools began to open, creating a more educated population
Teachers began to be specially trained and their salaries increased
School attendance became mandatory in most states, at least through elementary school
High schools began to become more common

3. Horace Mann 1796 – 1859 President of the Massachusetts Senate
Stepped down to head the new Massachusetts School Board for 12 years
Established the standard other states would follow for creating public school systems and teacher-training programs

4. Calvin Wiley 1819 – 1887 North Carolina’s first school superintendent
Championed creating state standards for what should be taught in schools
More difficult to get children in school in the South because they were needed for farm work

5. Women’s Education Schools for educating girls became more common
Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary in NY (1821)
Mary Lyon’s Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in MA (1837)
Elizabeth Blackwell: 1st woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S., built hospital for women and children staffed entirely by women

6. Prison reform
Before, inmates were not separated by offense type and prisons included the violent & mentally ill
Reformers pushed the idea of rehabilitation rather than punishment
States began to build modern prisons (penitentiaries) to house long-term prisoners

7. Mental health reform
Before, the mentally ill received no treatment and were housed in prisons with common criminals
The field of “mental health” didn’t exist yet, so they received little medical care and were often tortured

8. Dorothea Dix
1802 – 1887
Former teacher who took up the plight of the mentally ill, pushing for the construction of mental hospitals
Traveled and wrote articles to expose the abuses suffered by the mentally ill
Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh was named after her in 1856

9. Abolitionist Movement
Abolitionism = the movement to end slavery
Championed primarily by Northerners and women who opposed slavery on moral grounds
Abolitionism took on several different forms

10. Gradualism
Earliest form of abolitionism called for the gradual freeing of the slaves – stop importing new slaves, then phase out slavery over time
Slave owners would be paid by the state for their lost property
South would have time to adjust its economy away from cash-crops

11. Repatriation
Groups like the American Colonization Society began calling for freeing the slaves and sending them back to Africa
Liberia was established in West Africa as a home for repatriated slaves from the U.S.
Too many slaves lived in the U.S. to be practical, too expensive to transport millions
Most slaves at this point had never seen Africa and didn’t want to live there

12. Abolitionist Leaders

13. David Walker
1785 – 1830
Free African-American journalist who lived in Boston
Published pamphlet “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World,” calling for a violent rebellion by slaves; it was banned throughout the South and a bounty was placed on his life
Died under mysterious circumstances – murder?

14. William Lloyd Garrison
1805 – 1879
Editor of The Liberator – an abolitionist newspaper in Boston
Called for an immediate emancipation of the slaves rather than any kind of gradual end to slavery
Founded the American Antislavery Society in 1833 – by 1838 the AAS had over 250,000 members
Once burned a copy of the U.S. Constitution to protest its allowance of slavery

15. Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811 – 1896
Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a fictional novel which negatively depicted conditions under which slaves lived in the South
Made real to many Northerners how brutal the slave system could really be

16. Sarah & Angelina Grimké
Sisters who grew up on a plantation in South Carolina but later became staunch abolitionists
Working with their Northern-born husbands, they wrote and gave speeches on the realities of slavery, which they could report on first-hand

17. Frederick Douglass 1818 – 1895 Born a slave, but escaped at age 20
Became a speaker and writer – his autobiography was a bestseller
Convinced many whites that Africans were intelligent and capable of learning (many in the South had made claims that Africans could not learn)
Second wife was white, which cost him support from both whites and fellow African-Americans in his later years

18. Sojourner Truth
1797 – 1883
Born a slave in NY, gained her freedom when NY emancipated all slaves in 1827
Became a famous abolitionist speaker and women’s rights activist following her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in 1851

19. Opposition to Abolitionism
Obviously, most whites in the South opposed the abolition movement; even poor whites hoped to one day own slaves
Many in the North feared the divisiveness that the movement would cause between North and South; they would rather maintain the status quo and avoid conflict
Some in the North feared that freed slaves would all move North, flooding the job market and driving down wages
Others feared that if the South’s economy collapsed, it would send the entire nation into a massive economic depression

20. The Temperance Movement
Men who drank often neglected or abused their families
Bars and saloons were common in the U.S., as were high rates of alcoholism
In 1833, the American Temperance Union was created and rapidly gained support, especially from married women
In 1851 Maine became the first state to ban the sale of alcohol; by 1855, 12 other states had as well

21. Women’s Rights Movement
Women’s traditional roles in the North began to change as fewer families worked on farms
As women began to take on more social roles and become more active in reform movements, they began to demand more political rights for themselves

22. Lucretia Mott
1793 – 1880
First American “feminist” to push for women to become more involved in political debate and to have the right to vote
Like many women, began her social activism with the abolitionist movement

23. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
1815 – 1902
Argued for women’s suffrage, the right to divorce, to own property, and to have access to birth control
Stanton also strongly supported the abolitionist and temperance movements

24. Susan B. Anthony
1820 – 1906
Activist who traveled Europe and the U.S. giving 75 – 100 speeches each year for over 40 years
Anthony was arrested in 1872 for illegally casting a vote in the presidential election
First woman to appear on U.S. currency

25. Seneca Falls Conference
1848, Seneca Falls. NY
Women’s Rights convention organized by Mott and Stanton
Issued the “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” which added “and women” to the Declaration of Independence’s “all men are created equal”
Began the open push for suffrage for women, but voting rights would not come until 1920