1. Unit VII: Era of Reform (1820’s-1850’s)
Part I: Reforming the Treatment of Prisoners & the Mentally Ill & Improving Education

2. Great Awakening (Colonial Times)
Great Awakenings
Great Awakening (Colonial Times)
Religious mov’t which focused on Individual morality.
Get closer to god & into heaven by controlling yourself
2nd Great Awakening
(1820’s-1830’s)
Religious mov’t that claimed that ones faith in god should be proved by action.
Less focus on self & more on the improvement of society

4. Treatment of the Mentally Ill

5. Prisoners in lockstep, c. 1910. Prior to the reformation work of T. M
Prisoners in lockstep, c Prior to the reformation work of T.M. Osborne, the prisoners were required to walk in lockstep, to work in local factories, and were not allowed to speak to each other without permission. Talking was the most common inmate violation of the rules and the resulting punishment was severe.

6. Prison Reform
Ppl who owed money could be jailed “debtors’ prison”. They had no way of paying off their debts.
Children were often jailed with adults
Dix’s work influenced the gov’t to stop putting debtors in prison & to create special justice systems for children

7. Improving Education
Public schools were very rare. Wealthy parents hired tutors or sent their children to private schools.
Reformers believed that education would help the poor children who were causing trouble

8. Horace Mann became to supervisor of education in Mass.
He spoke out for the need of public schools everywhere
Horace Mann

9. Mann’s ideas influenced schools & universities to allow women to attend.
However, many African Americans were still denied access to public schools in both the north & south

11. With the freshmen class of 1838, Oberlin College
admitted its first four women. The college prided itself on its openness, having been the first school to admit blacks, it was also the first college in the nation
to admit women.

12. Fighting Slavery
Women, influenced by the 2nd Great Awakening became involved in the fight against slavery
Female abolitionists such as the Grimkes & Sojourner Truth led the way for other women to speak in public.

13. Equal Rights for Women
Although women were active in the anti-slavery mov’t, they still could not vote or control their own property & money.

14. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Lecretia Mott
47 yrs. old wife & mother
Active reformer speaking out against slavery
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
25 newly married
Never spoke in public but witnessed the abuse of women
Both women met in 1840 at the Anit-Slavery Convention after discovering women were not allowed to Speak at the meeting.

15. Rights Women Felt They Should Have
The right to vote (suffrage)
The right to hold public office
The right to work,
The right to fair wages
The right to own property
Marital rights
Parental rights
Religious rights
The right to enter into legal contracts
The right to education

16. The Seneca Falls Convention
A convention to discuss women’s rights
The convention was called b/c women were being denied their rights (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, & Lucretia Mott)

17. Declaration of Sentiments
A document written at the Seneca Falls convention that formally declared women’s ideas on their rights.
It was modeled after the declaration of independence