1. Chapter 18 An Era of Reform
Introduction
Between 1820 and 1850 American reformers devoted themselves to ending slavery, promoting women’s rights, and improving education
Sojourner Truth was an effective reformer especially with her speech “And ain’t I a woman”.

2. The Spirit of Reform FACTS:
New religious movements played a key role in inspiring Americans to remake society
The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival in the 1820s and 1830s
The revival fired people’s emotions
Preachers told people that they could gain forgiveness and be “saved” by doing good works on earth *

3. FACTS: Model Communities
Brook Farm was an experiment in creating a perfect community and people there supported each other by farming, teaching, and making clothes
These communities symbolized the belief that people of good will could create an ideal society
Brook Farm String Quartet
Brook Farm

4. PEOPLE Charles G. Finney - Leader of 2nd Great Awakening
Ralph Waldo Emerson - central figure in a movement called transcendentalism (people should transcend/go beyond logical thinking to reach true understanding with help of emotion and intuition.
Henry David Thoreau - spent 2 years in solitude to learn to live without rules of society
George Ripley – in charge of model community Brook Farms
Henry David Thoreau
Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. How did this movement improve American Life?
This movement helped give men and women a reason to work for the improvement of society.
It also inspired Americans to question society’s rules and institutions…Instead of logical thinking, people began to trust their emotions and intuition.
It created the idea of individualism – following the beat of your own drum…

6. Reforming the Treatment of Prisoners and the Mentally Ill
FACTS:
Inmates were bound in chains and locked in cages and beaten
Children were jailed with adult criminals
Dix visited jails, prisons, and hospitals to witness conditions
Dix believed that the mentally ill needed treatment and care, not punishment

7. Plight of the Mentally Ill and Campaigning for Better Conditions
People:
Dorothea Dix - instrumental in reforming conditions of prisoners and mentally ill
Improvement on American Society:
- Because of the work Dix did public asylums were created
- By 1887 debtors were no longer put in prison; special justice systems were created for children in trouble and cruel punishment was outlawed.

8. Improving Education
Facts:
Education needed to be available to more children
Education would encourage students to become involved in improving society
Puritans established town schools
There were few public schools
Wealthy parents sent children to private schools
Most children didn’t go to school at all
Reformers believed education would help children in cities escape poverty and become good citizens

9. Need for Public Schools
People:
Led by Horace Mann – A.K.A.“the father of American public schools”
How it improved life for Americans:
Massachusetts voted to pay taxes to build better schools, pay teachers higher salaries, and establish training school for teachers.
By 1850, most WHITE CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY BOYS, attended free public schools but much more needed to be done.

10. An Unfinished Reform FACTS: Still Unfinished…
- Most high schools and colleges didn’t admit women
- Most blacks were kept out of public schools
- Blacks were made to go to separate schools that received little to no money

11. Abolitionist reform: Fighting Against Slavery
Facts:
People who wanted to end slavery were called abolitionists
By 1792, majority of states had anti-slavery societies
Slave trade ended in 1808 but there was disagreement on how to end slavery
Abolitionists were a minority and there was violence directed toward them
People:
William Lloyd Garrison - started an abolitionist newspaper called the Liberator to help oppose slavery
- he was a white northerner against slavery
Frederick Douglass - became a leader in the abolitionists movement
- (he was a very powerful speaker and moved people to tears)
- He was a former slave that escaped
- Started a newspaper the North Star

12. Sojourner Truth – a former slave and abolitionist
Women Get Involved
People:
Angela and Sarah Grimke - spoke out about the poverty and pain of slavery. They led the way for other women to speak in public
Sojourner Truth – a former slave and abolitionist
- She argued that God would end slavery peacefully
Sarah Grimke
Angelina Grimke
Abolitionist meeting

13. William Lloyd Garrison
White northerner against slavery
Started the Abolitionist newspaper called the Liberator to help oppose slavery

14. Frederick Douglass Speaks Out

15. Improving life for Americans
It helped to change northerner’s attitude towards slavery
The anti-slavery fight helped pave the way for the next reform movement which was the struggle for women’s rights.

16. Equal Rights for Women Facts:
Women abolitionists tried to convince lawmakers to make slavery illegal but they couldn’t vote or hold office
Women’s money and property were controlled by fathers and husbands
Husbands could discipline wives whenever they wanted
Lucretia Mott
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

17. Unequal Treatment of Women
Facts:
Lucy Stone refused to pay property taxes because she said women had no representation
Elizabeth Blackwell wanted to be a doctor but no medical school would allow her
She was finally accepted and became the first female doctor
Elizabeth Blackwell
Medical degree

18. Women Get Involved People:
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the movement for women’s rights.
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony traveled from town to town speaking for women’s rights
Abolitionist meeting turned violent

19. The Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of Sentiments
Facts:
Lucretia Mott announced a women’s convention in Seneca Falls, New York
The Seneca Falls Convention was a meeting where many women proposed laws and spoke out about changes for women.
Stanton wrote up a proposal called the Declaration of Sentiments based on the Declaration of Independence – this helped to approve the idea that women should have the right to vote.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal”
Cady and Stanton
Declaration of Sentiments
Lucretia Mott

20. How it improved life for Americans:
Legacy of Seneca Falls
How it improved life for Americans:
The violence helped change northerner’s attitude toward slavery
Women’s anti-slavery fight started the next reform movement for women’s rights
New York gave women control
over their property and wages
Some states passed more liberal
divorce laws
Blackwell started her own hospital
to train female doctors