1. Antebellum Reform Movements
Unit 5, Lesson 3

2. Essential Idea
The “Era of the Common Man” and the Second Great Awakening caused people to push for reforms.

3. Era of the “Common Man” Event: Era of the Common Man Cause:
Starting in the 1820s, universal white male suffrage spread
Effects:
Andrew Jackson, a “common man,” was elected
Candidates had to campaign to appeal to common people
The common man gained more influence in government

4. Second Great Awakening
Event:
Second Great Awakening
Cause:
Americans were less religious, especially after the Enlightenment emphasized science and reason
Effect:
People looked to THEMSELVES to be saved, not church authority
Common people had more influence in their religion
Many wanted reforms to fix “sins” in society, especially slavery

5. Antebellum Reform Combined Effect:
The country experienced a period of REFORM
The Era of the Common Man gave people more power in government
The Second Great Awakening gave people more power in religion
Combined, people felt empowered to use the GOVERNMENT to REFORM “sins” in society
Issues to Reform:
Treatment of mentally ill, prison conditions, education, abuse of alcohol, and slavery
Women, also wanting more power, began pushing for equal rights

6. Reforms: Mental Hospitals
Issue 1:
Mental hospitals
Reform:
Dorothea Dix—exposed inhumane treatment of the mentally ill
States created mental hospitals, not prisons, to give the mentally ill proper help

7. Reforms: Prisons Issue 2: Prisons Reforms:
Prisoners were treated inhumanely were sometimes jailed just for being in debt
Prisons began focusing more rehabilitating prisoners and “debtors’ prison” was abolished

8. Reforms: Public Education
Issue 3:
Public education
Reforms:
Education was only affordable for the wealthy
Many believed the country could only survive if citizens were educated
Horace Mann—pushed for public, tax-supported schools with required attendance

9. Reforms: Temperance Issue 4: Alcohol abuse Reforms:
Many saw alcohol abuse as the root of society’s problems
Temperance—moderation of alcohol use
The American Temperance Society convinced many to reduce alcohol use and some states banned the sale of liquor

11. The Women’s Rights Movement
Effect of Industrial Revolution:
Roles of men and women changed during industrialization
Men and women had “separate spheres”
Men’s Sphere:
Men left home to work in factories
Men were active outside the home in politics and reform

12. “True Womanhood” Women’s Sphere:
Women stayed at home to care for the home and children
Women were not very active outside the home

13. Reform: Women’s Rights
Women and Reform:
Women saw taking care of society as an extension of taking care of the home
Women resented men giving them secondary roles in reform
Women, like men during the “Era of the Common Man,” wanted more power in government and society

14. Reform: Women’s Rights
Issue 5:
Women’s Rights
Events:
Seneca Falls Convention—started the organized women’s rights movement in the United States in 1848
Declaration of Sentiments—declared men and women to be EQUAL
Elizabeth Cady Stanton—demanded women’s SUFFRAGE (right to vote)
Seneca Falls Convention
Impact:
The women’s rights movement was overshadowed by the biggest reform movement, abolitionism

15. Reform: Abolitionism Issue 6: Abolition of Slavery Abolitionism:
The abolition of slavery was the biggest and most divisive issue of reform
Tension over the issue of slavery contributed to the Civil War