1. An Age of Reform 1845-1855 Pages 454-458

2. A Time of Change - Reform During the first half of the 1800s there was fast growth in the United States. America’s growth made many Americans hopeful but this growth also caused some problems, too. During this time Americans worked to improve life for others.

3. Better Schools Horace Mann worked to improve public schools. Laws were proposed requiring children to go to school. Teachers should be well-trained. He wanted to see new schools built. Most schools of this time were in churches or stores.

4. Horace Mann

5. Better Schools Most white children received an elementary education; sometimes a high school education. Free African children went to separate schools. In the South, most white boys went to private school. Girls had few chances for education. Enslaved children did not go to school.

6. Log School House

7. The Fight Against Slavery Since the beginning of our country’s history, some Americans had been deeply troubled by slavery. Reformers worked to abolish or end slavery during the 1840s and 1850s. These reformers believed that enslaved people should gain their freedom.

8. The Fight Against Slavery The Quakers, a religious group in Pennsylvania, were one of the first groups to speak against slavery. They formed an antislavery society in 1775. People who wanted to abolish slavery were called abolitionists.

9. Writing Against Slavery Freedom’s Journal – A newspaper owned by Africans that called for equality or the same rights for all Americans. The Liberator – William Lloyd Garrison – He called for a complete end to slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe turned many people against slavery telling how slaves were mistreated by cruel slave owners.

10. Writing Against Slavery Harriet Beecher Stowe William Lloyd Garrison

11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

12. Speaking Against Slavery Frederick Douglass, a runaway slave was asked to speak at an abolitionist meeting by William Lloyd Garrison. He shared his story of escape and how it felt to be free. He helped to change people’s opinions about slavery.

13. Speaking Against Slavery Sojourner Truth was a former slave named Isabella who believed God had called her to travel up and down the land to spread the message that slavery should end. She decided to change her name to Sojourner, which means traveler. She chose Truth as her last name.

14. Speaking Against Slavery Fredrick DouglassSojourner Truth

15. Will Slavery End? Frederick Douglass argued that only a rebellion would end slavery. Sojourner Truth believed that slavery could be ended peacefully. What do you think?

16. Rights for Women The first women’s rights meeting met on July 19, 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. Those who attended the meeting felt that women should have “all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.”

17. Rights for Women Women wanted the right to own property, to keep the wages they earned, and to be given suffrage, or the right to vote. They demanded that women have the same political, social, and economic rights as men.

18. Rights for Women – Results? Women won a few rights. A few states gave women control of the money they earned and the property they owned. Wyoming allowed women to vote. This was the first place in the U.S. and the world to grant women suffrage.