1. Reforming American Society
Time for Change
Reforming American Society
Use this powerpoint, video links, and the text to get background information on each of the reform movements. Then, fill in the thought bubbles explaining what each person might say about the movement. What they say should reflect information learned about the movement.

2. What is reform?
If you want to reform something, you are planning to change it, making improvements.
Why might you want to reform something? List your thoughts on your notes. (These are just your thoughts, no right/wrong answers).

3. Second Great Awakening
Review the notes listed on the First Great Awakening, and then take similar notes on the Second Great Awakening.
Early 1800s
Preachers say, anyone can reach salvation
People became more interested in religion
Religion spread the idea of equality
Equality led to reform movements

4. Temperance Movement Churches and women joined the movement
Churches and women joined the movement
STOP the sell of alcohol!!!
Workers spent money on alcohol, left families without basic necessities…
Many state stopped selling alcohol
1919—18th amendment passed (repealed later by 21st amendment)

5. Worker’s Rights Movement
Factory workers (men and women) realized working conditions were unsafe
Formed labor unions (workers that ban together to fight for better conditions) that could strike (stop working until conditions improve)
Fought for shorter hours and higher wages
High number of strikes led to Panic of 1837—jobs became scarce, so movement fell apart!
One achievement: President Martin van Buren ordered an order that would reduce the work week from 70 hours to 60 hours

6. Improving Education OH the power of education!
Elizabeth Blackwell: first female to earn a medical degree in America
Horace Mann thought of public education as “the great equalizer”
Encouraged the opening of public schools
Made sure everyone received free education until the 8th grade
Mary Jane Patterson: first African American female to earn a degree, became a teacher
OH the power
of education!
Alexander Twilight: first African American male to earn a degree
John Russwurm: started the first African American newspaper after earning his college degree

7. Mentally Ill
Dorothea Dix was teaching Sunday School to women in prisons and was disturbed when she saw how the mentally ill prisoners were being treated
Found they were left in cold, dirty cells, chained and beaten, or that they received no care at all
Led to 32 hospitals for the mentally ill being built

8. Creating Ideal Communities
Some tried to create utopias: perfect, ideal society
Shakers: religious group who tried to create a utopia, earned the name “Shakers” as they would often shake with emotion during church services
Rules: No marriage, no children (unless adopted), No fighting (at all!), consider men and women as equals
Surviving: Eat what they create (farmers), sell furniture and crafts to neighboring communities

9. Abolition of Slavery Abolish: to get rid of
Wanted equality for African Americans
White men and women against slavery:
William Lloyd Garrison: published The Liberator—an abolitionist newspaper
“I will not retreat a single inch, AND I WILL BE HEARD”
Grimke Sisters: Sarah and Angelina: grew up on a plantation, but believed slavery was morally wrong. Gave lectures against slavery.
John Quincy Adams—ignored a gag rule by Congress, voted for equality, won the Amistad cases in which he defended a group of slaves who had rebelled on the ship Amistad

10. Former slaves speak out:
Frederick Douglass—escaped from slavery, wrote an autobiography and antislavery newspaper
Sojourner Truth—fled from slavery, lived with the Quakers, spoke out in Northern cities for the abolition of slavery
Underground Railroad:
Harriet Tubman—wanted to save others from slavery, one of the “conductors” of the Underground Railroad
Long journey, but eventually the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments will get rid of slavery and will lead to equality for African Americans

11. Women’s Rights Wanted the same rights for women, as those for men
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony
Seneca Falls Convention—attended by both men and women
Declaration of Sentiments— “all men and women are created equal”
All rights were agreed upon, except suffrage
Did not win the right to vote until 1919, the 19th amendment

12. STAAR Practice!!!

13. I have as much muscle as any man and can
do as much work as any man. I have plowed and
reaped and husked and chopped and mowed,
and can any man do more than that?
— Sojourner Truth, speech at Akron, Ohio, 1851
1. According to the excerpt above, with which of
the following statements would the speaker
most likely agree?
A Prisons should be reformed.
B Women should have equal rights.
C Men should work in agricultural jobs.
D Women should pursue traditional occupations.

14. 2. Why did Elizabeth Cady Stanton oppose the15th Amendment to the U. S
2. Why did Elizabeth Cady Stanton oppose the15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
A Public education wasn’t addressed.
B Women were still excluded from voting.
C Slavery was still allowed in the
territories.
D Native Americans gained citizenship.

15. 3. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution —
A brought immediate equality to Native
Americans
B established a process for the admission of western states into the Union
C created new congressional districts
D granted civil rights primarily to African

16. Quakers: • Religious tolerance • Pacifism • Abolitionism • Temperance
• Women’s rights
4. Based on the information in the list above, which statement can be made about the Quakers?
A Most Quakers were southern slaveholders.
B Many Quakers made significant contributions to reform movements.
C Many Quakers supported U.S. entry into the Mexican War.
D Most Quakers supported the use of alcohol.

17. Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, —the balance-wheel of the social machinery.
— Horace Mann, Twelfth Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board
of Education, 1848
5. In the excerpt above, Mann shows his support for:
A women’s suffrage
B prison reform
C public schools
D improved sanitation