Social Reform

1. Social Reform SSUSH7 Students will explain the process of economic growth, its regional and national impact in the first half of the 19th century, and the different responses to it. c. Describe reform movements, specifically temperance, abolitionism, and public school. d. Explain women’s efforts to gain suffrage; include Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Seneca Falls Conference.

2. Transcendentalism • Philosophical movement that taught the process of spiritual discovery and insight that would lead a person to truths more profound that he or she could reach through reason • Started in Concord, MA around 1830 • Declared humans as naturally good • Urged self-reliance and private worship • Leaders – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau

3. Second Great Awakening • Powerful evangelical movement that affected Protestant Christians • Taught individual responsibility for seeking salvation – previously it was believed that a person’s fate (whether they went to heaven or hell) was predetermined by god • Emphasized the importance of the bible, salvation through Jesus, and performing good deeds

4. Abolitionist Movement • Movements to end slavery were not new and had been active since colonial times • Early movements favored gradual emancipation (freeing of enslaved persons) – first steps were to stop the spread of slavery to new states and ending the slave trade in the U.S.

5. Leaders of the Abolitionist Movement • William Lloyd Garrison – white man who published an anti-slavery newspaper called The Liberator • Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833

6. Leaders of the Abolitionist Movement • Frederick Douglass – African-American who was a key leader of the American Anti-Slavery Society • Douglass was a former slave tutored by his white owner and then self-educated • He escaped and became active the anti-slavery movement

7. Leaders of the Abolitionist Movement • Although many people did not approve of the involvement of women in politics, many became active in the abolitionist movement including freed slave Sojourner Truth • Sarah and Angelina Grimke, daughters of a South Carolina slave holder, spoke out in favor of abolition

8. Underground Railroad • A network of escape routes for slaves fleeing north to freedom • A former slave named Harriet Tubman became a leader and moved many slaves to safety

9. Public School Reform • Before the mid-1800s, no uniform education policy existed in the US – only 2 states had compulsory education laws • One room schoolhouses put all students together to learn – few continued past age 10 • In the 1830s, Americans began to demand tax-supported school systems • This upset people who sent their children to private school, but leaders like Horace Mann believed it was important that all children attend school in order to make them good citizens • By the 1850s, every state had some sort of publicly funded elementary school • It took many years for states in the far West and South had firmly established public schools

10. The Role of Women and push for reform • At the beginning of the 19th Century, there was a debate about the roles of women • Many people believed that woman’s place was in the home, raising and educating her family and serving the interests of her husband • As women became educated and tasks in the home became easier, women began to venture outside of the home, many of them into the debate over slavery or the temperance movement • The temperance movement was the effort to prohibit the drinking of alcohol • Women also campaigned for education and health reform

11. Women’s Rights Movement Emerges • The Seneca Falls Convention – Seneca Falls, NY, 1848 – first women’s rights convention in the U.S. • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the convention • Stanton and Mott composed the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, which included a list of grievances and push for women to participate in all public issues equally with men • This included a call for the right of suffrage (voting) • Progress was slow, but women began to gain rights

12. Nativist Movement • People who favored native-born Americans over immigrants • Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s gained many followers by vowing to restrict immigration