Era of Societal
Reform
Underlying Factors:
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Romanticism
Change becomes a factor in everyday life
Cultural nationalism—celebrate America
Nature—understand and control
Belief in human perfectibility
– Change individual to change society
– Moral authority and religion
• Democratic impulses
• Search for order
Trends:
• Economics:
– Industrial Revolution
– Transportation Revolution
– Immigration
• Religion:
– Second Great Awakening
– Communal Experiments
• Culture:
– Transcendentalists
– Art, literature, music, architecture
• Social change and reform:
– Temperance
– Institution/asylum
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Mental health
Blind/deaf
Prison
Youth
– Education
– Women & family
• Cult of Domesticity
• Women’s Rights
• Changing economic duties
• Abolition
• Regional Differences:
– North, South, West
• Politics:
– Expansion of democracy
– Jacksonianism
– Era of the Common Man
• Describe movements in
American society in the
early 1800s and how they
influenced reform
movements:
Establishment of Reform
• Early 1800s were marked by an era of reform
• Highly religious influence due to Second Great
Awakening
• Issues included temperance, prison reform,
education, women’s rights and the abolition
of slavery
Temperance Movement
• Wanted to control alcohol consumption for moral
reasons
• Prevent spousal and child abuse
• Maintain money for food and necessities
• Reduce violence around urban working class pubs
• Local temperance groups are established and
form the American Temperance Union
Source:" The Drunkards Progress From The First Glass To The
Grave," 1846.
Prison Reform
• Change to belief in
rehabilitating prisoners instead
of simply locking them up
• Penitentiaries – individuals
worked to achieve penitence
• Better physical environment
and reduce overcrowding
• Separate facilities for the
mentally ill – Dorothea Dix
Source: Fourth Annual Report, Society for the Reformation of
Juvenile Delinquents in the City of New York, 1829
• We might feel a pride in the reflection, that our young country . . . was the
first to adopt the penitentiary system of prison discipline, and the first to
attempt to prevent the commission of crimes, by seeking out the youthful
and unprotected, who were in the way of temptation, and by religious and
moral instruction, by imparting to them useful knowledge, and by giving
them industrious and orderly habits, rescuing them from vice and
rendering them valuable members of society.
• To confine these youthful criminals . . . where no, or scarcely any,
distinction can be made between the young and old, or between the more
and less vicious, where little can be learned but the ways of the wicked,
and from whence they must be sent to encounter new wants, new
temptations, and to commit new crimes, is to pursue a course, as little
reconcilable with justice as humanity; yet, till the House of Refuge was
established there was no alternative.
Educational Reform
• Movement towards government funded
public education available to all citizens
• Belief that a democratic republic could
only survive if well-informed
• Moves more slowly in rural areas due to
farming needs
• North responds more quickly, as only
1/3 of children enrolled in the South in
1860
• Slaves completely barred from receiving
an education
• Missionary movement attempts to
spread learning and religion to Native
Americans
Source: William H. McGuffey, Reader,1836.
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The good boy, whose parents are poor, rises very early in the morning, and all day
long does as much as he can to help his father and mother.
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When he goes to school he walks quickly, and does not lose time on the road. "My
parents," he says, "are very good to save some of their money in order that I may
learn to read and write; but they can not give much, nor can they spare me long;
therefore I must learn as fast as I can; if anybody has any time to lose, I am sure I
have not." . . .
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When he has finished his lessons, he does not stay to play, but runs home; he
wants to see his father and mother and to help them. . . .
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Sometimes he goes with his father to work; then he is very glad and though he is
but a little fellow, he works very hard, almost like a man. . . .
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When he comes home to dinner, he says, "How hungry I am! And how good this
bread is, and this bacon! Indeed, I think every thing we have is very good. I am
glad I can work; I hope that I shall soon be able to earn all my clothes, and my food
too."
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When he sees little boys and girls riding on pretty horses, or in coaches, or walking
with ladies and gentlemen, and having on very fine clothes, he does not envy
them, nor wish to be like them.
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He says, "I have often been told, and I have read, that it is God who makes some
poor, and others rich; that the rich have many troubles which we know nothing of;
and that the poor, if they are but good, may be very happy, indeed, I think that
when I am good, nobody can be happier than I am.
Women’s Rights
• Women were active participants and leaders
in other social movements
• Women though still lack suffrage (the right to
vote) and have limited opportunities for
higher education
Different opinions on the place of
women in society
• “True Womanhood”
(Catherine Beecher) –
women can find fulfillment
carrying out their
obligations to the home
• Margaret Fuller – women
need their own
relationship with God and
“as a soul to live freely and
unimpeded”
Move towards equality
• Women form reform societies
and chosen as leaders
• Women working for abolition
see a parallel between the
plight of slaves and the
condition of women
• American female antislavery
leaders turned away at the
World Anti-Slavery Convention
in London
• Event brings together
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott, who will help
organize the Seneca Falls
Convention
Seneca Falls Convention
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Met in Seneca Falls, New York in July 1848
Approximately 300 people (women and men) attend
First convention based around women’s rights
Most prominent demand became obtaining the right to vote
Adopt the Declaration of Sentiments, which was written by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Signed by 100 of those in attendance, including abolitionist and
freed slave Frederick Douglass
• Declaration of Sentiments was shocking to most observers and
some delegates
• It would take 72 more years to reach complete suffrage after the
Seneca Falls Convention
Source: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls
Declaration, August 2, 1848.
• . . . But we are assembled to protest against a
form of government, existing without the consent
of the governed-to declare our right to be free as
man is free, to be represented in the government
which we are taxed to support, to have such
disgraceful laws as give man the power to
chastise and imprison his wife. . . . And, strange
as it may seem to many, we now demand our
right to vote according to the declaration of the
government under which we live.
• Describe how society was
changed by early 19th Century
reforms:
• Describe developments in the
role of women in 19th Century
American society and politics:
Abolition
Conditions of Slaves
• Two types of slaves
• Each slave faced problems in the
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conditions they worked
House slaves
• Dressed and ate better, but no more
status than field slaves
• No freedom of time, on call 24/7
• Faced sexual advances
• Field slaves
• On call from sunup to sundown
• Terrible working conditions
• Beating and whippings on more
regular basis
•Describe how the
type of work done by
slaves impacted the
issues they faced:
History of Anti-Slavery Movement
• Early anti-slavery: Gradualism
– Societies wanted to end slavery bit by bit
– First end slave trade, then slavery in the
North, then Upper South, and finally Lower
South
• Anti-slavery but racist: Colonization
– Ending slavery would still leave racial problems
– American Colonization Society wanted to send African
Americans back to Africa
– The ACS sent est. 13,000 to present-day Liberia
Complete removal of slavery: Abolition
• Slavery was contrary to liberty and equality
• All humans were equal in the eyes of God
• Benjamin Lundy
– Anti-slavery newspaper wanting immediate
emancipation
• William Lloyd Garrison
– Radical pacifist emancipation that denounced anyone
who allowed slavery to exist
• Fredrick Douglass
– Escaped slave—activist
that demanded equal
protection of the laws
– Argued that education was
the surest way to reform
for slaves
Source: Engraving by Patrick Reason, 1835.
•Describe the different
approaches promoted
for abolition:
Slave Uprisings
• 1800—Gabriel Prosser at Richmond
– Prosser and 36 others hanged
• 1822—Denmark Vesey in S. Carolina
– Vesey and 36 others were hanged
• 1831—Nat Turner in VA
– Since Turner was educated, after this revolt
education of slaves was outlawed
Runaway Slaves
As an act of trying to escape slavery many slaves would try and run away.
However, there were severe consequences for these actions.
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Many slaves were branded with an R and beaten, and some were even killed
for their actions.
The Fugitive Slave Act struck fear in many slaves as they could be returned to
their masters if they were found in any area throughout the United
States.
Underground Railroad
• A major way that slaves escaped the South
• Used railroad terminology to describe those
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involved
Harriet Tubman is the most prominent member
She was a fugitive slave that escaped to the
North
Felt a calling from God to help free slaves
Lived her calling by making 19 trips to South,
saving hundreds of slaves
Tubman received title of “Moses” for work in
the Underground Railroad.
Underground Railroad
Paranoia & Abolition
• Abolition not likely due to necessity of ¾ approval
of constitutional amendment
• Southerners were paranoid of a great slave
rebellion and perceived a “Great Northern AntiSlavery Conspiracy”
• Northerners thought the South wanted to
dominate the country and perceived a “Southern
Slave Conspiracy”
• Abolitionists intensified sectionalism: N vs. S
• Abolitionists helped propagandize the North
about the evil of slavery
•Describe how resistance
by slaves and the idea
of abolition led to
increased tensions:
The Changing Workplace
Pre-Industrialization
• Prior to industrialization, the main form of
manufacturing was the cottage industry, in which
manufacturers provided raw materials to people who
worked out of their homes
• Early factories retained this model, but with greater
output
• Experienced artisans had ranks:
– Master
– Journeyman
– Apprentice
Industrialization Case Study: Lowell, MA
• Francis Cabot Lowell revolutionizes the textile
industry in MA, giving thousands of young women
the opportunity to work outside the home
• Many women find mills to be a relief from farm work
and housework
“…I have a very good place, have
enough to eat… The girls are all kind and
obliging… I think that the factory is the
best place for me and if any girl wants
employment, I advise them to come to
Lowell.”
– 16-year-old Mary Paul, Lowell employee
(1846)
Industrialization Case Study: Lowell, MA
• Many young women stay only a few years before
returning home
– Newfound independence ripples through their daily
lives, influencing many new ideas pertaining to
women’s rights
• Greater awareness of miserable working
conditions in factories develops
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Long hours
Poor ventilation
Stifling heat
Dark rooms
Dangerous machinery
• In response to working conditions, mill workers call
for a strike – a work stoppage to force employers to
meet workers’ demands
• Strike under the banner “UNION IS POWER”
• Bosses do not grant strikers’ demands, but stage is set
for the class battles that will define the factory and
mining industries for decades to come
A Specter Haunts Europe
• Worldwide, industrialization rapidly
increases and working conditions &
living standards rapidly decrease for the
vast majority of people
• German journalist Karl Marx published
The Communist Manifesto in 1848 –
one of the most influential works of
economic theory ever published
– All struggles are class struggles (political
struggles)
– Proletariat will increase until it swallows
up the bourgeoisie
– Workers must control the means of
production
Other factors
• In addition to native-born American men and women,
thousands of immigrants flock to America in the 19th
century
• Enormous wave of Irish immigrants flee from the Potato
Famine
– Mass starvation
– Brutal land/social policies of the British government
• Irish willing to work for less and in harsher conditions,
making unionizing more difficult
• National Trades’ Union becomes largest union in the
country, uniting workers from 6 industries
• Commonwealth vs. Hunt – Supreme Court ruling in favor
of strikers
– workers may act “in such a manner as best to subserve their own
interests” – Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw
• Describe how industrial
changes caused reform
movements within
workers and the labor
movement:
Other Issues
• Medicine
• New Religions and Utopian Societies
• Immigration
Source: Charles G. Finney,1834.
• When the churches are . . . awakened and
reformed, the reformation and salvation of
sinners will follow, going through the same stages
of conviction, repentance, and reformation. Their
hearts will be broken down and changed. Very
often the most abandoned profligates are among
the subjects. Harlots, and drunkards, and infidels,
and all sorts of abandoned characters, are
awakened and converted.
Source: Samuel F.B. Morse, Imminent Dangers to the
Free Institutions of the United States, 1835.
• In our national infancy we needed the strength of numbers.
. . . Now emigration is changed; naturalization has become
the door of entrance not alone to the ever welcome lovers
of liberty, but also for the priest-ridden troops of the Holy
Alliance. . . . Now emigrants are selected . . . not for their
affinity to liberty, but for their mental servitude, and their
docility in obeying the orders of their priests. . .
• It may be, Americans, that you still doubt the existence of a
conspiracy. . . . Do you wish to test its existence and its
power? . . . Test it by attempting a change in the
Naturalization Law. Take the ground that such a change
must be made, that no foreigner who comes into the
country after the law is passed shall ever be allowed the
right of suffrage.