Chapter 12
An Age of Reform 1820-1860
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
• No Homework
• Do Now: Open your textbooks to page 412-413.
Review the map and timeline, what changes are
happening in the US from 1820-1860?
Improving Society
• The Reforming Spirit
▫ Jacksonian Democracy
 Expansion of democracy encouraged reform
 Most states dropped the property requirement for voting
 Political parties developed a more open way of nominating
presidential candidates
 Reformers wanted more
 All men should be able to vote
 Increased rights for women
 Many were against slavery
▫ No society that allowed one human to own another could
be democratic
Improving Society
▫ The Second Great Awakening
 Religious ideas also sparked reform
 New generation of ministers challenged traditional
views
 Predestination was challenged
 Idea that God decided the fate of a person’s soul even before birth
 2nd Great Awakening leaders said that a person’s actions
determined their salvation
 Charles Finney – most important of the 2nd
Awakening preachers
 Held many revivals in 1826
▫ Huge outdoor religious meeting
 Basic result of the 2nd Great Awakening was that people came to
believe that they had the power to improve themselves and their
society
Improving Society
▫ Utopian Communities
 Robert Owen
 Founded a utopian community
▫ Utopian refers to an ideal – perfect society
 New Harmony
 Community owned property
 Everyone had jobs to do – all contributed for the good of the
community
 Food, wealth, land – all were shared equally
 New Harmony was anything but harmonious
 Community members constantly argued about goals and actions
 The colony dissolved after about 2 years
 Most utopian communities did not last long
 Their downfall is because of one main problem
People are GREEDY!
Improving Society
• Social Reformers at Work
▫ Temperance Movement
 Organized effort to end alcohol abuse and the problems
created by it
▫ Whiskey was the drink of choice
 Cheaper than beer or milk
 Safer than water
 Frequently the water supply was contaminated
▫ Many women were drawn to the movement
 They and children suffered abuse from fathers and
husbands who drank too much
▫ Most Reformers favored Temperance (moderation) in
drinking
 Others chose to push for prohibition
 A total ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol
 9 states passed laws banning the use/sale
 The movement was interrupted by the civil war but re-emerged later
Improving Society
▫ Prison Reform
 Prison system was very harsh
 Poorly heated buildings, inadequate food, cramped conditions
 They were designed so that people did not want to be there
 Not all prisoners were criminals
 Debtors were sent to prison
▫ To pay a debt back – you had to work
▫ You cannot work in prison
▫ Many debtors spent years in jail
 Dorothea Dix
 Schoolteacher from Massachusetts who took up the cause of prison
reform
 Over time she convinced state legislatures to build new, sanitary
and humane prisons
▫ Also, debtors were no longer sent to jail
Improving Society
▫ Reforms for the Mentally Ill
 Also led by Dorothea Dix
 She saw what happened to the mentally ill and was
shocked
 The Mentally Ill were kept in prisons
 They received punishment rather than treatment and
care
▫ As if it was their fault for their illness
 Their conditions were often worse than
prisoners
 Kept in cages
 Never let outside
 Chained together
 Dix lobbied state legislatures to build
separate facilities
 Asylums
▫ Institutions where mentally ill people could
receive care and treatment rather than
punishment
Improving Society
• Education Reform
▫ Need for better education
 In the early 1800s many children received no
education
 Wealthy families hired private tutors
 Poor children received no education outside the home
 As a result, many Americans could not read or write
▫ Reformers argued that education was important
 Must make sure that voters were intelligently
informed
 Immigration was also on the rise
 Better schools would help immigrants become part of American
culture
Improving Society
▫ Horace Mann
 Took the lead for education reform
 Said public financing of education was essential for
democracy to work
 Became head of the state board of education in
Massachusetts
 Convinced the legislature to improve schools
▫ Created colleges to train teachers
▫ Raised the salaries of teachers
▫ Lengthened the school year
 Other states soon followed this example
 By the 1850s public schools were common in the NE
▫ The west and south lagged behind
▫ But eventually they developed their own
Improving Society
▫ Education for African Americans
 Public education did little for African Americans
 Slave codes prohibited slaves from being taught to read and write
 In the north, free black children were seldom permitted to enter the
same schools as whites
 Some reformers tried to improve
 Prudence Crandall
▫ Quaker teacher who opened a school for African American girls in
Connecticut.
▫ Hostile neighbors attacked and destroyed the school
 Some opportunities did open up
 African American teachers opened their own private schools
 Harvard and Oberlin universities allowed African Americans to
attend
 In 1854 Ashmun Institute opened in Pennsylvania
▫ First college for African American Men
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
• No Homework 
• Do Now: have out homework from last night
(reforms)
The Fight Against Slavery
• Roots of the Anti-Slavery
Movement
▫ Slavery Ends in the North
 1780 – Pennsylvania became
the first state to pass a law
eliminating slavery gradually
 In 1803 Ohio entered the
union as a free state
 By 1804 – every northern
state pledged to end slavery
▫ The Colonization Movement
 Anti-slavery organization
established in 1817
 They had a novel idea…
 Free slaves, and transport
them to a colony established
in Africa
▫ Liberia
Thursday, October 10, 2013
• Homework: page 426 1-3
• Do Now: Take out notes from yesterday and be
ready to continue
The Fight Against Slavery
• Growing Opposition to Slavery
▫ Inspired by the 2nd Great Awakening
 Abolitionists
 Reformers who wanted to abolish, or end, slavery
 They rejected a gradual end – wanted it stopped ASAP
▫ William Lloyd Garrison
 Quaker abolitionists
 Did not want violence used
 Was more radical than others – wanted full political rights for all
African Americans
 Began a newspaper in 1831 – The Liberator
 Co-founded the Anti-Slavery Society
▫ Members included Theodore Weld
▫ Sarah and Angelina Grimke
The Fight Against Slavery
▫ African American Abolitionists
 1829 – David Walker – Appeal: To the
Coloured Citizens of the World
 pamphlet that encouraged enslaved people to
rebel, if necessary, to regain their freedom
 Frederick Douglas
 Most influential of African American
Abolitionists
▫ Had been born into slavery
▫ Broke the law by learning how to read and write
 Escaped to freedom in the North
 Risked being sent back to slavery by speaking out
in public
 Began his own newspaper for Abolition The
North Star
The Fight Against Slavery
▫ A Former President Takes a
Stand
 John Quincy Adams
 Now a member of congress
 Read anti-slavery petitions from the
floor of the house
 Proposed a constitutional amendment
that would ban slavery in any new
states
▫ Amendment was not passed
 Argued in front of the U.S. Supreme
Court for the freedom of the captive
African Americans aboard the
Amistad
The Fight Against Slavery
• The Underground Railroad
▫ A Network of People
 Black and white, northerner and southerner
 All helped slaves reach freedom
 Working for the ‘railroad’ was illegal
 ‘conductors’ led slaves from one ‘station’ to another
 Supporters helped by donating food, money, and
clothing
 Levi Coffin – an Indiana Quaker – assisted more than
3,000 slaves
▫ Harriet Tubman
 Escaped from slavery and helped 300 others to
freedom
 Nicknamed the ‘Black Moses’
 Southern slave owners offered $40,000 for her capture
The Fight Against Slavery
• Opposing Abolition
▫ Profits
 Many northerners profited from the existence of
slavery
 Textile mills and merchants counted on the cotton produced in the
south
 Northern workers feared freed slaves would take their jobs
 These fears prompted violence
 William Lloyd Garrison was dragged through the streets with a rope
around his neck in Boston
 Georgia offered a $50,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of
Garrison for libel
 Gag Rule
 Won in congress by southerners – it blocked discussion of antislavery petitions
 J.Q. Adams fought the rule, but lost
A Call for Women’s Rights
• The Struggle Begins
▫ In 1820 – Women’s rights were limited
 They could not:





Serve on juries
Vote
Attend college
Become doctors or lawyers
Married women couldn’t own property
▫ Some women stood up against this
 Sojourner Truth
 Born into slavery – she was illiterate
 Her words inspired crowds that heard her
 She became a powerful voice for freedom and equality
Monday, October 14, 2013
• Christopher Columbus, Villain or Hero? Essay
due Friday (typed, double spaced!)
• Do Now: What happened when Lucretia Mott
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton tried to attend the
anti-slavery convention?
A Call for Women’s Rights
▫ Lucretia Mott
 Anti-Slavery Quaker
 Because Quakers allowed women to take public
roles, she had experience in organization and public
speaking most other women did not
 Went to London to attend an international antislavery convention
▫ Elizabeth Cady Stanton
 Another abolitionist
 Was in London with her husband – a delegate to
the Anti-Slavery Convention
▫ The Two Meet
 Mott and Stanton tried to attend the
convention
 They were told “No Women Allowed”
 This infuriated them
A Call for Women’s Rights
▫ Declaration of Sentiments
 Mott and Stanton agreed on the
need for a convention to advance
women’s rights
 Summer of 1848 – Seneca Falls, NY
 Met to discuss the social, civil, and religious
rights of women
 More than 300 men and women attended
 Stanton wrote a declaration of
sentiments modeled on the
declaration of independence
 “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men and women are created equal”
▫ The declaration then listed the
injustices society placed upon women
A Call for Women’s Rights
▫ Call for Suffrage
 Begun by Stanton with her argument for rights
 Suffrage is the right to vote
 Some women were divided on the issue
 Lucretia Mott argued that the issue was so controversial that trying
to gain the right would hurt their other causes
• New Opportunities for Women
▫ The Seneca Falls Convention launched the
women’s rights movement
 An organized effort to improve the political, legal,
and economic status of women in American Society
A Call for Women’s Rights
▫ Political Victories
 Susan B. Anthony
 Became a close ally of Stanton
 Fought for women’s suffrage
 Anthony was unmarried
 Unlike Stanton she could travel across the country
▫ Stanton wrote speeches from her home while taking care
of her growing family
 Together they founded the Women’s Suffrage Association
 Susan was arrested in 1872 for voting in the Presidential Election
A Call for Women’s Rights
• Education for Women
▫ More opportunities for women
 Girls were rarely taught math and
science, those were reserved for boys
who would grow up to be voters, citizens,
and professionals
▫ Emma Willard
 Began an academy for girls in Troy, NY
 Soon became the model for girls’ schools
▫ Mary Lyon
 Opened Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary
 First college for women
 Showed that women could indeed learn
subjects like geometry, chemistry, and
Latin
A Call for Women’s Rights
▫ New Careers
 Gradually society began to accept that women could be
educated and do other professions
 Margaret Fuller
 Began a career as a journalist, scholar, and literary
critic
 Elizabeth Blackwell
 First woman to graduate from an American Medical
College
 Maria Mitchell
 Astronomer, first professor hired at Vassar College
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
• Homework:
▫ Columbus essay due Friday
▫ Page 431 Key terms and people for tomorrow
• Do Now: page 430 # 1,2,5
American Literature and Arts
• An American Culture
Develops
▫ American Themes
 Art and literature reflected
optimism and energy
 Their works were about
things uniquely American
▫ Two Early Writers
 Washington Irving
 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
 Rip Van Winkle
 James Fenimore Cooper
 The Deerslayer
 The Last of the Mohicans
Thursday, October 17, 2013
• Homework: Essay due tomorrow! Chapter 12
test Tuesday!
• DO Now: have out homework, compare with a
partner
American Literature and Arts
▫ Transcendentalism
 Movement that looked to explore the relationship between
humans and nature through emotions rather than reason
 They urged people to seek goodness and truth within their own
souls
▫ Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Leading transcendentalist
 Asked people to question the value of material goods in his
speeches and essays
 Stressed individualism
▫ The unique importance of each individual
▫ Henry David Thoreau
 Urged people to live simply
 Encouraged civil disobedience
 Idea that people should peacefully disobey unjust laws if their
consciences demand it
 This inspired civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.
American Literature and Arts
• Flowering of American Literature
▫ Herman Melville
 Moby Dick (1851)
 Tale of a captain who is obsessed
with pursuing a white whale. In the
end, the captain destroys himself, his
ship, and his crew
▫ Nathaniel Hawthorne
 The Scarlet Letter (1850)
 A young minister is destroyed by
secret guilt.
 Hawthorne explored the dark side of
the mind.
▫ Louisa May Alcott
 Little Women (1868)
 Novel based on her own experiences
growing up with three sisters.
American Literature and Arts
▫ Poets of Democracy
 Poets helped create a new
national voice
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Based poems on American History
 Paul Revere’s Ride
 Song of Hiawatha
 Walt Whitman
 Leaves of Grass
 Book of poems
 John Greenleaf Whittier
 Frances Watkins Harper
 Both wrote poems that condemned
slavery
American Literature and Arts
• Art and Music
▫ Painting America
▫ Some painters sought to stir
emotions by reproducing the
beauty of nature – others
painted everyday life
 Thomas Cole
 Painted scenes of the Hudson
River
 George Caleb Bingham
 Timeless picture of life on the great
rivers
 George Catlin
 Captured the ways and dignity of
Native Americans
American Literature and Arts
▫ Popular Songs
 Most early American songs had roots in English,
Irish, or Scottish tunes
 Over time a wider variety emerged
 Working songs hummed by sailors or workers
 Spiritual songs sung by slaves
 Stephen Collins Foster
 Father of American Music
▫ “Camptown Races”
▫ “Old Folks at Home”
▫ “Oh! Susanna!”