Antebellum Reform Movements
Unit 5, Lesson 3
Essential Idea
• The “Era of the Common Man” and the
Second Great Awakening caused people to
push for reforms.
Era of the “Common Man”
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Event:
Era of the Common Man
Cause:
Starting in the 1820s,
universal white male suffrage
spread
Effects:
Andrew Jackson, a “common
man,” was elected
Candidates had to campaign
to appeal to common people
The common man gained
more influence in
government
Second Great Awakening
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Event:
Second Great Awakening
Cause:
Americans were less religious, especially after the Enlightenment emphasized science and reason
Effect:
People looked to THEMSELVES to be saved, not church authority
Common people had more influence in their religion
Many wanted reforms to fix “sins” in society, especially slavery
Antebellum Reform
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Combined Effect:
The country experienced a period of REFORM
The Era of the Common Man gave people more power in government
The Second Great Awakening gave people more power in religion
Combined, people felt empowered to use the GOVERNMENT to REFORM
“sins” in society
• Issues to Reform:
• Treatment of mentally ill, prison conditions, education, abuse of alcohol,
and slavery
• Women, also wanting more power, began pushing for equal rights
Reforms: Mental Hospitals
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Issue 1:
Mental hospitals
Reform:
Dorothea Dix—exposed inhumane treatment of the mentally ill
States created mental hospitals, not prisons, to give the mentally ill
proper help
Reforms: Prisons
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Issue 2:
Prisons
Reforms:
Prisoners were
treated inhumanely
were sometimes
jailed just for being
in debt
• Prisons began
focusing more
rehabilitating
prisoners and
“debtors’ prison”
was abolished
Reforms: Public Education
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Issue 3:
Public education
Reforms:
Education was only
affordable for the wealthy
• Many believed the
country could only survive
if citizens were educated
• Horace Mann—pushed for
public, tax-supported
schools with required
attendance
Reforms: Temperance
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Issue 4:
Alcohol abuse
Reforms:
Many saw alcohol
abuse as the root of
society’s problems
• Temperance—
moderation of
alcohol use
• The American
Temperance Society
convinced many to
reduce alcohol use
and some states
banned the sale of
liquor
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The Women’s Rights Movement
• Effect of Industrial
Revolution:
• Roles of men and
women changed
during
industrialization
• Men and women
had “separate
spheres”
• Men’s Sphere:
• Men left home to
work in factories
• Men were active
outside the home in
politics and reform
“True Womanhood”
• Women’s Sphere:
• Women stayed at
home to care for the
home and children
• Women were not very
active outside the
home
Reform: Women’s Rights
• Women and Reform:
• Women saw taking care of society as an extension of taking care of the
home
• Women resented men giving them secondary roles in reform
• Women, like men during the “Era of the Common Man,” wanted more
power in government and society
Reform: Women’s
Rights
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Issue 5:
Women’s Rights
Events:
Seneca Falls Convention—started
the organized women’s rights
movement in the United States in
1848
Declaration of Sentiments—
declared men and women to be
EQUAL
Elizabeth Cady Stanton—demanded
women’s SUFFRAGE (right to vote)
Seneca Falls Convention
Impact:
The women’s rights movement was
overshadowed by the biggest
reform movement, abolitionism
Reform: Abolitionism
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Issue 6:
Abolition of Slavery
Abolitionism:
The abolition of
slavery was the
biggest and most
divisive issue of
reform
• Tension over the
issue of slavery
contributed to the
Civil War