Antebellum
Revivalism
&
Reform
Social Reforms
 Several social reform movements began during the
early-mid 1800s. These movements aimed to
transform society for the better.
 Many who participated in these movements were
inspired by the Second Great Awakening (a
religious movement).
Second Great Awakening
 Early 1800’s
 Started in Kentucky and Tennessee
 As part of the “Awakening,” evangelical Christian
preachers traveled from revival to revival
preaching the Gospel and calling on believers to
become socially active and impact society through
good works.
 Religion motivated many to become social
reformers.
Second Great Awakening
Revival Meeting
Stirring of Reforms
 Democratic principles of Second Great Awakening
stirred the reform movements of the 1830s and
1840s.
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Reformers based arguments on Protestant principles.
Led people to risk lives to help slaves escape, to face hostile
crowds to demand women’s rights…
The Second Great
Awakening
“Spiritual Reform From Within”
[Religious Revivalism]
Social Reforms & Redefining the
Ideal of Equality
Temperance
Education
Abolitionism
Asylum &
Penal Reform
Women’s
Rights
Reform Movements: Education
 Western expansion impacted education. As the nation
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grew and people became more spread out, leaders and
citizens wanted to make sure that the country had a sense
of national values (individualism and patriotism).
Democracy couldn’t survive without literate, informed
voters and moral citizens.
Edu reformers fought for tax-supported public schools.
Schools promote self-discipline and good citizenship.
Many believed the US must educate is population in
order to compete with other nations.
Many states included public education in their state
constitutions.
Reform Movements: Education
 One key leader in the education movement was Noah
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Webster. He compiled the 1st US dictionary that
included words and spelling (in the American
vernacular).
Webster played a major role in forging a national
language and helped the nation unify educational
standards in a way that proved beneficial to the country.
Horace Mann was another education reformer who
wanted both men and women to have access to public
education.
Mann believed that education was essential to the
success of democracy.
He helped to create the 1st public Board of Education in
Massachusetts. He inspired other states to offer public
education as well.
The McGuffey Eclectic
Readers
Used to teach American values, respect for order, 3 R’s, Protestant ethic –
frugality, hard work, sobriety!
Reform Movements: Temperance
 Temperance Movement: Organized campaign to
moderate or end alcohol consumption.
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Saw alcohol as threat to self-control and self-discipline, threat
to family life.
The temperance movement owed much of its success to
women and church leaders in the US.
Alcohol is not actually banned nationwide until Prohibition
begins in 1920, but the movement to prohibit alcohol began in
1820.
5. Temperance Movement
1826 - American Temperance Society
“Demon Rum”!
Frances Willard
R1-6
The Beecher Family
Annual Consumption of Alcohol
“The Drunkard’s Progress”
From the first glass to the grave, 1846
Anti-Slavery Alphabet
Reform Movements: Abolitionist
 The abolitionist movement, the movement to end
slavery, gained momentum in the 1830s.
 As dependence on slave labor increased in the South,
opposition to slavery increased in the North.
 White members of the abolition movement were
mostly middle class, educated, church people from
New England (many Quakers).
 Black abolitionists were mostly former slaves, such
as Frederick Douglass.
Prominent White Abolitionists
 While some sought to merely limit slavery’s expansion into new territories,
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others were determined to end it completely.
Those who advocated the total abolishment of slavery were called
abolitionists.
Key white figures in this movement included William Lloyd Garrison and
the Grimke sisters.
William Lloyd Garrison founded an influential anti-slavery newspaper
called The Liberator, and helped establish the American Anti-Slavery
Society.
Sarah and Angelina Grimke were members of a prominent
slaveholding family in SC who became abolitionists and won national
acclaim for their passionate anti-slavery speeches.
Women played a key role in the abolition movement.
Other white abolitionists included Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s
Cabin), and Henry David Thoreau (transcendentalist).
William Lloyd Garrison
(1801-1879)
 Slavery & Masonry
undermined republican
values.
 Immediate emancipation
with NO compensation.
 Slavery was a moral, not
an economic issue.
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The Liberator
Premiere issue  January 1, 1831
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Frederick Douglass
Early Years
 Frederick Douglass was born into
slavery in Maryland in 1817.
 Although Maryland state law prevented
the education of slaves, Douglass was
taught first by his owner’s wife and
later educated himself.
 As a field hand, Douglass was brutally
beaten, reaching what he called a
“turning point” in his life–the time that
he fought back.
 In 1838, Douglass disguised himself as
a sailor and escaped to New Bedford,
Massachusetts.
Douglass as Activist
 Douglass became a writer and speaker
for the abolitionist movement, earning
a reputation for passion and eloquence.
 Douglass founded an abolitionist
newspaper, the North Star, in 1847.
 To avoid capture by his former master,
Douglass went to Europe, where he
raised the money to purchase his
freedom.
 Douglass believed that slavery should
be fought with deeds as well as words,
although without violence.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
1845  The Narrative of the Life
Of Frederick Douglass
1847  “The North Star”
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The Underground Railroad
Thousands of slaves escaped to freedom via the Underground Railroad, a secret
network of abolitionists who guided and sheltered fleeing slaves along paths which led to
northern states or Canada.
 The Underground Railroad consisted of numerous paths whose natural characteristics
helped escaping slaves avoid their pursuers. These included the Mississippi and Ohio
rivers, the swamps along the East Coast, and the Appalachian Mountains.
 One famous Underground Railroad “conductor,” Harriet Tubman, was herself an
escaped slave. After escaping to the North, she made many trips back to the South,
helping more than 300 other slaves to freedom.
 Some people, including the Quakers of southern Ohio, were sympathetic to the
Underground Railroad. Others, including whites in southern Illinois, attempted to catch
escaped slaves as they fled.
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Harriet Tubman
(1820-1913)
Helped over 300 slaves
to freedom.
$40,000 bounty on her
head.
Served as a Union spy
during the Civil War.
“Moses”
Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)
or Isabella Baumfree
1850  The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
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Leading Escaping Slaves Along the
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad
“Conductor” ==== leader of the escape
“Passengers” ==== escaping slaves
“Tracks” ==== routes
“Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting
the escaping slaves
“Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep
Resistance to Abolitionism
Opposition in the North
 Even in the North, abolitionism was
viewed as a radical idea in the decades
before the Civil War.
 Northern merchants feared that
tensions with the South over slavery
would hurt trade, and labor leaders
feared that escaped slaves would take
jobs away from white Americans.
 Opposition to abolitionism became
violent. Meeting halls and printing
presses were destroyed, and
abolitionists were humiliated and
killed.
Opposition in the South
 Most white southerners were outraged
by abolitionists’ criticisms.
 During the 1830s, speaking out against
slavery became increasingly dangerous
and rare in the South.
 In 1836, southerners in Congress
passed what northerners called the gag
rule, which prohibited antislavery
petitions from being read or acted upon
in the House for the next eight years.
The Antislavery Movement—Assessment
What was the purpose of the Underground Railroad?
(A) To provide political action to change slavery laws
(B) To help fleeing slaves escape to freedom
(C) To give women a voice in the abolitionist movement
(D) To stop the abolitionist movement by violent means
What was one reason that some northerners were opposed to abolitionism?
(A) They were outraged by abolitionists’ criticisms.
(B) They feared that tensions would hurt trade with the South.
(C) They felt that speaking up against slavery was too dangerous.
(D) They were disappointed with how African Americans in the movement were
treated.
The Antislavery Movement—Assessment
What was the purpose of the Underground Railroad?
(A) To provide political action to change slavery laws
(B) To help fleeing slaves escape to freedom
(C) To give women a voice in the abolitionist movement
(D) To stop the abolitionist movement by violent means
What was one reason that some northerners were opposed to abolitionism?
(A) They were outraged by abolitionists’ criticisms.
(B) They feared that tensions would hurt trade with the South.
(C) They felt that speaking up against slavery was too dangerous.
(D) They were disappointed with how African Americans in the movement were
treated.
Reform Movements: Women’s Rights
Chapter 9, Section 3
Fighting for Reform
 For many women, participating in the
reform movements of the late 1800s
was a first taste of life outside the
home.
 Women participated in many aspects of
reform, including writing, speaking,
and marching in parades to support
their cause.
 Through these activities, many middleclass women became aware both of
their inferior position in society and of
their ability to fight to change it.
Fighting for Abolition
 Many women entered the public world
of politics by participating in the fight
to end slavery.
 Women saw parallels between their
status and that of African Americans.
 Some men objected to women’s
participation in the abolitionist
movement, believing that women
should use their influence only within
their families.
Reform Movements: Women’s Rights
 Women played a key role in the abolitionist and temperance
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movements, only to face discrimination from the men whom they’d
served.
This led to the birth of the Women’s Rights Movement.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped organize the 1st women’s rights
convention, known as the Seneca Falls Conference, in 1848, where she
called for women’s suffrage.
Susan B. Anthony joined Stanton to fight for women’s rights. With
Stanton, she fought for suffrage until her death in 1906.
Neither saw the fruits of their labor. Women did not get the right to
vote until 1920, after both died
Cult of Domesticity = Slavery
The 2nd Great Awakening inspired women
to improve society.
Angelina Grimké
Sarah Grimké
 Southern Abolitionists
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Lucy Stone
American Women’s
Suffrage Assoc.
edited Woman’s Journal
8. Women’s Rights
R2-6/7
1840  split in the abolitionist movement
over women’s role in it.
London  World Anti-Slavery Convention
Lucretia Mott
1848 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
Assessment
 What was significant about the Seneca Falls
Convention?
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton is most identified with:
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Jacksonian Democracy
Education reform
Abolition
Women’s suffrage
4. Penitentiary Reform
Dorothea Dix
(1802-1887)
1821  first
penitentiary founded
in Auburn, NY
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Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849
Reform Movements
 Using the manila folder I gave you, create a brochure
to promote the goals of one of the 1800s reform
movements you have learned about: temperance,
education, abolition, or women’s rights.
 In your brochure, you should address the goal of the
movement, important leaders in the movement and
their contributions, grievances, advances achieved,
and conditions before reform.
 Make it neat, and include relevant visuals.