US History/Napp
Thematic Essay Practice – Reform Movements
Name: __________________
From the August 2004 New York States Regents/ U.S. History & Government
THEMATIC ESSAY QUESTION
Directions: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs
addressing the task below, and a conclusion.
Theme: Reform Movements
Reform movements have been an important part of United States history.
Task:
Identify two reform movements in the United States since 1800 and for each reform
movement
• Describe the historical circumstances that led to the need for reform
• State one goal of the movement and discuss two actions taken by the government, a
group, or an individual in support of this goal
• Evaluate the extent to which the reform movement has made an impact on the
United States
Some suggestions you might wish to consider include the abolitionist movement, Populist
movement, Progressive movement, women’s rights movement, civil rights movement, and
the labor movement.
Gathering the Facts:
1- The Abolitionist Movement
 “The goal of the abolitionist movement was the immediate emancipation of all slaves
and the end of racial discrimination and segregation.
 Advocating for immediate emancipation distinguished abolitionists from more
moderate anti-slavery advocates who argued for gradual emancipation, and from
free-soil activists who sought to restrict slavery to existing areas and prevent its
spread further west.
 Radical abolitionism was partly fueled by the religious fervor of the Second Great
Awakening, which prompted many people to advocate for emancipation on religious
grounds.
 Abolitionist ideas became increasingly prominent in Northern churches and politics
beginning in the 1830s, which contributed to the regional animosity between North
and South leading up to the Civil War.” ~ history.com
 “Although many New Englanders had grown wealthy in the slave trade before the
importation of slaves was outlawed, that area of the country became the hotbed of
abolitionist sentiment. Abolitionist newspapers and pamphlets sprang into existence.
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These were numerous enough by 1820 that South Carolina instituted penalties for
anyone bringing written anti-slavery material into the state.
Following Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860, Southern states
began seceding from the Union. Though personally opposed to slavery and
convinced the United States was going to have to be all free or all slave states – ‘a
house divided against itself cannot stand’ – he repeatedly said he would not interfere
with slavery where it existed. But he adamantly opposed its expansion into
territories where it did not exist, and slave owners were determined that they had to
be free to take their human property with them if they chose to move into those
territories.
Less than two years into the civil war that began over Southern secession, Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It freed all slaves residing in areas of the
nation currently in rebellion. Often ridiculed, both then and now, because it only
freed slaves in areas that did not recognize Lincoln’s authority, it meant that Union
Army officers no longer had to return runaway slaves to their owners because, as
the armies advanced, slaves in the newly captured areas were considered free. It
also effectively prohibited European nations that had long since renounced slavery
from entering the war on the side of the South.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, declared ratified on December 18, 1865,
ended slavery in the United States – at least in name. During the Reconstruction
Era, Southern states found ways to ‘hire’ black workers under terms that were
slavery in all but name, even pursuing any who ran off, just as they had in the days
of the Underground Railroad.
Abolition had been achieved, but the lessons learned by those in the abolition
movement would be applied to other social concerns in the decades to come, notably
the temperance and woman’s suffrage movements.” ~ historynet.com
2- The Populist Movement
 “Throughout the 1880s local political action groups known as Farmers’
Alliances sprang up among Middle Westerners and Southerners, who were
discontented because of crop failures, falling prices, and poor marketing and
credit facilities.
 Although it won some significant regional victories, the alliances generally
proved politically ineffective on a national scale. Thus in 1892 their leaders
organized the Populist, or People’s, Party, and the Farmers’ Alliances melted
away.
 While trying to broaden their base to include labor and other groups, the
Populists remained almost entirely agrarian-oriented.
 They demanded an increase in the circulating currency (to be achieved by the
unlimited coinage of silver), a graduated income tax, government ownership of
the railroads, a tariff for revenue only, the direct election of U.S. senators, and
other measures designed to strengthen political democracy and give farmers
economic parity with business and industry.
 In 1892 the Populist presidential candidate, James B. Weaver, polled 22 electoral
votes and more than 1,000,000 popular votes.
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By fusing with the Democrats in certain states, the party elected several
members to Congress, three governors, and hundreds of minor officials and
legislators, nearly all in the northern Middle West.
In the South, however, most farmers refused to endanger white supremacy by
voting against the Democratic Party.
Additional victories were won in the 1894 midterm election, but in 1896 the
Populists allowed themselves to be swept into the Democratic cause by their
mutual preoccupation with the Free Silver Movement.
The subsequent defeat of Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings
Bryan signaled the collapse of one of the most challenging protest movements in
the U.S. since the Civil War. Some of the Populist causes were later embraced by
the Progressive Party.” ~ Britannica
The Progressive Movement
“Progressivism began as a social movement and grew into a political movement.
The early progressives rejected Social Darwinism.
In other words, they were people who believed that the problems society faced
(poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare) could best be addressed by
providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace.
Progressives lived mainly in the cities, were college educated, and believed that
government could be a tool for change.
Social reformers, like Jane Addams, and journalists, like Jacob Riis and Ida Tarbel,
were powerful voices for progressivism.
They concentrated on exposing the evils of corporate greed, combating fear of
immigrants, and urging Americans to think hard about what democracy meant.
Other local leaders encouraged Americans to register to vote, fight political
corruption, and let the voting public decide how issues should best be addressed (the
initiative, the referendum, and the recall).
On a national level, progressivism gained a strong voice in the White House when
Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901.
TR believed that strong corporations were good for America, but he also believed
that corporate behavior must be watched to ensure that corporate greed did not get
out of hand (trust-busting and federal regulation of business).
Progressivism ended with World War I when the horrors of war exposed people’s
cruelty and many Americans associated President Woodrow Wilson’s use of
progressive language (‘the war to make the world safe for democracy’) with the
war.” ~ gwu.edu
4- The Women’s Rights Movement
 “The first gathering devoted to women’s rights in the United States was held July 19
- 20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York.
 The principal organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention were Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, a mother of four from upstate New York, and the Quaker abolitionist
Lucretia Mott.
 About 100 people attended the convention; two-thirds were women.
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Stanton drafted a ‘Declaration of Sentiments, Grievances, and Resolutions,’ that
echoed the preamble of the Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to
be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.’
The sometimes-fractious suffrage movement that grew out of the Seneca Falls
meeting proceeded in successive waves.
Initially, women reformers addressed social and institutional barriers that limited
women’s rights; including family responsibilities, a lack of educational and
economic opportunities, and the absence of a voice in political debates.
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a Massachusetts teacher, met in 1850 and forged a
lifetime alliance as women’s rights activists.
For much of the 1850s they agitated against the denial of basic economic freedoms
to women.
Later, they unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to include women in the provisions of
the 14th and 15th Amendments (extending citizenship rights and granting voting
rights to freedmen, respectively).
In the wake of the Civil War, however, reformers sought to avoid marginalization as
“social issues” zealots by focusing their message exclusively on the right to vote.
The turning point came in the late 1880s and early 1890s, when the nation
experienced a surge of volunteerism among middle-class women – activists in
progressive causes, members of women’s clubs and professional societies,
temperance advocates, and participants in local civic and charity organizations.
On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment, providing full voting rights for women
nationally, was ratified when Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.” ~
history.house.gov
5- The Civil Rights Movement
 “Nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in
Southern states still inhabited a starkly unequal world of disenfranchisement,
segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence.
 ‘Jim Crow’ laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and
bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures.
 In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine that
formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and
international attention to African Americans’ plight.
 In the turbulent decade and a half that followed, civil rights activists used
nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to bring about change, and the federal
government made legislative headway with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act
of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
 Many leaders from within the African American community and beyond rose to
prominence during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa
Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others.
 They risked—and sometimes lost—their lives in the name of freedom and equality.”
~ history.com
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“The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas ushered in a new era in the struggle for civil rights. This landmark decision
outlawed racial segregation in public schools.
By the time of the Little Rock incident, the nation had already become aware of the
heightened struggle in the South. In 1955 blacks in Montgomery, Ala., organized a
boycott of city buses in protest of the policy of segregated seating. Lasting 381 days,
the boycott, instigated by Rosa Parks, succeeded in integrating the seating. It also
led to the formation in 1957 of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), in Atlanta, Ga., as a national organization presided over by a local black
minister, Martin Luther King, Jr. As SCLC head, he would later become a central
leader in the larger civil rights movement.
A major incident in 1960 led to the founding of another important organization and
expanded the movement’s participants to include college-age blacks. In that year,
four students from the all-black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College
initiated sit-ins at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C.
Students from other southern black colleges and universities followed with similar
sit-ins, bringing about the desegregation of several hundred lunch counters. During
the sit-ins the young protesters organized the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee.” ~ scholastic.com
6- The Labor Movement
 “Many of the first unions were formed to gain workers higher wages and shorter
workdays. These unions often disbanded after their goals were achieved.
 As the nation was growing, so was the need for labor. Many inventions and
innovations turned the country from an agricultural society to an industrial
society.
 With more laborers in the workforce came the need to protect laborers from
being mistreated by their employers.
 The leaders of these union movements pushed for ten-hour workdays.
 The unions, most notably the American Federation of Labor, urged Congress to
pass legislation to help laborers.
 One of the crucial legislative acts to the union movement was the passing of the
Clayton Act in 1914. The Clayton Act, in more general terms, legalized strikes
and boycotts.” ~ nmu.edu
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“1866
National Labor Union founded
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1877
National uprising of railroad workers Ten Irish coal miners (‘Molly
Maguires’) hanged in Pennsylvania; nine more subsequently were
hanged
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1881
Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions formed
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1882
First Labor Day parade in New York City
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1885
Successful strike by Knights of Labor on the Southwest (or Gould)
System: the Missouri Pacific; the Missouri, Kansas and Texas; and
the Wabash
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1886
American Federation of Labor founded
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1887
Seven ‘anarchists’ charged with the bombing in Chicago’s
Haymarket Square and sentenced to death
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1890
Carpenters President P.J. McGuire and the union strike and win the
eight-hour day for some 28,000 members
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1892
Iron and steel workers union defeated in lockout at Homestead, Pa.
Integreated general strike in New Orleans succeeds
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1894
Boycott of Pullman sleeping cars leads to general strike on railroads
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1898
Erdman Act prohibits discrimination against railroad workers
because of union membership and provides for mediation of railway
labor disputes” ~ aflcio.org
Look at the thematic essay question again. Which two reform movements will you
choose?
In addition, in your own words, summarize each reform movement:
The Abolition Movement
The Populist Movement
The Progressive Movement
The Women’s Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement
The Labor Movement
Outlining the Thematic Essay:
Reform Movement: _______
Reform Movement: _______

Describe the historical circumstances
that led to the need for reform

Describe the historical circumstances
that led to the need for reform

State one goal of the movement and
discuss two actions taken by the
government, a group, or an
individual in support of this goal

State one goal of the movement and
discuss two actions taken by the
government, a group, or an
individual in support of this goal

Evaluate the extent to which the
reform movement has made an
impact on the United States

Evaluate the extent to which the
reform movement has made an
impact on the United States
Additional Notes:
Additional Notes:
Write the Essay:
Introduction:
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Conclusion:
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Explain the meaning of the political cartoon.
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Explain the meaning of the political cartoon. _______________________________________