Chapter 8
Reforming American Society
Section 1: Religion Sparks Reform
Charles Grandison Finney—inspired emotional religious faith, highly dramatic
Religious activism—evangelism
The Second Great Awakening
• Broad religious movement after 1790
• Rejected the idea that God predetermined a person’s salvation (Heaven) or damnation
(Hell)
• Emphasized personal responsibility
Revivalism
Revival—an emotional meeting designed to awaken religious faith through
preaching and prayer
The African-American Church
Christianity was brought to slaves
ALL people belong to God
Some churches opened to Blacks or set up separate churches for Blacks
Transcendentalism and Reforms
Transcendentalism—led by Ralph Waldo Emerson
A way of life emphasized the simple life and truth in nature and personal
emotion
Henry David Thoreau—(Emerson’s friend) writers who led the
transcendentalism movement
• Thoreau lived alone in a cabin for several years and wrote about
his life there
Civil Disobedience—people were urged to not obey laws that were
unjust/unfair
Americans Form Ideal Communities
Utopian Communities—groups of people who tried to set up “perfect” communities
Shaker Communities—shared goods with each other, refused any violence, vow never
to marry or have children
Schools and Prisons Undergo Reform
Reforming Asylums and Prisons
Dorothea Dix—helped pass a law to improve conditions in prisons and
asylums
The new goal was to REFORM prisoners, not punish them
Pushed for hospitals for mentally ill (not jails)
Improving Education
Most children dropped out of school by age 10
People demanded a tax-supported school system
Teacher-training and curriculum were established
Section 2: Slavery and Abolition
Abolitionists Speak Out
Abolition—the call or movement to make slavery illegal
William Lloyd Garrison
Founded the anti-slavery and called for emancipation—the freeing of slaves
Free Blacks
David Walker—a free black who advised slaves to fight for freedom
Free blacks could only have the lowest-paying jobs
Frederick Douglass
An educated, escaped slave who fought for freedom and began North Star—
an anti-slavery newspaper
Life Under Slavery
Rural—toiled all day in the fields, treated cruelly
Cities (Urban Slavery)—worked in mills and ships or were hired out to factories (the
slave worked but the owner got the pay), they were treated better, but still not free
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Slave preacher who led people out of slavery by killing plantation owners. He
was hanged for these crimes.
Slave Owners Defend Slavery
Virginia Debate—some people wanted anti-slavery laws, which began in the
antebellum (pre-Civil War) South
Backlash from Revolts—slave owners tightened control of slaves and free blacks to
keep more revolts from happening
Proslavery Defenses
People used the Bible to defend slavery
Claimed slaves were happy being slaves
Ordered a gag rule—a law that limited the debate of an issue, citizens
who submitted petitions were prevented from the right to have them
heard
Section 3: Women and Reform
Elizabeth Cady Stanton—anti-slavery leader, but found she could do little because she
was a woman
Women’s Roles in the Mid-1800s
Cult of domesticity—restricting married women’s activities to the home and family
only
Women Mobilize for Reform
Women Abolistionists
Sarah and Angelina Grimké – abolitionist sisters who wrote An Appeal
to Christian Women of the South. They fought against slavery and
gender equality.
They set up a school for girls.
Other women raised money and collected signatures for petitions to
Congress.
Some men supported the women abolitionists.
Working for Temperance
Temperance—the effort to prohibit selling and drinking alcohol
Education for Women
Few women could go to school beyond elementary school
1821—one of the first schools for girls opened in New York
• Mount Holyoke—college for women
Women and Health Reform
Survey showed more unhealthy women because of corsets and poor
health care available to women
Bloomers were invented as an alternative to corsets
Women’s Rights Movement Emerges
Seneca Falls
Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights
The Declaration of Sentiments was created to encourage equality for women.
Sojourner Truth—a freed slave who traveled around the country preaching abolition
and women’s rights
Section 4: The Changing Workplace
Industry Changes Work—things that were once made at home, were now made in factories
Rural Manufacturing
Cottage industry—manufactures provide the materials to produce goods at
home. Finished projects were brought back to the manufacturer, who paid the people who
made the goods.
Early Factories
People might work in shops attached to their homes
• Master—skilled, experience artisan
• Journeyman—skilled worker—helped the master
• Apprentice—young worker learning a craft
Farm Worker to Factory Worker
The Lowell Mill
Mills hired women and girls so they could pay less money
Mill girls led the way in women’s rights movements
Conditions at Lowell
Work hours were from 7:00am to 7:00pm daily
Windows were nailed shut, which made for dark and dank work places
Owners pushed workers harder and harder, so a strike was organized
• Strike—a work stoppage to force an owner to respond to
demands of workers
Strikes at Lowell
Strikes did not go well….the company won despite the strikes.
Workers Seek Better Conditions
Immigration Increases
Immigrants willing to work for less wages and as strike breakers
A Second Wave
Irish immigrants faced problems because they were Catholic and poor
National Trades’ Union
Unions helped organize workers and tried to standardize wages for
workers
National Trades’ Union—the largest union built as a collection of
industries
Court Backs Strikers
Massachusetts Supreme Court supported strikers’ rights and allowed unions to
act in the workers’ best interests