Chapter 8: Reforming American Society
Section 1: Religion Sparks Reform, pages 224-228
1. As you read the section, thoroughly identify the Terms and Names listed on page 228.
2. What did the leaders of the Second Great Awakening emphasize for individuals and how
these ideas would affect society?
3. What were the direct results of their teachings?
4. What were revivals? What occurred during revivals?
5. Who was the “father of modern revivalism” and how did he earn that name? What was the
impact of revivalism?
6. What was the emphasis of Unitarianism? What sorts of people were attracted to Unitarianism?
7. How did Southern slave holders hope to control the religious beliefs of their slaves?
8. In Northern African churches, what messages did the ministers preach?
9. Why did membership grow in the African Methodist Episcopal Church? What ideas did
members discuss at the first black nation convention, held in Philadelphia?
10. What were the achievements of transcendentalists?
11. In what ways did education improve during the 1800s?
12. What were the problems of insane asylums and prisons in the 1800s? How were these
problems beginning to be resolved?
Section 2: Slavery and Abolition, pages 229-234
1. What was the American Colonization Society? What was their philosophy towards African
Americans? Why did most African Americans not wish to go to Africa?
2. What is abolition?
3. Who was William Lloyd Garrison? What was his philosophy regarding the abolition of
slavery? Why did many Whites oppose him and his methods?
4. Who was David Walker? What was his message about slavery?
5. By 1850, what types of jobs did African Americans hold, in the North and in the South?
6. Identify Frederick Douglass. How did he propose ending slavery?
7. In what ways had the institution of slavery changed since the colonial period?
8. Summarize life for slaves on Southern plantations.
9. Summarize life for slaves in cities.
10. Who was Nat Turner and what did he do? What was the White reaction?
11. How did the Southern states react to Nat Turner’s rebellion? Be specific.
12. What were the pro-slavery arguments?
13. Thoroughly identify any Terms and Names on page 234 not previously discussed.
Section 3: Women and Reform, pages 235-239
1. How were women treated at the World’s Antislavery Convention? What was the reaction
of Elizabeth Cady Stanton to this treatment?
2. What roles were women expected to fulfill in the early 1800s (include a definition of the cult
of domesticity in your answer)? How had that changed by 1850?
3. What political and economic restrictions remained?
4. Who were the Grimké sisters and what was their cause?
5. What was the temperance movement? Why did many Americans, in particular women,
oppose the consumption of alcohol?
6. In what ways did education improve for women during the early 19th century?
7. What did the following women do for women’s health?
a. Elizabeth Blackwell
b. Catherine Beecher
c. Amelia Bloomer
8. What happened at Seneca Falls, NY in 1848?
9. What part of the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments did not all delegates support? Why
did many women oppose giving women the right to vote?
10. Identify Sojourner Truth.
Section 4: The Changing Workplace, pages 240-245.
1. Who made up most of the workforce at New England mills? What was life like for these
workers?
2. Why did mill owners prefer to hire female employees rather than men?
3. What factors made conditions at the mills unhealthy?
4. What were the results of women’s strikes at the mills?
5. Why were employers able to put down strikes in the 1830s and 1840s?
6. What new immigrants were arriving in the US during this period? Why didn’t they settle
in the South?
7. Where did the various immigrant groups generally settle and why?
8. What was the National Trades Union? Who opposed this group?
9. What was the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v Hunt?
10. Identify any Terms and Names not previously discussed.