Social Reforms of the 1800s
American Society
• All of the changes to our
nation during the Industrial
Revolution obviously affected
our society too
• People were forced to adjust
their lives to the changing
economic and social realities
• Just like the political leaders
and business leaders of their
time, the social leaders left
society both divided and
united behind their various
agendas
Second Great Awakening
-One of the starting points for all these
social reforms came in the form of a
religious revival called the Second Great
Awakening
-One of the earliest events that sparked
this was the Cane Ridge Revival in
Kentucky
-This was where around 10-15,000 people
or so gathered in the countryside meeting
for a few days praying, singing, and in
some cases, dancing
-It was important because it marked the
beginning of a more charismatic version of
Christianity
-It also showed that this revival would be
more about refining one’s personality
rather than simply just more people going
to church
Spread of Revival
• In addition to Cane Ridge,
there were countless
examples of revivals
across the country,
especially in one area of
upstate New York
• This was called the
‘Burned Over District’
because of the various
revivals that swept over
the area
• Eventually, the movement
coincided with westward
migration
What were they all about?
• Revivalists, especially by the 1820s
and 30s, saw a number of social ills
that needed to be fixed
• Some of these were slavery,
alcoholism, women’s rights, prison
conditions, and the social structure
as a whole
• They preached that these changes
started with the individual, and once
that individual was ‘saved’ they could
impact the rest of society
• How did this compare to the ‘First
Great Awakening’?
• It was more evangelical in nature and
stressed one’s ability to overcome
their problems as opposed to
stressing God’s wrath
• Soon, millions of Americans were
caught up in the effort to address
these issues
Temperance
• Perhaps the most important of the reforms that occurred was temperance
• The average American in the 1820s drank more than 7 gallons of pure
alcohol a year (more than 70 gallons of beer)
• Temperance referred to ‘tempering’ the amount of alcohol that one
consumed, not complete elimination
• Others saw it as complete prohibition- how is that different?
• One unique aspect of this reform was that women got heavily involved in it
– why do you think that was the case?
• Factory owners also got involved because they knew their workers would be
productive if they were not drunk
Stories
• There was a good deal of differences
between the different groups
• The Washingtonians (over 600,000
members) focused on the individual
alcoholic to recover
• The American Temperance Society and
Anti-Saloon League wanted to forbid the
sale of alcohol
• Churches, especially Protestant
denominations, substituted wine with
grape juice during Communion
• Soon, some states outlawed the sale of
alcohol- Maine being an early example
The Drunkard’s Progress
Women’s Rights
• Up until the 1800s, women’s
roles were mostly found in the
household doing chores and
raising families
• By and large women could not
vote, hold public office, own
property, get a divorce, charge
spousal abuse, or even speak
in public situations
• Education was also hard to
come by because most
colleges and universities only
admitted men
Changes
• Early feminists such as Margaret
Fuller began advocating that women
have access to greater educational
opportunities
• The idea of educating women was
seen as turning society upside down
• Women also began questioning
men’s superiority over their lives
• In 1837, Oberlin College in Ohio was
the first college to admit womenfour of them
• Mount Holyoke College in
Massachusetts was the one of the
first college that was exclusively for
females in the US
• However, this was a rare occurrence
and even after the Civil War there
were few colleges that were coeducational
Seneca Falls
• In the summer of 1848, two
women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott, organized the first
convention dedicated to promoting
women’s rights
• A few hundred people attended,
and Stanton’s husband chaired the
convention
• Stanton composed the Declaration
of Sentiments which famously said
‘all men and women are created
equal’
• One hundred people, including
Frederick Douglass, signed the
document
• Although it was small, soon other
conventions started popping up
across the Northeast
Women Get Involved
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Mott, Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony
began including themselves in other
reform movements such as abolitionism,
temperance, and education reform
Why would women be closely associated
with temperance and abolitionism?
However, the one idea that they pushed
for the most was suffrage- which means
what?
In their eyes, especially after the passing
of the 14th amendment, this was the one
thing that they desperately wantedwhy?
Several women, including Susan B.
Anthony, would be arrested for voting in
elections
In 1869, Wyoming was the first state to
allow women to vote and a year later
allow women to serve on juries
The right to vote wasn’t granted until the
19th Amendment in 1920
Utopianism
• Some religious leaders sought to reform society by forming independent
communities that would result in a perfect society
• Some of these communes or phalanxes sought to completely isolate their
members from outside influences
• Some groups, such as the Shakers, sought to get a closer connection to
God and had strict rules regarding relationships between men and women
• Others like Brook Farm in Massachusetts, gave out equal pay to men and
women and encouraged people to do the work together to better the
community
• Most of these died out after a few decades because of either divisions
within the communities or their strict rules regarding procreation
Oneida
• One community that stood out
was Oneida, in western New
York
• It was founded on the principle
of bringing ‘heaven on earth’or creating a perfect society
• This included ideas such as
complex marriage and mutual
criticism
• Mutual criticism involved being
brought before a committee or
the entire community for doing
something wrong
• Complex marriage was the idea
that no one was exclusively
married to one person or
another
Health Reforms
• Yet another issue that reformers
sought to fix was the rather
primitive medical treatments and
knowledge that existed during
the period
• Medicine had not progressed
much for centuries
• Soon, universities began formal
training for doctors and studying
disease
• Still, the idea of micro-organisms
was not present and some
interesting ideas came about
such as blood letting, leeches,
and hydrotherapy
Diets
• One other thing that health
reformers noticed was the terrible
diet that most people had
• Advocates such as Sylvester Graham
and John Harvey Kellogg all
advocated that one’s health was
connected to one’s diet
• They advocated a diet of grains,
fruits, and vegetables
(vegetarianism)- no meat
• Graham was credited with inventing
the Graham cracker
• Kellogg and his brother founded the
Kellogg brand of cereal and invented
Corn Flakes
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Mental Health
One other issue that
reformers saw as a problem
was the treatment of the
mentally ill
It was not uncommon for the
mentally ill to be placed in
prisons alongside violent
criminals
Soon, people like Dorothea
Dix pushed for the creation of
state run asylums that were
dedicated to helping the
mentally ill
Most of these state hospitals,
although good in their
intentions, probably didn’t
adequately serve their needs
either
At the same time, it was an
important step in recognizing
that mental illness was indeed
an illness and not something
criminal or religious in nature
Prison Reforms
• Before reforms, prisoners were not separated based on the crimes
they committed
• However, soon people realized that ex-convicts had a very difficult
time adjusting to society upon release
• So new prison ‘systems’ were put in place that both sought to
rehabilitate and encourage remorse on the part of the prisoners
Prisons, cont’d
• Two of these new models for prisons were the
Pennsylvania System and the Auburn System
• The Pennsylvania System taught that discipline
and hard work would reform the prisoners
• The Auburn System believed in silence, work
groups, and ‘lock step’ where prisoners were
chained together and marched in step
• How does this reflect on the reform culture
that permeated the US?