Chapter 18 An Era of Reform
18.1 Introduction
*Between about 1820 and 1850,
American reformers devoted
themselves to such causes as
ending slavery, promoting
women’s rights, and
improving education.
*As you will read in this chapter,
women not only participated in
these movements, but
emerged as powerful leaders.
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18.2 The Spirit of Reform
The Second Great Awakening
*In the 1820’s and 1830’s, a revival of
religious feeling sweeps across the nation.
*Church leaders call this period the
Second Great Awakening.
*People gather in churches and big
white tents to hear messages of hope.
*The listeners pray, shout, and sing hymns.
*Like the First Great Awakening during colonial
days, this religious revival fires people up.
*Preachers tell their flocks that everyone can
gain forgiveness for their sins by doing good works.
*They say Christians can build “heaven on Earth.”
*This optimistic message attracts enthusiastic
followers throughout the West and North, and gives
people a reason to work for the improvement of
society and to actively oppose slavery.
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Methodist Camp Meeting
2nd Great Awakening
H.D. Thoreau
18.2 Continued…
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Optimistic Ideas
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*Ralph Waldo Emerson leads the transcendentalism
movement. Followers believe that every human being has
unlimited potential, but to reach that they have to transcend
(go beyond) pure logical thinking and trust their emotions and intuition.
*Transcendentalists urge people to question society’s rules and institutions.
*One follower, Henry David Thoreau, captures this new feeling in his writings
that encourage people to “march to the beat a different drummer.”
Model Communities
*Some transcendentalist reformers try to create
perfect communities.
*Residents of these communities try to live in
“brotherly love” and share the labor of supporting
themselves by farming, teaching, and making
clothes.
*While most of these communities last only a few
years, they are a powerful expression of the belief
that people of good will can create an ideal society.
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Test Prep
The Second Great Awakening was a:
A) Period of new scientific thinking.
B) Disease that caused sleeplessness.
C) Campaign for public education.
D) Religious revival movement.
Answer: D) Religious revival movement.
Test Prep
One effect of the Second Great Awakening was to:
A) Increase prejudice against sinners.
B) Encourage people to move west.
C) Bring out the vote for Andrew Jackson.
D) Inspire reformers to improve society.
Answer: D) Inspire reformers to improve society.
18.3 Reforming the Treatment of Prisoners
Dorthea Dix
and the Mentally Ill
*Debtors are put in prison, often for owing less than $20;
children are put in prison for minor crimes, and many
inmates are bound in chains and locked in cages.
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The Plight of the Mentally Ill
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*Most people who are judged to be insane are locked
away in dirty, crowded prison cells. They are whipped
for misbehavior.
*Dorothea Dix from Massachusetts becomes a tireless
crusader for prisoners and the treatment of the mentally ill.
Campaigning for Better Conditions
*For two years, Dix gathers information about the plight of the mentally ill, then she
prepares a detailed report for the Massachusetts state legislature.
*Shocked by the report, law makers vote to create public asylums for the mentally ill.
*Dix creates reports for other states, prompting those states to also create special
mental hospitals.
*By the time she dies in 1887, most state governments no longer put debtors in prison,
create special justice systems for children in trouble, and outlaw cruel punishment, such
as branding people with hot irons. She shows that with enough courage, reformers can
lead society to make significant changes.
18.4 Improving Education
*Horace Mann leads a second reform movement
in the 1800’s to make education available to
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The Need for Public Schools
*In the 1800’s few areas other than
Massachusetts have public schools.
*Wealthy parents send their children to private schools or hire tutors.
*On the frontier, children might attend a part-time, one-room school. Most
children simply do not go to school.
*In cities, some poor children steal, destroy property, and set fires.
*Reformers believe that education will help these children escape poverty and
become good citizens.
*New York sets up public elementary schools in every town as early as the
1820’s.
Public Education
18.4 Continued…
*Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, Horace Mann
becomes the state’s supervisor of education.
*In towns and villages, he speaks out on the
need for public education.
*Citizens in Massachusetts respond by voting
to pay taxes to build better schools, pay
teachers better salaries, and establish training
schools for teachers.
An Unfinished Reform
*By 1850, many states in the North and West use Mann’s ideas.
Soon, most white children, especially boys, attend public schools.
*But America still does not offer education to everyone.
*Most high schools and colleges do not admit girls.
*States as far north as Illinois pass laws to keep African Americans out of
public schools.
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Test Prep
Which group benefited most from early efforts to establish
public schools?
A) African American boys.
B) African American girls.
C) European American boys.
D) European American girls.
Answer: C) European American boys.
18.4 Continued…
*When towns do allow African Americans
to attend school, most make them go to
separate schools that receive less money.
*In the South, few girls and no African
Americans can attend public schools.
*Education for girls and women does make
some progress.
*In 1837, Ohio’s Oberlin College becomes
the first college to admit women.
Oberlin students of the late 1850’s
*African Americans have few options.
*Prudence Crandall from Connecticut starts an all African American school. But enraged
whites throw stones at the school and jail Crandall. She is forced to close her school
after two years.
*Horace Mann becomes the first president of Antioch College in Ohio and urges his
students to become involved in improving society.
“Be ashamed to die,” he says, “until you have won some victory for humanity.”
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Prudence Crandall
Test Prep
Before the reform movement led by Horace Mann:
A) Few women had the right to vote.
B) Most children did not attend school.
C) Debtors were often thrown in jail.
D) Sinners did not expect to be forgiven.
Answer: B) Most children did not attend school.
18.5 Fighting Slavery
*By the 1830’s people called abolitionists
are asking the question: How can America,
the “land of the free,” still allow slavery?
The Struggle Begins
*In 1776, Quakers stop owning slaves.
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*By 1792, every state as far south as Virginia
has anti-slavery societies.
*Once the slave trade ends in 1808, northern
shipping communities have no more interest in
slaves. Still, northern factory owners like the
cheap cotton that the South provides.
*Although slavery ends in the North in the 1800’s, many northerners still accept
southern slavery.
18.5 Continued…
*Abolitionists want to end slavery.
*Radicals try to inspire slaves to rise up in revolt.
*Others want to find a peaceful way to end slavery.
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*Moderates want to give slaveholders time to
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develop farming methods that don’t rely on slave
labor.
*Blacks and whites work together and separately to
end slavery.
*In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison starts an abolitionist
newspaper, the Liberator.
*Garrison demands the immediate freeing of all slaves.
*Angry pro-slavery groups destroy Garrison’s printing press and burn his
house.
Test Prep.
Americans who became abolitionists wanted to end:
A) Slavery.
B) Discrimination against women.
C) immigration.
D) Imprisonment for debt.
Answer: A) Slavery.
Test Prep
Radicals in the abolition movement:
A) Hoped to inspire slave revolts to end slavery.
B) Favored the gradual ending of slavery.
C) Sought a quick but peaceful end to slavery.
D) Did not care about slavery in the South.
Answer: A) Hoped to inspire slave revolts to end slavery.
18.5 Continued…
Frederick Douglass Speaks Out
*Frederick Douglass is an escaped slave.
*He speaks to a meeting of abolitionists
about the cruel treatment of slave children.
*Douglass quickly becomes a leader in the
abolitionist movement.
*His autobiography (the story of his life)
becomes an instant best-seller.
*He starts his own paper, North Star.
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Frederick Douglass
Abolitionist Movement
Test Prep
What motto did Frederick Douglass choose for his abolitionist
newspaper, the North Star?
A) “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory.”
B) “I will be harsh as truth.”
C) “Right is of no sex, truth is of no color.”
D) “All men and women are created equal.”
Answer: C) “Right is of no sex, truth is of no color.”
18.5 Continued…
Women Get Involved
*Inspired by the religious reform movement,
many women are inspired to become involved
in the fight against slavery.
*Angelina and Sarah Grimke are raised in a
South Carolina slave-holding family.
*After moving North and becoming Quakers,
they see slavery in a new way.
Angelina and Sarah Grimke
*The two sisters begin speaking out against slavery.
*The Grimkes lead the way for other women to speak in public life.
*Some abolitionists, like Sojourner Truth, are former slaves.
*After meeting Douglass and Garrison, she is inspired to speak out against
slavery. A strongly spiritual person, Truth argues that God will end slavery
peacefully.
*Abolitionists’ efforts help change northerners’ attitudes toward slavery.
*the anti-slavery fight helps pave the way for the next great reform movement,
the struggle for women’s rights.
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Grimke sisters
Test Prep
Angelina and Sarah Grimke led the way for other women to:
A) Gain admission to colleges.
B) Work for the same pay as men.
C) Vote and hold public office.
D) Speak out in public on issues.
Answer: D) Speak out in public on issues.
18.6 Equal Rights for Women
The Struggle Begins
*The organized movement for women’s rights
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Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
*They meet at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery
Convention in London.
Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott
*They are outraged to find out that women are not allowed to speak at the
meeting.
*Women are only allowed to sit in the balcony behind a curtain.
*The two women decide that something has to be done about the injustices
suffered by women.
18.6 Continued…
Unequal Treatment of Women
*Some examples of unequal treatment:
-Lucy Stone of Oberlin College is invited to
write a graduation speech but is not allowed
to give it. Instead, a man delivers the speech.
-Elizabeth Blackwell is rejected by 29 medical
schools before finally being accepted by one.
She graduates at the top of her class, but no
hospitals or doctors will work with her.
*By the time Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott leave London, they decide to
hold a convention and form a society to
advocate for the rights of women.
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18.7 The Seneca Falls Convention and the
Declaration of Sentiments
*Eight years pass before Stanton and Mott
decide to send a notice to the local newspaper
announcing a convention in Seneca Falls, New
York.
The Declaration of Sentiments
*July 19, 1848, around 300 abolitionists, Quakers,
and reformers arrive for the convention.
*The convention organizers model their proposal
for women’s rights, the Declaration of Sentiments,
on the Declaration of Independence.
*The new declaration lists acts of tyranny by men
over women:
-Women do not have the right to vote.
-Women have no property rights, even to their own wages.
-Women are not allowed to practice professions like medicine and law.
*Stanton’s first speech at the convention is the Declaration of Sentiments.
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18.7 Continued…
Debate About the Right to Vote
*Stanton proposes that women
demand the right to vote.
*While some feel this step is too
big, Stanton receives powerful
support from Frederick Douglass.
*Douglass argues that everyone who
believes that black men should have
the right to vote must also favor giving black women, and all women, the right
to vote.
*Inspired by Douglass’s speech, the convention approves this resolution.
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18.7 Continued…
The Legacy of Seneca Falls
*Helps create an organized campaign for
women’s rights.
*Sojourner Truth becomes an active
campaigner in the movement.
*Another reformer, Susan B. Anthony,
travels from town to town speaking for
women’s rights.
*Slowly, reformers for women’s rights make progress.
*New York gives women control over their own property and wages.
*Massachusetts and Indiana pass more liberal divorce laws.
*Elizabeth Blackwell starts her own hospital, including a medical school to train
other female doctors.
*Of all the women who sign the Declaration of Sentiments, only Charlotte
Woodward will live long enough to legally vote for president.
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Sojourner Truth
Susan B. Anthony
Test Prep
The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments was modeled
on the:
A) Monroe Doctrine.
B) Declaration of Independence.
C) Bill of Rights.
D) Missouri Compromise.
Answer: B) Declaration of Independence.
18.8 Chapter Summary
*Many reformers were inspired by the Second Great Awakening, which taught
Christians to perform good works in order to be saved.
*Others were inspired by transcendentalists writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and
Henry David Thoreau.
*Dorothea Dix pioneered the reform of prisons and the treatment of the mentally ill.
*Horace Mann leads the movement to make education freely available to all.
*Abolitionists braved violent opposition as they worked to end slavery.
*The abolitionists campaign helped spark the struggle for women’s rights.
*The Seneca Falls Convention was the start of the organized movement for women’s
rights.
*These reform movements had their greatest effect in the North.
*In the next chapter, you will learn about the growing differences between the North and
the South.