Chapter 14 The Age of Reform
(1820-1860)
Section 1 Social Reform
What is the most important way to
help improve a society?
A. Education reform
B. Banning alcohol
C. Women’s rights
D. Helping the poor
and disabled
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B.
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B
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B
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D
Chapter Time Line
Chapter Time Line
How did religion influence the social
reforms in the United States during
the early and mid-1800s?
Religion
• Religious camp meetings
(revivals) were common in
the early 1800s
• Known as the Second
Great Awakening
• This led to a new spirit of
reform
• Brought changes to
American religion,
education, and literature
• Some reformers sought to
improve society by forming
utopias (Perfect society)
• Few were able to establish
lasting communities
(Mormons)
• They were founded on
impractical ideas
Why did most utopias fail?
A. It was too hard to
implement the
temperance movement.
B. Many teachers lacked
proper training.
D.
0%
D
C
B
A
C.
A. A
They did not take the
0% B.
0% B 0%
needs of the disabled
into consideration.
C. C
They were founded on impractical ideas.
D. D
The Religious Influence
• Attending revivals made men
and women eager to reform
both their lives and the world
• Among these were people who
wanted to ban alcohol
• Lyman Beecher, a Connecticut
minister, crusaded against the
use of alcohol (temperance)
• Beecher and other reformers
used lectures, pamphlets, and
revival style rallies to warn
people of the dangers of liquor
• The temperance movement
led to some victories when
Maine and other states passed
laws banning to manufacture
and sale of alcoholic beverages
• Most of these laws were later
repealed
Reforming Education
• In the mid-1850’s, most
schools were poorly
funded
• Teachers lacked
training
• Restrictions were
placed on who could
attend schools (Girls
and African Americans)
• Massachusetts lawyer
Horace Mann called for
educational reforms
• 1839- Massachusetts
created the nation’s
first state-supported
normal school to train
teachers
Reforming Education Continued
• During the age of reform,
many new colleges and
universities were created
• Most accepted only men
• Gradually, higher
education became
available to groups that
had been denied the
opportunity
• Oberlin College of Ohio
was founded in 1833
• Oberlin admitted both
women and African
Americans
People With Special Needs
• Some reformers focused on the
problem of teaching people with
disabilities
• Thomas Gallaudet developed a
method to educate people who
were hearing impaired
• Samuel Gridley Howe
developed books with large
raised letters to help the
visually impaired
• Schoolteacher Dorothea Dix
worked for prison reforms after
seeing prisoners chained to
walls
• She also found that some
people were not guilty of
crimes, but were mentally ill
• She made it her life’s work to
educate the public about poor
conditions for prisoners and the
mentally ill
Cultural Trends
• Changes in American
society also influenced art
and literature
• American artists
developed their own style
and explored American
themes starting in the
1820s
• The spirit of reform
influenced the
transcendentalists
• Stressed the relationship
between humans and
nature and the importance
of the individual
conscience
• The leading
transcendentalists were
Margaret Fuller, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, and
Henry David Thoreau
Which of the following was a major subject of
transcendentalist literature?
A. Realism
D.
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B
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A
C.
A. A
B.
B
Anti-abolitionism
C. C
The relationship between humans and
technology and the importance of industrialism
D. D
0%
D
B. The relationship between
humans and nature and
the importance of the
individual conscience
Cultural Trends Continued
• Fuller supported women’s rights
• Emerson urged people to listen to
the inner voice of conscience and
to overcome prejudice
• Thoreau practiced civil
disobedience by refusing to
obey laws he considered unjust
• 1846 Thoreau went to jail rather
than pay a tax to support the
Mexican War
• Many American poets created
great works (Henry Wadsworth,
Walt Whitman, and Emily
Dickinson)
• During this time, women were the
authors of the most popular
fiction
• Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote
Uncle Tom’s Cabin which
explored the injustice of slavery
How did religion influence the social reforms in
the United States during the early and mid-1800s?
-Inspired people to reform their own lives and
improve the ills of society
Reformers wanted to restrict alcohol
Better teacher training and school funding
More colleges
More access to education for women, African
Americans, and people with special needs
Better conditions for prisoners and the mentally ill
Chapter 14 Section 1 Quiz
Utopias are based on a vision of
a perfect society.
ls
e
50%
Fa
50%
Tr
ue
A. True
B. False
Religious leaders fought for the
freedom to drink alcohol.
ls
e
50%
Fa
50%
Tr
ue
A. True
B. False
In 1839 Massachusetts founded the first
state-supported school to train teachers.
ls
e
50%
Fa
50%
Tr
ue
A. True
B. False
ls
e
Fa
Tr
ue
The roles of wife and mother were not roles
that most parents wanted for their
daughters.
A. True
50%
50%
B. False
ls
e
Fa
Tr
ue
During the 1820s American artists
developed their own style and explored
American themes.
A. True
50%
50%
B. False
Who opened Hartford School for
the deaf in Connecticut in 1817?
A. Samuel Gridley
Howe
B. Dorothea Dix
C. Thomas Gallaudet
D. Horace Mann
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The first college in the United States to
admit women and African Americans was
Harvard.
Ashmun Institute.
Mount Holyoke.
Oberlin College of
Ohio.
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Who was the schoolteacher who helped
reform attitudes toward the mentally ill?
A. Dorothea Dix
B. Samuel Gridley
Howe
C. George Catlin
D. Thomas Gallaudet
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People who stressed the relationship between
humans and nature and the importance of the
individual conscience were called
A. naturalists.
B. transcendentalists
.
C. reformers.
D. conscienceraisers.
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25% 25% 25% 25%
What writer wrote about the
injustice of slavery?
A. Nathaniel
Hawthorne
B. Herman Melville
C. Harriet Beecher
Stowe
D. Washington Irving
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