Roots of Reform:
What motivated the Reformers
- Liberation or Control
AP US History
McIntyre
Brief Intro to Reform
Movements

What kinds were there?
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Temperance: Bringing back the rum.
Inflictions caused by overindulgence of
alcohol, cholera, murder, epilepsy, etc.
Woodcut, ca.1820.
Temperance
Abolition
Women’s Rights
Clothing and diet reform
Utopianism
Educational Reform
Prison Reform/reforms
for the mentally ill
Brief Intro to Reform
Movements

When do we see these
reform movements?

Front Page of Abolitionist Paper
The front page of the April 23, 1831 issue of The Liberator. Published by
William Lloyd Garrison, it was a paper that called for the abolition of slavery
as an institution. It's slogan was "Our Country is the World--Our Countrymen
are Mankind."
1830s-50s
Brief Intro to Reform
Movements

Why do we see these reform movements
at this time?
Much trickier question
 This is a question that has intrigued
historians recently

How do we find out why they
wanted to reform society?
What Historians would do is look for:
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1. Patterns between groups
2. Intellectual roots of the movements
3. Historical events that came beforehand
4. Reformers backgrounds
Why reform? Why the 1830s?
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1. Patterns: What do
they have in common?

A. Most involved in
multiple causes (not just
one)


Ex. Horace Mann
B. Most were of middle
class or upper class
backgrounds
Winship, A.E. Great American Educators. New
York: Werner School Book Company, 1900..
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/exhibits/portraits/inde
x.html
Why reform? Why the 1830s?
2. Intellectual roots:
 A. Enlightenment general belief in science
and reason

Declaration of
independence - “all men
created equal”
People Reaching for the Stars
Image:
© Images.com/Corbis
Why reform? Why the 1830s?
2. Intellectual roots:
 B. Puritan Tradition 

Emphasis on individual
Necessity of perfecting
society
Puritans Going to Church
Original caption: "Thanks be to God for winter time! That bore the Mayflower up, To
pour amid New England snows the treasures of its cup, To fold them in its icy arms,
those sturdy Pilgrim sires, And weld an iron brotherhood around their Christmas fires."
- B.F. Taylor.
Why reform? Why the 1830s?
3. Historical Events:
 A. Second Great
Awakening 

Sense of responsibility to
God and fellow men
Charles G. Finney
emphasized salvation
through social change

Ex. Abolitionism very
successful in “burned over
district”
Camp-meeting / A. Rider pinxit ; drawn on stone
by H. Bridport. Library of Congress digital ID:
(color film copy transparency) cph 3g04554
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g04554 (b&w film
copy neg.) cph 3a52048
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a52048
Why reform? Why the 1830s?
3. Historical Events:
 B. British Anti-slavery
Movement 

Banned slavery in 1833
(immediate
emancipation)
Influential Britons like
Wilberforce had
American financial
backers (ex. Tappens)
Illustration of Children Presenting Petition To End Slavery
Original caption: Children presenting petition for abolition of slave
trade. From English children's book ca. 1830.
Image: © Bettmann/CORBIS
Date Photographed: 1830
Location Information:
England
Why reform? Why the 1830s?
3. Historical Events:
 C. Industrial
Revolution 



Changes in expectations
for workers
Transportation revolution
Rapid urbanization
Breakdown of traditional
ways of caring for
dependents
Exterior of Boott Cotton Mill
Original caption: Exterior view of the Boott Cotton
Mills at Lowell, Massachusetts. Undated engraving.
Image:
© Bettmann/CORBIS
Why reform? Why the 1830s?
4. Reformers themselves:
 1. We’ll come back to
that!
Thinking Question:

Which of these “roots” of reform do
you think would be most influential
so far? Why?
Liberation Argument:
Liberation:
 What? Reformers did it
for humanitarian
reasons


Why? Believed man
and his institutions were
perfectible
Optimism combined
with religious
evangelicalism
Woman sitting on swing
Image:
©
Images.com/Corbis
Liberation Argument:
Historiography:
 Until 1960s, most historians focused on whether the
reformers did “good” or “bad”
(not why they wanted to reform society)

Liberation ideas popular with “good” school of
thought
“Social Control” Argument:
What?
 Reform was a tool used
by elites to control those
of lower status
Image:
© Jud
Guitteau/Illustration Works/Corbis
Photographer:
Jud
Guitteau
“Social Control” Argument:
Historiography.



Grew popular in 1960s & 1970s
Interested in relationship between
problems of industrial revolution &
reform
More recently - women’s involvement as
a springboard to further activism and
control
Thinking Slide:

Why did the “Social Control”
thesis become so popular in the
60s and 70s and does that weaken
the thesis?
“Social Control” Argument:
The Problem:
 Society changing very
rapidly, breakdown of
values
The Solution
 Reforms emphasize
dependability,
willingness to work,
acceptance of one’s
place in the social order
Funneling People into Universe
Image: © Images.com/Corbis
Creator Name: Janusz Kapusta
“Social Control” Argument:
Temperance:
 Control drinking of
urban immigrant
poor
Education
 Schools as a place to
teach values to lower
classes (morals and
work)
ABC by Jennifer Kennard
Image: © Jennifer Kennard/CORBIS
“Social Control” Argument:
Institutional reforms:
 Defined “deviant”
behaviors and built
structures to police
them (mental
institutions, prisons,
poorhouses)
42-18121956| RM| © Jordi Elias/Illustration Works/Corbis
Bad Times
Image: © Jordi Elias/Illustration Works/Corbis
“Social Control” Argument:
Abolition:
 Theory seems to
work less effectively
until….
 David Donald–
abolitionism was
how past elites tried
recapture their
moral/political
authority
Henry Ward Beecher
Clergyman Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887),
nationally known as a speaker against slavery and
supporter of women's voting rights.
Image:
© CORBIS
Date Photographed:
“Social Control” Argument:
4. Reformers themselves
A. Abolitionists - Demographics:
 Donald looked at 250 abolitionist leaders for patterns
B. Results
 median age 29
 85% from New England
 30% from Mass. alone
nd generation immigrants or born abroad
 Only 4 were 2
“Social Control” Argument:
Results (Cont’d)


High degree of education
Rural
Ancestry
 Puritan
 Federalists
 Parent were preachers, doctors, teacher, farmers
 Very few were bankers and none were factory owners
“Social Control” Argument:
Results (Cont’d)
C. His Theory –
Reformers were an
elite without a
purpose
 Had no problems
with capitalism (just
wrong people taking
control)
William Lloyd Garrison
Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) was the foremost voice against
slavery in the U.S. from 1830 on. His paper, The Liberator, demanded the
complete and immediate abolition of all slavery. He also headed the American
Anti-Slavery Society, which was responsible for mobilizing thousands against
the institution.
Image:
© CORBIS
Date Photographed:
ca. 1870
Thinking question:
Donald has some convincing
arguments to make about white
male leaders, but a significant
minority of abolitionists were
women and African Americans.
How do they fit into the picture?
“Social Control” Argument:
D. Related Argument;

David Brion Davis – The
Problem of Slavery in the
Age of revolution: 17701823
 Antislavery popular as a
contrast between “free
labor” and the evils of
slavery
 It legitimizes the
exploitation of workers
in the north (better than
the south)
Strike by Boris Mihajlovic Kustodiev
Image: © The Gallery Collection/Corbis
Creator Name: Boris Mihajlovic Kustodiev
Date Created: 1900-1927
Thinking Slide;
Whose argument or combination of arguments
is a more compelling answer to the question Why reform, why the 1830s:
1. Intellectual
2. Historical
3. Liberation
4. “Social Control”