YR - Reform Movements Lesson

Reform Movements

The early 19th Century (also known as the Antebellum, pre-Civil War period) saw a rise in the call for reform in society. These changes were inspired, in large part, by a spiritual awakening. The Second Great Awakening was a large-scale religious revival that swept the United States, creating growth in some existing groups and spawning new religious movements. Although smaller in scope, others embraced the idea of a utopian society based on transcendentalism and other ideas. View the presentation on the Second Great Awakening, Utopian Societies, and Reform.

Movement: Temperance Issue: People should drink less alcohol or alcohol should be outlawed altogether. Impact: Increased the size of Protestant religious organizations and their influence in western and rural sections of the country. Women played an important role, which laid the foundation for the women's movement.

Movement: Abolition Issue: Slavery should be abolished and it should not be allowed in new states. Impact: Made slavery and its expansion an important political issue. Women played an important role, which laid the foundation for the women's movement.

Movement: Public School Issue: All children should be required to attend free schools supported by taxpayers and staffed by trained teachers. Impact: Established education as a right for all children and as a state and local issue. Improved the quality of schools by requiring trained teachers.

Women's Suffrage

Suffrage: Refers to the right or privilege to vote72 “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.” (Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, “Declaration of Sentiments” at the Woman’s Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, New York, 1848.)Women's rights were few in the early 1800s. They could not vote and often lacked legal custody of their own children. Most men - and most women too - believed this was fitting and proper. One exception was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She was an outspoken advocate for women's full rights of citizenship, including voting rights and parental and custody rights. In 1848, she organized the Seneca Falls Conference - America's first women's rights convention - in New York. Delegates adopted a declaration of women's independence, including women's suffrage. Historians often cite the Seneca Falls Conference as the event that marks the beginning of organized efforts by women in the United States to gain civil rights equal to those of men. 

View the presentation on The Creation of an American Culture below.

 

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