Religion and Reform

1. Religion and Reform

2. Transcendentalism • Believed spiritual discovery and insight could lead to truth • Urged self reliance and acting on one’s own beliefs • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Leader of Transcendentalist movement • Launched American Renaissance • Henry David Thoreau • Author of Walden • Protested Mexican War and slavery in the States

3. Temperance • Encouraged ABSTINENCE – not drinking alcohol • Movement would eventually lead to Prohibition in the 1920s

4. Education • Horace Mann pushed for free education, to be paid for by taxes • Moral education stressed in schools • Thrift • Obedience • Honesty • Temperance

5. Prisons • All age groups and variance of criminal housed in the same facility • Dorthea Dix fought for appropriate treatment of the mentally ill

6. Nativist Movement • Republican belief • Favored native-born Americans over immigrants

7. Abolitionist Movement • Movement to end slavery • William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper • Frederick Douglass • Most influential African abolitionist • Escaped as a slave… later bought his own freedom • Published the NorthStar, an abolitionist newspaper • Harriet Tubman • Worked as part of the “Underground Railroad” • Was called “Black Moses” for rescuing over 300 slaves

8. Women’s Rights • Many cultural and legal restrictions on women • Catherine Beecher inspired women to build a strong American society • Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the first convention to discuss women’s rights