An Era of Reform

1. An Era of Reform Chapter 18

2. I. The Spirit of Reform • Second Great Awakening • Revival of religious feeling 1820-1830s • Told that everyone could gain forgiveness for their sins • Optimistic Ideas • Ralph Waldo Emerson & Transcendentalism • Every human being had unlimited potential • To realize godlike nature, need to go beyond logical thinking • Urged to question society’s rules and institutions

3. II. Reforming the Treatment of Prisoners & the Mentally Ill • Dorothea Dix Teaches in Prison • Inmates bound in chains and locked in cages • Children jailed with adult criminals • Thousands in debtors prison for owing less than $20 • Plight of the Mentally Ill • Dirty, crowded prison cells • Whipped if misbehaved • Campaigning for Better Conditions • Massachusetts first to vote to create public asylums for mentally ill • By 1887, states no longer put debtors in prison, had special justice system for children, and outlawed cruel punishments

4. III. Improving Education • Need for Public Schools • Limited Schooling • Wealthy children to private schools, others didn’t go • Few areas had public schools paid for by taxes • Horace Mann • Massachusetts’ Supervisor of Education • Massachusetts voted to pay taxes to build better schools, pay teachers higher salaries, establish training schools for teachers

5. III. Improving Education • Unfinished Reform • 1850 – States changed but not for everyone • High schools and colleges did not admit girls • Laws passed to keep African Americans out • 1837 – Ohio’s Oberlin College first to accept women • African Americans had fewer options • Prudence Crandall admitted African American girl to her school • White parents removed their children • Crandall had all African American students • White parents had her jailed, and was forced to close school

6. IV. Fighting Slavery • Struggle Begins • Quakers stopped owning slaves in 1776 • 1792 – every state as far south as Virginia had anti-slavery societies • 1808 – end of slave trade and northern interest in slaves • Frederick Douglas Speaks Out • An escaped slave, a leader in abolitionist movement • Started own newspaper, The North Star BrainPOP

7. IV. Fighting Slavery • Women Get Involved • Angelina Grimke • Spoke out against poverty and pain of slavery • Led way for other women to speak in public • Sojourner Truth • A former slave • Argued that God would end slavery peacefully

8. V. Equal Rights for Women • Struggle Begins • Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Met at World Anti-Slavery Convention (1840) • Women were not allowed to speak at meeting. Made to sit in balcony, behind a curtain • Unequal Treatment of Women • A Fine Education • Lucy Stone invited to write graduation speech at Oberlin College, but a man would give the speech because women were not allowed to speak in public • Elizabeth Blackwell was rejected from 29 medical schools before being accepted. Graduated at top of her class, yet no hospital or doctor would work with her

9. VI. Seneca Falls Convention & the Declaration of Sentiments • Declaration of Sentiments • 1848 – 300 people (including 40 men) arrived for convention • Modeled after Declaration of Independence listing acts of tyranny by men over women • Debate About the Right to Vote • Resolutions passed to correct injustices • Stanton proposed women demand the right to vote • Frederick Douglas argued that everyone who believed black men should have the right to vote, must also favor black women having the right

10. VI. Seneca Falls Convention & the Declaration of Sentiments • Legacy of Seneca Falls • Created an organized campaign for women’s rights • New York gave women more control over their property and wages • Massachusetts and Indiana passed more liberal divorce laws • Elizabeth Blackwell started her own hospital

11. Women’s Suffrage