The Ferment of Reform and Culture p.328-334

1. The Ferment of Reform and Culturep.328-334

2. An Age of Reform 1. The optimistic promises of the Second Great Awakening inspired countless souls to do battle against earthly evils. These modern idealists dreamed anew the old Puritan vision of a perfected society: free from cruelty, war, intoxicating drink, discrimination, and, ultimately—slavery. 2. Women were very important in motivating these reform movements. 3. Reformers were often optimists who sought a perfect society: * some were naïve and ignored the problems of factories * they fought for no imprisonment for debt (the poor were sometimes locked in jail for less than $1 debt); this was gradually abolished * reformers wanted criminal codes softened and reformatories created Dorothea Dix fought for prison and asylum reform as prisoners and the mentally ill were largely treated inhumanely. * there was agitation for peace (i.e. the American Peace Society) - William Ladd had some impact until Civil War and Crimean War

3. Dorothea Dix – Champion of Asylum and Prison Reform

4. Demon Rum-The “Old Deluder” 1. The excessive consumption of alcohol by Americans in the 1800s stemmed from the hard and monotonous life of many. 2. The American Temperance Society was formed in Boston (1826), the first of literally hundreds - the “Cold Water Army” (children), signed pledges, made pamphlets, and an extremely influential anti-alcohol novel emerged called “10 nights in a Bar Room and What I Saw There”. 3. Enemies of the “demon drink” adopted 2 major lines of attack… * the stressing of temperance (individual will to resist)‏ * legislature-removed temptation - Neal S. Dow will become the“Father of Prohibition” and is notable for sponsoring the Maine Law of 1851 which prohibited the making and sale of liquor (followed by other states and will eventually go national – temporarily anyway).

5. Women In Revolt • American women, though legally regarded as perpetual minors, fared better than their European cousins. For example, in France, rape was punished only lightly, whereas in America it was one of the few crimes punishable by death. • Despite these relative advantages, women were still “the submerged sex” in America in the early part of the century. But as the decades unfolded, women increasingly surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self-determination. • Gender differences were strongly emphasized in 19th-century America—largely because the burgeoning market economy was increasingly separating women and men into sharply distinct economic roles. • * women were perceived as weak physically and emotionally, yet artistic, refined, and moral – thus, the keepers of society and the raising of children * men were perceived as strong mentally and physically, but crude and barbaric, if not guided by the purity of women.

6. Home was the center of the female’s world (even for reformer Catherine Beecher) but many felt that was not enough and became heavily involved in the reform movements of the 1800s as: • an opportunity to escape the confines of the home • an entrance into the public arena • a way to improve the world in which they lived in general. • The women’s movement was led by (among others) Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (1st female medical graduate), Margaret Fuller, the Grimke sisters (anti-slavery advocates), and Amelia Bloomer (semi-short skirts)‏

8. The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention (1848) – held in NY, was THE major landmark in launching the women’s rights movement in the U.S.A.: * Declaration of Sentiments – was written in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence saying that “all Men and Women are created equal” * demanded the ballot for women • By 1850, the crusade for women’s rights was temporarily eclipsed by slavery when the Civil War heated up, though it did serve as the foundation for later days….

9. Susan B. Anthony • Pictured on the left is women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony, indeed DUH WOMAN of all women’s rights advocates. • Basically, she helped establish the NWSA and was one of the great inspirations for women’s equal rights.

10. Women’s Rights Reformers Elizabeth Cady Lucretia Stanton Mott

11. Wilderness Utopias Most of the utopian communities in pre-1860s America held cooperative efforts as one of their founding ideals. Bolstered by the utopian spirit of the age, various reformers, ranging from the high-minded to the “lunatic fringe,” set up more than forty communities of a cooperative, communistic nature. Most notable were the following: - Robert Owen founded New Harmony, IN (1825) as a refuge for members to live (literally) “in harmony”, though it ultimately collapsed in contradiction and confusion. - Brook Farm – Massachusetts experiment (1841) where 20 intellectuals committed to Transcendentalism and prospered reasonably well until 1846 when a fire devastated the community. - Oneida Community — practiced free love, birth control, eugenic selection of parents to produce superior offspring; it survived ironically as a capitalistic venture, selling baskets and then silver cutlery as it does to this day. - Shakers – a communistic community (led by Mother Ann Lee); they abandoned sexual activity and ultimately became extinct.

12. Thoreau • A popular transcendentalist, here’s Henry David Thoreau, rocking a sweet neck beard. • Thoreau was part of Brook Farm, and is most famous for his essay - On Civil Disobedience, the inspiration for much of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategies for black civil rights a century later.