Social movements and reform

1. Social movements and reform

2. 1800s, religious leaders organize to revive American commitment to religion and God • Leads to social reforms • Supported by Charles Finney • Everybody had the capacity for spiritual rebirth and salvation • Founded modern revivalism The Second Great Awakening

4. Religious group founded by Joseph Smith • Published The Book of Mormon • Brigham Young became the leader and they moved to Utah because they were being persecuted for their beliefs Mormons

5. Because society corrupted man people began to separate themselves from society and form their own utopia, or ideal society Examples are Brook Farm, New Harmony, Oneida and The Shakers Most of these communities broke up due to internal conflict Utopian Communities

6. New England, new way of looking at humanity, nature and God…could transcend (go beyond) their senses to learn about the world • Romanticism: stressed the value of beauty, emotion, and imagination • Inspired by nature Transcendentalism

7. Transcendentalists • Ralph Waldo Emerson: • Almost religious about nature • Promoted self-reliance and individualism (take care of yourself) • Henry David Thoreau: lived out the transcendentalism theory by living away from others for 2 years • Chronicled in his book Walden • wrote Civil Disobedience after being jailed for not paying taxes to support Mexican-American War • Be true to yourself even if it breaks the law • Impacted MLK and Gandhi

8. Group of romantic landscape painters • Paintings of Hudson River Valley, romantic • Country sides • Frontier life • American subjects • Show a spiritual feeling of nature Hudson River School of Artists

9. Movement was led by Horace Mann • Pushed for school to be a legal requirement • Government funded public schools • Wanted their citizens/voters to be well educated and informed Educational Reform

10. Dorothea Dix: Influenced states to enact prison reforms and created special institutions for the mentally ill • Mentally ill were previously housed with criminals • states began building better facilities for the imprisoned and the mentally ill • Rehabilitation:correct or rid the criminals of their bad behavior • Prison should do more than punish Prison Reform

11. Reformers believed that alcohol caused crime, poverty and sickness • Push for Temperance (drinking in moderation) some for Prohibition (banning alcohol) • Women were biggest supporters • American Temperance Union • Pushed for laws to prohibit the sale of liquor • Lowered the alcohol percent content The Temperance Movement

12. Abolition of Slavery • Harriet Tubman was “conductor” of the Underground RR • Nat Turner led a slave revolt in Virginia killing 55 whites. • Harriet Beecher Stowe published “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a powerful novel about the evils of slavery.

13. William Lloyd Garrison published an anti-slavery paper called the Liberator. He advocated for “immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves”. He formed the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832.

14. David Walker wrote an anti-slavery document called the Appeal. • This document caused an enormous uproar when it called for all slaves to revolt against their masters.

15. The Grimke sisters were abolitionists that traveled through the North. • They lectured on their first-hand experience with slavery on their family plantation. • They were abused and ridiculed for their active roles in abolitionism. This led to them becoming women’s rights activists. Sarah and Angelina

16. a former slave who escaped the bonds of slavery. He was an eloquent speaker who published the “North Star” and advised President Lincoln on behalf of blacks. He led a nonviolent struggle to desegregate schools, housing areas, and employment places. He also fought for the right to vote. Frederick douglass

17. Rights were left out of the Constitution Could not vote own property hold political offices Not equals with their male counterparts Who could they relate to? Women Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams

18. Compared their condition to slavery • Women enter the workplace • Created economic and social independence • Begin to work for more rights and opportunities by starting the Women’s Movement • Main Goal: suffrage The Women’s Movement

19. First Women’s Right Convention • Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Convention issued a “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions”: • Modeled after the Declaration of Ind. • “all men and women are created equal” • women focus on earning the right to vote • unofficial beginning of the women's suffrage struggle led by Susan B. Anthony Seneca Falls Convention

20. “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government…” Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

21. 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 … Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement …we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States.

22. Let’s Review! • What was the main theme of the Second Great Awakening? • God was eager to punish sinners and nonbelievers. • God wanted all Christians to become missionaries. • God wanted Christians to make society better. • How could the utopian communities of Brook Farm and New Harmony be described? • Small and short lived • Fiercely religious • Successful and popular • What American themes did writers explore? • Collectivism, dependency, and tyranny • Individualism, independence, and American democracy • Muck-raking, social reform, and environmentalism

23. Let’s Review! • Horace Mann convinced the state of Massachusetts to establish the first of which of the following? • Abolitionist organization • Public high schools and colleges • Public primary schools and mandatory school attendance laws • How could the Hudson River School be considered an example of nationalism? • They painted scenes of religious conversion, showing American holiness. • They painted scenes of American landscapes, showing the beauty of the US. • They painted scenes of European cities, pointing out how dirty they were. • What is the purpose of rehabilitating criminals? Do you think it works? • American women wanted to outlaw alcohol to prevent poverty and abuse of wives and children. Do you think that would work? Why or why not?

24. Let’s review! • In his autobiography, Frederick Douglas states the conditions of slavery for him and other children. What does he describe? • Poorly fed, clothed and educated • Always separated from family early • Placed in the field at age 2 • How did the abolition movement lead to the women’s rights movement? • The movement gave many women a better understanding of their own lack of rights. • The movement did nothing to motivate women to make changes. • Freed blacks demanded that women be given the right to vote. • Why was the Seneca Falls Convention important? • Attendees drafted petitions calling for a woman to become president. • The convention marked the beginning of the women’s rights movement. • Women immediately saw improvements in their rights after the convention.