Reforming American SocietyBell Ringer:

What is reform? How did individuals work to reform

American society in the 1800s? How would you reform American society

today?

Vocabulary to know: Social Reform Temperance Movement Transcendentalist Suffrage Civil Disobedience

Bell Ringer

Which reformer do you find was the most influential and why?

Besides slavery, what was in need of the most reform and why?

Social Reform-An organized attempt to improve what is unjust or imperfect in society.

Dorothea Dix:Boston schoolteacher.Tried to improve

society’s care for its weakest members.

Witnessed the mentally ill not receiving treatment and living in terrible conditions.

Would travel the U.S. on behalf of the mentally ill.

Education Reform

Horace Mann: 1830s- Americans begin

to demand better schools. 1837- First Board of

Education set up in Massachusetts headed by Mann.

By 1850 many Northern states have opened public elementary schools.

What were some obstacles faced?

Public education is “the great equalizer”.

Women’s Rights

Elizabeth Stanton: Abolitionist-worked along

side Lucretia Mott and William Garrison.

Demanded equality for women through voting rights.

Frederick Douglass and Stanton fought for suffrage.

Held the Seneca Falls Convention with Mott in 1848.

1865

What do you see? How are women portrayed?

Transcendentalist Ralph Emerson:

New England writer. Most popular essayist and

lecturer. Leading transcendentalist. Urged Americans to cast

off European influences and develop their own beliefs.

Stressed individualism Believed that human spirit

was reflected in nature. “ D o n o t g o w h e re t h e p a t h m a y l e a d , g o

i n s t e a d w h e re t h e re i s n o p a t h a n d l e a v e a t r a i l .   ” —

Ra l p h Wa l d o E m e r s o n .

Henry Thoreau

Emerson’s friend and neighbor.

Believed the growth of cities and industry was ruining the nation.

Urged people to live as simply and as close to nature as possible.

Argued in favor of civil disobedience.

Edgar Allan Poe

Fiction writer who would shape American literature.

Became famous for his many tales of horror.

Known as the “father of the detective story”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-387NMCR6w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlgQQgDhH7U

R.A.F.T.Role- Who will you portray? Choose one of the reformers from the homework.

Audience- Who will you be writing to? You could write to yourself in a diary entry, the public in

a speech or newspaper article, a loved one/friend in a letter or poem, etc.

Format- What type of format or writing style will you use? Examples: song, newspaper article, journal entry, letter,

public speech, poem, plea or announcement.

Topic- What important event will you be writing about? Examples: Outlining goals for a movement, asking for a

favor from a fellow reformer, reflecting on your successes/failures, declaring changes in society, etc.