REFORM MOVEMENTS OF THE 1800S

Which reforms of the era had the most lasting effect on the civil rights

and liberties of Americans?

Reform MovementBetween about 1820 and 1850, American

reformers devoted themselves to such causes as ending slavery, promoting women’s rights, protecting the mentally ill and improving

education.

Great changes in America were about to happen and reformers were fighting for this change.

Why Reform????Many people felt there needed to be reform or change in American society. It began with new religious movements. One of the main religious movements was called the Second Great Awakening.

Optimism of the Second Great Awakening

Preachers during the Second Great Awakening began telling their followers

that they could “build a heaven on Earth” through doing good deeds. This

inspired people to work hard and improve problems in society.

What reform do you think these religious communities wanted to tackle

first?

Temperance Movement

Some Americans began the

temperance movement. This was a campaign to stop

people from drinking alcohol. Many women

joined the temperance

movement and urged people to sign a

pledge to give up alcohol.

Temperance MovementSupporters of the

temperance movement argued that alcohol was a

social ill. Alcohol led to poverty, drunkenness and

crime. They believed society would be much

better if alcohol was prohibited. Many states

banned the sale of alcohol. Overtime

however, these laws were repealed

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENTLEADER GOAL REASON

American Temperance

Union and

Religious leaders

to eliminate alcohol abuse

alcohol led to crime, poverty, abuse of family

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT• Religious leaders stood at the

forefront of the war against alcohol. – “The Devil’s Drink”

• Public drunkenness was common in the early 1800s.

• Alcohol abuse was widespread, especially in the West and among urban

workers.

• Employers often paid part of workers’ wages in rum or whiskey.

• Workers took rum breaks similar to today’s coffee breaks!!

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT QUICK FACTS

• The American Temperance Society was formed in 1826.

• Alcohol consumption drops between 1830 - 1860• Within a few years, about 1000 local

organizations sprang up across the nation.– Some groups took a moderate approach

and asked people to drink less alcohol.– Other groups insisted that the sale of

alcohol be banned altogether! – Maine goes dry in 1851

• Northern and Southern temperance societies used propaganda to win support for their cause.– They held meetings, gave speeches, and

distributed pamphlets.– They even sang songs such as “Drink Nothing,

Boys, but Water,” and “Father, Bring Home Your Money Tonight.”

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT1820s The consumption of alcohol in the U.S. was 7 gallons per capita per year.

1826 Boston area ministers founded the American Temperance Society (ATS).

1831 American Temperance Society had 2,220 local chapters and 170,000 members.

1833 American Temperance Union (ATU) founded, merging two existing national temperance organizations.

1834 American Temperance Society had 5,000 local chapters, and 1 million members.

1842 Washington Society publicized that they had inspired 600,000 abstinence pledges.

1851 Maine prohibited the sale or making of any alcoholic beverage.

1855 13 of the 40 states had prohibition laws.

1919  On January 29th, the 18th amendment is ratified by 36 states and goes into effect on the federal level.

1920's The rise of bootleggers such as Al Capone in Chicago highlight the darker side of prohibition.

1933  On December 5th, prohibition is repealed with the 21st amendment.

Alcohol Consumption Today

• Do you consider the amount of alcohol Americans consume in 2014 a problem?

• Why or why not?

PRISONERS AND THE MENTALLY ILL

(Prison and Asylum reform)LEADER GOAL REASON

Dorothea Dix better treatment of persons with mental illnesses

and prisoners

the mentally ill and prisoners badly treated

PRISONERS AND THE MENTALLY ILL• During the mid 1800s prisons

were a place to put children accused of petty crimes, the mentally ill and criminals.

• As a result, debtors, children who were offenders, and the mentally ill were often locked up in jails with murderers and thieves.

• Dorothea Dix worked to change Americans’ ways of thinking about these institutions and their inmates.

Life in the Prison-The prisons were horrible places where people were chained, whipped, beaten, and forced to stand naked in the confining cages. - The mentally ill were treated particularly bad and were severely punished if they missed behaved.

Finally some help…………..• Dorothea Dix first observed prison

conditions while teaching Sunday school at a Boston prison for women in 1840.

• She wanted to find out if all the prisons in the state were as appalling.– She found the prisoners were often living

in inhumane conditions.– Prisoners were often chained to the walls

with little or no clothing, often in unheated cells.

– she learned that some of the inmates were guilty of no crime—they were mentally ill persons.

I have observed mentally ill inmates chained naked to stone walls in cells

without heat or ventilation. I have to do something for them.

Dorothea Dix wrote about the horrible things

she saw in the prisons and worked tirelessly to improve the conditions

in the jails.

2 year secret investigation at more than 800 prisons, jails, and

poorhouses.1840-1841

• Inmates dressed in rags & poorly fed

• Chained together & or to walls

• All criminals housed together

Dix’ work leads to: • construction of mental

health facilities • proper treatment for

mentally ill• Dix made it her life’s work

to educate the public as to the poor conditions for both the mentally ill and prisoners.

TREATMENT OF THE MENTALLY ILL• Dix decided to appeal to the Massachusetts

government for help. • In 1843 she addressed the following report to the

state legislature:“I proceed, gentlemen, to call your attention to the present state of Insane Persons confined…, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed

into obedience…”

• As a result of Dix’s report, Massachusetts passed a law to build mental hospitals where mental illness could be treated as a disease rather than a crime.

• By 1852, she had persuaded 11 states to open hospitals for persons with mental illness.

Dorothea Dix and Mentally Insane

Through the reform work of Dorothea Dix, the government created new laws to handle

children and the mentally insane within prisons.

More insane asylums were build to house the mentally ill. In the asylums they were treated

as people with an illness, not as criminals.

Opinionated Wife: The Case of Elizabeth Packard

SAY SOMETHING ACTITIVY• Elizabeth Packard, like many other women of her era,

settled into domestic life as a wife and mother husband, her husband was a minister, and though she was a religious woman, she found herself at odds with his teachings. This “defiance” led Minister Packard to have her committed to the state asylum at Jacksonville, Illinois.

• Despite a lack of evidence proving insanity, her husband’s word and wishes were enough to have Packard committed, with the consent of the institution’s superintendent.

• Packard spent the 3 years in an institution before the hospital finally released her to her husband’s custody.

Opinionated Wife: The Case of Elizabeth Packard

• Only after a trial where Elizabeth was declared sane was she able to begin to escape from the authority of her husband—though her lack of property rights as a married woman still complicated matters greatly.

• Elizabeth Packard used her experiences to expose the poor state of mental health care. She was passionate about fixing this system that gave men such authority over women while not taking the time to hear patients’ voices. Never returning to her husband, Packard devoted the rest of her life to this reform. She travelled around the country, fighting for and succeeding in gaining legislative changes that gave patients more rights. Due largely to her advocacy, laws were passed in places like her native Illinois that made a jury trial to prove insanity a requirement.

“Stunt Girl” Getting the Scoop: The Case of Nellie Bly   

• Nellie Bly— 23 years old and made her way to New York to start her own investigative work on the prisons and treatment of the mentally ill.

• Went undercover! Nellie Bly managed to convince people—regular citizens, rival reporters, judges, officers, doctors and nurses—that she, posing as “Nellie Brown,” had lost her mind, leading to a confinement for ten days on Blackwell’s Island.

• She first hand exposes the horrific conditions women had to go through.

1887

Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly

…On bathing day the tub is filled with water, and the patients are washed, one after the other, without a change of water. This is done until the water is really thick, and then it is allowed to run out and

the tub is refilled without being washed. The same towels are used on all the women, those with eruptions as well as those without.

The healthy patients fight for a change of water, but they are compelled to submit to the dictates of the lazy, tyrannical nurses.

The dresses are seldom changed oftener than once a month. If the patient has a visitor, I have seen the nurses hurry her out and

change her dress before the visitor comes in. This keeps up the appearance of careful and good management. …….

“The Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island and the New York Press,” American Journal of Psychiatry 164, no. 4, April 2007: 

THE RETREAT“For crying the nurses beat me with a broom-handle and jumped on me, injuring me internally so that I will never get over it. Then they tied my hands and feet and, throwing a sheet over my head, twisted it tightly

around my throat, so I could not scream, and thus put me in a bathtub filled with cold water. They held me under until I gave up every hope and became senseless. At other times they took hold of my ears and beat my head on the floor and against the wall. Then they pulled my hair out by

the roots so that it will never grow in again.”

“The beatings I got there were something dreadful. I was pulled around by the hair, held under the water until I strangled, and I was choked and kicked. The nurses would always keep a quiet patient stationed at the window to tell them when any of the doctors were approaching. It was

hopeless to complain to the doctors for they always said it was the imagination of our diseased-brains, and besides we would get another

beating for telling. They would hold patients under the water and threaten to leave them to die there if they did not promise not to tell the doctors. We would all promise because we knew the doctors would not help us, and we would do anything to escape the punishment… Among other beatings I got

there, the nurses jumped on me once and broke two of my ribs.”

Prisons Today

• Do you think prisoners should be given internet and news/media access?

• What issues do prisons face today?

…What, excepting torture, would produce insanity quicker than this treatment? Here is a class of women sent to be cured? I would like the

expert physicians who are condemning me for my action, which has proven their ability, to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up and

make her sit from 6 A.M. until 8 P.M. on straight-back benches, do not allow her to talk or move during these hours, give her no reading and let her know

nothing of the world or its doings, give her bad food and harsh treatment, and see how long it will take to make her insane……

Reforming Education• Before the reform movements of the

mid-1800s most children did not go to school. The children of many poorer families needed to work and earn money.

Education Reform

“Education does better than to disarm the poor of their hostility toward the rich; it

prevents them from being poor.”

– Horace Mann

LEADER GOAL REASON

Horace Mann to educate all Americans

more Americans were qualified to vote and needed to be able to make wise decisions

about their government

Education Reform• American schools varied from section to section across the

country.• As early as 1647, Massachusetts passed a law

requiring towns to provide schools for their children. The rest of New England adopted similar laws. The towns, not the states, paid for the schools.

• Private societies in New York and Pennsylvania raised money to fund schools.

• Southern schools had even less support. In the South, families had to work so hard to make a living that little time or money was left for schooling.

• Wealthy people in all sections of the country managed to pay for privately operated schools.

Education Reform• During the 1830s more Americans qualified to

vote than ever before. Educational reformers argued that voters needed a proper education to make sound decisions about their government.

• Americans argued a country could not exist without literate citizens– smarter citizens = better country– helps the poor from being oppressed

• To accomplish these goals, they started the common school movement led by Horace Mann. (1837)– Mann was especially concerned about poor children. Their

families could not afford to send them to private schools or to contribute to the support of schools in their district.

– Not everyone favored common schools, also referred to as free, or tax-supported, public schools.

– many strongly objected to paying taxes for public schools.

Horace MannHorace Mann believed that more children needed

to be given the opportunity to attend school. Horace Mann argued that education was the “great equalizer” and would “greatly improve

America.”He has become known as the “father of public education.”

Horace Mann Reforms Education

• Three main ideas – Public education for

all children– Required

attendance– Proper training for

teachers and enhanced curriculum• “Normal Schools”• The Boston Latin

School 1635• University of

Pennsylvania 1636

School Not For Everyone…..After his reform actions, most white children, especially boys, attended free public schools. It took many more years for girls and later African-American students to have access to free/public education. It was illegal to even teach a slave to read and write.

Your own school? Hmm . . .

• What are the biggest issues or concerns at your own school?

• What would be your solution to the problem?

• How would you go about putting this reform into place?

Women’s Rights(The Suffrage Movement)

Leads to the 19th Amendment (1920)

LEADER GOAL REASON

Elizabeth Stanton, Lucretia

Mott, Susan B. Anthony

obtain equal rights for women, including suffrage, right to own

property, and education

women did not have the same rights as men

Equal Rights for Women• In the 1840s women

were fighting for the rights of others and began to realize they too needed equal rights.

• Their involvement in the antislavery movement and other reform movements gave women roles outside their homes and families.

Equal Rights for Women• They learned valuable skills,

such as organizing, working together, and speaking public. (Note: it was considered “unfeminine” to speak in public!)

• Still, women were not treated equally and had little say over their own lives. Divorce was almost unheard of, women couldn’t control the money they earned, they couldn’t vote, and they didn’t have the right to buy or control their own property.

Women’s Rights• After attending the

World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 and not being allowed to participate in the discussions, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton spent hours talking about women’s position in society.

• They realized that they could not bring about social change if they themselves lacked social and political rights.

• On July 19, 1848 - the first women’s rights convention in U.S. almost 300 people (including 40 men) met in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss women’s rights.

• The convention for women’s rights was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She read a speech called the Declaration of Sentiments.

• The Declaration Proposed rights for All women.

It began with these words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and WOMEN are created equal…”

Declaration of IndependenceIN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of AmericaWhen in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the PoliticalBands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, theseparate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent

Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed bytheir Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of

Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their justPowers from the Consent of the Governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes

destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute newGovernment, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to

them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The Declaration of Sentiments (1848)Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott

When, in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family ofman to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have

hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, adecent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that

impel them to such a course.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 governmentbecomes 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, laying its foundation onsuch principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to

effect their safety and happiness.

Read the first two paragraphs of The Declaration of Independence and the first two paragraphs of the Seneca Falls Declaration.

Declaration of Sentiments Just like the Declaration of Independence listed the acts of tyranny (cruelty) by King George over the colonies, The Declaration of Sentiment listed the acts of tyranny by men over women and their proposed solutions.

Women’s Rights

• The Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of an organized women’s rights movement.

• Following the convention, women did not achieve all of their demands. They did, however overcome some obstacles.– Many states passed laws permitting women to

own their own property and keep their own earnings.

• Many men and women, though, continued to oppose the movement. Most politicians ignored or acted hostile to the issue of women’s rights.

Women’s Rights• Susan B. Anthony, a powerful organizer,

joined the women’s rights movement. Her father encouraged her to get an education and so she became a teacher.

• A dedicated reformer, Anthony joined the temperance movement and worked for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

• She became one of the first to urge full participation of African Americans in the women’s suffrage movement.

• Through her efforts, the state of New York agreed to grant married women the guardianship of their children and control of their own wages.

• Today Anthony is one of the early movement’s best-remembered leaders.

American Women Today

• What stereotypes do American women face now?

• Do you feel they are equal to American men?

ABOLITION OF SLAVERYLEADER GOAL REASON

Frederick Douglass,

Sojourner Truth, William Lloyd

Garrison, anti-slavery

groups

end slavery it is immoral for one person to own

another

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY• By 1840, nearly 2.5

million enslaved people lived in the South.

• At one time, the North also had slavery. By 1804 every Northern state legislature had passed laws to eliminate it.

• The Southern economy, though, depended on slave labor.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY• The American

Colonization Society, founded in 1817, wanted to help free African Americans.

• The society set up a colony for free African Americans in Liberia, in western Africa.

• It was not successful because many African Americans wished to remain in the United States, their home.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

• In 1831 white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator, a Boston anti-slavery newspaper.

• In the first issue, Garrison demanded the immediate emancipation, or freeing, of all enslaved persons.

• He urged abolitionists to take action without delay.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

• The North had many prominent African American abolitionists.

• Isabella Baumfree, although born into slavery in New York, gained her freedom when New York abolished slavery. She changed her name to Sojourner Truth and vowed to tell the world about the cruelty of slavery. She began a tireless crusade against injustice.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY• The most important

spokesperson for the cause was Frederick Douglass.

• Born into slavery, Douglass secretly taught himself to read, although Southern laws prohibited it.

• He escaped from slavery in 1838 and settled in Massachusetts.

• He captivated audiences by talking about his life in bondage.

• He spoke out against the injustices faced by free African Americans.

• Many abolitionists, like Douglass, did more than lecture and write. They became “conductors” on the Underground Railroad.

• The Underground Railroad began around 1817. It was not an actual railroad but a series of houses where conductors hid runaway enslaved persons and helped them reach the next “station.”

• Enslaved African Americans made their way to the North or Canada on the railroad.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

• Harriet Tubman became the most famous African American conductor on the Underground Railroad.

• Tubman fled from slavery in 1849. Later she explained why she risked her life to escape:

“There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could

not have the one, I would have the

other.”

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

• Tubman helped others escape. She returned to the South 19 times and led more than 300 enslaved people—including her own parents—to freedom.

• Slaveholders offered a reward of $40,000 for her, dead or alive.

• But she managed to avoid discovery time after time.

How do you think the conductors and escaped slaves communicated long distance

if the majority could not read or write?QUILT CODES

• People who worked and traveled on the Railroad used secret codes to learn the routes from one safe place to the next.

• Researchers recently learned that an Underground Railroad Quilt Code existed to guide fugitives to freedom.

• Because it was illegal in slave-holding states to teach slaves to read, slaves could not communicate with each other in writing. But, because slaves of all backgrounds shared an oral history of storytelling coupled with a knowledge of textile production and African art they discovered they we re able to communicate complex messages in the stitches, patterns, designs, colors and fabrics of the American quilt.

• To memorize the code, researchers believe they used a sampler quilt, with blocks arranged in order of the code. The patterns told slaves how to get ready to escape, what to do on the trip, and where to go. Once stitched, the coded quilts were “aired” out the windows of slave cabins, acting as secret maps

QUILT CODESQUILT PATTERNS & THEIR MEANINGS

EXAMPLE OF A REAL QUILT

Lets try to decode the message!

Lets try to decode the message!

OLD STORY"The monkey wrench turns the wagon

wheel toward Canada on a bear'spaw trail to the crossroads. Once they got

to the crossroads, they dug alog cabin on the ground. Shoofly told them

to dress up in cotton and satinbow ties and go to the cathedral church,

get married, and exchangedouble wedding rings. Flying geese stay on

the drunkard's path andfollow the stars."