19th Century Reform Movements

• 19th-century reform waves overlapped, fueled by the Second Great Awakening and industrial/market revolutions.
• These movements addressed societal issues, united by the belief in societal improvement through moral and institutional reform.

Comparative Reform Chart

• Reform movements responded to perceived societal issues and were linked by the idea that society could be improved through moral and institutional reform.

• Utopian Societies

  • Focus: Creating ideal societies (1820s–1850s, NE & Midwest).
  • Groups: Shakers, Owenites, Oneida, Transcendentalists.
  • Methods: Communal living, publications, isolation.
  • Short-Term: Short-lived; most failed within decades.
  • Long-Term: Inspired later intentional communities.

• Temperance

  • Focus: Reducing/eliminating alcohol use (1820s–1870s, nationwide).
  • Groups: American Temperance Society, Washingtonians.
  • Methods: Moral suasion, pledges, pamphlets.
  • Short-Term: Significantly reduced alcohol use by the 1850s.
  • Long-Term: Paved the way for Prohibition (1920-1933).

• Mental Health

  • Focus: Humane treatment of the mentally ill (1840s, nationwide).
  • Advocates: Dorothea Dix
  • Methods: Petitions, inspections, reports.
  • Short-Term: Dozens of new asylums were built.
  • Long-Term: Shift in attitude toward mental illness.

• Education

  • Focus: Public schooling, training teachers (1830s–50s, especially Massachusetts).
  • Advocates: Horace Mann
  • Methods: Advocacy, legislation, normal schools.
  • Short-Term: Widespread public schools in the North.
  • Long-Term: Universal education seen as essential.

• Women’s Rights

  • Focus: Legal & political equality for women (1840s–1860s, especially New York).
  • Advocates: Stanton, Mott, Truth
  • Methods: Conventions, speeches, publications.
  • Short-Term: Raised awareness, Declaration of Sentiments.
  • Long-Term: Foundation for the suffrage movement (19th Amendment).

• Abolitionism

  • Focus: Immediate end to slavery (1830s–1860s).
  • Advocates: Garrison, Douglass, Truth
  • Methods: Newspapers, lectures, moral appeals.
  • Short-Term: Deepened sectional tensions.
  • Long-Term: Contributed to Civil War & Emancipation Proclamation.

Utopian Societies

• Types:
  • Robert Owen (New Harmony): Socialist communal living.
  • Shakers: Celibate, religious, gender-equal, emphasized simplicity.
  • Transcendentalists (Brook Farm): Intellectual, self-reliant communities.
  • Oneida: Practiced complex marriage, communal child-rearing, and aimed for perfectionism.
• Appeal: Attracted idealists, religious seekers, and disillusioned reformers.
• Most utopian societies failed within a few decades due to internal conflicts, financial issues, or impractical ideals.

Temperance

• In the early 1800s, Americans consumed approximately 7 gallons of alcohol per person/year, significantly higher than present day.
• Alcohol consumption provided a social ritual, a source of hydration due to lack of clean water, and stress relief.
• Alcohol use dramatically dropped by the 1850s; the movement slowed but later revived.
• The temperance movement promoted moral suasion, pledges, the formation of societies, and anti-alcohol literature.
• Domestic violence was a consequence of male drunkenness and was invoked as justification for temperance reform.
• Early temperance groups were middle-class and religious.
• The Washingtonians (1840s) were a working-class group using a peer support model akin to AA.

Mental Health

• In the 19th century, mental illness was viewed as a moral failure or divine punishment.
• Dorothea Dix, a former teacher, exposed horrific conditions in jails and asylums.
• Dix lobbied for state-supported mental hospitals.
• Prior to Dix's reforms, the mentally ill were imprisoned or abused.
• After Dix's advocacy, dozens of new, more humane institutions were established.

Education in America

• Colonial/Early National education was patchy, with private tutors, religious schools, and limited access.
• Before Horace Mann, public education was seen as optional and limited to elites.
• After Horace Mann, it was seen as essential to democracy and a moral society.
• Horace Mann, leader of the Massachusetts Board of Education, advocated for common schools, trained teachers, and a longer school year.
• Northern states adopted Mann's reforms, while Southern states were slower.

Women’s Rights

• Gender roles: women were seen as domestic, moral guardians, while men were seen as public and rational.
• Women married for economic security and because of social expectations.
• The Cult of Domesticity idealized women as homemakers and paradoxically empowered them morally by emphasizing domesticity.
• The Seneca Falls Convention (1848), organized by Stanton and Mott, produced the Declaration of Sentiments (modeled on the Declaration of Independence).
• The Declaration of Sentiments demanded equal rights, including suffrage.
• Sojourner Truth, a former slave turned preacher and activist, gave the famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech challenging racial and gender inequality.
• Sojourner Truth was active in both women’s rights and abolition.

Abolitionism

• Key Figures:
  • William Lloyd Garrison: advocated radical, immediate emancipation.
  • Frederick Douglass: a former slave, became a powerful speaker.
  • Sojourner Truth: a dual activist for abolition and women's rights.
• Goals included immediate vs. gradual emancipation and full citizenship rights.
• The movement was divided between gradualists vs. immediatists.
• Some focused on moral suasion, while others focused on political action.
• Gender roles divided Garrisonians and others.
• Abolitionism radicalized the Northern public.
• It pushed slavery to the forefront of national politics.
• Lincoln’s views evolved partially due to abolitionist pressure.
• Abolitionism culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment.