Reforming American Society

1. Reforming American Society Which parts of American society needed to be reformed? How did reformers go about acheiving their goals?

2. Revivalism • PROBLEMS TO SOLVE • Lack of Faith & Personal Responsibility • Challenged the belief that God had predestined your salvation (Heaven/Hell) • Stressed personal responsibility—your actions matter • METHODS USED • Held large, public revival meetings (religious gatherings) • Influential speakers used moving sermons to motivate followers

3. Transcendentalism What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson • PROBLEMS TO SOLVE • Personal Responsibility for actions • Believed that faith could be found without large, loud, public revival meetings. • METHODS USED • Stressed individual strength & a simple life • Truth found in nature • Used literature to call for human rights (wanted to end slavery, reform institutions & prisons)

4. School & Prison Reform • PROBLEMS TO SOLVE • Lack of Education • Few received a formal education beyond 10 yrs • Inhumane treatment of Mentally ill and Prisoners • Mentally ill were jailed with prisoners, both treated harshly • METHODS USED • Fought for public schools for all • Published fact finding reports, spoke out publicly, stressed rehabilitation for prisoners

5. Slavery & Abolition • PROBLEMS TO SOLVE • Slavery in the South • Apathy toward slavery in the North • Douglass & Garrison helped to fuel the abolitionist movement in the North • METHODS USED • Douglass toured the north to speak out against slavery • became a walking contradiction of what the South believed about African Americans • Both Douglass & Garrison published anti-slavery newspapers

6. Women & Reform • PROBLEMS TO SOLVE • Women’s Rights • Temperance (alcohol abuse) • Abolition of Slavery Responsibility • Women called for rights equal to that of men • Saw temperance as a family issue • Were more sensitive to slavery than were men • METHODS USED • Held large public protests • Held Women’s Rights convention (Seneca Falls) • Spoke out through rallies & various writings

7. Changes in the Workplace • PROBLEMS TO SOLVE • Worsening conditions in factories/mills • Poor working conditions for women and children • Substandard wages for mill workers • The growth of the factory/mill system caused poor/hazardous working conditions • METHODS USED • Early attempts for workers to organize into unions • Formation of National Trades Union • Workers begin to strike to achieve better conditions

8. Which parts of American society needed to be reformed? • Revivalists/Transcendentalists attempted to reform the problems of morality & personal responsibility • Reformers also attempted to fix public education & gain humane treatment for the mentally ill & prison reform • Women’s rights, and the Abolitionists movements also gained ground • Workers also started to mobilize for fair treatment from employers How did reformers go about acheiving their goals? • Reformers organized protests/strikes, spoke out against problems, printed newspapers, drew public attention to problems to bring about reform & change