Antebellum social reforms focused on temperance, public education, prisons/asylums, and labor. The temperance movement aimed to reduce alcohol consumption due to social ills it caused. Public education reforms sought to establish tax-supported schools to promote literacy and citizenship. Prison and asylum reform humanized treatment of prisoners and mentally ill, applying Christian principles of rehabilitation over punishment. The early labor movement attempted to improve dangerous working conditions in factories through organizing unions.

1. Antebellum Social Reforms:
Temperance
Public Education
Prisons and Asylums
Labor

2. Temperance
•Goal?
•To eliminate the sale and consumption
of alcoholic beverages.

3. Temperance
•Rationale?
•Excessive use of alcohol caused social ills
including poverty, crime, and the
mistreatment of women and children.

4. Temperance
•Details?
•Many women were active in the
temperance movement because alcohol
tended to cause domestic abuse.

5. Temperance
•Details?
•One of the first temperance laws was
passed in Maine. The Maine Law of
1851 was copied in other states.

6. Temperance
•Details?
•Temperance met fierce resistance. The
Maine Law was repealed in 1856. Many
others did not survive court challenges.

7. Temperance
•Details?
•The Temperance Movement continued
after the Civil War, culminating in
ratification of the 18th Amendment in
1919.

8. Public School Movement
•Goal?
•To provide tax-supported schools for all
children.

9. Public School Movement
•Rationale?
•In the early 19th century, most American
children received little formal schooling.
Reformers cited informed citizenship
and religious training among the
benefits of increased literacy.

10. Public School Movement
•Details?
•Horace Mann of Massachusetts was
among the leading reformers for public
education.

11. Public School Movement
•Details?
•By the 1850’s, all states had some form
of tax-supported schools. They were
most-numerous in the states of the
northeast and most-accessible to white
children.

12. Public School Movement
•Details?
•More practical curricula (reading,
writing, and arithmetic), early textbooks
(McGuffey’s Readers), and better
teacher-preparation became more
widespread.

13. Prison and Asylum Reform
•Goal?
•More humane treatment of prisoners
and the mentally ill.

14. Prison and Asylum Reform
•Rationale?
•To apply Christian principles to the
treatment of social deviants and to
achieve social benefits by stressing
rehabilitation over punishment.

15. Prison and Asylum Reform
•Details?
•Prisons housed social “deviants,”
including criminals and the mentally ill.
Both tended to receive similar
treatment: physical punishment,
restraint, and isolation.

16. Prison and Asylum Reform
•Details?
•One of the most active reformers was
Dorothea Dix, who investigated prison
conditions and raised public awareness
of the need for more enlightened
policies.

17. Prison and Asylum Reform
•Details?
•Dix and other reformers helped improve
the treatment of incarcerated criminals
and establish asylums for the mentally
ill.

18. The Labor Movement
•Goal?
•To improve industrial working conditions

19. The Labor Movement
•Rationale?
•Factory work paid low wages and was
often dangerous.

20. The Labor Movement
•Details?
•America’s industrial revolution was in its
infancy in the early 19th century, but as
work shifted from the farm to the
factory, industrial labor conditions
became a concern.

21. The Labor Movement
•Details?
•Workers began to organize labor unions
and press for concessions.

22. The Labor Movement
•Details?
•The labor movement had little public
support. Its most important
accomplishments would happen in the
early 20th century.