Early American Reform Movements

1. Reform Movements of the
Early 1800s

2. Social Reform Movements
While America was undergoing an "era of good feeling" there were many
problems lying under the surface. Reforms in the 1800s covered a wide variety
of areas, including religion, education, mental illness, special needs, and use of
alcohol. People began to involve themselves in these movements and began to
take notice of his/her responsibility to make better these social ills which
attacked society
This reform movement was led by people
who believed that America could do
anything if she put her mind to it.
Few areas escaped the notice of
reformers in the 1830's and 1840's

3. Horace Mann
An influential American educator who advocated education reform. He wanted
both men and women to have access to public education and believed that
education was essential to the success of democracy.
He helped to create the state Board of Education in Massachusetts. It was
eventually successful and the New England region had the highest literacy rate.
Horace Mann:
•Lengthened the school year to six months.
•Made improvements in the school curriculum.
•Doubled teachers’ salaries.
•Developed better ways of training teachers.
•Standardize textbooks
•Compel attendance

4. Education Reform
Led by Horace Mann, the great educational reformer, sought to improve and
better regulate public education. The idea that uneducated citizens could ruin
society scared many government officials into funding public schools and led
to the creation of mandatory public education in America.
Children had to attend single-room schools
which were very inefficient. Very cold in the
winter and very hot during the summer.
School Lunch Pail
Ink Well
In a lot of schools, teachers stood in the
doorway or school yard and rang the hand bell
to call their students to class.
Desk
Text Book

5. Education Reform (cont.’)
Teachers were initially untrained (No college education required) and
underpaid. Taught only the three “R’s”: Readin’, Ritin’, and Rithmetic.
Children of color
were forbidden to
learn to read and
write in the South
and rarely in the
North.
Some scholars at the time frowned
upon girl’s education because they
believed it “injured the weak
female brain, undermined their
health, and rendered young
women unfit for marriage.”
Hornbooks were used by children in
colonial times to help them learn to
read. They were thin pieces of wood with
a handle. There was a single page
protected by a transparent sheet of horn.
At the left you can see what we used with
the children. The alphabet was one of the
things printed on the paper.
Punishments
•Boys and Girls Playing Together: 4 lashes
•For Wrestling at School: 4 lashes
•Fighting or Quarreling at School: 5 lashes
•Gambling or Betting at School: 4 lashes
•Playing at Cards at School: 10 lashes
•Swarin’ at School: 8 lashes
•For Misbehaving to Girls: 10 lashes
•Going to School with Dirty Faces and Hands: 2 lashes
Spelling Book

6. Temperance Movement
Many believed that excessive use of alcohol caused social problems such as
crime and poverty. Alcoholism was widespread during the early 1800s.
Reformers stepped up their campaign for temperance, or moderation in the
consumption of alcohol. Temperance groups formed all across the country.
Several groups joined together to form the American Temperance Union.
Temperance groups also worked for laws to prohibit the sale of liquor.
In the 1830s and 1840s national and state societies generated an enormous output
of antiliquor tracts, and hundreds of local temperance societies were founded to
press the cause, first of moderation in drink but increasingly of total abstinence
from liquor. The temperance campaign proved extremely successful, particularly
in New England and New York.
By the 1840s, liquor consumption had fallen and hundreds of thousands of men
had signed pledges of total abstinence through religious or marital pressure.
Some ministers denounced the evil
of drinking and promoted the
expulsion of drinkers from church.

7. Carrie Nation (1846-1901)
A prohibitionist. She believed that bars and other liquor-related businesses
should be destroyed, and was known for attacking saloons herself with a
hatchet.
In 1881, Kansas became the first state to outlaw booze. Teetotaler, Carry Nation takes to entering saloons with a
hatchet to destroy bottles of liquor.
She occasionally greeted bartenders with a cheery, “Good morning, destroyer of men’s souls,” before proceeding to
destroy the bar with her hatchet.

8. Abolitionist Movement
The effort to do away with slavery became a major reform issue in the 1830s
and dominated politics after 1840.

9. Women’s Rights Movement
In the 1800s, many people believed that the home was the proper place for
women. The idea that women should be homemakers and be responsible for
the development of their children came to be known as “true womanhood.”
Women could not vote and if
married, they had no right to
own property or retain their
own earnings. They were also
discriminated in the areas of
education and employment, not
receiving the opportunities that
men possessed.

10. Women's Suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote and to hold an elected office.

11. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Major figure of the early women's rights movement. She helped organize the
first women's rights convention known as the Seneca Falls Conference in 1848.
Stanton's boldness shocked many when she used the occasion to call for
women's suffrage.

12. Susan B. Anthony
A supporter of both the temperance and abolitionist movements, Susan B.
Anthony is best known for joining with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to fight for
women's rights.
She continued to be a leader in the women's suffrage movement until her
death in 1906.
In 1979 Congress approved the Susan B. Anthony
dollar coin to be minted in her honor.

13. Seneca Falls Conference (1848)
In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention was a gathering of women and the start
of an organized women’s movement. The convention adopted resolutions for
women’s rights. Among those adopted were a demand for women’s suffrage
and a diminution of sexual discrimination in education and employment.

14. Penitentiary Reforms
Some reformers worked to improve prison conditions. In the 1800s,
criminals of all kinds and the mentally ill were often crowded together in
prisons.
States began building new facilities to provide better conditions for prisoners.
Some people also worked for programs to help prisoners rehabilitate
themselves rather than simply locking them up. The new prisons, called
penitentiaries, were meant to be places where prisoners would learn remorse.

15. Dorothea Dix
Many people in the mid-1800s worked to reform various aspects of American
society. Dorothea Dix worked to improve conditions for the mentally ill, who
were often locked up in prisons.
Dorothea Dix
Patient in restraint chair
Mental patients were often
imprisoned, chained or held in
painful restraints, flogged and
tortured in a variety of ways,
denied ordinary comforts like
heat, light, company, and food
and drink, and sometimes
exhibited to public ridicule.
The Utica Crib was widely used to confine patients. Some cribs were made out of wood, some iron. The sides and lid were made of
spindles, which allowed airflow. The Utica Crib had a lid, which could be fastened over the patient. The person restrained could not sit
up, nor get out. The bottom was cushioned with layers of straw.
Mask for the criminally
insane often called
torture masks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn9YEfYmP-s