An Age of Reform

The American DreamMany pilgrims that had

come from other lands believed America was a “City upon a hill.” They believed that they could turn this into a nation with no injustice where everyone was equal. Everybody was working to make America a better place to be in.

John Winthrop said, “America would be a city upon a hill.”

A Religious AgeThere were

Christian churches for every type of temperament.

Protestant Churches had moved away from old Puritan beliefs in a stern God who had already predetermined the fate of each individual.

Religious Age Continued Churches now emphasized how much

freedom that each individual had to God, and that every person had the ability to improve the world.

The world of Christians seemed to become more democratic and self governing than ever before.

These ideas were stressed during the 1820’s through 1850’s in religious revivals which constantly swept the land.

Charles Grandison Finney could have had the greatest movement because he used everything he could think of to excite his listeners and interest them about their sinfulness and to save their souls.

Many Americans supported a wide variety of reforms because of revival meetings like Finney's and other preachers.

Charles Grandison Finney

The Transcendentalists Transcendentalists believed

that the most important truths of life could not be summed up in a clear simple theology, but actually went beyond human understanding.

This brought all people together, rich and poor, high or low, educated or ignorant.

God was an “oversoul” to them showing everybody what was good and evil.

Emerson once stated that every man is born to be a reformer.

Thoreau was a famous transcendentalist

Transcendentalists Continued Thoreau lived near Concord,

Massachusetts. He refused to pay taxes when he

found out the funds were going to the war that was waged against Mexico.

A century later Mahatma Gandhi declared himself a follower of Henry David Thoreau.

Theodore Parker another member of the group was a born reformer who joined movements and attacked slavery.

Bronson Alcott was a mystic and a dreamer who worked for perfection, but never achieved it. He had many new educational ideas that were disliked at the time.

Bronson Alcott

Transcendentalists ContinuedTranscendentalists loved to tell

what was on their minds.Thoreau wrote and Parker and

others preached. Emerson wrote and lectured to

audiences. Alcott just talked. In his

popular conversations he entertained large audiences in the east and northwest.

Margaret Fuller also used his technique, which influenced her book Women in the Nineteenth Century which spurred a women's rights movement.

Margaret Fuller

Reform in Education Most American reformers focused

attention on education. They argued that the ability to read

and write was the foundation of democratic life.

The public school movement began in the 1830s in Massachusetts.

Puritan leaders from the 1630s also believed in education.

Horace Mann was appointed the first secretary of the state board of education in 1837.

There were 300 public high schools in the whole country and 100 of them existed in Massachusetts.

There were an additional 6,000 private academies which charged a small tuition.

By 1860 many states provided high schools open to all, but it was still unusual to go to school past the eighth grade.

Old Schoolhouse

Higher EducationColleges and universities

were still poorly equipped, small, and rarely had over 100 students.

Julian Sturtevant founded the Illinois college in 1830.

He said that the surest way to promote growth in a young city is to make it the seat of a college.

Before the Civil War 516 colleges were founded, many of them a little better than private colleges, but only 104 surpassed the 1900s.

Sturtevant Hall at Illinois College

Higher Education ContinuedIn most American cities there were

mechanical institutions started for people who wanted to pursue mechanical arts.

In 1824 an institution of higher learning was created, it was called Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It opened in Troy, New York to instruct men in the application of science to the common purposes of life.

Education for Girls and Womeno Girls were taught the household arts in colonial

days.

o However, they were not taught how to read and write.

o People used to think that “book learning” would put stress on their delicate minds.

o 1700 - In Massachusetts, girls attended summer school sessions at public grammar schools.

o Revolutionary Times - only about half the women in New England could sign their name.

o 1840 – Nearly all of New England could read and write.

…continued!o The chance for women to get a college

education took a while. o At 1st some of them were allowed to attend

boys’ academies. o 1836 – The Wesleyan College was chartered

for the first women college.o 1837 – Oberlin College in Ohio allowed both

men and women to attend the same college and attend the same classes.

o They could treat each other as intellectual individuals.

The Mentally Ill and Retarded

• Mentally ill and retarded were treated like criminals, and were considered “insane.”

• American reformers [si kurvas] pitied them.• Dorothea Dix, a Boston schoolteacher, found at her school those

who were punished only for their mental illness. She found them being confined and punished.

• 1843 – after she visited jails and poorhouses, she sent her report to the state legislature about how she saw the mentally ill being refined “in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, and pens! Chained, naked, and beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.”

• She persuaded the Massachusetts legislature to enlarge the state mental hospital.

• She started a new crusade to treat the mentally ill and retarded with compassion and medical aid.

Women’s Rightso The Industrial Revolution allowed many

women to leave behind their duties as homemakers.

o Factories started to make goods cheaper.o Women could finally afford things that they

had to make before. o Women could also begin teaching at public

schools. Women no longer had to just take care of the home

…continued!o Married women had no rights to property.o Their only legal existence came through their

husbands.o Once a woman and man were married,

everything the woman owned became the mans, even her wages.

o Abigail Adams made a point that in order to have a better America, women needed more opportunity for adequate education and the right to speak in public.

Leaders of the Women’s Rights Movemento Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton – organized a

Women’s Rights Convention.o It met in NY at Seneca Falls on July 19, 1848.o They based the convention off of “all men and women are

created equal”, as was stated in the Declaration of Independence.

o They demanded that women “have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.

…continued!o 1851 – when an Ohio convention in Akron

was disrupted, Sojourner Truth, a black slave from NY pointed out that she never received any help from men.

o Her message about equality between men and women spread across the land.

o NY led other states into giving women the right to own property, share in guardianship of their children, and the right to sue.

o Divorce laws were even liberalized.

…continuing againo Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell – medical

doctorso Maria Mitchell – an astronomer, a member of

the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 1st professor of astronomy.

o Sarah Josepha Hale – edited the magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book for 50 years.

o Many women argued for rights to be free.