“what is a man born for but to be a reformer, a remaker of what man has made; a renouncer of lies,...
TRANSCRIPT
The Great Reformers
“What is a man born for but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of
what man has made; a renouncer of lies, a restorer of
truth and good…”Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841
DO NOWWhat does it mean to “reform”?
Why was reform necessary in the 1800s?
Is there still a need for reform today?
Second Great Awakening- the religious movement that swept through the United States in the 1800s.
NO MORE CALVINIST BELIEFS!
WE MAKE OUR OWN DESTINY
NOW!
Transcendentalists- believed that spiritual discovery and insight would lead a person to truths more profound than those through reason.
WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN GROUP WORSHIP. WE
CELEBRATE THE TRUTHS FOUND IN NATURE AND IN
THE PERSONAL IMAGINATION!
Henry David Thoreau- believed that people should not obey laws they believed were unjust. They should peacefully not obey them. Civil Disobedience.
Thoreau himself even went to jail for not following laws!
A Right to Education
“… chemistry enough to keep the pot boiling and geography enough to know the location of different rooms in house…” was considered learned enough for women.
Is there anywhere we still see this today? A lack of education for women? For anyone?
School Enrollment Grows
Improving Education
Improving Education• In early 1800s, school not compulsory, not divided
by grade• Pennsylvania establishes tax-supported public
school system in 1834• Horace Mann establishes teacher training,
curriculum reforms• By 1850s, all states have publicly funded
elementary schools
Women’s Rights The Cult of Domesticity- Hop on!
•Cult of domesticity• Way of thought that demanded women restrict their activities
after marriage to home and family.
•In the early 1800s, women who worked were usually unmarried and made ½ the salary that a man would make for doing the same or similar work.
•Popular jobs• Seamstress• House Maid• Teacher!
•By 1850 1 in 5 white women worked for wages.
Education for Women•Until 1820s, few opportunities for girls past
elementary school•Academic schools for women become
available:- 1821, Emma Willard opens Troy Female Seminary- 1837, Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary- 1837, Oberlin College admits 4 women; first coeducational college
•African-American girls have few opportunities to get good education
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison• William Lloyd Garrison— radical white
abolitionist
Radical- extremist (far beyond the norm)Abolitionist- reformer who wants to end slavery
Starts a paper called The Liberator.
Why would he name his paper The Liberator?
Slave Owners Panic! Frederick Douglass was taught to read by his owners wife. Once his owner found out he proclaimed…
“Reading would forever unfit him to be a slave!”
What does this mean, why was the owner so upset?
With education comes freedom.
Reform Movements Overlap
• Women we involved in several important reform movements– Health and Prison Reform (Dorothea Dix)– Abolitionist Movement– Temperance Movement– Education
Workers Seek Better Conditions
The Immigrant MovementMany employers felt that they could still use unfair tactics, low pay, and dangerous working conditions on immigrants trying to survive.
Workers Unionize
• Artisans form unions; begin to ally themselves with unskilled workers
• 1830s–1840s, 1–2% of workers organized, dozens of strikes- employers use immigrants as strikebreakers
National Trades’ Union• 1830s, unions for same trade unite to standardize
wages, conditions • 1834, organizations from 6 industries form National
Trades’ Union• Bankers, owners form associations; courts declare
strikes illegal
Court Backs Strikers• In 1842, Massachusetts Supreme Court upholds right
to strike• In 1860, barely 5,000 union members;
20,000 people in strikes
