Reform Movements During Antebellum Era

Question 1

What was the second great awakening?

Answer 1

The revival of religious feeling by revivalists who thought Americans had become immoral & that future of country depended on religion.

Question 2

What is evangelism?

Answer 2

Passionate style of preaching developed by Charles Grandison Finney

Question 3

The public school movement

Answer 3

Up to the ear.u 1800 there were no laws requiring kids to go to school.
Reformers thought this was unfair to the poor/the country as a whole
Horace Mann advanced the idea of free tax supported public schools (enrollment in school doubled due to the spreading of this idea)
MA = 1st compulsory state in 1852 ( idea that you MUST go to school)

Question 4

The Temperance movement

Answer 4

The movement blamed the ills of society on alcohol. Temperance means moderation.. although some reformers pushed for complete prohibition.

Question 5

The anti-slavery movement

Answer 5

• Many began to question slavery during American revolution
• Abolitionists movement began when people began to speak out against slavery
• leaders of movement = William loyd gallison & Frederick Douglas
  WILLIAM Gallison —> ran anti slavery newspaper
  Used to think emancipation should be gradual but then began to argue for immediate emancipation with full political and social rights for slaves
  FREDERICK Douglas —> was born a slave but eventually escaped to the north in 1838 and began to share his experiences at mass abolitionist meetings, wrote a book in 1845 “narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas” which was read by thousands
• even though support for the abolitionists movement was growing in the north, MOST AMERICANS (even in the north) did not favor abolition
  Some slaveholders in the south started practicing gradual manumissions (freeing slaves) BUT once the anti slavery movement grew they stopped
  (Give an inch take a mile)

Question 6

The women’s movement

Answer 6

Many women participated in anti slavery movement —> prompted them to work for their own equal rights
- women had VERY limited rights in 1800s
- leaders of women’s movement = Elizabeth Cady and Latricia Mot
They started leading this movement because they were upset when women weren’t allowed in some anti slavery meetings
Both helped organize Seneca Falls convention (1874 Seneca, NY)
Hundreds of women and men attended
There, they wrote the Declaration of sentiments