3 Social Reforms
3 Social Reforms
Antebellum
Reforms
Problem #1
[There are many people] who
know that they ought to be
religious, but they are afraid if they
become [faithful] they shall be
laughed at by their companions.
Such persons never will give up
their false shameuntil they are
so excited that they cannot contain
themselves any longer.
Evangelist Charles Finney
By 1800, church
membership in
was low and
falling;
Just 1 out of 15
people in
America was a
member of a
church
Poverty,
crime,
and immorality
seemed to be
increasing at an
alarming rate
When the
church finds
its members
falling into
gross and
scandalous
sins, then it is
time for the
church to
awake and cry
Problem #2
Problem #3
The elementary schools
throughout the state are
irresponsible institutions,
established by individuals, from
mere motives of private [profit],
who are sometimes [lacking]
character
and abilities.
Ignorance, inattention, and even
immorality, prevail to a [sad]
extent among their teachers.
Massachusetts and
Vermont were the only
states with compulsory
attendance laws
Few children attended
school past the age of
10 years old
Education reformers
demanded that states
create public schools
for children
Problem #4
1. Women were unable to vote
2. Single women could own her
own property
3. Married women had no control
over her property or her
children
4. Women could not initiate
divorce
5. Women could not sign a
Womens opportunities
were limited by the cult of
domesticity
Women were
expected to
oversee the family
and home while
their husbands
worked to provide
money
Married
women had
no property rights
and could not file
for divorce
Women
could not
vote, run for
political office,
or sue in court
Problem #5
In the 1830s,
abolitionism (the
desire to emancipate
all slaves) grew
radical
In the 1830s,
Abolition grew more
abolitionism (the
popular in the North,
desire to emancipate
but was seen as a
all slaves) grew
threat to the
radical
Southern way of life
William Lloyd Garrison was
Americas leading
abolitionist
His American Anti-Slave
Society
and The Liberator
newsletter demanded the
immediate end
to slavery without
Frederick
Douglass was a
payment
runaway
slave,
popular
to slave
owners
anti-slavery speaker, and
author of the North Star
newsletter
Problem #6
State
requirements to
vote in
elections