2. • The first half of the nineteenth century was
a time of “movers and shakers,” people
who saw injustices in American society
and worked to abolish those injustices.
• These reforms would change the lives of
many individuals.
3. What were the major reform
movements of the 1800s?
• Treatment of the mentally ill
• Temperance movement
• Abolition of slavery
• Women’s rights
• Education
4. TREATMENT OF THE
MENTALLY ILL
Leader: Dorothea Dix
GOAL: better
treatment of
persons with
mental illnesses
REASON:
the mentally
ill were badly
treated
5. TREATMENT OF THE
MENTALLY ILL
• In the early 1800s, Americans viewed the United
States as a land of unlimited opportunity. Many
believed that those who failed did so because
they had bad characters.
• As a result, debtors, children who were
offenders, and the mentally ill were often locked
up in jails with murderers and thieves.
• Dorothea Dix and other reformers worked to
change Americans’ ways of thinking about these
institutions and their inmates.
7. TREATMENT OF THE
MENTALLY ILL
• To Dorothea Dix’s horror,
she learned that some of
the inmates were guilty of
no crime—they were
mentally ill persons.
• Dix made it her life’s work
to educate the public as
to the poor conditions for
both the mentally ill and
prisoners.
Dorothea Dix Hospital, Raleigh, NC
8. TREATMENT OF THE
MENTALLY ILL
• As a result of Dix’s work, Massachusetts
passed a law to build mental hospitals
where mental illness could be treated as a
disease rather than a crime.
• By 1852, she had persuaded 11 states to
open hospitals for persons with mental
illness.
9. TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT
• Leader: American Temperance Union and
leaders like Carrie Nation
GOAL: to
eliminate
alcohol
abuse
REASON:
alcohol led
to crime,
poverty,
abuse of
family
11. TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT
• The reformers began a campaign against
drinking.
• The campaign was
known as the
temperance movement.
12. TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT
• Northern and Southern temperance
societies used propaganda to win support
for their cause.
• They held meetings, gave speeches, and
distributed pamphlets.
• They even sang songs such as “Drink
Nothing, Boys, but Water,” and “Father,
Bring Home Your Money Tonight.”
13. TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT
• State legislators took the reformers’
message to heart. By 1857 several states
had passed prohibition laws. Many
Americans protested the laws, and most of
the laws were later repealed.
• The temperance movement stayed alive,
though, and found renewed support later
in the century…….
14. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
• In 1831 white abolitionist
William Lloyd Garrison
founded The Liberator, a
Boston anti-slavery
newspaper.
• In the first issue, Garrison
demanded the immediate
emancipation, or freeing,
of all enslaved persons.
• He urged abolitionists to
take action without delay.
15. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
• The North had many
prominent African American
abolitionists.
• Isabella Baumfree, although
born into slavery in New
York, gained her freedom
when New York abolished
slavery. She changed her
name to Sojourner Truth and
vowed to tell the world about
the cruelty of slavery. She
began a tireless crusade
against injustice.
16. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
• The most important
spokesperson for the cause
was Frederick Douglass.
• Born into slavery, Douglass
secretly taught himself to read,
although Southern laws
prohibited it.
• He escaped from slavery in
1838 and settled in
Massachusetts.
• He captivated audiences by
talking about his life in
bondage.
• He spoke out against the
injustices faced by free African
Americans.
17. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
• Many abolitionists, like Douglass, did more than
lecture and write. They became “conductors” on
the Underground Railroad.
• The Underground Railroad began around 1817.
It was not an actual railroad but a series of
houses where conductors hid runaway enslaved
persons and helped them reach the next
“station.”
• Enslaved African Americans made their way to
the North or Canada on the railroad.
18. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
• Harriet Tubman
became the most
famous African
American conductor
on the Underground
Railroad.
• Tubman fled from
slavery in 1849. Later
she explained why
she risked her life to
escape:
“There was one of
two things I had a
right to, liberty or
death; if I could
not have the one, I
would have the
other.”
19. Women’s Rights
Leaders: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia
Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth
GOAL: obtain equal
rights for women,
including suffrage,
right to own property,
and education
REASON: women
did not have the
same rights as men
20. Women’s Rights
• After attending the World Anti-
Slavery Convention in London
in 1840 and not being allowed
to participate in the
discussions, Lucretia Coffin
Mott and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton spent hours talking
about women’s position in
society.
• They realized that they could
not bring about social change
if they themselves lacked
social and political rights.
21. Women’s Rights
• On July 19, 1848, the first women’s rights
convention opened in Seneca Falls, New York.
• Both male and female delegates attended the
convention.
22. Women’s Rights
• The delegates issued the
Seneca Falls Declaration
that “all men and women
are created equal.”
• Then the declaration
listed several resolutions.
One of them demanded
suffrage, or the right to
vote, for women. After
much heated debate, it
passed by a narrow
margin.
23. Women’s Rights
• Susan B. Anthony, a powerful organizer, joined the
women’s rights movement. Her father encouraged her
to get an education and so she became a teacher.
• A dedicated reformer, Anthony joined the temperance
movement and worked for the American Anti-Slavery
Society.
• She became one of the first to urge full participation of
African Americans in the women’s suffrage movement.
• Through her efforts, the state of New York agreed to
grant married women the guardianship of their children
and control of their own wages.
• Today Anthony is one of the early movement’s best-
remembered leaders.
24. Education Reform
Leaders: Horace Mann
GOALS: to
educate all
Americans
REASON: more
Americans were
qualified to vote
and needed to be
able to make wise
decisions about
their government
“Education does better than to disarm the poor of their
hostility toward the rich; it prevents them from being poor.”
25. Education Reform
• During the 1830s more Americans qualified to
vote than ever before. Educational reformers
argued that voters needed good educations to
make sound decisions about their government.
• The reformers proposed raising the standards of
schools across the nation and supporting them
with taxes.
• To accomplish these goals, they started the
common school movement.
26. Education Reform
• Horace Mann spearheaded the campaign for
common schools.
• Mann was especially concerned about poor
children. Their families could not afford to send
them to private schools or to contribute to the
support of schools in their district.
• Mann won over taxpayers to his way of thinking
by pointing out the benefits to society.
