New Movements in America and The Age of

Reform (Change)

The Second Great Awakening

• A time of Christian faith renewal that swept through towns across the United States

• As a result of new teachings, church membership across America grew. Many of these new church members were women and African Americans.

Transcendentalism

• Transcendentalism was the belief that people could transcend, or rise above, the material things in life such as money and personal possessions.

• Some important transcendentalists were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau.

American Artists• A group of American artists began to

emerge called the Hudson River school

• They painted landscapes to show the history of America and the beauty of the land

• Their name comes from the subject of many of their paintings—the Hudson River Valley

• John James Audubon, a member of the Hudson River school was a naturalist specializing in painting the birds of America.

Reforming Society• The Second Great Awakening had inspired

many people to try to change American society.

• The growth of cities caused social problems that many Americans wanted to correct. Often members of the growing middle class, particularly women, led these reform efforts.

• One of these women was Dorothea Dix. She had visited many prisons throughout Massachusetts, and reported on their terrible conditions.

• Dix told the state legislature how there were mentally ill people being held with criminals. In response, they created special, separate facilities for mentally ill patients.

• The influence of Dorothea Dix’s work: more than 100 state hospitals were open for the mentally ill.

• Other reformers wanted children who had been accused of stealing or begging to not be treated as adult criminals. They worked to have separate facilities for these children.

• Some reformers tried to end overcrowding and cruel treatment in prisons. New buildings were built that tried to change the prisoners behavior through education, not punishment.

The Temperance Movement

• This was a movement led by people who wanted to prevent alcohol abuse. Many people believed that Americans were drinking alcohol at an alarming rate in the early 1800’s. The average alcohol consumption during this time was 7 gallons per year, per person.

• Many reformers believed alcohol abuse was the cause of social problems such as family violence, poverty and criminal behavior.

• American’s worries about alcohol led to the growth of the temperance movement. This social reform effort urged people to stop drinking hard liquor and limit drinking of beer and wine to small amounts.

• Many people across the country were in favor of the temperance movement, and by 1855 12 states had passed laws banning the sale of alcohol.

• Others believed that social problems would not be fixed by limiting alcohol.

Education in America• Poor public education was a major

problem in America in the early 1800’s. • Most Americans at this time believed

that education was important; however, they did not expect their children to be formally educated. They expected that they should be able to read the Bible, write, and do basic math, but they needed to help the family by working in factories or on farms, not go to school.

• Schools in America at this time varied by region. Most of the schoolhouses in the U.S. were located in New England, while the South and West had few.

• Most teachers were untrained young men. They often taught for a short time before becoming farmers or practicing another trade.

• The textbooks most often used in public schools were the McGuffey’s Readers. William McGuffey an educator and minister put together these textbooks. They were used to teach students about moral and social values as well as reading and literature.

• Girls were not sent to school as often as boys because parents tended to keep them home to learn the tasks they would need to know when they got married. As a result, fewer girls knew how to read.

Common-School Movement• People in the common-school movement

wanted all children educated in a common place, regardless of class or background.

• Horace Mann was the leading voice for education reform in the mid-1800’s. He became the first Secretary of Education for Massachusetts in 1837 and worked very hard speaking, traveling and writing to help improve children’s education. He doubled the state’s school budget and helped teachers earn better salaries. He also made the school year longer and founded the first school for teacher training.

• Mann’s ideas about education spread throughout the country, and to Latin America and Europe. He set the standard for education reform throughout the country.

Women’s Education• The education reform movement

created greater opportunities for women.

• Catharine Beecher became one of the most effective reformers of women’s education in the early 1800’s. She believed that women were better at teaching the moral lessons that made good citizens. She started an all female academy in Connecticut and wrote several essays about education.

• Emma Willard was called upon to start a college level institution for women. Her Troy Female Seminary was the first school of its kind in the U.S. Here women studied many subjects including math and philosophy.

• Several other women’s colleges opened in the early 1800’s. One of these colleges was Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts founded by Mary Lyon.

• In 1837, Oberlin College became the first co-educational college in the U.S. Both men and women were allowed to study there.

African American Schools

• Free African Americans also enjoyed some benefits of education reform.

• Although African Americans had educational opportunities, these were always separate from white students.

• In 1820, Boston opened a school that was attended by both African Americans and whites. However, several of the African Americans spoke out regarding the inequalities of their education here.

• African Americans rarely attended college because only a few would accept them.

• In 1835, Oberlin became the first to allow free African Americans. Many institutions were opened only for African Americans at this time, but they were located only in the North and Midwest. No educational opportunities were available for African Americans in the South.

Teaching People with Disabilities• Efforts to improve education also

helped those with special needs.• Samuel Gridley Howe worked to

improved the education of the visually impaired. He opened a school in Massachusetts for these people. He trained the school’s workers to address the particular needs of the students. He also traveled around the country teaching visually impaired people.

• Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet worked to improve the education and lives of people who were hearing impaired. In 1817, he founded the first free school for the hearing impaired.