How Successful Was The Reform Movement In The 1800s

The 1800s saw a great rise in politics, as white males conquered the right to vote. Women, blacks, and Native Americans, however, remained away from the political process and were often bullied by politicians. In protest, marginalized groups and their sympathizers organized reform movements to raise public awareness and to influence social and political policy. Many reformers believed that they were doing God’s work, and the Second Great Awakening did much to encourage them in their missions.
These reform movements, like many issues of the day, quickly became popular. New England and Midwestern areas settled by New Englanders were most likely to be reformists. Southerners on the other hand actively opposed the abolition of slavery, pursued prohibition of alcohol and school reform without interest, and largely ignored women’s rights.
Perhaps the most important and debateful reform movement of the period was abolitionism, the anti-slave movement. Although abolitionism had attracted many followers in the

The position of American women in the early 1800s was legally inferior to men. Women could not vote and, if married, could not own property or claim their own earnings. The reform movements of the 1830s, specifically abolition and temperance, gave women a chance to get involved in the public protests. Women reformers soon began to protestnot just for temperance and abolition, but also for women’s rights. In 1848, Mott and Stanton organized a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The Seneca Falls Convention issued a Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, that stated that all men and women are created equal. The Declaration and other reformist strategies, however, made little change. While some states passed Married Women’s Property Acts to allow married women to retain their property, women would have to wait until 1920 to gain the