The Antebellum Movement And The Reform Movement
The book American Reformers, 1815-1860 by Ronald G. Waters was originally published in 1978 by Hill and Wang publishing company. This book describes the reformation that took place in America, its affects, and what was necessary to get the word out about its ideas. The reformation was an important step in the development of the idea that the negative aspect of a nation’s society could be done away with through an individual’s endeavors. The first chapter of the book deals with how economics, transportation revolution, and politics played a part in the antebellum reformation. It explained how reformers felt about America’s immoral leaders and the laws that they thought would make Americans “behave.”
Before the war America alludes to the period between 1780-1860 which was referred to Antebellum America. This period was a time when people were torn between continuing slavery and people who was in support of slavery ending. The people that was in favor of fighting for the rights of ending slavery where called Abolitionist. In addition, this period saw a shift in financial action in both the north and the south.
In completing this week’s reading, Antebellum Reform: Salvation, Self-Control, and Social Transformation by Wendy Gamber, I identified several key terms that illustrate the significance of the Antebellum Reform period. Following the Second Great Awakening, the Antebellum Reform was a time period of self-control and moral suasion. Self control refers to the ability to control oneself and supports the predestination to free will, or the idea that “one’s station in life was not fixed [...] it was your fault, not God’s will, if you failed to succeed on earth or to gain salvation in heaven” (Gamber, p. 132). Certainly, people can control their own behaviors and attitudes; however, self-control became synonymous with the ideal of the American
In 1877, amid an economic depression, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads lowered their workers' wages by 20 percent. Their workers unionized in a strike that started in West Virginia. 2/3 of the nation joined, opposing the federal troops sent by President Hayes to end the strike. America’s Gilded Age was an era of confrontation between management and labor. It was an era of economic depression, growing industrialism and abysmal working conditions.
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, people worked to better their lives and reform the flaws they saw in society. The 1800's were what the American people at the time called the "era of good feeling", but there were still many problems within American society. These problems or "social ills" later led to the Reform Movement which targeted such ills. Groups of individuals were solely created to be the driving forces of this movement. The Reform Movement has greatly impacted the United States history.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, American society began to focus on the welfare of minority groups. Women’s suffrage and abolition were rooted as deeply as the history of America, but asylum and prison reform sprouted with the Second Great Awakening, a movement that occurred in the early 1800s. The Second Great Awakening was led by religious leaders who advocated for changes in American society through the unity of the American people (Doc. Due to the Second Great Awakening, reform movements were established between 1825 and 1850 in order to represent the changes the people sought for in the issues of slavery, suffrage, and asylum and prison reform. The social aspect of the abolition movement led to the visible democratic changes in society and politics.
While we would like to believe that Reconstruction was the 2nd American Revolution, the facts, however do not completely just do not support this idea entirely. The “Reconstruction” era which was very important, was the time in which the United States sought to rebuild itself after the civil war. The government was hoping for a total over-hall of the social, political and economic structures of the Southern region but this change needed to extend beyond just the south into the entire country and the Federal Government. What happened however, was a series of “reconstruction” efforts, none of which fully addressed the real issues facing the newly freed blacks and poor whites. It seemed everyone had an idea on how we should reconstruct the
Emily Hay-Lavitt March 7, 2016 Week 8: Reconstruction and the Gilded Age After the ratification of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, life did not get significantly easier for emancipated slaves. Despite being free from slavery, African Americans in the United States remained figuratively enslaved within social realms due to several restrictions on every-day activities. Plessy v. Ferguson established the regulation of “separate but equal” in 1896 for whites and colored people, which was a significant aspect of American societies for decades.
The antebellum period in America was a time of conflict as the nation was trying to divide from English rule. Loyal british soldiers showed fidelity and honorable amounts of courage when they protected and defended the colonies as champions. Their prowess seemed far more superior and they seemed auspicious compared to their adversary who, in the end, would acquiesce and recompense the damages, which is good business acumen in my opinion. In the americas, instead of truthful and courteous loyalists, British troops were met with abhorring and abrasive people who wanted to be separated from the king’s rule, using such terrible methods from throwing acrid foods and rocks at them, or picking fights, which would end up being a terrible mistake.
There were many major movements and goals of the antebellum reform. Before the Civil War, almost 100 reform communities were instituted. Some were democratic, others were ruled over by an interesting leader. Most of them were motivated by religion, but some had desires to reverse social and economic changes. Almost all of these communities wanted to have a cooperative society, to revive social harmony in an individualistic society and to close the growing space between the rich and the poor.
During the Progressive Era, various social reform movements emerged in response to the economic, social, and political challenges of the time. Some of the major social reform movements of the Progressive Era were: Women's suffrage movement: The women's suffrage movement aimed to secure voting rights for women. Women were denied the right to vote in most states and at the national level. The movement achieved success with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote. Temperance movement:
Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The foundation of America is freedom. Freedom from Britain. However, the freedom is limited to white males who own property. When colonists started to immigrate to America, they wanted to escape from under the rule of Britain.
The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.
The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).
Reconstruction era, which was followed by post-civil war, was meant to unite the states back together, reconstruct properties, and most importantly, abolish slavery in the South. Although the factors such as amendments legally freed former slaves, yet WRITE THESIS After the end of civil war in 1865, Reconstruction era, which was controlled by President Abraham Lincoln, appeared to quickly coalesce the Northern and Southern states. reconstruction amendments, which were approved between 1865 and 1870, played a huge role on giving legal rights to blacks and former slaves. 13th amendment constitutionally abolished slavery in 1865 and followed up by that, 14th and 15th amendment admitted equal citizenship, protection, and rights of suffrage despite the one’s race or skin color. Former slaves were no longer belongings of their owners.
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