The Prison Reform Movement

Transcendentalists were Americans that believed everyone should be treated equally, so they began six major reform movements. There were many Transcendentalist movements, but the six most important reforms were the prison movement, women’s rights, anti-slavery, temperance, insane and education movement. The prison reform movement was started by the Transcendentalists because they felt that the system was wrong unfair and cruel. All prisoners suffered the same consequences regardless of his or her crime. Thomas Osborne became the chairman in order for this reform to be pushed further. Enoch Wines and Theodore Dwight produced a monumental report describing all the flaws that were in the existing system. Eastern State Penitentiary was a prison

The rights women were being deprived of was voting, the right to their own property, and the right to get an education. Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott were the main figures leading the women’s rights movement. Elizabeth Stanton was the one who drafted the “Declaration of Sentiment, Grievances and Resolutions” which explained to the people what the women desired. As a result of Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott’s hard work, and the women’s rights movement, the 19th amendment was passed giving women the rights they had desired. Shortly after Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female physician and Mt. Holyoke started accepting women into their

This movement was led by the author of the Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison. He created “The Liberator” as his way of spreading anti-slavery. By 1820, this had caused an uprising of the southerners. The southerners began to violently protest. Another important individual of the anti-slavery movement was Harriet Tubman. Tubman conducted the Underground Railroad, which helped slaves escape. The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad, it was the routes out of the south. On these routes, the slaves followed Harriet Tubman at night in order to escape the horrific conditions that they were living in. In conclusion, slavery was abolished later on in life, but at this point slaves were getting more violent, determined, and confident in themselves. For example, Nat Turner was a slave who killed his master and 60 other white men. The revolt spread, but it was finally stopped by federal troops. In the 1830’s-1840’s serious slave uprisings came about in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and