The American Journey © 2012

Chapter 14: The Age of Reform

Chapter Overviews

Section 1: Social Reform

A wave of religious fervor, the Second Great Awakening, influenced many social causes, such as the temperance movement. Reforms in education led to greater access to education for women, African Americans, and people with disabilities. Transcendentalists stressed the connection between humans and nature, and American literature developed a distinct style that reflected an interest in the history, landscape, and social issues of America.

Section 2: The Abolitionists

The spirit reform movement also revitalized the antislavery movement. Abolitionists such as Sojourner Truth and many Quakers were interested in ending slavery. The American Colonization Society tried, without success, to resettle African Americans in Africa or the Caribbean.

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, who founded an antislavery newspaper and called for an immediate end of slavery, helped the movement grow, as did the white Southerners Sarah and Angelina Grimké, who lectured and wrote against slavery. African Americans Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth both escaped from slavery and became influential abolitionists. African Americans and whites helped the movement by secretly guiding enslaved people to freedom along the Underground Railroad.

Many in the people South and North opposed abolitionism—sometimes violently—because they considered it a threat to the nation’s social order and economic stability. Southerners argued that slavery was essential to their economy and that it was more humane than work in the Northern factories.

Section 3: The Women’s Movement

Many women abolitionists also worked for women’s rights. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, which demanded women’s right to vote. Susan B. Anthony joined Stanton in leading a national movement that called for women’s rights and coeducation.

Women made progress in achieving equality in education, improvements in marriage laws, and gains in professional employment. Despite these successes, women remained limited by social customs and expectations.

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