The Social Reform Movement

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Even though some may feel that 19th Century America was the greatest period for this country, there has to be an understanding as to why that was. At that time, this was the time of unrest. The citizens, mostly women and blacks, felt that there was inherent injustice in their “home.” It seems that there were many problems lying under the surface. This led to different social reforms. The social reformers attacked these social ills: women’s rights, alcoholism, education and abolitionism. These social ills were covered in the era of “reform” in America. The social reformers tried to improve American society in the early 1800s. The leaders of these reform movements believed that America could do anything if “she” put her mind to it. At the time…show more content…
The abolition didn’t necessarily fight for these rights, but just for the blacks to become free. The blacks wouldn’t be seen as equal, though. William Lloyd Garrison was a journalist who published articles in his newspaper, The Liberator, promoting abolition. Garrison was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The abolition movement was the best-known and most successful of all the social reform movements. There were always abolitionists since early colonies, but slavery itself had changed as a result of the invention of the cotton gin. The Southerners were now even more focused in continuing and expanding slavery, however, many Northerners began to see slavery as immoral. The abolitionist movement was divided. Even though the North was calling for the end of slavery, there were some that felt that it should be immediate and others that said gradual. One example was the Gradualists forming the “American Colonization Society” which advocated for the purchasing of all existing slaves and the relocation of them back to Africa. Consequently, they established the colony of Liberia in 1822. On the other hand, the “immediate end to slavery” activists suggested that slaves should immediately be set free without compensation to owners. Also, they wanted the freedmen to be granted all rights as a citizen of America. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was published in 1852, also gave…show more content…
Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, and William Lloyd Harrison were the main revolutionaries. They all wrote articles in The Liberator. The revolutionaries formed a secret society called the “Underground Railroad.” They transported slaves from the South to the North, including Canada. The “railroad” transported slaves, or whites’ property, and shipped them off. They acted as a real railroad; they used railroad terminology. The “conductors” were the people who actually moved the slaves, and the “depots” were homes where slaves would be hidden while being transported. Levy Coffin and Harriet Tubman would be big “conductors” in the “Underground” movement. The abolitionist movement was a success. The American citizens realized that slavery contradicted the Constitution and was immoral. The movement ended with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution in 1865. The aim of the movement was to improve America as a

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