Second Great Awakening: Social Reformers In The Antebellum Era

Reformers in the antebellum period were concerned about the lack of religion, women's rights, slavery and numerous other social reforms. These controversial issues were tackled by eloquent speakers like Charles Finney, who commenced the Second Great Awakening, and individuals who noticed that the American society was dehumanising large affinity groups, like a woman named Dorothea Dix, who noticed that the living conditions for the mentally ill resemble prison cells, and led a crusade to change mental hospitals across the United States (Newman 212). The people in the antebellum era made a difference by being the change they wanted to see in the world (Gandhi). The Second Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals in the United States
Instead they were being treated like second class citizens that were not valued in society. In 1848 feminists met to have the firsts women's rights convention in the United States (Newman 214). The convention was called the Seneca Falls Convention, because it was held in Seneca Falls, New York (Doc 1). At this convention the feminists determined in their Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions that, “we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”(Doc 7). Additionally to the convention women were given more rights by the creation of the first women's college, and women becoming school
During the Industrial Revolution the English invented the power loom and spinning jennies (Fraser 266). Since the technology was fairly new there were no rules or regulations on how to run a safe factory. Most of the workers of these factories were women or young children, “They were paid two dollars a week. The working hours of all the girls extended from five o'clock in the morning until seven in the evening, with one half hour each, for breakfast and dinner. Even the doffers were forced to be on duty nearly fourteen hours a day. This was the greatest hardship in the lives of these children” (Doc 4). Also the Anti Slavery movement was gaining more and more momentum, because of the creation American Anti- Slavery Society, and the feminists empathized with slavery. Women identified with slaves because they both were treated unequally. In Document 8 there is a slave woman kneeling with chains on her wrists, with the words “ Am not a woman and a sister” (Doc 8). This illustrates the hypocrisy of a racist feminist because white or black, women went through similar struggles. Overall, Reformers in the antebellum era were concerned about religion, women's rights, slavery and were trying to reform the American society. What made this time period so successful was that the white males who were empowered, spoke up with the mistreated people. Just by creating an anti-slavery newspaper The