Reform Movements and the Expansion of
Reform Movements and the Expansion of Democratic Ideals
The years between 1825 and 1850 marked the reform movement era that spread democratic ideals the country was founded on. Throughout the fights for equal rights, freedom of religion, and institutional improvements, citizens leaned more towards having a democratically governed country. This era was the time when everyone fought for the same rights white men had. Colonial women, who were expected to endure their husband’s abuse and alcoholism and maintain the household, wanted just as much freedom as the men. In Document C, [“…We now demand our right to vote according to declaration of the government under which we live”] we can see that women believed they should have the rights they were promised in the Constitution of the United States. The Second Great Awakening had a great impact on how Americans’ viewed their country. William H. McGuffey was known to be a great writer and was asked by a printing company to write textbooks for school children. In these Readers we can see that McGuffey was free to his own opinion as to why everything is the way it is. “He says, ‘I have often been told, and I have read, that it is God who makes some poor, and others rich…’” (Document E). Colonists had their own theories when it came to religion, but it was all accepted because at the time, people were experimenting with their new ideas.
Prisons in the early years were hells on earth due to the disgusting conditions and unreasonably cruel treatment the mentally ill received. Reforms of prisons began with Dorthea Dix who argued that the living conditions prisoners were forced to endure must be improved and should be taught to do better as a member of their community. In Document A, it’s stated that “to confine [the] youthful criminals…is to pursue a course, as little reconcilable with justice as humanity”. What she meant was that by putting criminals in jail and treating them like animals would not teach them a lesson,
The years between 1825 and 1850 marked the reform movement era that spread democratic ideals the country was founded on. Throughout the fights for equal rights, freedom of religion, and institutional improvements, citizens leaned more towards having a democratically governed country. This era was the time when everyone fought for the same rights white men had. Colonial women, who were expected to endure their husband’s abuse and alcoholism and maintain the household, wanted just as much freedom as the men. In Document C, [“…We now demand our right to vote according to declaration of the government under which we live”] we can see that women believed they should have the rights they were promised in the Constitution of the United States. The Second Great Awakening had a great impact on how Americans’ viewed their country. William H. McGuffey was known to be a great writer and was asked by a printing company to write textbooks for school children. In these Readers we can see that McGuffey was free to his own opinion as to why everything is the way it is. “He says, ‘I have often been told, and I have read, that it is God who makes some poor, and others rich…’” (Document E). Colonists had their own theories when it came to religion, but it was all accepted because at the time, people were experimenting with their new ideas.
Prisons in the early years were hells on earth due to the disgusting conditions and unreasonably cruel treatment the mentally ill received. Reforms of prisons began with Dorthea Dix who argued that the living conditions prisoners were forced to endure must be improved and should be taught to do better as a member of their community. In Document A, it’s stated that “to confine [the] youthful criminals…is to pursue a course, as little reconcilable with justice as humanity”. What she meant was that by putting criminals in jail and treating them like animals would not teach them a lesson,