1. Identify the major movements and goals of antebellum reform.
2. Describe the different varieties of abolitionism.
3. Explain how abolitionism challenged barriers to racial equality and free speech.
4. Identify the diverse sources of the antebellum women’s rights movement and explain its significance.
• To what were the newly established communal and utopian communities reacting? What was it about society that made these group members attempt to create alternative lifestyles?
• Discuss how the vision of freedom expressed by the reform movements was liberating and controlling at the same time.
• Explain how public school was supposed to “equalize the conditions of men.”
• How does the life of Abby Kelley reflect the many reform impulses of antebellum America?
• Discuss what role blacks played in the abolition movement. How did their view of freedom differ from that of the white abolitionists? Why were they so opposed to the colonization movement?
• Compare slavery with the condition of women in antebellum America. Was it fair that feminists used slavery as a rhetorical tool for their cause? Be sure to look at Angelina Grimké’s piece in the “Voices of Freedom” reading.
• Discuss the early feminist movement and the Seneca Falls Convention. Be sure to consider the activities and views of Angelina and Sarah Grimké, Catharine Beecher, Margaret Fuller, Abby Kelley, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lydia Maria Child. What does each of these women have to say about the role of women in American society?