Reforms, or reform movements, are popular movements that aim to make the world a better place, or improve it. In the United States in the 19th Century there were several reform movements that had sprouted up to try and correct the missteps or contradictions of early America.

The Reform Movements of the 1800s were inspired by religious changes in American’s moral values. The Second Great Awakening was a religious movement that inspired Americans from the 1800s-1840s. This religious movement encouraged Americans to work to improve society. Many people shared their belief that good deeds could help them be saved and go to heaven. As Americans attended revivals, or religious meetings that shared ideas about changing society swept the nation and fed into both the Women's Rights movement as well as the push for Abolition of slavery (abolish).

Americans in the early 1800s believed they could make a difference in society. The United States was struggling with the issues of slavery, abuse in prisons, and the efforts to follow the dream set forth by the Constitution that all people “are created equal”: Reformers began to advocate (encourage change) and turn plans into action. A closely related but secular movement was gaining steam around the same time. Transcendentalism was an idea where people believed they could "transcend," or rise above logical thinking to reach true understanding of the world. The idea of transcendentalism meant that humans could rise above their biological station in life and improve humanity, and it inspired literature such as the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman and artwork such as those produced at the Hudson River Schools. Thoreau wrote a book on the meaning of life called, “Walden: Life in the Woods”, that inspired many others to become closer to nature. His belief in questioning society and government even led him to be jailed when he refused to pay taxes in protest of the US-Mexican War. His act of civil disobedience inspired many others.

The period of religious revivals, transcendentalism and reform movements culminated in the beginning of several reform movements that would continue to the Civil War and set the background for modern reform movements that are still being waged today. Continue reading to find more information about the specific reform movements of the early 18th century.

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Abolition

The best-known of the social reform movements of the antebellum era may be abolition - the effort to end slavery in the United States. There had been abolitionists since colonial days, notably the Quakers, and a vocal minority had tried to abolish slavery with the founding of the nation. But slavery itself had changed with the invention of the cotton gin and the fabulous wealth earned from 'King Cotton.' While Southerners became more committed to maintaining and even expanding the peculiar institution, many Northerners began to see slavery as a moral evil, partly because of what was called the Second Great Awakening.

There were many opponents to slavery in the 1800s, both white and black. All Northern states had outlawed slavery by 1807. Many runaway slaves and free blacks opposed slavery and helped bring it into the public consciousness, such as John Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Loyd Garisson and Frederick Douglass. With support for abolition growing, many people worked together to help enslaved people escape into free territory during this time, it was called the Underground Railroad.

Goals: to ABOLISH: get rid of slavery and discrimination

Leaders:

- Fredrick Douglass - bought his own freedom to go on to speak out against slavery

- Harriet Tubman: escaped slavery, helped thousands of slaves go to freedom, and raided southern plantations during the Civil War

- Sojourner Truth

- William Lloyd Garrison

- Grimke Sisters

- Harriet Beecher Stowe

- John Brown

Achievements:

- Formation of "The Society for the Abolishment of slavery" in england

- Second Great Awakening

- Sparking a Civil War

- Underground Railroad

The abolition movement continues today. It seeks to abolish or radically change the institutional biases or preserved racism that remain in our political systems (institutional racism). Abolition - from it's anti-slavery advocacy days to more modern efforts such as the Civil Rights movement or the Black Lives Matter movement - has always been controversial, but these issues define our history.

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