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... octet. They discussed three things at the convention: first to denounce of anti-slavery reformers and placate the southern temperance societies; second to sponsor legislation against the sale of liquor and lastly to adopt total abstinence from all that can intoxicate. The society got nothing accomplished at this convention however, and there was a loss of members. In Massachusetts the fifteenth gallon law was passed in 1838. It forbade the sale of less than fifteen gallons of liquor that was either to be carried away or delivered all at one time.
During the 1840 s the Washington Temperance Society largely influenced the movement. In 1841, the society held their first of experience meetings which are very closely related to AA meetings. John B. Gough, who was part of this society, delivered sermons. Together the lectures and the meetings increased the number of members, not to mention the work of Father Theobald Mathew. A prominent leader of the Washingtonian Movement, he traveled 37, 000 miles from July of 1849 to November of 1851.
During that time he got 500, 000 new Catholic signers. In 1847 the Womens Christian Temperance Union was founded in Cleveland, Ohio. In response to all their efforts, New York passed a law prohibiting the sale of alcohol in 1845, but it was repealed in 1847. In 1846, the Maine law was passed because of the efforts of a businessman and politician, Neil Dow. It prohibited the manufacturing and sale of alcohol and became a model for other states. Between 1845 - 1855, 13 more states passed prohibition laws, although some were repealed or declared unconstitutional.
The Temperance Movement involved many peoples support and influence. Most importantly would be Benjamin Rush. After his publication in 1784 of An Inquiry into the Effects of Spirituous Liquors on the Human Body, people began to pledge to use no rum gin, whiskey, wine, or distilled spirits except by the advice of a physician or in case of actual disease (Ketz, 22). People then started to reach out to others and preach. Lyman Beecher is one such man, a Protestant who delivered moving sermons in 1825. When the Sons of Temperance refused Susan B.
Anthony because of her sex, she joined the Womens Temperance Society of New York in 1852. Miss Anthony participated during the years 1848 - 1853 and became even more influential in the movement than any other man. Frances Willard supported Prohibition as well as Lucretia Mott, who lectured on temperance. The movement continued well on into the 20 th century where it eventually came to a halt because of disinterest. In 1848, at a time when well-educated or independent-minded women were still regarded as freaks, a Philadelphia newspaper, the Public Ledger, sufficiently expressed the prevailing American view: A woman is nobody. A wife is everything.
But that traditional view was being challenged as women got jobs in factories during the Industrial Revolution and participated equally with men in Abolition and Temperance Movements. Women were especially important on the frontier. Many were brought over from Europe as indentured servants, either willingly or unwillingly. Some took control of finances, the home, land, or even businesses after the death of their husbands. Some women even challenged the views of men in the church, such as Anne Hutchinson, and some were even put to death for witchcraft. Despite the traditional status of women, it was obvious that it had drastically changed during the 1800 s.
They spoke out against slavery, alcoholism, and female abuse. They set up their own schools in the early 1800 s. Most of these radical women were harassed for such behavior. Women although, were so inferior to men they would do anything to get the rights they deserved on property, education, and suffrage. Lucky for them, the Jacksonian period radiated a spirit of democracy, which would help them in their fight. Many towns created clubs for radical women to discuss their desire for change.
Most of the time these clubs had a false name so no man would hear of such a meeting. But a major turning point occurred in 1840 at the World Slavery Convention in London, when Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and six other women were refused to participate in the convention with the rest of the delegates. Mrs. Mott and Mrs. Stanton soon developed a warm friendship and decided that when they returned to the U. S.
they would hold a womens rights convention to discuss the discrimination of women. On July 19, 1848, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jane Hunt, Mary McCintock, and Martha C. Wright hosted the Seneca Falls Womens Convention in New York. It took place in a Wesleyan Church Chapel with an attendance of 100 - 300 people.
Some men attended the meeting, mostly those who had sympathy for discriminated women. Lucretia Mott's husband presided over the meeting. The women there laid the groundwork for new meetings and associations to come in the future. Stanton wanted to achieve equal rights for women in law and in custom. At the convention they adopted a Declaration of Sentiments, closely modeled after the Declaration of Independence. Instead of using the name King George they replace it with the word man.
Two weeks later, the convention reconvened in the Rochester Unitarian Church, where many more men and women added their signatures to the Declaration of Sentiments. The Seneca Falls Convention was an effort to reform New Yorks laws for women, but soon it became nationwide. In 1839, Mississippi allowed women to hold property. In 1849, New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana followed the lead of Mississippi, as well as California and Wisconsin in 1850. The New York Law however in 1849, stated that a woman could hold and control her own property at anytime, and at anytime she would not be associated with her husbands debts. Her husband though still had control of her earnings.
This law was mainly directed to the wealthy. One of the most influential womens right activist was Susan Brownell Anthony. She devoted fifty years of her life fighting for womens rights with her friend and colleague Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The two met in 1851 through Amelia Bloomer, who was a friend of Susan. From that point on they became a hard working team for the fight of their rights and the rights of women across the nation. Whatever quality one lacked, the other was especially strong in.
In 1860, Miss Anthony successfully petitioned in New York to let wives hold property, have control of their earnings, and have legal guardianship of their children in case of divorce. She took her petition to the New York legislature and they granted her wishes. Lucy Stone was also a friend of Susan. She graduated form the co-ed Oberlin College in 1847, and when she was married she kept her own name. In 1850, she organized the first National Womens Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her and Susan ran campaigns together in order to remove unfair legal laws on women.
Amelia Bloomer was the editor of the Womens Rights and Temperance magazine called Lily. She radically changed the dress of womens fashion by wearing her full skirt over a pair of trousers. She believed that a womans life should be as comfortable and free as possible. She later stopped her fashion statements when she realized they were straying away Womens Suffragists. The Grimke Sisters, Sarah and Angelina, of South Carolina, attacked the subordinate position of women in 1838.
Margaret Fuller was an important literary woman who wrote very bluntly about the political, intellectual, sexual, and economic aspects of feminism. It was nearly two decades later that women got their rights secured by the national government. The 19 th Amendment allowed women to vote. If only all these fighting women could have been alive to see that their hard work did pay off. Not only was the movement of Humanitarianism a movement to reform poorhouses and insane asylums, but it also included the Abolition Movement, the idea of doing away with slavery. Between 1824 - 1833 abolition became a prominent force in the anti-slavery movement.
Abolitionists were sparked by the revivalism in New York City in 1824 and by success of the British with their anti-slavery movement in 1833. The main goals of the abolitionists were to free the black slaves and to educate them. The North had already done away with slavery after the Revolutionary War, mostly because of their moral and humanitarian reasons. After 1833 abolition propaganda flooded the entire nation. Lectures and sermons took place in churches, while newspapers printed articles written by many of the famous literary reformists. William Lloyd Garrison had his article published in the newspaper The Liberator.
In it he announced that there should be immediate emancipation of slaves. Theodore Weld believed there would be gradual emancipation through religious conversion. He felt that Oberlin College was an excellent training school for future abolitionists. As more people became educated on the conditions of slavery, more men and women participated in the fight.
Many abolitionists smuggled slaves from the South to Canada through the Underground Railroad. Congressmen presented petitions for emancipation despite the gag rule of 1836, which forbade the discussion on slavery in Congress. Lucretia Mott was a strong supporter of abolition. Her own home was even a station for the Underground Railroad. The Grimke sisters also participated in the fight for emancipation. The main goal of the Humanitarianism Movement was to reform and organize against unbearable conditions in prisons, factories, asylums, and hospitals.
One woman accomplished all that in her lifetime. Her name was Dorothea Dix. Her main calling was to reform the treatment of the mentally ill. She visited hundreds of institutions, inspecting them, and reporting them to state legislatures. In some cases, humane institutions were created.
In 1841, Dorothea Dix visited East Cambridge, Massachusetts and was totally disgusted with its condition and treatment of the patients there. She then began her quest of reforming all other institutions like the one she saw. Between her first visit to East Cambridge in 1841 and 1844, she inspected 18 state penitentiaries, 300 county jails and houses of correction, and more than 500 poorhouses. In one instance, she visited an institution in New Jersey and reported on the awful conditions there to the state legislature in 1845. Three years later, in regard to her report, the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum opened their doors with more favorable conditions. She also urged the opening of the Jacksonville State Hospital in 1851.
She helped with prison reforms as well. The entire movement wanted to reform the crimes punishable by death; abolish public hangings in many states; and stray away from flogging and other cruel punishments. Many wanted to reform the conditions in prisons. They believed that when criminals came out of jail, they were more hard than when they went in because of the present conditions. Another famous woman humanitarian was Clara Barton. Although her efforts were most prominent during the Civil War, she is still important in this movement, for her founding of the American Red Cross in 1881.
Through the efforts of people like Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, the welfare of the unfortunate was greatly improved. As a result of the reform movements during the early 19 th century in America, great changes took place in the years to follow. Most were not immediate changes nor were they credited to all one person. Innumerable amounts of men and women participated in the movements that have shaped and affected our nation today. Utopianism although very short lived in the mid 1800 s, became a prominent idea in the middle 20 th century with the rise and spread of communism in America.
Education continues to be reformed as debates over whether national government spending money goes to public schools or to other government supported programs. Reforms are also in affect now for the amount of violence present in schools across the nation. The Temperance Movement continued right on into the turn of the century. The Prohibition Party had been created and they continued in the fight for the prohibition of manufacturing and sale of liquor in America. By 1919 they had passed the 18 th amendment for prohibition, but the movement had lost its spirit and smuggling and bootlegging occurred.
The 21 st amendment repealed Prohibition, and the once prominent force had ended. Womens Rights continued also through the turn of the Century. Although states had passed laws securing womens rights on property, they pushed for womens suffrage. In 1919 they won the vote with the 19 th amendment, and were able to cast their first ballots in the 1920 elections. The Humanitarianism Movement is still working today.
Leaders continue to reform health institutions and prisons. They have helped those who are less unfortunate through the system of welfare and they continue to set up organizations for the needy. All these reforms not only changed America during the Jacksonian period but they continued throughout history into the future. Some are still the driving force of Americans today. Bibliography: Bibliography Boardman, Fon W. America and the Jacksonian Era.
New York: Henry Z. Walk, Inc. , 1975. Family Encyclopedia of American History. Pleasantville, NY: Readers Digest Association, Inc. , 1975.
James, Edward T. Notable American Women. Cambridge, Mass. : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971. Johnson, Thomas. Oxford Companion to American History.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1966. Kazickas, Jurate and Lynn She. Susan B. Anthony Slept Here. New York: Random House Inc. , 1976. Ketz, Louise Bilebofr.
Dictionary of American History. New York: Charles Scribner's Son, 1976. Reform Movements in the 19 th Century America. Internet. web 9 Dec. 1999. Schlesinger, Arthur M.
Jr. Almanac of American History. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1983.
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Research essay sample on Elizabeth Cady Stanton Anti Slavery Movement
