Jackie Gillis Block One October 24, 2010

Social Reformists The early to mid-nineteenth century was a period of reform and revolutionary thinking. Changes in society during the Industrial Revolution completed the separation of church and state. In order to restore the role of religion in America, religious leaders inspired a Second Great Awakening. In the North, this movement resulted in an era of social reform. Converts formed voluntary societies and associations with the common goal to rid America from sin and social evils. These ideas evolved into efforts to improve the morale of society, shape character, and eventually to perfect the American way of life. This involved completely changing common practices of America that would conflict with a Utopian society; the movement had become an era of radical reformation. Reformists such as Dorothea Dix, William Henry Garrison, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were inspired by the goals of perfection and morality that evolved from the Second Great Awakening. Dorothea Dix was crucial to the reform of insane asylums. At the time, patients were treated brutally and ineffectively. Dix claims wilful abuse less frequent than sufferings proceeding from ignorance, (12.3) suggesting the lack of attention received by mental patients. In her Appeal of the Behalf of the Insane, Dix lists specific examples of the mistreatment of certain patients in Massachusetts, and describes her grievances with the mental institution system, attempting to make the public more aware. She says, I come as an advocate of helpless, forgotten, insane, and idiotic men and women; of beings sunk to a condition from which the most

unconcerned would start with real horror(12.3). Dix devoted a large portion of her life to reforming mental hospitals and improving the care given to the insane. Her ultimate goal was to improve society, which was inspired by the reformist movements of the Second Great Awakening. Similarly, William Lloyd Garrison, motivated by the spirit of social improvement, attempted to reform slavery. He ruthlessly argued for immediate abolition, contradicting most other plans to gradually abolish the practice. Garrison was inspired by the religious and moral concern over slavery that rose during the Second Great Awakening. Garrison and other abolitionists believed that slavery should not be a part of a perfect society. He worked to excited the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery. (12.4). To convince the people, Garrison wrote a newspaper The Liberator, in which he says [the standard of emancipation] is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe-yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free!(12.4). Garrison did not believe a utopia could be achieved if it involved the practice of slavery. Because slavery did not follow the moral code established after the Second Great Awakening, abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison strenuously argued for its elimination from society. The Second Great Awakening gave rise to many women reformists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Evolving from their support of abolishment, women further contradicted society by publicly speaking and demanding for an equal role. Leading this movement for womens rights was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In her Declaration of Sentiments, which was parallel to the Declaration of Independence, she declares, The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward women (12.4) As a result, Stanton argues, women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred

rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.) (12.5) Once again, the inspiration behind Stantons demands was the goal of an ideal society, which she strongly believed included equality between men and women. The Second Great Awakening was originally a religious movement, but evolved into an era of extreme reform and change within American society. The initial subjects, such as insane asylums, eventually led to more radical reform ideas, such as abolitionism and Womens rights. The idea of a perfect society found its roots in the Second Great Awakening, but was the source of inspiration for many reformists of the time. Garrison, Dix, and Stanton are just a few amongst the large number of reformists during the antebellum period. Their ideas, though radical at the time, shaped society into what it is today. Because of the Second Great Awakening, people were required to think of ways to improve society, many of which became accepted as time went on.