What Is The Role Of The Reform Movement In The United States

Reform movements led the United States to become more democratic, by trying to make the people of America more equal. Reform movements began with the Second Great Awakening. Abolitionists and feminists wanted to free slaves and make women to men in the household and community. Social reform movements created more equality for every person, like prison and school reforms. The Second Great Awakening created the idea of a democratic God. This movement was supported by Charles G. Finney (DOC. B). This movement supported the idea transcendentalism, the idea that emphasized living a simple life and celebrated the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination. This created the idea that everyone had the chance to change for the better. Transcendentalism was supported by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a New England writer. Orestes Brownson was also a big supporter of transcendentalism (DOC. G). Henry David Thoreau put the idea of self-reliance into practice. Abandoning community life, he built himself a
Black abolitionists like Douglass, wanted freedom for all slaves and wanted to do it peacefully. He expressed his ideas in his newspaper “The North Star” and his 4th of July speech. William Lloyd Garrison had a similar views, he expressed his ideas in “The Liberator.” David Walker a free black, advised blacks to fight for freedom rather than to wait for slave owners to end slavery. Sojourner Truth was a slave for the first 30 years of her life took the name Sojourner Truth when she decided to travel throughout the country preaching, and later, arguing for abolition and women’s rights (DOC. C). Elizabeth Stanton and Mott created the Seneca Falls convention and made the Declaration of Sentiments. They stated grievances, similar to the Declaration of Independence (DOC. I). They fought for equality at home and led to temperance, the idea of banning alcohol (DOC.