Era of Reform

Objective: Describe important figures in the reform era and their impact on Americans life in the U.S. during the mid 1800's.

Sojourner truth

• Sojourner Truth was an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist.
• She was born into slavery in New York slave state and had at least three children taken away from her
• Truth adopted evangelical religion and became involved in moral reform and abolitionist work, after she escaped slavery
• Truth was a powerful and impassioned speaker who spoke of feminism and racial equality.
• She is best known for her ¨Ain't I a Women?¨ she delivered at a women's convention in Ohio in 1851.

contribution to reform

• She raised her voice in support of abolitionism, the freedmen, and women’s rights.
• She lent her unique skills to the women’s suffrage movement and commenced a petition drive to obtain land for the freed people, even suggesting the idea of a “Negro state” in the West.
• She reminded people that the right to vote shouldn't extend only to white women.
• She helped with the new Freed men's village, when she moved to Washington D.C., after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced.
• Truth's last great cause was to have a national plan that gave land in the West to former slaves.

horace mann

• Horace Mann was an American politician and educational reformer.
• He enrolled at Brown University at age 20 and later graduated as valedictorian.
• He then studied law for a short time at Wrentham, Massachusetts; was a tutor of Latin and Greek and a librarian at Brown University. He also studied at Litchfield Law School and, in 1823, was admitted to the bar in Norfolk, Massachusetts.
• Mann has been credited by educational historians as the "Father of the Common School Movement"
• He established through his personal exertions the state lunatic asylum at Worcester, and in 1833 was chairman of its board of trustees.

contribution to refrom

• As secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Mann fought for higher teacher qualifications, better pay, better school buildings, and better curriculum.
• He worked with an unusual intensity, holding teachers' conventions, delivering numerous lectures and addresses, carrying on an extensive communication, and introducing numerous reforms.
• He founded and edited The Common School Journal in 1838. He targeted the public school and its problems which were: (1) the public should no longer remain ignorant; (2) that such education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public; (3) that this education will be best provided in schools that embrace children from a variety of backgrounds; (4) that this education must be multiracial (5) that this education must be taught by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society; (6) that education should be provided by well-trained, professional teachers.
• Mann hoped that by bringing all children of all classes together, they could have a common learning experience and education would "equalize the conditions of men."
• He supported the decision to adopt the Prussian education system in Massachusetts, in 1852.

Fredrick Douglass

• Frederick Douglass was a prominent American abolitionist, author and orator.
• His full name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland,
• He was of mixed race, which likely included Native American on his mother's side as well as African and European
• After the early separation from his mother, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey; at age of seven, he was separated from his grandmother and moved to the Wye House plantation
• Was taught the alphabet by Hugh Auld's wife when he was twelve years old,
• Thomas Auld sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker." He whipped Douglass regularly and nearly broke him psychologically. The sixteen-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings and fought back. After Douglass won a physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again

Contribution to refrom

• became an abolitionist, after he escaped slavery
• attacked Jim crow laws and committed lynching

Susan b. anthony

contribution to reform

dorthea dix

contribution to reform