Objective: To understand the role of early reformers in attempting to remove the evils of 19th century America, and influencing reform movements in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Background Notes:
The impulse of Americans since the days of the Puritans has been to serve as a model for improving the world in which we live. The reform movement of the period 1820 to 1860 had many roots. The Romantic Movement, beginning in the late eighteenth century, stressed the basic goodness of man. Early Quakers had pointed out the inconsistency between the ideal of equality in the Declaration of Independence and the reality of slavery in the United States. Unitarians, who rejected the Puritan concept of an angry God and visualized instead a God of love, believed one could show love for God by helping others. As a result, they developed a social conscience and a concern for improving the quality of life for all. Transcendentalists of the period, particularly Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, questioned the value of material progress in an age of industrialization if it were not accompanied by progress in solving the important human problems of their time. Thus, at least in the North, several forces combined to create a climate for reform in the middle years of the 19th century.

Crusaders sought to purify the nation by removing the sins of slavery, intemperance, male domination and cruelty to the insane. A few attempted to remove themselves from society to create Utopian communities based on collective ownership. Others saw public schools, lyceums and daily newspapers as necessities in order to achieve an educated and informed public capable of maintaining a democratic society. The variety of crusades and crusaders made it appear that nearly everyone had joined the campaign to improve society and man. Southerners, however, feared abolition and thus resisted all reforms in the antebellum (the period in American History before the Civil War) period of the 1850s.

Asssignment: You are to select one Reformer from the list below and write a research paper!
In this assignment, each of you will research one of the prominent reformers (list below) of the early nineteenth century. Please follow MLA format with the reformer’s name centered on the top of page 1.

Grading Criteria:
Your thesis should point out how this reformer/crusader pointed the way for future reforms (20th Century) in society, while having an impact on the “pursuit of perfection” in 19th Century America.

Your grade will also be determined by your assessing the successes and failures of your crusader, and by pointing out the reason the authors of your textbook, Of The People, choose this reformer for inclusion in Chapter 11 – “Reform and Conflict.” The paper should have a minimum of three sources.

Your paper should be two to three pages in length. A general “rule of thumb” is that a page with 1 inch margins, 12 pts. Times New Roman & double spaced is 250 words a page or 500 to 750 words total.

Frederick Douglass is the reformer that I’m researching