Reform Reguarding the Second Great Awakening by Clayton Thane

The Second Great Awakening occurred in the United States, beginning in the late eighteenth century and lasting until the middle of the nineteenth century this “Great Wakening” had a tremendous impact on antebellum American religion and reform. This was a period of great religious revival and people like Charles Grandison Finney, Lyman Beecher, Barton Stone, and Peter Cartwright had an impact on this movement. For example Finney argued against the belief that a Calvinist God had control of the destiny of a human being. Finney achieved his best success in New York states “burned over district.” These people along with many others all had a part in making this movement possible. In this movement people spread the belief of “Heaven on Earth” which inspired and contributed to different reforms movements such as temperance, abolition, moral reform, and public education. This appealed to women and encouraged them to become such things as missionaries and lay preachers. Although this movement occurred in the United States it was strong in the Northeast and the Midwest.

Horace Mann and His Contributions to Education Reform by Haily Albrecht

Horace Mann was an American reformer who preferred education.  His ideas greatly advanced the “cause of universal, free, nonsectarian public schools.”  Mann was not only an educator but also a statesman who encouraged women’s rights, abolition, and helped build better facilities for the mentally ill. When Horace was selected to give the local Independence Day address in Dedham, he outlined the basic principles that argued that education and religious liberty are the revenues by which American freedoms are conserved. While Mann was in the Massachusetts legislature in Dedham he was able to gain state support for a railroad that would run between Boston and the Hudson River and was also able to get support to building a mental asylum in Worcester. After Mann served three years in the state senate he became the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837. While holding the position of Secretary, Mann “increased the funding available to schools, improved the preparation and support of teachers, and advocated for compassionate discipline.” Mann wanted to teach children in public schools to be taught common Christianity. He did not believe children should be taught doctrines that were contradictory among men. His career as Secretary of the Board of Education ended in 1848. Without Horace Mann today’s society might not have public schools that are supported by taxes, long school years, well-trained teachers throughout Massachusetts, and required attendance for children.

An Introduction to Health Reform and Lemuel Shattuck by Kelsey Kehlenbeck

Introduction to Health Reform:

During the 1800’s, the United States was a very unsanitary country. Houses were overcrowded and there was no form of sewage systems or means by which to cleanly discard waste.  Water supplies were contaminated due to human secretions. When people would drink this water, it would cause them to become sick. These illnesses spread amongst the villages causing even more problems and creating extremely unhealthy living conditions. Sir Edwin Chadwick published “The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population” in 1842. This helped to open the eyes of the public officials. Eventually, local authorities began providing clean water and systems to properly remove sewage. New houses were required to have proper drainage, some form of a toilet, and an ash pit. These new items had to be approved by the local authority before they were built.

Lemuel Shattuck:

Lemuel Shattuck used his passion of statistics to improve health conditions in the United State during the 1800’s. He helped for the American Statistical Association in 1835 and became a member of the Boston City Council in 1837. While on the board, he was put in charge of creating a report of the town’s vital statistics from 1810-1841. After conducting his research, Shattuck developed the idea that vital statistics would improve public health conditions. With the encouragement of the American statistical association, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Massachusetts Medical Society petitioned for a registration law that recorded specific types of information. The first state registration law in the United State was adopted by Massachusetts in 1842. Shattuck also proposed the idea of a detailed census to help keep record of vital statistics. A census was first used in the city of Boston, Massachusetts in 1845. The Boston Census was famous for its information it revealed.  Shattuck was invited to Washington to set up the 1850 Federal Census. Shattuck created a report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts in 1850. His findings were extremely significant for public health.

Dorthea Dix and Her Contributions to Health Reform by Kelsey Kehlenbeck

Dorothea Dix was a public health reformer. She possessed the desire to improve mental institutions and the treatment of patients with mental and emotional disorders. Dix first experienced the treatment of mental patients when working as a teacher in the East Cambridge jail in 1841. She was disturbed to see that people with mental illnesses were housed with criminals. This led Dix to push for a reform for more pleasant accommodations for people suffering mental illnesses. Through her efforts she attempted to persuade legislation, funding, and the regulation of public institutions. 

Dix began her mission by expanding her knowledge of mental disorders with the help of other reformers, Philipe Pinel, Benjamin Rush, and William Tuke. She then set out to visit and investigate jails and almshouses all over Massachusetts. She found the living conditions in the jails to be unbearable. The facilities were overcrowded, the mentally ill were chained in cellars, they were forced to sit in their own excrement, and many suffered from the cold. Proper nutrition and exercise was seldom given to the patients. 

In 1843, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe presented Dix’s studies to the Massachusetts legislature. Funds were given by the legislatures to expand the State Mental Hospital at Worcester. Dix continued her work by investigating other jails and almshouses in other states. She found more successes in other states like she did in Massachusetts.

Her next goal was to create a comfortable institution for the mentally ill and challenged.  Dix decided that a federal land-grant of 12,500,000 acres should be set aside for public housing and resources for the blind, deaf, mute, and mentally insane. She fought to persuade the Senate and the House of Representatives from 1848- 1854 to accept her proposal. President Millard Fillmore was in favor of her proposal. However, Fillmore’s term ended before he had the chance to approve of her proposal. The next president in office, Franklin Pierce, vetoed Dix’s bill. 

After the rejection of her proposal, Dix traveled to Europe in 1854. While in Europe she realized that the conditions of public hospitals were far worse that the hospitals for the wealthy. She traveled to countries In Europe to investigate public facilities. Dix spread the awareness of the poor medical facilities in Europe like she had done in the United State. Pope Pius IX sided with Dix and was able to make improvements in public hospitals.

Women's Rights by Amanda Lively

The Women’s Rights movement has played a vital role in how women have a voice in today’s society.  If it had not been for these early activists, the equality of women may not have come.  Despite that the pursuit for equality among women was started in the mid 1800’s, the benefits of their hard work and dedication was not fully accepted until the enactment of the 19th amendment in 1920.  Women’s rights were not just about gaining women the right to vote in America.  It was also about attaining equality for women in regards to owning property, equal taxes, equal wages compensation and retention, the ability of going to college and church meetings, and most importantly; no longer having to be submissive and dependent on men.

Elizabeth Cody Stanton and Susan B Anthony played a major role in the Women’s Rights Movement in the early 1850's. Elizabeth Stanton met with the many women in July of 1848 at Seneca Falls to discuss Declaration of Sentiments.  The Declaration of Sentiments was a document that was read at the convention stating the oppression of women and the changes the women were seeking in their movement. In 1850 the first National Women’s Rights Convention was held. Over the next 70 years, Women’s Rights issues would be pushed and also put on hold due to various issues in politics at that time.  The suffragists eventually saw the victory they had been seeking in government, but to this day there is still a desire for more equality, independence, and rights for women.