Reform Movements in America
Even as America was reaching its goal of manifest destiny, another force for change had long been pulling at the nation. Reform movements, movements to better the nation, arose from the idea of Jacksonian Democracy. Reforms in voting rights for the common man had spread to become all sorts of reforms for all sorts of people. The main reform effort, however, was the effort to abolish slavery.
The abolition movement, the movement to abolish slavery, had deep roots in America. As early as 1688, church groups had begun to campaign to abolish slavery as being morally wrong. The first antislavery society had been established in 1775, the same year America fought the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and a year before independence was declared. Over the years, many northern states had abolished slavery inside their states, and many crusaded to abolish slavery all together. Yet, the South’s economy relied upon slave labor. The cash crops of the South demanded labor that only slavery could provide. To end slavery would be to end the economy, and the way of life of the South.
By 1831, William Lloyd Garrison began to publish the antislavery newspaper, The Liberator, in Boston. Unlike previous attempts that had called for the gradual elimination of slavery to ease the nation into abolition, The Liberator called for the immediate abolition of slavery. Garrison argued that slavery was morally wrong, and the only just course was to eliminate it immediately. Even in the South, many people were beginning to believe that slavery was wrong. Few voiced that opinion openly, but the movement was beginning to take hold.
Yet, the abolition movement of the South was short lived. Occasionally, slave revolts had occurred within the south. Most of the times, the plotters were found out before too much damage could be done. But, in 1831 Nat Turner changed all of that. Nat Turner’s was a slave in Virginia, he and his seventy-one followers revolted. During the revolt, they killed fifty-five men, women, and children.
Though the rebellion was quickly put down, and Nat Turner and the leaders of the rebellion were executed, the rebellion had long lasting consequences. The rebellion had occurred the same year as The Liberator was published. Southerners blamed the abolition newspaper for inciting the rebellion. Postmasters in the South began to stop all abolition newspapers, magazines, and mail from being delivered in the south, and burned the abolition publications rather than deliver them. Southern states passed new and stricter laws prohibiting the freedoms of free African Americans and slaves alike. Even people of the South that were beginning to believe slavery was wrong were given pause. The slaves of the South were not allowed to be taught to read or write, they had no job skills other than as farm laborers, and possessed only generations of bitterness concerning their treatment as slaves. Even people sympathetic to the abolition movement began to wonder if Nat Turner’s rebellion was but a glimpse of what was to come if the slaves were freed. The abolition movement in the south disappeared.
But, if abolition was lost in the south, it grew steadily stronger in the northern states. This strength in the north grew not only from white antislavery proponents, but from former slaves as well. Fredrick Douglas had been a slave in the south. After escaping to the north, Douglas became a brilliant speaker for the abolition movement. He crusaded to abolish slavery as a vile institution and won many converts in the north. Sojourner Truth was another former slave that crusaded against slavery. Her tales of slavery in the south electrified many audiences and advanced the abolition movement.
Another former slave that fought to end slavery was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was the most famous “conductor” of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a series of escape routes out of the south. Along these trails, Tubman led slaves to safety and freedom in the north. Over the years, Tubman made at least nineteen trips into the south at great personal risk to herself. On these trips, Tubman led more than 300 people to freedom.
The abolition movement eventually gave rise to the Suffrage Movement. Many of the members of the abolition movement were women. While trying to win freedom for the slaves of the south, these women realized that they themselves were not truly free. Society, at the time, did not allow women to speak in public or attend higher education, few women were allowed to work, and all women were subject to the will of their husbands. In short, women had few rights, and were not allowed to vote. If women were unable to vote, why should politicians listen to them or their causes? Thus, the abolition movement gave rise to the suffrage movement, the reform movement to grant women rights, especially the right to vote.
Sojourner Truth campaigned not only for abolition of slavery, but the granting of rights to all women as well. She argued that in African-American men were to win their rights, but African-American women, or any women, did not, slavery would still exist for all women. Susan B. Anthony echoed Truth’s ideas. Anthony stated that so long as women were not allowed to vote, it made men superior to women; hence, women were no better than slaves.
Perhaps the most influential woman that worked for women’s rights was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton had been one of the major organizers of the abolition movement. In 1840, Stanton traveled to London for the World Anti-Slavery Convention. However, she was shocked at the treatment of the women there. At the convention, the women delegates were not only prevented from speaking at the convention, but they were separated from the men in the convention hall by a large curtain. Clearly the organizers of the convention were shutting them out and considered their input insignificant, simply because they were women.
Upon returning home to America, Elizabeth Stanton teamed with Lucretia Mott to organize the world’s first women’s rights convention. In 1848, their dream came true. At Seneca Falls in 1848 the world’s first women’s rights convention was held. Over 300 people attended the convention. There, Stanton presented the Declaration of Sentiments. The Declaration of Sentiments paraphrased the Declaration of Independence and stated Stanton’s beliefs. The Declaration of Sentiments stated that women were being victimized by a society led by men. Under this society, women were considered inferior to men. Stanton resolved that women were equal to men, and therefore should have equal rights. Though these ideas were radical at the time, her last resolution was the most hotly debated. Stanton’s last resolution demanded women be granted the right to vote, without which, women would never have any political power.
Even the favorable crowd at Seneca Falls grew restless at Stanton’s demand that women be granted suffrage, the right to vote. Stanton’s own husband left the convention, leaving her at Seneca Falls. Fredrick Douglas, the former slave and abolitionist leader, saved the day. Douglas rose and spoke to the audience. Douglas stressed the importance of women’s suffrage as equal in importance to that of the abolition movement. His speech carried the day, a vote was cast and the Declaration of Sentiments passed. However, the Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls did not hold any real power. However, the Declaration of Sentiments had finally laid down the goals of the women’s rights movement. Still, it would be seventy-two years later before the United States would pass the 19th Amendment that finally, in 1920, allowed women the right to vote.