Reform In The Middle Period

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Reform Movements (1820- 1860) and impact on democratic ideals in the U.S

The nineteenth century remains important in the history of the United States. During this century the American people rose against many evils in their society. The people started believing during those times that their fate rests in their own hands. They were gradually becoming bored of the norms that took their freedom. The reform era of the nineteenth century experienced huge reforms against slavery, against the use of alcohol, for building schools, for making the prisons better and most prominently for the women rights. Gary and Marks opine that the nineteenth century will remain crucial in terms of the social outlook of the U.S ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"rLnvdagN","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mark and Gary)","plainCitation":"(Mark and Gary)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":411,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/D3FUU9C6"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/D3FUU9C6"],"itemData":{"id":411,"type":"book","title":"A history of American music education","publisher":"ERIC","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Mark","given":"Michael"},{"family":"Gary","given":"Charles L."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mark and Gary). The historians who have worked on the U.S history believes that this century has changed the complete outlook of the U.S for the international world. Some also believe that the nineteenth century remained much important in changing the social fabric of the U.S community. To be an American at that time was more about thinking for material gains. There were not much ideas among the public, that what an ideal society is or what exactly are the goals of making America. They were not living the American life, but viewed the life as segregated from nationalism and collectivism. This primarily ignited the reformist campaigns.

Anti- Slavery movement in the 1800s

Throughout the nineteenth century, the population of the slaves kept on increasing in the U.S. one after the other, in the Southern States people were hiring slaves for few cents and made them work for complete days in a week. Stamp has written about slavery in the U.S that it was one of the darkest aspects of the U.S society of the 1800s ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"GfDOfbr2","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Stampp)","plainCitation":"(Stampp)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":413,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/DMKDLJLF"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/DMKDLJLF"],"itemData":{"id":413,"type":"book","title":"The peculiar institution: Slavery in the ante-bellum South","publisher":"Vintage Books New York","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"The peculiar institution","author":[{"family":"Stampp","given":"Kenneth Milton"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1956"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Stampp). When during the 1850s, slavery was legally established in much of the U.S states, the humanitarian aspect started to ignore totally. The people who had the possession of slaves used to even rape the minors among them. By the 1960s, there are reports that mention that the save population in the U.S was near to four million. With time, the U.S economic, banking and industrial infrastructure developed strong interests in slavery and started standing against the anti-slavery movements.

Impacts of the anti-slavery movement

The anti-slavery campaign that got prominence from the famous newspaper The Liberator soon started developing rifts among the American people. Both the North and the South states. The violent mob used to burn the anti-slavery literature, and the notable industrialists started writing and publishing literature which was in the right of maintaining slavery. They always mentioned about the economic charm associated with slavery. The U.S House of Representatives also passed a bill that called for anti-slavery petition. In 1837, the murder of the prominent anti-slavery politician Elijah Lovejoy expanded this campaign and more prominent names such as Gerri Smith and Edmund Quincy became part of the anti-slavery campaigns. This with time became the famous political notion that slavery is against the interest of the wealthy. As argued in the ‘Experiencing history’ that corrupt political parties of that time were normally considered as the challenges of the anti-slavery campaigns ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"tsgE0fdf","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Davidson et al.)","plainCitation":"(Davidson et al.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":414,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/2CKYI7NP"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/2CKYI7NP"],"itemData":{"id":414,"type":"article-journal","title":"Experience History: Interpreting America’s past","container-title":"Boston: McGraw","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Experience History","author":[{"family":"Davidson","given":"James West"},{"family":"DeLay","given":"Brian"},{"family":"Leigh","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Heyrman","given":"Mark Lytle"},{"family":"Stoff","given":"Michael"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Davidson et al.)

Anti-slavery movement and democratic ideals in the U.S

In the years the 1850s and 1860s, the anti-slavery campaign had properly taken over the form of political debate. Many interested in the U.S elections had a very clear stance on the abolition of slavery. Franklin argued in his book that the Nebraska Act, the Scott decision and Brown’s raid has developed the crisis which remained pertinent in developing the democratic norms in abolishing slavery ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"1qPPiQlr","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Franklin and Moss)","plainCitation":"(Franklin and Moss)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":416,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/PH24BQJL"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/PH24BQJL"],"itemData":{"id":416,"type":"book","title":"From slavery to freedom","publisher":"Knopf New York","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Franklin","given":"John Hope"},{"family":"Moss","given":"Alfred A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1956"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Franklin and Moss). Most anti-slavery activists supported the Republicans and believed that Republican might be the best choice for the anti-slavery campaign at the national level. Franklin also argued that the achievement of complete equality for the slave population was the primary goal. This movement lasted till the 1870s and demanded the right of votes for the blacks. This is how the anti-slavery campaign remain important in promoting democratic norms in the U.S.

Works Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Davidson, James West, et al. “Experience History: Interpreting America’s Past.” Boston: McGraw, 2011.

Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred A. Moss. From Slavery to Freedom. Knopf New York, 1956.

Mark, Michael, and Charles L. Gary. A History of American Music Education. ERIC, 2007.

Stampp, Kenneth Milton. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South. Vintage Books New York, 1956.