Expanding Democratic Ideals in America

Expanding Democratic Ideals In America

Between the years of 1820 and 1855, there were many reform movements in America that made people create their own thoughts on the actions that need to take place in the country. At the time there were more democratic ideals and more freedoms extended, like universal white male suffrage developing in America that lead to these reforms. The dangers of alcohol, belief in naturally good children, imitation of nature, and abolitionist reforms were all affairs that lived up to the developing principles of democracy in America.

In the Protestant schools of Massachusetts, people widely believed that children were born evil and needed good, discipline, and other trustworthy characteristics forced, beaten, or shamed into them. In many cases, children were unable to attend school—especially children in poor families—and were not required to do so, which had made the learning experience difficult. One of the prevalent education reforms included the belief in natural law and the natural goodness of children, which Horace Mann, in writing to the Massachusetts Legislature (1846), expressed. He said that he believed in natural law and that education should be provided for every child (Doc 3). He expressed these democratic ideals of fairness and equality to the Massachusetts Legislature to change the school system so it’d tailor more to children with different abilities. He also expressed them in hopes that a different school system would change Massachusetts for the better, eliminating poverty (Doc 3).

As the abolitionist movement took hold, many conventions and conferences were held to further the movement’s prominence. Though the movement was about the immorality of slavery and not the equality of African Americans, there were still supporters present during movement. One of these African American supporters, who spoke at many conventions, was former slave Sojourner Truth. She spoke of the injustice of slavery as well as the unfair treatment of women at the Akron Women’s Convention 1851. She argued about the terror of her children being sold into slavery as she begged for them not to be taken away (Doc 7). Similarly, William Lloyd Garrison spoke about the issue that African Americans were treated as brutes; he spoke of the horrid conditions of slavery and the fact that America allowed two million of the population to be treated inhumanely at the National Anti-Slavery Convention (Doc 1). At the conventions, both Truth and Garrison delivered their speeches for the purpose of further exposing and shaming the Southern states for their gross allowance and conduction of slavery.

Along with reforms in slavery, women’s rights was also one of the major reforms that took place in the nineteenth century. Before women could help abolish slavery, they had to fight for their rights first. Slave Sojourner Truth supported the abolitionist movement, but also advocated for women’s rights when she noticed the double standards women faced against men. After becoming interested in women’s rights, Truth attended a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio and gave her famous “Ain’t I A Woman” speech, showing her abolitionist and feminist views (Doc 7). The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women’s rights convention that triggered