Ch. 12: An Age of Reform

1.)  Explore why Americans had an impulse to improve American society in the first half of the nineteenth century.

One of the era’s numerous efforts to improve American society was abolitionism. Abolitionism is a favoring to abolish a practice or institution. Womans’ Rights were also becoming a problem so women protested for their rights. There was a lot of antislavery gatherings against slavery. All of these organizations criss-crossed the Atlantic to promote their cause. “Reform was an international crusade.”

2.) Explain the significance of the abolitionist movement to the idea of American freedom.

The abolitionist movement was the movement to abolish slavery. American freedom was, obviously, the freedom of Americans. These two are significant because if they were to abolish slavery then that would mean that there is really American freedom. Before,  Americans would celebrate the freedom of Americans but the slaves had nothing to celebrate. They were still held back from their freedom, so that made Americans hypocrites.

3.) Analyze the pros and cons of the colonization movement and why many blacks were opposed to it.

The pros for the colonization movement was that the white people weren’t going to see the black people anymore, in which some were very hostile towards them. The colonization movement was for the safety of the both races. Another pro is that slavery was going to end already. A con is that African-Americans were seen as a danger to society. They were never going to be able to be equal to the white people. Another con is that “colonization rested on the premise that America is fundamentally a white society. The blacks were opposed to it because they wanted to be noticed as Americans and they wanted their American rights.

4.) Why was this a period of institution building?

This was a period of institution building because America was in the process of getting their mess in order.  The Americans were trying to get the abolitionist movement in which they tried (and succeeded) to get rid of slavery.They were trying to settle out the colonization movement in which they were trying to get rid of the African-Americans by sending them back to their home country. They were also trying to settle the women’s rights’ movement. So the Americans had a lot on their hands on building their country to a stable and powerful nation.

5.) How did the abolitionist movement and the women’s movement influence each other?

These two events both influenced each other because the abolitionist movement was dealing on giving the slaves their release from slavery, in other words, their freedom. Since the African-Americans were going to get their rights then the women felt like they should be able to do the same, which is also known as the womans rights movement.