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The Women's Suffrage Movement
British author Mary Wollstonecraft argues for the equality of the sexes in her book, the Vindication of the Rights of Women, often thought of as the begining of the Women's Suffrage Movement. -
The Radical Movement
The Radical Movement Campaigned for electoral reform, a reform of the Poor Laws, free trade, education reform, postal reform, prison reform, and public sanitation. This movement originally sought to replace the exclusive political power of the aristocracy with a more democratic system empowering urban areas and the middle and lower classes. Following the Enlightment's ideas, the reformers looked to the Scientific Revolution and industrial progress to solve the social problems. -
Reform Act 1832
the act was designed to "take effectual Measures for correcting divers Abuses that have long prevailed in the Choice of Members to serve in the Commons House of Parliament." -
Child Labor Reform
U.S. states had enacted laws restricting or prohibiting the employment of young children in industrial settings. However, in rural communities where child labor on the farm was common, employment of children in mills and factories did not arouse much concern. Another problem for children was the popular opinion that gainful employment of children of the "lower orders" actually benefited poor families and the community at large. -
Moral Reform
"Moral reform" was a campaign in the 1830s and '40s to abolish licentiousness, prostitution, and the sexual double standard, and to promote sexual abstinence among the young as they entered the marriage market. -
Educational Reform
Horace Mann founded and edited The Common School Journal. Mann targeted the public school and its problems. His six main principles were: the public should no longer remain ignorant; education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public; best provided in schools that embrace children from a variety of backgrounds; must be non-sectarian; must be taught by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society; and it should be provided by well-trained, teachers. -
Prison Reform
In the United States, Dorothea Dix toured prisons in the U.S. and all over Europe looking at the conditions of the mentally handicapped. Her ideas led to a mushroom effect of asylums all over the United States in the mid-19th-century. -
Abolition Movement
Founded by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the first Woman's Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York to organize the Woman's Political Union to fight for equal rights for women, reduction in their fifteen-hour workday, and a raise in minimum wages. Declaration of Sentiments is published asking for social and legal equality of women. -
Temperance Movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence, or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation. -
American Labor Movement
The campaign against excessive hours of work was a central issue for the labor movement during the 19th century. The Knights of Labor, organized by the skilled trades in 1869 was succeeded by the American Federation of Labor, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
