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History of Shaping Society
The Puritans who colonized New England came to build a new society. Some 150 years later, the American revolutionaries wrote a constitution that gave citizens powerful tools to continue reshaping society. -
A Historic Convention
Around 1850, women were discouraged from playing the most major roles in public life. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention, which met to discuss women´s rights. -
The Crisis of Slavery
About 88% of African Americans in the country were enslaved. In the North, the industry was replacing agriculture as the motor of the economy; by 1850 slavery had all but vanished in the North. -
The Movement for Women´s Rights
Reformers such as Stanton, Mott and Susan B. Anthony campaigned vigorously for women´s rights. -
Period: to
Civil War
When Abraham Lincoln elected in 1860, the division between North and South only sharpened. In 1861, the Civil War began, pitting North against South. North won the war in 1865. -
Expansion and Progress
After the war, the country continued to grow at a furious pace. Settlers continued to move west, forcing Native Americans from their lands. Immigrants flooded the nation´s cities, providing labor. For the first time, electricity was being used on a large scale of everything. -
Reform Movements
While forces such as westward expansion and immigration were reshaping the nation, reformers were attempting to transform society. During this period, women also began pursuing political and economic rights equal to men´s. -
A Lecacy of Protest
The issues of power and change raised during the period were not resolved once and for all, however. Even though slavery had been abolished, injustices against African Americans continued. New eras of protest were born in the effort to end racial discrimination. -
A Nation Comes of Age
From 1850 to 1914, the United States grew from a largely agricultural society into a modern industrial giant. Important issues such as the freedom of African Americans, the rights of women, and the rights of workers were discussed and argued. These forces laid the foundations of the nation we know today. -
Social Progress
Even before the Seneca Falls Convention, some states had passed laws giving women the right to their own property. Some states, including ones newly added to the Union, passed laws allowing women to vote, however, until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920m was granted.
