One important movement from the 1800s was the abolitionist movement. There was always people who opposed slavery--at the time an integral part of American society,-- but the Second Great Awakening encouraged Christians to come to the realization that it was sinful and begin to join the abolitionist movement. One leader of the movement was William Lloyd Garrison, who had the radical belief that black people should be free members of American society. He also founded The Liberator, an influential abolitionist newspaper. This newspaper was so influential, in fact, that it influenced another abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, to start his own newspaper: The North Star. Douglass was a free slave who had escaped to New England and began speaking to other abolitionists soon after. Beyond Northern white men and free black people, the third big portion of the abolitionists were women like Sarah and Angelina Grinke, two sisters who advocated for women's rights and the abolition of slavery.
Another influential movement in the 1800s was transcendentalism. The basic beliefs of transcendentalism were that humans are basically good, nature is pure, and society is corrupt; transcendentalists though that true understanding comes from feeling and experience, not reason. This originally stemmed from philosophers and writers and their views on nature, such as Walt Whitman. Whitman portrayed the spirit of young America with song-like poems and celebrated the common person. He inspired many future poets and musical composers. Another transcendentalist was Henry David Thoreau, who was a writer and thinker who believed in nonviolence and respect for all life. He wrote Civil Disobedience, which spoke of passive resistence to injustice. The movement as a whole really represents America's ideals about beauty and nature.
Women's Rights was yet another large, influential movement in the 1800s. Women had very few rights, both legally and socially, which basically made it so married women had next to no rights; single women weren't much better off. There were three main leaders of the women's rights movement (among many others): Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. All three of these women were origianlly members of the abolitionist movement; that's actually how Stanton ended up founding the Seneca Falls Convention with Mott. At the World Antislavery Convention, Stanton was a delegate but not allowed to speak because of the fact that she was a woman. There, she met Mott and they came up with the idea of Seneca Falls. The whole women's rights movement challenged the idea that men were superior to women and deserved more rights, and completely broke down the whole foundation of the familial and social structures at the time.
Explanation:
434 words. Cut out what you'd like; I'm a bit rambly :)
