Essay about Reforms Of The Second Great Awakening

Submitted By tyleramazing14
Words: 590
Pages: 3

Reforms of the Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening caused a bunch of reforms on big problems that plagued America at the time. Two reforms that made an impact on American society were Abolition and Women’s Rights. Both of these reforms have impacted America to this day. In the early 1800’s, slavery was widespread and not highly debated. Then when the Second Great Awakening arose, it opened people’s eyes to how cruel and how big of a problem slavery really was. Many Americans wanted to abolish slavery and set blacks everywhere free. William Lloyd Garrison, writer of The Liberator, tried to spread the word of abolition. In the first issue of his newspaper, he says “The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.” [F]. This quote states that the severity of this problem was huge and deserved everyone’s attention. Many slaves wanted to escape and get justice on their slave owners. At the National convention of Colored People, one said “Let us give the Slaveholder what he most dislikes… Let us expose his crimes and his foul abominations. He is reputable and must be made disreputable.” [D] Harriet Tubman was a conductor of the road to freedom, otherwise known as The Underground Railroad. She led many slaves to freedom by taking them through a hidden passage to the North, where slavery was not favored and outlawed [B]. After the Civil War ended, slavery was abolished all across America. Today, African Americans have equal rights and have the same freedoms as anyone else in our nation, which would not be possible without the abolition movement. Women were not very respected or represented in the Antebellum period. They had very little rights and privileges. Women could not vote or get a good, paying job. Often, women stayed at the homestead all day and cooked/cleaned. No one thought a woman could do a man’s job or be as smart as a man. After the Second Great Awakening, women started to rally and fight for their rights. They began to realize they could do anything a man could do. At the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, Elizabeth Cady Stanton