What were the major reasons for the Era of Reform?

1 Answer
May 4, 2017

The years between 1820 and 1865 in the United States might be described as one long era of reform, marked by the predominant desire to purify individuals and society at large

Explanation:

The reform movements that arose during the antebellum period in America focused on specific issues: temperance, abolishing imprisonment for debt, pacifism, antislavery, abolishing capital punishment, amelioration of prison conditions (with prison's purpose reconceived as rehabilitation rather than punishment), the humane treatment of animals, the humane and just treatment of Native Americans. The establishment of public institutions for the care of the destitute, orphans, blind, and mentally ill,

It also focused on the establishment of public schools, the abolition of tobacco use, vegetarianism, health reform, homeopathic medicine, woman's rights (including, at first, especially the establishment of a woman's right to own property apart from her husband and her right to sue for divorce), and the amelioration of labor conditions (including higher pay, the right to form unions, the right to strike, and the demand for limits on the number of work hours, and safe working conditions)

Source and more details:http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24100