Reform Movements The intention of the reform movements was the same: to improve different aspects of American life.

Individuals and organizations as well as the government took actions toward the common goal which finally achieved, but with varying degrees of success. The two main movements were the reform of womens rights and the abolitionism. The goal of abolitionism was to make the slaves conditions better and end slavery as soon as possible. Slave owners could do anything with the slaves. They owned them as a property and didnt care about anything but their lands and the money. These conditions caused Nat Turners rebellion in Virginia which took week to put down. People were afraid of other rebellions so they deal harsher with them. The governments biggest step was the 13 th amendment which said Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States. This amendment was passed by the congress in 1865. There were individuals who tried to help the abolitionism. William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist who didnt believe in the equal of blacks to whites until he spent a week in a nonsegregrated boarding house. His newspaper was The Liberator that promoted immediate emancipation. He also had a speaker bureau where former slaves would speak to the northerners of slaverys evil. Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who joined Garrisons bureau. He was an eloquent self educated man who looked like white people after all Northerners didnt believe him. Douglass newspaper was the North Star and he also wrote his autobiography which was a best seller. This book and the money he earned helped him so he could buy himself form his exmaster. There were other escaped slaves who helped the abolitionism: Sojourner Truth who promoted blacks and women as well as Harriet Tubman who helped 16 other black to escape from their masters.

The fight for womens right was the other big reform movement. The goal of them was to gain the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the main organizer of the movement. She was on her honeymoon in London where she was refused seating at an international slavery convention where she met Lucretia Mott a Quaker who worked hard for abolitionism and womens right - and they realized that women had similar problems to slaves. When they came home Stanton started organizing for a convention. The first convention was at Seneca Falls NY in 1848. Stanton wrote a declaration for this convention. She used the same words as de declaration of independence and gave the title: Declaration of Sentiments. Frederick Douglass was the co-chair person of the Seneca Falls Convention which shoed that the abolitionism and the womens right were working together. The Grimke sisters also attended. They were from a rich slave owner family and they left for the North because they saw slavery as evil. Amelia Bloomers Bloomers were just one thing that was useful for women what showed that they need it for work. They wore these wide pants under shorter dresses for movement and comfortable. Patterns for these were put into womens magazines. Both movements were finally successful. The national victory for womens suffrage came in 1920, seventy-two years after the first organized demand. Only a worker in a glove manufactory had lived enough to cast her ballot; and slavery ended after the ratification of the 13th amendment in the December of 1865.