Stirrings of Reform |
The democratic upheaval in politics exemplified by Jackson's
election was merely one phase of the long American quest for
greater rights and opportunities for all citizens. Another was
the beginning of labor organization, primarily among skilled and
semiskilled workers. In 1835 labor forces in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, succeeded in reducing the old "dark-to-dark"
workday to a 10-hour day. By 1860, the new work day had
become law in several of the states and was a generally accepted
standard. The spread of suffrage had already led to a new concept of
education. Clear-sighted statesmen everywhere understood
that universal suffrage required a tutored, literate electorate.
Workingmen's organizations demanded free, tax-supported schools
open to all children. Gradually, in one state after another,
legislation was enacted to provide for such free instruction.
The leadership of Horace Mann in Massachusetts was especially
effective. The public school system became common
throughout the North. In other parts of the country, however,
the battle for public education continued for years.
Other reformers addressed the problems of prisons and care for the insane. Efforts were made to turn prisons, which stressed punishment, into penitentiaries where the guilty would undergo rehabilitation. In Massachusetts, Dorothea Dix led a struggle to improve conditions for insane persons, who were kept confined in wretched almshouses and prisons. After winning improvements in Massachusetts, she took her campaign to the South, where nine states established hospitals for the insane between 1845 and 1852. |
Answer Key: (1) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; (2) Horace Mann; (3) temperance; (4) 1833; (5) Dorothea Dix; (6) Answers will vary. Click here to print.
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Text courtesy of the U.S. State Department, Bureau of International Information Programs, 2005 |