National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850: Religion
A collection of nine primary resources including historical documents, literary texts, visual images, and maps illuminated and contextualized by notes, thematic questions, and text-specific discussion questions for classroom instruction...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: 19th Century: Evangelicalism, Revivalism, and the Second Great Awakening
The National Humanities Center offers a thorough text describing the roots and results of the Second Great Awakening. Additional web links and guide for student discussion.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: Biographies: Jane Addams
In Spanish, learn of this accomplished woman's endeavors to improve the lives of the poor and disadvantaged. Jane Addams famous "Hull House" was copied throughout the U.S. Pictures and other links as well. (In Spanish)
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Westward Expansion
This article offers a detailed history of early 19th century westward migration and the social diversity of the pioneers moving west.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: The Peterloo Massacre, 1819
Text from Selections of Sources of English History, printed in 1920, about the Peterloo Massacre.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: 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...
Digital History
Digital History: The Struggle for Public Schools
The ideal of public education has been one in the United States from the very earliest settlements. Read two teachers' view of the state of education as they taught in the early 1800s. Find out who supported the idea of free schooling...
Other
U.s. History Timeline: 1865 1900
A thumbnail look at the many things occurring in the United States in the last half half of the 19th century. The topics covered are Gilded Age Politics, the "New Imperialism," Industrial America, Growth of Labor, Urbanization,...
Other
Wake Forest University: The Social Gospel, Part Ii
A continuation of Part I of "The Social Gospel", the underlying causes for the reform movements in the last part of the 19th century and early 20th century.
PBS
Pbs: The Karen Silkwood Story
Article provides an actual summary of Silkwood's exposure to plutonium and the analysis of her findings at Los Alamos.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Beginnings of the Movement: The Second Great Awakening
What did the Second Great Awakening have to do with women's rights and social reform? How was it a stepping stone for the women's suffrage movement? Find out how this movement, which emphasized individual worth, empowered women...
Ohio State University
Temperance & Prohibition: Prohibition Party Cartoons
A great collection of political cartoons from the Prohibition Party which heaped criticism on both the Republican and Democratic parties concerning their lack of support for prohibition. Find out when the Prohibition Party was at its...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: An Explosion of New Thought
The 19th century brought an Americanization of literature, art, thought, and social reform. Read about how the Second Great Awakening brought a revival in religion and sparked reform movements in suffrage, slavery, and treatment of...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Prison and Asylum Reform
Two of the social movements of the 1830s and 1840s looked to improving the lot of the mentally ill and those in prison. Read about Dorothea Dix who crusaded for humane treatment and hospitals for the insane. Several others worked to make...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Chinese Exclusion Acts
Definition and description of the Chinese Exclusion Acts.
Other
History's Women: Sojourner Truth, Abolitionist Suffragist
This site provides a biography of African American Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in upstate New York.
Digital History
Digital History: Pre Civil War Reform: Introduction
A good introduction to the topic of reform movements in Pre-Civil War America. What were the reasons that encouraged reform of many social ills?
National Women’s History Museum
National Women's History Museum: Woman's Rights Activists During the Civil War
During the Civil War, reformers focused on the war effort rather than organizing women's rights meetings.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Women and the Temperance Movement
This primary set uses photographs, letters, posters, and publications to explore women and the Temperance Movement. Includes teaching guide.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Culture and Reform in the Early Nineteenth Century
Temperance, abolition, and a whole host of other reform movements sprung up in the early nineteenth century. Can you tell a teetotaler from a Transcendentalist? Test your knowledge here.
Ohio State University
Osu History Teaching Institute: The Age of Reform
This lesson looks at two reform movements anti-slavery and women's rights and their cultural connections among the various reform impulses.
Ohio State University
Osu History Teaching Institute: John Rankin and the Underground Railroad
Second graders will view background information on the Underground Railroad in Ohio and will read and discuss primary source letters and sermons by Rev. John Rankin on slavery.
Digital History
Digital History: Religious Liberalism
A brief description of the basis of Unitarianism in America and its influence on the reform movements of the time.
Other
Amos Bronson Alcott Network: Bronson Alcott the Reformer
This site describes the reform movements with which Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) was associated, including the Abolitionists and the Non-Resistance Society.