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The seeds of American social reform began in the early days of the nineteenth century. By the 1860s, American society was beleaguered by groups demanding change. Abolitionists called for the termination of slavery. Women fought for their equal rights. Other reformers pressed for wider public education and the expulsion of alcohol. Although these reform movements sought to improve the country’s well being, they went against its valued democratic ideals. In essence, they wanted to create a utopian society based on equality, a standard the reform movements did not support. “I have often been told, and I have read, that it is God who makes some poor, and others rich; that the rich have many troubles which we know nothing of; and that the poor, if they are but good, may be very happy…” (Doc.E) Although public education was one of the most successful reform movements of that era, this passage from a children’s primer shows children that they must accept inequalities and that wealth and poverty can only be determined by God.
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