19th Century Reformers - Examining Social Problems - Essay Example

Those reformers who took active stands against corrupt leadership were largely from the middle class, though there were others of higher economic influence who also believed that 19th Century America deserved a better system of leadership at the capital.

Most noticeable in the reformer movement was the acknowledgment that women should be considered as sentient, godly people and should thus be given the right to vote and extended certain freedoms. This movement was later referred to as the women's suffrage movement (LaPlante, 1999). The suffrage movement involved standing up for the rights of women and extending many of the same opportunities that the men of that age experienced. Along with the women's issues, the abolition of slavery was also a hotly debated topic at this time, especially with pressures from the southern states being imposed to expand and maintain slave presence in this region of the country.

Citing religious doctrines, many of the social reformers who were wholly against slavery began to speak out about its atrocities from the eyes of the Christian god (LaPlante). Combining both of these strong reformer belief systems was Sojourner Truth, who had been born into slavery during the first half of the 19th Century, and through perseverance, became one of the foremost women leaders both in relation to women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery. During her long voyage toward improving the rights of women and slaves, Truth managed to bring about social awareness of the issues facing women of that time, while also raising money to help black soldiers who were fighting in the Civil War (Daintycrew.com, 2001).

Sojourner Truth maintained some rather obtuse religious beliefs as well, befriending a religious sect similar to that of the Quakers, where communication with living spirits was a commonplace belief system (lkwdpl.org, 2007). Truth and the followers of this particular religion communicated to others in America that guidance could be found by maintaining a spiritual connection with the afterlife. Though this attempt to reform others to this particular belief system may not have been overly successful in the long term, it does serve to illustrate that Truth was a somewhat radical woman with radical beliefs for that particular time period where devout Christianity ran rampant in the United States.