Period+8+-+Institutional+Reform

Institutional Reform in the Antebellum Period

Summary The Institutional reform was one of several reforms that took place during the antebellum period. The institutional period consisted of education reforms for both men and women and  prison / reforms and  asylum reforms. The reason for an  education al  reform s  was to make it possible for more people to have an education, so that not only the rich can could  be educated and have this possibility, unlike many others . The reason for a  prison reform s  was because prisons before the reform became packed and overpopulated. They were also in very bad conditions, so many reformers such as Dorthea Dix, wanted to fix these horrible conditions. So reformers took all the insane and mentally ill prisoners and put them in asylums so that other prisons would not be overpopulated and got rid of the mentally ill so they could be treated elsewhere. Another reason for this would be because the conditions were awful and horrible to live in for these patients. The asylum reform was made so that people that are mentally ill can could ﻿ be treated and taken out of public cared for, so they could get better .

Causes of Reform · Good education was only available for the richer kids whose parents could afford it. · ﻿During this time it was believed that the gavernment was full of people who had to be educated in order to do their job properly. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%; line-height: 150%;">· The <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 130%; line-height: 150%;"> Belief ﻿s of <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 130%; line-height: 150%;">that every person has an innate capacity and it is ﻿ <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 130%; line-height: 150%;"> society’s responsibility to help realize that capacity. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">· Exposure to stable social values leads to a lack of instability. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">· Prisons were becoming over populated with inmates. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">· Not enough prisons for the amount of people. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">· Lack of proper treatment for the mentally ill. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">· Similar environments were kept for people who committed different types of crimes (a psychotic murderer would be sharing a cell and time as a guy who evaded a parking ticket)
 * <span style="color: #fe0101; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;"> Some poorhouses housed around 50 insane persons, often serveral of them would die a week due to diseases suchs as cholera.
 * <span style="color: #fe0101; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">The census of 1850 proved that the nember od insane persons per population had increased in NewYork by 40 percent fron 1940.

=<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 170%;">Goals = · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">To make prisons less populated with inmates · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Create asylums for people with mental illness · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Expose students to social stability and equal opportunities · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">To build new schools, colleges and hire more teachers · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">To have quality teachers and a better curriculum · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Make prison conditions healthier and more productive (teaching inmates to do the right thing) · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Make it possible to help people with mental illnesses instead of just throwing them in prison · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">To make it possible for women to get an education and go to college just like men
 * = make education possible for those of all social classes, including the poor =
 * <span style="color: #fe0101; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Continue to use as much tax money possible to put toward buildings and institutions for the insane, blind,deaf and dumb, and idiotic.
 * <span style="color: #fe0101; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">The (AMSAII) Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutionsfor the Insane continued to follow and ask state legislatures for funds.
 * <span style="color: #fe0101; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Build larger hospitals so ill people did not have to overly severe or have good political connections to be admitted.

Strategies and Tactics for Improvement __ Education __<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">: There were many different actions taken by different people within different states in order to improve on their current dismal education system. In Massachusetts, the first state Secretary of the Board of Education was very proactive. He lengthened the school year, doubled teacher’s salaries, enriched the curriculum, and introduced new methods of training teachers. Other states had similar steps of development. New schools were built, teachers’ colleges were founded <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">, and education <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> offered new opportunities for the less fortunate children. Dorthea Dix was another reformer who was a big help in this reform movement for schools. Some other tactics/strategies were:
 * Horace Mann convinced citizens of merits by establishing a system of "common schools" that the public liked
 * Stressed importance of "moral education" by gaining support from common schools and puritans
 * Organized a system of public education from disparate initiatives
 * Stressed "moral instruction" ensuring social stability and by reinforcing social order
 * Between 1840-1870 public financing evoked from laissez-faire
 * Built pretty solid consenus among diverse constituencies for public education
 * Transformed from diverse, uncoordinated society of schooling to coherently organized system of schooling
 * Spent time thingking of ideas that would bring uniformity
 * Established superintendants and principles
 * Teacher training sessions were provided and more women became employed

__ Prisons/Asylums __<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 160%;">Since prisons were overpacked and came by the few, reformers took aim to try and fix <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 160%;">their <span style="color: #fe0101; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 160%;">this <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 160%;"> problem. One of the more prominent reformers was Dorthea Dix. She began a movement for new methods of treating the mentally ill. One way to do this was the building the asylums. These buildings were a combination of a hospital and a prison facility, in the purpose of helping to treat the mentally ill. Also, imprisonment of debtors and paupers went away, as did traditional practice of public hangings. Some other tactics/strategies were:
 * Dorthea Dix carried ideas of social order and personal harmony
 * Shifted ideas from schools to asylums
 * Asylums provided moral treatment, which emphasized the importance of in-dustriousness and emotional tranquility
 * Traveled state to state preaching ideas of establishments for mental hospitals
 * Developed reports of conditions of insane to attract others
 * Collected followers to help, which lead to foundation of mental hospitals in many states including: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi
 * This all helped many people who were mentally ill

Successes and Failures

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**__Education Successes and Failures__** <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Within each state there was some form a form <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">of improvement in the education field of government. Overall each state built more schools, offered new teacher programs, and increased funding in their own education departments. By the 1850’s each state adopted the principle of ﻿ <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> tax supported elementary schools. Also, new opportunities for different people (especially young girls and women) all students including women and girls <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">were available. For example new options were <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> available for the poorer students included infant schooling, Sunday schools, and charity schools to help enhance learning. There was new schooling for the handicapped as well. Blind, dead, or retarded hard of hearing and mental challanged <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> students now had their own curriculum and even <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> schools to help them progress their motor skills and other assets to learning. By the end of the movement and beginning of the Civil War, the United States had among the highest literacy rates among the world: 94% of the population in the North and 83% of the white population in the South (58% of total population). <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">However there were still some lingering problems left after the reforms. It was evident that women were only getting paid about half of what men were getting paid to teach. Also, it was obvious that in the North, there was a better chance of getting a highly educated teacher as in the South, some teachers were barely literate.

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**__Prisons and Asylums__** <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Lead by Dorthea Dix (woman reformer), there was a better imprisonment system within the Judicial Branch of State and National Government. Since the mentally ill were just deemed “insane” and were thrown in prison where they really couldn’t over come there illness get healthier <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">, new asylums were set up in order to treat and imprison this group of convicts. Also a past mode of punishment was severe beating and often torture to the convicts, but new laws stopped this unnecessary abuse. This new idea also came about in the schooling and factory settings <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">. (This also carried over to schooling and factories). <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> Other important steps of reform were more prisons built and the number of capital crimes was reduced.

Key People /Key Events

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">There are many events that have occurred during this period in the area of institutional reform. Some of the most notable however are were ﻿ <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">the educational reform ﻿ s <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> and the prison ﻿mental institution <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">reform ﻿ s <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">. During this period you will notice a <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> strong reform s <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> for education and right s to have for <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> everyone is to be <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> able to learn, even especially <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">﻿ ﻿ women. Also the reform on prison mental institution <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> conditions which were placed on prisoners in these institutions <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">, the mentally ill, <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> and others who suffered from these <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> diabolical conditions. Many people helped to reform and change both systems, however the most influential were:

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**__Dorothea Dix__** · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">1816 taught girls ages 6-8 for 3 years <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 150%;"> · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">She taught poor and rich girls in Boston


 * All she cared about was to help the students and make life easier for everyone.

· <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">1822-1836 she started writing children’s books along with teaching her two classes · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">1841 fought for better conditions for jails · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Founded 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, a school for the blind, and multiple training facilities for nurses · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Indirectly contributed to building institutions for the mentally ill, libraries in prisons, mental hospitals, and other institutions <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**__Horace Mann__** · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">1837 appointed secretary of board of education of Massachusetts · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Planned to inaugurated the Massachusetts normal school system by preparing annual repots · The six main problems targeted were: <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">1. the public should not stay ignorant and free <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">2. that education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">3. that education will be best provided in schools that embrace children of all diversities <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">4. that education must be non-sectarian <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">5. that education must be taught by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">6. that education should be taught by well-trained, professional teachers. · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Supported the Prussian education system in Massachusetts · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Revolutionized the school system in Massachusetts which was a basis for other schools
 * [[image:horacemann.jpg align="right" caption="Horace Mann"]]wanted to establish free, public, non- sectarian education for every man and women

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**__Amos Bronson Alcott__** · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1834 opened Temple College · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Planned to develop self-instruction on the basis of self-analysis · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Emphasized conversation and questioning instead of lecturing and drill · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Helped students learn to write by having them show different importatn events in there life the meaning of various events within their life · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Opposed hitting children as punishment in schools

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**__Catharine Beecher__**

· <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">1852 founded The American Woman’s Educational Association, an organization focused on developing educational opportunities for women · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Founded Western Female Institution in Cincinnati · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Founded The Ladies Society for Promoting Education in the West · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Founded colleges in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin · <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Helped the develop the idea of the kindergarten system

Key Events
 * Bronson Alcott, a preeminent educational theorist of the era, insisted on "instruction must be an inspiration"
 * Opened a school in Boston's Masonic Temple and practiced his preachings
 * Emphasized conversation, art, storytelling, and journal writing
 * Criticized corporal punishment and advocated discipline
 * Horace Mann fought to create a nonsectarian and free public education
 * Helped establish first teacher-training school, campaigned for public financing of schools, and championed compulsory school attendance laws
 * Mann's biweekly common school Journal founded in 1838
 * Friedrich Froebel promoted American kindergartens for little children and an organic approach to early childhood education as shown when he wanted to promote kindergartens
 * Orson Squire Fowler and Lorenzo Niles Flower made contribution to physiological reform in America by popularizing phrenology-study of human skulls to determine a person's character and health
 * Their "Illustrated Self-Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology" in 1849 was widely read
 * Sunday school teacher, Dorthea Dix, taught at East Cambridge, MA jail
 * She saw how horrible the conditions of these jails were, especially of the mentally ill
 * She took the jailer to court and won, which begun passion of championing rights of the mentally ill
 * Worked at Common Wealth of MA that brought plight of them
 * First to report statistics
 * Founded new hospitals and provided revenue for asylums

Primary Sources

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**Dorothea Dix's Plea on Behalf of the Mentally Ill** <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">March, 1841 <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This excerpt is significant because it shows how Dorthea Dix was trying to revolutionize the way society views disabled people. The passage contains information on why Dorothea Dix was astonished to see what she had saw, when she had visited prisons, asylums, and almshouses. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> [].

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**Horace Mann's Report to the Massachusetts Board of Education** <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">1848 <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This excerpt is important because it displays Horace Mann's true beliefs. These beliefs consist of why education should be free, secular, humane, and most importantly, universal. Mann in this article seems to show the country why the country has gone wrong from an educational standpoint, and how these problem can be resolved. <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">**Remarks on Prison and Discipline in the United States** <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This book is very detailed and shares all Dorothea's thoughts about prisons throughout the country. It's easy to get an understanding from her point of view on prisons and such because she had written this book herself. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> [] (pg.17)

Eiselein, Gregory. 2006. In this article, it told us about how many things done by many reformers lead to the development of new reforms, especially in the area of institutional reforms. Key people played key roles in this area of reforms and help lead to better conditions in prisons/asylums and make better education for children, men, and women. []
 * Reform **

Bibliography

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Brinkley, Adam. //American History A Survey//. 11. 1. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 330-331. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Bumb, Jenn. "Dorothea Dix." //Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society//. 2003. Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society, Web. 17 Nov 2009. [].

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ritchie, Susan. "Horace Mann." //Unitarian Universalist Historical Society//. 2009. Unitarian Universalist Historical Society, Web. 17 Nov 2009. < [] >.

Torrey, E. Fuller, and Judy Miller. The Invisible Plague: the Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2001. Print.

"Dix, Dorothea Lynde." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 249-250. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Nov. 2010 []

Eiselein, Gregory. "Reform." American History Through Literature 1820-1870. Ed. Janet Gabler-Hover and Robert Sattelmeyer. Vol. 3. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 957-965. Gale Virtue Reference Library. Web17 Nov. 2010.["1850-1877: Education: Overview." American Eras. Vol. 7: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 148-151. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.[[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX2536601386&v=2.1&u=s0003&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w]

"Dix, Dorothea (1802-1887)." American Eras. Vol. 7: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 216-217. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. []