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The Antebellum period, dating from after the War of 1812 to the Civil War, was marked by America’s growth from a young nation, not internationally recognized and finding its bearings, to a complex nation of remarkable economic success. One sign of America’s maturation was the multiple social reform movements that occurred between the 1830s and 1850s. Americans began concerning themselves with things like women’s rights, temperance, and of course, slavery. The main cause of these reform movements can be attributed to the Industrial Revolution, the shift of the economy from agrarian to manufacturing/industry-based.
By making society as a whole more well-off, the Industrial Revolution shifted the common man’s focus from basic needs to higher life reform and enhancement.
To answer the question of how the Industrial Revolution was the main cause of social reforms in the Antebellum period, it helps to look at the Industrial Revolution (and the Market Revolution, its sister)’s impact on America in general. The shift towards industrialization led to more efficient production of goods. In particular, the invention of the cotton gin led to the expansion of the textile industry (and slavery), leading to a highly profitable internal trade system that America used to dominate the global textile economy. The building of expansive transportation systems, like canals and railroads, allowed for quicker distribution of goods. This expanded the average American’s market from their local neighbors to the entire world! Quicker production and trade made everyone rich quicker, which only spurred the Revolution further as everyone loves when good things arrive quickly and in large quantities.
Socially, the Industrial Revolution gave the common person more economic security. Especially in the middle classes and above, people no longer needed to worry as much about getting food on the table. Instead, they could indulge in material goods (something still prominent today). Not only that, the Industrial Revolution granted opportunities for social mobility. Perhaps most importantly, people had the valuable commodity of time. As long as you were not a poor laborer, you probably had more time to do as you wished. This gave the average American optimism; their unprecedented level of control over their lives led them to believe that they could fix anything, and do anything better.
Thus, people began to focus on social reform, and fixing societal flaws. In particular, people looked towards the Industrial Revolution as a cause for societal issues. For instance, the labor reform was a direct response to the factories that arose from industrialization. While not as bad as in the factories of England, work for laborers was long, toiling, and without much pay. In reaction, things such as trade unions, strikes, and pushes for labor laws (like laws against child labor and restriction on hours) only occurred because of industrialization. Along with child labor laws came a realization of education’s importance. Figures such as Horace Mann and William Seward led efforts in training teachers, building schools, and pulling kids out of work to learn, in an attempt to make future Americans more educated and better. Other similar reform movements for societal improvement included the temperance movement and an interest in health and medical science.
Also, a result of industrialization was the separation in societal “spheres” for the men and women in society and a response against this disconnection. The Industrial Revolution had redefined the role of the woman from mistrusted bearers of children to that of “republican mothers”, that taught their children republican virtues. However, this restricted women to the house. They could not go anywhere else and did not have any real rights (like voting, legal rights, rights to equal opportunity, etc). Thus, when women used their position as moral examples to take charge of movements like temperance, they began to fight for their equal rights, organizing conventions like that at Seneca Falls for themselves. While their success was limited, women made their mark for their continued efforts for their rights/suffrage (and many years later, would succeed).
And of course, industrialization played a part in influencing the biggest reform movement of the Antebellum period, abolitionism. As said before, industrialization made slavery rapidly spread across the South, leading to the growth of the textile industry. But it also led rise to awareness in the North of the horrors of slavery. Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass (amongst others) brought slavery to the attention of many shocked Northerners. Their writings featured very detailed accounts of the brutality of slavery (see: Uncle Tom’s Cabin), gaining the support of many people who felt this was against their moral principles. Before industrialization, there were anti-slavery sentiments, but it was the revolution that brought slaves into cities for the first time, who spread their stories and only looped the response against slavery further, until of course, the Civil War began.
Industrialization was not the only factor driving social reform during the Antebellum period. Perhaps as importantly, the Second Great Awakening had a sizable impact on creating social reforms. Many religious preachers taught that each individual had the potential to be a better person, which motivated morally and spiritually for people to participate in such reform movements. The impact of these religious denominations could be seen in their composition of many reform movements, as well as the religiously affiliated leaders of those movements. But this isn’t to take away from industrialization’s impact; as said before, industrialization gave Americans the time and resource allocation for reform efforts. If anything, the Second Great Awakening came about from the extra time that industrialization generated. But in the end, both worked together to mold a self-aware population that was more active in trying to fix its flaws. Both worked hand in hand to shape a more mature nation than the one that had just exited the War of 1812.
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