Reasons for the Strong Reform Impulses Essay

The Need for Pre-Civil War Change Movements

The need to advance American society served as the main impetus for the pre-Civil War change movements. In other words, at the time, abolitionism was thought to be the only strategy for enhancing the living circumstances of slaves. As a result, voluntary associations were used to organize social and political events in the United States. Pre-American Civil War, or antebellum, reform groups in America all concentrated on specific issues, such as restraint, debt-quenching imprisonment, pacifism, antislavery, abolishing the death penalty, and improving prison conditions. (Foner, 2013). Many people advocated for expanding public schooling and enhancing prison conditions. Further, most individuals were concerned about the low wages they received. Therefore, all group involved wanted to public support for their cause which led to development of speeches and creation of petitions. The reform impulsive formed the part of the proliferative voluntary groups that worked together to prevent production of commodities that affected the society negatively, for example, manufacturing of liquor (Foner, 2013). Some of the movements, for instance, restraining liquor consumption succeeded throughout the nation. Therefore, reform impulse was significant strong driven by the need to bring social change which leads to the formation of movements that converted people to their cause.

How the Utopian Reform Embodies the Goal of Perfecting American Society

The Utopian reform embodied the goal of perfecting American society by attempting to create small communities and trying to prove to the entire country that the community was an ideal way of living (Foner, 2013). Although Utopian communities differed significantly from each other in terms of motivation and structure, they all held the same objective. In other words, they wanted to demonstrate that American had potential to change for the better which meant establish systems to support democracy and rules. More importantly, the promoted the idea of creating perfect American society as they were focused developing a corporation basis as well as restore social harmony to the world that operated under excessive individualism (Foner, 2013). Similarly, they wanted to reduce the gap between the rich and poor. Additionally, most of the Utopian reform made a great stride in an attempt to find a substitute for marriage and gender relational patterns and all communities insisted that America would be liberated from poverty by abolishing private property ownership (Foner, 2013). A considerable number of the communities were inspired by need to counteract the economic and social change set by market revolution to achieve equality between the rich and poor in the society. All Utopian reform efforts were directed towards achieving better American society.

Reasons Followers of the Movement Believed their Cause was the Most Important

The followers of the movement believed their cause was important matter because it was embedded in religious values. For instance, member of Oneida perceived selfless devotion to the rules and teachings offered by their leaders as the only way of uniting people and moving towards a similar calling, improving the society. They viewed their way of living as fundamental because it created less division. Moreover, their approach was seen to have potential to cause moral suasion which refers to the effort to move other people to the same direction or course of actions through appeals to the fundamental societal values and beliefs with using force or enticements (Foner, 2013). These aspects formed the basis of their reform.

References

Foner, E. (2013). Give Me Liberty! An American History: Seagull Fourth Edition (Vol. 1). WW Norton & Company.