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In the early 1800's, America underwent a rebirth of religious idealism. The theory of "predestination", in which your eternal fate is innate, died and "free will" became accepted as true. This theory stated that all people have the ability to control their eternal destiny by doing good deeds and avoiding evil. This new radical ideal caused the government to be "reborn", a new system that existed for the betterment of all people who lived under it.

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During the Era of Reform in a nation proven to be a force to be reckoned with, truly American themes and traits emerged to define the nation. These were expressed through the fine arts of literature, art, and music. These traits included individualism, extreme emotions and civil disobedience, which spoke to a younger, more rebellious nation who fought off her parent nation. However, in this time of religious rebirth, ideals such as transcendentalism, democracy, and a love of nature showed a new interest in the divine and an increasing interest in peace and the world as it was before.

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Many Americans in this revival of American and religious beliefs attempted to remove themselves from the busy outside world to safe havens of their creation. These "utopias" attempted to remove evil from their lands and create the perfect society according to transcendentalism. However, many of these failed early on, and only small remnants of them survive to this day. While utopias did fail in the end, the fact that Americans attempted to create them showed that goodwill towards man was being promoted and an era of peace and good ideals had begun.

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Early American prisons were torturous in their conditions and methods. The mentally ill were put with the prisoners and were subjected to the same cruel fate as them. Dorothea Dix was a witness to these conditions and vowed to do whatever she could to end the needless suffering of the mentally ill. Through her actions, she rose awareness of this issue hidden two long in the dark corners of America's past. She established asylums for the mentally ill to separate them from the prisoners and guarantee them better treatment than was granted to them in the past. She also was an advocate for the debtors who were locked up unjustly with prisoners who committed worse crimes themselves, creating a great danger to their lives which could be easily amended. Finally, Dorothea Dix improved the cleanliness of these facilities of reform, for sickness and disease were a prevalent issue which could cause prisoners to die, even if that was not to be their fate in prison.

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Educational establishments in Pre-Reformational America catered only to the more privileged of the country's citizens. As such, much of the average population was illiterate. This lack of ability to understand and create political, in my opinion, caused Americans to be more susceptible to the influence of their leaders, which in this case was a good thing, for they were attempting to make America an even better nation than it was. A lack of teachers and the instructional capacity of them held this young nation back from being able to educate their entire population. Horace Mann attempted to change that by educating more teachers and leading the charge for the reformation of school availability. His efforts caused a higher number of schools to function with the attention of the national treasury turned to the creation of more public schools. His work endures today as all American citizens have, by law, access to a quality education, which in turn has allowed America to be one of the most progressive nations in the world.

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This American reformation was a movement to end slavery across the nation. This pursuit of universal freedom united people of different races, genders, and ethnic backgrounds to fight for a common cause as almost no other had up to this point. The people who fought for this right were known as abolitionists, and, in my opinion, are the perfect example of what an American should be, an upstanding, revolutionary thinker who does whatever it takes to win freedom for all. Abolitionists used all of their resources and connections to achieve the practice of this right whether it be through newspapers or public speakers, even just the devotion of one's life to freedom. Together, all of these efforts culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation, which finally gave freedom to the enslaved peoples of America, fulfilling the promise of our nation, a place of freedom with liberty and justice for all.

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Throughout the vast majority of America's history, women have been deprived of many essential rights that their male counterparts were entitled to. These rights included that to vote, to attend a college, to serve on a jury in court, to enter into medicine or law, and to own land. This movement was one of the few reforms that took decades to be brought to fruition, the others being temperance and education, it endured throughout that time and passion for it was strong. Eventually, however, due to great persistence and even greater leadership, laws were passed that allowed women to have all the rights listed previously. Overall, while this movement was a success, it was a long time in the making. It seems peculiar that in a land declared to be free, that it takes so long for half the population to be granted the same rights as the other half.

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This final item of the five main American reformations dealt with the trade and indulgence surrounding alcohol. Throughout American history, many problems have been created through the misuse of alcohol and many more bad decisions have been made due under its influence. Due to these negative effects, many people, with a majority being women, took to calling alcohol morally wrong and attempted to ban it from the United States. While they eventually succeeded, their accomplishments didn't lead to triumph but to Prohibition, causing even more evil to flare up in the world, so much so that the ban was eventually repealed. However, this reform before its success gave women a voice in the nation and rose awareness of abuse in American households. Due to these positive effects, I don't think that this reform should be remembered as a misguided thing but rather a movement of good intentions which would have a positive impact on our society.

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In the temperate North, four seasons occur every year, each with distinct conditions, forcing people to adapt to stay alive. The land of these states were as variable as the climate, whether they be long, flat plains, or rough, jagged hills. However, these features could be beneficial for some states as bays could improve trading and fishing conditions and long, flat plains can leave room for the construction of real estate.

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Transportation was an essential aspect of life in the Northern states of the Union. The Industrial Revolution brought great improvements to the methods used at that time. These inventions and innovations include improved roadways, more efficient boats and an increased number of canals for them, and an alarmingly fast railway system. This network of transportation connected many of the most isolated places in the east of the country to one another, in a way unifying them with the rest of the North. These railroads also had another effect. They forwarded the cause of Manifest Destiny by transporting many free-thinkers to the west to expand the United States and its future prosperity from sea to shining sea.

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The economy of the Northern states greatly increased through the products of the English Industrial Revolution in their once-parent country Great Britain. These technological marvels brought about greater efficiency in manufacturing, causing it to emerge as one of the predominant jobs in that portion of the nation. One of the most significant of these inventors was Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin and milling machine, allowing things to be replicated effectively, eliminating the need to make everything by hand. During the period of time between 1800 and 1860, the Northern economy grew rapidly until they reached a point where theirs was larger than even the cotton empire of the South. However, advances in technology and industry can also lead to great harm to what came before, in this case, the people of America. Factories were appalling in their conditions and, with the influx of immigrants from Europe,   Americans had plenty of manpower to work with, even using children as young as seven. A lack of light, clean air, health and welfare, and rest were just some of the perils that plagued these unfortunate slaves to the machine. Altogether, the so-called advancements of this revolution appeared to do more harm than good, so much so that if they never happened our country may have been in a better place, and may not have been torn apart in the coming years.

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While growth may be considered as a good thing to some, growing cities are problematic and great tragedies can occur to even the best laid of plans. Cities of the North during the Industrial Revolution were far from sterile and germ-free. They were cesspools of death and disease. Sanitation was a concept wasted on them, and terrible atrocities were committed. The streets were covered in waste and garbage, sewage systems were not installed, and clean drinking water was a luxury if ever it could be found. Due to these conditions, many got sick and died. These cities were not made up of beautiful steel and grass skyscrapers, but rather small wooden homes. This building material was rather susceptible to flame, and quite frequently, the city would go up in smoke in a raging conflagration. As can be imagined, citizens probably didn't appreciate their homes and property being destroyed periodically. Finally, these cities were severely overcrowded with immigrants from Ireland and Germany. This caused many homes to be filled up to three times their expected capacity, which is not safe nor hygienic in any respect. Looking at the sum of these problems, it seems that the Northern cities, while they were free, were not very nice places to live in at all.

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The South enjoyed warm-enough weather year round ranging from scorching summers to cool winters. Water was also plentiful due to the frequent rainfall. These factors contributed to create a good environment for growing crops, enough so that a season of the year was completed devoted to the cultivation of them. In the South, many plants could grow that couldn't in the North, putting them at higher demand than others. Another very important geographical feature of the South was the abundance of large, lengthy, even rivers, on which transportation could be conducted with ease. With this important benefit in mind, many early southern town were built at the mouths of these rivers. However, not all was farmland and rivers, some of the South contained plentiful forests from which much lumber could be harvested.

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Due to the great swaths of farmland that can be found in the South, it is no surprise that the residents of that area based their economy on agriculture. However, as modern inventions from the North debuted, production was able to increase and slavery in turn with it. The main perpetrator of this change was the cotton gin, which allowed more refined cotton to be produced in a much easier way. In order to collect enough cotton to make increasing amounts of product, Southern agrarians increased the intensity of slavery in the area to meet growing demands. This insensitivity to slavery mainly stemmed from the fact that plantation owners had no idea what it was like to toil endlessly as a slave and focused only upon the money they were making. This reliance on slavery would be the thing that tore the nation apart and began the Civil War.

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Transportation in the South was not as technologically advanced as that of the North. The main way that goods and people traveled throughout the region was by boats through waterways and rivers. While the system was antiquated, it did prove to be very effective and allowed trade to occur between many places throughout the South. With this system in mind, many cities were built upon the banks of rivers which allowed them to become trading hubs for goods, services, and slaves.

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African Americans in the South were poorly mistreated despite the labels that were placed upon them. Some were decreed to be "free", but in reality had no rights, and others were slaves and suffered worse than the other, luckier potion of their kin. Only six percent of the Southern African American population was considered to have "freedom" but they could not get good jobs, go to school, vote, serve on juries, or demand justice for the actions of a white person. To me, that doesn't sound very free.

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While slaves in the South toiled greatly in their thralldom, they did not do so compliantly. Many of these slaves resisted their masters in an attempt to spread a message of freedom to their fellows. Everyday resistance could include anything from damaging valuable tools and the fences or working slowly to elaborate acts of dumbness, clumsiness, blindness, or madness to avoid working. However, for some, these silent, unnoticed acts of resistance weren't enough. They openly defied their masters, refusing to work or take orders, sometimes even resorting to violence to express their views. These were the ones beaten most savagely, who felt the most pain and disgust at their enslavement. Others, in lieu of resisting, simply just ran away to find freedom in the North. Even though this may have been the most straightforward path to freedom, it proved to be the most dangerous. Those that were caught fleeing could be mauled by dogs, whipped savagely, and even brutally murdered for their transgressions. The life of a slave was unenviable, but the consequences of leaving the bonds of servitude were most grievous indeed.

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Among the population of African Americans, a few radicals could be found in their ranks. They lead uprisings against slavery and fought for their freedom in the face of near-insurmountable odds. Denmark Vesey, a free African American, was planning a slave revolt in 1822 in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. However, authorities gained knowledge of it before it was enacted, and Vesey, as well as over 30 other slaves, were hung publicly for their "crimes". Nine years following this failed uprising, Nat Turner led one of the most bloody slave uprisings ever to occur in Virginia. He and his radical followers attempted to brutally murder every white person that they found. Over two days, they killed about 57 people through the use of axes and guns. Finally, in 1859, a man named John Brown led an uprising of sorts in an attempt to arm slaves and free them from their owners. He and 22 followers raided the armory and arsenal of Harper's Ferry, Virginia. While they successfully entered and took important citizens hostage, they were shortly thereafter captured. John was sentenced to hang and died a controversial man, willing to do anything to meet his ends: freedom for all those who are enslaved.

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During a period of growing tensions, the nation relied on compromises to keep the unstable peace. One of these decisions was the Missouri Compromise, in which Missouri was added to the union as a slave state, and Maine as a free state. This choice was made to preserve the balance between free and slave states in the union as each side was concerned that if it was disrupted, the other would rise into ultimate power and destroy them.

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Following the Mexican-American War, abolitionists in the U.S. wanted to preserve rights of slaves, forming a new political faction called the Free-Soil Party. This party put forth a proposal called the Wilmot Proviso, in which some specific territories in the U. S. would be "free soil", where slavery would be prohibited. Eventually, it was decided that the act would pertain to the territory gained through the Mexican-American War. This movement created great controversy in the Union, especially in the South, and it was subsequently shut down due to this. (This is not my slide and I do not take ownership of this mini-project)

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After the catastrophic failure of the Wilmot Proviso, a man named Henry Clay attempted to compromise with the South. Eventually, his efforts succeeded and a deal was struck between the two dividing sides. The terms were California's entrance into the Union as a free state, popular sovereignty determining the view that Utah and New Mexico had on slavery, and the end of the Washington slave trade in return for the Fugitive Slave Law. Both sides benefited from this agreement, but the South felt as if they came away with less than the North, causing them to slide yet further apart.

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Due to the failure of the Compromise of 1850, government attempted once more to hold the nation together through yet another compromise. Through this act, the land of the Kansas and Nebraska territories would decide its position on slavery through popular sovereignty. In this process, the people of the state would decide their position on the matter based on majorities. Due to this freedom, it caused both abolitionists and pro-slavery representatives to rush to the territory to claim it as their own. This meeting of conflicted personalities would spark many conflicts collectively referred to as Bleeding Kansas.

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During the 1850s, hostilities between abolitionists and pro-slavery activists reached a height. In this event, many people died on both sides of the conflict. This conflict transpired from a rush of settlers attempting to make their ideals the majority so that popular sovereignty would apply to them. Hatred between the two parties caused violence to break out over the matter. This act caused the nation to divide ever further, pushing it yet closer to the brink of civil war. Based on the level of bloodshed and violence, this time period would be known as Bleeding Kansas.

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Dred Scott vs. Sandford was a milestone court case that set a precedent for how future cases would be handled. In this case, a slave named Scott argued that he should be free because he lived in a free state at one point of his life,  along with his wife. However, they spectacularly failed and the court ruled that slaves were not citizens of the U. S. and therefore don't have any rights in law.