What motivated advocates like Emma Willard, Charles Finney, or the Beechers? Some historians have doubted whether "social uplift" truly motivated middle-class reformers. Instead, they suggest, the real purpose of the Jacksonian reform movements was to instill middle-class values in the working class in order to make them diligent (and submissive) workers. In so doing, the reformers undercut any real threat the working class might pose to society. These historians pay particular attention to the educational reform movement, which aimed in the classroom to teach good behavior to lower-class students. The curriculum of the common schools emphasized middle-class values and behavior, and textbooks such as the famous McGuffey Readers stressed the virtues of self-control, punctuality, hard work, patriotism, and Protestantism. Emerson satirized the more extreme arguments of school reformers as "we must educate them or they will be at our throats."

This social control thesis has been criticized by historians who place greater emphasis on the role of religion. In their view, reformers' perfectionism sprang out of the ideals of the Second Great Awakening. Viewing social problems as manifestations of individual sin, reformers looked to create a morally perfect society. They also warned that a decline in public virtue would undermine republicanism. Education did become a way to instill proper moral values in the masses—values including self-reliance, responsible citizenship, and Christianity. But reformers saw tax-supported public schools as a means to expand rather than restrict opportunity in American life, including opportunities for lower-class children, who otherwise would have no access to education. These historians contend that middle-class reformers were hardly indifferent to the welfare of less privileged groups in society.

1			Read these two essays about 19th century social reform. What arguments do these authors make about the motivations of reformers? Do their theses lean toward the "social uplift" or "social control" sides of the historians' debate? What evidence do they use to support their opinions? Could you use the same materials to argue the other side? Do you think arguments that these reformers strived for social uplift or social control are mutually exclusive? http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/resources/index.html?body=articles.html http://adh.sc.edu/dynaweb/MEP/sa/@Generic__BookTextView/244;hf=0 Now read the document produced by the Seneca Falls Convention. Does its language help to resolve this debate to your satisfaction? Why or why not? http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Senecafalls.html