Question

In what ways do temperance and health reforms offer reflections on the changes in the United States before the Civil War? What needs did these reforms fill in the lives of antebellum Americans?

Answer 1

Answer:

First, all three movements gained popularity with the middle classes. Second, All three movements were a product of the urban, rural divide in America. Third, all three movements had racial elements. The Temperance Movement grew out of the Second Great Awakening religious revival, as did Abolition. Temperance in the early 1800s transitioned from reduction of use of hard spirits to total abstinence. This reform movement was resisted by recent urban immigrant groups from Ireland and Germany because it ran counter to their cultural experience much as prohibition in the 20th century ran counter to the cultural experience of Southern and Eastern European immigrants. It was thought that drink was the cause of all evils in urban life. As in the other movements there was a racist component not far underneath the avowed purpose. The Health Reform Movement also focused on middle class fears of diseases like cholera and yellow fever emanating from garbage and filth in slums inhabited by recent immigrants. The movement had some basis in science as it advocated cleaning slum areas and providing clean water to slums as a city government service. Again the racist assumption was that immigrants woul not clean their own residential areas without public action. At the time the middle class paid private companies to carry away trash and cart in clean water for their use. The fear of cholera prompted health reform. Phrenology was a pseudo science claiming that. The shape of the head determined characteristics of the individual. It was later used by racists to support bogus theories of racial inferiority. So these movements aided Antebellum Americans in defining cultural norms and maintaining the status quo regarding racial hierarchies.

Explanation: