We had planned to reactivate prior knowledge about the motivations that spurred Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott to organize a women's rights convention in the mid 19th century; however Ben clearly and abruptly stated "to be perfectly honest, I am feeling very tired and you are talking too much and I'm sorry but I just really need to chill." Today's academic objective will need to be revisited tomorrow when it is hoped Ben is more receptive and cooperative.

Ben was to turn in his homework assignment, and we were to review it together. However, he did not bring it in and grew rather annoyed when I asked him about it, and complained of issues he is still experiencing with his stomach. I had planned to discuss the Women's Movement today in class but will need to revisit the topic tomorrow.

Ben went home before my class today due to illness. He was absent from my US History class.

I reminded Ben about his homework after seeing it on his desk. He a said he forgot to take it home yesterday but would do it over the weekend. Ben and I reviewed the assignment; he was given a choice from which to select as we've covered quite a bit of material in recent weeks. I queried Ben on the vocabulary terms we highlighted and reviewed the major reform movements and identified the reasons they were so popular given the climate of the times.

I gave Ben another two copies of homework and asked that he choose one to complete by Tuesday, 1/22/24. I had assigned to him an assignment two weeks ago along with a study guide to which he could refer to complete, but he said he no longer has it. As we moved on in our studies, his current choices address more recent topics. I clarified and restated expectations and Ben said he understood.

We continued to read in our texts and discussed the Underground Railroad and opposition to the abolitionist movement. Ben insisted he already knew all about the Underground Railroad, but we discussed the physical violence and political persecution abolitionists faced since it was such a threat to Southerners, in particular. We discussed that abolitionism was even illegal it the South - and that President Jackson even banned the US postal service from delivering abolitionist materials. We concluded our reading noting that the Women's Rights movement grew hand in hand with the abolitionist movement, which we will discuss in greater detail tomorrow.

We continued studying the abolitionist movement as it was one of the most significant reform movements of the 19th century. One short-lived idea was to send people back to Africa when the African nation of Liberia was founded by the American Colonization Society. We learned that it wasn't feasible to send large numbers of Black people to Liberia, but that
some who thought their rights in the US would never be upheld chose to remain in America. We continued reading about the founding of the Anti-Slavery Society and identified abolitionists such as Henry David Thoreau and Sojourner Truth. It was interesting to learn that people who preferred reading novels to newspapers could read Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) which detailed the horrors of enslavement. We closed today's session discussing Frederick Douglas who traveled the nation and the world, drawing the most attention by educating people about their enslaved lives. Ben stated he had already read about these abolitionist's personal accounts and experiences with slavery. I wrote notes on the whiteboard for review and referral purposes

We continued to discuss the major reform movements of the mid 19th century. In addition to the Temperance and Prison-Reform Movement discussed yesterday, we discussed four additional movements. These included Education Reform, Utopian Societies, Workers' Rights movement, and the antislavery movement, called the Abolitionists. Ben stated he was familiar with most of the movements and was prepared to discuss them.

We reactivated prior knowledge and began studying the major reform movements during the period of time from 1820 - 1860. This included the Temperance Movement, which blamed society's problems on liquor and wanted a ban on alcohol, and the Prison-Reform Movement - led by Dorothea Dix - who encouraged the creation of mental institutions so that the mentally ill wouldn't be imprisoned with criminals anymore. It was interesting to learn that this was also the time when the juvenile justice system also began. We engaged in an interesting dialogue about the treatment of the mentally ill in America. Tomorrow we will continue reading about 3 other major reform movements of the time.

This morning, Ben and I continued to discuss how life proved challenging for the immigrants that flooded cities due primarily to the lack of city services and not enough housing for the population boom. Immigrants therefore tended to live in tenements, where disease spread quickly, while others prospered as middle-class business owners. We read about a new religious revival movement that arose and spread in the early 19th century known as the Second Great Awakening and learned what main values and practices were encouraged. We learned that the movement spread outside of religions and inspired a spirit of reform - and that the 1820's -1860's became known as the Age of Reform. We will spend the remainder of this week discussing the major reform movements that resulted during the Age of Reform.