The Age of Reform The communitarians were the most colorful of the reformers. More effective, however, were the many individuals who took upon themselves responsibility for caring for the physically and mentally disabled and for the rehabilitation of criminals. The work of Thomas Gallaudet in educating deaf people reflects the spirit of the times. Gallaudet's school in Hartford, Connecticut, opened its doors in 1817; by 1851 similar schools for the deaf had been established in 14 states. Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe did similar work with the devising means for making books with raised letters and operating a school for the blind in Boston, the pioneering Perkins Institution, which opened in 1832. Howe's success in educating 12-year-old Laura Bridgman, who was deaf, mute, and blind, attracted wide attention. "Every creature in human shape should command our respect," Howe insisted. "The strong should help the weak, so that the whole should advance as a band of brethren." One of the most striking aspects of the reform movement was the emphasis reformers placed on establishing special institutions for dealing with social problems. In the colonial period, orphans, indigent persons, the insane, and the feebleminded were usually cared for by members of their own families or boarded in a neighboring household. They remained part of the community. Criminals were commonly punished by whipping, being placed in stocks in the town square, or (for serious crimes) by execution. But once persuaded that people were primarily shaped by their surroundings, reformers demanded that deviant and dependent members of the community be placed in institutions where they could be trained or rehabilitated. Almshouses, orphanages, prisons, and lunatic asylums sprang up throughout the United States like mushrooms in a forest after a summer rain. The rationale for this movement was scientific, the motivating spirit of the founders humane (though many of the institutions seem anything but humane to the modern eye). The highly regarded Philadelphia prison system was based on strict solitary confinement, which was supposed to lead culprits to reflect on their sins and then reform their ways. The prison was literally a penitentiary, a place to repent. In fact, the system drove some inmates mad, and soon a rival Auburn system was introduced in New York, which allowed for some social contact among prisoners and for work in shops and stone quarries. Absolute silence was required at all
The Age of Reform The communitarians were the most colorful of the reformers. More effective, however, were the many individuals who took upon themselves responsibility for caring for the physically and mentally disabled and for the rehabilitation of criminals. The work of Thomas Gallaudet in educating deaf people reflects the spirit of the times. Gallaudet's school in Hartford, Connecticut, opened its doors in 1817; by 1851 similar schools for the deaf had been established in 14 states. Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe did similar work with the devising means for making books with raised letters and operating a school for the blind in Boston, the pioneering Perkins Institution, which opened in 1832. Howe's success in educating 12-year-old Laura Bridgman, who was deaf, mute, and blind, attracted wide attention. "Every creature in human shape should command our respect," Howe insisted. "The strong should help the weak, so that the whole should advance as a band of brethren." One of the most striking aspects of the reform movement was the emphasis reformers placed on establishing special institutions for dealing with social problems. In the colonial period, orphans, indigent persons, the insane, and the feebleminded were usually cared for by members of their own families or boarded in a neighboring household. They remained part of the community. Criminals were commonly punished by whipping, being placed in stocks in the town square, or (for serious crimes) by execution. But once persuaded that people were primarily shaped by their surroundings, reformers demanded that deviant and dependent members of the community be placed in institutions where they could be trained or rehabilitated. Almshouses, orphanages, prisons, and lunatic asylums sprang up throughout the United States like mushrooms in a forest after a summer rain. The rationale for this movement was scientific, the motivating spirit of the founders humane (though many of the institutions seem anything but humane to the modern eye). The highly regarded Philadelphia prison system was based on strict solitary confinement, which was supposed to lead culprits to reflect on their sins and then reform their ways. The prison was literally a penitentiary, a place to repent. In fact, the system drove some inmates mad, and soon a rival Auburn system was introduced in New York, which allowed for some social contact among prisoners and for work in shops and stone quarries. Absolute silence was required at all
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