Efforts to improve society were not new to the United States in the late 1800s. A major push for change, the Fiirst Reform Era, occurred in the years before the Civil War and included efforts of social activists to reform working conditions and humanizze the treattment of mentally ill people and prisoners.
Others removed themselves from society and attempted to establish utopian communities in which reforms were limited to their participants. The focal point of the early reform period was abolitionism, thee drive to removve what in the eyes of many was the great moral wrong of slavery.