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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 14 of 18

Reformers of New York

Seneca Falls, abolition and the Anti-Rent movement

What your child practices

The Second Great Awakening and the Burned-over District, abolition and the Underground Railroad, the resistance of enslaved people, Seneca Falls and the women's rights movement, and the Anti-Rent movement of Hudson Valley tenant farmers.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 7.7; 7.7a; 7.7b; 7.7c; 7.7d · reform movements, many rooted in New York: abolition, women's rights, temperance and the Anti-Rent movement

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Western New York was the “Burned-over District” because so many religious revivals swept through it.
  2. Reformers fought for abolition and women’s rights. Seneca Falls (1848) began the women’s rights movement; Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in 1872.
  3. In the Anti-Rent movement, Hudson Valley tenant farmers protested paying rent forever.

Example: Why was Susan B. Anthony arrested in 1872? Women could not legally vote then. She voted anyway, in a presidential election. Answer: for voting in a presidential election

Reformers of New York in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 14 of 18 in 7th grade Social Studies, after The Erie Canal & Early Industry and before Westward Expansion.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Emma Willard opened the Troy Female Seminary in 1821 to…

    • give young women an advanced education
    • print newspapers
    • build steamboats
    • train soldiers

  2. Question 2

    Dorothea Dix worked to improve…

    • care for people with mental illness and conditions in prisons
    • railroad tracks
    • army uniforms
    • canal locks

  3. Question 3

    The temperance movement worked to…

    • raise taxes on tea
    • end public schools
    • build more canals
    • reduce or ban drinking alcohol

  4. Question 4

    The Declaration of Sentiments, signed at Seneca Falls, was modeled on…

    • the Articles of Confederation
    • the Mayflower Compact
    • the Magna Carta
    • the Declaration of Independence

  5. Question 5

    Nat Turner led a rebellion against slavery in 1831 in…

    • New York
    • Maine
    • Vermont
    • Virginia

  6. Question 6

    After the Anti-Rent protests, New York's 1846 constitution…

    • banned all farming
    • made the landlords kings
    • created more patroons
    • ended feudal land tenures and limited long farm leases

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