Penal Institutions

"American reform movements between 1820 and 1860 reflected both optimistic and pessimistic views of human nature and society."

The penal institutions show us the optomistic and pestimistic views of human nature and society brilliantly.

It shows the pessimistic view on the 1820-60's society by showing that people thought that criminals and mentally challenged people could have a place where they could be dealt with in the ways that the needed to be. In the cases of penitentiaries they took the criminals and tried to help them with their problems instead of just throwing them in jail. If a criminal had anger problems or problems with drinking then they would take them and try to rehabilitate those problems.

You also the the pessimistic view when they take the mentally challenged and throw them in asylums. This show that the people are somewhat afraid of them and do not know what to do. Since they are different they have no clue how to deal with them they take them and lock them away and do not deal with them. This is ridiculous because they are the same as me and you and need to be treated that way, not as an attractment for people to watch.

"Slavery was the dominating reality of all southern life." Assess the validity of this generalization for two of the following aspects of southern life from about 1840 to 1860: political, social, economic, and intellectual life.

In the South from 1840-1860 slavery dominated the southern way of life; both socially and politically. Socially speaking if you look at how the "classes" were set up if you had slaves then you were the "aristocracy". If you had no slaves then you were seen as lower than the men who did. The men with giant plantations and loads of slaves were always the most powerful and pretty much the super stars of their day. On the political side, owning slaves gave you a boost in running for office. If you wanted to become the governor or the mayor then if you did not own slaves then there was little hope for you. The more slaves you owned then the more chance you had of winning. So reflecting on these things you would have to say that slavery did dominate the southern lifestlye from 1840 to 1860.