While abolitionism gets the most attention among reforms advocated in the first half of the nineteenth century, in fact a large number of issues became the object of reformist zeal. Spurred by religious fervor in the Second Great Awakening and secular concerns raised by the increase in industrialization and urbanization, reformers attacked societal problems on a number of fronts.

Issue	Reform Target	Key Reformers/Organizations	Methods
Abolitionism	Enslavement of 4,000,000 blacks	William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Weld, American Anti-Slavery Society	Petitions, newspapers, mail campaigns
Institutional improvement	Treatment of criminals, delinquents, insane	Dorothea Dix, Auburn System	Lobbying of state legislatures, separate asylums for the mentally ill, efforts to rehabilitate, discipline prisoners
Temperance	Alcoholism (7.1 gallons of pure alcohol consumed per person over 14 per year  in 1830)	Lyman Beecher, American Temperance Society, churches	Sermons, tracts, rallies, abstinence pledges, prohibition laws resulted in consumption dropping to 2 gallons per person by 1845
Women's rights	Legal subordination of women	Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Seneca Falls Convention	Lobbying, petitions, speaking tours
School reform	Low literacy, school attendance rates	Horace Mann, state school boards	Lobbying, rewarding good behavior rather than using corporal punishment, hiring women as teachers. By 1850, 50% of white children were enrolled in schools--highest in the world.
Moral improvement	Breakdown in social order seen with the growth of cities, industrialization, and westward migration	Charles G. Finney, American Bible Society, Sabbatarian movement	Growth in Sunday Schools, literature, speaking tours, laws against work on Sunday, petitions