Book 3, Essays - Series 2: Chapter 12, New England Reformers Summary and Analysis

This is a transitional lecture, between the second series of essays and the set of essays of "Representative Men". The New England Reformers was first presented as a lecture before an organization called "the Society in Armory Hall" (p. 591). He writes of a myriad of social reform movements and projects that are active during the time - 1844. These include: socialism, abolitionism, Bible study, anti-marriage movement (due purely to its being viewed as a source of numerous social evils), and more. He writes that he favors all acts of reform. He tells an anecdote of how one man took a specific stand about slavery - he was anti-slavery out of his own conscience. When threatened with excommunication by the church, he created a public act of excommunication of...