Abolitionist 

A person dedicated to eliminating slavery. Yeah; it still boggles our mind that there were people who thought slavery was in any way morally defensible.

Bonus: check out this timeline of the abolition movement.

Suffragist

A person dedicated to getting women the right to vote…because back in the dark ages of American history, only white dudes were given the vote. (Reason #1, 456 that time travel is unappealing.)

Peep the timeline of suffrage here.

Equal Rights Activist

Another –ist, this one focusing on all people having equal rights under the law. Basically, these are the woke good guys.

There was a lot of champagne poured with the ratification of Amendments 13-15 and 19, which freed slaves, gave natural born or naturalized persons (i.e. freed slaves) citizenship, gave Black men the vote, and gave women the vote.

Of course, all of this took over half a century, but given the nearly hundred years between the Constitutional Convention and the 13th Amendment, that was progress.

Antebellum Period

Antebellum is fancy-pants Latin for "before the war."

Specifically, it refers to the period before the American Civil War (1860-1865), either going back to the War of 1812 (which actually ended in 1815) or the Constitution. Historians like to argue things like that; they have to have fun somehow.

Everything you've ever wanted to know and more on the Antebellum Period here.

Second Great Awakening

Preachers used common language, shouting, gesticulating, and fire and brimstone to wake up their Baptist and Methodist congregations, which included Black people and women. The major offshoot was a bunch of people focused on cleaning up the evils of modern society before Christ returned.

Evangelicalism

The major offspring of the Second Great Awakening that swept the Protestant community of the U.S. from the end of the 18th Century and into the 19th Century.

Evangelicalism focused on faith in Jesus, adherence to the Gospels, and repentance as the key to salvation. The egalitarian principles of evangelicalism were responsible for the housecleaning reform movements of abolition, suffrage, and equal rights.

(For more on the different branches of Evangelicalism, check out this link.)

Northampton Association of Education and Industry

Obviously having read Utopia one too many times, a group of idealists got together in 1842 and formed a commune that refused to follow society's rules and gave everyone equal rights, regardless of gender, race, or religion.

It sounds perfect.

Everyone had to work within the community, made up of mostly intellectuals who wanted to fix the evils of the world. The Association housed Sojourner Truth for a time and was the homing ground for many, many leading abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison.

Thirteenth Amendment

Ratified December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment prohibited slavery in the United States. The fact that there was a United States to ratify it gives a remarkably clear idea of what happened at the end of the Civil War in April of 1865.

(For more in-depth coverage of the 13th Amendment, go here.)

Fourteenth Amendment

On July 9, 1868, the Constitution was extended to all citizens…with the minor proviso that "citizen" should be spelled "m-a-l-e."

(For more info on the 14th Amendment, go here.)

Fifteenth Amendment

Black men gained the right to vote on March 30, 1870. (Notice the key word "men.")

This made women's suffragists super-unhappy and actually led prominent suffragists to side with Southern racist groups to push for a universal suffrage amendment, the idea being that women's votes would nix the Black vote. Logic was apparently not really an issue, but hey: that's politics.

Want more 15th Amendment knowledge? Check this out.

Nineteenth Amendment

Finally, on August 18, 1920, all women got the right to vote. Note the number of amendments and years between Black men getting the vote and women getting the vote.

Get extra 19th Amendment goodness here.