The Benevolent Empire was a name that was given to a number of organizations by historians. In the 1820s America, there was disorder among lower waged native-borns. Wealthy Americans who believed that the Bible taught the religious ideal of benevolence, decided that it was their duty to do good deeds for the less fortunate. The groups usually consisted of Congregational or Presbyterian ministers and their wives.

Objectives

The reformers attempted to eliminate the common "evils" such as drunkenness, prostitution, and crime. And instead of corporal punishment for criminals, reformers wanted to only sentence them to moral rehabilitation in penitentiaries.

Deeds

The people of the "Benevolent Empire" taught age-old morals while trying to improve their own lives morally as well.

They established large organizations such as the Prison Discipline Society and the American Temperance Society. These establishments had a managing staff, volunteers and individual newspapers. They also sometimes put abandoned children and the poor in homes. .

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