What was the reform like in the United States between the 1820s and 1860s?

This is something of a vague question so I do not know if
this answer is what you are looking for.  However...

One
way to characterize the reforms of this period is to say that they were driven by people
from the growing middle class.  Many of these people were inspired by the religious
fervor of the Second Great Awakening.  During this time period, the middle class was
growing.  This gave more people some amount of leisure time.  Many of them (especially
women) were inspired by the religious revivals to try to perfect their
society.

This meant that the reforms were typically driven
by individuals.  People like Dorothea Dix and Horace Mann went on largely personal
crusades to fix problems that they saw in their society.  The reforms were generally not
driven by the government or by major organizations but were instead the work of
individuals.

So, one way to answer this question is to say
that the reforms were the work of individuals from the middle class who were (often
inspired by religion) determined to make changes in their
society.