Minute books of the American Female Moral Reform Society, 1834-1841

The New York Female Moral Reform Society was founded in 1834, with its first annual meeting held on May 15, 1835. The Society, whose initial goal was the combating of prostitution in New York City, was formed during a time of widespread moral reform movements throughout the United States. It was initially formed as an auxiliary of the American Society for Promoting the Observance of the Seventh Commandment but eventually became an independent entity. The Society's first director was Lydia Root Andrews Finney; her husband, Charles Grandison Finney, was a leader in the Protestant religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. The Society, whose membership consisted of white middle class women, modeled itself on the work of the temperance movement and also drew on the work of reformer J.R. McDowall. Its initial aim was to prevent prostitution outright: members petitioned local legislators to make prostitution illegal, denounced men who frequented brothels, and visited houses of prostitution in order to pray for the prostitutes and their clients.

The Society's mission grew to include offering assistance and instruction to women who had already become prostitutes, in the hope this would enable them to leave the profession. The Society established a home for former prostitutes, resolving "that the house provided for profligate females be regarded, not as a prison, nor as a place for the pecuniary benefit of the Society but as a place, of industry, where each female by the profits, of her own industry, will board herself and that after each inmate has defrayed the expenses of her own board & clothing, that the balance due her, be deposited, for her, in the Savings Bank." The organization also sought to address the needs of the homeless and indigent, advocated for prison reform and on behalf of seamen, and strove to promote Christianity through missions and the distribution of moral and religious tracts. The Society's newsletter, Advocate of Moral Reform, included essays on religion and morality, excerpts from the reports of the Bethel Missionary, who visited ships to distribute religious literature and offer religious guidance to sailors, and reports of the Visiting Committee. By 1839, the Society had over four hundred auxiliaries in the United States. To reflect its widening influence, its name was changed to the American Female Moral Reform Society that year. The name changed several more times over the years, ultimately becoming the American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless in 1887.