Protestantism emerged through a protest against the power of the Catholic Church. Capitalism originated as a challenge to feudal society. Democracy grew out of protest of the power of the monarchy. Slavery ended in this country because a social movement pushed the country into the Civil War. American history is often presented in our history books as a rather seamless progression from the ideas of our Founding Fathers.
American history is full of conflicts, challenges and change.
Our contemporary class, race, and gender relations are all complex consequences of social movements. All of our contemporary understanding of human rights began as radical ideas in the development of movements and revolts. If we do not count the American Revolution, then there are four waves of protest in U.S. history. The first was the abolitionist movement that preceded the Civil War. The second was the progressive and moral reform movements that began in the 1890s to challenge the power of corporations, to curb corruption, and to strengthen moral education.