American Romanticism: 1800-1860Introduction to the Literary Period

Fast Facts

Key Concept: The Nation Expands

Key Concept: New Ideas Take Root

Key Concept: Differences Threaten National Unity

Your Turn

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Historical Highlights

• Numerous reform movements, centered in New England, seek to improve social conditions.

• Rapid growth of industrialization, education, transportation, and cities transforms society.

• Discontent over slavery intensifies as the abolitionist movement gains momentum.

American Romanticism: 1800-1860Fast Facts

Literary Highlights

• Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first collection of essays (1841) discusses Transcendentalist thought.

• Romantic writings, such as Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book (1820), look to feeling and imagination to reveal higher truths.

• Edgar Allan Poe, an influential Gothic writer, publishes The Raven and Other Poems in 1845.

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American Romanticism: 1800-1860Fast Facts

History of the Times

• A new era of westward expansion began.

• In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase added significant land to the United States.

Key Concept: The Nation Expands

• This migration west intensified with the Gold Rush of 1849.

• Many were optimistic that machines would advance the nation’s progress.

• The Industrial Revolution was changing the way people worked and lived.

History of the Times

Key Concept: The Nation Expands

• However, the rise of industry led to overcrowding and disease in the cities.

• The Romantic movement helped express the discontent arising from the Industrial Revolution.

• Romantic writers viewed cities as places of immorality, corruption, and death.

Literature of the Times

Key Concept: The Nation Expands

• By contrast, they associated the countryside with independence, clarity, and healthful living.

Comprehension Check

How did the United States expand both geographically and culturally during the early nineteenth century?

Key Concept: The Nation Expands

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• The Lyceum movement used public lectures and discussions to institute social reforms.

• Reformers throughout New England sought various social changes.

History of the Times

• An era of reform took hold in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Key Concept: New Ideas Take Root

• Interest in social causes led to Utopian projects—plans for creating a perfect society.

• true reality is found in ideas rather than in the world as perceived by the senses

Literature of the Times

• people must go beyond everyday experiences in order to understand God, the Universe, and the self

Key Concept: New Ideas Take Root

The Transcendentalists believed

• human perfection can be achieved

• He believed that even tragic events could be explained on a spiritual level.

Literature of the Times• Ralph Waldo Emerson, the

best-known Transcendentalist, encouraged people to find God directly in nature.

Key Concept: New Ideas Take Root

• Emerson’s optimism appealed to people living in a period of strife and economic downturns.

Comprehension Check

How would reformers and writers in the Romantic Age describe an ideal society?

Key Concept: New Ideas Take Root

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History of the Times

• Antislavery activists in the North wanted to put an end to slavery everywhere.

• Most Northern states had abolished slavery by the early 1800s, but the number of slaves in the South was increasing.

• Southern slaveholders felt threatened, and violence against abolitionists rose.

Key Concept: Differences Threaten National Unity

History of the Times

• Seen as competition for valuable land, these Native Americans later were forcibly relocated.

• Many Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee, were forced to give up their way of life to take up farming and other livelihoods.

Key Concept: Differences Threaten National Unity

The Granger Collection, New York

Comprehension Check

What reaction did the Cherokee experience after making the transition to farming?

Key Concept: Differences Threaten National Unity

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• Like the Transcendentalists, the Dark Romantics valued intuition over logic and saw signs and symbols in all events.

Literature of the Times

Key Concept: Differences Threaten National Unity

• However, their works explored the conflict between good and evil and the psychological effects of guilt and sin. Edgar Allan Poe

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Herman Melville

Your Turn

American Romanticism: 1800-1860

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As you outline the main ideas of the unit introduction and as you answer questions about the literature in the unit that follows, try to use the following Academic Vocabulary words:

factor transform

implicit principal

integral

The End