Inventing America

Forging National Identity in the 19th century

at first the United States was

an unstable nation . . .

– Economic depression

– Diplomatic weakness

– Social unrest

– Uncertain status of West

men fighting during Shays’s Rebellion

“We are going and doing wrong, and therefore I look forward to evils and calamities, but without being able to guess at the instrument, nature, or measure of them.”

--John Jay,

Louisiana Purchase of 1803vast new lands for exploration and settlement

War of 1812With victory over the British, the United States becomes an established world power

European powers rebuffed

Territory doubled in size

Hegemony on the continent secured!

Americans embarked upon a period of dramatic growth and change. . .

• Expansion of democracy

• Population growth

• Growth of cities

• Industrial revolution

• Westward expansion

• Religion/reform

Expansion of democracy

extension of the franchise to all white men

Population Growth

The population of the country was four times larger in 1850 than it was in 1815

– Natural increase

– Influx of immigrants

Growth of cities

• By mid-century, 1 in 7 Americans was a city-dweller

• 10 of the nations cities exceeded 50,000 people

Expansion of transportation and commerce

• railroads

• canals

• steamboats

• factories

Industrial Revolution

• Louisiana Purchase 1803

• Lewis and Clark 1804-1806

• Mexican War 1846-1848

• Manifest Destiny

Westward Expansion

Religion and Reform

Second Great Awakening

inspired

• Abolition

• Women’s Rights

• Other social reforms

– Prisons/Insane Asylums

– Education

– Temperance

– Moral Reform

Observing this widespread growth and change . . .

artists and intellectuals begin wondering “what is an American?”

who are we?

what makes us unique?

what have we become?

Cultural renaissance

• Ralph Waldo Emerson declares the intellectual independence of America

• Hudson river school explores the beauty of American landscapes

• Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Whitman, develop new literary schools

• Henry David Thoreau takes to the woods

“Perhaps the time is already come . . . when the sluggard intellect of this continent will look from under its iron lids, and fill the postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertions of mechanical skill. Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”

“I celebrate myself;And what I assume you shall assume;For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.”

“No truer American existed than Thoreau”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“No truer American existed than Thoreau”

Ralph Waldo Emerson