reform antebellum economics, culture, and
TRANSCRIPT
The Romantic ImpulseAntebellum Economics, Culture, and
Reform
National Cultural Aspirations(This is where Joanne’s slides are)
● In the middle decades of the 19th century, they were
focused on to work for the elevation and liberation of
their nation’s culture
○ Creation of an American artistic world that is
independent from Europe
○ That would express their nation’s special virtues
National Cultural Aspiration (cont.) ● Nation’s cultural leaders were striving for another kind of
liberation: the Spirit of Romanticism
○ In literature, philosophy, art, politics and economics
American intellectuals were committing themselves to
the liberation of the human spirit
○ Eventually overshadows their self-conscious nationalism
○ Impulse that was largely imported from Europe
Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting
Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting
● In the US many people were looking at American paintings in
the Antebellum Era (era between the end of War of 1812 and
the Civil war)
○ Because they believed that Americans were creating
important new artistic traditions
○ Not because the paintings introduced many great
traditions of Europe
Hudson River School● First half of the 19th century; most important and popular
American paintings were evoking that wonder of the nation’s
landscapes
○ Americans painters did not favor the gentle cultivated
countryside; they wanted to capture the undiluted power
of nature.
Hudson River School (cont.)● The first great school of American painters emerged in New
York.
○ Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty,
and Asher Durand → were called as the Hudson River
School
○ Painted the rugged and unsettled Hudson Valley
○ They considered that nature was the best source of
wisdom and spiritual fulfillment → “wild nature” still
exist in America, unlike Europe → nation of greater
promise than the played-out, ands of the Old World
Hudson River School (cont.)● Painters travelled farther west
○ Search for a more profound spiritual experiences
○ They found an even more rugged and spectacular natural
world
○ Enormous canvases of natural wonders touched a
passionate chord among the American public → Yosemite
Valley, Yellowstone, the Rocky Mountains
Literature and the Quest for Liberation
Literature and the Quest for Liberation● In the first decades of the 19th century, American readers were
rather indifferent to the work of their own nation’s authors
○ The most popular author was British writer, Sir Walter
Scott
○ When readers read books written in their own country,
many were likely to turn to the large number of
“sentimental novels” → written mostly by women
James Fenimore Cooper● The effort to create a distinctively American literature made
considerable progress with the first great American novelist,
James Fenimore.
○ Author of more than 30 novels
○ Known for his contemporaries as a master of adventure
and suspense
○ Most distinguish his works was the evocation of the
American wilderness
○ Grew up in central new York
James Fenimore Cooper(cont.)○ Retained a fascination with man’s relationship to nature and with the
challenges and dangers of America’s westward expansion
○ The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Deerslayer (1841) → his most
important novels known as “Leatherstocking Tales” → explored the
American experience with Indians, pioneers, violence, and the law
○ Cooper’s novels were a continuation of the efforts into producing a true
american literature
■ “Leatherstocking Tales” could be seen not only as celebration of the
American spirit and landscape, but also evocation
■ Evidence of another impulse on motivating American reform →
fear of disorder
Walt Whitman○ Self proclaimed poet of democracy
○ One of the most important writers of his time
○ Born in 1819; long Island; Quaker parents; second of nine
children
○ Worked as an apprentice in newspaper; at 16, moved to
New York → worked as a printer and later taught at
several schools
○ Whitman went to Huntington, New York → found his
own newspaper: the Long Islander (publisher, editor,
pressman, distributor, an even provided home delivery)
Walt Whitman (cont.)○ Began to write poetry whenever he can → eventually left his
newspaper
○ 1855, hired a printer and published his first volume of work,
Leaves of Grass
○ His poems were an unrestrained celebration of democracy,
liberation of the individual, and pleasures of the flesh and spirit.
■ Expressed his personal yearning for emotional and physical
release and personal fulfillment
○ Helped liberate verse from traditional, restrictive conventions
and helped express the soaring spirit of individualism that
characterized his age
Herman Melville
● Releasing restraint of human emotions did not
always produced optimistic works
● Born 1819; New York
● during his youth, ran away to the sea, spent
years sailing the world before coming back
home
Herman Melville (cont.)● Most important of his novels was Moby Dick; published 1851
○ Story of courage and strength of individual will
○ Tragedy of pride and revenge
○ Suggested that search for personal fulfillment and
triumph could not only liberate but destroy as well
○ Result of Ahab’s great quest was his own annihilation =
Melville’s conviction that the human spirit was a troubled,
self-destructive force
Edgar Allan Poe● One of the few southern writers of the time
● Embraced the search for the essence of the human
spirit
● He died in 1849; age of 40
● Within his short and unhappy life he produced
stories and poems that are mostly sad and macabre
Edgar Allan Poe○ His first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), didn’t
receive much recognition → his later works established
him as a major (controversial) literary figure
○ The Raven (1845)
○ He evokes images of individuals rising above the narrow
confines of intellect and exploring the deep world of the
spirit and the emotions
○ Contained much pain and horror
■ Other American writers were contemptuous of his
works and message → he had profound effect on
European poets (ex. Baudelaire)
Literature in the Antebellum South
Literature in the Antebellum South
● Both the north and south experienced a literary
flowering in the mid-19th century → produced writers
and artists who were concerned with defining the nature
of American society and nation
○ White southerner produced very different images of
what society was and should be
Southern Romanticism● Southern novelists of the 1830s
○ Beverly Tucker; William Alexander Caruthers; John Pendleton
Kennedy
○ Many of them who were residents of Richmond wrote historical romances
or romantic eulogies of the plantation system of the upper South
● 1840s, the southern literary capital moved to Charleston
● Charleston was home to William Gilmore Simms
○ For a time, his work express a broad nationalism
○ By 1840s, he became a strong defender of southern institutions (most
especially slavery) against the encroachment of the North
○ He believed that there was a unique quality to southern life that it was the
duty of the intellectuals to defend
Southern Romanticism (cont.) ● One group of southern writers wrote that were more broadly American
and less committed to a glorification of the peculiarities of southern life
○ Writers from the fringes of plantation society
○ Depicted the world of the backwoods rural areas
● Augustus B. Longstreet, Joseph G. Baldwin, Johnson J. Hooper and
others were focused on the ordinary people and poor whites
○ They were deliberate and painfully realistic
○ Seasoned their sketches with a robust, vulgar humor that was new
to American literature
○ Southern realists established a tradition of American regional
humor → found its most powerful voice in Mark Twain
The Transcendentalists(from here on are Erica’s slides)
“Nothing is at last sacred, but the integrity
of your own mind.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is Transcendentalism?
● A group of New England writers and philosophers● Borrowed heavily from German philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and
Schelling, and English writers: Coleridge and Carlyle● Embraced a theory of the individual that rested on a distinction
(first suggested by Kant) between what they called “reasoning” and “understanding”
● They defined reason as: Little to do with rationality, but the individual’s innate capacity to grasp beauty and truth through giving full expression to the instincts and emotions . The highest human faculty (the highest human mental or physical power).
What is Transcendentalism? (Cont.)
● They defined understanding as: The use of intellect in the narrow, artificial ways imposed by society. Involved the repression of instinct and the victory of externally imposed learning
● Every person’s goal should be liberation from the confines of “understanding” and the cultivation of “reason”
● Each individual should strive to “transcend” the limits of the intellect and allow the emotions, “the soul”, to create an “original relation to the universe”
● Emerged among a small group of intellectuals in Concord, Massachusetts
● The leader was Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
● The leader of the transcendentalists was Ralph Waldo Emerson ○ A unitarian minister in his youth○ Left the church in 1832 to devote himself to writing and
teaching the elements of transcendentalism○ His lectures drew rapturous crowds○ Produced a significant body of poetry○ Was renowned for his essays and lectures
■ Best known essay, “Nature” (1836) was about how in the quest for self-fulfillment, individuals should work for a communion in the natural world
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Cont.)■ “In the woods, we return to reason and faith…
Standing on the bare ground- my head bathed by blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space- all mean egotism vanishes… I am part and particle of God.”
○ The search for self-reliance was really a search for communion with the unity of the universe, the wholeness of God, the great spiritual force that he described as the “Oversoul”
○ Each person’s innate capacity to become, through his or her private efforts, a part of this essence was the classic expression of the romantic belief in the “divinity” of the individual
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Cont.)○ Committed nationalist○ Truth and beauty could be derived as much from instinct
as from learning suggested that Americans, lacking the rich cultural heritage of the European nations, could still aspire to artistic and literary greatness■ Comes from the instinctive creative genius of
individuals, not tradition and history
Henry David Thoreau
● Another leading Concord Transcendentalist was Henry David Thoreau○ Repudiated the repressive forces of society which
produced “lives of quiet desperation” ○ Individuals should work for self-realization by resisting
pressures to conform to society’s expectations and responding instead to their own instincts
○ Most Famous book: Walden (1854), told the story of his effort to “free himself”■ Led him to build a small cabin in the woods on the
edge of Walden pond
Henry David Thoreau (Cont.)■ Lived alone for two years as simply as he could■ He wished to live deliberately to front the essential
facts of life ■ Believed living simply was a desirable alternative to
the rapidly modernizing world around him ■ Briefly went to jail because he refused to pay a poll
tax● Would not financially support a government
that permitted the existence of slavery
Henry David Thoreau (Cont.)● His essay in 1849, “Resistance to Civil
Government” he explained his refusal by claiming that the individual’s person personal morality had the first claim of his or her actions. A government which requires violation of morality has no legitimate authority. The proper response to this was “civil disobedience” or “passive resistance” (a public refusal to obey unjust laws)
The Defense of Nature
● Transcendentalists feared the impact of the new capitalistic enthusiasm on the impact on the natural world
● Nature was not a setting for economic activity and it was not simply a body of data to be catalogued and studied
● Nature was the source of human inspiration, where humans could realize the truth within their own souls
● Genuine spirituality did not come from formal religion, but through communion with the natural world
● Humans separated from the natural world would lose a substantial part of their humanity
Defense of Nature (Cont.)
● Transcendentalists were among the first Americans to anticipate the environmental movements of the 20th century
● No scientific basis for their defense of wilderness, no knowledge of modern ecology, little sense of the 20th century notion of the interconnectedness of species
● Believed in an essential unity between humanity and nature, a spiritual unity- without it civilization would be impoverished
Visions of Utopia
Sir Thomas More and Utopia
● More was an English lawyer, writer, and statesmen○ Became chancellor of England in 1529○ 1477-1535
● First Person to write of a “utopia”● Utopia: A word used to describe a perfect imaginary world
○ Comes from the Greek word ou-topos meaning “no place” or “nowhere”. The almost identical greek word, eu-topos, means “good place”, he meant it as some form of pun
● The book imagines a complex, self-contained community set on an island ○ People shared a common culture and way of life
Brook Farm
● Brook Farm was established by Boston transcendentalist,George Ripley, as an experimental community in West Roxbury, Massachusetts In 1841○ Individuals would gather to create a new form of social
organization○ All residents would share equally in the labor of the
community so all could share too in the leisure■ Leisure was necessary in the cultivation of self
○ Would help individuals bridge the gap between the world of intellect and learning, and the world of instinct and nature
Brook Farm (Cont.)○ Many residents became disenchanted and left due to the
tension between between the ideal of individual freedom and the demands of a communal society
○ The experiment dissolved when a fire destroyed the central building of the community in 1847
○ Writer Nathaniel Hawthorne- expressed his disillusionment with the experiment, and to some extent, with transcendentalism in a series of notable novels
● The Blithedale Romance (1852) portrayed the disastrous consequences of the experiment on the individuals who had submitted to it
New Harmony
● Other drew from the ideas of Scottish industrialist and philanthropist Robert Owen- founded an experimental community in Indiana in 1825 which he named New Harmony ○ To be a “village of cooperation”○ Every resident would live and work in total equality○ An economic failure○ The vision it inspired continued to enchant Americans-
led to dozens of other “Owenite” experiments in other locations in the following years
Redefining Gender Roles
Margaret Fuller● Margaret Fuller was a woman who raised the issues of gender
○ A leading transcendentalist and a close associate of Emerson
○ Lived life far from the domestic ideal of her time■ Intimate relationships with many men■ Became a great admirer of European socialists and a
great champion of the Italian revolution of 1848- which she witnessed during her travels there
■ Established herself as an intellectual leader whose power came in part from her perspective as a woman
○ Died in a shipwreck in 1850○ Most famous feminist work: Woman in the Nineteenth
Century (1844)
The Oneida Community● Established in upstate New York, 1848, by John Humphrey
Noyes● Residents called themselves “Perfectionists”● Rejected traditional notions of marriage and family● Noyes declared that all residents were “married” to all the other
residents- there were no permanent conjugal ties● The community carefully monitored sexual behavior● Women were to be protected from unwanted childbearing● Children were raised communally, often seeing little of their
parents● Took pride in what they considered the liberation of their
women from the demands of male “lust” and the traditional bonds of family
The Shakers
● Redefined traditional sexuality and gender roles central to their society
● Founded by “Mother” Ann Lee in the 1770s● Survived into the 20th century (a small few still exist today)● Attracted a large following the antebellum period- established
more than 20 communities throughout the Northeast and Northwest in the 1840s
● Derived their name from a unique religious ritual, a sort of ecstatic dance, in which members of a congregation would “shake” themselves free of sin while performing a loud chant
The Shakers (Cont.)
● Complete celibacy, nobody could be born to shakerism, they had to choose the faith voluntarily
● Attracted about 6,000 members in the 1840s- more women than men
● Members lived in conditions in which contact between men and women was very limited
● Openly endorsed the idea of sexual equality● Embraced the idea God was not clearly male nor female● Women exercised the most power● Mother Ann Lee was succeeded by Mother Lucy Wright● A refuge from the “perversions of marriage” and the “gross
abuses which drag it down”
The Mormons
Joseph Smith
● Mormonism began in upstate New York as a result of the efforts by Joseph Smith○ Young, energetic, economically unsuccessful○ Spent most of his 24 years moving through New England
and the Northeast○ 1830 published the Book of Mormon, named for the
ancient prophet who he claimed had written it■ Smith said it was a translation of a set of golden
tablets he had found in the hills of New York, revealed to him by an angel of God
Joseph Smith (Cont.)■ Told the story of an ancient and successful
civilization in America, peopled by one of the lost tribes of Israel who had found their way to the New World centuries before Columbus● Its members waited patiently for the
appearance of Messiah ● They were rewarded when Jesus came to
America after his resurrection● Subsequent generations strayed from the path
of righteousness that Jesus had laid out for them
Joseph Smith (Cont.)● The civilization collapsed and God punished
the sinful by making their skin dark● These darkened people were the descendant of
the American Indians, although the modern tribes had no memory of their origins
● Though the Hebrew Kingdom in America vanished, Smith believed its history as a righteous society could serve as a model for a new holy community in the United States
A community of “saints”● 1831 Smith gathered a community around him and began
searching for a sanctuary for his new community of ‘saints” (an effort that would continue for 20 years)
● They attempted to establish a New Jerusalem many times, but many times they were persecuted by surrounding communities for their radical religious doctrines ○ Polygamy○ A rigid form of social organization○ Intense secrecy which allowed for wild rumors
● Once driven from their original settlements in Independence Missouri, and Kirtland, Ohio, the Mormons moved to Nauvoo, Illinois which was an economically successful community in the 1840s
Joseph’s End
● 1844 Joseph Smith was arrested, charged with treason (allegedly conspired against the government to win foreign support for a new Mormon colony in the Southwest)
● Was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois, where an angry mob attacked the jail, forced Smith from his cell, and shot and killed him.
● The Mormons abandoned Nauvoo and under the leadership of his successor Brigham Young travelled across the desert- a society of 12,000 people, one of the largest single group migrations in American history- and established a new community in Utah, the present Salt Lake City. There they created a long lasting settlement.
What is Mormonism?
● Mormonism reflected a belief in human perfectibility● The church taught that God had once been a man and thus every
man and woman should strive to be a saint● The Mormons did not embrace the doctrine of the individual
liberty● Created a highly organized, centrally directed, almost
militarized social structure● Emphasized the structure of family● Mormon religious rituals included a process in which men and
women went through baptism ceremonies in the name of deceased ancestors which as a result would reunite them with their ancestors in heaven
