Imagination and the Individual: American Romanticism 1800 1860 By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Americans had forged an independent nation, but they had not yet created their own cultural identity. A new generation of writers, who called themselves Romantics and Transcendentalists, created a new kind of literature that emphasized imagination, feeling, individualism, and enthusiasm for nature. In many ways this literature reflected the optimism of American society at the time and defined the way we still view ourselves today. KEY CONCEPTS The Nation Expands New Ideas Take Root Differences Threaten National Unity History of the Times The United States rapidly expanded westward after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. A spirit of nationalism took hold as America grew and prospered. Industrialization and new waves of immigration caused cities to become overcrowded and polluted as conditions worsened. Literature of the Times During the Romantic period, a new national literature developed. Romanticism, unlike rationalism, valued feelings over reason and logic, the power of imagination and the individual spirit, and the beauty of the natural world. History of the Times Inspired by an awakening of intellectual and religious fervor, American reformers worked to improve society. They fought for better education, humane prisons, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, improved factory conditions, and other social reforms. Literature of the Times An idealistic form of Romanticism, called Transcendentalism, sought to transcend, or go beyond, ordinary life through spiritual experiences in nature. Transcendentalists believed that to discover truth, one must transcend or see beyond the physical world and seek out the ideal world. History of the Times Despite progress and prosperity, the United States felt the pull of conflicts over slavery, sectional differences, and economics. These struggles laid the groundwork for the Civil War. Friction with Native Americans also became a troubling issue as white settlers encroached on native lands. Literature of the Times Another group of writers, known as Dark Romantics, explored the conflict between good and evil, the effects of guilt, and the dark underside of appearances. Unlike other Romantics, these writers did not believe that the spiritual truths found in nature are all harmless and good. KEY CONCEPT The Nation Expands History of the Times The size of the United States doubled at the beginning of the nineteenth century. When the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 added land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, a new era of westward expansion began. Routes such as the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail brought a flood of settlers to the West a mass migration that intensified with the Gold Rush of 1849. Thousands of
Americans picked up and headed west, lured by dreams of wealth after gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California. At the same time, a nationalist 1 spirit flourished in America, reflecting an optimistic belief in the nation's progress. The Industrial Revolution was changing the way people worked and lived. Americans saw what they could produce with the help of machines such as steam engines and mills. Transportation, communication, and commerce would never be the same. America was on the move. With the rise of industry, cities became grimy, and the arrival of new immigrants caused overcrowding. By 1840, the U.S. population had grown to 17.1 million, up from 5.3 million in 1800. In New York alone, the population doubled between 1820 and 1840. In large eastern cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, teeming tenements sprang up, while disease and crime made survival difficult. Literature of the Times The Romantic movement was in large part a reaction to rationalism. Romanticism provided expression for the discontent arising from the Industrial Revolution, which sought progress at all costs. To rationalists, such as Benjamin Franklin, cities represented progress, economic success, and selfrealization. To Romantic writers, the city was often a place of immorality, corruption, and death. The characteristic Romantic journey was to the countryside, which Romantics associated with independence, moral clarity, and healthful living. Romanticism was in many ways an appropriate vision for a nation expanding quickly toward new frontiers. Comprehension Check How did the United States expand both geographically and culturally during the early nineteenth century? Fast Facts Political and Social Highlights Rapid growth of industrialization, education, transportation, and cities transforms society. Numerous reform movements, centered in New England, seek to improve social conditions. Discontent over slavery intensifies as the abolitionist movement gains momentum. Literary Highlights Romantic writings, such as Washington Irving s The Sketch Book (1820), look to feeling and imagination to reveal higher truths. Ralph Waldo Emerson s first collection of essays (1841) discusses Transcendentalist thought. Edgar Allan Poe, an influential Gothic writer, publishes The Raven and Other Poems in 1845. KEY CONCEPT New Ideas Take Root
Girls' Evening School (c. 1840) by unidentified artist, American. Graphite pencil and watercolor on paper, 34.3 45.9 cm (13 1/2" 18 1/16"). Photograph 2009 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. History of the Times An era of reform took hold in the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1826, the Lyceum movement began in Millbury, Massachusetts. Lyceum organizations pursued a number of goals, including educating adults, training teachers, establishing museums, and instituting social reforms. The reform movement was also centered in New England. Horace Mann fought to improve public education. Dorothea Dix sought to relieve the horrible conditions in institutions for people with mental illnesses. William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists struggled to put an end to slavery. Feminists such as Elizabeth Peabody, Margaret Fuller, and Emma Willard campaigned for women's rights. The abounding interest in social causes stirred up ideas both reasonable and crackpot. Numerous utopian projects plans for creating a more perfect society were developed. In 1840, Ralph Waldo Emerson wryly remarked that every man who could read had plans in his pocket for a new community. Emerson was speaking from personal experience, for he was a member of one of the most influential of these idealistic groups, the Transcendentalists. Literature of the Times At the heart of America s optimism and coming-of-age were a group of Romantics called the Transcendentalists, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Transcendentalism refers to the idea that in determining the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond, everyday human experience in the physical world. For Emerson, Transcendentalism was not a new philosophy but the very oldest of thoughts cast into the mold of these new times. That oldest of thoughts was idealism, which had already been explained by the Greek philosopher Plato in the fourth century B.C. Idealists said that true reality was found in ideas rather than in the world as perceived by the senses. Idealists sought the permanent reality that underlies physical appearances. The Americans who called themselves Transcendentalists were idealists but in a broader, more practical sense. Like many Americans today, they also believed in human perfectibility, and they worked to achieve this goal. Though Emerson was skeptical of many of the Transcendentalists ideas and projects, he was the most influential and best-known member of the group, largely because of his lectures and books. Emerson s view of the world sprang not from logic but from intuition. Intuition is our capacity to know things spontaneously and immediately through our emotions rather than our reasoning abilities. Intuitive thought the kind that Emerson believed in contrasts with the rational thinking of someone like Benjamin Franklin. Franklin did not gaze on nature and feel the presence of a Divine Soul; Franklin looked at nature and saw something to be examined scientifically and used to help humanity.
An intense feeling of optimism was one product of Emerson's belief that we can find God directly in nature. God is good, and God works through nature, Emerson believed. Therefore, even the events that seem most tragic disease, death, disaster can be explained on a spiritual level. Death is simply part of the cycle of life. According to Emerson, we are capable of evil because we are separated from a direct, intuitive knowledge of God. But if we simply trust ourselves that is, trust in the power each of us has to know God directly then we will realize that each of us is also part of the Divine Soul, the source of all good. Emerson's sense of optimism and hope appealed to audiences who lived in a period of economic downturns, regional strife, and conflict over slavery. Your condition today, Emerson seemed to tell his readers and listeners, may seem dull and hopeless, but it need not be. If you discover God within you, he suggested, your lives will partake of the grandeur of the universe. Comprehension Check How would reformers and writers in the Romantic Age describe an ideal society? Link to Today Factory Girl No record exists today of the name of this girl, who worked in a mill around 1850. Jack Naylor Collection. She was only ten years old and couldn't even reach the top of the loom, but Harriet Robinson was already a factory worker in a textile mill. In 1824, the mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, badly needed workers, and Harriet was one of many young girls who flocked to the factory for jobs. She worked there for fourteen years. Today, laws protect children under the age of fourteen from employment and entitle them to a free public education. In the early 1800s, however, children did not have these rights and protections. In the early nineteenth century, child labor was common in New England mill towns because the mills could hire unskilled children with the oversight of a supervisor. Like Harriet, some of the girls working in textile mills were as young as ten, although most were sixteen to twenty-five. Many were earning money to send a brother to school. Along with other young girls, Harriet was a "doffer." She doffed, or took off, bobbins full of yarn from the spinning frames and replaced them with empty bobbins. The girls earned two dollars a week and worked fourteen-hour days, though the younger girls worked only a portion of every hour. One of the first labor strikes in America occurred at Lowell in 1836. The strike, which protested a wage cut, was unsuccessful, but it marked the rise of a labor movement that led to better working conditions and wages for all. Over a century later, in 1938, a federal law was passed to limit child labor. Ask Yourself For most people, how is today's workplace different than it was in Harriet's time? KEY CONCEPT Differences Threaten National Unity History of the Times Despite the progress and optimism that marked the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States faced a number of challenges. In the forefront was the issue of slavery. Though most Northern states had abolished slavery by the early 1800s, the number of slaves in the South increased as cotton plantations spread throughout the region. After working for abolition in their own states, many antislavery activists in the North wanted to put an end to slavery everywhere.
By 1840, abolitionists had recruited some 200,000 supporters to their cause. In addition, many free African Americans began organizing to free their "brothers in chains." As Southern slaveholders felt increasingly threatened, violence against abolitionists rose. Discord over this issue eventually erupted into an armed conflict: the Civil War. Another challenge to peace and stability involved the treatment of Native Americans. In the early 1800s, many U.S. officials hoped that Native Americans would become farmers and blend into American society. Many Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee people, were forced to give up their way of life to take up farming and other livelihoods considered acceptable by the dominant white culture. However, these efforts to adopt the lifestyle of their white neighbors did not ease the prejudice that Native Americans encountered. Those who switched to farming found themselves viewed as competition for valuable land. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, relocating Native Americans to territories now known as Oklahoma. The Cherokee were forcibly removed from their land. An estimated 4,000 Cherokee died on the 800-mile journey west that came to be known as the Trail of Tears. Comprehension Check What reaction did the Cherokee experience after making the transition to farming? Link to Today Environmental Pioneers When you hear the words "going green," you might not think of the nineteenth-century writers Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, yet their deep respect for nature is at the very core of today's environmental movement. For Thoreau and Emerson, it all began with concerns about the impact of industrialization on the nature and society. Thoreau and Emerson continue to inspire today's conservation leaders and activists who seek to preserve a healthy environment, both for its own sake and for its part in the survival of humankind. As a result, you might see quotes like these from Thoreau or Emerson on a nature poster or brochure for a conservation group: "Behind nature, throughout nature, spirit is present." Emerson "In wildness is the preservation of the world." Thoreau Emerson and Thoreau may not have been out marching on behalf of endangered species, but their writings were among the earliest to call attention to the necessity of protecting America's natural treasures. Ask Yourself Explain in your own words what you think Emerson and Thoreau are saying in the quotations above. Do you think people today would find these slogans persuasive enough to change their attitudes? Why or why not?
Literature of the Times Emerson's idealism was exciting for his audiences, but not all the writers and thinkers of the time agreed with Transcendentalist thought. "To one who has weathered Cape Horn as a common sailor," Herman Melville wrote scornfully of Emerson's ideas, "what stuff all this is." Some think of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe as anti-transcendentalists, because their views of the world seem so profoundly opposed to the optimistic views of Emerson and his followers. But these Dark Romantics, as they are known, had much in common with the Transcendentalists. Both groups valued intuition over logic and reason. Both groups, like the Puritans before them, saw signs and symbols in all events. The Trail of Tears (1838) by Robert Lindneux. The Granger Collection, New York. The Dark Romantics felt that Emerson had taken the ecstatic, mystical 2 elements of Puritan thought and ignored Puritanism's dark side its emphasis on Original Sin, its sense of the innate wickedness of human beings, and its notions of predestination. 3 The Dark Romantics came along to correct the balance. In their works they explored the conflict between good and evil, the psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness in the human psyche. Wrap Up Talk About... With a partner, list conflicts that developed as the United States expanded in the nineteenth century. Are there similar conflicts in this country today? Explain. Try to use each Academic Vocabulary word listed on the next page at least once in your discussion.