The Romantic Impulse - 1800s

Romanticism in Europe

Romanticism

➢ Response to the Enlightenment➢ Emphasis on feelings, exploration of human spirit➢ Emotions over reason

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National

Cultural Aspirations

National Cultural Aspirations

➢ American Industrial Revolution➢ Population growth due to economic growth and immigration➢ Manifest Destiny➢ NationalismImprovements in transportation, communication, manufacturing and efficiency.

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American Paintings

Nationalism➢ “Sublime” paintings of

American landscapes to invoke a sense of awe in the viewer

➢ Europeans art better than Americans’ (?)

Nationalism and Romanticism in American Paintings

Romanticism➢ Aesthetics based on

emotion and nature (“picturesque”)

➢ Romanticising/idealizing American west to escape the quickly urbanizing areas (soph)

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Hudson River School

➢ Thomas Cole “founder”➢ Term used to describe the group of artists during

the 1850s ￫ Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand,

Albert Bierstadt￫ George Inness

➢ Declined in 1900 when everyone died

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Niagara Falls from the American side - Frederic Church

➢ Completed 1867➢ One of Church’s largest

paintings➢ Expressing the constant

motion of the falls rushing down

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American Music

American Music

➢ Inspired by European Romantic music￫ Anthony Philip Heinrich, John Knowles Paine,

George Frederick Bristow, Edward McDowell...➢ Inspiration from Native American melodies

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American Literature

““ So you’re the little woman

who wrote the book that made this great war!”

- Abraham Lincoln

James Fenimore Cooper➢ Fascination of wilderness

and emphasis on adventure and suspense

➢ The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

➢ The Deerslayer (1841)

Cooper and the American Wilderness

Leatherstocking tales➢ Cooper’s most famous

novels➢ Nationalism through

American spirit and landscape

➢ Showed the possible “disorder” of the West

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Quest for Liberation

Walter Whitman➢ Founded the Long Islander ➢ Leaves of Grass (1855)➢ Pushed for individualism

and also different poem structure

Sir Walter Scott➢ British but was popular in

America

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““ So you’re the little woman

who wrote the book that made this great war!”

- Abraham Lincoln

Edgar Allen Poe

➢ Sad and macabre stuff➢ Individual exploring spirit and emotions only to

discover lots of pain and horror➢ Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827)➢ “The Raven” (1845)➢ Influenced some European poets

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Herman Melville

Herman Melville

➢ Ran away as a kid➢ Moby Dick (1851)

￫ Dark sides of finding personal fulfillment, human spirit is troubled

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American LiteratureIn the Antebellum South

Romanticism and Nationalism in Southern Literature

Romanticism

➢ Beverly Tucker, William Alexander Caruthers, and John Pendleton Kennedy

➢ Romanticised the south’s plantation life.

Nationalism

➢ William Gilmore Simms wrote novels in the 1840s and eventually expressed an emphasis and defensive position on southern institutions.

Realism

➢ Rural southerners wrote about common people

➢ Vulgar humor and realistic

➢ Augustus B. Longstreet, JOseph G. Baldwin, and Johnson J. Hooper

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HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

&Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Life

- American author and abolitionist

- Born June 11, 1811

- Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin described the harsh conditions that enslaved African Americans lived in.

- Deeply religious;claimed her book came in visions from God

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Inspiration- Book emerged out of the abolitionist movement

- The Fugitive Slave Act → forced Northerners to face the moral issue of slavery as they had to participate in returning runaway slaves.

- Stowe’s theory of Christ being a “humble sufferer” representing the burdens of the lowest member of society → Uncle Tom (a slave) represented Christ in the book.

- Death of her son Charlie → allowed her to relate to slave mothers whose children often separated from them.

Book- The book is about Uncle Tom, a slave who is

sold from a nice family to a vicious slave master Simon Legree

- Another story line depicts Eliza, a slave who escapes to the north with her son to meet her husband

- Book first appeared as installments in the National Era, starting June 5th 1851

- Published as a book in 1852

Impact- Book sold over 300,000 copies in a year, and was made into a play →

spread its embedded anti-slavery message to an enormous audience

- It fueled northern hostility towards the Fugitive Act, which she named an “unchristened” law.

- Exposed the harsh reality of slavery, destroying the southern myth of a “benevolent institution”

- Inflamed sectional tensions between the North and South.

- Caused many people to decide slavery was abomination, that it had to be destroyed (even with war)

““ So you’re the little woman

who wrote the book that made this great war!”

- Abraham Lincoln

This is a June 5th, 1851 issue of the National Era, an abolitionist paper of the 19th century. In this particular issue, the first installment of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was released to the public. I chose this primary source because it shows how American citizens would have first read the famous abolitionist story that Lincoln credited as “the book that made this great war!” (referring to the civil war).

Southern Romanticism

Nathaniel Beverley Tucker1784 – 1851. Author of The Partisan Leader, and George Balcombe,

which Edgar Allen Poe would later call the “best American novel”.

William Alexander Caruthers1802–1846. Author of The Kentuckian In New York, which dealt

with skepticism on slavery.

John Pendleton Kennedy1795 – 1870. Author of Swallow Barn/A Sojourn in the Old

Dominion, which details the Virginia plantation lifestyle he

experienced as a youth.

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William Gilmore Simms

1806 – 1870.

Fearful of "Northern encroachment" on southern

culture and tradition. Expressed a broad nationalism,

very strong defender of southern institutions (including

slavery). Believed there was a unique quality to

southern life, and intellectuals had a duty to defend it.

Author of The Yemassee; The Lily and the Totem, and

The Cassique of Kiawah, the latter being called some of

his greatest work, the setting being South Carolina.

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Much of the literature was more generally American, sometimes more about the rural backwoods areas, and ordinary/poor people. Many stories were less romantic and more painfully realistic. A number of them included vulgar humor that was not often seen in American literature.

Augustus Baldwin Longstreet1790 – 1870. Author of Georgia Scenes, which entailed humorous sketches set in Georgia, where he grew up.

Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain)1835 - 1910. Author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which are considered American classics for their heavy detail and themes of racism.

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vs.

The Transcendentalists

- A group of New England writers and philosophers

- Transcendentalists borrowed heavily from the German philosophers Kant Hegel and Schelling, and English writers Coleridge and Carlyle.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller were all transcendentalist leaders and authors.

Important People

Beliefs and Theories- Were inspired by romanticism which glorified nature, emotion, and

imagination.- Belief that the spiritual world is superior (or “transcends” ) the

physical world.- They believed reason had little to do with rationality, but rather an

individual's ability to grasp truth and beauty by submitting fully to instincts and emotions.

- Focused on personal beliefs and the strength of an individual's standards.

- Stressed a human connection with nature, and the divine (god). - Believed that every human being has the same natural potential

regardless of race, gender or class- Feared the impact of new capitalist enthusiasm on the integrity of the

natural world-

- Promoted the idea of universal equality- Were dissatisfied treatment of Native Americans, and above all slavery.- Transcendentalism became the presiding spirit behind many social reforms and

movements- The transcendentalist philosophy helped spawn the most famous 19th century

experiments in communal living.- Helped set terms for being an intellectual in America. - Were among the first to anticipate the environmental movement of the 20th

century.They had no scientific basis for their defence of the wilderness but they believed in the essential unity between human and nature

- Contributed to the growing American spirit of democracy, nationalism, and individualism

Impact

Spiritual UnityAn essential unity between humans and nature. Humans without nature would lose humanity.

Defense of Nature

Source of Human InspirationAs shown by the paintings at the time (of American landscapes), nature was a source of inspiration, not just economic.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life- Leader of the small group of intellectuals in Concord, MA

where Transcendentalism emerged from.

- Born May 25, 1803 in Boston MA, and attended Harvard

- Left the unitarian church in 1832 to devote his life to teaching and writing the elements of Transcendentalism.

- Drew large crowds with his lectures.

- Produced renowned essays and lectures, and poetry as well.

- A committed nationalist, and advocate of American cultural independence

Theories & Literary works

- His essay “Nature”(1836) → the quest for self-fulfillment, and communion with the natural world.

- His essay “Self-Reliance” (1841) → claimed the quest for self-reliance was a search for communion with the unity of the universe, and wholeness of God

- “The American Scholar” (1837) boasted that the days of American dependence on Europe had ended.

- Each person has a natural ability to connect with the universe which related to the romantic belief in the “divinity” of the individual.

-

Impact

- Helped define Transcendentalism as a distinctly American movement

- Promoted a new American Literature, and urged literary independence from old Europe. Celebrating democracy, individual freedom, and a focus on the experiences of ordinary people.

- Contributed ideas of self-reliance, non-conformity, and independence of thought.

Thoreau&

Civil Disobedience

Theories & Literature

- Henry David Thoreau was another leading Concord transcendentalist. - Born July 12, 1817- Believed humans separated from nature would lose a substantial part of their

humanity. - He repudiated the repressive forces of society which he claimed produced lives

of “quiet-desperation”. Claimed that people should resist social pressures and follow their natural instincts.

- His most famous book Walden (1854) described his own attempts to free himself of society by building a small cabin in Concord where he lived for two years as simply as he could.

- Walden inspired the work of naturalists, environmentalists, and writers.

“I went to the woods because I wished to

live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had

not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. - Henry David Thoreau from

“Walden”

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Civil Disobedience- He went to jail in 1846 instead of agreeing to pay a toll tax.

- His essay“Resistance to Civil Government” (1849) claimed the government had no legitimate authority over an individual's morality which held first claim over a person's actions.

- He made a strong case for individuals to act upon the conscience, and not just blindly conform to the government's laws and policies.

- He argued that the proper response was “civil disobedience” which is the public refusal to obey unjust laws

- He inspired many movement leaders with “civil disobedience” , a nonviolent approach to social and political resistance.

-

Visions of Utopia

A social-political satire about a perfect society named “Utopia” (from Latin, meaning “no place”). To readers, though, it was not completely clear if it was actually a satire, and therefore had been interpreted by many as a goal to aspire to, rather than a cautionary tale. Regardless of true meaning, the idea of “Utopia” became a basis for future socialist ideals.

A wave of socialist ideals stemming from philosophers, such as Charles Fourier and Robert Owens, began to sweep and enchant Americans, causing several experimental societies to rise and fall.

Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516)

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Utopian Communities

Brook Farm, MA Established by George Ripley as an experimental

community in Massachusetts. All residents shared equally in labor and leisure. Citizens eventually became disenchanted with the small town and left. After a fire destroyed the central building, the experiment ended for certain.

Residents at Brook Farm believed manal labor helped individuals bridge the gap between the world of intellect and learning, and the world of instinct and nature.

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Nathaniel HawthorneOne of the original residents of Brook Farm, very

disillusioned with the farm, and with transcendentalism in general. He later wrote novel portraying disastrous consequences on its citizens. Hawthorne’s main job was to shovel manure. The job was so mindless, disgusting, and laborious that he grew to greatly detest it.

He wrote a letter to his then fiance that he “never suspected that farming was so hard”, and that he wanted to leave “before [his] soul [was] utterly buried in dungheap”.

He also became fed up with the fact that he had little time for writing. He tended to be a more solitary person, and a communal life was taking a strain on him emotionally. The only writing he had time for was the occasional letter or journal entry. Hawthorn left Brook Farm after only a year.

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New Harmony, IN Another experimental community, founded by George

Rapp, was to be the “Village of Cooperation”. Every resident was to work toward total equality, but, just as Brook Farm, it ended as an economic failure.

An engraving in New Harmony:

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Redefining Gender Roles in the Oneida Community

Oneida Community (1848) Established by John Humphrey Noyes. Residents called

themselves “Perfectionists”, and rejected traditional notions of marriage and family structure, and practiced Communalism.

There were no permanent conjugal ties, and Noyes encouraged, as he coined it, “Free Love”. Older women over 40 were to be “mentors” to younger men, as they had little chance of getting pregnant, and acted as religious role models for them at the same time.

Men were to practice Male Continence , to keep the population in check, and to encourage affection rather that just sexual satisfaction. Noyes believed that ejaculating for men lowered vitality and spread disease, and that childbirth for women was too strenuous on the body.

There had also been a program of selective childbirth, in order to create “perfect” children (then know as “Stripculture”). 53 children were born, all raised communally. If parents were suspected to of been bonding too much with their children, they would be required to go through a period of separation.

Women’s role was radically changed within the community. They had no responsibility to raise children, as they were raised communally. They were never subject to unwanted pregnancies, due to male continence. And they were no longer oppressed by marriage, since both husband and wife were considered equal partners. Not to mention that women had freedom in their own appearances, being allowed to wear pants and cut their hair short if they wanted to.

The decline of Oneida began when Noyes tried to pass on leadership to his son, Pierrepont, who lacked any of his father’s community and religious leadership skills.

Noyes eventually fled from America, due to threats from outside opposition to charge him with statutory rape. His final order for the Oneida community was to abandon complex marriage. The citizens, left to their own devices, eventually merged back into outside society.

Margaret Fuller

Life

- A leading Transcendentalist, women's rights activist, and colleague of Emerson

- Born May 23, 1810 in Cambridge MA

- Died a premature death in a shipwreck in 1850.

Literary Work- Women in the Nineteenth Century (1844) was a famous feminist

piece that she produced.

- She was one most responsible for raising the issue of gender

- Encouraged readers of her feminist work (especially women) to set aside conventional thinking about the role of women in society.

- Editor of the Dial, the leading transcendentalist journal.

- Fuller established herself as an intellectual leader whose power came in part from her perspective as a women.

This is Women of the Nineteenth Century, an essay written by Margaret Fuller that she published in 1844. This groundbreaking piece of feminist work was first published in an 1843 issue of The Dial, a Transcendentalist journal that she was the editor of. I chose this primary source because it is an example of the early steps taken in the feminist movement, encouraging readers to set aside conventional thinking about the role of women in society.

The Shakers

How did they come around?

- The shakers were founded by “Mother” Ann lee in the 1770’s, and was succeeded by “Mother” Lucy Wright

- They derived their name from a unique religious ritual in which members of the congregation would “shake” themselves free of sin.

- They attracted a large following during the antebellum period and established more than 20 communities throughout the NE and NW in the 1840s

- Had about 6,000 members more of which were women.

- The most distinctive feature of Shakerism was its commitment to complete celibacy. That meant no one could be born into Shakerism, people had to choose to join it voluntarily.

- They were not only motivated by the desire to escape the burdens of traditional gender roles, they also were trying to create a society separated from the chaos they believed characterized American life as a whole.

- They were more interested in social discipline than personal freedom, and rejected individual ownership

Theories

This is a drawing that was published in 1848 in David Lamsons book“Two Years’ Experience Among the Shakers”. It depicts a women in spontaneous motion expressing her spiritual awakening. We chose this source because it shows the how “shaking” was a prevalent practice in Shaker communities, and was what gave them their namesake.

- The shakers redefined traditional gender roles central to their society.

- They believed in gender equality, and embraced the idea that God was both male and female. Therefore the two sexes were spiritually equal.

- Women exercised more power in the Shaker societies. - Some described Shaker communities as refuges from the

“provisions of marriage” and the abuses within it. - They were known for social equality, and gained a reputation for

openness.

Impact

The Mormons

Theory

- Mormonism began in Upstate New York when Joseph Smith published a remarkable document the Book of Mormon

- He claimed his document was a translation of a set of golden tablets he had found in the hills of New York

- The Book of Mormon told the story of a lost tribe of Israel that had found its way to the new world long before Columbus.

- Smith believed that although the ancient hebrew civilization in America had vanished, its history as a righteous community could could serve as a model for a new holy community in the U.S.

Story

- Joseph Smith and his followers made several attempts to create their “New Jerusalem”, but were met with persecution from communities suspicious of their radical religious doctrine which included polygamy, a rigid form of social organization, and intense secrecy.

- The Mormons were driven to Nauvoo Illinois where Smith was killed

- Under Smith's successor Brigham Young, the Mormons- traveled to Utah where they created a lasting settlement, present

day Salt Lake City.

This is a map of the 1847 Mormon migration from Nauvoo Illinois to Salt Lake City Utah. The map was published in 1897 for the New Wilson European Hotel located in Salt Lake City. We chose this primary source because it shows the the 1,300 mile journey the Mormons took to escape prosecution and finally create their lasting sanctuary. Brigham Young led 12,000 people to Salt Lake, making it one of the largest single group migrations in American history.

Beliefs

- Mormonism reflected a belief in human perfectibility. God had once been a man, the church tought and therfore every man or woman And could aspire to become a saint (like Joseph Smith)

- Unlike other new communities, they did not believe in individual liberty, instead they had a highly organized, centrally directed, almost military social structure.

- Placed an emphasis on family, and their intense interest in genealogy came from their belief in the possibility of reuniting present generations with those of the past.

- The original Mormons were mostly men and women who felt displaced in their changing society, troubled by the material growth and social progress of their era.

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