1820’s, 1830’s, 1840’s and 1850’s National Literature
Knickerbocker Group – literary artists based in New York who created writings that were truly American and gave America’s its 1st literary footing in the world as a direct result of 1) post-war nationalism and 2) city no longer in a survival mentality
Washington Irving / James Fenimore Cooper / William Cullen Bryant
Rip Van Winkle
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Sketch Book
Knickerbocker’s History of New York / The Spy
The Leatherstocking Tales
Natty Bumppo / Thanatopsis
1st to gain international fame around 1819/1820 / 1st American novelist around 1821 / 1st High quality American poem around 1817
Transcendentalists 1825-1850)–centered around New England denied that all knowledge comes to the mind through the senses BUT they thought truth “transcends” the senses and can not be observed alone. Additionally, they feel that every person has an inner light that can illuminate the highest truth and put them in direct touch with God.
  1. Believed in individualism in religious and social matters
  2. Self- reliance
  3. Self-culture
  4. Self-discipline
  5. Thus creating an hostility to formal institutions and authority
  6. Exalt dignity of individual (black or white) – led to reforms

Ralph Waldo Emerson / Henry David Thoreau / Walt Whitman
“The American Scholar” / Walden: Or Life in the Woods
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience / Leaves of Grass
  1. Poet and Philosopher
  2. Expressed America to be self-reliant, self-improving, self-confident, optimistic, and freedom
  3. Critic of slavery
/
  1. Poet, writer, mystic and non-conformist
  2. Individualist
  3. Anti-slavery – refused to MA poll tax
  4. Inspired Gandhi and MLK
/
  1. Showed a love for the American masses and encapsulated the enthusiasm of America

Great Antebellum Writers Not Associated with Transcendentalists
(Importance is that these are American Writers expressing American thoughts)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Harvard) / Evangeline, The Song of Hiawatha, The Courtship of Miles Standish
All poems based on American themes and even honored by the British in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey
Greenleaf Whittier / Poet who tried to influence social action in American through his writings by criticizing inhumnanity, injustice and intolerance in America
Leading antislavery writer
James Russell Lowell
(Harvard) / Biglow Papers (poem)
Criticized the Mexican War and how it was a war to spread slavery across the South (another social activitist through his writing)
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes
(Harvard) / Nonconformist poet
Wrote “The Last Leaf”
Louisa May Alcott / Little Women
Grew up in MA and surrounded by transcendentalist beliefs
Emily Dickinson / Poet
Grew up in MA and surrounded by transcendentalist beliefs
William Gilmore Simms
(Great Southern Poet, only one!!!)
“Cooper of the South” / Novelists
Wrote about the southern frontier during colonial times and the South during the Revolutionary War
Writers Not Associated With Transcendentalists, Optimism or Social Progress but Most Definitely American
Edgar Allan Poe / Nathaniel Hawthorne / Herman Melville
The Raven
The Gold Bug
The Fall of the House of Usher / The Scarlet Letter
The Marble Faun / Tales of the South Seas
Moby Dick
  1. Morbid poet scarred by his difficult childhood married life
  2. At odds with the optimism of other poets
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  1. Writings that expressed the never-ending struggle between good and evil and the good did not necessary win
/
  1. Drew upon his adventures on a whaling ship around the world
  2. Jaded prose that was not optimistic

American Historians– 1st time – Written by New Englanders – Skewed version of U.S. History
George Bancroft / William H. Prescott
Artistic Achievements in Antebellum America
Architecture / Paintings/Sculptures / Music
Thomas Jefferson / Gilbert Stuart / Charles Wilson Peale / John Trumbull / Stephen Foster
Monticello and University of Virginia
–Greek Revivalism / Portraits of Washington – idealized and dehumanized / Painted sixty portraits of Washington / Painted scenes of the Revolutionary War, patriotic spirit of U.S. events, and landscapes of U.S. / Captured the simple lives and music of slaves – “Old Folks at Home”
Scientific Achievements in Antebellum America – American interested in practical gadgets than pure science theory
Name / Area of Science / Known for…?
Thomas Jefferson / Agriculture / New type of plow
Nathaniel Bowdicth / Maritime / Practical Navigation
Matthew Maury / Maritime / Ocean winds and currents
Benjamin Silliman / Sciences / Pioneer chemist and geologist
Professor Asa Gray / Education / New standards for textbooks
John J. Audobon / Nature / Birds of America
Researched and painted bids and Audubon Society named after him
Sylvester Graham / Medicine / Morality and healthy eating

What is the historical significance of the antebellum artists, writers, musicians, etc.