Nationalism versus Sectionalism

  • IN 1803, THE LOUISIANNA’S PURCHASE DOUBLED THE SIZE
  • SETTLERS MOVED FOR LARGELY PRACTICAL REASONS: TO MAKE MONEY AND TO GAIN LAND
  • THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT OF 1830
  • TEXAS WAS ANNEXED FROM MEXICO BY THE U.S. IN 1845
  • MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR
  • The stories and essays of the romantic period reflect an enormous shift in theattitudes and working habits of many anmericans.
  • The Industrial Revolution began changing the country from a largely agrarian economy to an industrial powerhouse.
  • The factory system changed the way of life for many americans,but not always for the better.
  • People left their farms for the cities,working long hours for low wages in harsh conditions
  • Writers during this period reacted to the negative effects of industrialization
  • The commercialism, hectic pace, and lack of conscience by turning to nature and to the self for simolicity, truth, and beauty
  • Family’s were often sold away from each other
  • Southern farmers had few or no slaves but aspired to southern farmers felt they needed slaves for the increased of profits.
  • For slaves life was brutal
  • Men, children, and women slaves rose before down to began work until bedtime.
  • Many slaves were brutally beater or abused.
  • Many slaves often attempted to escape with on another but rarely succeeded.
  • Between the north and south tension had increased over slavery
  • In the north many saw slavery as immoral and worked to see it abolished
  • Many people worried about the balance between slaves and there freedom.

Began by the resettlement of blacks in Africa.

· In the 19th century William Cullen and James Russell Lowell were prominent abolitionists who supported workers and women's rights.

· White can blacks joined together and formed societies and spoke at conventions.

· Congress was overloaded with petitions to end slavery

· In 1830 and 1840’s worker protested against low wages and working conditions.

· That made a way for immigrants to take their places.

· Workers formed unions that started to improve.

· Women in the early 19 century couldn’t even vote or sit during court trials.

· When women had gotten married, they dedicated their life to their property and money.

· Throughout this period of time they worked for change. In 1848 at Seneca, New York, to continue to fight for women’s rights.

  • Nationalism – the belief that nation interest should be placed ahead of regional concerns or the interest of other countries.
  • Sectionalism – or the placing of the interests of one’s own region ahead of the nation as a whole, began to talk hold.
  • Federal government had more power than the state.
  • John Quincy Adams established foreign policy guided by nationalism
  • Writers of this age forged a literature entirely the nations own.
  • Nationalism was challenged by the question of slavery
  • Tariffs on manufactured goods from Britain for southerners to buy more expensive northern manufactured goods.

The Fireplace Poets

  1. Uplifting and romantic
  2. got its name from families sitting at the fire reading poetry
  3. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  4. Most well known of the group
  5. His writing were about the better parts of American history
  6. these poets were interested in more modern ideas
  7. women’s rights
  8. factory conditions
  9. temperance
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, a New England writer led a group practicing transcendentalism.
  • Transcendentalism-a philosophical and literary movement that emphasized living a simple life and celebrating the truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination.
  • Transcendentalism exalts the dignity of the individual; the transcendentalist stressed the American ideas of optimism, freedom, and self-reliance.
  • The term Transcendentalism came from Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher who wrote of “transcendent forms”
  • Romanticism was influenced by the literature of another continent rather than their own. Romanticism first emerged in Europe in the late 18th century. Romantics looked to nature for inspiration. Romantics celebrated emotions and the imagination. Romantics reacted to the Age of Reason and Puritanism. They reflected their modern sensibilities. William Cullen Bryant’s 1817 poem “Thanatopsis” went a long way toward establishing romanticism as the major force in the literature of mid-19th century America. Washington Irving, the first American writer esteemed abroad, pioneered the short story. He influenced Nathanial Hawthorne. James Fenimore Cooper is remembered for writing the first original American novel. He wrote The Leatherstocking Tales.

American Gothic

ImportantPeople:

  • EdgarAllen Poe
  • NathanielHawthorne
  • Herman Melville

These peopleareknown to be "brooding "romantics or "anti-transcendentalists." The wrote about the human capacity for foe evil.

Important Info:

  • did not believe in the innate goodness of people
  • probed the inner life of characters
  • explored characters motivation
  • agreed with romantic emphasis on emotion, nature, and the individual
  • included elements of fantasy and the supernatural in works

Poe and Hawthorne and to a lesser extent Melville used Gothic elements like grotesque characters. weird situations, and violent events in there