American Romanticism 1800 1860 Historical Timeline 1800 U

American Romanticism 1800 -1860

Historical Timeline 1800 -U. S. Population 5. 3 million ► 1803 -Louisiana Purchase ► § “Manifest Destiny” § Lewis and Clark Expedition War of 1812 ► 1814 -The Star Spangled Banner ► 1820 -Missouri Compromise ► 1830 -Underground Railroad ► 1840 -U. S. Pop. 17. 1 million ►

Diaspora ► 1860 A treaty was signed with the Nez Perces Indians led by Chief Joseph (Thunder Rolling in the Mountains). He did not recognize the treaty.

Washington Irving 1783 - 1859 Foremost New York Satirist

Rip Van Winkle Published in 1820

The Journey Motif “Romantic writers thought the city was far from the seat of civilization, but rather, a place of moral ambiguity and, worse, of corruption and death. ”

Romanticism ► Originated in Germany ► Valued feelings, intuition, and imagination ► Reacted against rationalism ► Valued poetry above all other works ► Drew lessons from the natural world

An American Romantic Novel By James Fenimore Cooper 1823

Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero ► Youthful ► Innocent ► Honorable ► Common Sense ► Loves Nature ► Avoids Cities ► Quest for higher truth ► Uneasy around opposite sex

Fireside Poets ►William Cullen Bryant ►Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ►John Greenleaf Whittier ►Oliver Wendell Holmes ►James Russell Lowell

William Cullen Bryant 1794 -1878 Recognized as the “Father of American Poetry”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 -1882 “Old Chestnuts”

John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 -1892

“Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll”

Oliver Wendell Holmes 1809 -1894

“Old Ironsides” The U. S. S. Constitution

James Russell Lowell 1782 -1861 “Be NOBLE! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. ”

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Social and Cultural Aspects of the 19 th Century ► Folk Music and Ballads § § § § Amazing Grace America Pop Goes the Weasel Jingle Bells Oh, Susanna Billy Boy, Billy Boy Camp-town Races Blow the Man Down The Yellow Rose of Texas I’ve Been Working on the Railroad Arkansas Traveler Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair Home Sweet Home Jack Crack Corn

Cult of Domesticity ► ► ► Men and Women occupied separate spheres. Womanhood was defined as piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. Middle class, no longer agrarian due to urbanization and industrialization Men were “breadwinners. ” Nuclear family was “backbone. ” Men were deemed intellectually superior, but women were said to be morally or spiritually superior. “Sit not with another in a place that is too narrow; read not out of the same book; let not your eagerness to see anything induce you to place your head close to another person’s. ” —The Young Woman’s Friend by Eliza Farrar

Common Foods ► ► Sample bill of fare for middle-class home meals, Philadelphia 1853: In the days before home freezers and rapid transit, suggested family menus were grouped by season and presented for each day. Breakfast would have been served between 8 -9 AM. ► Dinner would have been the main meal of the day, served sometime between noon and three. Tea would have been a light meal (at that time this meal was often called supper) before retiring. "Bill of Fare. Winter. Monday. Breakfast. Corn bread, cold bread, stew, boiled ► eggs. Dinner. Soup, cold joint, calves' head, vegetables. Dessert. Puddings, &c. Tea. Cold bread, milk toast, stewed fruit. Tuesday. Breakfast. Hot cakes, cold bread, sausages, fried ► potatoes. Dinner. Soup, roast turkey, cranberry sauce, boiled ham, vegetables. Dessert. Pie &c. Tea. Corn bread, cold bread, stewed oysters. Wednesday. ► Breakfast. Hot bread, cold bread, chops, omelet. Dinner. Boiled mutton, stewed liver, vegetables. Dessert. Pudding, &c. Tea. Hot light bread, cold bread, fish, stewed fruit. Thursday. Breakfast. Hot cakes, cold bread, sausages, fried potatoes. Dinner. Soup, poultry, cutlets, vegetables. Dessert. Custards and stewed fruit. Tea. Corn bread, cold bread, frizzled beef, stewed fruits, or soused calves' feet. Friday. Breakfast. Hot bread, cold bread, chops, omelet. Dinner. Soup, fish, roast mutton and currant jelly, vegetables. Dessert. Pudding, &c. Tea. Hot light bread, cold bread, stewed fruit. Saturday. Breakfast. , Hot bread, a nice hash, fried potatoes. Dinner. Soup, roast veal, steaks, oyster pie, vegetables. Dessert. Custards. Tea. Corn bread, cold bread, stewed oysters. Sunday. Breakfast. Cold bread, croquets, omelet. Dinner. Roast pig, apple sauce, steaks, vegetables. Dessert. Pie, jelly. Tea. Cold bread, stewed fruit, light cake. "

American Language Noah Webster 1758 -1843 Webster’s purpose was “to reform the abuses and corruption which …the conversation of the polite part of Americans…and especially to render the pronunciation…accurate and uniform by demolishing those obvious distinctions of provincial dialects. ”

American Renaissance The Five Great 19 th Century Writers The Flowering of America The Boys’ Club

The Early American Feminist Movement Margaret Fuller Dorthea Dix

Ralph Waldo Emerson ► Philosopher ► Lecturer ► Essayist ► Transcendentalist ► Optimist ► Power of the Individual ► Transparent Eyeball

Emerson’s Writings “Self- Reliance” Nature

Concord, Massachusetts Emerson’s Home

Henry David. Thoreau Emerson’s Protégé ► Built his own house ► Went to live in the wood on July 4 th 1845 ► Wanted to simplify his life to find out what was essential ► Went to jail for refusing to pay taxes ► Wrote Walden and Civil Disobedience ►

Walden

Inside Thoreau’s House

Edgar Allan Poe • Dark Romantic • A life of tragedy • Bitter quarrel with foster father • Attended West Point • Editor and Critic • Detective story • Famous for horror stories • Struggled with alcohol and depression

Poe’s Works

Nathaniel Hawthorne • Ancestor was a judge in Salem Witch Trials • Added “W” to spelling of last name • Wrote in his “dismal chamber” for 12 years • Married Sophia Peabody • Lived at Brook Farm • Wrote Twice Told Tales and The Scarlet Letter • Became friends with Melville • Worked at Salem Customhouse • Friends with President Pierce

Herman Melville “A whale ship was my Yale College and My Harvard. ”