american romanticism 1800–1860
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American Romanticism 1800–1860. Feature Menu. Interactive Time Line Milestone: Rise of American Romanticism Milestone: The Louisiana Purchase Milestone: Education and Reform Milestone: Transcendental Influence Milestone: The Gold Rush Milestone: The Slavery Issue What Have You Learned?. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Interactive Time Line
Milestone: Rise of American Romanticism
Milestone: The Louisiana Purchase
Milestone: Education and Reform
Milestone: Transcendental Influence
Milestone: The Gold Rush
Milestone: The Slavery Issue
What Have You Learned?
Feature Menu
American Romanticism1800–1860
1803The Louisiana Purchase
Choose a link on the time line to go to a milestone.
18201800 1840 1860
1800Rise of American Romanticism
1830s–1850sTranscendental Influence
1849The Gold Rush
1850–1859The Slavery Issue
1826Lyceum Movement
American Romanticism1800–1860
• Characteristic Romantic journey to the countryside, away from city
Reaction Against Rationalism
• Value placed on nature and exotic settings
• Cities filled with poor living conditions and disease
Rise of American Romanticism
• Poetry highest expression of imagination
Romantic Escapism
• Found beauty in exotic locales and supernatural
• Valued feelings and intuition over reason
Rise of American Romanticism
Fireside Poets
• Wrote about American settings and subject matter using traditional styles and forms
Rise of American Romanticism
• Very popular—families read their poems at family firesides for entertainment
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
John Greenleaf Whittier
Oliver Wendell Holmes
James Russell Lowell
• James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumppo is the first American heroic figure
Romantic Heroes
• Typical Romantic hero youthful, innocent intuitive, close to nature
• Frontier life idealized in novels
Rise of American Romanticism
• immediately doubled in size
Westward Expansion
• paid about four cents an acre for the land
The United States
The Louisiana Purchase
• gained all land between Mississippi River and Rocky Mountains
Louisiana Purchase
“Oh Susanna! Polka”
• More people moved into frontier areas.
Westward Expansion
• President Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore western territory.
• Louisiana purchase launched 100 years of westward expansion.
The Louisiana Purchase
• American movement founded in Massachusetts
The Lyceum Movement
• Sought to teach adults, train teachers, and institute social reforms
• Original Lyceum founded in Greece in 335 B.C.
Education and Reform
• Lyceums led to new ways of thinking and the establishment of museums and libraries.
The Lyceum Movement
• Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the most popular speakers.
• People went to lyceums for lectures.
Emerson lecturing in Concord, Massachusetts
Education and Reform
• Abolitionists worked to end slavery.
Other Reform Movements
• Horace Mann worked to improve public education.
• Dorothea Dix worked to help mentally ill people.
• Feminists campaigned for women’s rights
Education and Reform
Dorothea Dix Horace Mann
• Intuition allows people to behold God’s spirit revealed in nature or in their own souls.
True Reality Is Spiritual
• Physical facts of natural world are a doorway to spiritual world.
• Everything, including humans, is a reflection of Divine Soul.
• Spontaneous feelings are superior to intellectualism and rationality.
Transcendental Influence
• Optimism appealed to people living in period of economic downturn, strife, and conflict
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Had an extremely optimistic view of the world and nature
• Combined beliefs from Europe and Asia with Puritan, revival, and Romantic traditions
• Published important essays such as “Self-Reliance” and “The Over-Soul”
Transcendental Influence
Dark Romantics
• Explored conflict between good and evil and the effects of guilt and sin
• Shared many beliefs with the Transcendentalists
Transcendental Influence
Edgar Allan PoeNathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville
• New towns and cities were founded along routes to California and near mining sites.
The Rush West
• Tens of thousands traveled west, hoping for wealth.
• Gold was discovered in Sutter’s Mill, California.
The Gold Rush
• Led to building of the transcontinental railroad
New Frontiers
• Led to new settlements along the land route and west coast
• Journey to California long and dangerous
The Gold Rush
• opened territories to slavery
A Nation Divided
• Compromise was overturned by Kansas-Nebraska Act, which
• Missouri Compromise barred slavery west of Missouri.
The Slavery Issue
• led to violence in Kansas and to the founding of the antislavery Republican Party
• Dred Scott decision denied Congress right to prohibit slavery in territories.
A Nation Divided
• John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry led to more violence.
The Slavery Issue
Dred Scott
John BrownBurning of
Harper’s Ferry
______ Novelists popularize the American Romantic hero.
______ Western New York represents frontier of the country.
______ The first transcontinental railroad is built.
______ Education reform begins in Massachusetts.
Indicate whether the following statements refer to the time before, during, or after the Gold Rush.
after
before
during
before
What Have You Learned?