The American

Renaissance
Influencing the
Transcendentalists
 DO NOT TAKE
A. The Rise of Nationalism
1. The Monroe Presidency, 1817-1825, “The Era of Good
Feelings”
a. Monroe Doctrine (1822)
i. Americas not available for European colonization
ii. national interest more important than regional
interests
b. McColluch vs. Maryland: national interests more
important
c. Missouri Compromise
i. Missouri becomes a state (slave state)
ii. other states fear upset in balance of free and slave
states
iii. Maine becomes state (free state)
2. War of 1812 DO NOT TAKE

a. US vs. Britain, reasons for war:

i. trade restrictions
ii. impressment of US Navy personnel into British Navy
iii. British support of Natives against American expansion
b. Battle of New Orleans: fought and won by general Andrew Jackson
c. Treaty of Ghent 1814
i. ends war, restores “status quo” before war
ii. Britain wins Nepoleonic wars, establishes era of peace
3. The Jackson Presidency, 1829-1837
a. Indian Removal Act: relocate five Indian tribes from
southeast to west; decimated Cherokee tribe (Trail of Tears)
b. conflict over Second US Bank (national; upset states)
 DO NOT TAKE
B. Conflicts due to Western Expansion
1. Manifest Destiny (western migration, 1840s-50s)
a. belief that it was a God-given right to settle all land coast to
coast
b. Sante Fe, Oregon, Mormon trails (most famous)
c. Gold Rush, 1848-49 California
2. Texas Independence
a. part of Mexico, 1821, colonized by Americans 1823
b. became independent republic, 1836 (won war with Mexico at
Battle of San Jacinto after loss at the Alamo)
c. votes to become US state
3. Mexican-American War
a. US takes control of New Mexico
b. Americans in California revolt against Mexico (“Bear Flag Revolt”)
c. 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: US gains New Mexico,
California,Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming
territories
 ADD TO NOTEBOOK
C. The American Novel, “Wilderness” Experience
1. more independent of traditional forms;
explorative
2. different subject matter available, limitless
frontiers
3. coincided with westward expansion and
nationalism
4. New Hero
a. virtue = American innocence
b. youthful, innocent, intuitive, close to
nature, skillful, frontiersman
c. modeled by perceptions of Andrew Jackson
in Battle of New Orleans
 ADD TO NOTEBOOK

D. American Romanticism
1. value feeling, intuition over reason
2. truth accompanied by powerful
emotion, associated with natural beauty
3. wanted to rise above “dull realities”
a. used exotic settings (more “natural,”
removed from industrial)
b. sometimes used supernatural realm or
old legends/folklore
c. reflection on natural world until
underlying truth revealed
d. similar to Puritans: draw moral lessons
from nature
 ADD TO NOTEBOOK
E. Transcendentalism
1. one must transcend (“go beyond”) everyday
experience
2. human perfectibility
3. native mysticism: experience of nature leads
to spiritual understanding
4. optimism
a. God works through nature
b. tragic events explained on spiritual level
c. each person part of the Divine Soul
5. appealed to audiences who lived in economic
downturns, regional strife
 The Transcendentalist adopts the whole
connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in
miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human
mind to new influx of light and power; he
believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Transcendentalist”

In all things of nature, there is something of the

marvelous.
– Aristotle
 Transcendentalism: Introduction
When people hear the word Transcendentalism,
they tend to equate its meaning with its root,
transcend, meaning “to rise above the human
experience.” In fact, though, the philosophy of
Transcendentalism actually refers to that which is
within the human mind. It refers to the innate
ability within all people to fulfill their potential, to
overcome adversity, to face challenges directly, to
rely on an inner voice and instinct to guide them
through life. Listening to the inner voice, the
Transcendentalist, at one with God and Nature,
grows into an autonomous, self-reliant individual
who feels no need to seek affirmation outside of
him or herself.
Transcendentalism: Introduction
American Transcendentalism began as a
combination of Unitarian theology—including the
belief that God is one, rather than the Catholic
“trinity”—and German philosophy in the mid-
1800s. The Industrial Revolution was bringing
rapid change to the country. A new materialism
distracted Americans in vast numbers. Being a
good citizen meant abiding by laws that were not
always moral or right. For example, in a blend of
greed, commerce, and immoral law, the federal
government decreed in the Fugitive Slave Laws
that slaves who managed to escape to the North
were still property and must be returned to their
owners.
Transcendentalism: Introduction
Transcendentalists, including Henry David
Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, spoke out
against such injustice. Their
contemporaries, including Hawthorne and
Poe, often viewed them as radical
nonconformists. Thoreau and Emerson used
The Dial magazine, founded by women’s rights
activist Margaret Fuller, as a platform to speak
about such topics as equal rights for
women, the abolishment of slavery, the rights
and responsibilities of the individual, and the
injustices perpetrated in the name of
Democracy.
Transcendentalism: Introduction
The Transcendentalists valued individuality above
social acceptance and creativity above financial
prosperity. More controversial, however, was
their belief that the Divine existed within Nature
and that man existed above the traditional deity
of organized religion, which they believed
inspired fear and condemnation of self and of
others. The movement also valued personal
vision and truth above external reality, and its
proponents believed in experiential education to
heighten innate curiosity, rather than the rote
memorization and drilling employed by public
schools.
 Transcendentalism: Introduction
Most Transcendentalists became unhappy with
social and political developments of the day.
As a group, they developed and honed a
powerful political voice, which can be seen as
a forerunner of and inspiration to the
Environmental Movement, the Civil Rights
Movement, the fight for women’s rights, and
the struggle to end wars through peaceful
protest. The Transcendentalists helped define
the spirit of American individualism and
independence.
G. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
1. Background
a. born in Concord, Massachusetts
b. entered Harvard in 1833, graduated four years later
c. very familiar with English literature and German philosophy
d. unsuccessful at teaching, took land in Walden (offered by Emerson)
e. Walden experiment attempted to rediscover grandeur of simple life
i. focus for contemplative urge
ii. saw private confrontation as heroic
iii. spent over two years, returned home to publish essays
f. “civil disobedience”
i. refused to pay poll tax in protest of Mexican-American War
(spent night in jail)
ii. helped fugitives escape slavery on way to Canada
iii. defended abolitionist John Brown
2. Writings
a. unique blend of style, content
b. believes style imitating nature spoke spiritual truths
c. inspired passive resistance of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
 Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862
Maxham daguerreotype of Henry David Thoreau
made in 1856
 Civil Disobedience, 1849
Henry David Thoreau is best known for Walden, which chronicles
his experiment in simple, self-sufficient living. Less
remembered, however, is that while living at Walden Pond, he
was imprisoned for refusing to pay his poll tax as a statement
of protest against slavery and what he saw as an unjust war
with Mexico.

After someone else paid his tax, he was released, but he gave an
1848 lecture on "Resistance to Civil Government"--since
published as "Civil Disobedience"--to explain his action.

While far less known than Walden, "Civil Disobedience" has

arguably had much farther reaching effects. It helped inspire
the Danish resistance in World War II, Gandhi in India, and tax
resistors and civic protestors of all types for many decades.
Gandhi, 1869-1948
“Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state
has become lawless or corrupt. And a citizen who barters
with such a state shares in its corruption and
lawlessness...Every citizen is responsible for every act of his
government...There is only one sovereign remedy, namely,
non-violent non-cooperation. Whether we advertise the
fact or not, the moment we cease to support the
government it dies a nature death....My method is
conversion, not coercion, it is self-suffering, not the
suffering of the tyrant… Civil disobedience is the assertion of
a right which law should give but which it denies...Civil
disobedience presupposes willing obedience of our self-
imposed rules, and without it civil disobedience would be
cruel joke....Civil disobedience means capacity for unlimited
suffering without the intoxicating excitement of
killing....Disobedience to be civil has to be open and
nonviolent.”
Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968
“The willingness to accept the penalty for
breaking the unjust law is what makes civil
disobedience a moral act and not merely an
act of lawbreaking.”

MLK-led March through Selma, Alabama

Lech Walesa, former President of Poland, b. 1943
“Our firm conviction that ours is a just cause
and that we must find a peaceful way to
attain our goals gave us the strength and the
awareness of the limits beyond which we
must not go.”

“We shall not yield to violence. We shall not

be deprived of union freedoms. We shall
never agree with sending people to prison for
their convictions."
Current Acts of Civil Disobedience
Tibetan Monks, many of whom are in India in
exile, have been protesting against the Chinese
government for not recognizing Tibet’s
independence. They do so by lighting themselves
on fire; this has been going on since the 1960s.
The trend has recently increased – over 30 deaths
have resulted from these protests in the past
year.

Crisis in Tibet
H. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
1. Background
a. born in Boston, poor but cultured
b. father died at age 8, mother opened boarding house
c. influenced by aunt Mary, energy drove to achievement
d. life laid out for him early: Harvard, become minister (like 8 generations
before him)
e. entered Harvard age 14, took job at school, then became minister
f. married in 1829, wife died of tuberculosis 17 months later
g. grief coincided with disenchantment with established religion
h. became friends with Romantic English poets Wordsworth and Coleridge
while in England
i. returned to states, remarried, began lecturing
2. Writings
a. expressed advantages of “young land”; freedom from old, corrupt, dying
thought and customs of Europe
b. access to higher laws directly through nature, not books, teachings
c. distinctly American view: denied importance of past
d. individual souls part of larger entity, “over-soul”
e. appealed to both intellectuals and general public
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882