Studied by 36 PeopleTags & Description
Hudson River School
Founded by Thomas Cole, it was the first native school of landscape painting in the U.S.; attracted artists rebelling against the neoclassical tradition, painted many scenes of New York's Hudson River.
Sir Walter Scott
English novelist whose romantic medievalism encouraged the semi-feudal ideas of the southern planters aristocracy
James Fenimore Cooper
A prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century who wrote numerous sea-stories and historical novels known as the the "Leather stocking Tales".
Walt Whitman
Humanist and poet who helped to start the transition between transcendentalism and realism. Wrote "Leaves of Grass," which was highly controversial due to its overt sexual themes.
Edgar Allan Poe
He was orphaned at young age. He was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. He is best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. Failing at suicide, he began drinking and died in Baltimore shortly after being found drunk in a gutter.
Herman Melville
He emerged as a scathing critic of Transcendentalism. He wrote Moby Dick, a story about whaling. Although Moby Dick is a classic today, when it was written, it was a failure because it was too pessimistic.
Transcendetalists
An intellectual movement rooted in the religious soil of New England. It turned to the romantics in Europe for inspiration. Many who followed this philosophy believed in the importance of nature and degraded materialism. This greatly influenced modern American Literature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American transcendentalist who was against slavery and stressed self-reliance, optimism, self-improvement, self-confidence, and freedom. He was a prime example of a transcendentalist and helped further the movement.
Henry David Thoreau
He was a poet, a mystic, a transcendentalist, a nonconformist, and a close friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He condemned government for supporting slavery and was jailed when he refused to pay his Massachusetts poll tax. He is well known for his novel about the two years of simple living he spent on the edge of Walden Pond called "Walden" , Or Life in the Woods. This novel furthered many idealistic thoughts. He was a great transcendentalist writer who not only wrote many great things, but who also encouraged, by his writings, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Resistance to Civil Government
Emerson argued in this essay (wrote while in jail, due to failure to pay taxes to government that allows slavery) that a government that required an individual to violate his/ her own morality had no legitimate authority, and that the proper response was passive resistance or a public refusal to obey unjust laws.
Brook Farm
A transcendentalist Utopian experiment, put into practice by transcendentalist former Unitarian minister George Ripley at a farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, at that time nine miles from Boston. The community, in operation from 1841 to 1847, was inspired by the socialist concepts of Charles Fourier.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Originally a transcendentalist; he later rejected them and became a leading anti-transcendentalist. He was a descendant of Puritan settlers. The Scarlet Letter (which he wrote) shows the hypocrisy and insensitivity of New England puritans by showing their cruelty to a woman who has committed adultery and is forced to wear a scarlet "A".
Charles Fourier
A French utopian socialist and philosopher. He is credited by modern scholars with having originated the word féminisme in 1837 as early as 1808, and he had argued, in the Theory of the Four Movements, that the extension of the liberty of women was the general principle of all social progress, though he disdained any attachment to a discourse of 'equal rights'.
Robert Owen
Utopian socialist who improved health and safety conditions in mills, increased workers wages and reduced hours. Dreamed of establishing socialist communities, the most noteable was New Harmony, which failed. British cotton manufacturer believed that humans would reveal their true natural goodness if they lived in a cooperative environment. Tested his theories at New Lanark, Scotland and New Harmony, Indiana, but failed.
Oneida perfectionists
The most enduring Utopia. Founded by John Humphrey Noyes, who believed that people could achieve perfection in daily life. Traditional marriage + family life seen as too restricting for women, so they embraced complex marriage: all members "married to each other" and children raised communally, but sexual behavior carefully monitored.
Shakers
American religious sect devoted to the teachings of Ann Lee Stanley, which prohibited marriage and sexual relationships.
Joseph Smith
He founded Mormonism, translated the book of Mormon, died a martyr as Mormonism was found controversial due to polygamy.
Brigham Young
An American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death, the founder of Salt Lake City and the first governor of the Utah Territory, United States. There is a university was named in his honor.
Charles Grandison Finney
An evangelical protestant minister and revivalist leader in Burned Over district and NY. He preached personal salvation and spiritual rebirth through one's own efforts and promoted movements toward moral reform like Temperance.
Temperance
The practice of not drinking alcohol.
Washington Temperance Society
Laborers that joined the non-drinking movement after the Panic of 1837 to reform drunkards.
American Society for the Promotion of Temperance
An organization group in which reformers are trying to help the ever present drink problem. This group was formed in Boston in 1826, and it was the first well-organized group created to deal with the problems drunkards had on societies well being, and the possible well-being of the individuals that are heavily influenced by alcohol.
Phrenology
A science popular in Germany which argued the shape of an individual's skull was an important indicator of his or her character and intelligence.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
A famous justice of the Supreme Court during the early 1900s. Called the "Great Dissenter" because he spoke out against the imposition of national regulations and standards, and supported the states' rights to experiment with social legislation.
Horace Mann
Secretary of the Massachusetts board of education, he was a prominent proponent of public school reform, and set the standard for public schools throughout the nation.
Benevolent Empire
Many members of the middle class and their Congregational and Presbyterian ministers launched programs of social reform know as this. They targeted drunkenness, adultery, prostitution, and crime, but established large scale organizations to implement the evils. They insisted that people who had experienced saving grace should provide moral guidance and charity to the less fortunate.
Asylum Movement
Headed by Dorthea Dix who was studying conditions within insane houses and pushed for the establishment of new establishments with more humane treatment. By 1860, 28 states had public institutions for the insane.
Seneca Falls
A women's rights convention to discuss the social, civil and religious conditions and rights of women. Organized by Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The focus of the meeting was the Declaration of Sentiments, a petition for women's rights modeling the Declaration of Independence, stating that all men and women are created equal.
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
Document signed by the majority of the people present at the Seneca Falls Convention; based upon the United States Declaration of Independence, "grand basis for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women."
Bloomer costume
Named after Amelia who attempted to institute dress reform.
American Colonization Society
Reflecting the focus of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West-African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves.
William Lloyd Garrison
He was a famous American abolitionist, social reformer, and journalist. He is best known for his famous paper The Liberator and for his founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He was also a voice for the women's suffrage movement.
David Walker
An audaciously outspoken Black American activist who demanded the immediate end of slavery in the new nation. A leader within the Black enclave in Boston, Massachusetts. His Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World: a call to "awaken my brethren" to the power within Black unity and struggle. Recognized for his critical contribution to ending chattel slavery in the United States. One of the most important political and social documents of the 19th century. They credit him for exerting a radicalizing influence on the abolitionist movements of his day and beyond. He has inspired many generations of Black leaders and activists of all backgrounds.
Frederick Douglass
Influential writer. One of the most prominent African American figures in the abolitionist movement. Escaped from slavery in Maryland. He was a great thinker and speaker. Published his own antislavery newspaper called the north star and wrote an autobiography that was published in 1845.
Amistad Case
Spanish slave ship, seized by revolting African slaves, that led to a dramatic U.S. Supreme court case that freed the slaves.
Prigg vs. Pennsylvania
A slave had escaped from Maryland to Pennsylvania, where a federal agent captured him and returned him to his owner. Pennsylvania indicted the agent for kidnapping under the fugitive slave laws. The Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for bounty hunters or anyone but the owner of an escaped slave to apprehend that slave, thus weakening the fugitive slave laws.
Liberty Party
The first abolitionist party - believed in ending slavery.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1853 that highly influenced England's view on the American Deep South and slavery. A novel promoting abolition. Intensified sectional conflict.