The American
Transcendental Movement
of
To transcend: To be or go beyond the range or limits
something
1864 -Civil War ensues
-Sherman marches through Georgia
-Lincoln re-elected
- Lee Surrenders
-Lincoln shot, dies next day.
-Remaining Confederate armies surrender.(May)
END OF CIVIL WAR
American Transcendentalism
A group of new ideas and thinkers:
literature
religion
culture
Philosophy
Emerged in New England in the early to
middle 19th century.
Rebels with a cause
Transcendentalists were REBELS
They were defined by what they were rebelling against
They created a uniquely American body of literature.
Openly spoke up against injustice in society
Redefined spirituality and the role of human beings in
the world
"We will walk on our own feet; we will
work with our own hands; we will speak
our own minds...A nation of men will for
the first time exist, because each believes
himself inspired by the Divine Soul
which also inspires all men."
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
Abolitionism
Transcendentalists were involved in social
reform movements:
Anti-slavery (Civil Rights)
Women’s rights (pre-feminist movement)
Education
Native American Rights
"The Transcendentalist adopts the whole
connection of spiritual the perpetual
openness of the human mind to new influx
of light and power; he believes in inspiration,
and in ecstasy. He wishes that the spiritual
principle should be suffered to demonstrate
itself to the end, in all possible applications
to the state of man, without the admission of
anything unspiritual; that is, anything
positive, dogmatic, personal. Thus, the
spiritual measure of inspiration is the depth
of the thought, and never, who said it”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882)
American essayist, philosopher and poet
Best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist
movement of the early 19th century.
His teachings directly influenced the growing New
Thought movement of the mid 1800s
He was seen as a champion of individualism and critic
of the pressures of society.
School Years
Emerson studied at the Boston Latin School, and
entered Harvard at fourteen.
Through his appointment as President's messenger, he
had his lodging free in the President's house, and his
board was paid by waiting on table in the commons.
Like most students who develop into geniuses, he read
widely in authors not prescribed in his course. He won
prizes in English composition
Henry David Thoreau
(July 12, 1817–May 6, 1862)
Born David Henry Thoreau
American author, poet, naturalist, tax resister,
development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher,
and leading transcendentalist.
Best known for his books:
Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural
surroundings, and his essay,
Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual
resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an
unjust state.
Civil Disobedience
Thoreau is sometimes cited as an individualist
anarchist. Though Civil Disobedience calls for
improving rather than abolishing government
"I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a
better government”
“‘That government is best which governs not at all;’
and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind
of government which they will have.”
Walden
Around 1835, Emerson met Henry David Thoreau.
Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in simple
living on July 4, 1845
He moved to a small, self-built house on land owned
by Emerson in a second-growth forest around the
shores of Walden Pond.
Thoreau’s journals evolved into one of the greatest
reflective novels in American History
The Night Thoreau Spent In
Jail
In1846, Thoreau ran into the local tax collector who
asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes.
Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the
Mexican-American War and slavery
He spent a night in jail because of this refusal.
The Mexican American War
Armed conflict between the United States and Mexico
from 1846 to 1848
In 1845 the U.S. claimed ownership of Texas.
Mexico claimed ownership of Texas as a breakaway
province and refused to recognize the secession and
subsequent military victory by Texas in 1836.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
Mexican territories of Alta California and Santa Fe de
Nuevo México were ceded to the United States.
US History Timeline 17961864
1796 - December 7. John Adams is elected second
president of the U.S. Jefferson is elected vice president,
having received the second largest number of electoral
votes.
1798 - Alien and Sedition Acts passed. These acts, the
Naturalization Act, the Alien Act, the Sedition Act,
and the Alien Enemies Act.
(primary source documents found at Library of
Congress)
1801 -- New York passes Emancipation Act - Population -5.3
million (1 million of African decent)
1802 - Ohio outlaws slavery
1803 - Louisiana Purchase January 18. 1804
-The expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark departs, moving up the Missouri River.
1806 - British warships boarding and searching
-American ships and seizing American as well as British
seamen, claiming that they are British deserters
1807 - June 22. The British warship attacks American ship off
the Virginia coast
1808 – November - James Madison is elected President
– tensions continue to build with Britain.
1812 - War of 1812 with Britain (15% sailors Black)
1814 - British burn Capitol building in Washington
1818 - Georgia prohibits Manumission -- Karl Marx born in
Germany
1819 - Alabama admitted as slave state, bringing the number of
slave states and free states to equal numbers.
-Unitarian Church established by William Ellery Channing*
1820 - Missouri Compromise,admitting Missouri as a
slave state and Maine as a free state. Maine immediately
gives right to vote and education to all male citizens. The
compromise also prohibited slavery in the remainder of
the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30'N lat.
1821 - New York gives free Blacks the right to vote
1824 - Mexico becomes a republic – outlaws slavery
1825 – Erie Canal completed – major transportation
achievement which made New York and New York City
ascend commercially.
1827 - Slavery illegal in New York
1828 - Election of Andrew Jackson
1829 - Georgia prohibits the Education of Slaves
1830 - “Underground Railroad” established
-AMERICAN TRANSCENDENTAL MOVEMENT BEGINS
1831 - Nat Turner, a Baptist slave preacher, leads a revolt in
Southampton County, Virginia, killing at least 57
whites. Alabama makes it illegal for Blacks to preach
1832 - Oberlin College founded in Ohio (admitted blacks)
-Elizabeth Palmer Peabody publishes “First Steps to the
Study of History*
- Ralph Waldo Emerson resigns from Second Church
1833 – Lydia Marie Child publishes An Appeal in Favor of That
Class of Americans called Africans *
1835 - Texas declares independence from Mexico
- Frederick Douglass secretly organizes Sunday School
and teaches slaves to read
1836 - Martin van Buren elected President
-Transcendental Club formed*
-Emerson’s Nature published*
-Emerson’s son Waldo, born
-Frederick Douglass escapes
1837 - Depression begins with "Panic of 1837”
-Emerson delivers The American Scholar address (Harvard)
1838 –Emerson delivers “Divinity School Address
1839 – Elizabeth Palmer Peabody opens West Street
Bookstore
-Margaret Fuller holds “conversations with
women on a variety of intellectual topics (1839-1844)
1840 –Dial Magazine Published (Edited by Margaret
Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson
1841 – Brook Farm Established
-Emerson’s essays “First Series” published
--Frederick Douglass speaks at antislavery meeting
1842- Emerson’s son Waldo dies
1843- -Frederick Douglass is beaten by a mob at an antislavery
meeting
1844 - Samuel Morse sends first telegraph message from
Washington to Baltimore
-James K. Polk elected President
-Margaret Fuller publishes Women in the 19th Century
1845 - Santa Anna presidency is overthrown in Mexico
- Thoreau begins his stay at Walden Pond
-Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass is published
-Susan B Anthony offers home to anti-slavery activists
1846 - War with Mexico
- Thoreau jailed for refusal to pay poll tax.
1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848
- Karl Marx publishes Communist Manifesto in Russia
- Zachary Taylor elected President
1849 – Harriet Tubman escapes
1850 – Compromise of 1850 admits California as free state
Fugitive Slave Law enacted.
1852 - Uncle Tom’s Cabin published
- Jossiah Priest publishes Bible defense of slavery
-Franklin Pierce elected president
- California encourages Chinese to immigrate
and work on railroads
-
1853 - America and Mexico sign Gadsden Treaty
-Susan B Anthony begins Women’s Suffrage Movement
1854 – Walden Published
-Henry David Thoreau delivers address “Slavery in
Massachusetts”
1855 - Free Soilers establish government banning slavery and
blacks from Kansas
- Walt Whitman publishes "Leaves of Grass.”
1856- Kansas raid (John Brown).
- James Buchanan elected President
-Susan B Anthony becomes agent for American Anti-Slavery
Society
1857 - Dred Scott Supreme Court Decision
1859 -- Raid on Harper’s Ferry Virginia (John Brown)
-Thoreau delivers address “A Plea for Captain John
Brown
- Elizabeth Palmer Peabody establishes first
Kindergarten
1860 - Nov. 6 - Lincoln elected President
- Dec. 20 - South Carolina Secedes
1861 - CIVIL WAR BEGINS
- All Confederate states secede.
1862 - Morrill Act - Public lands set aside for State Colleges
- Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia.
-Julia Ward Howe publishes Battle Hymn of the Republic
- Henry David Thoreau dies in Concord
1863 -CIVIL WAR Conscription enacted
- Draft/race Riots in New York City
-Emancipation Proclamation
Web of American Transcendentalism
(1999, Virginia Commonwealth University)
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/index.
html
http://www.transcendentalists.com/special_dates.htm
http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/a_us_history/18
00_1900_timeline.htm
http://www.loc.gov/index.html