American Art and Literature
Vocabulary
• The Hudson River School – A group of American
artists who painted landscaped of mainly of the
Hudson River in the mid 1800s. It is NOT actually a
school.
• Transcendentalists – members of the small,
influential group of New England writers and thinkers
who believed that the most important truths in life
went beyond human reason. They were very active
in social reform.
• Civil Disobedience – Idea that people have the right
to disobey laws they consider to be unjust if their
consciences demand it.
American Art
• American artists and writers
were breaking free of
European tradition to create
a unique American Vision.
Their work expressed themes
such as love of nature, and
the desire for liberty.
• By the mid 1800’s, American
artists were developing their
own style. For instance,
artists from the Hudson
River school began painting
vivid landscapes, scenes of
hard working country people,
and scenes of Native
American life.
Thomas Cole
Asher Durand
American Literature
• American poetry emerged, and
themes of freedom and
democracy emerged through the
poems of Walt Whitman, Emily
Dickinson, and Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow.
• Novels Like Moby Dick written
by Herman Melville and The
Scarlet Letter written by
Nathaniel Hawthorne showed
that American Authors were
thinking about the United States
in new and different ways and
creating their own distinctive
American voice
The Poetry of Democracy
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
based many of his poems on
events in history, including “Paul
Revere’s Ride” and “The Song of
Hiawatha”.
Anti-slavery Poetry
• John Greenleaf Whittier and
Frances Watkins Harper wrote
poetry about the evils of slavery.
From “our Countrymen in Chains” by
Whittier
What, ho !—our countrymen in chains !—
The whip on WOMAN'S shrinking flesh !
Our soil yet reddening with the stains,
Caught from her scourging, warm and fresh !
What ! mothers from their children riven !—
What ! God's own image bought and sold !—
AMERICANS to market driven,
And bartered as the brute for gold !
The Poetry of Democracy
• Walt Whitman’s collection of
poetry titled “Leaves of
Grass” celebrated democracy.
From “The Song of Myself”
“At home on the hills of Vermont or
in the woods of Maine, or the Texas
ranch, Comrade of Californians,
comrade of free North
Westerners…Of every hue and caste
am I, of every rank and religion”
He also expressed his sadness after
Lincoln’s assassination in the poem,
“Oh Captain, My Captain”
Washington Irving
• Washington Irving was a
popular American
author who wrote The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
and Rip Van Winkle.
Cooper and Melville
• James Fenimore Cooper
wrote The Deerslayer
and The Last of the
Mohicans. His most
famous character was
Natty Bumppo, a heroic
frontiersman.
• Herman Mellville did
not have much success
when he was alive, but
today Moby Dick it is
thought to be one of the
greatest American
novels.
Hawthorne
• Nathanial Hawthorne
turned to history for
inspiration. His most
famous novel, The
Scarlet Letter, is set in a
colonial Puritan village.
• William Wells Brown was
an African American who
wrote Clotel, a story
about slave life.
Transcendentalists
• Transcendentalists believed in
the importance of human
emotions, and believed the most
important truths in live
transcended, or went beyond,
human reason. This belief
caused many transcendentalists
to write about and support social
reforms.
• The two major
transcendentalists were Ralph
Waldo Emerson and Henry
David Thoreau. They both
urged people that listening to
ones conscience and then
following that conscience was the
most important thing in life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
was the most famous
transcendentalist. He
often wrote about the
“inner light” that
people should use as a
guide to improve
society.
“Trust thyself…Every
heart vibrates to that
iron string”
Henry David Thoreau
• Henry David Thoreau
was against the
growth of industry and
urbanization. His
novel, Walden,
described Thoreau
living a year in
isolation in
Massachusetts on
Walden Pond.
Civil Disobedience
• Thoreau believed
that slavery was
wrong. Thoreau
believed in civil
disobedience – the
idea that people
have the right to
disobey unjust laws
if their consciences
demand it.
• He refused to pay
taxes in a protest of
the Mexican
American War.