DIVISION, RECONCILIATION & EXPANSION

1. DIVISION, RECONCILIATION & EXPANSION UNIT 4 REALISM NATURALISM

2. Economic Development • NORTH – COMMERCE. The industrial revolution, cheap transportation, education, banking, science, reform movements and immigration all were topics of interest. • SOUTH – COTTON. Slower paced plantations and farms of cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco. South depended on slavery.

3. Slavery Controversy • 1850 - the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act. • Required all citizens of free or slave states to help catch runaway slaves. • Fought the use of slaves in the expansion of the west. • Novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped to fuel the controversy, becoming an anti-slavery tool.

4. The Civil War • Fighting began on April 12, 1861 in Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor. • Ended in the spring of 1865. • Both sides surprised at the loss of life and destruction.

5. Expanding America • Physical expansion and industrialization transformed the landscape, economy, and society after the Civil War. • Homestead Act of 1862 promised 160 acres of land for a certain period of time to improve and live on it. • Transforming the west were settlers, railroads, mining & cattle ranches. • Gone were the buffalo, open range, Indian nations.

6. Late 19th Century • 1880 population about 50 mill, by the turn of the century, it was just under 76 million! • Just below the surface of the nation’s prosperity was discontentment. • Mark Twain dubbed this period “The Gilded Age”

7. Literature of the Period • BLACKS – spirituals fused traditional African music with stories from the Bible and hymns. • WARTIME – diaries, letters, journals, and speeches provided a detailed experience of the time. • FRONTIER – expansion westward. Local color and Regionalism used to represent the Midwest and Far West.

8. REALISM • Harsh reality of frontier life and the reaction and aftermath of the Civil War gave rise to this new lit movement. • Nation’s idealism was shattered. • Writer’s focused on portraying “real life”; ordinary people in a factual way.

9. NATURALISM • Offshoot of Realism. • Depicted real people in real situations, but believed that larger forces such as nature, fate, and heredity, shaped the individual. • Depiction always seemed harsh. • Artistic vision of the author’s was a vision rooted in war, the frontier, and growing cities.