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A Growing Nation

A Growing Nation. Unit 4: 19 th Century Literature. Historical Background. Several factors aged the nation’s spirit Industrialism Population Explosion Economic Growth The Civil War 1800 16 states clustered together near the east coast 1803 Louisiana Purchase doubled the nation’s size

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A Growing Nation

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  1. A Growing Nation Unit 4: 19th Century Literature

  2. Historical Background • Several factors aged the nation’s spirit • Industrialism • Population Explosion • Economic Growth • The Civil War • 1800 • 16 states clustered together near the east coast • 1803 • Louisiana Purchase doubled the nation’s size • Orchestrated by Thomas Jefferson

  3. Historical Background • Rapid Population growth inspired national pride and self-awareness • Improved transportation helped bind the old and the new states together • Canals, turnpikes, railroads

  4. The Growth of Democracy at home:1800-1840 • Americans began taking more direct control of their government. • Andrew Jackson • “The People’s President” • Elected in 1828 • Era of the common man • Property requirements for voting began to disappear • Democratic advances were confined to white males • Indian Removal • Forced migration of Native Americans • Trail of Tears- 4,000 of 15,000 Cherokee died on the trek from Georgia to Oklahoma

  5. Young Nation on the world stage • First decades of the 1800s were hopeful • War of 1812 • Convinced Europeans that the United States was on the world stage to stay • Monroe Doctrine of 1812 • President James Monroe warned Europe not to intervene in the new Latin American nations • 1830- conflict over the secession of Texas from Mexico • 1836 Mexican Army attacks the Alamo • Every Texan defender was killed

  6. The Way West • American history moved westward • New territories opened up, transportation improved • All 13 original states were on the eastern seaboard, blocked in by mountain barriers • Transportation was steadily changing and improving • 1825- The Erie Canal • 1850- The Iron Horse • By 1869 rail lines linked the east and west coasts

  7. Advances in Technology • Spurred Social Change • Factories sprang up around the Northeast • Steel plow and reaper encouraged frontier settlement • Made farming practical on the grasslands • Telegraph facilitated communication across great distances • Inventor Samuel F. B. Morse

  8. Lead up to War • New prosperity led to fierce competition • Child labor • Unsafe working conditions • Limited rights for women • Slavery divided the nation • Conflicts between abolitionists and advocates of states’ rights • Culmination of 250 years of tension • The War of 1861

  9. Literature! • American literature was coming of age • American writers were not widely read before this period • The American voice was developing • Personal • Idiosyncratic • Bold • The quest of the individual to define him or herself

  10. Romanticism • Artistic movement • Not necessarily about love • Elevated the imagination over reason and intuition over fact • Washington Irving • First American to be widely read overseas • Romantics • Reveled in nature • Preferred nature over civilization • Accented the fantastic aspects of human experience

  11. Transcendentalism • Remarkably difficult to define • “The understanding a person gains intuitively because it lies beyond direct experience.” – Immanuel Kant • Core belief emphasizes the inherent goodness of both man and nature • References many historical thinkers • Plato, Pascal, Swedenborg, Buddhism • Philosophy, religion, and literature merged producing a blend that was romantic, intuitive, mystical, and easier to recognize than explain • The real truths, the most fundamental truths lie outside the experience of the senses

  12. The dark side of transcendentalism • Not everyone shared in the optimistic views of Transcendentalism • Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville • Expressed the darker vision of those who “burrowed into the depths of our common nature” and found the area not always shimmering, but often dusky. • Hawthorne held onto guilt about Puritan heritage • Both men saw human life in grim terms, but they were not identical. • Hawthorne was stable and shrewd. • Melville was tortured and at odds with the world.

  13. Gothic literature • Literary Genre • The story is set in bleak or remote places • The plot involves macabre or violent incidents • Characters are in psychological and/or physical torment • A supernatural or otherworldly element is often present • Poe, Irving, Hawthorne

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