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westward migration as social back-

Cooper was a cultural relativist. He

ground. The novels bring to life

understood that no culture had a

frontier America from 1740 to 1804.

monopoly on virtue or refinement.

Cooper’s novels portray the suc-

Cooper accepted the American

cessive waves of the frontier set-

condition while Irving did not. Ir-

tlement: the original wilderness in-

ving addressed the American set-

habited by Indians; the arrival of the

ting as a European might have —

first whites as scouts, soldiers,

by importing and adapting Eu-

traders, and frontiersmen; the

ropean legends, culture, and histo-

coming of the poor, rough settler

ry. Cooper took the process a step

families; and the final arrival of the

farther. He created American set-

middle class, bringing the first pro-

tings and new, distinctively Amer-

fessionals — the judge, the physi-

ican characters and themes. He

cian, and the banker. Each incoming

was the first to sound the recurring

wave displaced the earlier: Whites

tragic note in American fiction.

displaced the Indians, who retreat-

ed westward; the “civilized” mid-

PHILLIS WHEATLEY

WOMEN AND MINORITIES

dle classes who erected schools,

lthough the colonial period

churches, and jails displaced the

produced several women

lower-class individualistic frontier

writers of note, the revolu-

folk, who moved further west, in

tionary era did not further the work

turn displacing the Indians who had

of women and minorities, despite

preceded them. Cooper evokes the

the many schools, magazines,

endless, inevitable wave of settlers,

newspapers, and literary clubs that

seeing not only the gains but the

were springing up. Colonial women

losses.

such as Anne Bradstreet, Anne

Cooper’s novels reveal a deep

Hutchinson, Ann Cotton, and Sarah

Engraving © The Bettmann

tension between the lone individual

Archive

Kemble Knight exerted consider-

able social and literary influence in spite of prim-

’Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land

itive conditions and dangers; of the 18 women

Taught my benighted soul to understand

who came to America on the ship Mayflower in That there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too;

1620, only four survived the first year. When every Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

able-bodied person counted and conditions were

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

fluid, innate talent could find expression. But as

“Their colour is a diabolic dye.”

cultural institutions became formalized in the

Remember, Christians, negroes, black as Cain,

new republic, women and minorities gradually

May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.

were excluded from them.

Other Women Writers

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784)

A number of accomplished Revolutionary-era

Given the hardships of life in early America, it

women writers have been rediscovered by femi-

is ironic that some of the best poetry of the perinist scholars. Susanna Rowson (c. 1762-1824)

od was written by an exceptional slave woman.

was one of America’s first professional novelists.

The first African-American author of importance

Her seven novels included the best-selling

in the United States, Phillis Wheatley was born in seduction story Charlotte Temple (1791). She Africa and brought to Boston, Massachusetts,

treats feminist and abolitionist themes and

when she was about seven, where she was pur-

depicts American Indians with respect.

chased by the pious and wealthy tailor John

nother long-forgotten novelist was Hannah

Wheatley to be a companion for his wife. The

Foster (1758-1840), whose best-selling

Wheatleys recognized Phillis’s remarkable intel-

novel The Coquette (1797) was about a

ligence and, with the help of their daughter, Mary, young woman torn between virtue and tempta-Phillis learned to read and write.

tion. Rejected by her sweetheart, a cold man of

Wheatley’s poetic themes are religious, and

the church, she is seduced, abandoned, bears a

her style, like that of Philip Freneau, is neoclas-child, and dies alone.

sical. Among her best-known poems are “To S.M.,

Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) published

a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works,” a

under a man’s name to secure serious attention

poem of praise and encouragement for another

for her works. Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814)

talented black, and a short poem showing her

was a poet, historian, dramatist, satirist, and

strong religious sensitivity filtered through her

patriot. She held pre-Revolutionary gatherings in

experience of Christian conversion. This poem

her home, attacked the British in her racy plays,

unsettles some contemporary critics — whites

and wrote the only contemporary radical history

because they find it conventional, and blacks

of the American revolution.

because the poem does not protest the immoral-

Letters between women such as Mercy Otis

ity of slavery. Yet the work is a sincere expres-

Warren and Abigail Adams, and letters generally,

sion; it confronts white racism and asserts spiri-

are important documents of the period. For

tual equality. Indeed, Wheatley was the first to

example, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband,

address such issues confidently in verse, as in

John Adams (later the second president of

“On Being Brought from Africa to America”:

the United States), in 1776 urging that women’s

independence be guaranteed in the future U.S.

constitution.

■

The development of the self became a major

theme; self-awareness, a primary method. If,

CHAPTER according to Romantic theory, self and nature were one, self-awareness was not a selfish dead

end but a mode of knowledge opening up the uni-

3 verse. If one’s self were one with all humanity, then the individual had a moral duty to reform

THE ROMANTIC PERIOD,

social inequalities and relieve human suffer-

1820-1860:

ing. The idea of “self” — which suggested self-

ESSAYISTS AND POETS

ishness to earlier generations — was redefined.

New compound words with positive meanings

he Romantic movement, which originated

emerged: “self-realization,” “self-expression,”

in Germany but quickly spread to England,

“self-reliance.”

TFrance, and beyond, reached America As the unique, subjective self became impor-around the year 1820, some 20 years after William

tant, so did the realm of psychology. Exceptional

Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge had

artistic effects and techniques were developed

revolutionized English poetry by publishing

to evoke heightened psychological states. The

Lyrical Ballads. In America as in Europe, fresh

“sublime” — an effect of beauty in grandeur

new vision electrified artistic and intellectual cir-

(for example, a view from a mountaintop) —

cles. Yet there was an important difference: Ro-

produced feelings of awe, reverence, vastness,

manticism in America coincided with the period

and a power beyond human comprehension.

of national expansion and the discovery of a dis-

Romanticism was affirmative and appropriate

tinctive American voice. The solidification of a

for most American poets and creative essayists.

national identity and the surging idealism and

America’s vast mountains, deserts, and tropics

passion of Romanticism nurtured the master-

embodied the sublime. The Romantic spirit

pieces of “the American Renaissance.”

seemed particularly suited to American democ-

Romantic ideas centered around art as inspira-

racy: It stressed individualism, affirmed the value tion, the spiritual and aesthetic dimension of

of the common person, and looked to the in-

nature, and metaphors of organic growth. Art,

spired imagination for its aesthetic and ethical

rather than science, Romantics argued, could

values. Certainly the New England Transcenden-

best express universal truth. The Romantics

talists — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David

underscored the importance of expressive art

Thoreau, and their associates — were inspired

for the individual and society. In his essay “The

to a new optimistic affirmation by the Romantic

Poet” (1844), Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps the

movement. In New England, Romanticism fell

most influential writer of the Romantic era,

upon fertile soil.

asserts:

TRANSCENDENTALISM

For all men live by truth, and stand in need

The Transcendentalist movement was a reac-

of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in

tion against 18th-century rationalism and a mani-

politics, in labor, in games, we study to utter

festation of the general humanitarian trend of

our painful secret. The man is only half him-

19th-century thought. The movement was based

self, the other half is his expression.

on a fundamental belief in the unity of the world

and God. The soul of each individual was thought

to be identical with the world — a

ed with the town, but the locale also

microcosm of the world itself. The

attracted the novelist Nathaniel

doctrine of self-reliance and indi-

Hawthorne, the feminist writer

vidualism developed through the

Margaret Fuller, the educator (and

belief in the identification of the

father of novelist Louisa May Al-

individual soul with God.

cott) Bronson Alcott, and the poet

Transcendentalism was intimate-

William Ellery Channing. The Tran-

ly connected with Concord, a small

scendental Club was loosely orga-

New England village 32 kilometers

nized in 1836 and included, at vari-

west of Boston. Concord was the

ous times, Emerson, Thoreau,

first inland settlement of the origi-

Fuller, Channing, Bronson Alcott,

nal Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Orestes Brownson (a leading min-

Surrounded by forest, it was and

ister), Theodore Parker (abolition-

remains a peaceful town close

ist and minister), and others.

enough to Boston’s lectures, book-

The Transcendentalists published

stores, and colleges to be intense-

a quarterly magazine, The Dial,

ly cultivated, but far enough away to

which lasted four years and was

be serene. Concord was the site

first edited by Margaret Fuller and

of the first battle of the Ameri-

later by Emerson. Reform efforts

can Revolution, and Ralph Waldo

engaged them as well as literature.

Emerson’s poem commemorating

A number of Transcendentalists

the battle, “Concord Hymn,” has

were abolitionists, and some were

one of the most famous opening

involved in experimental utopian

stanzas in American literature:

communities such as nearby Brook

Farm (described in Hawthorne’s

By the rude bridge that arched

The Blithedale Romance) and

the flood

Fruitlands.

Their flag to April’s breeze

Unlike many European groups,

unfurled,

the Transcendentalists never is-

Here once the embattled farmers

sued a manifesto. They insisted on

stood

individual differences — on the

And fired the shot heard round

RALPH

unique viewpoint of the individual.

the world.

WALDO EMERSON

American Transcendental Romantics

Concord was the first rural ar-

pushed radical individualism to the

tist’s colony, and the first place to

extreme. American writers often

offer a spiritual and cultural alter-

saw themselves as lonely explorers

native to American materialism. It

outside society and convention.

was a place of high-minded conver-

The American hero — like Herman

sation and simple living (Emerson

Melville’s Captain Ahab, or Mark

and Henry David Thoreau both had

Twain’s Huck Finn, or Edgar Allan

vegetable gardens). Emerson, who

Poe’s Arthur Gordon Pym — typi-

moved to Concord in 1834, and

Photo courtesy

cally faced risk, or even certain

National Portrait Gallery,

Thoreau are most closely associat-

Smithsonian Institution

destruction, in the pursuit of meta-

physical self-discovery. For the Romantic

also enjoy an original relation to the uni-

American writer, nothing was a given. Literary

verse? Why should not we have a poetry of

and social conventions, far from being helpful,

insight and not of tradition, and a religion by

were dangerous. There was tremendous pres-

revelation to us, and not the history of

sure to discover an authentic literary form, con-

theirs. Embosomed for a season in nature,

tent, and voice — all at the same time. It is clear whose floods of life stream around and

from the many masterpieces produced in the

through us, and invite us by the powers they

three decades before the U.S. Civil War (1861-

supply, to action proportioned to nature, why

65) that American writers rose to the challenge.

should we grope among the dry bones of the

past...? The sun shines today also. There is

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

more wool and flax in the fields. There are

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the towering figure of

new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let

his era, had a religious sense of mission.

us demand our own works and laws and

Although many accused him of subverting

worship.

Christianity, he explained that, for him “to be

a good minister, it was necessary to leave the

Emerson loved the aphoristic genius of the

church.” The address he delivered in 1838 at his

16th-century French essayist Montaigne, and he

alma mater, the Harvard Divinity School, made

once told Bronson Alcott that he wanted to write

him unwelcome at Harvard for 30 years. In it,

a book like Montaigne’s, “full of fun, poetry, busi-Emerson accused the church of acting “as if God

ness, divinity, philosophy, anecdotes, smut.” He

were dead” and of emphasizing dogma while sti-

complained that Alcott’s abstract style omitted

fling the spirit.

“the light that shines on a man’s hat, in a child’s merson’s philosophy has been called con-spoon.”

tradictory, and it is true that he conscious-

Spiritual vision and practical, aphoristic ex-

Ely avoided building a logical intellectual pression make Emerson exhilarating; one of the system because such a rational system would

Concord Transcendentalists aptly compared lis-

have negated his Romantic belief in intuition and

tening to him with “going to heaven in a swing.”

flexibility. In his essay “Self-Reliance,” Emerson Much of his spiritual insight comes from his

remarks: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin

readings in Eastern religion, especially Hin-

of little minds.” Yet he is remarkably consistent

duism, Confucianism, and Islamic Sufism. For

in his call for the birth of American individualism example, his poem “Brahma” relies on Hindu

inspired by nature. Most of his major ideas —

sources to assert a cosmic order beyond the lim-

the need for a new national vision, the use of

ited perception of mortals:

personal experience, the notion of the cosmic

Over-Soul, and the doctrine of compensation —

If the red slayer think he slay

are suggested in his first publication, Nature Or the slain think he is slain,

(1836). This essay opens:

They know not well the subtle ways

I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepul-

chres of the fathers. It writes biographies,

Far or forgot to me is near

histories, criticism. The foregoing genera-

Shadow and sunlight are the same;

tions beheld God and nature face to face;

The vanished gods to me appear;

we, through their eyes. Why should not we

And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;

Emerson, he worked his way

When me they fly, I am the wings;

through Harvard. Throughout his

I am the doubter and the doubt,

life, he reduced his needs to the

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings

simplest level and managed to live

on very little money, thus maintain-

The strong gods pine for my

ing his independence. In essence,

abode,

he made living his career. A noncon-

And pine in vain the sacred Seven,

formist, he attempted to live his life

But thou, meek lover of the good!

at all times according to his rigor-

Find me, and turn thy back on

ous principles. This attempt was

heaven.

the subject of many of his writings.

Thoreau’s masterpiece, Walden,

This poem, published in the first

or, Life in the Woods (1854), is the

number of the Atlantic Monthly

result of two years, two months, and

magazine (1857), confused readers

two days (from 1845 to 1847) he

unfamiliar with Brahma, the high-

spent living in a cabin he built at

est Hindu god, the eternal and infi-

Walden Pond on property owned by

nite soul of the universe. Emerson

Emerson. In Walden, Thoreau con-

had this advice for his readers:

sciously shapes this time into one

“Tell them to say Jehovah instead

year, and the book is carefully con-

of Brahma.”

structed so the seasons are subtly

The British critic Matthew Arnold

evoked in order. The book also

said the most important writings in

is organized so that the simplest

English in the 19th century had

earthly concerns come first (in the

been Wordsworth’s poems and

section called “Economy,” he des-

Emerson’s essays. A great prose-

cribes the expenses of building a

poet, Emerson influenced a long

cabin); by the ending, the book

line of American poets, including

has progressed to meditations on

Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson,

the stars.

Edwin Arlington Robinson, Wallace

In Walden, Thoreau, a lover of

Stevens, Hart Crane, and Robert

travel books and the author of sev-

Frost. He is also credited with HENRY DAVID THOREAU eral, gives us an anti-travel book influencing the philosophies of

that paradoxically opens the inner

John Dewey, George Santayana,

frontier of self-discovery as no

Friedrich Nietzsche, and William

American book had up to this time.

James.

As deceptively modest as Thoreau’s

ascetic life, it is no less than a guide

Henry David Thoreau

to living the classical ideal of the

(1817-1862)

good life. Both poetry and philoso-

Henry David Thoreau, of French

phy, this long poetic essay chal-

and Scottish descent, was born in

lenges the reader to examine his or

Concord and made it his perma-

her life and live it authentically. The

nent home. From a poor family, like