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A Growing Nation 1800-1870

A Growing Nation 1800-1870. Junior English Unit 3. Historical Background. United States consists of 16 states Louisiana Purchase doubles nations size Improved transportation helps bring states together. The Growth of Democracy at Home: 1800-1840. Americans taking more control of government

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A Growing Nation 1800-1870

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  1. A Growing Nation1800-1870 Junior English Unit 3

  2. Historical Background • United States consists of 16 states • Louisiana Purchase doubles nations size • Improved transportation helps bring states together

  3. The Growth of Democracy at Home: 1800-1840 • Americans taking more control of government • Andrew Jackson – “the People’s President” • Era of the common man • Eliminated property requirements for voting • “Indian removal” – forced westward migration of Native Americans

  4. Young Nation on the World Stage • Monroe Doctrine of 1823 – warned Europe not to intervene in new Latin American nations • War with Mexico over Texas added more territory including California • Gold Rush of 1849 drew people across the nation

  5. The Way West and Economic Growth • Transportation steadily changed and improved • Erie Canal (1825) • “iron horse” – railroad, linked east to west by 1869 • Steel plow and reaper made farming practical • Telegraph facilitated information • Invented by Samuel F B Morse • First message “What hath God wrought!”

  6. Winds of Change • Prosperity brought competition • Factories used child labor and unsafe conditions • Women’s rights became apparent • Couldn’t vote or file lawsuit • Slavery debate divided that nation • Abolitionists – opposed slavery • Advocates of states’ rights – gov’t cannot bend states to it’s will • Civil War 1861

  7. Literature of the Period

  8. American Literature Comes of Age • Writers defined American voice • Personal • Idiosyncratic • a characteristic, habit, mannerism, or the like, that is peculiar to an individual • Bold • Primary theme: quest for the individual to find him-or herself

  9. Romanticism • Artistic movement that dominated Europe and America during 19th Century • NOT NECESSARILY ABOUT LOVE • Elevated imagination over reason and intuition over fact • Reveled in nature • Accented fantastic aspects of human experience • Emphasized individual and common man

  10. New England Renaissance: 1840-1855 • Emerson called for intellectual independence from Europe • Writers should interpret their own culture • “flowering of New England” – burst of literary activity produced an array of great writers and enduring literature

  11. Transcendentalism • The understanding a person gains intuitively because it lies beyond direct experience • The most fundamental truths lie outside the experience of the senses, residing instead, in the “Over-Soul” • “Over-Soul” – a universal and benign omnipresence

  12. Walden • Henry David Thoreau • Withdrew from society to live by himself on Walden Pond • Felt reverence for nature • 18 essays about matters ranging from a battle between red and black ants to the individual’s relation to society • Reveal philosophy of individualism, simplicity, passive resistance to injustice

  13. The Possibility of Evil • Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville • Expressed darker visions • The Scarlet Letter – dealt with sin, concealed guilt, hypocrisy, humility • The House of Seven Gables – witchcraft, insanity, legendary curse

  14. At Home in Amherst • Emily Dickinson – one of the greatest Am. Poets • Recluse for the second half of life • Wrote as a personal need to wrestle with questions about death, immortality, the soul

  15. Beyond New England • Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass • Worked odd jobs to finance poetry • First edition sold fewer than 20 copies • Irregular forms • Frank language • Praised by Emerson • Had a lasting effect on American literature

  16. Fireside Poets • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Harvard professor • John Greenleaf Whittier – Quaker • James Russell Lowell • Oliver Wendell Holmes – poet-physician • preferred conventional forms over experimentation • attention to rhyme and strict metrical cadences made their work popular for memorization and recitation in classrooms and homes • remembered for their longer narrative poems

  17. After the Flowering • Civil War brings a slow-down in creativity

  18. The Truth About O.K. • Craze for initialisms (TGIF, FYI) • Intentional misspellings generated letter combinations • K.G. = know go = no go (not going to happen) • K.U. = know use = no use • O.K. = oll korrect • Martin Van Buren named Old Kinderhook = O.K. • O.K. rally cry for the campaign

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