Antebellum Culture and Reform
In Antebellum America, Americans
were optimistic amidst the changes
that were occurring—eco,
pol,soc,geo.
Movements arose to reform, to seek
order and gain inner peace.
The Romantic Impulse
• Religious thought (middle ages)-faith the most
important thing
• Enlightenment(1600-1700)—the age of reason-challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith,
and advance knowledge through the scientific
method. It promoted scientific thought.
Associated with nonfiction writing, such as essays
and philosophical treatises. Major Enlightenment
writers include Thomas Hobbes, John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, René Descartes.
• Romanticism- (1830-1900) gives greater
importance to content than form, emphasizes
imagination, emotion and introspection—
often celebrates nature, the common man
and the freedom of the spirit—reaction
against reason.
Hudson River School-informal group of
like-minded painters-known for
romantic paintings of the West
• Nationalism and Romanticism in American
Painting—encouraged painting of landscapes
because nature more than civilization was the
best source of wisdom and spiritual fulfillment
Albert Bierstadt
Domes of the Yosemite
Lake Tahoe
Lake in the Rockies
Falls of Niagara from Below
Thomas Moran
• Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
An Arizona Sunset Near The Grand
Canyon
View of the Rocky Mountains
Literature
• James Fenimore Cooper—celebrated the
American Spirit and the American Frontier-Last of
the Mohicans and The Deerslayer
• Herman Melville-Moby Dick-unleashing of human
emotion-All that most maddens and torments;
all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with
malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes
the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and
thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly
personified, and made practically assailable in
Moby-Dick.
Walt Whitman-Leave of Grass
Oh Captain, My Captain
http://youtu.be/lBL8wT6Pm9g
Edgar Allan Poe-master of the macabre
• http://youtu.be/rf7aBCrfOQE Annabel Lee
• http://youtu.be/06f3Vxl1Sus The Raven
• Transcendentalism (c. 1835–1860): An
American philosophical and spiritual
movement-emphasizing the intuitive and
spiritual above that of experience or
observation—truths go beyond reason
• Henry David Thoreau—Walden and
trumpeted the idea of “civil disobedience”—
an early advocate of nonviolent protest
• Ralph Waldo Emerson— “Self-Reliance”—his
essays and poems argued for self-reliance,
independent thinking and the primacy of
spiritual matters over material ones
Utopia and Communal Livingnumerous during this time
• Brook Farm(trans. ideal—goal—to achieve a more natural
union between intellectual and manual labor--outside of
Boston—failure, but is remembered for its atmosphere of
artistic creativity and an innovated school
• Robert Owen-New Harmony-based on total equality-an
answer to the problems of inequity and alienation caused by
the Industrial Revolution--failure
• Oneida Community-rejected traditional family and marriage—
“Free-love” –economically successful by producing silverware
of excellent quality
• The Shakers-religious sect founded by Ann Lee—kept women
and men separate forbidding marriage and sexual relations-died out
• Mormons-most successful
Reformers-Sojourner Truth
• http://youtu.be/XilHJc9IZvE

• This Antebellum reform movement was
mainly a regional phenomenon—succeeded in
the North and West but had very little impact
in the South—increasingly they viewed it as a
northern conspiracy against their way of life
Manifest Destiny

Antebellum culture and reform

  • 1.
    Antebellum Culture andReform In Antebellum America, Americans were optimistic amidst the changes that were occurring—eco, pol,soc,geo. Movements arose to reform, to seek order and gain inner peace.
  • 2.
    The Romantic Impulse •Religious thought (middle ages)-faith the most important thing • Enlightenment(1600-1700)—the age of reason-challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and advance knowledge through the scientific method. It promoted scientific thought. Associated with nonfiction writing, such as essays and philosophical treatises. Major Enlightenment writers include Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, René Descartes.
  • 3.
    • Romanticism- (1830-1900)gives greater importance to content than form, emphasizes imagination, emotion and introspection— often celebrates nature, the common man and the freedom of the spirit—reaction against reason.
  • 4.
    Hudson River School-informalgroup of like-minded painters-known for romantic paintings of the West • Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting—encouraged painting of landscapes because nature more than civilization was the best source of wisdom and spiritual fulfillment
  • 5.
  • 6.
  • 7.
    Lake in theRockies
  • 8.
    Falls of Niagarafrom Below
  • 9.
    Thomas Moran • GrandCanyon of the Yellowstone
  • 10.
    An Arizona SunsetNear The Grand Canyon
  • 11.
    View of theRocky Mountains
  • 12.
    Literature • James FenimoreCooper—celebrated the American Spirit and the American Frontier-Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer • Herman Melville-Moby Dick-unleashing of human emotion-All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby-Dick.
  • 13.
    Walt Whitman-Leave ofGrass Oh Captain, My Captain http://youtu.be/lBL8wT6Pm9g
  • 14.
    Edgar Allan Poe-masterof the macabre • http://youtu.be/rf7aBCrfOQE Annabel Lee • http://youtu.be/06f3Vxl1Sus The Raven
  • 15.
    • Transcendentalism (c.1835–1860): An American philosophical and spiritual movement-emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above that of experience or observation—truths go beyond reason
  • 16.
    • Henry DavidThoreau—Walden and trumpeted the idea of “civil disobedience”— an early advocate of nonviolent protest • Ralph Waldo Emerson— “Self-Reliance”—his essays and poems argued for self-reliance, independent thinking and the primacy of spiritual matters over material ones
  • 17.
    Utopia and CommunalLivingnumerous during this time • Brook Farm(trans. ideal—goal—to achieve a more natural union between intellectual and manual labor--outside of Boston—failure, but is remembered for its atmosphere of artistic creativity and an innovated school • Robert Owen-New Harmony-based on total equality-an answer to the problems of inequity and alienation caused by the Industrial Revolution--failure • Oneida Community-rejected traditional family and marriage— “Free-love” –economically successful by producing silverware of excellent quality • The Shakers-religious sect founded by Ann Lee—kept women and men separate forbidding marriage and sexual relations-died out • Mormons-most successful
  • 18.
    Reformers-Sojourner Truth • http://youtu.be/XilHJc9IZvE •This Antebellum reform movement was mainly a regional phenomenon—succeeded in the North and West but had very little impact in the South—increasingly they viewed it as a northern conspiracy against their way of life
  • 20.