4: Nineteenth Century Romanticism and Transcendentalism

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Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter students will be able to

Understand the meaning of the manifest destiny and its relationship to the increase of American territory through the Louisiana Purchase, the Mexican-American War, and the Gadsden Purchase increased American territory.
Understand the adverse effects on Native Americans caused by the push of Americans of European heritage to claim new territory east of the Mississippi River.
Understand the effects of the second Industrial Revolution and the factory system on the American economy, technology, and productivity.
Understand how the change in labor practices effected an ongoing shift of the American population from rural to urban communities and the related affects of ongoing immigration on the American populace.
Trace the ongoing tensions between slave and free states in such legislation as the Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Acts, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
Understand the significance of the reform movements to abolish slavery and support women’s rights to American literature.
Understand how literary nationalism, a movement to make distinctly American art, motivated the distinctive elements of nineteenth century American literature.
Identify the characteristic features of the literary movement known as American Romanticism.
Understand the philosophies, literature, and intellectual impact of the Transcendental movement.
Understand the contributions of slave narratives and sentimental or domestic fiction to American literature.

Thumbnail: Frederick Douglass. (Public Domain; George Kendall Warren via Wikipedia)