Notes CH 15 Part 2
Wilderness Utopias – [utopia- an ideal and perfect state]
Various Reformers set up more than 40 communities of a cooperative, communistic, or communitarian nature… Seeking human betterment.
New Harmony, Indiana – Robert Owen founded in 1825, 1000 people, seeking human perfection…they did not find it.
Brook Farm – Mass., 1841, 20 intellectuals committed to the philosophy of Transcendentalism…a philosophy emphasizing the divine in the individual and nature…the experiment failed.
Oneida Community [see makers of america] in NY, founded in 1848, this community flourished for over 30 years…due the economic benefits from making steel traps and silverware (knives, forks, spoons, and still today does…not in a a commune though a modern corporation) They practice Free Love, Complex Marriage, Birth Control, and Eugenics- selective breeding as proposed human improvement.
Shakers – founded by Mother Ann Lee, began in the 1770’s and still exists today…a religious community that focused on prohibiting marriage and celibacy.
The Dawn of Scientific Achievement
SCIENTISITS-
Nathaniel Bowditch – mathematician
Matthew Maury – studied Ocean winds and currents
Benjamin Silliman – Chemist and Biologist
Louis Agassiz – Biologist
Asa Gray – the “Columbus” of American Botany
John J. Audubon**** painter of Birds, ornithologist, The Audubon Society for the protection of Birds…
MEDICINE-
Life expectancy was still short…40 years for a white person born in 1850, and less for blacks.
Blacksmiths were also dentists
Disease was rampant
Patent “miracle cure” medicines were rampant [Robertson’s infallible Worm Destroying lozenges]
“if all of the medicines then employed were thrown into the sea, humans would be better off and the fish worse off.” Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes – 1860
Surgery was often done with the patient TIED DOWN AND GIVEN WHISKEY…the surgeon’s nickname….SAWBONES….
A huge BREAKTHROUGH CAME IN THE 1840’S WHEN SEVERAL AMERICAN DOCTORS AND DENTISTS WORKING INDEPENDENTLY SUCCESSFULLY EMPLOYED LAUGHING GAS AND ETHER AS ANESTHETICS. *** AMEN !
Artistic Achievements
Architecture: Thomas Jefferson’s home…Monticello…the Quad at the University of Virginia …really the first architect of note in America…
Painting: Romantic Landscapes of America were painted by the HUDSON RIVER VALLEY SCHOOL ARTISTS…. And competition from the beginnings of crude photographs called DAGUEREOTYPES.
Music: by mid-century tunes that were mimicking the music of the slaves, called “darky tunes” were popular… Minstrel shows…featuring white actors in “blackface” again mimicking slaves…. Dixie, written in NYC, ironically…Stephen F. Foster’s “Old Folks at Home- Sewanee River,” were valuable contributions to American Folk Music…
The Blooming of a National Literature
Some early American writing was praiseworthy… The Federalist – Hamilton, Madison, Jay; Paine’s, “Common Sense,” Franklin’s, “Autobiography,” William Bradford’s, OF Plymouth Plantation….
Just as in Painting…The post War of 1812 upsurge of Nationalism inspired a unique American Literature…
The Knickerbockers:
William Cullen Bryant- Poet/Newspaper Editorialist- his poem “Thanatopsis,” was considered to be among the most highly respected poems in the world…and his dignified, liberal, and conscientious editorial as a newspaperman were highly thought of as well…
Washington Irving – 1st American to receive international recognition as a literary figure… Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle among his tales published in, “The Sketch Book.”
James Fennimore Cooper – along with Irving, received international recognition and helped to make NEW WORLD THEMES acceptable… his most famous, the Leatherstocking Tales, about Natty Bumppo meeting with Indians…and Last of the Mohicans…about the extinction of the Native American Cutlure…
Trumpeters of Transcendentalism
A golden age of American Literature…Romanticism?.... 1825 begins… in New England… Boston, Athens of America, home of the Transcendentalists.
They focus on liberalizing Calvinist/Puritan theology….remember the rise of Unitarianism… “Truth cannot be found by observation alone…. Every person possesses an inner light that can illuminate truth and him in direct contact with God.”
This defies precise definition….BUT…they believe in Individualism and personal responsibility…. Self-reliance & Self discipline…..Hostility to Authority….and a DIGNITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL…BLACK OR WHITE OR NATIVE….
***Ralph Waldo Emerson – is the best known of these writers… he was trained as a unitarian minister…but soon took to giving public lectures and writing… Known for his essays such as, The American Scholar,” and “Self-Reliance,” his fresh and vibrant approach enriched thousands.. He stressed; self-Reliance, self-improvement, self-confidence, optimism, freedom, and was an outspoken critic of Slavery.
****Henry David Thoreau – Emerson’s buddy…. Certainly a non-conformist… he went to jail for refusing to pay taxes in opposition to the Mexican War….When his buddy came to bail him out, he asked Thoreau why he was in jail…..HDT replied, Why aren’t you? One Novel and One Essay of his STILL INFLUENCES MANY AND HAS INFLUENCED MILLIONS…. HIS NOVEL, “Walden,” and his ESSAY, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.” His essay on NON-VIOLENCE….later encourage Gandhi and MLK, Jr…… WOW
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlett Letter**** and The Blythedale Romance
Walt Whitman – Poet, “Leaves of Grass,” most famous work… amazing, really….from Brooklyn….this work, which initially sold very little, eventually honors him with the title, “Poet Laureate of Democracy,”
Glowing Literary Lights
Not all writers at this time were transcendentalists….
Longfellow – Poet…immensely popular in Europe…THE ONLY AMERICAN POET HONORED WITH A BUST IN THE POET’S CORNER AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY IN LONDON. “song of Hiawatha” “the courtship of miles Standish” just two….
Whittier – “the poet laureate of the anti-slavery crusade,” more important than Longfellow in influencing Social Action… one of the moving…”THE POET OF HUMAN FREEDOM.”
Lowell – satirist…wrote, “The Biglow Papers,” which satire the US Govt’s experience in the Mexican-American War….
Alcott- transcendentalist…Poet…. Lived next to Emerson, Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller, editor of DIAL magazine… wrote the still popular, LITTLE WOMEN.
Dickinson…amazing poet….. NONE OF HER POEMS WERE PUBLISHED IN HER LIFETIME… 2000 were found among her papers…
Poe – needs no introduction…. THE MOST NOTEWORTHY LITERARY FIGURE PRODUCED BY THE SOUTH BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR….Edgar Allen Poe….Maryland
William Gilmore Sims- 82 books…on the S. in the Rev. colonial frontier in the south..
Hilton Helper**** This man is from Iredell County….and besides Poe, his book, “The Impending Crisis of the South,” was banned…it discussed how Slavery was bad for poor whites and the whole South in General….very influential…one of the reasons Lincoln at the beginning of the Civil War does not make war on civilians, due to his belief that they were not responsible for the irresponsible actions of their legislators… that they were as Hinton says, upset with slavery… denying them the ability to use their FREE LABOR to succeed….an attitude,”Helperism.”
Literary Individualists and Dissenters
Poe…an eccentric Genius…Poet & short stories… many
Hawthorne – above…
Melville – “Moby Dick,”
Portrayers of the Past – Historians
George Bancroft – Sec. of the Navy, Founded the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland….”FATHER OF AMERICAN HISTORY,”*****
WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT –Histories of Mexico and Peru
Francis Parkman-wrote of the French and British wars that preclude the American Revolution.
*****Most American Historians of prominence were from New England. Largely because Boston provided well stocked libraries and a great literary tradition… Many were abolitionists and were disposed to view the South negatively… The writing of American History for generations to come would have a anti-southern bias…perpetuated by this “New England” interpretation.
Done…whew