Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

4Nineteenth Century Romanticism
and Transcendentalism
4.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES
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 eects on Native Americans caused by the push
of Americans of European heritage to claim new territory east of the
Mississippi River.
• Understand the eects of the second Industrial Revolution and the
factory system on the American economy, technology, and productivity.
• Understand how the change in labor practices eected an ongoing shift
of the American population from rural to urban communities and the
related aects 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 signicance 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 ction to American literature.
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