American Cultural Reform

Second Great Awakening• The Second Great Awakening was a revival

of strong religious feeling• Mass meetings were held to discuss faith

and religion• Religious faith led to helping others and

reforming society

Transcendentalism• It taught that the spiritual world was more important

than the physical world• A belief that there is a goodness in all man and nature• They trusted their inner moral spirit, feelings and

emotions• Supported individualism, non-conformity,

Henry David Thoreau• Because Thoreau believed in the importance of

individualism, he urged people not to obey laws they considered unjust

• I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. Henry David Thoreau

• Thoreau promoted the idea of civil disobedience

• Civil Disobedience is peacefully disobeying a law , instead of using violence

• Thoreau refused to pay taxes to the U.S. Government, which he said enforced slavery and wrongly went to war with Mexico

• Many of his ideas can be found in his book Walden

Hudson River School

• The Hudson River School became famous for painting nature and landscapes• The school was founded by artist Thomas Cole in 1825 who was inspired by the natural

beauty of New York’s Hudson River Valley

Thomas Cole

http://www.hudson-river-school.org/Catskill-Mountain-Scenery-large.html

http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/5/59/ThomasCole-TheOxbow.jpg

• Instead of just using nature as a backdrop, their paintings showed the power and beauty of nature, often making humans insignificant

The Course of Empire is a five-part series of paintings created by Thomas Cole in the years 1833-36. It is notable in part for reflecting popular American sentiments of the times, when many saw pastoralism as the ideal phase of human civilization, fearing that empire would lead to gluttony and inevitable decay.

Thomas Cole: The Course of Empire 1833-1836

The Savage State

The Arcadian or Pastoral State

The Consummation of Empire

Destruction

Desolation

With your group, organize the paintings into order from “The Savage State” to “Desolation”. Remember that these paintings are all from the same point of view!

The Savage StateThe first painting shows the valley from the shore in the dim light of a dawning stormy day. A hunter clad in skins hastens through the wilderness, pursuing a deer; canoes paddle up the river; on the far shore can be seen a clearing with a cluster of wigwams around a fire, the nucleus of the city that is to be. The visual references are those of Native American life.

The Arcadian or Pastoral StateIn the second painting the sky has cleared and we are in the fresh morning of a day in spring or early summer. Much of the wilderness has given way to settled lands, with plowed fields and lawns visible. Various activities go on in the background: plowing, boat-building, herding sheep, dancing; in the foreground, an old man sketches what may be a geometrical problem with a stick. On a bluff on the near side of the river, a temple has been built.

The Consummation of EmpireThe third painting, it is noon of a glorious summer day. Both sides of the river valley are now covered in colonnaded marble structures, whose steps run down into the water. The temple seems to have been transformed into a huge domed structure dominating the river-bank. The mouth of the river is guarded by two pharoses, and ships with sails go out to the sea beyond. A joyous crowd throngs the balconies and terraces as a scarlet-robed king or victorious general crosses a bridge connecting the two sides of the river in a triumphal procession. In the foreground an elaborate fountain gushes. The overall look suggests the height of ancient Rome

DestructionIn the fourth painting the action is the sack and destruction of the city, in the course of a tempest seen in the distance. It seems that a fleet of enemy warriors has overthrown the city's defenses, sailed up the river, and is busily firing the city and killing its inhabitants. The bridge across which the triumphal procession had crossed is broken; a makeshift crossing strains under the weight of soldiers and refugees. Columns are broken, fire breaks from the upper floors of a palace on the river bank. In the foreground a statue of a hero stands headless, still striding forward into the uncertain future.

DesolationThe fifth painting shows the results, years later. We view the remains of the city in the livid light of a dying day. The landscape has begun to return to wilderness, and no human beings are to be seen; but the remnants of their architecture emerge from beneath a mantle of trees, ivy, and other overgrowth. The broken stumps of the pharoses loom in the background. The arches of the shattered bridge, and the columns of the temple are still visible; a single column looms in the foreground, now a nesting place for birds. The sunrise of the first painting is mirrored here by a moonrise, a pale light reflecting in the ruin-choked river while the standing pillar reflects the last rays of sunset.

Inspiration for The Course of Empire

• Thomas Cole found inspiration from the following poem:

There is the moral of all human tales;'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past.

First freedom and then Glory - when that fails,Wealth, vice, corruption - barbarism at last.

And History, with all her volumes vast,Hath but one page...

-Lord Byron

• American artist John James Audubon painted birds and other animals in nature.

• His Birds of America contained over 1,065 descriptions of birds, the most important work ever done on birds

AMERICAN LITERATUREAmerican writers stressed imagination, creativity, emotion and nature

Edgar Allan Poe wrote terrifying horror and detective storiesMany of Emily

Dickinson’s poems deal with themes of death and immortality

Noah Webster’s Dictionary gave American spellings and slang words…..not British

Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recess – in the Ring – We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us – The Dews drew quivering and chill – For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity –

Because I could not stop for Death (712) by Emily Dickinson

CLOSING

How did transcendentalism contribute to the spirit of reform?

In your journal, respond to the following prompt…