The Transcendentalists

"We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we

will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time

exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul

which also inspires all men." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who were they?• A group of radical thinkers in

the early to mid-1800s.• Based primarily out of New

England• Began as a religious movement

which questioned the absolute truth of the bible and maintained that spiritual enlightenment could be found within through the process of rational thought

• Questioned the established ideas about religion and society

• Writing focused on morality, philosophy, and social change (slavery, women's rights, war)

• Strong connections to nature

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• 1803-1882• Founder of the

Transcendentalist movement

• Born in Boston, Massachusetts

• His father was a pastor and Ralph followed in his footsteps

• After the death of his wife, Emerson began to question church doctrine and eventually left the church

Emerson, continued• After leaving the church, he began

‘preaching’ the ideas of Transcendentalism at lectures all over the country and writing essays about his philosophical beliefs

• Encouraged people to reject institutionalized religion and find their own spiritual path

• Also called for American authors to develop their own style rather than copy British writers. Often cited as the father of American literature

• Emerson and his ideas had a strong influence on a wide variety of authors including Thoreau, Whitman, Melville, Dickinson, and Hawthorne

Henry David Thoreau• 1817-1862• Born in Concord,

Massachusetts and attended Harvard University

• Friends with Emerson and lived in his house for several years

• In 1845, Thoreau built a small cabin in the woods where he lived alone for several years in an attempt to remove himself from society

• It was here that he wrote the bulk of Walden and Civil Disobedience

Thoreau, continued• In 1846, Thoreau was arrested

for refusing to pay taxes• He refused to pay because he

disagreed with the government’s support of slavery and the Mexican-American War

• He was willing to stay in jail to demonstrate his commitment, but his aunt paid the fine and he was released against his will

• Died of tuberculosis in 1862• Walden inspired the

environmental movement and Civil Disobedience would later have a profound impact on such leaders as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Junior, and J.F.K.

Themes

• Nature: truth and beauty can be found in nature

• Nonconformity: individual thought preferable to blind obedience

• Inborn wisdom: we are born with knowledge and truth in our souls, we can uncover it through the process of rational thought

• Social change: anti-war, anti-slavery, anti-materialism, women’s rights