Emerson And Antebellum Reform Essay

The book American Reformers, 1815-1860 by Ronald G. Waters was originally published in 1978 by Hill and Wang publishing company. This book describes the reformation that took place in America, its affects, and what was necessary to get the word out about its ideas. The reformation was an important step in the development of the idea that the negative aspect of a nation’s society could be done away with through an individual’s endeavors. The first chapter of the book deals with how economics, transportation revolution, and politics played a part in the antebellum reformation. It explained how reformers felt about America’s immoral leaders and the laws that they thought would make Americans “behave.”

Roger Sherman was born on April 19th, 1921 in Newton, Massachusetts. When he was two years old, his father moved the family to Stoughton. He attended a grammar school at the age of thirteen, and also received an education from Reverend Samuel Danbar. Rev. Danbar got an education from Harvard and was the minister at Sherman’s Congregational Church. Sherman became a member of the Congregational Church in 1742, where he later became a Deacon

The sixteenth century America is primarily dominated by the Puritan idealism, but slowly through the year’s things are changing both in the religion and culture. In human nature the constant need for change is captivating, a change towards something new and different than the current. The events of the growing and changing eighteenth century America reflect just that. Ideas of the Enlightenment take deep root in the transformation of ideas about human’s relationship to God and to nature. Therefore, a deeply religious society starts transforming into a more secular culture, but religion still has quite a large influence.

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England on February 3, 1821. She moved to the United States in 1832. They first lived in New York and later went to Ohio. Her family struggled with finances when her father passed away in 1838. Her mother, two sisters, and herself became teachers to make ends meet.

In the twentieth century, America focused on responding to problems that emerged during the transformation from a rural agriculture society into an urban industrial one. A theme that sparked all Progressive reform was to use government for social welfare, rather than letting issues cure on their own. During this era, each state served as laboratories for democracy. By using government as an agent, reformers attacked child labor, corporate corruption, poverty, etc. Reformers attacked child labor, corporate corruption, over working etc.

There were many major movements and goals of the antebellum reform. Before the Civil War, almost 100 reform communities were instituted. Some were democratic, others were ruled over by an interesting leader. Most of them were motivated by religion, but some had desires to reverse social and economic changes. Almost all of these communities wanted to have a cooperative society, to revive social harmony in an individualistic society and to close the growing space between the rich and the poor.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was born January 30th 1882 to James and Sara Roosevelt. As Franklin got older he went to Groton school where he made average grades but didn't quite fit well with the other students. After he finished groton he went to Harvard College where he averaged a “C” in his classes. But he still

Halley Geist Honors 7 Gibson 22 January 2016 CREED Paragraph Ralph Waldo Emerson once said something like, to be misunderstood is to be great. This aphorism can be used all around the world today because the only person that truly understands you, is you. “To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Firstly, in the beginning the government was able to control everyone, but after the Enlightenment, people started to question things. Because of this, the Enlightenment encouraged people to challenge the authority, and think upon reasoning/logic. The word/phrase "common sense" was an Enlightenment idea, which inspired a man named Thomas Paine, during the Rev War. The Declaration of Independence was based on Enlightenment ideas, which were presented by John Locke. The Enlightenment supported ideals including: liberty, democracy, individualism, religious tolerance, and

The Progressive Reform Movement The Progressive Era is often looked as an age of reformation from the economic boom in the Gilded Age. From around 1890 to 1920s, citizens of the progressive reform movement had plans to amplify our American government and economy. The different outlooks and biases have created many interpretations of this era, along with many others. Historians have many different interpretations of the reform movement during the Progressive Era.

James Monroe Whitfield’s poem, “America,” spoke to me the most compared to the other poems in the selection. In the poem he asks many questions regarding the American Revolution, and the true reasons for America to become free. The line that stuck out to me the most was on lines 17 and 18, “Was it for this they shed their blood, On hill and plain, on field and flood?” Whitfield is trying to make the point in these lines that the American Revolution was fought for freedom for all men and women in America. Many men shed their blood for liberty and they were proud of the outcome.

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous speech, “The American Scholar,” Emerson proposes the provocative argument that in order for one to be a great thinker and not just be a mere mocker of societies words, one can not worship nor be inspired by another one’s own words. As someone who loves and moreover finds purpose through music, reading as well as processing such an argument against what I believe in is quite disheartening. Whilst describing his ideal characteristics of a scholar as well as just the average joe, Emerson explains, “One must be an inventor to read well” (9 Emerson). Words alone can not do much, it takes an intelligent mind as well as an “inventor” to make something of these phrases presented to us. It takes a different kind of scholar

The Civil War allowed the United States to make the changes necessary to unify the country. In addition, it began one of the most transitional periods in the United States’ history. This period, the Reconstruction, brought about many political, social, and economic changes, which were both beneficial and disagreeable. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Panic of 1873, and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan are just a few examples of heavily impacting events for the United States. During the Reconstruction period there were numerous political transformations in the country.

In conclusion, the Enlightenment was vital to the American Revolution and the creation of American Government. The Enlightenment beliefs that influenced the American Revolution were natural rights, the social contract, and the right to overthrow the government if the social contract was violated. The Enlightenment beliefs that aided to the creation of the American government were separation of powers, checks and balances, and limited government. As stated before, without the Enlightenment there would not have been a revolution, resulting in no American Government. The Enlightenment’s influence on the creation of America is irrefutable.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. With the early demise of his father, the family fortunes dwindled. But his aunty Mary Moody struggled to keep the family together and provided respectable education. Emerson joined the Harvard Divinity School in 1825, but did not take a degree, for some or other reason. From the family, with a long line of church service, Emerson became the minister of the Unitarian Church in 1829.