Lesson 6: Arts and Literature

Question 1

Henry David Thoreau Definition

Answer 1

an American author and leader of the transcendentalist movement, also known for his acts of civil disobedience

Question 2

Hudson River School Definition

Answer 2

a group of American artists based in New York who developed a unique style of landscape painting in the mid-1800s

Question 3

Individualism Definition

Answer 3

the belief in the uniqueness and importance of each individual

Question 4

John James Audubon Definition

Answer 4

an American artist who painted the country’s birds and mammals

Question 5

Transcendentalists Definition

Answer 5

one of a group of New England writers and thinkers who believed that the most important truths transcended, or went beyond, human reason

Question 6

What was the Hudson River School?

Answer 6

By the mid-1800s, American artists began to develop their own style. The first group to do so became known as the Hudson River School. Artists such as Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand painted vivid landscapes of New York’s Hudson River region and other parts of the Northeast. African American artist Robert S. Duncanson reflected the style of the Hudson River School.

Question 7

Which artists painted works portraying hardworking country people?

Answer 7

Other artists painted scenes of hard-working country people. George Caleb Bingham of Missouri created a timeless picture of frontier life along the rivers that feed the great Mississippi. George Catlin and Alfred Jacob Miller traveled to the Far West to record the daily life of Indians on the Great Plains and in the Rockies.

Question 8

Who was John James Audubon?

Answer 8

John James Audubon was a wildlife artist who traveled across the country painting birds and mammals. His collection of 435 life-size prints, entitled The Birds of America, portrayed every bird known in the United States at the time.

Question 9

Remember: American artists in the early and mid-1800s showed that the American landscape and people were worthy subjects of art. They portrayed continuity in the American way of life. Their paintings reflected continuity in the timelessness of the country’s geography and in the patterns of farm work. The y also reflected the great changes that were underway in this new era. Artists depicted the effects of westward movement and the settlement of the frontier, capturing the nation’s expansion and growth. In their attention to these themes, the work of these painters reflected American society in their day.

Answer 9

American artists in the early and mid-1800s showed that the American landscape and people were worthy subjects of art. They portrayed continuity in the American way of life. Their paintings reflected continuity in the timelessness of the country’s geography and in the patterns of farm work. The y also reflected the great changes that were underway in this new era. Artists depicted the effects of westward movement and the settlement of the frontier, capturing the nation’s expansion and growth. In their attention to these themes, the work of these painters reflected American society in their day.

Question 10

How did American literature and art change from taking inspiration from England?

Answer 10

Like painters, early American writers also depended on Europe for their ideas and inspiration. In the 1820s, however, a new crop of poets and fiction writers began to write about American themes. At the same time, uniquely American forms of music began to emerge. These new forms of literature and music reflected American society in the early and mid-1800s.

Question 11

Who was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

Answer 11

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the favorite poet of Americans in the mid-1800s. Longfellow based many poems on events from the past. “Paul Revere’s Ride” honored the Revolutionary War hero. “The Song of Hiawatha” idealized Native American life.

Question 12

Who are John Greenleaf Whittier and Frances Watkins Harper?

Answer 12

Other poets spoke out on social issues. John Greenleaf Whittier, a Quaker from Massachusetts, and Frances Watkins Harper, an African American woman from Maryland, reflected change in American society as abolitionism gained supporters. They used their pens to make readers aware of the evils of slavery.

Question 13

Who was Walt Whitman?

Answer 13

Walt Whitman’s greatest work was a book of poems titled Leaves of Grass. He added to this collection over a period of 27 years. Like Longfellow, Whittier, and Harper, Whitman focused on themes that are unique to American culture. Whitman had great faith in the common people. His poetry celebrated democracy. He wrote proudly of being part of a “nation of many nations”:

At home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of Maine, or the Texan ranch, comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners. … of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion.

—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

Question 14

Who is Emily Dickinson?

Answer 14

Only seven of Emily Dickinson’s more than 1,700 poems were published in her lifetime. A shy woman who rarely left her home, Dickinson called her poetry “my letter to the world / That never wrote to me.” Today, she is recognized as one of the nation’s greatest poets.

Question 15

Who is Washington Irving?

Answer 15

One of the most popular American writers was Washington Irving, a New Yorker. Irving first became known for The Sketch Book, a collection of tales published in 1820. Two of his bestloved tales are “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Question 16

Who was James Fenimore Cooper?

Answer 16

The exciting novels of James Fenimore Cooper were also set in the American past. In The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper created Natty Bumppo, a heroic model of a strong, solitary frontiersman. The novels gave an idealized view of relations between whites and Native Americans on the frontier.

Question 17

What was the influence of Cooper and Irving on Americans?

Answer 17

The stories of Cooper and Irving gave Americans a sense of the richness of their past. Their appeal went beyond the United States, however. Washington Irving was the first American writer to enjoy fame in Europe.

Question 18

Who is Herman Melville?

Answer 18

In 1851, Herman Melville published Moby-Dick. The novel tells the story of Ahab, the crazed captain of a whaling ship. Ahab vows revenge on the white whale that years earlier bit off his leg. Moby-Dick had only limited success when it was first published. Today, however, critics rank it among the finest American novels.

Question 19

Who is Nathaniel Hawthorne?

Answer 19

Nathaniel Hawthorne often drew on the history of New England in his novels and short stories. In The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, Hawthorne explored Puritan notions of sin and salvation. The novel shows how a young man is consumed by guilt when he tries to hide his wrongdoing from the world.

Question 20

Who is Edgar Allen Poe?

Answer 20

Edgar Allan Poe became famous for his many tales of horror. His short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is about a murderer, driven mad by guilt, who imagines he can hear his victim’s heartbeat. Poe is also known as the “father of the detective story” for his mystery stories, such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

Question 21

Who was William Wells Brown?

Answer 21

William Wells Brown was the first African American to earn his living as a writer. He published Clotel, a novel about slave life, in 1853. Brown also wrote a play inspired by his own experiences as a fugitive slave and a conductor on the Underground Railroad. His lectures and readings drew large audiences in Europe as well as throughout the North.

Question 22

What were common themes in novels written by women? Who were Catherine Sedgewick and Fanny Fern? How successful were they?

Answer 22

Many best-selling novels of the period were written by women. Some novels told about young women who gained wealth and happiness through honesty and self-sacrifice. Others showed the hardships faced by widows and orphans. Few of these novels are read today. However, writers like Catherine Sedgwick and Fanny Fern earned far more than Hawthorne or Melville. Hawthorne complained about the success of a “mob of scribbling women.”

Question 23

How was American music in the 1800s?

Answer 23

American classical music in the 1800s continued to follow European traditions. Yet as American society changed and grew and different groups of people came into contact with one another, distinctly American musical forms began to emerge. Early songs were often patriotic or religious, such as “My Country Tis of Thee,” written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831, or “Amazing Grace,” published in 1835. The 1800s saw the rise of a middle class interested in music that was entertaining and emotionally stirring. The songs of Stephen Foster, which drew on American themes, were especially popular. Although Foster was a northerner, many of his songs, such as “Dixie,” referred to southern traditions and were popular in the South. Western expansion, immigration, and migration mingled musical traditions together, creating new American sounds. African American music in particular had a strong influence on the new forms that were developing. African American spirituals and work songs combined African and European musical traditions. During the 1800s, a new style of music now known as gospel music began to develop in African American religious congregations. These styles would later combine with European and American folk traditions to shape blues, jazz, country, and rock music.

Question 24

Remember: The banjo, originally made from a gourd and thick strings, can be traced back to sub-Saharan Africa in the 1200s.

Answer 24

The banjo, originally made from a gourd and thick strings, can be traced back to sub-Saharan Africa in the 1200s.

Question 25

Who were transcendentalists?

Answer 25

In New England, a small but influential group of writers and thinkers emerged. They called themselves transcendentalists because they believed that the most important truths in life transcended, or went beyond, human reason. They produced a unique body of literature reflecting transcendentalist thought. Transcendentalists valued the spark of deeply felt insights more than reason. They believed that each individual should live up to the divine possibilities within. This belief influenced many transcendentalists to support social reform.

Question 26

Who was Ralph Waldo Emerson? What did he do to support transcendentalism? What is individualism?

Answer 26

The leading transcendentalist was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was the most popular essayist and lecturer of his day. Audiences flocked to hear him talk on subjects such as self-reliance and character. Emerson believed that the human spirit was reflected in nature. Civilization might provide material wealth, he said, but nature exhibited higher values that came from God. In his essays and lectures, Emerson stressed individualism, or the importance of each individual. In its individual focus, transcendentalism is unique to American culture. Individualism and individual responsibility are central to America’s democracy. Each person, Emerson said, has an “inner light.” He urged people to use this inner light to guide their lives and improve society. “Trust thyself,” he wrote. “Every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

Question 27

Who is Henry David Thoreau?

Answer 27

Henry David Thoreau (thuh ROH), Emerson’s friend and neighbor, believed that the growth of industry and the rise of cities were ruining the nation. He urged people to live as simply and as close to nature as possible. In Walden, his best-known work, Thoreau describes spending a year alone in a cabin on Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Like Emerson, Thoreau believed that each individual must decide what is right or wrong. “If a man does not keep pace with his companions,” he wrote, in Walden, “perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears.” Thoreau’s “different drummer” told him that slavery was wrong. He argued in favor of civil disobedience and once went to jail for refusing to pay taxes to support the U.S.-Mexican War, which he felt promoted slavery. Thoreau wrote an essay titled “Civil Disobedience” that explained why an individual may feel the need to break laws that are unjust without resorting to violence. He argued, though, that anyone who chooses this course has to be prepared to be imprisoned or otherwise punished. This essay had a great impact on future leaders. Thoreau’s ideas on civil disobedience and nonviolence later influenced Mohandas Gandhi, who led a struggle in India for independence from Britain, and Martin Luther King, Jr., an American civil rights leader during the 1900s.