In their attempts to overcome the wilderness, the Puritans gave it lasting power and potency. Their writings solidified the role of the American Wilderness as a simultaneous right, challenge, and enemy, thus setting a precedent for every American author thereafter.
Following the turmoil of the American Revolution and the reactionary logic of the Reason and Revolution era, a renewed interest in nature and the wilderness ushered in the Romantic era. Like in the Colonial era, Romantic authors’ understanding of the wilderness was heavily directed by religious thought. But instead of viewing the wilderness in a negative light, as the Puritans did, Romantic authors viewed nature as quintessentially holy. A new sect of spiritual authors, philosophers, and political activists, known as the Transcendentalists, heavily influenced the Romantic understanding of the wilderness.
