“We have listened too long to the courtly musses of Europe.” -Emerson. There are a few notable developments of the Romantic era that directly impacted literary arts. One was the advancement in technology that allowed for easier production of printed material. This technological boost created the enabling environment that produced writers that could, for the first time, completely depend on writing for their livelihood. The age of the professional writer was born. The second major development was the realization, by Americans that it was about time that Americans weaned themselves off European literature and began to find a voice of their own. Thus, the Romantic era was the period when Americans began so search for its own literary voice.
As American writers responded to the call for native literature, one theme that stood out was a greater concentration on the idea individual self interest, “The Self.” The focus on the self led to more introspective, and in some sense, retrospective view of life. Americans rekindled the interest in the more traditional approach to religion; and a new approach to spirituality. The emergence of the printing press gave new a “voice” to the spreading the gospel via the print media. But the churches never found a common voice. The most divisive factor was the debate over church support of slavery (p.491). One notable American voice however, was the 1830 publication, of the Book of Mormon. Not only was this piece of literature revolutionary in its unique approach to Christianity, but it launched a type of Christianity that (though it was outside the mainstream) was completely an American idea.
As it turns out, the American voice has still not become less discordant than it was in the previous eras. The 1850 census brought even more suppressed contentions to the fore with the disagreement over whether or not to count enslaved Americans as full citizens. We can thus, infer that there was no single voice that spoke for all Americans. Yet, all were still nurturing their respective forms of the American Dream.
America of the Romantic era was also a nation of inequalities. Besides the most obvious mistreatment of enslaved people, there was the marginalization of all other groups, but wealthy, white, male landowners. The marginalized included poor white men who mostly functioned as indentured servants, then there were women, and Native Americans and enslaved Africans. After the abolition of slavery in British colonies in 1833, the debate about slavery in the United States, intensified with the founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society (p.498). Along with the fight to free all enslaved black people, one black woman, Sojourner Truth stood out in her fight for the rights of women. Though uneducated, Truth was a prolific public speaker who traveled across America and delivered speeches. Limited by her inability to read and write, she dictated the contents of her book, The Narratives of Sojourner Truth, so that they were penned down by secondhand writers.
Sojourner used her book, and her voice to advocate for women suffrage. In one of here speeches delivered at the Women’s Rights Convention, she quipped, “You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much. If you have women’s rights, give it to her and you will feel better. I have heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well if woman upset the world, give her a chance to set it right side up again” (532).
Though marginal, the fact that an uneducated black woman gained such national recognition for her advocacy for women’s rights was promising. It was a testimony that several voices were speaking to several versions of the American Dream, and that their voices were being heard.