Unit Three: From Romanticism to Realism

During this time, the civil war arose over a single question: Should slavery be legal? The North said no, but the South, who depended on it, said yes. This war brought on all sorts of new literature--accounts of the war, descriptions of the experiences of slaves, and speeches describing the wrongness of everything happening. These were all written in the idea of Realism. It means you don't sugarcoat the truth, you make bold statements that are real. Many newly freed slaves were able to get their voices heard and let people see the wrongness through Realism in stories called Slave Narratives. These not only helped banish slavery, but also helped the white supremacists understand that their "property" were human beings.