Unit Two: American Romanticism

This era held great change for America--and American Literature. Jefferson doubled the size of the country with the Louisiana Purchase, and The Indian Removal Act passed. This meant that not only did the American settlers have more land to settle on, but they'd no longer be bothered for competition from Indians. While it was unfair to the Indians, the Americans thrived off of it. It brought them to a new age of literature called Romanticism. The difference between Neoclassicism and Romanticism was the difference of night and day, the first being based on logic where the latter was based on emotion. Romantic literature gave certain focus to beauty. It brought forth works of art like William Cullen Bryant's 1817 poem "Thanatopsis." This poem, and works like it, helped move America into a much happier place in literature.