1800-1870

Important Dates 1803: Louisiana Purchase (to the Rocky Mountains) 1804: Lewis & Clark expedition 1812: US declares war on Great Britain 1814: Star Spangled Banner written by Francis Scott Key 1820: Missouri Compromise bans slavery in parts of new territories 1838: Trail of tears from Georgia to Oklahoma

Important Dates continued 1846: Mexican war begins 1848: Mexican war ends & US expands borders 1848: California gold rush begins 1848: Women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York 1850: California admitted to the Union

Interesting Facts In 1800 the US had 16 states, by 1803 it had doubled in size In 1803 Andrew Jackson ushered in the era of the common man = the property requirements were eliminated for voting rights In 1838 on the Trail of Tears 4,000 of 15,000 Cherokees died In 1845 Texas was admitted to the Union In 1861 the Civil War began

Westward & Beyond! We were moving westward at an incredible pace New technologies were emerging daily Factories were popping up everywhere Why? What did this mean for the US?

Literature Romanticism: elevated imagination over reason and intuition over fact, valued nature, the fantastic aspects of the human experience. New England Renaissance (1840-1855): celebrated intellectual independence from England Possibility of Evil: explored the depths of human nature and said it was dusky and full of sin, guilt, humility, insanity, and cursed.

Literature cont. Transcendentalism: Real truth lies outside the experience of the senses. A human can arrive at truth of life through spiritual insight if he/she takes time to think about it. Anti-slavery: were in support of the war in order to abolish slavery

What we will be reading The Devil and Tom Walker Nature poetry The Fall of the House of Usher The Scarlet Letter (our first book) Transcendental poetry Civil war poetry Poems about death & life & is there a difference