1. Please have your journal on your desk.

2. Transcendentalism Please write these notes in your journal. Date the entry 10/16/14.

3. Context Developed during the 1830s and 1840s. The Transcendental Club was established while the period of the Second Great Awakening was taking place in the United States. As traditional churches were gaining membership, the Transcendentalists were emphasizing intuition, individuality, and self- reliance.

4. Context Transcendentalism was considered a literary, political, and philosophical movement. They thought that a new era was at hand which required new ways of thinking and behaving.

5. Beliefs Human senses are limited; they convey knowledge of the physical world, but deeper truths can be grasped only through intuition. The observation of nature illuminates the nature of human beings. God, nature, and humanity are united in a shared universal soul, or Over-Soul. Everyone should be “finding [their] original relation to the universe.”

6. Social experiments Due to their countercultural sentiments, some members withdrew from society: – Henry David Thoreau lived on Walden Pond independently for two years; – “Utopian living” in communes was attempted by at least two Transcendentalist groups at locations called Brook Farm and Fruitlands.

7. Attitudes toward the government Transcendentalists disapproved of the U.S. government’s treatment of Native Americans, the war with Mexico, and the increased practice of slavery. Trail of Tears which took place during the 1830s.

8. Nonviolence Despite how his convictions contradicted the actions of the government, Henry David Thoreau initially encouraged nonviolent action through his writings. His philosophy inspired Mahatma Gandhi, and in turn, Martin Luther King Jr. as well.

9. HDT’s change in opinion Later on, HDT did advocate for the use of force in the incident involving John Brown. He was an abolitionist who arranged for a raid on a federal armory in hopes of freeing slaves.

11. On-demand writing Write a detailed response to the following questions: What is your impression of this class so far? Do you believe that your progress report grade truly reflects your abilities? Why or why not? You have approximately 20 minutes to work on this response. This writing exercise is worth assessment points. Pay attention to the criteria below. You will be evaluated based on the following: – Use of paragraph format; – Conventions and grammar; – It should be at least half a page.