1. Unit 2: A Growing Nation
Mrs. Jacquet
English 11

2.
What do you know about the American Renaissance?

3. Essential Questions
What did Americans discover as they explored the continent?
What attitudes developed toward the American land?
How did these attitudes show up in literature?

4. Background of time period
The American Renaissance
Took place in the first half of the 19th Century
Nation came of age and entered literary and cultural maturity
Capital was moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. in 1800
Americans founded the Library of Congress in the capital, which became a storehouse of law, scholarship, and creativity
Steam, Steel, and Spirit
Lots of national pride as American was growing through things such as the Louisiana Purchase (1803), improved transportation, and the Gold Rush of 1849.
Advanced technology created social and cultural change, resulted in increased factories and new jobs, thus, a booming economy.
Little political attention given to minorities
Women had little to no rights
African Americans remained enslaved
Native Americans were forced westward

5. Background of time period
Many of these things led up to issues that erupted in the second half of the 1800s.
Civil War due to slavery still being in place though morally wrong.
Women’s rights gained a little ground.
Factories were tainted by child labor and unsafe working conditions

6. Timeline 1803: Louisiana Purchase
1804: Lewis and Clark Exploration Begins
1812: U.S. declares war with Great Britain; War of 1812 begins
1814: Francis Scott Key writes “The Star-Spangled Banner”
1820: Missouri Compromise bans slavery in parts of new territories.
1838: U.S. Army leads Cherokees through Trail of Tears.
1845: Florida becomes 27th state
1848: Gold Rush begins; Women’s Rights Convention; Mexican War ends, resulting in expansion of border.

7. This material will be on your first test that covers Units 1-2 on
What we’re reading…
Emily Dickinson: “Because I Could not Stop for Death”
Edgar Allen Poe: “The Raven”
Walt Whitman: “I Hear America Singing”
Ralph Waldo Emerson: from Nature
This material will be on your first test that covers Units 1-2 on
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24TH.