US History

U.S. History Study Guide

11.8 American Literature During the early 1800’s, American literature began to divide from its British roots. Creating a true American identity and exposing the world to such authors as: • Washington Irving achieved international acclaim, writing often satirical accounts of life in colonial New York. Two of his most famous stories are “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” • James Fennimore Cooper , the author of The Pioneers (1823) and The Last of the Mohicans (1826), is credited with creating the first western hero in, “The American Scholar” (1837). • Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter , published in 1850, explores the moral dilemmas of an adulterous Puritan minister. • Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) portrays a sea captain’s tortured obsession. • Edgar Allen Poe’s macabre short stories and poems, including “The Telltale Heart” (1843) and “The Raven” (1844), examine depravity and moral corruption. • Walt Whitman , a follower of Emerson, celebrated America for producing a new type of democratic man uncorrupted by European vice in his compilation of poems, Leaves of Grass , published in 1855. • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poems Evangeline and Hiawatha spoke of the value of tradition, and the impact of the past on the present. 11.9 Economic Growth The chief factor in the economic transformation of America during the 1840’s and 1850’s was the rapid rise of the railroads. In 1840 America had less than three thousand miles of railroad track. By 1860 that number had risen to over thirty thousand miles. Railroads pioneered big-business and by improving transportation helped to create a nationwide market. Railroads also helped to link the Midwest to the Northeast rather than the South. Water transportation during the 1850’s saw the peak of the steamboat on inland rivers and the clipper ship on the high seas. The period also saw rapid and sustained industrial growth. The factory system began in the textile industry, with invention of the sewing machine and Isaac Singer's improved model (1851) aided the process of mechanization. In the North, the main centers of agricultural production shifted from the Middle Atlantic States to the more fertile lands of the Midwest. The main unit of agriculture was the family farm, and the main products were grain and livestock. Unlike the South where slaves provided labor, the North faced incentives to introduce labor-saving machines. Cyrus McCormick's mechanical reaper came into wide use.

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