Lam and Simmons 1

Hailey Lam and Morgan Simmons

Kelley and Whipple
AP American Studies Pd. 3
22 November 2019
Finding the Goodness of Mankind

By the first decade in the 1800s, every Northern state in the United States had outlawed

slavery (“Enabling Freedom”). This abolition of slavery, as well as many other reform

movements at the time, came from ideas from the Second Great Awakening and the Romantic

movement. These ideas were mainly about how Americans at the time wanted to see their lives

lived in peace and equality. ​These values brought the Transcendentalist idea of the goodness of

man. This simply means that people will work towards finding rational, moral ways to live their

lives. This was achieved in many ways. Some people, such as Harriet Tubman, decided to take a

part in the Underground Railroad by leading slaves to freedom. Others such as Ralph Waldo

Emerson and Henry David Thoreau used literary pieces to express their ideas. Altogether,

Americans in the 19th century came together to express ideas of the goodness of man and created

a more equal, unified society of Americans.

The Underground Railroad was not a railroad, instead, it was a group of secret routes and

safe houses that slaves from the Southern United States used to travel towards freedom in the

North. It was called underground because it was very secretive, and the name railroad came from

the idea that it was a new and emerging form of transportation (“Interesting Facts”). The

Underground Railroad was fueled by the ideas of the Abolitionist Movement, which was the

push for the end of racial discrimination, segregation, and slavery (“Abolitionist Movement”).

Supporters of the Abolitionist Movement stood by the belief that slavery was against the

Christian faith (“Enabling Freedom”).

 Lam and Simmons 2

Between the 1810s and 1850s, it is estimated that 100,000 slaves escaped from slavery

and were able to relocate to the North (“Underground Railroad”). The people that led groups of

slaves to freedom were called “conductors.” These conductors fearlessly traveled South time and

time again to bring groups of slaves to freedom.

Harriet Tubman, a well-known conductor on the Underground Railroad was a runaway

slave herself. She became the most commonly known conductor of the Underground Railroad.

Individually she was responsible for freeing about 300 slaves. She accomplished this over ten

years and nineteen journeys to the South (“Harriet Tubman”). According to Sarah Bradford,

author of “Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman,” one of Tubman’s common nicknames was

“Moses” because it alluded to her being a fearless leader (Bradford).

A common motif seen in the transcendentalist work in the romantic period was the

goodness of man. The idea behind this motif was that people have good morals and show they

can do good things for others.​ For example, conductors on the Underground Railroad were brave

souls who traveled great distances in order to guide other slaves towards freedom. The goodness

of man can be seen here because of these people, who made the dangerous journey time and time

again in order to save others.

The motif of the goodness of man can be seen in a number of Transcendentalism

literature pieces, specifically “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson and “Where I Lived, and What

I Lived For” by Henry David Thoreau. Both of these pieces had ideas that proved how people

maintain a reliable, moral background. From “Nature,” Emerson writes, “The sun illuminates

only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is

he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the
 Lam and Simmons 3

spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood” (Emerson). This quote shows he desired to

reimagine the divine, which he referred to as nature, as large and visible. The quote relates to the

goodness of man by emphasizing the characters’ inner child that is in all of us by using a

whimsical, hopeful tone. Emerson uses positive words such as “shines,” “heart,” and “lover,”

reflecting positively on mankind.

In Thoreau’s piece “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,”​ h​ e writes, “I went to the

woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I

could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”

(Thoreau). This quote is the first sentence in this piece, but it is a sentence that with further

interpretation, ​shows significant meaning relating to the goodness of mankind. Thoreau writes

this piece to share what he learned when he lived in solitude to try and find the “essential facts of

life” (Thoreau). After reading the article as a whole, it can be discovered that what Thoreau

means by the “essential facts of life” is that he wants to discover how to make it feel like he had

“lived.” On a physical level, yes, Thoreau had lived. But on a deeper, more intellectual level,

Thoreau was trying to discover how to make his life feel like it had purpose and meaning. It is

people like Thoreau who try to put meaning and purpose to their lives that complete the idea of

showing how mankind can be good.​ Thoreau is finding his values, morals, and his own peace

and plans to “learn what it [is I] had to teach” in order to pass this purpose of life onto others

(Thoreau).

Our artifact is a painting of a scene of the Underground Railroad. The main focal point of

this piece is in the center of the canvas, where ​a group of people can be seen being led by a

conductor. This is mainly where the painting connects to the goodness of man. ​These conductors
 Lam and Simmons 4

were leaders by choice, they made the journey to help other slaves escape. ​Additionally, the

goodness of man is present with a house on the right side of the painting. It may be difficult to

notice, but this house has a light on in one of the windows. ​This little detail represents people

who left their homes open for runaway slaves to have a safe place to sleep before they continued

on their journey. If the homeowners were caught housing runaway slaves, they would be in great

trouble.

Although nature was not the motif we focused on, another literary motif of

transcendentalism and romantic time period was the peace in nature. ​Our artifact is connected to

the literary pieces by the trees on the left side of the painting. We decided to include the trees to

represent the peace of nature and how the forest was another safer place for runaway slaves to

hide, instead of visibly running through a field. ​One final aspect of our artifact was the idea of

the light and dark. We show this through the bright sunset and glowing window, and in contrast,

everything else in this painting is black and a silhouette. While this may just seem like an artistic

style choice, it is intended to mean that there is good and bad, just as there is light and dark.

In the era of Transcendentalism, a common motif was the goodness of man. This idea

was the basic understanding that people have the ability to create their own morals and values as

well as the ability to take action to show these values. Americans in the 19th century

demonstrated that mankind can be good by expressing ideas in literary works and also taking

part in helping others such as through reform movements like the Underground Railroad.
 Lam and Simmons 5

Works Cited

“Abolitionist Movement” ​History.com​, A&E Television Networks, 6 June 2019,

www.history.com/topics/black-history/abolitionist-movement. Accessed on 25 November

2019.

Bradford, Sarah H. Excerpt from “Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman,” ​Digital Public Library

of America​, 1869, http://dp.la/item/d9c34cd375c9e2586c3a4dbe7b04ea49. Accessed on

11 November 2019.

Clavin, Matthew J. “Underground Railroad” ​Aiming for Pensacola: Fugitive Slaves on the

Atlantic and Southern Frontiers​, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts;

London, England, 2015, pp. 121–146. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1c84dc1.8.

Accessed on 11 November 2019.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature” ​EMERSON - NATURE--Web Text​, American

Transcendentalism Web, 1836,

archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/nature.html.

Accessed on 25 November 2019.

“Enabling Freedom” ​National Underground Railroad Freedom Center,​ U.S. Department of

Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural (URR) Program, 2019,

freedomcenter.org/enabling-freedom/history. Accessed on 25 November 2019.

“Harriet Tubman” ​PBS​, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1535.html.

Accessed on 25 November 2019.

“Interesting Facts about the Underground Railroad.” ​Harriet Tubman,​ Harriet Tubman Historical

Society, 2019,
 Lam and Simmons 6

www.harriet-tubman.org/interesting-facts-about-the-underground-railroad/. Accessed on

25 November 2019.

Thoreau, Henry David. “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” 1924,

https://www.woodbridge.k12.nj.us/cms/lib010/NJ01913008/Centricity/Domain/716/Thor

eau.pdf. Accessed on 25 November 2019.

“Underground Railroad” ​HistoryNet​, World History Group, 2019,

www.historynet.com/underground-railroad. Accessed on 25 November 2019.