1845 - 1880

History of the Time

 The Path to War & the War
Regional economic diferences helped bring
about outbreak of Civil War.

November 1860 Abraham Lincoln won

presidential election & vowed to preserve Union.

January 1863 Lincoln issued Emancipation

Proclamation = declared enslaved people in
rebellious states were free.
History of the Time
 The Aftermath
 Eleven-year period after Civil War, known as
Reconstruction, marked by economic growth.

 African Americans battled discrimination & racism.

 Women fought for equality & right to vote. Susan B.

Anthony arrested.

 Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho & other Native Americans

struggled to protect land from spread of white
settlements.
Life of the Time
 People are talking about
The Underground Railroad = secret network of
hideouts for people fleeing slavery. Harriet
Tubman = most famous guide.

John Brown´s captured, tried & executed

because of raid.

Oti´s Elevators. In 1852, Elisha Otis announced

invention & demonstrated it.

First telephone by Alexander Graham Bell.

Life of the Time
Food, fashion, arts & entertainment
• Whiskey under attack. Between 1846 & 1857, 13
states pass laws prohibiting consumption of alcohol.
• Machine production makes inexpensive, ready-to-
wear clothing possible.
• In the 1870´s, clothing maker in San Francisco made
pants out of blue denim.
• Winslow Homer = one of the greatest American
painters (scenes of army camp life).
• Mathew Brady produced 3,500 photographs of war.
• Baseball = popular pastime. In 1869, Cincinnati Red
Stockings = 1st team of professional players.
Literature of the Time
 People are reading & writing
• Antislavery writings. “The Liberator” = newspaper
founded by William Lloy Garrison in 1831. “Uncle
Tom´s Cabin” = novel written by Harriet Beecher
Stowe.
• William Gilmore Simms = native of South Carolina,
popular series of romantic tales about state´s frontier
past.
• Letters & diaries to record daily lives. In 1837 began
using postcards.
• Memoirs published by soldiers & civilians after war.
Literary Trends: From
Romanticism to realism
• Before Civil War, fiction & poetry described
imaginative people & situations: Poe &
Irving.
• Switch from Romanticism to Realism =
portrays real human experience with all of
its imperfections & find truth in everyday
people and experiences.
• Ambrose Bierce represents new wave in
fiction.
• Many important books analyze economic
conditions of the day & conflicts between
people from different social classes.
Focus on two unique geniuses
• Walt Whitman (“Leaves of Grass”) & Emily
Dickinson (innovators) redefine American
poetry setting stage for 20th century poetry.

• Many important books analyze economic

conditions of the day & conflicts between
people from different social classes.

• Writers try to observe society closely and to

show life as it really is.
Because I could not stop for
Death
Because I could not stop Or rather, He passed Us -
for Death - The Dews grew quivering
He kindly stopped for me - and chill -
The Carriage held but just For only Gossamer, my
Ourselves - Gown -
And Immortality. My Tippet - only Tulle -
We slowly drove -He knew We paused before a House
no haste that seemed
And I had put away A Swelling of the Ground -
My labor, and my leisure The Roof was scarcely
too, visible -
For his Civility - The Cornice - but a Mound
-
We passed the School,
where Children strove Since then - 'tis centuries -
At Recess - in the Ring - and yet
We passed the Fields of Feels shorter than the Day
Gazing Grain - I first surmised the Horses'
We passed the Setting Sun Heads
- Were toward Eternity -