8.4.4

Discuss daily life, including traditions in art, music, and literature, of early national America (e.g., through writings by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper).
             As the turn of the century approached at the end of the American Revolution, the hearts of Americans everywhere began to go through revelations and which induced many changes to the already turbulent culture of the New World. Americans felt a sense of national pride and an inspiration to reform their country, many cultural trends took place, affecting not only American art, but music, literature, and daily life in general. This spirit of reform caused changes in American society that influenced art greatly. Preceding the Age of Reform, American painters had looked to Europe for their inspiration and models. Beginning the 1820’s, artists started developing their own style and explored American themes. Painters began selecting subjects that were specifically American. Themes of paintings revolved around American life, animals, and natural surroundings. The Hudson River School, a group of painters, painted landscapes of the Hudson River valley in New York. George Catlin painted hundreds of pictures of Native American life in the West. John James Audubon represented the birds of America in a sequence of exquisite paintings and sketches. These pioneers in capturing the spirit of America in their art in turn influenced many others to do the same and soon, all the barriers in the art world had been breached.
             Music in early America had a distinctly British heritage, as much of the music of the American colonists had that consisted of English hymns and anthems. Later on, many American musicians went to Europe for their training in music, and there they learned about Old World Traditions. When the composers came back to the United States, they started to infuse the traditional musical forms with styles that were inherent to America, which among some of them were African-American spirituals, blues, jazz, and ragtime, in attempt to create the "American Classical Music". Some people who were popular composers were Stephen Foster, who was a folk song writer and famous creator of the banjo classic, "Oh! Susanna" while Charles Ives made the "Putnam's Camp" in which one hears a brass band, a march tune, and an out-of-tune piano occurring at the same time within the first minute of the piece. Because of these types of music, the path for a new breed of composers and music was cleared for the future.
             Many Americans, after the establishment of the United States, wrote in a European manner, but that progressively changed as they based their writings upon their own life experiences. Washington Irving, which was renown for his humorous publications, was the most successful author of the early 1800's. In The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Irving included a collection of essays and shorts stories, consisting classics such as "Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". William Cullen Bryant, an American poet, used English romantic poetry to describe the landscape of the Union and used his writings to reflect his devotion to nature. Hence, in the early 1800's America's literature mainly consisted romance, humor, and even the origins of the short story.
             The majority of early Americans were farmers after the American Revolution, just trying to make a peaceful living by raising a family with a successful crop business. Farmers experienced humble daily lives where there were always many chores and the whole family worked as a unit. Farming women mainly took care of the dairy by milking cows and making butter while the men worked in the fields, plowing and sowing the fields. There was always a never-ending cycle of domestic work to do. Preservation of foods was also important by salting, drying, pickling in brine, or smoking to keep foods lasting longer. Traditional rye bread eaten in New England was replaced with wheat, which was considerably lighter than the heavy “rye and Indian” loaves. Care for livestock was also extremely important as they provided the greater portion of the workload in farming life. Most farming families lived in small houses that were one story to one story and a half tall. At this time, education was not very important and the only piece of writing that most people ever learned to read was the Bible. Farmers were more concerned with having their children become workers rather than thinkers. Only the wealthier families could afford private schooling for their children. Most wealthy families spent their time leisurely, basking in “their” glory over Europe and became more and more educated while the gap between rich and poor grew larger. The Reformation of America would last for many more years before African Americans and women earned their voting rights or even the abolition of slavery. This reform may have occurred at the end of the American Revolution but for a whole new chapter of American society, these chunks of culture were only the beginning.


More Information:

   1.    http://www.arps.org/~dubockd/ssearly_america_project.htm
          Early America Project is a site full of links about Early America including art, literature, and colonial America.

   2.    http://www.gliah.uh.edu/historyonline/plife_overview.cfm
          This site includes information about many aspects of American history such as private life and different viewpoints of America.

   3.    http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/rom/nation.htm
          A site featuring short biographies of different composers that influenced American music around the early 1800s.


Recommended Books:

   1.    The American Journey: Building a Nation
          by Joyce Appleby, Alan Brinkley, James McPherson

   2.    Undaunted Courage
          by Stephen Ambrose

   3.    The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Selections from the Journals Arranged by Topic
          by G. Barth

   4.    The Americans: The National Experience
          by D. J. Boorstin

   5.    Democracy in America
          by A. De Tocqueville

   6.    Tippecanoe and Trinkets Too: The Material Culture of American Presidential Campaigns 1828-1984
          by R. A. Fischer

   7.    First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History
          by Colin G. Galloway

   8.    Middle Passage
          by C. Johnson

   9.    A Shopkeepers Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York 1818-1837
          by P. E. Johnson