3. Historically, Romanticism is associated primarily with European literary traditions and cultural values, and the American writers most typically associated with this literary movement (e. g., Cooper, Poe, Emerson, Whitman, Fitzgerald) are of European descent. In America and especially the United States, however, Romanticism must adapt to a multi-racial nation. In turn, writers from non-European races must consider Romantic themes and genres as options for their compositions.

            Write an essay involving three writers representing the three major early American races: American Indian, European, African. Consider how race either complicates, absorbs, or exemplifies the formulas of Romanticism. . . .

Differences & Similarities in Romantic Ideology between the Races

 From the first contact of Columbus and the new world there appears to be a Romantic theme that the Indian, Black and White races described similarity and that was their view of nature in the New World and these descriptions evoke the Genesis story that was part of the European traditions. 

Likewise, there was a conflict, often disastrous, when their views of freedom and slavery are viewed.  The romance narrative of a journey from repression to freedom, the idealism of the individual, was a view that the Europeans did not extend to the Indian and Black populations whom they frequently exploited or destroyed.  As Phil Thrash states in his class essay, “We are connected historically yet, racially divided here in the United States of America.”

In his first letters to Spain such as the “Letter to Luis de Santangel,” Columbus notes that he found many islands filled with innumerable people who presented no opposition whatsoever in his claiming the land for the King and Queen of Spain.  In addition, he notes in a phrase, that he had taken some of the Indians, seven of which were eventually transported back to Spain (Baym 26).

Of the seven Indians returned to Spain, only two survived the return trip to the New World, one of whom Columbus named Colon, another form of his family name (1).  From the stories of Colon and Columbus, and others who wrote and told of their adventures, we learn these two divergent tales.  One tale is of the great riches, beauty and productivity of the new world.  The second tale is one where the combination of European diseases and enslavement virtually wiped out the native Indian population in some area.  Early in the sixteenth century, the Europeans began to introduce African slaves to the new continent and the mixing of the three races began in the New World (2).

Columbus’s trip to the Americas was but the first of many explorers as after Columbus, many other European Nations arrived on the shores of the Americas with patterns that ultimately became similar.  The native populations were frequently mistreated and sometimes enslaved after initial periods when settlements were small and the existence of the Europeans depended upon good relationships with the native Indians.  The French made settlements in Quebec, the English up and down the eastern seaboard, and the Spanish in Florida and elsewhere in South and Central America.  The Portuguese were also active in establishing settlements in the New World. 

Phil Thrash in his essay states: “The precedent and harbinger of Columbus’s White European influence over the “red man” and the “black man” was becoming real in North America with the French and English expansions.   Native Americans were being dispossessed of their lands by the continued expansion of the white race, and the black race was being captured in Africa and imported to become slaves to the whites (42-55).”

These other European settlements found what Columbus had discovered and that was that the richness of the land could translate into personal fortune.  In addition, many discovered that fortunes could be made faster with slave labor and the trafficking in slaves grew exponentially. 

Thus it became clear that the Romantic Ideal of the individual and his quest to escape repression was not extended by the White race to the Black and Indian races.  However, this romantic ideal is such a part of individualism that the failure of the White race to extend this “right” to the Black and Indian, did not stamp the desire from their soul.  We see in the writings of Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass and Samson Occom the same Romantic ideals in their writing as they describe their journey from repression and the desire they have for freedom and a better life.  Thus the effort of the dominant culture to deny the Indian and Black population these ideals did not stamp out this Romantic spirit from their souls and it eventually made its way to the surface when they were able to act on their ideology.

In the same letter to de Santangel mentioned above, Columbus revels in the beauty of the new world.  He refers to “. . . the nightingale was singing and other birds of a thousand kinds. . . .” and “Its lands are high and there are in it many sierras and very lofty mountains, beyond comparison . . . .  All are most beautiful, of a thousand shapes, and all are . . . filled with trees of a thousand kinds and tall, and they seem to touch the sky” (26-27). These thoughts readily reference the Garden of Eden story in Genesis.

Bradford, in 1632, in Chapter XXIII Of Plymouth Plantation, writes of the bounteous land where “commodities grew plentiful” and “corn and cattle rose to a great price.”  But as Bradford writes, this increase in prosperity brought about a concomitant dispersal of the population as people expanded their holdings to increase their wealth (93).  Throughout the writings of early Americans are references to the New World as a ‘Garden of Eden.’

Likewise, in the writings of Phyllis Wheatley and Charles Chesnutt, two Black authors who incorporate the Romantic theme of nature in their writings, we perceive the Romantic appreciation for the individual in nature.  In my earlier paper on Minority Writers I included the following Wheatley reference to nature from her poem, “Thoughts on the Works of Providence,” which has numerous references to nature such as “the face of nature is renewed,”  “the sons of vegetation rise and spread their leafy banners to the skies.”  Further in the same paper, I referenced Chesnutt’s use of nature in his novel, The House Behind the Cedars.

The Indians have their own creation stories such as the Iroquois Creation Story, that were part of their oral traditions for generations until they were finally written down by early settlers.  The Indians in their oral literature and traditions also celebrate the beauty and wonder of nature.

Thus, on the point of the Romantic view of nature, there appears to be a convergence of views from the three races in the New World.  As Thrash points out in his essay, “America is still historically connected and racially divided.”  As our country continues to work to locate convergence of views and traditions, it is a positive whenever viewpoints coincide and it is apparent that all three races can agree that the New World has been blessed in terms of nature. [GL]