Social Change Pushed by Transcendentalists Term Paper

Transcendentalists

Transcendentalism emerged in early 19th century. It is believed that Ralph Waldo Emerson who denied that he was a transcendentalist started transcendentalism. Amongst his peers, he was seen as the pioneer of American transcendentalism. Emerson has criticized various things in his essay especially regarding the Unitarian church. Other key transcendentalists were Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Parker, Amos Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, James Freeman Clark, and Mary Moody Emerson. Ralph Emerson urged Americans to be themselves and searching for inspiration from Europe. He aimed at encouraging people to think openly and search for answers from nature and art. Emerson held on to the belief that people were naturally good, and they all had limitless potential. Emerson was totally against slavery, but was unwilling to speak up about it initially. Eventually in 1844, he began taking an active role in slavery opposition.

Thoreau pushed for simple living and encouraged people to disobey an unjust state. He was an abolitionist who attacked slavery laws in his lectures. Pushing for disobedience for unjust governance made him seem an anarchist, but his idea of disobedience was for improving rather than abolishing the government. Bronson was an advocate for women rights and an abolitionist. He preferred to interact with the student in a different way from the traditional punishment method. The transcendentalist experiment he implemented within a community flopped after seven months. This demonstrated that the philosophies he tried to preach could not be implemented successfully. Margaret Fuller was a teacher in Bronson's school. She advocated for women's rights where she pushed for the education of women and women's right to employment. Fuller pushed for other social reforms like slave emancipation and prison reforms. It has been pointed out that Fuller was a talker, not an activist. This was the reason why her importance faded after her death and her letters were never published.

The reforms proposed by these reformers were not all successful. Emancipation of slavery was quite successful, and slavery was finally abolished. The abolition of slavery was key to social responsibility as it ensured that all persons were viewed as equal. This altered society for the better because there were no more trades involving people. Another success was women's right. Women were viewed as unequal, and they did not have voting or democratic rights. Advocating for women rights ensured that the society was equal, and they were now viewed as peers. Education of women was another success that the reformers achieved. Women are now educated like men, which allowed women to become educators. Women are great educators, and they have pushed for education of other women. This was beneficial to women because they could now raise and bring up their families in a civilized and educated manner. Education is the key to success and having educated women is beneficial to the society. Excessive drinking was a failure for the reformers, because the amount of alcohol consumed did not decrease. The reformers tried to implement communities that lived in a transcendentalist manner, but the communities did not achieve success. The short-lived nature of such attempts demonstrated people were not ready for full social reforms.

The United States had the highest number of slaves during that period. The movements resulted in reduction of slavery and abolition of slaves within the community. The integration of former slaves into the community resulted in separate states being infiltrated with former slaves. Social reforms meant that people living in the United States were more liberal, and they could focus on developmental ideas. The country now had in increase in the number of educated persons, which was beneficial for the country. Education resulted in increased knowledge. Women rights were vital for the country to eliminate discrimination. For a long time, women had been sidelined, and they now could have a voice within the society. Women have been noted to be influential in the governance of a society and pushing for women's rights demonstrated the importance of women in governance. An effective penal system would work towards reforming prisoners and not hardening or punishing offenders. The prison reforms advocated by the reformers ensured that…