American Romanticism is considered the first period of creativity in America. It took place as westward expansion occurred. Slavery was being questioned and there was a strained relationship between the North and South due to opposing desires for reform. This period of tension led to the civil war, though the opposing views coexisted in literature peacefully. William and Thrall offer a definition of Romanticism:
A literary and philosophical theory that tends to see the individual at the center of life, and it places the individual, therefore, at the center of art, making literature valuable as an expression of unique feelings and particular attitudes and valuing its fidelity in portraying experiences, however fragmentary and incomplete, more
A literary and philosophical theory that tends to see the individual at the center of life, and it places the individual, therefore, at the center of art, making literature valuable as an expression of unique feelings and particular attitudes and valuing its fidelity in portraying experiences, however fragmentary and incomplete, more