Emerson and Thorea

the Market Revolution changed the lives of the average person in America by making things more convenient. The invention of cotton mills and improved farming and manufacturing made life easier for the average American. It also created more jobs for people. The telegraph and the first railroad were also invented in this time which became the main transportation and way of communicating in America. Transcendentalism is a group of people who "insisted on the primacy of individual judgement over existing social traditions and institutions" (voices, 150). Individualism was the belief that each and every man should believe that the world belonged to him and he could do what he wanted. These two ideas were both for the fact that Americans should create their own customs and get out of England's shadow. Both Emerson and Walden expressed their opinions differently. Emerson explained that man should "walk on his own feet and work with his own hands". He also believed that "a nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes in himself" (154). This idea was brilliant. One always has confidence when one believes they can accomplish something, and Emerson's idea clearly proves that man wants to be in control of himself. Thoreau expressed his ideas by saying that we did not need all of these technological improvements that were being invented, such as the telegraph to communicate with each other. Simplicity was his motto. Thoreau also believed by building the railroads that we were "not riding on the railroads; it rides upon us". He explained that we were riding on yankees, irishmen, etc. that previously died on our soil.

Tecumseh on Indians and Land

William Harrison was the territorial governor of Indiana. Tecumseh met with him in 1810, and told him he believed that a war would soon break out if the Whites did not stop imposing on the Indians’ land. Tecumseh refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville, which was a treaty between the Indians and the English which created a boundary between the Indian’s territory and the English in the exchange for certain goods worth a lot of money. Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa were brothers. Tecumseh was famous for not signing the Treaty of Greenville and Tenskwatawa was a religious prophet. Their presence and influence was important to the war of 1812 because they warned William Harrison that it would end up in war if they did not stop taking their land. Tecumseh had a good argument against the English by saying that they had different customs than the Indians. The Indians believed that the land belonged to them because they were there first and the land should not be sold to anyone unless the decision was made as a whole, this was the main difference between the two. The English were up for selling land in order to gain profit and bigger farms, while the Indians did not.

Stamp Act

The earlier conflict between the British and the American Colonies began when the British combined some of the major colonies and named them the Dominion of New England. England appointed one governor for this new colony, who was the previous governer of New York. This did not last long however, because he was eventually overthrown and put in jail. He only favored the views of the Protestants and not the Puritans. Once he was put into jail, the colonies were able to go back to the way they once were and govern themselves. There was a big change made in the American Colony lifestyle once the new rules were imposed. Instead of having each colony govern themselves they all had one set of rules, which was a brand new idea for the colonists. The stamp act was seen as unacceptable because England only wanted to put a "stamp" on every product produced in America because it was an easy way for them to make money by being across the ocean. The Virginia House of Burgess probably rejected the last three resolutions that the Stamp Act Congress had came up with because they only pertained to certain people, and those people were the British and not the people who lived in the colonies. The people from the Congress made the people from Britain seem as though they were above those of the colonies.