Stanley/West-Israel 1

Beatrice J. West-Israel and Lucretia E. Stanley

Kelley/Whipple
American Studies
12/4/2013
Transcendentalism and the Industrial Revolution
Americans before the Industrial Revolution lived spacious, rugged lives, without the
overcrowding of factories. Though the influx of technology later improved medical science and
quality of life, it also pushed nature away from people. Because of this, people were pulled
toward nature. The industrial revolution helped individuals realize the beauty and peace of
nature, as well as facilitated their expansion westward because of their desire to be out of the
many new factories. The tranquility in the west inspired reverence, and new methods of
transportation allowed settlers to go farther into the striking wilderness.
In the industrial revolution of America's 1800s, shortly before the Civil War, all manner
of changes--from transportation and immigration to renewed appreciation for nature in the midst
of the factories--were taking place. Immigrants, especially Irish, were pouring from Europe into
the harbors of the Northeast, and because of the slave labor in the South, most searched for
employment in the factories of the north. More and more people were surrounded by factories,
and as a result began to deplore the colorless, monotonous, and often dangerous work, longing
instead for the farms and open American land to the west. Thanks to the immigrants, this was
possible: in the railroad tracks mentioned by Thoreau in his writing, and in the persistent push of
civilization. Those once cramped in the east flourished out to the wild, untamed west, for
economic goals and simply because it was possible.
However, the flurry of the industrial revolution--though it provided more leisure, and
seemed to simplify the lives of the people--at times only complicated their social lives, their
businesses, and especially their tenuous connection with the land they had colonized. This was
especially true for the immigrants and the factory's wage slaves, whose shifts led them to live

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almost entirely by the clock. Transcendentalist author Thoreau believed that the inflow of news
that came with increased transportation was nothing but gossip, and wrote for Americans to
"spend one day as deliberately as Nature," and not to be distracted "by every nutshell and
mosquito's wing" that happened to fall in front of them. (Thoreau, 4) In this he meant for people
to have more meaningful lives, to live happier and less indecisively. Thoreau believed that
"eternity remains," though the "thin current [of time] slides away," and wished to "drink deeper,"
instead of only watching its surface.
While there were many reasons for the transportation part of the Industrial Revolution,
one of the prevalent ones was the colonists' urge to connect with nature, having begun to see the
beauty of it through transcendentalist writers like Emerson, who stated that "if eyes were made
for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being." (Emerson) People began to see the value in
nature other than for their own benefit, and as their appreciation for it grew, they spent more time
appreciating nature.
Transcendentalism affected two important aspects of the Industrial Revolution: expansion
westward for the sole purpose of appreciating beauty, and a less clock-centered existence,
especially for the shift-workers in factories. And over all, the influence of transcendentalism led
Americans to desire a more simplified, nature-connected lifestyle.

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Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Rhodora. Early Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York:
Crowell & Company, 1899. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. 1854. Print.