“All a little wild here with…projects of social reform”

Do you ever feel that if only given a chance your generation could do much better at fixing America’s problems? That’s exactly what Emerson and his Transcendental club members thought in the 1840s. And they had the chance to try exactly that regarding both socialist and racism/slavery ideals.

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Socialist Ideals

By ship, America was only a few days away from Europe. Socialists there preached that they could cure the financial ills of people everywhere. Two members of Emerson’s club launched their own commune efforts near to Concord, Massachusetts. George Ripley formed an experimental commune near Boston in 1841. Nathaniel Hawthorne bought shares in this Brook Farm venture and served as teacher and laborer. Hawthorne found it very difficult to switch daily between physical and mental tasks. Ripley would end the venture two years later, owing $17,000 in debt (a large sum in that day).

Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May, traveled to Europe and met Charles Lane who wanted help to open a commune in America. This mystic came to America in 1843 and bought land northwest of Concord. Fruitlands observed strict dietary restrictions and used no animal labor. Their commune closed the same year. Emerson helped Alcott and his family move back to Concord.

Emerson promoted the ideas of a commune. He visited often and taught classes. Why did he and his wife Lidian never join? Lidian’s early Plymouth relative was raised by Governor Bradford. To motivate hard work Bradford gave each colonist private land. The colony survived New England winters due to this capitalist approach.

Henry Thoreau wished “to live deliberately.” He built a tiny cabin beside Walden Pond where he lived and wrote drafts for two of his books. Friends came to visit and later to remember him after his death due to TB.

Racism/Slavery

To help free slaves, the Emerson family joined Abolitionists like the notorious Captain John Brown. Thoreau invited him to supper and Emerson came, too. Henry Thoreau was a strong supporter of Brown, even writing a plea to the Federal government for his release. Brown was executed instead.

In 1862 on a speaking tour to Washington, D.C., Emerson met the President. He warned Lincoln that support from New Englanders would decline if he didn’t free the slaves. Lincoln promised to do so after a decisive battle. Emerson grieved greatly when Lincoln was killed for this brave act. After 30 years as a disbeliever, Emerson requested church membership two weeks after Lincoln’s assassination.

Read more about their social actions in this Young Adult biography: Concord Sage: Ralph Waldo Emerson Life and Times.

Review of Concord Sage

Meticulously researched, Concord Sage is an overview of the personal and public life of a remarkable man whose path intertwined with other literary greats of the 19th century. RW Emerson could be called a man for all times since his ideas espouse universal principles, timely by even today’s standards. Taken from published articles, biographies, journals, and lectures, Ford incites a sense of living history which in turn sparks the desire to know even more about this great man. The book’s only shortcoming is in its brevity!

From Amazon review posted 1/27/2020

Emerson Still Inspiring Youth

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Every great person begins life with advantages, but also some handicaps that must be overcome. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a normal young person who accomplished his goal to become a great author. You may find that you have much in common with him and can likewise fulfill your calling.

“Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call.”
The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Less known facts about Ralph Waldo Emerson
• He did better in life than in school.
Early on, Ralph Waldo was a slow reader and didn’t enjoy learning. Perhaps he didn’t like reciting facts from memory. He did like blowing bubbles from soap and water with a pipe, and collecting shells.
• He didn’t like his first name.
In his senior year of college he decided to drop his first name, Ralph. He preferred to use his middle name, Waldo.
• He was shy around girls.
Shy even at a male college, Waldo was more so teaching teenage girls. Six-foot tall and thin, he was self-conscious. He soon learned that some of the young ladies were stubborn; others he found himself attracted to.
• He had heroes.
Waldo Emerson’s first heroes were famous European authors and his own aunt, Mary Moody Emerson. Later, Daniel Webster was a hero until siding with slavery. Emerson also made short friendships with a nephew of Napoleon, a radical abolitionist and a California naturalist.
• He encouraged young authors and painters. Waldo encouraged Henry to keep a journal. Waldo wrote in his own journal “I delight much in my young friend.” Other idealists in their twenties came to Bush, seeking a mentor. Jones Very with his sonnets and passion for religion. Painter Samuel Gray Ward brought his artwork. Young women also came, charmed by the ‘celebrity’ of Concord and Boston.
• He used social media. Waldo quickly grasped that publicizing his work increased his earnings. He made use of all the social media of his day: clubs, books, magazines, newspapers and especially lecture circuits.

About the Author
Donna A. Ford is a member of the NESCBWI children’s writer group and a technical writer for 20 plus years. Born in Vermont, she now lives in Connecticut. Ford has nine grandchildren and enjoys gifting them with YA biographies.
Website: donnaaford.com

Winston Churchill Quoted Emerson

When criticized for changing parties, Winston Churchill wrote an essay, Consistency in Politics. In it he quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today.” R. W. Emerson, Self-Reliance, 1841

Author is DAR Member

Donna A. Ford, the author of Concord Sage, recently became a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution based on service of two of her Corliss relatives in that war.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson’s grandparents and father watched as the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at the Concord bridge beside their Church Manse home. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s grandfather never returned home, dying of a fever in 1776 due to service as an Army Chaplain in the VT/NY area.

Read more about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Life and Times in Concord Sage.