Ralph Waldo Emerson

Personal Background:

• I was born in 1803 in Boston.
• At age 14 I enrolled in Harvard University
• At age 23 I became Unitarian Minister
• At age 29 I resigned from the ministry due to lack of faith
• I am dubbed the Father of Transcendentialism
• I preached non-conformity to Americans all over the country

Issues:

• Transcendentialism:
• One must be true to themselves and not conform to society
• I've gone on to influence many worthy men: Henry Thoreau, and Theodore
  Parker

• Slavery:
• Slaver is a "de-stitution"
• "Emancipation is the demand of civilization."
• Slavery MUST be abolished

Solutions:

• Transcendentialism:
• The only way to help society is for people to realize who they are.
  A true man is original
• "To immitate is to commit suicide."

• Slavery:
• voted for Lincoln in 1860
• I became a republican
• "I will not obey it!" (in reference to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850)
  

http://Gay Wilson Allen, Waldo Emerson (1981); B. L. Packer, Emerson's Fall (1982); Stephen E. Whicher, Freedom and Fate: An Inner Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1953).

http://http://www.transcendentalists.com/emerson_biography.htm