Lucas Spelsberg (09/09): Margaret Fuller

I read Summer on the Lakes by the transcendentalist Margaret Fuller recently and there are many mentions of Native Americans throughout her writing. Such as when she first mentions them on page 6 stating "For continually upon my mind came, unsought and unwelcome, images, such as never haunted it before, of naked savages stealing behind me with uplifted tomahawks" or on page 25 says "how happy the Indians must have been here! It is not long since they were driven away, and the ground above and below, is full of their traces”. After reading this passage I think that many of the spirituality and nature-based Native American religions had a huge impact on the transcendental movement. Do you think that there are there any direct connections that you can make between the belief system of a certain group of tribes in the Eastern United States and the way that transcendentalists believe we should view the world? I am always curious as to how Fuller being a highly educated woman and feminist affected her popularity among the common Americans at the time. Regardless I think that she had a great deal of impact on the transcendental movement.

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