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       The heart of the American Renaissance was transcendentalism, and transcendentalists. Ralph Waldo Emerson clearly defines the thought processes of those involved in his famous quote made at a graduation ceremony at Harvard in 1837 when he said, “We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds…A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men” (Hampson, 2011).
        Though Harriet Beecher Stowe was not a transcendentalist per se, she was a staunch advocate for equal rights. After the death of her son, the idea of transcendentalism became reality to her when her husband claimed to see ghost in their home. It was then that she became a voice against the ill treatment of slaves. She was inspired by the movement unintentionally.
        Emily Dickinson was “following a transcendental ideal; she was being true to herself and being an individual at all costs, as opposed to conforming to a world of followers. Keeping Dickinson's famous reclusivity in mind, one could say that in her lifetime she was neither a leader nor a follower. Dickinson never tied herself to a specific school of thought or philosophy, she was simply herself” (American Transcendentalism Web, 2011). Without realizing it, Dickinson too was a large part of the transcendental movement.
       Louisa May Alcott, was a transcendentalist as well, but unapologetically. Her father was a leading voice and teacher of the movement; therefore, the principles were engrained in her very makeup. The idea that, "reality exists only in the spirit world, and that things which are seen in the physical world are only reflections of the spirit world," was the basis of her writings (Walker, 2010).