209 10 2124 https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/db69eacebcaff97714bf43dd30210e60.jpeg dd7eb0cbcdc3e20c34e884a1d7b0542b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Concord Hymn Subject The topic of the resource Concord Hymn Description An account of the resource Ruth Haskins Emerson wrote to her son William—Ralph Waldo’s older brother—on June 27, 1837: “The 4th of July, the good citizens of Concord talk of celebrating by having a little parade on account of the erection of the Monument—The Hon. S. Hoar is to give an address on the occasion[,] Dr. Ripley, a prayer, & Waldo, has written a hymn, to be sung to the tune of old hundred—when it is printed will send you a copy.” Emerson, in Plymouth on July 4th, did not hear his hymn sung at the dedication of Concord’s monument commemorating the battle at the North Bridge on April 19, 1775. What is now known as the “Concord Hymn”—today perhaps Emerson’s best-known piece of poetry—was first printed for distribution at the dedication of the Battle Monument (Myerson A4.1). The text of later printings, including the version shown here (collected in The Boston Book for 1850), varies somewhat from the original. In 1875, the first verse of the “Concord Hymn” was carved into the granite base of Daniel Chester French’s Minute Man statue, erected on the opposite bank of the Concord River from the Battle Monument for the town’s centennial celebration of the Concord Fight. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1837 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Concord Concord Hymn Emerson Minuteman https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/91ee248847695517e915dfde5831085c.jpeg 083c701a827697ae2298a548f5f0fd34 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Walden Pond, MA Subject The topic of the resource Walden Pond Description An account of the resource On October 4, 1844, Emerson wrote his brother William about his recent purchase of land at Walden Pond: “I have lately added an absurdity or two to my usual ones, which I am impatient to tell you of. In one of my solitary wood-walks by Walden Pond, I met two or three men who told me they had come thither to sell & to buy a field, on which they wished me to bid as a purchaser. As it was on the shore of the pond, & now for years I had a sort of daily occupancy in it, I bid on it, & bought it, eleven acres for $8.10 per acre. The next day I carried some of my well-beloved gossips to the same place & they deciding that the field was not good for anything, if Heartwell Bigelow should cut down his pine-grove, I bought, for 125 dollars more, his pretty wood lot of 3 or 4 acres, and so am landlord & waterlord of 14 acres, more or less, on the shore of Walden … ” Emerson’s purchase of land at Walden provided Henry Thoreau with the opportunity he had been looking for to live simply and self-sufficiently in nature and to devote himself to writing. Thoreau built a cabin on and moved to Emerson’s Walden property in 1845. Emerson himself took great pleasure in the peace and beauty of Walden Pond and the Walden Woods. Edward Emerson wrote of his father’s enjoyment of the place: “The garden at home was often a hindrance and care, but he soon bought an estate which brought him unmingled pleasure, first the grove of white pines on the shore of Walden, and later the large tract on the farther shore running up to a rocky pinnacle from which he could look down on the Pond itself, and on the other side to the Lincoln woods and farms, Nobscot blue in the South away beyond Fairhaven and the river gleaming in the afternoon sun.” Emerson often walked to Walden with his children on Sunday afternoons. In 1866 (a mere four years after Thoreau’s death), the Fitchburg Railroad built an amusement park at Walden, on the side of the pond nearest the railroad track. It featured picnic, swimming, and athletic areas, boathouses, footpaths, swings, see-saws, merry-go-rounds, and pavilions for speakers. The construction of this complex distressed local people, Emerson included, who had enjoyed Walden in its undeveloped state.Emerson’s poem “My Garden,” written about Walden and the surrounding area, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly for December, 1866 (Myerson E169). It was collected in May-Day and Other Pieces (1867; Myerson A28). MY GARDEN If I could put my woods in song And tell what’s there enjoyed, All men would to my gardens throng, And leave the cities void. In my plot no tulips blow,— Snow-loving pines and oaks instead; And rank the savage maples grow From Spring’s faint flush to Autumn red. My garden is a forest ledge Which older forests bound; The banks slope down to the blue lake-edge, Then plunge to depths profound. Here once the Deluge ploughed, Laid the terraces, one by one; Ebbing later whence it flowed, They bleach and dry in the sun. The sowers made haste to depart,— The wind and the birds which sowed it; Not for fame, nor by rules of art, Planted these, and tempests flowed it. Waters that wash my garden side Play not in Nature’s lawful web, They heed not moon or solar tide,— Five years elapse from flood to ebb. Hither hasted, in old time, Jove, And every god,—none did refuse; And be sure at last came Love, And after Love, the Muse. Keen ears can catch a syllable, As if one spake to another, In the hemlocks tall, untamable, And what the whispering grasses smother. Aeolian harps in the pine Ring with the song of the Fates; Infant Bacchus in the vine,— Far distant yet his chorus waits. Canst thou copy in verse one chime Of the wood-bell’s peal and cry, Write in a book the morning’s prime, Or match with words that tender sky? Wonderful verse of the gods, Of one import, of varied tone; They chant the bliss of their abodes To man imprisoned in his own. Ever the words of the gods resound; But the porches of man’s ear Seldom in this low life’s round Are unsealed, that he may hear. Wandering voices in the air And murmurs in the wold Speak what I cannot declare, Yet cannot all withhold. When the shadow fell on the lake, The whirlwind in ripples wrote Air-bells of fortune that shine and break, And omens above thought. But the meanings cleave to the lake, Cannot be carried in book or urn; Go thy ways now, come later back, On ways and hedges still they burn. These the fates of men forecast, Of better men than live to-day; If who can read them comes at last He will spell in the sculpture, ‘Stay.’ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource H.W. Gleason Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1936 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Concord Gleason Walden https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/04cd6ddcdef6c29ded5a810e8675a77c.jpeg bf2849fbb85a3423b76a9c1ab81a2519 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Concord Center Subject The topic of the resource Concord, MA Description An account of the resource This photograph of Concord Center shows the prominently positioned Jonas Hastings house—where the Thoreaus lived from 1823 to 1826—at the corner of Main and Walden (at the right, with four chimneys and a fence). When the photograph was taken, the Hastings corner projected out into what is now part of Main Street. The house was set back in the early 1870s to allow the widening of Main Street in preparation for the opening of the newly-constructed Concord Free Public Library in 1873. The Hastings house was ultimately taken down to make way for the business block put up by pharmacist John C. Friend in 1892. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource 1865 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Concord https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/3779887dc676876d71fb6b507ad9a80f.jpeg 2281e0e1ec742b55a945afb69677660f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Central Part of Concord, MA Subject The topic of the resource Concord Description An account of the resource Barber’s engraving shows Monument Square from the vantage point of the present-day Colonial Inn. The version of the Middlesex Hotel depicted (to the far right) burned in 1845 and was rebuilt in 1846. The engraving also shows the First Parish Church before it was renovated and reoriented to face Lexington Road (1841) and (to the far left) the county courthouse that burned in 1849 and was replaced by another structure that eventually became the Middlesex Mutual Fire Insurance building. Concord’s Town Hall had not yet been built when Barber’s book was published. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Warner Barber Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Barber’s Historical Collections, Being a General Collection of Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, &c., Relating to the History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1839 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Concord https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/ee0016bab5bbff6ff36b511f458af15f.jpeg b05c895f4eddbfac2d15df7d7c6dce2b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Map of Concord Village Subject The topic of the resource Concord Village Description An account of the resource The 1852 Walling map of Concord identifies the residents of the houses it depicts, thereby providing invaluable documentation of Concord as a community and of the neighborhoods within it. The inset shows Emerson’s home on the Cambridge Turnpike. The sections of the Walling map depicting Walden Pond and White Pond (not shown here) were based on surveys done by Henry Thoreau. The Concord Free Public Library holds Thoreau’s original manuscript surveys of both Walden and White Ponds. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource H.F. Walling Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1852 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Concord Emerson Map https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/13cb923f0cd1c0367313a9bad323f90f.jpeg 8247ef990fb40d8550a1559bbe97ef42 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson on Lincoln Subject The topic of the resource Abraham Lincoln Description An account of the resource In the 1850s and 1860s, Emerson participated in the political process to the extent that his involvement forwarded the cause of abolition. Moreover, although he did not care for the hullabaloo of party politics and did not approve of making popular heroes out of politicians, he was willing to recognize the worth and importance of a politician who conducted himself morally. Emerson voted for Abraham Lincoln, but he remained for a time unsure of Lincoln’s motivations and effectiveness. The Civil War began in 1861. Like other abolitionists, Emerson felt that its true purpose was emancipation, not the preservation of the Union. He could not commit himself to supporting the war wholeheartedly until Lincoln freed the slaves. Lincoln won Emerson over completely with his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in 1862. From this point on, Emerson—who devoted considerable thought to the subject of great men—respected Lincoln’s greatness. On October 12, 1862, he delivered an address on the Emancipation Proclamation at the Music Hall in Boston. The address was published in the Atlantic Monthly for November, 1862. Emerson also willingly participated in Union fundraising and morale-boosting efforts. Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865—a few days after the Civil War came to an end—and died the following morning. On April 19th (the anniversary of Concord’s role at the start of the Revolution), the town halted the business of ordinary life for three hours and held a funeral service for Lincoln at the First Parish. The order of services included an address by Emerson, who emphasized Lincoln’s particular fitness to the difficult role he had assumed: “This man grew according to the need. His mind mastered the problem of the day; and, as the problem grew, so did his comprehension of it. Rarely was man so fitted to the event.” In his address, Emerson also likened the power of Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg to that of speeches by John Brown and Kossuth. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 29, 1865 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Abolition Emerson Lincoln https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/30276d0f646bc65e72a6f4937a7905d2.jpeg 2c955f9728add6ddf2c67a55b0e772c2 https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/0caab104e5e1375601f2f9df5e1c6135.jpeg a9304c344169b03330ded835391f3b0f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Brown in Concord Subject The topic of the resource John Brown Description An account of the resource During the 1850s, Kansas was a hotbed of conflict. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 left the question of whether or not slavery would be allowed in Kansas to be decided by settlers of the territory, abrogating the Missouri Compromise of 1820. For a time, Kansas had two governments, one that permitted and one that outlawed slavery. As abolitionist and proslavery settlers clashed, lives and property were lost. In 1855, militant abolitionist John Brown went to Kansas and threw himself into keeping Kansas free by any available means, armed violence included. Emerson supported the cause of a free Kansas. He attended meetings in Concord and elsewhere to aid antislavery settlers, and spoke in Cambridge at a Kansas relief meeting in Cambridge on September 10, 1856. In 1857 and 1859, when John Brown came to Concord, Emerson welcomed him into his home. Frank Sanborn, who ran a progressive coeducational school on Sudbury Road, was deeply involved in raising money for Kansas relief and for Brown’s forces. Brown came to Concord because of Sanborn. When Brown spoke in Concord’s Town Hall in March of 1857, Emerson was impressed by his fierce commitment to his righteous cause. In May of 1859, planning an armed slave uprising, Brown returned to Concord and spoke again at the Town Hall. Five months later, he led an ill-fated raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. He was tried, found guilty, and executed on December 2nd. Thoreau, Alcott, and Emerson—all of whom had been in Brown’s audience in May—participated in the service held in Concord on the day of his execution. After Brown’s arrest, Emerson spoke at meetings to raise money for his destitute family. After his execution, both Emerson and—even more vigorously—Thoreau promoted the image of John Brown as a saint and a martyr rather than the fanatic that many felt he had been. In February of 1860, Frank Sanborn arranged to bring Anne and Sarah Brown, two of John Brown’s children, to Concord to attend his school. When they arrived here, the Brown girls stayed with the Emersons. In the February 20, 1860 letter shown here, Annie Keyes Bartlett writes her brother Edward Jarvis Bartlett (“Ned”) of their arrival at the Emerson house. Annie and Ned were two of the nine children of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, who practiced medicine in Concord for fifty-seven years. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public LIbrary Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1859 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Concord Emerson John Brown https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/e4658194b318ab6c0928c120b3cf52ce.jpeg 36450dbad8018026c59747c7213a50e7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Concord's Town Hall Subject The topic of the resource Concord Description An account of the resource Concord welcomed Hungarian patriot Kossuth in its Town Hall (now called the Town House), which was then a new building. Constructed in 1851/52, the Town Hall held a large meeting area for lectures, social gatherings, and entertainments, as well as the municipal offices and the Concord Town Library (the town’s first public library). Local groups and individuals paid for the use of the hall. Some of Concord’s most important 19th century reform gatherings—notably John Brown’s speeches here in 1857 and 1859—were held in this building. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1875 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Concord Town House https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/bc09c4f647485274f08ac94e4cd1ac4c.jpeg 4b0a7f7ffe9ae158451911541ecca0f9 https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/7c68d274653b6b213605da09af431c27.jpeg ecdb370cc73d775caeaef2d38bdfbd69 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kossuth in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Lajos Kossuth Description An account of the resource The plight of European political refugees following failed revolutions against autocratic rule in the late 1840s engaged the sympathy of American reformers. Margaret Fuller, who witnessed first-hand and aided the revolution in Rome, was working on a book about it when she died in 1850. Elizabeth Peabody edited a collection titled Crimes of the House of Austria Against Mankind, which was published in 1850. In 1851, exiled Hungarian statesman and patriot Lajos Kossuth traveled to America in search of assistance for his homeland. In May of 1852, Concord was one of the towns he visited in New England. Kossuth came on May 7th. He dined and visited the Battle Ground and the site of the old North Bridge—icons of the struggle for American political freedom—before proceeding to the Town Hall. The children of the town had been gathered to welcome him. Emerson formally greeted and introduced Kossuth, referring to him as “the foremost soldier of freedom in this age.” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Town of Concord Committee of Arrangements Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1852 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Concord Emerson Kossuth Refugees https://sc.concordlibrary.org/files/original/d676142b33ff25bb0bb5021c787f451f.jpeg af0dc9f4c63666727c60038582497e76 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emerson in Concord Subject The topic of the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Description An account of the resource Materials for the exhibit Emerson in Concord Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Concord Free Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CFPL web exhibit: Emerson in Concord Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Language A language of the resource English Middlesex Hotel A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Address in Concord on the Fugitive Slave Law Subject The topic of the resource Fugitive Slave Law Description An account of the resource The addition of territory through war with Mexico (1846-1848) inflamed slavery/antislavery tensions, resulting in the Compromise of 1850, which was an attempt to delay impending national crisis. By the Compromise, California was admitted as a free state, the territories of New Mexico and Utah would decide the slavery question for themselves upon admission to the Union, the boundary between Texas and New Mexico was established, and the slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C. The Compromise of 1850 also included the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. Many Northerners were furious over and unwilling to obey the Fugitive Slave Law. Emerson was outraged by the Fugitive Slave Law and by early attempts to enforce it. His journal and letters after its passage were full of anger. He seethed, for example, in one entry in 1851, “And this filthy enactment was made in the 19th Century, by people who could read & write. I will not obey it, by God.” Edward Waldo Emerson wrote in Emerson in Concord of his father’s preoccupation with the detested law: “He woke in the mornings with a weight upon him … When his children told him that the subject given out for their next school composition was, The Building of a House, he said, ‘You must be sure to say that no house nowadays is perfect without having a nook where a fugitive slave can be safely hidden away.’ ” Edward recalled, too, that his father’s rage was channeled into legal research: “The national disgrace took Mr. Emerson’s mind from poetry and philosophy, and almost made him for a time a student of law and an advocate. He eagerly sought and welcomed all principles in law-books, or broad rulings of great jurists, that Right lay behind Statute to guide its application and that immoral laws are void.” On April 26, 1851, thirty-five of Emerson’s Concord townsmen signed a letter asking him publicly to present his views on the law. On May 3rd, he delivered an impassioned speech –his first of several in reaction to the Fugitive Slave Law. In the address, Emerson openly advocated breaking the law on the grounds that an immoral law carried no authority. (The year before, Henry Thoreau had offered a similar view in his “Resistance to Civil Government,” now known as “Civil Disobedience.”) The speech was well-received by the antislavery community. Although under normal circumstances not much inclined to political activism, Emerson repeated the speech a number of times in various Middlesex locations to support the campaign to elect Free Soil candidate John G. Palfrey to the United States Congress. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ralph Waldo Emerson Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Concord Free Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1851 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All materials courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library Abolition Emerson Fugitive Slave Law