"Radicalizing the American Transcendenta­lists: The Antislavery Movement in Alcott's and Thoreau's Concord"­ A Talk by Prof. Sandra Harbert Petrulionis ­ June 13, 2023

The talk will focus on antislavery activism in the context of mid-nineteenth-century Concord, Mass., and its authors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and, primarily, on Louisa May Alcott. It discusses Alcott’s antislavery activism as a product of her mother’s (and her older generation’s) earlier abolitionism, and presents the entire Alcott family’s support for radical abolitionist John Brown.

Sandra Harbert Petrulionis is Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at Penn State University, Altoona.   

This lecture is organized by American Studies TU Dresden and generously funded by the U.S. Consulate General Leipzig