Virtue's Hero: Emerson, Antislavery, and Reform.

Activism versus Criticism? The Case for a Distinctive Role for Social Critics

“…Starting with his 1844 address "On the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West Indies," Emerson explicitly aligned himself with the reform societies and abolitionists whom he had earlier criticized (Emerson 2004, 91-119). This alignment continued for the next decade and a half in Emerson's speeches and writings in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the trial of Anthony Burns, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and the Emancipation Proclamation (Gougeon 2010;Levine and Malachuk 2011, 10-5;von Frank 1998). The younger Emerson, who was quick to censure his abolitionist peers' methods, seemed to give way to a new Emerson who joined them in their approach.…”

“…Scholarship of the past two decades has generally rejected the view-put forward in the 1980s and 1990s (Kateb [1995(Kateb [ ] 2002Poirier 1985;West 1989)that there is a tension between Emerson's social criticism and abolitionism. Beginning in the late 1990s, scholars began to uncover a wider scope of Emerson's political engagement than had previously been identified (Gougeon 2001;2010;Robinson 2004;von Frank 1998). While Emerson had occasionally advocated on behalf of political causes in the 1830s, these actions were relatively rare during this period (Emerson 2004, 27-32).…”

“…Reading Emerson's trajectory in this way places my account at odds with the vast majority of recent scholarship on Emerson's thought, which has sought to discredit the view that there is a tension between political activism and Emerson's social criticism (Gougeon 2010;Robinson 2004;von Frank 1998). Emerson, they argue, was not the "aloof" critic that he was made out to be by earlier interpreters of his thought; instead, his philosophy, social criticism, and direct political advocacy mutually informed one another (Levine and Malachuk 2011;Urbas 2020;Wirzbicki 2021).…”