Writing Mount Auburn: Language, Landscape, and Place

What Sydney Ahlstrom and others have called the "democratization" of religion in the period-the rise and general tolerance of competing Protestant denominations; the severing by 1833 of all official connections between established religion and the governments of the various states-made a n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 2006-06, Vol.150 (2), p.296-317
Main Author: Stowe, William W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antebellum period
British & Irish literature
Cemeteries
Death
English literature
Handbooks
Horticulture
Language
Linguistics
Nature
Oratory
Picturesque beauty
Poetry
Religion
Sadness
Travel literature
Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)
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Summary:What Sydney Ahlstrom and others have called the "democratization" of religion in the period-the rise and general tolerance of competing Protestant denominations; the severing by 1833 of all official connections between established religion and the governments of the various states-made a non-sectarian burying-ground possible.9 The sentimental piety that would come to dominate mainstream Protestantism and the culture of popular sermons, keepsake books, and ladies' magazines helped shape the newly contrived landscape by dictating the kinds of private, contemplative experiences it would be expected to foster.10 Finally, the founding of the rural cemetery and its patronage by the rising entrepreneurial elite were part of a movement to establish and consolidate the power and prestige of a ruling class that would define itself by its taste and its benevolence as well as its wealth.
ISSN:0003-049X
2326-9243