Emerson’s Impact on Concord
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s personal association with Concord began in his childhood through visits to his grandparents at the home now known as the Old Manse. In October 1834, at the age of 31, Emerson moved into the Old Manse with his mother and one of his brothers.
The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts.
Following his marriage to Lydia “Lidian” Jackson in 1835, Emerson and his wife settled permanently in Concord. They moved into the home he’d purchased on the Cambridge Turnpike the day after their wedding and lived there for the rest of their lives. Emerson significantly impacted the life of the town through his engagement with its intellectual life and social institutions, and through his involvement with social reform movements.
Concord’s fields, farms, and woods influenced Emerson’s decision to move to the town. Over time he purchased more than 40 acres of land around his home and at Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau built his cabin. Walden Pond is less than two miles from Emerson’s home and was often the destination of his daily walks.
In 1835, Concord was a small but active community of 2,021 citizens. Agriculture was the leading industry but manufacturing was also robust with a cotton mill, two sawmills, two gristmills, a pencil factory, and a book bindery. Concord’s Lyceum was one of the first in New England, established in 1828. Lyceums were a form of adult education and entertainment, providing lectures, debates, and discussions supported by volunteers within the community. During his residency, Emerson was the Concord Lyceum’s most frequent speaker.
When the poet and lecturer moved to Concord, the Emerson name was already well-respected in town based on his ancestral legacy, which included a town founder—English minister Peter Bulkeley—and two Congregational ministers. Emerson’s grandfather Reverend William Emerson was a patriot of the American Revolution. In September 1835—two days before his marriage to Lidian—Emerson delivered an address commemorating the 200th anniversary of the founding of Concord. His son Edward wrote “…his being chosen to review its [Concord’s] Past and speak the word of good omen for the Future on the day when the Town celebrated the completing of the second century since its planting, was not like the calling in a stranger among the people.” [1]
The Old North Bridge in Concord.
For Concord’s 1837 Fourth of July celebration, Emerson contributed a hymn for the day’s exercises. The first stanza celebrated the national significance of the 1775 battle at the town’s North Bridge:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here, once, the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The verse is now known as the “Concord Hymn.”
The citizens of Concord welcomed Emerson’s involvement in various activities. In 1837 he joined the Social Circle, a group of 25 farmers and townsmen. Meetings of the Social Circle were designed to share conversations in the members’ homes during the winter months. It enabled Emerson to get to know his neighbors—and they him—which would otherwise have been difficult with his demanding schedule. Emerson also served on Concord’s School Committee; on the Cemetery Committee (he delivered the keynote address at the dedication of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery); as a director of the Concord Atheneum (Concord’s library until 1851); and on the Library Committee.
Even with his extensive involvement in community activities, the greatest impact Emerson had on the town was his ability to draw many of the leading writers, educators, and reformers of the time to his home.
The Emerson House on Concord’s Cambridge Turnpike.
Emerson’s poems, essays, and lectures significantly interested America’s literary elite. Writers that visited or moved to Concord included Louisa May Alcott (with her family), James Elliot Cabot, Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell. Thoreau was born in Concord but was so drawn to Emerson that he lived with the family for more than two years.
As a strong proponent of education for all, Emerson had extensive meetings in his home with progressive educators Bronson Alcott, Horace Mann, Elizabeth Peabody, and Sarah Alden Ripley.
The 19th century was a period of upheaval and agitation for reform on many fronts, including the abolition of slavery. Emerson actively spoke against slavery, including addressing the citizens of Concord on May 3, 1851 to denounce the Fugitive Slave Act. His and Lidian’s active participation attempting to drive change in the treatment of Blacks and Indigenous people brought John Brown, Mary Merrick Brooks, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Frederick Hedge Theodore Parker, and Daniel Webster to Emerson’s Concord home.
To learn more about this remarkable man, his ideas, and his impact on nineteenth-century arts and social reforms, you can take a guided tour of the Emerson House. Walking through the rooms the Emersons used every day enables visitors to see the many books, artworks, and family items that characterized their daily lives. We hope you will visit soon!
— B. Ewen, Emerson House guide
WORKS CITED:
Edward Waldo Emerson’s biography of his father, Emerson in Concord.
