Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was a 19th-century philosopher and poet, and one of the leaders of American transcendentalism.
Emerson began to reject central tenets of the Christian religion in his area, and instead described a deeper connection between God and all things, granting a sense of divinity to everything. The accessibility of divine truth in nature, rather than merely through revelation, became a central point in his transcendentalism.
Emerson lived during the American Civil War and gradually became an outspoken member of the abolitionist movement against slavery.
Name: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Born: May 25, 1803
Died: April 27, 1882
