The exact origins of Romanticism are still in debate today, but it is generally agreed upon that it came about as a challenge to the Age of Enlightenment (1660s-1780s). It rose in popularity at the end of the 1700s and at the turn of the century came across the Atlantic Ocean to the newly formed United States. "They celebrated imagination/intuition versus reason/calculation, spontaneity versus control, subjectivity and metaphysical musing versus objective fact, revolutionary energy versus tradition, individualism versus social conformity, democracy versus monarchy, and so on." (Harvey) The movement celebrated the power of the individual, the imagination, and spontaneity, rather than the authority of reasoning and control during the Age of Reason. It rebelled against the monarchy, against social conformity, and against tradition. The citizens of the United States, having just broken free of the tyranny of Great Britain, flocked to these ideals and found in them a sense of comfort and validation. The fact that Romanticism elevated the masses through democratic means meshed well with American ideals, though in truth it was only white males who saw themselves elevated. Romantics believed that man, while certainly capable of evil, was inherently good natured, but that civilization as a whole was flawed and corrupt. This was very different from Calvinism, which claimed that all individuals were sinners and could not escape their predetermined fates. .
The American frontier also influenced the Romantic Movement in the early 1800s as many looked to the west as an opportunity for growth and personal freedom that Europe lacked. The frontier also invoked a sense of optimism in the movement's followers, a promise of finding one's own worth and identity within nature, rather than attempting to conform to societal pressures. The vast unknown of the American West appealed to the Romantic followers as they saw nature as a source of wisdom and inspiration for the soul.