Filled with revolutions and reforms, the Romantic period (1770-1830) saw writing and thinking that shifted the world toward contemporary configurations we recognize. The American, Haitian and French Revolutions changed conceptions of liberty. Poetry and the novel transformed, and women writers gained critical attention. As plantations and factories expanded, writers considered the individual�s place in society and the natural world, changing gender expectations, and what it meant to be complicit in networks that included human bondage.
