Antebellum writers tried to shape the nation through their texts, as they expressed the struggles over power and identity that led to the Civil War--and that continue to define U.S. discourses today. We encounter the genres--novels, oratory, poetry, appeals, slave narratives, essays, and nature writing--that authors used to grapple with slavery, social reform, environmental transformation, and aesthetics. Writers may include William Apess (Pequot), Margaret Fuller, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass, and Emily Dickinson.