This chapter examines the Lunar Hoaxes of Edgar Allen Poe and Richard Adams Locke through the lens of the contrasting ideologies of the Antebellum period in an age of prolific scientific and technological advances. By examining the intertextuality of “The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall” and “The Moon Hoax”, this chapter illustrates how these satiric articles reveal the opposing creeds of optimism and doubt in a rapidly changing world. Recent scholarship discusses the construct of narratives in mid-nineteenth-century America under conditions of uncertainty prevalent in the Antebellum age. Likewise, this chapter builds on these ideas by exploring the compositional devices at play in both tales, which combine factual scientific knowledge with fictitious flights of fancy. It also demonstrates the widespread curiosity about the unknown while revealing the concurrent contrast of awe and scepticism towards scientific advancement. Although entertainment may have been the intention of these works, they are historical commentary that gives insight into some of the core tenets of Antebellum society while giving birth to the new literary genre of science fiction in pre-Civil War America.