How does Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" connect with the American Romanticism period?

It is my understanding that Washington Irving is before
the Romantic period. If your teacher feels otherwise, see below for the description of
writers in the Romantic period and their characteristics. Generally speaking, there are
writers who cross-over or can be identifed as being in two periods simultaneously.

The Early National Period of American Literature saw the
beginnings of literature that could be truly identified as "American". The writers of
this new American literature wrote in the English style, but the settings, themes, and
characters were authentically American. In addition, poets of this time wrote poetry
that was relatively independent of English precursors. Three of the most recognized
writers of this time are Washington Irving, James Fennimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe.

The period 1828-1865 in American Literature is commonly
identified as the Romantic Period in America, but may also be referred to as the
American Renaissance or the Age of Transcendentalism. The writers of this period
produced works of originality and excellence that helped shape the ideas, ideals, and
literary aims of many American writers. Writers of the American Romantic Period include
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, and Walt
Whitman.