Chapter 2: The English ' Transplantations'

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Two should enable the student to understand:

1. The differences between the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies in terms of objectives, types of settlers, early problems, and reasons for success.

2. The causes and significance of Bacon's Rebellion.

3. The significance of the Caribbean colonies in the British-American colonial system.

4. The background of the Massachusetts Bay colony and its founders, the Puritans.

5. The conditions in Puritan Massachusetts Bay that spawned such dissenters as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson.

6. The expansion of the original settlements, and the influences of the New World frontier on the colonists.

7. The efforts made by the Dutch to establish a colony, and the reasons for their failure.

8. The reasons for the founding of each of the original thirteen colonies.

9. The early economic, religious, and political factors in the colonies that tended to produce sectional differences.

10. The effect of the Glorious Revolution on the development of the American colonies.

 

Main Themes

1. The origins and objectives of England's first settlements in the New World.

2. How and why English colonies differed from one another in purpose and administration.

3. The problems that arose as colonies matured and expanded, and how colonists attempted to solve them.

4. The impact that events in England had on the development of colonies in British America.

 

 

Glossary

1. antinomianism: The belief that people cannot obtain salvation through good works but that "faith alone" is all that is necessary. Seventeenth-century authorities feared that antinomians would feel that it was not necessary to work for the betterment of the community and might even put themselves above the rules and regulations that governed society.

2. covenant: Essentially an agreement in which people are united for a specific purpose. Rooted in Protestant theology, such agreements were the basis for church governments (especially among Calvinist congregations) and, in time, influenced civil governments as well. In this way, the covenant concept helped establish the idea of government by the consent of the governed.

3. orthodox: Conforming to the accepted doctrines or system of beliefs of a group, refusing to deviate or alter one's beliefs (for example, orthodox Puritans).

4. proprietary colony: A colony whose charter was granted by the king to an individual or a group (proprietors). Although the charter might place certain restrictions on the proprietors, in general they were free to run the colony as they wished--appointing governors, establishing assemblies, dividing and granting land. Because most proprietors were essentially land speculators and concerned with profit (either from the sale of land or from quitrents), they usually relaxed political and religious restrictions so as to attract colonists. But even with these concessions, proprietary governments at times proved unpopular, and opposition to them was one source of turmoil in the late seventeenth century.

5. royal colony: A colony over which the king of England assumed control, granting it a royal charter in place of the charter it previously held. Not an act of tyranny, as often pictured, royalization guaranteed that England's laws (and English subjects' rights) would apply to colony and colonists. A royal governor was appointed by the king to see that such laws were carried out, and a council, composed of prominent men of the colony (appointed by the king, but with the advice of local leaders), was established to advise the executive. Most important, at least to the colonists in general, was the authorization of an elected legislature (variously known as the Commons House of Assembly, the House of Burgesses, and the like) to pass local laws and deal with problems particular to the colony. This legislative activity was naturally to conform to English law and was subject to royal approval or disallowance. In time, the council came to act as the upper house of the legislature, while the commons functioned as the lower, an arrangement that, to the colonists at least, strongly resembled the relationship that existed between the House of Commons and the House of Lords in England. This system varied from colony to colony and underwent many changes as it evolved; yet, by the end of the colonial era, most of the British-American colonies shared its basic institutional structure.

6. theocracy – government in which the state is effectively managed or governed by an organized church or religion

7. autocracy / autocratic: government in which one person possesses unlimited power

8. monoculture - the cultivation or growth of a single crop in an agricultural economy, such as sugar on the Caribbean islands.

 

Summary

During the seventeenth century, colonies were established in British North America, and the colonists began to perceive themselves as a hybrid breed. Before 1660, most colonies began as private ventures (with charters from the king), but the motives that brought them into being were as varied as the sociopolitical systems they developed. After 1660, proprietary colonies became the norm, and charters indicated a closer tie between the "owners" of a colony and the king, who granted the charter. As a result of this colonization effort, by the 1680s England had an unbroken string of provinces stretching from Canada to the Savannah River. As the colonies matured, their inhabitants began to exhibit a concern for control of local affairs and an independence of interests that eventually came to trouble the British Empire. It was a time when colonists began to sense that they were both English and American, a dual personality that was to lead to trouble and confusion on both sides of the Atlantic. The problem was that at the very time that the American colonists were developing attitudes and institutions distinctly American, England, fully aware of the potential of its colonies, began to tighten its control of its possessions.

 

Chapter 2: Transplantations and Borderlands - 33

The colonies were business enterprises –
          financed by private companies, for profit
Few efforts to blend English society with the society of natives -
Isolate themselves from the Indians and create enclosed societies –

          little interracial marriage
Almost nothing worked out as they had planned
American society would develop its own habits and institutions

 

The Founding of Jamestown – 34

1607 - on the James River
104 men - inland site - intended to offer security
Low swampy - mosquitoes and malaria –

          thick woods, difficult to clear for cultivation
First 17 years particularly, a miserable and deadly place –

          too many gentlemen, not enough laborers
No women sent to Jamestown - without women, could not order domestic lives, no sense of permanence in community

·        ·        Violent Land - Single Men and Social Disorder from the Frontier to the Inner City

·        ·        David T. Courtwright, Harvard University Press, 1996 ISBN 0-674-27870-4

1608 - supply ship with new settlers - all but 38 or original 104 had died

Capt John Smith

·        ·        provided order & organization

·        ·        imposed work and order

·        ·        organized raids to steal food and natives

Only 12 died the next winter
1609 - John Smith returns to England

 

Reorganization - 34

New charter - the Virginia Company - for Jamestown –

·        ·        selling stock to investors in England

·        ·        Additional stock offered to planters who would pay their own way

·        ·        Free passage for poor people in exchange for 7 years of indentured servitude

·        ·        600 left England for Virginia – some women & children

 

Troublesome voyage, one ship lost, many arrived late, succumbed to fever
Winter 1609-10 - Starving Time
Indians retaliated – from Smith’s previous raids

·        ·        barricaded settlers

·        ·        killed livestock

·        ·        cannibalism

·        ·        only 60 of 500 survived

Spring 1610 - new arrivals took survivors onboard to return to England - but met another supply ship and turned around

Effort to turn a profit in Jamestown resumed

First governor of Virginia arrives

·        ·        Lord DeLa Warr - harsh and rigid discipline

·        ·        Settlers continued to avoid work - hoping for communal sympathy

·        ·        Governor Dale (DeLaWarr’s successor... private ownership and cultivation of land.

·        ·        Increased military assaults on local Indians – increased protection for settlements

 

Tobacco - 35

Columbus observations in Cuba - natives smoking through the nose
Custom returned to Europe / England
Denounced by James I

·        ·        "so vile and stinking a custom"

·        ·        people not to imitate “the barbarous and beastly manners of the wild, godless, and slavish Indians”

Tobacco became a cash crop - driving territorial expansion

 

Expansion - 36

Headrights - 50 acre grants of land

·        ·        Each new settler would receive one Headright

·        ·        one per family member

·        ·        encouraging family migrations

 

Pay for passage - yours or another

·        ·        receive an additional headright

·        ·        Consolidated headrights could produce significant land holdings - a plantation

 

Populated the colony with craftsman and ironworkers
1619 –

·        ·        100 English women sent to Virginia - prospective brides

·        ·        could be purchased from the Virginia Company for 120 pounds of tobacco

·        ·        Promised colonists full rights of Englishmen and share in self government

·        ·        July 30, 1619, House of Burgesses meets for the first time

o       o       representative government in America 

·        ·        August 1619 - Dutch ship arrives with 20 Africans

o       o       beginning of African slavery in America

 

Up through 1670, indentured servitude remained popular but as costs rose, slavery became the preferred option

Expansion from 1619 forward facilitated by the suppression of the local Indians

·        ·        2 years of attacks on the Powhatan Indians

·        ·        Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan chief, kidnapped

o       o       converted to Christianity 1614

o       o       married John Rolfe

o       o       1614, accompanied husband to England

o       o       died while in England, buried in London.

·        ·        1622 - Powhatan's new chief, Opechancanough attacked

o       o       killed 347 settlers - English merciless retaliation

·        ·        1644 - last of Powhatan uprisings

·        ·        end of Indian challenges to eastern regions of Virginia

Exchanges of Agricultural Technology

Hostility of English Settlers

·        ·        Convinced their civilization was greatly superior to Indians

·        ·        More technologically advanced

o       o       Ocean going vessels

o       o       Muskets

o       o       Weapons

o       o       Tools

·        ·        John Smith blamed English inability to find gold on backwardness of natives – didn't appreciate it’s wealth, didn't have a monetary economy

 

Survival of Jamestown in significant part owed to  technology of natives

·        ·        Local farming knowledge

·        ·        Crop rotation – Corn Beans

·        ·        Girdling

·        ·        Variety of crops, planting patterns – around trees

 

 

Maryland and the Calverts - 38

George Calvert - the first Lord Baltimore
Colony as a real estate venture and retreat for English Catholics

1632 - charter granted to second Lord Baltimore

·        ·        "true and absolute lords and proprietors... ultimate sovereignty of the king - annual fee"

 

Good initial experience

·        ·        no Indian attacks

·        ·        no plagues

·        ·        no starving time

 

Protestants (Anglicans) outnumbered Catholics - policy of religious toleration

·        ·        1648 - "Act Concerning Religion"

o       o       freedom of worship to all Christians

·        ·        Jesuits and Puritans sought dominance

o       o       barred Catholics from voting

o       o       repealed the Toleration Act

 

 

Government evolved to a two house assembly with English appointed governor

 

Land distribution - distributed by Lord Baltimore(s) to aristocrats

·        ·        1640 - labor shortage - policy change - adopted a headright system

·        ·        Acres: 100 per adult male, 100 for wife & each servant, 50 for each child

·        ·        adult male controlled the ownership of land

·        ·        women had no property rights

Maryland - tobacco economy

·        ·        initially powered by indentured servants

·        ·        late 17^th century (1675), transition to African slaves

 

 

Turbulent Virginia - 39

Westward expansion creates new Indian conflicts
1642 William Berkeley (governor)

·        ·        1644 puts down Indian uprising

·        ·        negotiated territorial demarcation lines – policy failed – first of many

·        ·        Berkley becomes autocratic – 1660s

·        ·        Revised voting rights –

o       o       Previously 17 year old males – now male landowners only

o       o       Infrequent elections

·        ·        Seeds of discontent

 

English Civil War 1649 (Cromwell) drives colonial growth
1640 - 1650 Virginia's population doubled - 8,000 to 16,000, by 1660, 40,000
Population growth pushed territorial expansion beyond negotiated boundaries

Bacon's Rebellion - 39

Nathaniel Bacon – wealthy, young, single, Cambridge graduate

White settlers resented restrictions on expansion
Nathaniel Bacon & others attacked western Indians
Defiance in Indian matters escalated to a challenge against the colonial government
Bacon's army attached Jamestown, burning it in a second attack
Bacon died of disease (dysentery) - British troops regained control

 

Incidents important because:

·        ·        Highlights struggle between white / Indian boundaries - westward expansion

·        ·        Settlers unwilling to abide by previous boundary negotiation / treaties

·        ·        Indians unwilling to give up their lands

·        ·        Eastern landowners vs. Western landowners - established vs. expansionist

·        ·        Insatiable appetite for land - free, young males, propertyless, single, minimal prospects - Courtwright theory

·        ·        Establishment had an interest in preventing social unrest from below –

·        ·        African slaves were easier to control and less dangerous than white free, former indentured servants

 

 

The Growth of New England - 40
Plymouth Plantation - 40

1608 - illegal to leave England without permission of the king
Religious separatists - Pilgrims - quietly left for Leyden, Holland

·        ·        Limited economic opportunity - excluded from skilled work

·        ·        Troubled by secular, tolerant Dutch society - impact on family / children

Consent of the king - provided they carry themselves peaceably

·        ·        historic concession by the crown - opened the door for other religious dissenters

·        ·        Set off to Virginia with the hope of spreading "the gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world."

1620 - September –

·        ·        left Plymouth, England: 35 saints, 67 strangers

·        ·        Sighted land in November

o       o       missed Virginia / New York

o       o       north of London Company colony, too late to go on
No legal basis for a colony

o       o       Signed the Mayflower Compact - with allegiance to the king

·        ·        Established colony at site of a former Indian village - abandoned 3 years earlier probably due to European introduced disease

·        ·        Winter of 1620 - 21,   50% mortality due to malnutrition, disease, exposure

 

Pilgrims less hostile toward Indians

·        ·        Indians weakened, reduced in number by European disease

·        ·        Squanto and Samoset befriended the Pilgrims - provided survival training

·        ·        1621 - William Bradford chosen as governor

·        ·        distributed land among families - shared 1 plow until 1640

·        ·        self interest coupled with communal interest

·        ·        1630 - Pilgrim population reaches 300

·        ·        1636 - Smallpox further decimated the Indian population

 

 

The Massachusetts Bay Experiment - 42

1625 - James I dies succeeded by Charles I

Restores Roman Catholicism, religious intoleration

Group of Puritans receive a land grant - Massachusetts Bay Company - business venture

·        ·        "Hard core Puritans" bought the charter to make this a Puritan expedition / experiment

·        ·        Colonists no longer responsible to company officials in England, only to themselves

·        ·        1630 - 17 ships, 1000 people - mostly family groups

·        ·        Over 10 years, spawned multiple towns: Boston, Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester, Watertown Ipswich, Concord, Sudbury

·        ·        Massachusetts Bay Company transformed itself into a colonial government.

 

Unlike England, each town church chose its minister and regulated its own affairs
The Church Power Circle –

·        ·        Ministers had no formal political power but exerted influence on church members

·        ·        Only church members (male) could vote or hold office

·        ·        Government protected the ministers - taxed the people (members & non-members of the church) to support the church

·        ·        Laws required church attendance

·        ·        Dissidents, if any, had no practical religious freedom

·        ·        Net effect: Theocracy

 

Early high mortality but helped by Indians and original Pilgrims

New arrivals brought tools and supplies

New arrivals came as family groups - sense of community & commitment

 

 

The Expansion of New England - 45

Connecticut Valley 100 miles west - 1630s
English families - fertile lands, isolation from religious focus of Puritans
1635 - Thomas Hooker & congregation - established Hartford
1639 - Hartford, Windsor, & Wethersfield - Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

 

Government similar to Mass Bay - more men the right to vote

1639 - Fundamental Orders of New Haven
    Stricter than Boston - remained independent
1662 - Royal Charter consolidates New Haven with the colony of Connecticut

 

Rhode Island - Roger Williams - abandon allegiance to Church of England
Called for separation of church & state (to protect the church from secular corruption)
1636 - Providence
1644 - Parliamentary Charter permitting establishment of government

·        ·        Rhode Island gave no support to the church and allowed liberty in religious concerns.

 

Anne Hutchinson

Female -
Only "elect" were entitled to any religious or political authority
Living righteous was not enough to be among the elect

Necessary to undergo a "conversion"

Massachusetts clergy who were not among the elect had no right to spiritual office

Challenge to assumptions about the role of women in Puritan society

Large following among women & other who resented oppressive character of colonial government

Put on trial for heresy - now there's a surprise

·        ·        Convicted of sedition and banished as a "woman not fit for our society"

·        ·        Backlash - Male clergy limited public activities of women within the congregation

·        ·        Hutchinson's followers began to migrate to New Hampshire & Maine

 

 

Settlers & Natives - 47

1635 - native Indians virtually wiped out by epidemics
Sold much of their land (already cleared)
Agronomy instruction - local foods, corn, beans, potatoes...planting of beans to replenish exhausted soil
Partners in fur trade - target for manufactured goods

 

Early peaceful relations did not last - demand for land - domestic animals

West to Connecticut Valley - more Indians

Indians went from simple aboriginals to heathens and savages - Christianize or pulverize

White incursions drives out native animals - necessary to the Indians

Indian population declined from 100,000 to 10,000 in 75 years

 

 

The Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and the Technology of Battle - 48
First major conflict – 1637

Land and trading rights English, Mohegan, & Narragansett vs. Pequot

English most savage – interesting choice of words…

Pequot Tribe savagely wiped out in 1637 - those not killed or burned to death, sold as slaves

 

1675 – King Philip’s (Metacoment) War

3 years of attacks

Whites gradually prevail

Mohawks ambush Metacomet, decapitate, take head to Boston

Wampanoags decimated & powerless to resist

 

Indians made use of new flintlock rifle – more effective / efficient

Colonists forbidden to instruct native how to use / repair weapons

Overwhelming numbers & firepower of English doomed Indians

 

The English Civil War - 49

Charles I - dissolved Parliament 1629 – ruled as absolute monarch

Reconvened Parliament to raise taxes
Dismissed them again twice in 2 years
1642 - Cavaliers vs. Roundheads - King vs. Parliament (Puritans)
1649 - Charles I beheaded - Oliver Cromwell elevated to Protector
1658 - Cromwell dies - his son (heir) unable to keep it together
1660 - Charles II returns to claim the throne - Stuart Restoration

·        ·        Charles II rewards faithful with land grants

·        ·     1660 - 75 four new colonies - Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania

·        ·        Goal of permanent settlement - proprietors with land and power, not quick profits

 

The Carolinas - 50

1663 & 1665 land grants for Carolina - west to the Pacific Ocean

Virtual absolute powers over their grants

·        ·        Reserved large estates for themselves

·        ·        Profit as landlords & land speculators - headright system with annual payments

·        ·        Religious Freedom - to everyone who would worship as a Christian

·        ·        Representative Assembly

·        ·        1669 - John Locke engaged to write Fundamental Constitution of Carolina

o       o       land distribution

o       o       social order

o       o       Didn't work out as planned

 

In the North –

·        ·        backwoods farmers

·        ·        isolated

·        ·        no aristocracy

·        ·        virtually no African slaves

In the South –

·        ·        fertile lands

·        ·        harbor at Charles Town

·        ·        prosperous economy

·        ·        aristocratic

·        ·        flourishing trade, including Indian slaves

·        ·        Barbados chief trading partner –

·        ·        immigrants bringing slaves & slave culture

·        ·        Antagonism between northern & southern regions

·        ·        1729 - Carolina split into two royal colonies - North & South Carolina

 

 

New Netherland, New York, and New Jersey - 51

1664 - Charles II granted his brother the Duke of York - New York & New Jersey

Already claimed by the Dutch –

·        ·        wedge between northern & southern English colonies

·        ·        English fleet captures New Amsterdam - becomes New York

Multinational population

No representative assembly but local governments

Religious toleration – no effort to impose Catholicism

Aristocratic landowners loyal to James, Duke of York

New Jersey carved out of southwestern New York

 

 

The Quaker Colonies - 53

Born of dissenting English Protestants - Quakers –

·        ·        Society of Friends

·        ·        Tremble at the name of the Lord

All people had divinity - Inner Light - all who cultivated divinity could attain salvation

Equality for women within the church including definition of church doctrine

No church government or paid clergy

Thee and thou were used –

·        ·        in larger society vernacular to address social inferiors

 

Pacifists - but not welcomed except for Rhode Island - why?

·        ·        Some received violently – put to death

1681 - William Penn, a Quaker, upon his father's death,

·        ·        Charles II paid off a debt with a land grant

·        ·        Between NY & Maryland, larger than England and Wales combined –

·        ·        Pennsylvania - Penn's Woods

·        ·        Representative Assembly

·        ·        Compensated Indians for land - no major conflicts with Indians in Penn's lifetime

·        ·        1703 - Lower counties - Delaware –

o       o       established their own representative assembly

 

 

 

Borderlands and Middle Grounds – 54

British Empire in North America smaller & weaker than Spanish Empire

 

The Caribbean Islands (West Indies) – 54

1600 – 50 most English immigrants – Caribbean / Bermuda

Surrounded & threatened by Spanish empire

Indians never a significant factor – disease

Spanish claimed all Caribbean Islands

Populated / settled only the largest – Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico

English, French, Dutch settled smaller islands

English: Antigua, St. Kitts, Jamaica, Barbados

Constant invasions – Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French

Violent & turbulent place

 

Sugar monoculture

·        ·        cash crop - labor intensive

·        ·        Destroyed habitat, forests, limited land for food production

·        ·        Work too difficult for English indentured servants

·        ·        Rely on African slaves – 4:1 ratio

 

Masters and Slaves in the Caribbean – 55

Small white population great economic success

Large African population in bondage
1660 - Caribbean legal codes regulated relations between masters & slaves

·        ·        Whites had absolute authority over Africans.

·        ·        Master could murder a slave with impunity

Climate inhospitable to English
Caribbean unattractive as English colonization destination - North America preferred

Whites had no long term commitment to the land

White single men, no social infrastructure

Africans

·        ·        Create their own world despite hardships

·        ·        Preserve African religion & traditions

 

The Southwestern Borderlands – 57

 

Spanish empire – small presence in the region

Most Spanish influence to the south – Mexico, South America

American colonies: Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California

·        ·        Relatively unimportant economically

New Mexico most prosperous

·        ·        1800 – agriculture, 10,000 non-Indians

California colonized as a defensive response

·        ·        1769 – 86 San Diego, Monterey, San Francisco, Los Angeles

·        ·        Local population decimated by disease 66% fatal

·        ·        Conversion to Catholicism

 

Fortify claims to Texas – protect from other national colonization

·        ·        San Antonio 1731

North American colonies acted as buffers for the Spanish Empire

Spanish not committed to displacing natives but enlisting them

Not considered equals but neither as obstacles (as English viewed)

 

 

The Southeast Borderlands – 58

Spanish claim to Florida – 1560

St. Augustine – 1565

Spanish begin to move north – thwarted by Jamestown 1607

Carolinas – Georgia – continuing tension – English, Spanish

1668 English level St. Augustine

Spanish offer freedom to African slaves owned by English

Ft. Mose – north of St. Augustine – first free blacks in America

English desire a buffer colony - Georgia

 

 

The Founding of Georgia - 58

No action until 1732 - a 50 year moratorium
James Oglethorpe / Parliamentarian & military hero - autocratic
Military buffer against Spanish (Florida) –

·        ·        border transgressions into South Carolina

Refuge for the impoverished - debtors prison - honest debtors rotting in prison

·        ·        Excluded Africans - feared slave revolts

·        ·        Excluded Catholics - feared Spanish sympathies

·        ·        Prohibited rum

Few debtors, but many impoverished tradesmen & artisans

·        ·        English & Scottish, Swiss, German, small group of Jews

Strict rules, labor intensive agriculture ensured failure –

·        ·        Colonists demanded the right to buy slaves

1740 - removed limitation on individual land holdings

1750 - removed the ban on slavery

1751 - returned control of the colony to the king –

·        ·        established a representative assembly

1770 - 20,000 non-Indian residents - 50% slaves

 

Middle Ground - 59

Contest between empires, immigrants, natives

Balance of Power on the fringes of empire – western borders

·        ·        Carved out compromises – mutual concessions

·        ·        Needed to cultivate relationships with tribes – adapt

·        ·        Indians viewed Europeans as both menacing and appealing

·        ·        Weapons – plus & minus, arbitrators among tribes

·        ·        Indians had no sense of nationhood

o       o       Relationships based on ceremony & kinship

o       o       Often prolonged violence between tribes

As time passed, especially post 1776

·        ·        Relationships deteriorated

·        ·        Indians subjugated and removed

 

 

 

The Evolution of the British Empire - 61
The Drive for Reorganization - 61

English colonies had originated as a series of separate projects

Mid 17^th century (1650) pressure for a more rational, uniform structure to the empire

Imperial reorganization

·        ·        Increase profitability

·        ·        Empower English government to supervise the colonies

·        ·        Contribute to the mercantile system - foundation of the English economy

·        ·        Exclude foreigners from colonial trade / monopolize trade relations with the colonies

o       o       1650/51 - Dutch ships excluded from colonies

o       o       1660 - Navigation Acts further regulation of colonial commerce

o       o       Required colonists to export certain items only to England / English possessions

o       o       1663 - All goods shipped to the colonies had to pass through English ports (increased cost / taxes)

o       o       1673 - Duties on colonial coastal trade - appointment of customs officials

 

 

The Dominion of New England

Massachusetts acting semi autonomous

·        ·        Charles II stripped Massachusetts authority over New Hampshire

·        ·        New Hampshire a separate royal colony

·        ·        Mass. defied instructions to enforce Navigation Acts

·        ·        Charles II revoked Mass Corporate Charter made it a royal colony

 

1686 - James II - Single Dominion of New England

·        ·        eliminated assemblies

·        ·        Combined the colonial governments - Mass, NH, NY, RI, CN

·        ·        Single governor- Edmund Andros – unpopular Anglican

 

 

 

The Glorious Revolution

1688 - Unpopular James II dethroned - by Parliament - bloodless coup

William of Orange (Netherlands) & Mary (James II daughter) ascend to throne

Bostonians moved to oust Andros - uncontested in England

Restoration of separate colonial governments

 

New Massachusetts Charter

·        ·        Massachusetts & Plymouth combined as a royal colony

·        ·        Replaced church membership with property ownership as the basis for voting

·        ·        Required Puritan leaders to tolerate Anglican worship

 

In New York –

·        ·        Jacob Leisler rebels in NY

·        ·        heads government for 2 years

·        ·        1691 - treason - hanged, drawn, and quartered

 

Maryland

·        ·        Protestant dissenters drove out Lord Baltimore's (Catholic) officials

·        ·        Petitioned for a charter as a royal colony - granted in 1691, along with a colonial assembly

 

Results of Glorious Revolution:

·        ·        Revived representative assemblies

·        ·        Thwarted attempts for colonial consolidation

·        ·        Legitimized position that colonists had some rights

·        ·        English government needed to consider colonial views

 

Yet, these actions made them more a part of the imperial system than previously

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3: Society and Culture in Provincial America

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Three should enable the student to understand:

1. The disagreement among historians concerning the origins of slavery.

2. The sources of colonial labor, including indentured servants, women, and imported Africans.

3. Immigration patterns and their effect on colonial development.

4. The ways in which factors of soil and climate determined the commercial and agricultural development of the colonies, despite crown attempts to influence production.

5. The emergence of the plantation system, and its impact on southern society.

6. The New England witchcraft episode as a reflection of the Puritan society.

7. The reasons for the appearance of a variety of religious sects in the colonies, and the effect of the Great Awakening on the colonists.

8. The beginnings of colonial industry and commerce, and the early attempts at regulation by Parliament.

9. The ways in which colonial literature, education, science, law, and justice were diverging from their English antecedents.

 

Main Themes

1. How the colonial population grew and diversified.

2. How the colonial economy expanded to meet the needs of this rapidly growing population.

3. The emergence of a particularly American "mind and spirit."

 

Glossary

1. class structure: The division of society into recognizable groups. Generally based on wealth, these divisions are also affected by education, family ties, religion, and a variety of other factors recognized by the society in which the divisions exist.

2. Enlightenment: The intellectual movement that dominated the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe. Believing that the universe operated through natural laws that human beings, using their powers of reason, could understand, "enlightened" thinkers argued that once these laws were understood, people could devise means of living within them. Also called the "Age of Reason," this era was marked by an explosion of activity that brought about significant advances in science (especially natural science), education, and government. Stressing that there were certain "natural rights" (life, liberty, and property) that were given to all people--and that it was the duty of government to protect these rights from selfish individuals (those not allowing reason to control their actions)--philosophers of this age called forth many of the principles that Americans later used in their struggle with Britain. From the Enlightenment came the beliefs that freedom is the natural condition of humanity, that governments should be responsible to the governed, and that it is the right of the people to oppose a government that violates the natural rights of its citizens.

3. evangelicalism: The adherence to the belief that salvation comes through the personal recognition of one's sins, the awareness of one's inability to save oneself, and the acceptance of Christ as the only means of redemption. The process is usually a highly emotional one that culminates in the rebirth ("born again" state) of the sinner and his or her acceptance as one of the evangelical community of believers. The evangelical emphasis on the spiritual rather than the worldly was particularly appealing to the lower classes and to others (for example, women and slaves) who sought a means to affirm their personal worth. This often put evangelicals at odds with their social "betters," who regarded the evangelicals' rejection of those things that defined the social classes (fine dress, leisure activities, civil and religious ceremonies, and such) as an attack on the status and authority of ruling elites.

4. nuclear family: The social unit composed of father, mother, and children.

5. paper money in the colonies: In an effort to overcome the lack of money in America, some colonial governments issued paper money to serve as currency. The problem, however, was to get the colonists to accept these paper bills at face value. So, to keep the bills from declining in value, some colonies employed a system (currency finance) in which paper money would be issued for only a specific purpose (for example, to buy goods that the government needed, to pay for services to the government, and so on) and would be accepted by the government, at face value, as payment for taxes or other debts owed to the colony. It was generally hoped that this would be the only exchange and that the money would not circulate; but if it did, the fact that the government would accept it as full payment was believed to be enough to keep it from depreciating greatly. In practice, however, the system did not work. The bills lost their value as they circulated, creating the inflation that opponents of paper money feared. Nevertheless, under a more controlled situation, the concept was indeed workable and, with some changes, is used today.

6. patriarchal: Having to do with a social system in which the father is the head of the family.

7. slavery: A legal status in which an individual is owned by another individual who controls his or her actions and benefits from his or her labor. The status is for life (unless altered by the owner) and is inherited, usually through the mother.

8. staple crop: The primary export (cash) crop of a region, the crop on which the region's economy rests. In the Chesapeake colonies, the staple was tobacco; farther south, it was rice or indigo. In later years, sugar (the staple in the Indies) was important in some areas on the mainland, but in time the classic staple--cotton--came to dominate the South's economy.

9. SES – Socio-Economic Status: An assessment of an individual or family's relative economic and social ranking.

10. Primogeniture: the passing of all inherited property to the first born son.  Did not take root in New England.

 

Summary

After the turmoil of the late seventeenth century had subsided, it became evident that the English-American colonies and the colonists who populated them were beginning to develop characteristics that were distinctly "American." Although still essentially transplanted English subjects and still greatly influenced by European ideas and institutions, the colonists were also diverse, aggressive, and as concerned with their own success as with that of the empire of which they were part. New sources of wealth and new patterns of trade shaped the growth of the colonies, and new immigrants, not always from England, added a dimension unknown in the mother country. Although differences in geography, economy, and population gave each colony its own particular character and problems, there remained many common concerns--not the least of which was how to deal with, or avoid dealing with, British mercantile restrictions. In short, between 1700 and 1750, Britain's American colonies began to show signs of being both English and American; they were indeed "different," and it is this difference that Chapter Three explores.

 

 

Chapter 3:  Society and Culture in Provincial America - 65

American societies differed considerably from the society that many settlers had attempted to re-create - the society of England
They differed also from one another - the physical environment was different - the population more diverse.
Culture was molded to some degree by the physical environment.
The colonists were multi-cultural.
Colonists emulated the English yet had their own unique characteristics, collectively and uniquely with their own region, which would affect their society well beyond the colonial period.

The Colonial Population - 66

By the late 17^th century, Europeans and Africans became the dominant populations on the Atlantic coast

Indentured Servitude – 66

Young men & women bound for a fixed term of service – 4 – 7 years
Received passage, food, shelter
Often left service with no tools or possessions
25% women – could expect to marry upon completion of service (gender ratio)
Other young men - younger sons of the lesser gentry, men who stood to inherit no land
Unaristocratic - dominated by laborers and indentured servants
Some shiploads of convicts to be sold into servitude
Prisoners taken in battles with Scots and Irish and other undesirables: orphans, vagrants, paupers
Indentured servants helped fill the labor void - Headright system complimented this system
Late 17^th century - indentured servants one of the largest elements of the population
Former indentured servants, mostly male, without land, jobs, families & prospects - source of social unrest – Bacon’s Rebellion (Courtwright)
Family units – highly mobile - pull up stakes & move
Reduced English birthrate and increased English prosperity reduced emigration
After 1700, indentures avoided southern colonies - arduous work, minimal opportunity
Chesapeake landowners uncomfortable with climate created by former servants - increasing popularity of African slavery

Birth and Death - 67

By 1700 non-Indian population in English colonies 250,000 - 25% African.
After 1650s, New England / Mid Atlantic, natural increase became the most important source of population growth
New England quadrupled 1650 – 1700

Exceptional longevity - nearly equal to the 20th century
Men who survived infancy lived to average of 71, women 70 -
          10 years higher than English, 20 years higher than the south
Chesapeake -
    markedly higher mortality rates
    expectancy for white men: 40
    1 in 4 children died in infancy, half by age 20
    Widows, widowers, and orphaned substantial portion of the white population
Improvement in sex ratio assisted population increase
    Early Chesapeake 75% male, New England 60%

Medicine in the Colonies – 68

High death rates of women who bore children
No understanding of infection and sterilization
Bacteria transmitted by garbage & water
Women establish network of midwives – herbal / homeopathic
          Opposed by male doctors
          Medical technology 4 biles
          Bleeding a normal practice – George Washington
                   No scientific observation or study

Women and Families in the Chesapeake - 69

Young brides: 16 - 20, extraordinarily high mortality rate
Few families remained intact for long - male authority undermined
Servants forbidden to marry until terms of service complete
    Premarital sex common
    Pregnancies resulted in harsh treatment
        fines, whippings, additional time of service, loss of children after weaning
        Bastard children bound out as indentures

Women became pregnant once every two years
    Average of 8 children, 5 would die in infancy
    Childbirth frequent cause of female death - few survived to see their children mature
Gender ratio gave women more choice in husbands, without paternal interference in many cases
Widows often remarried - as did widowers - complex family relationships
    Role of peacemaker may also have enhanced female authority in the home

Large number of orphans

Early 1700s sex ratio becoming more equal
    Life expectancy increased
    Natural reproduction accounting for white population increase
    Families grew more stable
    Return to more male domination of family relationships
    Life for white people became less perilous and less arduous. (Courtwright)

Women and Families in New England - 70

Sex ratio reasonably balanced
Women married young produced children well into their 30s - more likely to survive
Average family raised 6 - 8 children to maturity
Families remained intact - fewer widows
Women less choice over conditions of marriage - fewer unmarried men - fathers control
White parents often lived to see their grandchildren grow to maturity.

Men depended on fathers for land, women needed dowries
Fewer premarital pregnancies, although Puritan premarital pregnancy rate as high as 20%
Family relationships defined by religious belief - more so than in the south
Men and women equal before God
Family both the principal economic and religious unit
Women were expected to be modest and submissive –
    unless they were gardening, raising poultry, or tending cattle
    which they did after cooking, cleaning, and washing
    and taking the kids to soccer.

The Beginnings of Slavery in British America - 71

By late 17^th century (late 1600s) - African slaves becoming plentiful
African tribes captured enemy tribes in battle and sold them into slavery
Less than 5% of Africans brought to the New World went to English colonies - Caribbean / Brazil – sugar

Conditions of middle passage were horrible – “Roots” tight pack / loose pack
Treated as property / cargo
Females sexually abused

1695 - Royal African Company monopoly on slave trading expired
    Prices dropped, new arrivals increased
1700 - 10% African overall, concentrated in southern colonies, some places a majority population
    In the Chesapeake - more slaves being born than imported
1700 to 1760 Africans increased tenfold to 250,000
    16,000 in New England, 29,000 in middle colonies, 205,000 in the south
    Flow of white laborers to the south had all but stopped

White / English assumptions about racial superiority / inferiority
    Previously manifested in relations with Indians
    Previously manifested in relations with Irish (colonization)

Early 18^th century - Slave Codes passed into law
In Spanish America, mixed race had higher status than pure African - no such distinction in English America
    Any African ancestry was enough to classify a person as black.

Changing Sources of European Immigration - 75

Early 18^th century English emigration declined
    better economic conditions, government restrictions, massive depopulation in some regions
French, German, Swiss, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Scandinavian continued or increased
    French Huguenots some to America, German Protestants for religious reasons
    Germans following wars with Louis XIV of France (3000 to America - Pennsylvania Dutch {Deutsch})
    Germans also to New Bern, North Carolina in 1710 (600)

Most numerous - Scotch-Irish, Scottish Presbyterians, via Ireland - economic & religious motivation
Pushed out the edges of the wilderness - little regard for who owned the land
Scottish Highlanders - many to North Carolina

1700 - non-Indian population less than 250,000; by 1775 over 2,000,000
Non-Indian population doubled every twenty-five years.

The Colonial Economies - 77

English colonies were commercial ventures
Substantial trade with native population and French settlers to the north,
and to a lesser extent, with the Spanish to the south & west

Farming dominated - subsistence agriculture, local, intercolonial, and export markets

The Southern Economy - 77

Chesapeake - tobacco economy - strong European demand
Production often exceeded demand - boom / bust
After 1700, tobacco plantations often had several dozen slaves

South Carolina & Georgia - rice production along coastal areas - malarial swamps - dependent on slaves
Africans had greater resistance than whites to malaria and other local diseases
1740 - South Carolina - indigo blue dye - grown on high ground not suitable for rice

Less commercial and industrial commerce in the south
Few cities of any size
This southern economic pattern would endure for 200 plus years

The Northern Economic and Technological Life - 78

Agriculture dominated - more diverse with an emerging commercial sector
Conditions for farming less favorable - cold weather, rocky soil - subsistence farming

Conditions better in southern New England, middle colonies - NY, Penn, Connecticut River Valley
Cultivated staple crops for consumption and sale

Industry at home: weaving, soap, candles, carpentry
Towns: cobblers, blacksmiths riflemakers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, printers
Harnessed water power - saw mills, grain mills, cloth, milling lumber, ship building

Iron Act of 1750 limited development also, Hat and Woolen Acts
Fledgling iron industry – mostly in the north
Also limited by labor supply, inadequate domestic market, infrastructure, transportation

Exploitation of the natural resources: fur, lumber, mining, fishing:
    Commodities that could be exchanged for manufactured goods
    Produced a thriving commercial class

The Extent and Limits of Technology – 80

Many farmers did own:
    a plow, pots / kettles, guns or rifles, 4 wheel wagons, spinning wheels / looms
    Too poor or isolated to acquire them
    Ability to acquire manufactured goods lagged behind supply

The Rise of Colonial Commerce - 80

Colonies had no specie - gold or silver coins - barter system
Uncertain quantity, markets, transportation - somehow, the economy prospered
Triangular trade is an over simplification

 

Adventurous entrepreneurs - merchant class - Boston, NY, Philadelphia
Protection from foreign competition - for colonial trade - Navigation Acts
Developed markets in the French, Spanish, and Dutch West Indies
Further expansion possible because society itself was rapidly expanding
    As we have seen in the last 30 years in the south - rust belt north, sun belt south.

The Rise of Consumerism – 81

Consumption of consumer goods – associated with social status – sound familiar?
Increasing division by socio-economic class / SES (Socioeconomic Status)
People of means intent on demonstrating their rank
Product of industrial revolution – more affordable goods available
Demand driven by advertising – journals, newspapers
Former luxuries now necessities (tea, linens, glassware, manufactured cutlery, crockery, furniture)
Social graces more prized – ladies / gentlemen, manners

Refinement of public places
Public parks, squares, boulevards – a place for social interaction (Boston Common)
Public stages for social display

Patterns of Society - 83

Deeply entrenched class system in England – not replicated in America
English class structure based on control of limited land
American class structure based on control of limited labor - opportunities for mobility

The Plantation - 83

Most early plantations were rough and relatively small estates, seldom more than 30 people
Self contained communities - living in close proximity - owner and farmer often worked side by side

Larger plantations - Planter class
    Substantial slave work force, house servants, frequent sexual liaisons
    Highly stratified society
Small farmers could not compete with wealthy planters - dependent relationship for marketing crops etc.
Planters dominated the southern agrarian economy

Plantation Slavery - 84

Mid 18^th century, 75% of all blacks lived on plantations of at least 10 slaves; half lived in communities of 50 or more
Africans developed a strong and elaborate family structure
Family structures were in constant jeopardy - developed extended kinship networks
African languages - South Carolina Gullah - English / African - whites could not understand

The Puritan Community - 85

Town was the social unit of New England - covenants among members
Lived in a village with neighbors close by
Little interference from colonial government - yearly town meetings, selectmen, limited to adult males
Membership in church, evidence of grace, conversion, etc., required for full membership
All residents required to attend church
Primogeniture did not take root - land divided up -
after 3 or 4 generations, plots too small - need to move on

The Witchcraft Phenomenon - 87

1680's & 1690's - Salem, Massachusetts
Adolescent girls, strange behaviors - accused West Indian servants who practiced voodoo
Hundreds of women accused - 19 put to death before 1692
Original accusers later recanted - made it all up
Perhaps inspired by social or class differences or economic opportunity
   Some had inherited substantial land or property

Cities - 87

1770 - Philadelphia 28,000;   New York 25,000 larger than most English urban centers
Boston 16,000; Charlestown, SC, 12,000; Newport, RI, 11,000
Trading centers for farmers, marts for international trade
Disparities of wealth - elegance in servants, homes, clothing, social activities
Contrasted to tradesmen, workers, indigents - social distinctions real and visible
Center of industry, ironworks, distilleries, schools, shops
Urban social problems; crimes vice, pollution, epidemics / constables & fire departments
Social discourse - new ideas - Printers, Taverns, Coffee houses
    Revolutionary ideas started in the cities

Awakenings and Enlightenments - 89

Two powerful and competing forces:
1:  A personal God, intimately involved with the world, watching individual lives
        Supported phenomena of witchcraft, stern moral code, faith more important than intellect
2:  Spirit of the Enlightenment - importance of science and human reason
        Individuals had control over their own lives and society,
        World explained and structured along rational scientific lines
Intellectual climate formed by these competing views

The Pattern of Religions - 89

Religion took on a new and distinctive pattern
Many different faiths - Ecclesiastical patchwork
Toleration of religious diversity - conditions virtually required it

Anglicanism (Church of England) was established by law in Virginia, Maryland, NY, Carolinas, Georgia
Everyone to be taxed to support the church - only successful in Virginia & Maryland
There were Puritans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Calvinist, Dutch Reformed,
    many varieties of American Baptists, believers in predestination and believers in salvation by free will.

Protestants tolerant of one another but not so much Catholics
Puritans considered the Pope the anti-Christ
Catholics persecuted in Maryland - founded for their protection
Catholicism stronger in Spanish America - especially in the southwest
Jews numbered no more than 2000, largest number in NYC
    Nowhere could they vote or hold office
    Only in Rhode Island could they practice their religion openly

The Decline of Piety
Multiple religions caused some to question if any particular sect had a monopoly on truth & grace
Westward migration - scattering of religious opportunity - secular practices, materialistic
Enlightenment challenged traditional religious thought

The Great Awakening - 90

1730s and 1740s - First great American Revival
Targeted where social and economic tensions were greatest
Women constituted majority of the converts - social and familial subjugation
Younger sons of third & fourth generation of settlers - little land inheritance
Start anew their relationship with God - desire for intense religious experience
John & Charles Wesley - founders of Methodism
George Whitefield - atone for sins admitting them directly to God - clergy not necessary
    Experience faith outside the traditional church
Jonathan Edwards - Puritan Orthodox - absolute sovereignty of God, depravity of man
    predestination, sense of election, salvation by God's grace alone
    (later president of Princeton University)
The Great Awakening - religious epidemic
    Weakened authority of established churches
    Religion more open and diverse
    Also, strengthened the hold of orthodox Calvinist belief of many Americans

The Enlightenment - 91

Product of great scientific and intellectual discoveries in Europe in 17^th century
Natural laws regulated the work of nature
Power of human reason and scientific inquiry
Reason, not faith, could create progress
Humans had moral sense on which they could rely to tell right from wrong
Undermined the power of traditional authority
Emphasis on education

Francis Bacon 1561 - 1626	people are the servants and interpreters of nature, that truth is not derived from authority, and that knowledge is the fruit of experience. Bacon is generally credited with having contributed to logic the method known as ampliative inference, a technique of inductive reasoning (see Induction). Previous logicians had practiced induction by simple enumeration, that is, drawing general conclusions from particular data. Bacon's method was to infer by use of analogy, from the characteristics or properties of the larger group to which that datum belonged, leaving to later experience the correction of evident errors. Because it added significantly to the improvement of scientific hypotheses, this method was a fundamental advancement of the scientific method. Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Baruch Spinoza 1632 - 1677	the universe is identical with God, who is the uncaused “substance” of all things. Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Rene Descartes 1596 - 1650	“In our search for the direct road to truth, we should busy ourselves with no object about which we cannot attain a certitude equal to that of the demonstration of arithmetic and geometry.” He therefore determined to hold nothing true until he had established grounds for believing it true. The single sure fact from which his investigations began was expressed by him in the famous words Cogito, ergo sum,”I think, therefore I am.” Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
John Locke 1632 - 1704	attacked the theory of divine right of kings. In brief, Locke argued that sovereignty did not reside in the state but with the people, and that the state is supreme, but only if it is bound by civil and what he called “natural” law. Many of Locke's political ideas, such as those relating to natural rights, property rights, the duty of the government to protect these rights, and the rule of the majority, were later embodied in the U.S. Constitution.   Locke further held that revolution was not only a right but often an obligation, and he advocated a system of checks and balances in government. He also believed in religious freedom and in the separation of church and state. Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Locke's Influence on the Declaration of Independence

John Locke's position according to Encarta

Declaration of Independence

attacked the theory of divine right of kings. In brief, Locke argued that sovereignty did not reside in the state but with the people, and that the state is supreme, but only if it is bound by civil and what he called “natural” law. Many of Locke's political ideas, such as those relating to natural rights, property rights, the duty of the government to protect these rights, and the rule of the majority, were later embodied in the US Constitution.   Locke further held that revolution was not only a right but often an obligation, and he advocated a system of checks and balances in government. He also believed in religious freedom and in the separation of church and state.

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

Education – 91

Massachusetts – 1647 law every town to support a public school
          not full compliance – but a good idea

Quakers and other sects operated church schools
Women conducted “dame schools” in their homes
High degree of white male literacy
Higher education generally limited to the upper class – nonexistent for females
Slave system discouraged literacy for slaves
          May encourage slaves to question their station in society
Colleges operated by churches – primarily for training of ministers
          Harvard, William & Mary, Yale, Princeton
University of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Columbia – early secular universities

The Spread of Science - 94

Increasing interest in scientific knowledge
Copernican astronomy and Newtonian physics
Franklin discovery of electricity – lightening and electricity the same
Scientific experimentation - inoculation against smallpox 1720s vs.
          disease as a punishment for sin

Concepts of Law and Politics - 94

Not until well into the 18^th century (1763) did authorities in England try to impose the common law on the colonies
Too late - differences well established - courts were different, punishments were different
          In a labor scarce society – incarceration undesirable
1734 Peter Zenger trial - criticisms of government were not libelous if factually true
Law either divine will or natural order, but not earthly sovereign
Emerging differences between American and British political systems
Colonial assemblies - running their own affairs - independent of Parliament
1763 - England tried to tighten control - too late - the seeds of independence had already been sewn

Class Exercises -
 

1.Where might you find these words? "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Chapter 4: The Empire under Strain

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Four should enable the student to understand:

1. The primary reasons for the growth of the differences between colonial Americans and the British government that resulted in a clash of interests.

2. The colonial attitudes toward England and toward other colonies before the Great War for empire.

3. The causes of the Great War for empire, and the reasons for the French defeat.

4. The effects of the war on the American colonists and on the status of the colonies within the British Empire.

5. The options available to the British for dealing with the colonies in 1763, and the reasons for adopting the policies that they chose to implement.

6. The importance of the series of crises from the Sugar Act through the Coercive Acts, and how each crisis changed colonial attitudes toward the mother country.

7. The change in American attitudes toward Parliament, the English constitution, and the king. What such slogans as "No taxation without representation" really meant.

8. The significance of the convening of the First Continental

 

Main Theme

How it was that colonists who, for the most part, had enjoyed benefits unattainable by their European counterparts, rose in rebellion against the nation that was responsible for their circumstances.

 

Glossary

1. democracy: A system of government in which the ultimate power to govern resides with the people, and they exercise that power directly. Although not the prevailing system in colonial America (it is actually viewed with horror by colonial elites), elements of democracy were found in such institutions as church covenants and town meetings.

2. federation: A union of sovereign powers in which each unit retains the power to control its own local affairs.

3. imperialism: The policy of extending a nation's sovereignty to include possessions beyond the boundaries of the nation (colonies). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this was directly associated with mercantilism.

4. Loyalists (Tories): Americans who, for many and varied reasons, remained loyal to the king and were called Tories

5. republic: A government in which, as in a democracy, the power to govern lies with the people, but the people exercise this power through elected representatives. Colonial elites distrusted this form as well, especially when low qualifications to vote threatened to allow mass participation. Nevertheless, this system was more acceptable than direct democracy was. For example, examine the colonial legislatures.

6. sovereignty: Supreme power, independent of and unlimited by any other force, as in a sovereign state.

 

Summary

Despite a number of disagreements, by 1763, Anglo-American ties seemed stronger than ever. The colonies had prospered under British rule, had developed local institutions through which they seemed to govern themselves, and finally, with the defeat of France, appeared ready to expand into the heart of the continent. However, no sooner was the war ended than the British began to alter the pre-1763 system in an effort to make it more efficient and more responsive to control from London. The means chosen to do this (enforced regulations to end the illegal trade that had flourished under salutary neglect, plus taxation to pay for the colonial administration) were seen in the colonies as threats to the way of life they had come to accept as rightfully theirs. Rising in protest, the colonies faced a British government determined to assert its authority, and, with neither side willing to give in, the cycle of action and reaction continued. Finally, spurred on by a propaganda campaign that characterized the mother country as a tyrant determined to bring America to its knees, the colonies acted. The Intolerable Acts proved the final straw, and in September 1774, twelve British provinces met in a Continental Congress in hopes that a united front would cause London to reconsider and that conflict would be avoided. But it did not work, and in the spring, fighting occurred at Lexington and Concord. Although independence was not yet declared, the American Revolution had begun.

 

 

 

 

The Empire in Transition – 99

Up to 1750, the English government left the colonies alone
Trade regulation laxly administered - easily circumvented

1763 - England began to reign in the colonies with new laws, taxes, and administration

1775 -  First shots fired - Relationship had been damaged beyond repair

 

Loosening Ties - 100

English government became British government following Treaty of Union 1707
Colonies were left within broad limits, to go their own ways

 

A Tradition of Neglect – 100

British Parliament established growing supremacy over the king

George I - 1714 - 27;    George II - 1727 - 60   both German born

Robert Walpole - first modern prime minister (1721 - 42) refrained from strict enforcement

·        ·        believed relaxed trading restrictions would stimulate commerce

·        ·        Colonial administration remained decentralized and inefficient

·        ·        Government departments had local and colonial responsibilities – local prevailed in terms of interest

·        ·        Appointments not by merit - Colonies seldom visited by officials

By 1750s, colonial legislatures looked upon themselves as mini parliaments, with sovereignty

Decisions could be vetoed by governor or Privy Council

 

 

The Colonies Divided – 100

Commonality - viewing themselves as loyal English subjects
Uniqueness - different colonies viewed each other as something close to foreigners
Parochial interests - identity with the colony independent from a cohesive set of colonies
Yet, continual settlement along the east coast, roads, trade, and postal service loosely bound them together

1754 - French and Indian War (French & Indians vs. British)
Intercolonial cooperation and strategy - met in Albany
Albany Plan for central colonial government but none approved it

The Struggle for the Continent – 101

1756 - 1763 - Seven Years War –

European phase - struggle between England & France trade & colonial supremacy

In America – the French and Indian War (French and Indians vs. British)

 

New France and the Iroquois Nation – 101

1670s Marquette & Joliet - Green Bay / Lake Michigan to southern Arkansas
1682 - LaSalle to Mississippi Delta
1743 - French explorers pus west to the Rockies
Lay claim to the interior of the continent - supported by widely separated communities, forts, & missions
Ft. Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, guarded the St. Lawrence River; Quebec City, Montreal, Sault St. Marie, Detroit, New Orleans in 1718, Biloxi and Mobile

Large and powerful Indian population - concerned with self protection
French were tolerant - willing to coexist, without imposing French social behaviors – British sought to impose their social norms

Iroquois Indians - powerful eastern nation of 5 tribes
Traded with English, French, and Dutch - played one off the other
English, French, and Iroquois all had eyes on the Ohio Valley
    East coast Indians being pushed there by English expansion

 

Anglo-French Conflicts - 102

King William's War 1689 – 97

·        ·        produced indecisive battles between English & French

Queen Anne's War 1701 – 13

·        ·        Conflicts with Spanish, French and their Indian allies

·        ·        Treaty of Utrecht - French territory to England - Nova Scotia & Newfoundland

King George's War 1744 - 48 - no major territorial exchanges

North American relationships among English, French & Iroquois deteriorated

·        ·        French subsequently build forts in Ohio Valley - Fort Duquesne, near Pittsburgh

·        ·        British responded with Fort Necessity –

·        ·        Battles followed - British, under George Washington surrendered –

·        ·        Beginning of French & Indian War

The Great War for the Empire – 103

French & Indian War 1754 – 63

Three distinct phases
1. Fort Necessity debacle in 1754

·        ·        Colonists managed mostly on their own - minimal British assistance

·        ·        British fleet failed to prevent landing of French reinforcements

·        ·        Gen. Braddock failed to retake Fort Necessity

·        ·        Western settlers targeted - many withdrew east

2. 1756 - France and England European war - Seven Years War –

·        ·        realignment of alliances

·        ·        France & Austria vs. England & Prussia

·        ·        1757 - William Pitt - UK Sec of State - transformed American war under British control

·        ·        Forcibly enlisting colonists / impressment - seize goods from farmers - forced quartering of soldiers

·        ·        Resisted by colonists

3. 1758 - Tide turns in favor of British

·        ·        French outnumbered - suffered from poor harvest - British regulars seizing French strongholds

·        ·        Ft. Duquesne, Quebec on 9/13/1759 signaled the end of the American phase of the war

·        ·        1760 - French army surrenders to English General Amherst at Montreal

·        ·        British resorted to brutal expedients - Population dispersal - scalp bounties

·        ·        French Acadians scattered as far south as Louisiana - today's Cajuns

·        ·        Inspiration for Longfellow's Evangeline - Web site 1, Web site 2

 

 

Results of French & Indian War Expanded England's territorial claims - France ceded land east of the Mississippi - see red area Enlarged Britain's debt Resentment toward Americans - ineffective war effort, insufficient financial support for war Colonial merchants selling food & supplies to the French Identified a need to restructure and increase authority over the colonies From the American point of view Colonies for the first time acted in concert Resentment over impressment & quartering of soldiers Return of authority to colonial assemblies confirmed illegitimacy of English interference For the Indians of the Ohio Valley British victory was disastrous - allied themselves with the loser Iroquois not much better - lack of enthusiasm interpreted as duplicity

 

 

The New Imperialism – 105

 

England at peace for first time in 50 years
Enormous debt - needed new revenues (mercantilism)
Attention directed to management of the colonies

 

Burdens of Empire – 106

Colonies - Unwilling to be taxed by Parliament, reluctant to tax themselves, defiant of trade regulations
Land itself of value - could support population, could produce taxes, imperial splendor

Host of problems:

• British empire twice as large (French lands east of Mississippi)
• Expansion desired - danger of renewed Indian resistance
• Claims of jurisdiction - extension of old colonies? new colonies?
• Expansion would require more soldiers - more money - England in debt already

Taxation administered by London to meet needs

 

1760 - George III ascends to the throne

·        ·        Disassembled existing coalitions - installed officials based on patronage / bribes - inherently unstable

·        ·        Intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically challenged for the job - bouts of insanity

George Grenville - Prime Minister in 1763 –

·        ·        Colonists indulged too long, compelled to obey laws and pay cost of defending & administrating the empire

·        ·        New system of control to be imposed

 

The British and the Tribes - 107

Proclamation of 1763 - forbidding settlers to advance beyond Appalachian Mountains

·        ·        London would control vs. colonial assemblies

·        ·        Limit military defense costs

·        ·        Slow migration from the east coast - colonial cash cow

·        ·        Reserve future land speculation for London vs. colonies

White settlers continued to swarm across the boundary and claim lands to the west and Ohio Valley

The Colonial Response - 108

British troops permanently stationed in colonies
Mutiny Act of 1765 –

·        ·        Colonists required to assist in provisioning & maintaining the army

·        ·        Royal officials ordered to America

·        ·        Colonial manufacturing restricted

Sugar Act - raised duty on sugar
Tightening of controls / penalties on smugglers
Currency Act 1764 - prohibited colonial governments from issuing paper money
Stamp Act 1765 - tax on most printed documents

 

Reapplication of Mercantilism - collecting more than 10 times the previous revenue

Colonists harbor as many grievances against one another as against London

 

Colonial resentment and sectionalism but after 1763, new British policies created common grievances,
Brits no longer pouring money into the colonies

Wartime boom degenerates into a peacetime bust (depression)

 

Colonists were accustomed and attached to self government and determined to protect those powers
Attempting to circumvent the assemblies, British government was challenging basis of colonial political power
Home rule was something old and familiar that colonists desired to keep -
a movement to conserve liberties Americans believed they already possessed

Americans uniformly opposed to the programs of PM Greenville

 

Stirrings of Revolt
The Stamp Act Crisis - 111

Stamp Act of 1765 - antagonized and unified the colonies - section, colony, or class
Direct attempt to raise revenue without the consent of the colonial assemblies
Patrick Henry - Virginia House of Burgesses - if present policies not revised George III might lose his head

Other of Henry’s resolutions circulated as “Virginia Resolves”
Resolution taxed only by their own representatives (failed to pass)

Massachusetts organized Intercolonial Congress 1765 - petitioned King & Parliament

·        ·        Colonies could only be taxed through their own provincial assemblies

Boston - Sons of Liberty - stamp act mobs - intimidation of those not boycotting English goods
Boycott of Sugar following Sugar Act encouraged England to repeal the Stamp Act (March 1766)

 

The Townshend Program - 113

Chancellor of the Exchequer - Charles Townshend - stand in prime minister
Tried to balance merchants vs. landed gentry
Massachusetts & NY withheld funding for British Army
Townshend - measures in Parliament - disbanding NY Assembly until compliant with Mutiny Act

·        ·        Townshend Duties - lead, paint, paper, and tea

Resistance to Townshend - just another tax - disbanding NY assembly a threat to all liberties
Colonists boycotted British goods subject to the Townshend Duties

Townshend died in 1767 –

·        ·        Townshend Duties, except tax on tea, repealed March 1770

 

The Boston Massacre - 114

Colonists harassment of Customs Officials - troops stationed in Boston
March 5, 1770,

·        ·        harassment / skirmish –

·        ·        soldiers fired into the crowd killing 5 - including Crispus Attucks

·        ·        Tragic set of circumstances turned into the "Boston Massacre" –

·        ·        British oppression and brutality

·        ·        Inaccurate and inflated reports circulated widely in the colonies

Sam Adams - political radical - proposed a "committee of correspondence" to publicize grievances

·        ·        Kept the spirit of dissent alive

 

The Philosophy of Revolt - 115

Ideas supporting the Revolution from many sources:
Internal - religious, political experiences

• Written colonial charters
• Taxed only by their own consent
• Actual representation

External - Scots who saw English government as tyrannical

• John Locke - what government should be
• King & ministers exercising corrupt and autocratic authority
• Virtual representation - some populous boroughs had no representation

 

Decentralization of government authority contradictory to the concept of Empire and Sovereignty
The move towards independence began with resistance, not open revolt.

 

John Locke 1632 - 1704

attacked the theory of divine right of kings. In brief, Locke argued that sovereignty did not reside in the state but with the people, and that the state is supreme, but only if it is bound by civil and what he called “natural” law. Many of Locke's political ideas, such as those relating to natural rights, property rights, the duty of the government to protect these rights, and the rule of the majority, were later embodied in the U.S. Constitution.   Locke further held that revolution was not only a right but often an obligation, and he advocated a system of checks and balances in government. He also believed in religious freedom and in the separation of church and state. Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

 

The Tea Excitement - 116

1770s - increasingly heavy handed enforcement of Navigation Acts
Dissenting leaflets, pamphlets widely circulated
Occasional acts of rebellion
1772 Gaspee set afire - sank in Narragansett Bay –

• defendants sent to England for trial

Tea Act of 1773 –

• special consideration to East India Company
• undersold American merchants
• Tea Boycott, embraced by women
• Philadelphia & New York prevented tea from leaving East India ships

 

December 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party - others followed
Parliament Responded in 1774 - Coercive Acts / Intolerable Acts

• Closed the port of Boston
• Reduced the powers of self government
• Permitted Royal Officers to be tried in England or other colonies
• Provided for the quartering of troops in colonists barns and empty houses

Quebec Act

• Civil government
• Ohio to Mississippi Rivers
• Political rights to Roman Catholics and legality of Roman Catholic Church

Colonists alarmed –

• hypothetical imposition of Anglican or RC church authority
• tyranny of the pope
• Martyred Massachusetts to the other colonies
• Women’s groups united to boycott British goods all the way to the Carolinas

 

Cooperation and War
New Sources of Authority - 120

Passage of Authority  -

·        ·        Royal Government to colonists began on local level

·        ·        Local institutions responded, enthusiastically - seizing authority on their own

1772 - Committees of Correspondence  
1774 - Continental Congress

·        ·        Rejected a plan for colonial union under British authority

·        ·        Endorsed a statement of grievances

·        ·        Approved resolutions including defense against possible attack by British troops in Boston

·        ·        Non importation, exportation, consumption as a means of stopping all trade with Britain

·        ·        Agreed to meet again

Reaffirmed their autonomous status

 

Lexington and Concord - 121

General Gage –

·        ·        orders to arrest Sam Adams & John Hancock in Lexington

April 18, 1775 –

·        ·        1000 soldiers sent to Lexington & Concord

·        ·        Paul Revere's Ride with William Dawes

·        ·        Skirmish in Lexington - 8 colonial minutemen killed, 10 more wounded

·        ·        Returning from Concord, farmers in hiding harassed the British killing 24 or more

·        ·        Rebels circulated their account, captured support throughout the colonies

The war for independence had begun.

Battles of Lexington and Concord -
Link to Papa's Web Site - maintained by Pierce Evans, St. Augustine, Florida

 

Concord Hymn

Ralph Waldo Emerson

By the rude bridge that arched the flood.
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world....

 

Paul Revere's Ride

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--

One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm...."

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 5: The American Revolution

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Five should enable the student to understand:

1. The history debate concerning the nature of the American Revolution and the reasons for disagreement.

2. American war aims and the problems experienced by the Revolutionary governments in carrying on a protracted war.

3. The aim of the Declaration of Independence, the reasons for its issuance, and its influence throughout the world since 1776.

4. The indispensible contributions of George Washington to the successful outcome of the Revolution.

5. The diplomatic triumph for American negotiators embodied in the Treaty of Paris.

6. The types of governments created by the new states, and the important features in their governments.

7. The features of the Articles of Confederation, and the reasons for its creation.

8. The problems faced by the government under the Articles of Confederation and how they were addressed.

 

 

Main Themes

1. How the thirteen American colonies were able to win their independence from one of the most powerful nations on earth.

2. How the American Revolution was not only a war for independence, but also a struggle to determine the nature of the nation being created.

3. How Americans attempted to apply Revolutionary ideology to the building of the nation and to the remaking of society.

4. The problems that remained after, or were created by, the American Revolution.

 

 

Glossary

1. confederation: A group of sovereign states that unite for specific purposes (defense, foreign policy, trade, and so on), yet otherwise act as independent bodies.

2. constitution: The fundamental laws and principles by which an organization (nation, state, and such) is governed. In America, after the Revolution had begun, the state constitutions were written so as not to rely on tradition and previous legal practices as guides for governing.

3. depression: The reverse of inflation, caused by a reduction of the money supply that retards economic activity, drives prices down, and results in business failures and unemployment.

4. inflation: The economic condition caused by an oversupply of money (generally paper) in a market undersupplied with goods to buy. The result is high prices and a corresponding reduction in the value (buying power) of money. If the inflation is prolonged, a serious disruption of the economy might occur.

5. rebellion: The rising against a power or government; organized resistance.

6. revolution: A successful rebellion, in which one form of government or one ruling group is replaced by another.

 

 Summary

Between 1775 and 1787, Americans struggled to win a war, make a peace, and create ideologically sound, stable governments on both the state and the national levels. By the end of the era, there was little doubt that they had accomplished the first two of their goals, but serious questions were being raised concerning the success of the last. Despite problems that would have stopped lesser men, George Washington and his army had been able to successfully keep the British at bay, winning when they could and losing as seldom as possible. Meanwhile, the Continental Congress, blessed with some remarkable diplomats, maintained a foreign policy the success of which can be seen in the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the Treaty of Paris of 1783. But once the war ended, the government that the British threat had held together found that its member states' unwillingness to centralize power created more problems than it solved. Economic dislocation, exemplified by Daniel Shays and his followers, plagued the nation, as many thoughtful men searched for a way to transform Revolutionary rhetoric into reality and to restore order without sacrificing liberty.

 

Two struggles began in April 1775
1. Military Conflict with Great Britain
2. Political struggle within America

·        ·        Whether to demand independence from Britain

·        ·        How to structure the new nation

o       o       Dedicated to enlightened ideals

 

According to the Brinkley text -
5,000 American deaths -
small by contemporary standards - brutal fighting for the day

According to "The Toll of Independence - Engagements & Battle Casuallities of the American Revolution"
The University of Chicago Press, Edited by Howard H. Peckham -

Battle Casualties	7,174
Estimate - Died in camp	10,000
Estimate of Prisoners who died	8,500
Probable deaths in service	25,674

New type of conflict - a revolutionary war for liberation
British had a vastly more powerful military

 

Defining American War Aims - 126

3 weeks after Lexington & Concord, Second Continental Congress meets
Agreed to support the war - disagreed as to its purpose
    Complete independence vs. reforms in the imperial relationship

 

Olive Branch Petition - July 1775 - conciliatory appeal to the king
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

• Promise to cease hostilities if colonial demands were met
• Response:
• recruiting of Indians, slaves, & Hessians and Prohibitory Act –
• closing colonial ports

 

January 1776 - Common Sense - Thomas Paine –

pamphleteer and propagandist - 100,000 copies

• King and the system corrupt and to blame
• Severe political ties owing to corrupt system & monarch & monarchy
• England unfit to rule America

Support for independence grew

 

The Decision for Independence - 127

Second Continental Congress

• Declared American ports open to all ships except Great Britain
• Entered into communications with foreign governments
• Recommended colonies set up independent governments
• July 2, 1776 - adopted resolution for independence

 

July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence

• Committee consisted of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert B. Livingston
• Jefferson was the principal author - Franklin added some refinements.
• Jefferson wrote, "we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable"
• Franklin changed it to "self evident." (a more powerful logical argument)
• Jefferson combined the thoughts of Locke and Aristotle
• Locke - life, liberty, and property
• Aristotle - the pursuit of happiness - the highest good to which we may aspire
• George Mason of Virginia - All men are created equal

 

The Declaration of Independence –

• Inspired the spirit of the French Revolution and Latin American liberation movements
• Encouraged foreign aid for the American cause, especially from France
• Defined the goal - independence from Britain

 

In the latter stages of his life, Thomas Jefferson received some criticism regarding his work as the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Critics charged that the work was not original. Jefferson agreed and countered that indeed he had borrowed ideas, that it was not the object "to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of... but intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give that expression the proper tone and spirit." Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825, as quoted in The Declaration of Independence: Carl L. Becker; Knopf 1922.

 

There are few writings that are as compact and as comprehensive as the Declaration of Independence. Fewer still have such a wide ranging impact; such as the impact of the Declaration on the political activities of South America in the years following United States independence. Finally, the Declaration possesses a unique quality shared by few documents: universality. It is a document that was true when first written. It has withstood the criticisms of countless tyrants, politicians, and literary critics. It has endured well in its 226 year history and generations yet unborn will arrive at this same conclusion. This opinion of universality was shared by the late Carl Becker, professor of history at Cornell University, in his scholarly work, The Declaration of Independence. Professor Becker's analysis was first published in 1922, and like the Declaration, Professor Becker's work has withstood the test of time. Some years later, finding the book out of print, the publisher asked professor Becker to update the introduction to accompany a second printing. The passage quoted below speaks both to the universality of professor Becker's analysis and the truths of the Declaration of Independence as self-evident.   "The book is now republished from the original plates because Mr. Alfred Knopf, finding it out of print, was willing to take the risk involved in making it available to the public. He may have thought that just now, when political freedom, already lost in many countries, is everywhere threatened, the readers of books would be more than ordinarily interested in the political principles of the Declaration of Independence." Carl Becker Ithaca, New York September 14, 1941

 

Responses to Independence – 127

Substantial minority loyal to the king - Loyalists – Tories

Colonies became "states" - separate and sovereign entities –

• formed governments & state constitutions

Need for centralized authority –

• Articles of Confederation - November 1777 –
• weak decentralized system –
• virtually no executive authority

 

Mobilizing for War – 129

Challenges:

• raising & organizing an army
• supplies & equipment
• how to pay for it all

 

Gunsmiths could not meet demand for guns and ammunition –

captured British weapons when possible
Significant foreign aid from France

 

Financing - Continental Congress had no authority to tax - had to ask the states for money
Continental currency and state currencies –

• paper money –
• printed in batches
• ===> Inflation
• War financed by borrowing from other nations

 

After 1775, few volunteers for the continental army - under state control
June 1775 - George Washington Commander of the Continental Army

Winter 1777 - 78 - Valley Forge - inadequate food, shelter, & clothing
February 1778 - Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben

• trained, disciplined, and reorganized the army
• Also military assistance from Marquis de Lafayette of France
• Also, Casimir Pulaski - recruited by Franklin in France, joined continental army in 1777
• 1777 Battle of Brandywine (Pennsylvania); 1779 defended Charleston against attack, died in Savannah, 1779

 

 

The War for Independence - 131

British had

• Navy
• Army
• Equipment
• Structure

Americans had

• familiarity & commitment
• aid from abroad

 

The First Phase - New England - 132

1775 - 1776 Uncertainty on the part of the British
June 17, 1775 –

• Battle of Bunker Hill - heaviest British casualties of the war

Siege of Boston -

• March 17, 1776 British & loyalists leave Boston for Nova Scotia
• Tactical vs. strategic retreat

February 27, 1776 - Moore's Creek Bridge, N.C.,

• patriots defeat loyalists uprising –
• bad sign for British

Canada to retain its relationship to the British crown

The Second Phase - The Mid-Atlantic Region – 133

1776 - 1778 –

Conventional war - British superiority –

American's overmatched - British blunders

Wm Howe - 32,000 troops with equipment –

Washington 19,000 ill-trained, ill-equipped patriots, no navy

1776 - defeated and dispersed Washington's army to the countryside

• Christmas - Washington Crosses the Delaware –
• surprises British - short lived victory
• Retired for the winter - Morristown, NJ

 

1777 –

Burgoyne defeated at Oriskany, NY and Bennington, Vt. –

• surrendered 5000 men to Americans at Saratoga, NY –
• major turning point
• Led to alliance with France

 

 

Howe (Duh) –

• Abandoned his own strategic initiative –
• left Burgoyne out to dry - and lose
• Failed to apply coup de gras to Washington in battle and in Valley Forge (winter 77-78)

 

 

The Iroquois and the British - 136

Iroquois leaders hoping for a British victory to stem tide of movement onto tribal lands
Officially neutral - but split:

• Mohawks, Seneca, & Cayuga tribes joined the British –
• Oneida, Tuscarora backed Americans,
• Onondaga split –
• Iroquois Confederacy in disarray

 

Securing Aid from Abroad - 136

Foreign support essential –

• Political
• Diplomatic
• Economic

Emissaries dispatched prior to Declaration of Independence - seeking trade

France eager to see Britain lose part of its empire

France provides supplies
Held back on diplomatic recognition
Following Saratoga -

• French recognition of US as a sovereign nation
• Greatly expanded assistance
• Money and munitions
• Navy and expeditionary force

 

 

The Final Phase: The South - 137

Attempt to undermine the revolution by seeking out loyalists
Badly overestimated loyalist support - loyalists feared reprisals
Guerrilla warfare - patriots moved & lived among the population

• Involved locals - like it or not

British successes at Savannah & Charleston

American victory at

• King's Mountain (NC / SC)
• Guilford Court House NC - Cornwallis abandons Carolina campaign
• Cornwallis retreated to Yorktown to await ships & supplies
• Blockaded by French ships & French / American army
• Oct. 17, 1781 - Cornwallis surrenders

 

Notes:		Lyrics - The World Turn'd Upside Down Courtesy: John Renfro Davis http://www.contemplator.com/folk3/worldtur.html
Tradition has it that when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown (1781) the British played "The World Turn'd Upside Down." There is some debate as to whether that is myth or fact.		If buttercups buzz'd after the bee, If boats were on land, churches on sea, If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows, And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse, If the mamas sold their babies To the gypsies for half a crown; If summer were spring and the other way round, Then all the world would be upside down.

 

Winning the Peace - 140

Cornwallis's defeat provoked antiwar sentiment in England
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, & John Jay to Paris for talks with British

• (Act independently of instructions based on their judgment)

Preliminary treaty - November 30, 1782
September 3, 1783 - Treaty of Paris

• Recognition of United States of America
• Canada to Florida, Atlantic to Mississippi
• Fall of 1783 - British Depart - Washington enters NYC

 

War and Society - 141

Was the revolution social, political, economic?

Home Rule or Who Rules at Home?

 

Loyalists and Minorities - 142

Losers: British and Loyalists (and Indians)

• Loyalists 25% - 33% of the population
• Up to 100,000 fled - England or Canada
• Those who stayed often lost influence / influential positions / power

Some increase in the distribution of wealth but wealthy patriots remained wealthy

Religion:

• Anglicans: - loss of governmental support for the church - foreign and domestic
• Disestablished the church - separated from government
• Anglican church survived but significantly and permanently weakened in power / prestige
• Quakers: - unpopular because of their pacifism - never regained popularity
• Catholics: -
• winners –
• supported the revolution
• French Catholic troops & chaplains welcomed
• Hostilities eroded,
• Vatican assigns US its own Catholic hierarchy (independent of England)
• (no Catholic presidential candidate until 1928, Al Smith; no president until 1960, JFK)

 

 

The War and Slavery - 142
Some slaves liberated by the British during the revolution - attempt at social disruption
Revolutionary sentiment more restrained in slave states - fear of slave rebellions
Southern churches developed a rationale for slavery
The American Revolution was fighting to secure freedom for some and preserve slavery for others

 

Native Americans and the Revolution -143

British were the lesser of two evils
Increased demand for Indian (western) lands
Resentment of Indian support for British during the war
Paternalistic - "noble savages" uncivilized but redeemable
Divisions within Indian culture - no cohesive organization

Battles continued - severe retribution for raids

• Like it or not - successfully implemented the desired result

 

 

Women's Rights and Womens's Roles - 144

War activities left wives, mothers, sisters and daughters in charge of farms & businesses

(Lysistrata - by Aristophanes, first produced in 411 B.C., this is a timely comedy from the ancient world. Under the leadership of a determined Athenian, Lysistrata, the women of the warring city-states of Greece unite in refusing their husbands all sexual favors until they agree to bring peace to the land. Both men and women find the sex strike a painful sacrifice, and eventually the women's resolve forces the men to realize that the glories of battle are much easier to foreswear than the joys of intimacy.)

Some women had no significant source of income or wealth
Protests against prices; looting for food, forced to quarter soldiers
Many "camp followers" followed their husbands in battle –

• Martha Washington at Valley Forge
• Increased morale, cooking, laundry, nursing

Post revolution ideas of liberty - Abigail Adams
Mary Wollstonecraft - English Feminist –

• Vindication of the Rights of Women

Few legal or social reforms –

• confirmed and strengthened the patriarchal structure

 

The War Economy - 146

American Trade was also, after a century, independent of Britain
No protection from British navy - British ports hostile to Americans
Americans resorted to faster, more maneuverable ships
Caribbean and South American markets - Asia - world trade
Increased trade among American states
Mini industrialization - "homespun" guns, ammunition

 

The Creation of State Governments - 147

Fear of executive power
Instability of government - too responsive to the popular will
Need for balance in government

 

The Assumptions of Republicanism - 147

Republic - Latin - res publica, literally “the public thing”, form of state based on the concept that sovereignty resides in the people, who delegate the power to rule in their behalf to elected representatives and officials.⁽¹⁾ Also, noted by a non-hereditary executive / leader.

Power comes from the people –

• large numbers of property owners, not an aristocracy

All men are created equal –

• in contrast to an aristocracy – meritocracy
• Not equality of condition, but equality of opportunity

Reality: not everyone held property, early on, not even a majority.

Women excluded, slaves excluded.

Plutocracy – rule by the wealthy

 

The First State Constitutions - 147

Connecticut & Rhode Island –

• deleted the King from their charters and adopted as constitutions

Constitutions were to be written –

• English constitution is laws, custom, tradition
• Power of the executive needed to be limited
• Executive banned from holding legislative office –
• Separation of powers
• Judiciary independent from the executive

Property requirements - universal suffrage - even among white men - not fully accepted

 

Revising State Governments – 148

Early on, constitutions written by state legislatures

• favored legislatures
• too easily amended

Revised - Constitutional conventions –

• more permanent constitutions
• less conflict of interest

Amendment criteria –

• protected from public & legislative whims

Strengthening of executive –

• directly elected by the people,
• not dependent upon legislature
• Powers of appointment and veto power

 

 

Toleration and Slavery – 148

Separation of church and state –

• Church of England disestablished –
• no governmental support of a church

 

Pennsylvania (gradual emancipation) 1783

Massachusetts Supreme Court 1783 –

• not permitted under state's bill of rights

Every state EXCEPT S. Carolina & Georgia

• prohibited importation of slaves from abroad

Virginia passed a law encouraging manumission - the freeing of slaves

Slavery survived in all southern and border states

• Racist assumptions
• Economic investment in slaves
• Lack of commitment to any alternative
• Southern view required a large servile labor force (in contrast to republicanism)

 

 

The Search for a National Government - 149

Initial belief: weak central government as a loose coordinating mechanism; Each state a sovereign nation
From this concept emerged the Articles of Confederation

 

The Confederation - 149

November 1777 - Articles of Confederation

Articles of Confederation Included	Articles of Confederation did NOT include
Congress survived as a national authority	No executive (president)
Conduct Wars	Could not draft troops
Foreign relations	Could not regulate trade
Appropriate, borrow, and issue money	Could not levy taxes - had to request from state legislatures which could, and often did, refuse requests
One vote per state	Consideration for population
9 of 13 votes to pass important legislation
Unanimous approval for ratification or amendment

 

Diplomatic Failures – 149

British did not fully honor their agreements

• military posts on western borders
• restitution for manumission

Florida (Spanish) border disputes
Access to British markets
U.S. Ambassadors - speaking for 1 or for 13 sovereign nations?

 

The Confederation and the Northwest - 150

Ordinance of 1784

Western lands into 10 self-governing districts

• could petition for statehood

Ordinance of 1785

• System of Surveying & selling
• North of the Ohio River - rectangular townships (grid system)

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

• Abandoned 10 districts
• created 1 Northwest Territory for subsequent division
• 60,000 population as precondition for statehood
• Guaranteed freedom of religion & trial by jury
• Prohibited Slavery

 

 

Indians and the Western Lands - 154

Lands of the Northwest were occupied Indian lands
Various battles continued until the early 1800s in Ohio

Debts, Taxes, and Daniel Shays – 154

Rapid outflow of hard currency following the revolution

Demand for foreign goods

Confederation had outstanding debt to nations and soldiers

Congress received only 1/6 of the money it requested from the states

Committed nationalists wanted to increase the power of the central government –

• permit it to meet its financial obligations
• Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison

Burden fell back to the states who taxed farmers and other property holders

• Resistance and riots in opposition to financial policy

1786 Shays Rebellion

• Demand for paper money, tax relief, moratorium on debts, movement of Massachusetts capital to interior
• abolition of imprisonment for debt
• January 1787, merchants assembled their own army, defeated Shays

 

Highlighted the need for improved economic policy and a national constitution

Chapter 6: The Constitution and The New Republic

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Six should enable the student to understand:

1. The groups that advocated a stronger national government and how they, probably a minority, were able to achieve their objective.

2. The origin of the Constitutional Convention, who the delegates were, how well they represented the people, and how they were able to achieve a consensus.

3. The historical debate concerning the motives of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

4. Federalism and how the Constitution is designed to make it work.

5. The importance of The Federal Papers in the ratification struggle, and their significance in the years since.

6. The effectiveness of George Washington's solutions to the problems of the presidency, and how Washington, as its first occupant, affected the office and the nation.

7. The financial program of Alexander Hamilton, and its contribution to the success of the new government.

8. The ways in which the weak new nation coped with international problems, and the importance of such events as Washington's decision for neutrality and the "quasi-war" with France.

9. The emergence of political parties, their political philosophies, and their influence through the election of 1800.

 

Main Themes

1. How and why the Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation.

2. How differing views of what the nation should become led to the rise of America's first political parties.

3. The way in which the new United States was able to establish itself as a nation in the eyes of foreign powers and of its own people.

4. The rise and fall of the Federalist Party.

 

Glossary

1. federalism: A system of government in which powers are divided between a central government and local governments, giving each authority in its own sphere. The extent of and the limitations on this authority are defined in a constitution, which in the United States, also reserves certain powers to the people. It was such a system that many argued existed under the British Empire, whereas others insisted that a true "federal" system existed under the Articles. This latter group further argued that the Constitution of 1787 put too much power in the hands of the central government and hence created a national rather than a federal government.

2. implied powers: Powers that are not clearly defined in the Constitution, but, by implication, are granted to the government. Those who believe in the existence of such powers favor a "loose" interpretation of the Constitution, whereas those who hold that the Constitution authorizes nothing that is not spelled out specifically follow a "strict" interpretation.

3. implied powers doctrine: The idea put forth by Hamilton in his argument in favor of the Bank, which held that the government has powers other than those enumerated in the Constitution. These "implied powers" rise from the government's right to select the means to exercise the powers given it and from the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution. Later this was stated even more directly by Chief Justice John Marshall: "Let the end . . . be within the scope of the constitution and all means which [are] appropriate . . . which are not prohibited . . . are constitutional."

4. national bank: A private (as opposed to government) institution into which government revenue is deposited. This bank issues currency, grants loans, and generally encourages commercial activity while stabilizing the economy.

5. national system: A system of government (as opposed to a federal system) in which the central government is supreme and the local units (states) surrender most of their sovereignty to it.

6. protective tariff: A tax on goods that are brought into the country and compete with that country's own products. It is designed to drive up the cost of foreign goods and protect native manufacturers from disruptive competition.

7. separation of powers: The division of governmental power among the various branches (legislative, executive, judicial) to prevent one branch from dominating the government.

8. tariff: A tax on goods imported or exported by a country; in the United States, a tax on imported goods.

 

Summary

The period between 1785 and 1800 was one of the most politically productive in American history. During these fifteen years, the nation, guided by some of the most talented men in history, reorganized itself under a new framework of government and then struggled to define (for itself as well as for others) just what had been created. It was a period marked by the rise of a party that called itself Federalist, although the philosophy it espoused was, as its opponents were quick to point out, more "nationalist" in emphasis. Arguing that to prosper, the United States had best follow the economic and political example of Great Britain, these Federalists, led by Hamilton, interjected foreign policy into domestic differences and set the stage for one of the earliest and most serious government assaults on individual civil liberties. Seeing their less elitist, pro-agriculture, Republican opponents as supporters of France in an undeclared conflict between that nation and the United States, the Federalists set out to suppress dissent and those who promoted it. This assault brought a swift response and so heightened tensions that many feared that the nation could not survive. It was against this background that a shift of power occurred, and by the end of the decade, the Federalists, who had been the moving force for so many years, were clearly losing ground to the Republicans. This meant that if wounds were to be healed and divisions mended, it would have to be done by the man many believed to be the personification of all that separated the two groups--Thomas Jefferson.

Chapter 6

The Constitution and the New Republic - 159

 

Failures of the Articles of Confederation:

• economic instability
• taxation
• defense,
• diplomacy

Congress nearly lacked a quorum to ratify the Treaty of Paris –

• ending the Revolutionary War

Only 18 members representing 8 states voted on the Northwest Ordinance

1787 New Constitution –

• Fundamental Law –
• from which all public policies, political principles, and solutions of controversies must spring.

 

 

Framing a New Government - Advocates of Centralization – 160

• Wealthy and influential wanted more attention to economic management
• Veterans wanted their pensions
• Elimination / standardization of interstate tariffs & duties
• Standardize 13 commercial policies
• Indian Policy
• Stop states from printing paper money (without specie)
• Lenders to the government wanted their investment protected

 

 

Alexander Hamilton (first secretary of the treasury)
Wanted a constitutional convention

• Overhaul / replace the Articles of Confederation
• Allies included John Jay and James Madison age 36
• (Madison - intellectual leader of the Constitutional Convention)
• (Madison, Jay, & Hamilton – write Federalist Papers - Publius)
1. In an effort to convince delegates from the key state of New York to vote for ratification of the Constitution, Jay collaborated with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton on writing a series of eighty-five essays that explained and defended the Constitution. The essays, collectively called the Federalist Papers, were written in the form of anonymous letters to New York newspapers and are considered the authoritative commentary on the Constitution.
• George Washington's support was crucial for credibility

 

 

A Divided Convention - 162

May - September 1787

• 55 men - the Founding Fathers all states except RI
• Average age 44 - Benjamin Franklin at 81 the lone elder
• Most men of property and influence
• Unanimously chose Washington to preside over the convention
• Closed sessions to public & press
• Each state would have 1 vote
• Madison's initial plan became the topic of debate / discussion
• Madison's constitution (The Virginia Plan) remained the basis for discussions
• Separation of Powers (Locke);
• House (elected by people) & Senate (elected by state legislatures)
• Were slaves to be counted for representation or were they property?
• SC wanted slaves to be counted as people for representation and, if taxed based on population, count slaves as property for that purpose
• Northern states wanted slaves taxed but not represented
• No one considered slave citizenship of enfranchisement

 

Compromise - 162

• Franklin encouraged the bickering delegates to persist in discussions
  July 2, 1787, a Grand Committee to resolve differences
• Franklin as chairman, 1 representative from each state

The Great Compromise

• House - represented by population; slaves count as 3/5^th of a person
• Senate - two representatives per state
• Accepted on July 16, 1787

Second Compromise - in response to southern concerns

• Congress not permitted to tax exports (cotton)
• Duty not to exceed $10 per imported slave
• Slavery importation unimpeded for 20 years (1808)

Agreed to with reservations - without it, the Constitution would fail

• Absence of
• a definition of citizenship (14^th Amendment 1868)
• List of individual rights (1^st - 10^th Amendments - Bill of Rights 1791)

 

The Constitution of 1787 - 163

James Madison intellectual leader

• political thinker
• "Father of the Constitution" (Virginia Plan)

Ultimate sovereignty flows from the people - We the People of the United States...

The Constitution and the government it created were to be the "supreme law" of the land

• no state would have the authority to defy it
• Federal powers included:
• Tax
• regulate commerce
• control currency
• pass laws "necessary and proper"
• Constitution recognizes existence of separate states and left powers to them.
• Federal government has Enumerated Powers
• States have Reserved Powers (see 10^th amendment)
• Federal structure and checks and balances
• protects against despotism and
• tyranny of the people.
• September 17, 1787, signed by 39 delegates.

 

 

Federalists and Anti-Federalists - 166

Articles of Confederation required unanimous approval for amending government - not likely
Constitutional Convention changed the rules - 9 of 13 would secure ratification

 

Supporters - better organized, included Franklin & Washington
Washington declared the choice was between the Constitution and disunion
Self described - Federalists
Federalist Papers - Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (Publius)
Anti-Federalists –

• opposed central government
• potential tyranny
• taxes
• power over states
• no Bill of Rights

Federalists feared

• Disorder, Anarchy, Chaos, unchecked power of the masses

Anti-Federalists feared

• the government more than the people, concentrated power

Ratification in June 1788

 

 

Completing the Structure - 167

George Washington unanimously chosen president by electors

• inaugurated April 30, 1789 in NYC

First Congress proposed a Bill of Rights

• approved by the states in 1791

Judiciary Act of 1789

• 6 Supreme court Justices
• 1 chief, 5 associates
• 13 District courts
• 3 circuit courts of appeal

Executive Departments –

• State (Jefferson)
• Treasury(Hamilton)
• War(Knox)
• Attorney General (Randolf)
• Postmaster General

Federalists and Republicans - 168

Centralists - Federalists - Alexander Hamilton
Opponents - Republicans - Thomas Jefferson & James Madison

 

Hamilton and the Federalists - 168

Washington was a Federalist - centralist –

• preferred to stay above the political fray
• Believed the presidency should remain non-political

Alexander Hamilton

• Aristocrat - stable effective government required an enlightened ruling class
• Thus, effective government required buy in from the wealthy, powerful
• elites need to have a stake in the success of the government

·  Government should take on the public debt - national and state ·  Government should call in all debt certificates and issue uniform, interest bearing bonds payable on specific dates - aka, funding the debt ·  All bondholders would look to the federal government for repayment ·  Hamilton did not intend to pay off the debt - wanted a permanent national debt ·  Wealthy creditors - permanent stake in seeing the government survive

Hamilton proposed a national bank

·        ·        Provide loans and currency to businesses

·        ·        Place to deposit federal funds

·        ·        Collect taxes and distribute expenditures

·        ·        Control bond prices by judicious buying of bonds

·        ·        Chartered by the federal government

·        ·        Monopoly on the governments own banking business

 

Federalists Program

·        ·        More than stabilization

·        ·        Nation of wealthy, enlightened ruling class

·        ·        Vigorous independent commercial economy

·        ·        Thriving industrial sector

·        ·        Capable of participating in world economic affairs

 

 

Enacting the Federalist Program – 169

Resistance to national bank

Political deal for Virginia's support

·        ·        move the capital from Philadelphia to the south

·        ·        Quid pro quo - Virginia supported the proposal

Bank of the United States began operations in 1791

·        ·        20 year charter

 

The Republican Opposition - 170

Framers (not farmers) believed organized political parties were dangerous and should be avoided
Opposition to Federalists using power to control appointments & rewards
In response to Federalist behavior

·        ·        Republican party formed (not the current Republican party)

·        ·        Jefferson & Madison prominent figures

·        ·        Jefferson believe in an agrarian republic, most of whose citizens would be sturdy, independent farmer citizens tilling their own soil

·        ·        decentralized society

·        ·        (Jefferson had 200 slaves working the fields of Montcello)

 

 

Establishing National Sovereignty - 171

Federalists gained public support through management of western lands and international diplomacy

 

Securing the Frontier - 172

·        ·        1794 Whiskey Rebellion

o       o       Refusal to pay excise tax

o       o       terrorizing tax collectors

§         §         Overwhelming federal force

§         §         15,000 troops

§         §         larger than Revolution Army, led by Washington

§         §         Federal government gained respect

Won loyalties of new territories accepting them as states

·        ·        Vermont, 1791

·        ·        Kentucky, 1792

·        ·        Tennessee first a territory then 1796 a state

 

Native Americans and the New Nation - 172

Series of border conflicts with Indian tribes

Constitution did not resolve place of the Indian nations

·        ·        Article I: Indians not taxed

·        ·        Regulate commerce with foreign nations and with the Indian tribes

o       o       Not foreign nations

o       o       not citizens

o       o       no direct representation

o       o       did not directly address land management

 

Maintaining Neutrality – 173

Difficulty maintaining neutrality during 1789 war between France & Britain

Britain seizing American ships engaged in trade with French West Indies

 

Jay's Treaty & Pickney's Treaty – 173

John Jay - dispatched to England to

·        ·        secure compensation for American shipping

·        ·        withdrawal of British form frontier posts

·        ·        negotiate a commercial relationship with Britain

Didn’t achieve all objectives but…

·        ·        Prevented war

·        ·        Recognized undisputed American sovereignty over the Northwest

·        ·        Established commercial relationship with Britain

·        ·        Raised fears in Spain the Britain and America might join against Spanish

Pickney's Treaty (with Spain)

·        ·        1795 - Spain recognized right of America to navigate the Mississippi

·        ·        Could deposit cargo at New Orleans

·        ·        Florida boundary fixed at 31^st parallel

·        ·        Spanish to prevent Indian raids launched from Florida

 

The Downfall of the Federalists - 174

After 1796, the Federalists never won another election

·        ·        Institutions survived, but they were gone

 

The Election of 1796 – 174

Washington insisted on retiring from office

Jefferson uncontested candidate of the Republicans in 1796

John Adams, VP, Federalist candidate

Adams won the presidency, Jefferson with 2^nd most votes, VP (changed by 12^th amendment 1804)

Hamilton remained the dominant Federalist

Adams was a brilliant statesman; a less skilled politician

 

The Quasi War with France -175

French vessels captured American ships at sea

Hamilton recommended a negotiated settlement

Charles Pinckeny, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry to France

French officials demand a loan & bribe

·        ·        French identified only as X, Y, & Z

·        ·        Hence, XYZ Affair

·        ·        Adams persuaded Congress to cut off trade with France,

·        ·        Capture French vessels

·        ·        1798, create Department of the Navy

·        ·        1800 France chose to settle

 

Repression and Protest - 176

Federalists increased majority in Congress - midterm elections of 1798

 

Alien and Sedition Acts

·        ·        More difficult to become a citizen

·        ·        10 newspaper editors arrested for criticism of Federalists

·        ·        Kentucky and Virginia "nullified" the law based on Congress exceeding its enumerated powers

 

 

The "Revolution" of 1800 - 177

Adams vs. Jefferson

Jefferson

·        ·        accused of being radical

·        ·        bring terror of French Revolution if elected

Adams

·        ·        portrayed as tyrant conspiring to become king

Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings introduced

 

Aaron Burr organized Tammany in NYC –

·        ·        Republicans carried the city & state

 

Each elector to vote for 2 persons

·        ·        Plan, one elector does not vote for VP candidate, thereby Presidential candidate (Jefferson) ends up with one more vote than VP candidate (Burr)

·        ·        didn't happen - tie vote.

Election decided by House of Representatives (Federalist)

On 36^th ballot, Jefferson was elected

Adams and Federalist congress increased federal judgeships and packed appointments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7: The Jeffersonian Era

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Seven should enable the student to understand:

1. Thomas Jefferson's views on education and the role of education in the concept of a "virtuous and enlightened citizenry."

2. The indications of American cultural nationalism that were beginning to emerge during the first two decades of the nineteenth century.

3. The effects of the Revolutionary era on religion, and the changing religious patterns that helped bring on the Second Great Awakening.

4. The evidence noticeable in the first two decades that the nation was not destined to remain the simple, agrarian republic envisioned by the Jeffersonians.

5. The political philosophy of Jefferson, and the extent to which he was able to adhere to his philosophy while president.

6. The Jeffersonian-Federalist struggle over the judiciary--its causes, the main points of conflict, and the importance of the outcome for the future of the nation.

7. President Jefferson's constitutional reservations concerning the Louisiana Purchase, and the significance of his decision to accept the bargain.

8. The reasons for President Jefferson's sponsorship of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the importance of that exploration.

9. The many problems involved in attempting to achieve an understanding of Aaron Burr and his "conspiracy."

10. What Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were attempting to accomplish by "peaceable coercion," and why their efforts were not successful.

11. The numerous explanations of the causes of the War of 1812, and why there is so much disagreement among historians.

12. The problems caused by Tecumseh's attempts at confederation and by the Spanish presence in Florida as Americans surged westward.

13. The state of the nation in 1812, and how the Madison administration waged war against the world's foremost naval power.

14. The extent of the opposition to the American war effort, and the ways in which the New England Federalists attempted to show their objections.

15. The ways in which the skill of the American peace commissioners and the international problems faced by England contributed to a satisfactory--for Americans--peace settlement.

16. The effects of the War of 1812 on banking, shipping, farming, industry, and transportation.

 

 

Main Themes

1. How Americans expressed their cultural independence.

2. The impact of industrialism on the United States and its people.

3. The role that Thomas Jefferson played in shaping the American character.

4. How the American people and their political system responded to the nation's physical expansion.

5. How American ambitions and attitudes came into conflict with British policies and led to the War of 1812.

6. How Americans were able to "win" the war, and the peace that followed.

 

 

Glossary

1. embargo: An act that prohibits ships from entering or leaving a nation's ports.

2. impeachment: The bringing of charges against a governmental official by the House of Representatives. Removal from office cannot come from impeachment alone. A trial must be held in the Senate, and on conviction there, the offender may be removed from his or her post.

3. Jeffersonian democracy: Not actually a democrat, in the classic sense of the word, Jefferson believed that the masses were capable of selecting their own representatives and, if properly educated and informed, would select the best and the wisest to govern. Once these were chosen, however, this "natural aristocracy" should be allowed to govern without interference from those who selected them. Only when they stood again for election would these representatives be called on to explain their actions.

4. judicial review: The power of a court to review a law, compare it with the Constitution, and rule on whether it does or does not conform to the principles of the Constitution--whether it is constitutional or unconstitutional.

5. patronage: The control of political appointments assumed by the victors in an election--the "spoils" of victory, which the victors hand out as rewards to their followers; hence the practice became known as the "spoils system."

 

 

Summary

The period just covered was marked by definition and expansion. Having achieved political independence, Americans struggled to achieve cultural independence as well, and this search for self-identity touched almost every phase of the nation's life. "American" tastes in music, literature, and art developed, encouraged by a growing recognition that we were different from other countries and that the difference was worth calling attention. Religious bodies with ties to the old, colonial ways declined as the Second Great Awakening swept America; technology, unrestrained by mercantile rules and regulations, expanded to solve problems that were particularly American; American politics began to take on characteristics and respond to needs that found little precedent in European systems. At the center of this activity, at times leading it and at times being led, was Thomas Jefferson, a president whose versatility seemed to mirror the diversity of the nation. An aristocrat with democratic sentiments, a strict constructionist who bought half a continent, Jefferson was as contradictory as the American people; but like those people, his ultimate goal was the freedom of individuals to pursue their interests, to expand their talents to the fullest. In that sense, Jefferson, although a pragmatic politician, was also a committed idealist--one who deserves to be the symbol of the age that bears his name. The War of 1812 did more than test the army and navy of the United States--it tested the nation's ability to survive deep internal divisions that threatened America's independence as surely as did the forces of Great Britain. Hoping to keep his nation out of war, Jefferson followed a policy that kept the peace but raised fears among his political enemies. Those opponents, their power and influence declining, saw the government's policies as much directed against themselves as the British and opposed the conflict. Most other Americans rallied to Jefferson and to his successor, James Madison. The consensus Jefferson had forged held, and the United States survived this test.

1. Thomas Jefferson's views on education and the role of education in the concept of a "virtuous and enlightened citizenry."

 

The Jeffersonian Era - 181

 

Jefferson: 

• society of sturdy, independent farmers,
• free from the workshops of industrial towns and city mobs of Europe.
• Universal education (male citizens)  scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment.
• Localism and republican simplicity
• Federal government of sharply limited power – authority at the state level
• Almost nothing worked out as planned

 

Economy became more diversified and complex

The country was growing

Industrialism supplanted simple agrarian lifestyle

Education remained with the privileged class

Popular nationalism

Religious revivalism vs. rationalism

 

Dismantled some Federalist bureaucracy but assumed new arbitrary federal powers

They did have a sense of adjusting to changing realities.

 

 

2. The indications of American cultural nationalism that were beginning to emerge during the first two decades of the nineteenth century.

 

The Rise of Cultural Nationalism - 182

Patterns of Education - 182

 

Central to Republican vision – a virtuous and enlightened citizenry

Jefferson: a national crusade against ignorance

Nationwide system of public schools – male citizens – perspective voters

 

1815 – no state had a comprehensive public school system

 

Schooling the province of private institutions – those who could afford to pay

• South / MidAtlantic – religious groups ran most of the schools;
• New England mostly secular
• Aristocratic in outlook
• Few schools for the poor, insufficient capacity, inferior quality
• Most schools accepted only male students

 

If mothers remained ignorant, how could they raise their children to be enlightened?

Some schools began accepting female students, but mostly for domestic training.

 

1784 – Judith Sargent Murray publishes an essay defending women’s right to education

Inspiring but little impact for another 70 years.

 

Indian education proposed to tame and uplift the noble savages

No whites believed in a need to educate African Americans

 

Minimal education for blacks in the north; in the south, prevention of black education

·        ·        Fearful of inspiring black uprisings

 

Fewer opportunities for higher education

·        ·        1 in 1000 – white males only, no women, no blacks, no Indians

·        ·        Prosperous, propertied families only

·        ·        Education limited to narrow training in the classics and intensive work in theology

 

Medicine and Science - 183

 

University of Pennsylvania 1^st medical school in early 1800s

• Age old prejudices prevented exploitation of scientific methodologies
• Anatomy studies compromised – public opposed to dissection of cadavers
• Slow to respond to simple sanitation practices
• Bleeding was a “modern scientific” procedure – probably killed George Washington
• Physicians replaced midwives as childbirth agents

 

Education remained a largely unfilled goal but would survive for future generations.

 

Cultural Aspirations in the New Nation - 184

 

1784 – Jedidiah Morse – Geography Made Easy…

          country must have its own textbooks to prevent aristocratic ideas of England

 

Noah Webster –

• students be educated as patriots, minds filled with nationalistic American thoughts
• dictionary of Americanized version of spelling – honor vs. honour

 

Printers preferred to publish English works – no royalties

American writers had to absorb cost of publication – high cost / risk

 

Washington Irving – folk tales –

• Ichabod Crane,
• Legend of Sleepy Hollow,
• Rip Van Winkle

 

Mercy Otis Warren – female, History of the Revolution

Mason Weems – Life of Washington – historically inaccurate – Cheery Tree fable

Literature and History creatively intertwined to promote nationalism

 

 

3. The effects of the Revolutionary era on religion, and the changing religious patterns that helped bring on the Second Great Awakening.

 

Religious Skepticism - 185

 

Religions traditions challenged – churches separated from state support

Individual liberty promoted

 

Deism embraced by some, including Franklin & Jefferson

Thomas Paine – Age of Reason – Christianity strangest religion ever set up

Universalism Unitarianism

• Rejected Calvinist belief in pre-destination
• Salvation available to all
• Rejected the idea of the trinity / divinity of Christ

 

Traditional religious beliefs prevailed –

Commitment to organized churches and denominations declined

 

The Second Great Awakening - 186

 

1790s – several denominations participating in evangelizations

Methodism – John Wesley in England, Francis Asbury in USA

• Authoritarian and hierarchical in structure –
• fastest growing
• Popular in the south

1800 – Presbyterians at Yale

Growth in Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches

Camp meetings –

• harvest new members
• Must accept traditional teachings – reject rationalism
• A person could affect their own destiny

 

Promoted growth of different sects and denominations more so than established religions

 

Preponderance of women – female converts outnumbered males

Fulfilled a social role for women –

• men moved west,
• home industry declining in favor of impersonal factory work,
• religion became a social outlet

 

Black preachers became important figures in the slave community

• Salvation in this world and the next…
• Revivalism stirred racial unrest in the south

 

4. The evidence noticeable in the first two decades that the nation was not destined to remain the simple, agrarian republic envisioned by the Jeffersonians.

 

 

Stirrings of Industrialism - 188

 

Rather than remaining rural agrarian, the transformation had begun towards urban, industrial society

 

The Industrial Revolution in England

 

Well underway by 1800

Profound social and economic consequences

Factory system took root in manufacture of cotton thread and cloth

 

1769 James Watt’s advanced steam engine

Emergence of steam power

 

Social change

• Rural to urban migration
• Cottage industry to factory industry
• Relatively higher standard of living for factory workers vs. rural poor
• Psychological costs – fundamentally different lifestyle / lost social structure
• Disciplined fixed work schedule vs. seasonal rural occupations
• Factory owners – new aristocratic class – absent and impersonal
• Workers beginning to see themselves as a distinct class

 

Technology in America - 188

 

No large scale Industrial Revolution thru 1820

British industrialization viewed with ambivalence

However, technological advances were being introduced – the beginnings

Britain prevented export of technology –

Immigrants arrived with technological knowledge

 

Americans produced their own technological advances

Flour milling machinery

Ely Whitney

• Cotton Gin (Cotton en-Gin-e)
• Separating seeds from the cotton fiber – 10 to 20 times more efficient
• Cotton production increased 8 fold – increased demand for slaves
• Gun automation
• Devised a machine to permit the mass production of guns
• Technology adopted by other industries –
• Sewing machines, clocks, etc.

 

1820s & 1830s – Textile industry developed in northern states / New England

Root of northern preeminence in manufacturing

North became more industrial – south remained bound to agriculture

• An issue that would serve as a catalyst and influence the results of the Civil War

 

1840 – increased progress toward the American Industrial revolution and manufacturing economy

 

Transportation Innovations - 190

 

Prerequisites to industrialization is a transportation system for raw materials and finished goods

 

1789 – Tariff laws giving preference to American ships in American ports

1790s – war in Europe – boon to American shipping

Significant shipping growth between 1789 and 1810 – 8 fold increase

 

Development of domestic markets thru improving domestic transportation

River transportation – steamboat

1787 – high pressure steam engine – lighter, more efficient

• powered boats and eventually locomotives and mill machinery
• Steamboats on the Hudson, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers

Some early roads – turnpikes – private ventures

• Limited to flat terrain, populated areas – for profit

 

The Rising Cities - 193

 

1800 –

• primarily rural agrarian
• only 3% of non-Indian population lived in towns of more than 8000
• 10% lived west of the Appalachian Mountains

 

Urban Life

• Philadelphia 70000
• New York 60000
• Baltimore 26000
• Boston 24000
• Charleston 20000
• Urban life produce affluence, amenities

 

5. The political philosophy of Jefferson, and the extent to which he was able to adhere to his philosophy while president.

 

Jefferson the President - 194

 

• Conciliatory attitude towards Federalists
• Remarkable expansion of territory – Louisiana Purchase
• Some limiting / reduction of Federalist national institutions
• Courts continued to assert federal power under John Marshall

 

The Federal City and the “People’s President” - 195

 

• New national capital
• 1800 only 3200 residents
• Climate inhospitable – wet, cold winters, hot humid summers
• Little infrastructure improvements

 

President and Party Leader

 

• Acted in the spirit of democratic simplicity
• Walked to and from his inauguration
• No White House social formality
• Ineffective public speaker
• Brilliant and charming conversationalist
• Writer of great literary skills
• Intelligent and creative –
• Politics, diplomacy, architect, educator, inventor, scientific farmer, philosopher, scientist
• Pastimes included sorting bones of prehistoric animals, building a private library that later became the basis for the Library of Congress

The president and Mrs. Kennedy attempted to make the White House the cultural center of the nation. Writers, artists, poets, scientists, and musicians were frequent dinner guests. On one occasion the Kennedys held a reception for all the American winners of the Nobel Prize, people who made outstanding contributions to their field during the past year. At the party the president suggested that more talent and genius was at the White House that night than there had been since Thomas Jefferson had last dined there alone.

Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

• Tried to eliminate the aura of majesty surrounding the presidency
• State of the Union submitted in writing
• Alternately, provided leadership and pressure to Republican congressmen
• Secretary of the Treasury – opposed to Hamilton’s policies
• Used powers of appointment to political advantage

 

Won re-election in 1804 by a landslide

 

Dollars and Ships - 198

 

• 1802 – persuaded Congress to abolish all internal taxes
• Leaving only customs duties and sale of western land as revenue
• Reduced government spending
• Reduced national debt by 50%
• Scaled down the armed forces
• Army from 4000 to 2500
• Navy from 25 to 7 ships

 

• Helped establish US Military Academy at West Point
• When trouble began overseas, began again to build up the fleet
• Ceased payment / tribute to Barbary states / pirates

6. The Jeffersonian-Federalist struggle over the judiciary--its causes, the main points of conflict, and the importance of the outcome for the future of the nation.

 

Conflict with the Courts - 198

 

1801 – Executive and Legislative in the hands of the Republicans

Judicial remained under Federalist control (lifetime appointment of Federal judges)

 

Republican congress – repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801

Eliminating judgeships of Federalist “Midnight Appointments”

1803 – Marbury v. Madison

William Marbury, one of John Adams midnight appointments

Justice of the peace for the District of Columbia

His commission, signed and sealed but NOT delivered before Adams left office.

 

New Secretary of State under Jefferson, James Madison (future president) refused to hand over the commission

 

Marbury applied to the Supreme Court for an order directing Madison to deliver the commission.

 

Court found for Marbury but had no authority to order Madison to deliver the commission.  Why?

 

Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the courts power to compel executive officials to act (which is the basis for Marbury’s suit)

But, the Court ruled Congress had exceeded its authority in creating the statute

Constitution had defined the powers of the judiciary – legislature had no authority to expand them.

The relevant section of the 1789 act was therefore void.

The Court had asserted its power to nullify an act of congress.

 

Ironically – Marshall was John Adams Secretary of State – he should have delivered the commission to Marbury

Just before leaving office, Adams appointed John Marshall Chief Justice (served until 1835)

Marshall established himself as a dominant figure on the court.

He established the judiciary as a branch of government coequal with the executive and legislative

 

Jefferson urged impeachment of Federalist judges

• John Pickering – district judge of New Hampshire – impeached / convicted / removed based on insanity (questionable assertions)
• Samuel Chase – Supreme Court Justice – targeted for his outspoken Federalist speeches and views
• Committed no crime – Congress claimed they could impeach for political reasons
• House impeached Chase – Senate failed to convict (2/3^rd majority required)
• Important precedent – Impeachment would not become a purely political weapon

 

 

7. President Jefferson's constitutional reservations concerning the Louisiana Purchase, and the significance of his decision to accept the bargain.

 

Doubling the National Domain

Jefferson and Napoleon - 200

 

Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800 – France regained title to “Louisiana Territory” from Spain

 

Jefferson entered office as pro French

Concerned with Treaty of San Ildefonso

Grave concerns regarding navigation of the Mississippi River and port privileges at New Orleans

Coincidently, Jefferson sought funding for a naval river fleet and explored an alliance with Britain

Napoleon, had lost much of his army to disease and was preparing for a new war in Europe

He could not fight a war on two fronts North America/New Orleans & Europe

 

The Louisiana Purchase - 201

 

Instructed Robert Livingston, ambassador to France, to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans

Livingstone, on his own, sought purchase of entire Louisiana Territory

Napoleon accepted Livingstone’s proposal – Louisiana Territory acquired for $15,000,000

Jefferson was particularly concerned about the lack of a constitutional provision for acquisition of new territory

 

 

8. The reasons for President Jefferson's sponsorship of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the importance of that exploration.

 

Lewis and Clark Explore the West - 202

 

1804 – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark & 4 dozen men and Shoshone guide Sacajawea

Missouri River across the Rockies to the Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific Ocean

A good book – Stephen Ambrose: Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West

 

1805 – 1806 Zebulon Pike – Missouri River to the Rockies – uncultivable desert

Here are some more recent pictures…

 

9. The many problems involved in attempting to achieve an understanding of Aaron Burr and his "conspiracy."

 

The Burr Conspiracy - 202

 

As the west grew, Federalists, centered in New England, would lose power

Plan for New England succession did not materialize

 

Vice President Aaron Burr – without political prospects – distrusted by Jefferson after 1800 election

Burr ran for election as Governor of New York

Hamilton slandered Burr, accusing him of treason regarding the New England succession

Burr lost the election, blamed Hamilton, challenged him to a duel

July 1804 – Hamilton killed by Burr in the duel

 

Burr fled NY to avoid murder charges

Burr joined up with Gen James Wilkinson, governor of Louisiana Territory

• Expedition to capture Mexico / separate the Southwest from the US with Burr as ruler
• Most of this is probably untrue but the rumors existed.
• Burr later led an armed group down the Ohio River
• Arrested and tried for treason but acquitted
• Went into self imposed exile in Europe

10. What Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were attempting to accomplish by "peaceable coercion," and why their efforts were not successful.

 

Expansion and War - 204

1803 Napoleonic Wars – Britain vs. France – both tried to stop US from trading with the other

American westward expansion approaching the Mississippi –

• Indians align with British in Canada and Spanish in Florida

 

Conflict on the Seas - 204

 

American shipping grew rapidly – especially between Europe & West Indies

Britain retained superior naval forces

1805 – British destroy remainder of French navy at Battle of Trafalgar

Napoleon now closes European ports to British trade (Continental System)

• Napoleon barred neutral ships that had called on British ports
• Britain ran a naval blockade of European ports
• Britain required any ship visiting a European port first stop at a British port
• Two policies in conflict – Americans caught in the middle

Both Britain & France were violating America’s neutrality

Britain the worst offender – stopping ships, seizing sailors (impressments)

 

Impressment - 204

 

British navy – wretched conditions – floggings, low pay

Few volunteers, many forced into service (impressed)

Many desertions – many to American vessels

British claimed the right to:

• Stop and search American merchant ships
• Reimpress deserters
• Seize naturalized Americans born in Britain

 

1807 – Chesapeake (US) and Leopard (British) naval ships

• British demanded to search the Chesapeake – captain refused
• Leopard opens fire on Chesapeake – Chesapeake surrenders
• British seize 4 American sailors, later hang one.
• Congress out of session – otherwise possible state of war
• Jefferson expels all British warships from American waters
• Demands renouncement of impressments
• Britain returns 3 sailors, disavows action of Leopard
• Refuses to renouncement impressment

 

“Peaceable Coercion” - 205

 

1807 – Embargo Act – prohibited US ships sailing to any foreign port

• Created a serious depression
• A few days before leaving office (post election) Jefferson signs bill ending Embargo Act

Election of 1808 – Madison (Republican) wins election

• Embargo Act replaced by Non-Intercourse Act
• Trade reopened with all nations except Britain & France
• 1810 Non-Intercourse Act expires

Macon’s Bill Number 2 replaces Non-Intercourse Act

• Prohibit commerce with either belligerent if one violates neutral shipping after the other had stopped
• France announced non-interference with American shipping
• Limited embargo on Britain
• Hurt British economy enough that Britain repealed its blockade of Europe – TL2

11. The numerous explanations of the causes of the War of 1812, and why there is so much disagreement among historians.

 

The “Indian Problem” and the British - 206

 

William Henry Harrison – committed expansionist – Indian fighter

Congressional delegate from NW Territory 1799

1801 Governor of Indiana Territory – administer Jefferson’s solution to Indian Problem

• Indians could convert into settled farmers and assimilate
• Migrate to the west of the Mississippi
• In either case, required to give up claims to tribal lands in the Northwest Territory

 

1807

• Coerced reluctant tribal leaders into treaties for lands in eastern Michigan, southern Indiana, and Illinois
• In the “Southwest” similar acquisitions in Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi
• Separate tribes helpless to resist

12. The problems caused by Tecumseh's attempts at confederation and by the Spanish presence in Florida as Americans surged westward.

 

Tecumseh and the Prophet - 207

 

Rise of two Indian leaders

• Tenskwatawa – religious leader, orator, known as the Prophet
• Recovery from alcoholism – virtues of Indian culture, evils of white world
• Religious revival among tribes
• Tecumseh – Shooting Star, chief of Shawnees – Prophet’s brother
• Unite tribes of Mississippi valley
• Alliance with the British in 1811
• Fought for the British as a commissioned general in war of 1812

 

Harrison…

• Battle of Tippecanoe
• Camped near Prophetstown November 1811 – provoked a fight
• Drove off the Indians, burned the town
• “Only way to make the west safe – drive British out of Canada and annex Canada”

 

Florida and War Fever - 208

 

Southerners wanted to acquire Spanish Florida

• Slaves fled south
• Indians attacked from Florida into the US
• American settlers captured Baton Rouge – President Madison annexed the territory

 

Britain’s growing restrictions on American commerce, including impressments

Threatening access to world markets – domestic food surplus

• Potential for farmers to migrate to cities – not Jeffersonian Republicanism
• Needed world markets to sustain agrarian republicanism

 

War Hawks

• Henry Clay of Kentucky (Speaker of the House 1811)
• John C. Calhoun of South Carolina (Committee on Foreign Affairs)
• June 12 1812 – Declaration of War against Britain

13. The state of the nation in 1812, and how the Madison administration waged war against the world's foremost naval power.

 

The War of 1812 - 209

 

Britain preoccupied with European war with France
Fall of 1812, Napoleon launches campaign against Russia (Russian winter – not a good idea)

Late 1813, France on the way to defeat – Britain turns military attention to America

 

Battles with the Tribes - 209

 

Early defeat at Detroit after invading Canada

Fort Dearborn (Chicago) fell to an Indian attack

 

Early Naval victories fell to British superiority and a blockade of American ports.

American victories on the Great Lakes

• Raid and burn York (Toronto) capital of Canada
• Battle of Lake Erie – Oliver Hazard Perry
• Harrison Battle of Thames – death of Tecumseh – weakened Indian resistance

 

Andrew Jackson

• Battle of Horseshoe Bend – revenge upon Creek tribe – slaughter women, children, warriors
• Broke resistance of Creeks – ceded land, migrated west
• Seized Spanish fort at Pensacola, November 7 1814

 

Battles with the British  - 209

 

Napoleon surrendered in 1814 – Britain prepared to invade the US

British Armada up Chesapeake to Patuxent River, near Washington

• August 24, 1814, government flees, Washington burned, including the White House
• Proceeded up the Chesapeake towards Baltimore, guarded by Fort McHenry
• Americans sunk several ships to block entry to the harbor
• British bombard from a distance
• A Washington lawyer was detained onboard a British ship while trying to negotiate the release of a prisoner
• He made note of the evening’s activities…

 

September 11, 1814, Americans win Battle of Plattsburgh

Northern NY state, secure northern border against British land and sea forces

 

Battle of New Orleans

• January 8, 1815 British troops advanced up the Mississippi
• Andrew Jackson with a ragtag army, dug in behind earthen fortifications
• Americans repelled several waves of attackers
• British: 700 dead, 1400 wounded, 500 POWs – Americans: 8 dead, 13 wounded
• Later, news arrived that the Americans and British had signed a peace treaty several weeks before the Battle of New Orleans

14. The extent of the opposition to the American war effort, and the ways in which the New England Federalists attempted to show their objections.

         

The Revolt of New England -212

 

Most battles in the war were American failures

In New England, opposition to the war and Republican government, led by Daniel Webster

December 15, 1814 – Hartford Convention – Constitutional Amendments and hints of succession

Soon thereafter, news of Jackson’s victory and a negotiated peace

Federalists became obsolete and even treasonable – virtual death blow to the Federalist Party

15. The ways in which the skill of the American peace commissioners and the international problems faced by England contributed to a satisfactory--for Americans--peace settlement.

 

The Peace Settlement - 212

 

Serious negotiations in August 1814 – Ghent, Belgium

American delegation led by John Quincey Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin

Final treaty simply ended the fighting

• Americans gave up demand for British renunciation of impressments and cession of Canada to US
• Britain gave up request for Indian buffer state in the Northwest and other minor territorial concessions
• Other disputes referred to arbitration
• Treaty of Ghent signed December 24, 1814

 

British exhausted and in debt from wars with Napoleon

With Napoleon’s defeat, Britain less interested in interfering with American commerce

By end of 1815, all impressments had ceased

16. The effects of the War of 1812 on banking, shipping, farming, industry, and transportation.

 

Since 1815, no hostilities between Britain and America

• 1815 commercial treaty – American trading rights with the British Empire
• Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 – demilitarization of the Great Lakes
• Since 1872 – US – Canadian border is the longest, undefended international border in the world.

 

And the Indians –

• United States failed to restore Indian lands east of the Mississippi – as required in the Treaty of Ghent
• Tecumseh was dead
• The British, the most important ally of the Indians, were gone from the Northwest
• The alliance between Tecumseh and the Prophet was in disarray
• More intense push of whites into the west
• Indians much less able to resist than previously

 

Chapter 8: Varieties of American Nationalism

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Eight should enable the student to understand:

1. The effects of the War of 1812 on banking, shipping, farming, industry, and transportation.

2. The "era of good feelings" as a transitional period.

3. The causes of the Panic of 1819, and the effects of the subsequent depression on politics and the economy.

4. The arguments advanced by North and South during the debates over the admission of Missouri, and how they were to influence sectional attitudes.

5. The ways in which the status of the federal judiciary was changed by the Marshall Court, and how the Court's decisions altered the relationships between the federal government and the states and the federal government and business.

6. The reasons why President James Monroe announced his "doctrine" in 1823, and its impact on international relations at the time.

7. Presidental politics in the "era of good feelings," and how they altered the political system.

8. The frustrations experienced by John Quincy Adams during his term as president.

9. The reasons why Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828, and the significance of his victory.

 

Main Themes

1. How postwar expansion shaped the nation during the "era of good feelings."

2. How it was that sectionalism and nationalism could exist at the same time and in the same country.

3. How the "era of good feelings" came to an end and a new two-party system emerged.

 

Glossary

1. American nationalism: Between 1820 and 1840, many American politicians advocated programs that stressed the supremacy of the central government over the states, called for direct federal involvement to aid the growth of commerce, and in general advocated an aggressive course of action designed to make America a nation without equal. Much of their program, embodied in Henry Clay's American System, resembled Hamiltonian federalism, but with a significant difference. These nationalists, unlike their Federalist counterparts, decided not to oppose the rising tide of democracy, but chose to present their programs in such a way as to appeal to the common man.

2. American System: The plan, advanced by Henry Clay, that was designed to foster commercial growth and economic stability. Its basic components consisted of a tariff to protect "infant industries" and to secure American jobs (thus making it appealing to labor), a national bank into which the money from the tariff (and other taxes) would be deposited, and an internal-improvements program paid for by the federal government. As conceived, money raised from taxes would pay for the roads, canals, and the like designed to improve transportation and thus stimulate more commerce, which would produce more jobs and revenue. To keep this growing economy stable would be the function of the bank, which would issue notes and make loans for business development and expansion. Therefore, all three elements were linked in a cycle of taxing, banking, and spending that made it difficult to oppose one without opposing them all.

3. commerce clause: The clause in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8) that gives the national government the power to regulate foreign commerce as well as commerce between the states (interstate commerce).

4. contract clause: The clause in the Constitution (Article I, Section 10) that prohibits the government (national or state) and individuals from impairing the obligation of contract.

5. diplomacy: The conducting of negotiations between nations and the drawing up of treaties. The act of concluding an alliance to national advantage.

6. internal improvements / infrastructure: The building of canals and roads, the improvement of harbors, and the clearing of rivers to improve transportation and stimulate commerce. To be done with the help of the national government, this was a major part of the postwar nationalistic program. The concept was opposed by those who felt it was too expensive or was an unconstitutional assumption of the rights and responsibilities of the states.

7. necessary-and-proper clause: The clause in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8) that authorizes Congress to make "all laws" necessary and proper to carry out its powers; also called the "elastic" or "implied powers" clause.

8. wildcat bank: Usually defined as a state bank in the West, organized with little capital resources, free with credit, and generally unsound. These banks were responsible for much of the land speculation in the West, and when the bank of the United States began to tighten credit restrictions, they were among the first to fail. This had much to do with the West's dislike for the Bank.

9. manumission: Formal emancipation from slavery

10. hegemony: Notable political influence or domination over a particular geographic area, such as American hegemony over North and South America

11. majority: In voting – more than half the votes cast (minimum of 50% plus 1)

12. plurality: More votes than any other candidate, but not a majority

13. aristocracy: government by the best individuals or by a small privileged class, perhaps believed to be best qualified

14. plutocracy: government by the controlling, wealthy class

15. Eurocentric: the practice of U.S. foreign policy being focused first and foremost on Europe (vs. Asia or other areas)

 

Summary

After the War of 1812 a new spirit of nationalism and expansion emerged, and the nation, led by a president determined to heal old wounds, embarked on an "era of good feelings"--party and sectional divisions forgotten. That attitude was soon challenged. The 1820s and 1830s were highlighted by two forces, one divisive and the other unifying. The first appeared during the Missouri debates, which, despite overtones that resembled the earlier Federalist-Republican clashes, brought the issue of slavery and its expansion to the forefront. The immediate question--which section would control the Senate--was dealt with through the Missouri Compromise, but the underlying problem was more difficult to resolve. What the debates revealed was that some in the nation saw the addition of slave states (not just western states, but slave states) as a threat. Southern politicians, it was apparent, had come to equate the expansion of slavery with the expansion of their own political philosophy (and power). How true these beliefs were is not the issue. What is important is that they were believed, and, as the years passed, more would come to share these convictions. Countering this divisive force was the growing spirit of nationalism and the emergence of two parties--both with a national following. These developments seemed to overshadow sectional concerns, and with the election of Andrew Jackson, one of the most popular political figures since George Washington, the nation seemed more concerned with unity than division. How long this was to last was another question.

 

Varieties of American Nationalism - 217

Missouri applies for admission to the Union

·        ·        Free or slaveholding state?

·        ·        Orbit of the North or the South

Missouri Compromise –

·        ·        Missouri a slave state – Maine a free state

·        ·        No slavery in remainder of Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30’ N. Latitude (southern border of Missouri)

·        ·        Symptom of Sectionalism / Sectional Crisis

 

Strong and Expanding American Economy

Strong Nationalistic feelings – supported by federal government

Spirited Fourth of July Celebrations

July 4, 1826 – 50^th Anniversary of Independence

·        ·        Thomas Jefferson dies – his last words, “Is it the fourth?”

·        ·        John Adams dies – his last words, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.”

1. The effects of the War of 1812 on banking, shipping, farming, industry, and transportation.

A Growing Economy - 218

Prosperity following War of 1812

Bust of 1819 – lack of basic institutions to sustain growth

 

Banking, Currency, and Protection - 218

Bank of the United States (Hamilton) charter expired in 1811

How to protect new industries?

How to provide a nationwide network of roads and waterways

 

War of 1812 manifested the need for another National Bank

·        ·        State Banks

·        ·        Limited Reserves and specie

·        ·        Bank notes – used as money – varied in value based on bank’s reputation and solvency

 

Second Bank of the United States – 1816

·        ·        Could not forbid state banks from issuing currency

·        ·        Size and power allowed it to dominate the financial market & state banks

 

Protection of Industries

·        ·        Industries flourished during the war

·        ·        Dramatic growth in textile industry – New England – home to factory

Post war – British dump textile goods below cost

·        ·        Short term loss to stifle fledgling American textile industry

 

1816 – Protective Tariff

 

Transportation - 219

 

Improvements in transportation system necessary to sustain growth and service markets

·        ·        Government financing of roads

·        ·        Ohio land sales – proceeds to finance a National Road from the Potomac to Ohio Rivers

·        ·        6 – 7 weeks to move goods from Philadelphia to Charleston, S.C.

Pennsylvania finances road construction

·        ·        Steam Powered Shipping (Rivers & Lakes)

·        ·        Mississippi River & Ohio River to Pittsburgh

John C. Calhoun proposes internal improvements at federal level

·        ·        Passed by Congress

·        ·        Vetoed by Madison – last day in office – believed Congress lacked authority to fund

 

Expanding Westward

The Great Migrations – 221

 

White migration westward – profound influence on the nation

New regions into the capitalist system

Political ramifications

Influencing factor in the coming of the Civil War

 

Push / Pull Migration

·        ·        Push from the east – population and economic pressures

o       o       Population increase – natural increase & immigration

o       o       1800 – 1820 nearly doubled (5.3 million to 9.6 million)

o       o       Agricultural lands of the east were largely occupied

·        ·        Pull from the west – availability of new lands – decline of Indian resistance

o       o       Post 1812 – government continues to pus Indians farter west

o       o       Forts along the Great Lakes & upper Mississippi

o       o       “Factor System” – “Governmental welfare” for Indians – dependent vs. hostile

o       o       Pushed out French / Canadian trappers & traders from the American west

 

 

The way west…

Ohio and Monongahela Rivers

Erie Canal – 1825

Overland by wagon – often from Cincinnati

 

White Settlers in the Old Northwest - 222

 

“Hail, hail, to Michigan… the champions of the west”

 

Spartan living conditions –

·        ·        Lean-to’s or cabins

·        ·        Corn crop to supplement wild game

·        ·        Rough, lonely existence – poverty & disease

·        ·        Men, women, children all involved in subsistence activities

 

Groups often traveled together – stayed together

Formed “towns” – systems of mutual aid – barn raising…

Highly mobile – often more than one or two moves

 

The Plantation System in the Southwest - 222

 

Like the old South – Cotton

Old South – depleted soil – over planting, erosion

 

Black Belt of Alabama / Mississippi

·        ·        End of Appalachian Range

·        ·        Dark productive soil – rotted limestone

 

Spread of Cotton Plantations & Slavery

More prosperous migrations vs. original settlers

·        ·        Herds of livestock

·        ·        Household goods

·        ·        Slaves

·        ·        Planter’s family riding in carriages

·        ·        Larger Log Homes & plantation houses

·        ·        New Rich

·        ·        Assumption / creation of aristocracy

 

Admission of four new states –

Indiana	1816	Free
Mississippi	1817	Slave
Illinois	1818	Free
Alabama	1819	Slave

 

Trade and Trapping in the Far West – 223

 

Trade from far west of the continent with the United States

Fur traders – Mountain Men

John Jacob Astor – American Fur Company –

·        ·        Pre 1812 - Columbia River, Oregon

·        ·        Post 1812 – Great Lakes to the Rockies

 

First white settlers

·        ·        Single young men

·        ·        Often married Indian or Hispanic women

·        ·        The Rendezvous - Annual gatherings for supplies, - controlled by companies

·        ·        High profits made by eastern establishment – meager existence for mountain men

 

Mexico – independence in 1821 from Spain

·        ·        Controlled Texas, California, & southwest

·        ·        Opened its territories to trade with the US – desiring economic revival

·        ·        American traders come into the region – displaced locals (Mexicans)

·        ·        Mexico lost its markets in its own colony

·        ·        Precursor to Texas independence in 1836

 

Eastern Images of the West – 224

 

Few trappers kept journals or maps

Explores dispatched by government

·        ·        Stephen H. Long – Red River, Platte Rivers

o       o       Nebraska & eastern Colorado

·        ·        Arkansas River

o       o       Kansas

·        ·        Section located between Missouri River & Rocky Mountains –

o       o       Wholly unfit for cultivation – uninhabitable

o       o       The Great American Desert

o       o       Today, we call it the Great Plains

 

2. The "era of good feelings" as a transitional period.

The “Era of Good Feelings” – 225

 

Settlement and trade in the West

Creation of new states

Rising spirit of nationalism & character of national politics

 

The End of the First Party System – 225

 

Since 1800 – presidency as the domain of the Virginians – Jefferson, Madison, Monroe

Monroe – 1816

·        ·        61 when elected

·        ·        Soldier in the Revolution

·        ·        Diplomat

·        ·        Cabinet Officer

·        ·        Entered presidency under favorable circumstances

·        ·        Federalist Party in decline, Post War

·        ·        Opportunity for non-partisan government

o       o       Chose John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State – heir apparent – from New England

o       o       Northerners, Southerners, Federalists, and Republicans

o       o       Monroe makes a “Goodwill Tour” of the country – first since Washington

 

1820 –

·        ·        Re-elected without opposition

·        ·        Federalist party no longer a viable entity

·        ·        1 elector voted against Monroe to ensure Washington would remain the only unanimously elected president

 

John Quincy Adams and Florida – 226

·        ·        Diplomatic Service

·        ·        Committed nationalist

 

 

Most Americans in favor of acquiring Florida

·        ·        Adams begins negotiations with Spain

·        ·        Simultaneously, John C. Calhoun (Secretary of War) orders Andrew Jackson to stop Seminole raids

·        ·        Jackson invades Florida – St. Marks (south of Tallahassee) & Pensacola

·        ·        Adams urges government to embrace Jackson’s actions and claim them as a right of self defense

·        ·        Spanish Empire in serious decline

o       o       Jackson demonstrated US could seize Florida

o       o       Adams implied US may seize Florida

o       o       Position forced Spain into negotiations

o       o       Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819

§         §         Spain ceded Florida to US

§         §         Spain renounces territorial claims north of 42° in the Pacific northwest (southern border of Oregon)

§         §         US gives up claims to Texas

3. The causes of the Panic of 1819, and the effects of the subsequent depression on politics and the economy.

The Panic of 1819 – 226

 

Preceded by high foreign demand for farm goods – high prices (Napoleonic Wars)

Fueled land boom / land speculation

Easy credit to settlers

National bank began tightening credit

·        ·        Calling in loans – foreclosing mortgages

·        ·        Subsequent failures of State Banks

·        ·        Western settlers blamed the national bank

·        ·        National Bank became a political issue

·        ·        Six years of depression

·        ·        Subsequent discussion on how to encourage and manage territorial expansion without economic destabilization

 

4. The arguments advanced by North and South during the debates over the admission of Missouri, and how they were to influence sectional attitudes.

 

Sectionalism and Nationalism – 227

North / South Differences

Temporarily averted by the Missouri Compromise

 

(Yellow highlights – deletions between 10^th and 11^th editions)

 

In the North and South – groups opposed to slavery on moral grounds

·        ·        Manumission Society of New York – rescue runaway slaves

·        ·        Quakers – strengthen anti-slavery laws – protect free blacks

·        ·        Most northern critics of slavery – affluent philanthropists and reformers (Federalists)

·        ·        Hostility to the “Virginia Influence and Southern Rule”

 

On the whole concern about slavery – moral or political

·        ·        Secondary to concerns about economic competition between North and South

·        ·        Free labor system or Plantation labor system

·        ·        Which would prevail in the expanding western territories?

 

The Missouri Compromise – 227

States generally entered the union in pairs – one slave, one free

Missouri applies for statehood

·        ·        Slavery long established in Missouri

·        ·        Admission of Missouri (slave) would upset the balance

·        ·        Congressman Tallmadge (NY) proposes amendment – no new slaves into Missouri & gradual emancipation

·        ·        Henry Clay – Speaker of the House

·        ·        If Missouri blocked from slave statehood, Maine (formerly part of Mass.) would be blocked by southerners

·        ·        Compromise –

o       o       Maine admitted as a free state

o       o       Missouri admitted as a slave state

o       o       No slavery in remainder of Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30’ N. Latitude (southern border of Missouri)

 

5. The ways in which the status of the federal judiciary was changed by the Marshall Court, and how the Court's decisions altered the relationships between the federal government and the states and the federal government and business.

 

Marshall and the Court – 228

 

John Marshall – Chief Justice Supreme Court: 1801 – 1835

·        ·        Dominated and defined the court and molded the Constitution

·        ·        Strengthened the Judicial Branch

·        ·        Increased the power of the Federal (National) government

·        ·        Advanced interests of propertied and commercial classes

·        ·        Decisions were highly nationalistic, promoted growth of a strong, unified, and economically developed United States

 

Marbury v. Madison - 1803

 

Fletcher v. Peck 1810

·        ·        Court, under Marshall’s leadership rules,

o       o       Land grant was a valid contract and could not be repealed even if corruption was involved

 

Dartmouth College v. Woodward 1819

·        ·        King George III grants charter in 1769 – pre-revolution – for a government sponsored college

·        ·        New Hampshire Republicans attempt to convert Dartmouth to a private college

·        ·        Court, under Marshall’s leadership rules,

o       o       the Charter was a Contract

o       o       claimed the right to override decisions of state courts

 

Cohens v. Virginia 1821

·        ·        Court, under Marshall’s leadership affirms,

o       o       Constitutionality of federal review of state court decisions

o       o       States gave up part of their sovereignty in ratifying the constitution

o       o       Courts must submit to federal jurisdiction otherwise federal government would be prostrated at the feet of every state in the Union

 

McCulloch v. Maryland 1819

·        ·        Congress created the Bank of the United States, opposed by Maryland that wanted to tax the bank

·        ·        Court, under Marshall’s leadership rules,

o       o       Upholds “implied powers” of Congress upholding constitutionality of Bank of US

o       o       Could Congress charter a bank – Yes  (Necessary and Proper clause)

o       o       Could States ban or tax it – No (Power to tax is power to destroy)

 

Gibbons v. Ogden 1824

·        ·        New York grants Robert Fulton & Robert Livingston exclusive license to carry passengers on Hudson River

·        ·        Fulton & Livingston assign Aaron Ogden business of carrying passengers across the river between NY & NJ

·        ·        Thomas Gibbons gets a congressional license for the same (NY / NJ) passenger ferry traffic

·        ·        Ogden sues Gibbons in NY State court and wins

·        ·        Gibbons appeals to US Supreme Court (appellate jurisdiction)

o       o       Court, under Marshall’s leadership rules,

·        ·        Congress  has the power to regulate Interstate Commerce (Art 1, Sec 8) including navigation

·        ·        Ogden’s state granted monopoly was void

 

The Court and the Tribes – 229

 

Johnson v. McIntosh 1823

 

Illinois and Pinakeshaw tribes had sold parcels of land (Johnson)

·        ·        Later signed a treaty with US government

·        ·        Ownership in question – which contract is valid

·        ·        Court, under Marshall’s leadership rules,

o       o       Tribes had rights to their land which preceded all other American law

o       o       Individual Americans could not buy or take land from the tribes

o       o       Only the Federal Government – Supreme Authority – could take Indian lands

 

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831

Court refuses to hear the case – refuses to grant “certiorari”

Cherokee Nation filed against Georgia law abolishing their tribal legislature and courts

(Cherokee had their own written constitution)

·        ·        Certiorari not granted – tribes were not foreign nations

·        ·        The tribes relation to the US resembles that of a ward to his guardian – “trust relationship”

·        ·        US has power over the tribes but accepts substantial responsibility for their welfare

·        ·        Defined a constitutional place for the tribes

 

 

Worcester v. Georgia 1832

Georgia law to regulate access to Cherokee country by US citizens

·        ·        Court, under Marshall’s leadership rules,

o       o       Only Federal Government could grant or deny access

o       o       Consolidates Federal authority over states and tribes

o       o       Defined nature of the Indians

·        ·        Sovereign entities within their territorial boundaries

·        ·        Boundaries granted by Federal government

·        ·        Tribes free from the authority of the states

·        ·        Defined a constitutional place for the tribes

·        ·        Federal government was their guardian – with ultimate authority

 

6. The reasons why President James Monroe announced his "doctrine" in 1823, and its impact on international relations at the time.

 

The Latin American Revolution and the Monroe Doctrine – 229

 

American Diplomacy focused on Europe – Eurocentric

Following War of 1812, America looking for foreign economic expansion

Spanish Empire in its death throws – revolution in South & Central America

1815 – US officially neutral / economically pro-revolutionary towards Spanish America

1822 – US establishes diplomatic relations with:

·        ·        Argentina

·        ·        Chile

·        ·        Peru

·        ·        Columbia

·        ·        Mexico

US feared France may help Spain to re-colonize

Britain had designs on Cuba

 

Monroe Doctrine

·        ·         “American continents no longer considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”

·        ·        Any attempts to colonize considered to be an unfriendly act.

·        ·        US policy to Europe – not to interfere in internal concerns of any of its powers.

·        ·        Established US hegemony in the western hemisphere

 

7. Presidential politics in the "era of good feelings," and how they altered the political system.

 

The Revival of Opposition – 231

After 1816, Federalist party ceased to participate in presidential elections

Republicans had evolved into many Federalist positions – economic growth & centralization

 

The “Corrupt Bargain” – 231

 

Up to 1824, Presidential candidates nominated by caucuses of the two parties in congress

1824

·        ·        William H. Crawford of Georgia – Republican caucus nominee

·        ·        Nominations from state legislatures

o       o       John Quincy Adams –

§         §         Secretary of State – traditional stepping stone to the presidency – little popular support

o       o       Henry Clay – Speaker of the House

§         §         American System – factory & farm produce, tariffs, national bank, internal improvements

o       o       Andrew Jackson – Senator, military hero, no political record

§         §         Receives a plurality of the votes:

§         §         Jackson  99

§         §         Adams     84

§         §         Crawford          41

§         §         Clay                 37

·        ·        Twelfth Amendment – House to choose among 3  highest electoral votes

o       o       Jackson was Clay’s western rival

o       o       Clay supported Adams – Adams names Clay Secretary of State

o       o       Jacksonians claimed a Corrupt Bargain

 

8. The frustrations experienced by John Quincy Adams during his term as president.

 

The Second President Adams – 231

 

Haunted by Corrupt Bargain

Adams proposed ambitious Nationalist Program similar to Clay’s American Plan

Blocked by congressional Jacksonians

Diplomatic Frustrations

Appointed delegates to inter-American conference

Southerners objected to white Americans mingling with black delegates from Haiti

Georgia governor proceeded with Indian removal over the president’s objections

Mismanaged tariff policies of 1828 earned animosity from New England and westerners

 

9. The reasons why Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828, and the significance of his victory.

Jackson Triumphant – 232

 

1828 Election – new two party system

·        ·        Nationalist Republicans – John Quincy Adams

·        ·        Democratic Republicans – Andrew Jackson

o       o       Assault on privilege

o       o       Opposed the “economic aristocracy”

Campaign of personal invective

·        ·        Adams

·        ·        charged with gross waste and extravagance

·        ·        falsely accused of procuring American women for the Russian Czar (while ambassador)

·        ·        Jackson called a murderer (War of 1812) and attacks on his wife

·        ·        An adulterer – knowingly living in sin with the wife of another man

Jackson wins big – 56% popular / 178 – 83 electoral“Era of the Common Man”

 Chapter 9: Jacksonian America

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Nine should enable the student to understand:

1. Andrew Jackson's philosophy of government and his impact on the office of the presidency.

2. The debate among historians about the meaning of "Jacksonian Democracy," and Andrew Jackson's relationship to it.

3. The nullification theory of John C. Calhoun, and President Jackson's reaction to the attempt to put nullification into action.

4. The supplanting of John C. Calhoun by Martin Van Buren as successor to Jackson, and the significance of the change.

5. The reasons why the eastern Indians were removed to the West and the impact this had on the tribes.

6. The reasons for the Jacksonian war on the Bank of the United States, and the effects of Jackson's veto on the powers of the president and on the American financial system.

7. The causes of the Panic of 1837, and the effect of the panic on the presidency of Van Buren.

8. The differences in party philosophy between the Democrats and the Whigs, the reasons for the Whig victory in 1840, and the effect of the election on political campaigning.

9. The negotiations that led to the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, and the importance of the treaty in Anglo-American relations.

10. The reasons why John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster were never able to reach their goal—the White House.

 

Glossary

1. hard money: Specie, coin with a fixed value, which could not be cheaply manufactured to flood the market. Its use made money scarce and credit expensive and difficult, and it discouraged speculation. It also kept wages low and reduced commercial activity. Its advocates were known as "sound money" men.
2. "Jacksonian Democracy": A term that more accurately describes the spirit of the age than a movement led by Andrew Jackson. During this period (1820-1850), more offices became elective, voter restrictions were reduced or eliminated (for white male adults), and popular participation in politics increased. The Democratic Party, led by Jackson, appealed to this growing body of voters by stressing its belief in rotation in office, economy in government, governmental response to popular demands, and decentralization of power.
3. land-poor: The condition in which many speculators found themselves during the Panic of 1837 (and in 1819, as well). Having bought land on credit, they were unable to pay their debts when the land did not sell. Hence, they had a lot of land, but no money, and the result was bankruptcy.
4. Marxism: The theory that history has been characterized by a struggle between the working classes and their masters, the middle-class capitalists. The outcome of struggle is to be an uprising of the oppressed and the overthrow of capitalism. In part, this belief was shared by John C. Calhoun, who feared that the growth of industrial capitalism in America would lead to just such a class struggle.
5. party boss: The politician in charge of the machine, usually the ranking elected official in a political unit (state, county, city, and so on); the person responsible for getting out the vote and for dispensing patronage.
6. political machine: A well-organized local political group that can turn out voters on specific issues. In return for delivering these votes, the machine is allowed to dispense patronage in its particular area.
7. soft money: Paper money. Easily produced, this currency increased the amount of money in circulation, made credit easier, and made prices higher. Generally favored by speculators, by agricultural interests, and by debtors.
8. states' rights: The belief that the United States was formed as a compact of sovereign states and that the national government was violating that sovereignty. The theory rests on the conviction that the states did not surrender their sovereignty to the central government by adopting the Constitution and that when their rights are violated, they can act in their own defense.

 

Chapter  9  -  Jacksonian America - 235

 

Alexis deTocqueville – Democracy in America  1835-1840

·        ·        American Society – general equality of condition among the people

·        ·        Political rights to the level of the humblest citizens

·        ·        Dissemination of wealth brings the notion of property within the reach of all

·        ·        Industrialism… manufactures lowers the class of workmen while it raises the class of masters

 

Greatest danger facing the nation was privilege

Need to eliminate the favored status of powerful elites

 

Jackson (& Jacksonians)

·        ·        Were not egalitarian

·        ·        Nothing to challenge existence of slavery

·        ·        Harsh assaults on American Indians

·        ·        Accepted economic inequality and social gradation

·        ·        Frontier aristocrat – served by people of wealth & standing

·        ·        Risen to prominence on the basis of talent & energies (meritocracy)

·        ·        Opportunity open to others – aroused by rhetoric

·        ·        Challenge to the Eastern elite from the rising South and West

1. Andrew Jackson's philosophy of government and his impact on the office of the presidency.

 

The Rise of Mass Politics

The Expanding Electorate – 236

 

Transformation of American politics extending the right to vote to a new group

·        ·        Until 1820s – white male property owners – only voters

·        ·        Ohio & other new states – all adult white males – voting & office holding

·        ·        Older states respond to meet competition – avoid population loss

 

Massachusetts observation

·        ·        Rich better represented than the poor

·        ·        Daniel Webster “power naturally and necessarily follows property”

 

New York

·        ·        Reformers quoted Declaration of Independence…

·        ·        Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness… not property

 

Rhode Island

Remained restrictive until “Dorr Constitution & Rebellion” in 1840s

 

South

·        ·        Election laws favored planters and “old money & power”

 

Everywhere…

·        ·        Free blacks could not vote anywhere

·        ·        Women could not vote anywhere

·        ·        Nowhere was there a secret ballot – ballots inspected by the “powers of the day”

 

Voting Participation in Presidential Elections – white males

1824	27%
1828	58%
1840	80%

 

The Legitimization of Party – 238

Growing interest in politics, party organization, party loyalty

Most Americans did not want political parties  - preferred a consensus

New view – parties essential to democracy – challenge the closed elite

·        ·        Ideological commitments would be less important than party loyalty

·        ·        For one party to survive – it needed opposition

·        ·        Each party committed to its own existence

·        ·        Jacksonians became Democrats – forerunner of today’s Democratic party – nation’s oldest

·        ·        Anti-Jacksonians became Whigs

2. The debate among historians about the meaning of "Jacksonian Democracy," and Andrew Jackson's relationship to it.

 

“President of the Common Man” – 239

·        ·        Early Democratic Party – no uniform ideological position

·        ·        Jacksonian Democracy – equal protection and benefits to all white male citizens and favor no region or class

·        ·        In practice –

o       o       an assault on the Eastern aristocracy

o       o       extended opportunities to West and South

o       o       continuing subjugation of African Americans and Indians

o       o       no political participation for women

 

First targets – entrenched federal office holders

Offices belonged to the people, not the office holders

·        ·        (Popularized existing) Spoils System – to the victor goes the spoils –

·        ·        20% replacement – same as Jefferson

·        ·        “Right” of elected officials to appoint party faithful

 

1832 – first Democratic Party Convention

·        ·        Touted as a vehicle for participation by the people (vs. congressional caucus)

·        ·        Reality – party corruption and political exclusivity

·        ·        Appointments continue to be directed to political loyalists

·        ·         

3. The nullification theory of John C. Calhoun, and President Jackson's reaction to the attempt to put nullification into action.

 

Our Federal Union

Calhoun and Nullification – 241

 

John C. Calhoun – Secretary of War and VP in JQ Adams administration

Carolinians blamed economic problems on the “tariff of abominations” of 1828

Theory of Nullification

·        ·        Moderate alternative to succession

·        ·        Drawing from Madison & Jefferson on their Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798 – 99)

o       o       Federal government created by the states

o       o       States, not federal government or courts, final arbiters of constitutionality

o       o       States may therefore declare federal laws unconstitutional

o       o       Law would remain unconstitutional until ¾  of the states ratified it as a constitutional amendment

o       o       Objecting state could then choose between acceptance and succession

Calhoun really desired a negotiated settlement – withdrawal of the tariff

 

4. The supplanting of John C. Calhoun by Martin Van Buren as successor to Jackson, and the significance of the change.

 

The Rise of Van Buren - 241

Martin Van Buren – Democrat NY – governor and political wizard

·        ·        1829 – resigned governorship to accept Secretary of State from Jackson

·        ·        Member of Jackson’s inner circle – his “Kitchen Cabinet”

 

Quarrel over Peggy O’Neale

·        ·        Ran a rooming house in DC – Jackson & John Eaton stayed there

o       o       1820s rumor – Eaton & O’Neale romantically involved

o       o       1828 – Mr. O’Neale dies – Eaton and Peggy soon marry

o       o       Eaton named Secretary of War – Peggy O’Neale-Eaton now a cabinet wife

o       o       Mrs. John C. Calhoun- wife of VP – refuses to receive Mrs. Eaton into Washington society

o       o       Jackson furious and reflective of the treatment of his wife – Rachel

o       o       More likely cause was modest social background of Peggy Eaton

o       o       John C. Calhoun sides with his wife on the social issue

o       o       Van Buren befriends the Eatons

o       o       1832 election – VP Calhoun dropped from ticket – presidential hopes vanished

o       o       Martin Van Buren is VP choice in 1832 – elected president in 1836

 

The Webster-Hayne Debate – 242

 

Sectional issues intruding into national politics

·        ·        Connecticut senator suggests suspending western land sales

·        ·        Benton from Missouri objects – serves NE at expense of the west

·        ·        Hayne from SC picks up the argument hoping to find an ally for tariff reduction

·        ·        Hayne argues south & west victims of the tyranny of the NE – support for Calhoun’s Nullification Theory

·        ·        Webster attacks Hayne (and Calhoun) for challenging the integrity of the union

·        ·        Debates ensue…

·        ·        Jackson, at a dinner, sides with Webster against Calhoun – Calhoun responds to Jackson

 

Dangerous lines along the lines of nullification and secession and regional differences are being drawn

The union is not split, but cracks are forming

 

The Nullification Crisis – 243

 

1832 – SC responds angrily to tariff bill that offers no relief from 1828 Tariff of Abominations

Some ready to secede – but try nullification first

·        ·        SC votes to nullify tariffs of 1828 and 1832

·        ·        Jackson insists nullification is treason – strengthens forts – sends warships to Charleston

·        ·        Jackson wins approval of “Force Bill” authorizing president to use military to enforce acts of Congress

·        ·        Henry Clay, SC, negotiates tariff reduction

·        ·        SC repeals its nullification of the tariffs then,

·        ·        SC symbolically nullifies the Force Bill

·        ·        SC won tariff reduction but could not alone, defy the federal government (Where did the Civil War start?)

 

5. The reasons why the eastern Indians were removed to the West and the impact this had on the tribes.

 

The Removal of the Indians - 244

Jackson wanted the Indians moved out west

His views were consistent with most Americans

 

White Attitudes Toward the Tribes – 244

Indians originally viewed as “noble savages”

New view was simply “savages” uncivilized and uncivilizable

·        ·        Whites not expected to live in proximity to savage Indians

·        ·        Indian cultures and societies unworthy of respect

·        ·        Fears of endless conflict and violence

·        ·        Insatiable desire for territory by whites

·        ·        Tribes both “sovereign and dependent”

·        ·        Government consistently finding ways to move Indians to allow for white expansion

 

The Black Hawk War - 244

 

Old Northwest Indians – last battle – 1831 – 1832

·        ·        Black Hawk & followers refused to recognize previous ceding of lands to US

·        ·        Reoccupied vacant lands

·        ·        Illinois state militia and federal troops tried to exterminate the tribe, even when they attempted to surrender

·        ·        Black Hawk captured – sent on a tour of the East

 

The “Five Civilized Tribes” – 245

 

Located in the South

·        ·        Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw

·        ·        Agricultural societies with successful economies

·        ·        Cherokees had a written language and formal constitution

·        ·        States pass Indian regulations

·        ·        Congress passes the Removal Act of 1830 – move Indians to the west

 

Georgia continued to move Cherokees out despite Worcester v. Georgia Supreme Court ruling

·        ·        Jackson – “John Marshall has made his decision – now let him enforce it.”

·        ·        1835 – federal government “settles with Cherokees”

·        ·        Jackson sends army of 7,000 to forcibly drive Cherokees west

 

Trails of Tears – 245

 

The Trail Where They Cried – The Trail of Tears

Cherokees forced march to Indian Territory (Georgia to Oklahoma)

Winter of 1838 – thousands died along the way

All 5 Civilized Tribes relocated between 1830 and 1838

Indian territory consisted of land most whites did not want – for awhile

Some Seminoles resisted the effort to relocate

·        ·        Seminoles under Osceola fought guerrilla warfare in the Everglades

·        ·        Osceola captured under a white flag, imprisoned, died

o       o       White campaign of extermination

o       o       1500 white soldiers died in battle

o       o       Federal government spent $20,000,000

o       o       Seminoles still remained in Florida

 

The Meaning of Removal – 247

 

End of 1830s all important Indian societies moved west of Mississippi

·        ·        100 million acres of eastern land ceded

·        ·        Relocated to reservations, surrounded by forts

·        ·        Climate / topography unfamiliar

·        ·        Later incursions by whites

 

Was removal necessary?

·        ·        New Mexico, Pacific Northwest, Texas, California

·        ·        Lewis & Clark

·        ·        British theory of colonization – plantations separate from natives

·        ·        US Government policies – racist by today’s standards

 

6. The reasons for the Jacksonian war on the Bank of the United States, and the effects of Jackson's veto on the powers of the president and on the American financial system.

 

Jackson and The Bank War – 248

Social and territorial issues – willing to use federal power freely

Economic issues – opposed to concentrating power in the federal government / institutions

 

Biddle’s Institution - 248

Bank of the United States – Philadelphia – Nicholas Biddle (Alan Greenspan of his day)

·        ·        Only place where federal government could deposit its funds

·        ·        Credit to growing enterprises

·        ·        Issued bank notes – dependable medium of exchange nationwide

·        ·        Jackson determined to destroy it

 

Opponents:

·        ·        Soft Money – more currency, unsupported by gold & silver

·        ·        Hard Money – gold and silver only basis for money (Jackson’s position)

 

Charter set to expire in 1836

·        ·        1832 – bill to renew charter

·        ·        Approved by congress

·        ·        Vetoed by Jackson

·        ·        Congress failed to override the veto

 

 

The “Monster” Destroyed – 249

 

Jackson re-elected with Van Buren in 1836

Jackson decided to remove government deposits from the Bank

·        ·        Treasury Secretary feared destabilization – refused order

o       o       Fired by Jackson – appoints new Treasury Secretary

·        ·        New secretary refuses to remove deposits

o       o       Fired by Jackson – appoints new Treasury Secretary

·        ·        Roger B. Taney – (future CJ Supreme Court)

o       o       Moves governments deposits to a number of state banks

Biddle

·        ·        Called in loans and raised interest rates

·        ·        Created recession – hoping to force congress to re-charter the bank

 

Both Jackson and Biddle acting recklessly

·        ·        Biddle ultimately reversed himself

·        ·        Jackson won the political victory

·        ·        Bank expired in 1836

·        ·        Fragmented and unstable banking system for the better part of the next 100 years

 

The Taney Court – 250

 

1835 – John Marshall (last of the Federalists) dies

Jackson appoints Roger B. Taney as Chief Justice

Modify Marshall’s vigorous nationalism

 

Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge - 1837

 

·        ·        Charles River Bridge Co. had a long standing charter from the state to operate a toll bridge

·        ·        Claimed the charter was a “contract”

·        ·        Marshall court ruled states had no right to abrogate contracts

·        ·        New Warren bridge would abrogate the contract

 

Court, under Taney’s leadership rules

·        ·        Object of government is to promote happiness

·        ·        State’s obligation of happiness took precedence over contract

·        ·        State could abrogate to effect well being of the community

 

Who owned Charles River Bridge?

·        ·        Old money, eastern aristocrats from Harvard

 

Jacksonian Ideal –

·        ·        Key to democracy was an expansion of economic opportunity, which would not occur if older corporations could maintain monopolies and choke off competition from newer companies

 

7. The differences in party philosophy between the Democrats and the Whigs, the reasons for the Whig victory in 1840, and the effect of the election on political campaigning.

 

The Changing Face of American Politics – 251

• Growing opposition to Jacksonian tactics
• Whigs – after the English party – who worked to limit the power of the King

 

Democrats and Whigs - 251

 

Democrats in the 1830s

·        ·        Envisioned a steadily expanding economic / political opportunity for white males

·        ·        Government should be limited to attacking centers of corrupt privilege

·        ·        Not allow artificial privilege to stifle (white male) opportunity

·        ·        Strong among small merchants, workingmen NE, southern planters suspicious of industrial growth

·        ·        Supported by Irish and German Catholics

 

Whigs (Whiggery)

·        ·        Expanded the power of the federal government

·        ·        Encouraging industrial and commercial development

·        ·        Consolidated economic system

·        ·        Cautious westward expansion

·        ·        Strong among merchants / manufactures in the northeast, wealthy southern planters, ambitious farmers and rising commercial class of the west

·        ·        Wealthier than democrats – aristocratic backgrounds

·        ·        Supported by Evangelical Protestants

·        ·        No single leader – more position based –

 

Whigs aligned with the anti-Mason frenzy

·        ·        Society of Freemasons – secret society

·        ·        William Morgan disappeared before publishing Masonic secrets

·        ·        Whigs attacked Jackson and Van Buren – both Masons.

8. The reasons why John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster were never able to reach their goal—the White House.

 

 

Whig Leaders – Great Triumvirate: Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun

·        ·        Henry Clay

o       o       American Plan

o       o       Ran for president 3 times – never won

 

·        ·        Daniel Webster

o       o       Great orator (public speaker)

o       o       Aligned with the Bank of the United States

o       o       Favored protective tariffs

o       o       Reliance on privileged class for financial support

o       o       Fondness for brandy

 

·        ·        John C. Calhoun

o       o       Nullification Controversy did him in

o       o       Supported in the South

o       o       Supported the National Bank

 

Whigs could not consolidate behind a single candidate

 

9. The causes of the Panic of 1837, and the effect of the panic on the presidency of Van Buren.

Van Buren and the Panic of 1837 - 252

 

Jackson retired from public life in 1837

Van Buren inherited economic difficulties – devastated Democrats / helped Whigs

 

1836 election – nationwide economic boom

·        ·        Canal and Railroad building at a peak

·        ·        Money plentiful, credit easy

·        ·        Land business booming from federal land sales

·        ·        Federal budget surplus – government out of debt

·        ·        Surplus distributed to states – spent on roads, railroads, canals

·        ·        Withdrawal of federal funds from state banks caused state banks to have to call in their loans

·        ·        Land being sold for state bank paper money

Specie Circular

·        ·        Jackson issues proclamation that public lands only bought by gold or silver or paper backed by same

·        ·        Produced a financial panic

o       o       Banks and businesses failed

o       o       Unemployment grew

o       o       Bread riots

o       o       Projects failed

o       o       Worst depression in history – lasted 5 years

o       o       Political catastrophe for Van Buren

Distribution of treasury surplus weakened the state banks as did the Specie Circular

Panic of 1837 occurred in a Democratic administration – they paid the price.

Van Buren opposed government intervention in the economy

1840 – Van Buren’s Independent Treasury – “government bank” divorced from other banks

 

The Log Cabin Campaign - 254

 

1840 – Whig convention – William Henry Harrison and John Tyler

Harrison famed Indian fighter

 

Harrison – frontier aristocrat, presented as simple man of log cabin & hard cider tastes

It won the votes… 234 - 60

 

The Frustration of the Whigs – 254

 

Old Tippecanoe died one month after taking office

Tyler succeeded to the presidency

 

Tyler was a former Democrat

In practical terms – Tyler became a Democrat again

·        ·        Refused to support a re-charter of the Bank of US

·        ·        Vetoed several internal improvement bills

·        ·        Finally voted out of the Whig party

 

Tyler and a small band of conservative southern Whigs rejoined the Democrats

·        ·        Promoted expansion of slavery

·        ·        Championed states rights

10. The negotiations that led to the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, and the importance of the treaty in Anglo-American relations.

 

Whig Diplomacy - 255

 

Two incidents with Great Britain

·        ·        Caroline – ship running war materials – American killed

o       o       Briton arrested – Britain protests, threatens war

o       o       Briton acquitted – situation defused

 

·        ·        US / Canadian border dispute

o       o       Settled by Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842

o       o       Border survives to the current period

o       o       Longest undefended international border in the world

 

Trade opened with China – increased steadily for 10 years

1844 – Whigs lost the White House – would win only one more national election before 1860

 

 

 

 

"Tales of the Early Republic" including "Jacksonian Miscellanies" Archives
Censure of President Andrew Jackson and his response to the Senate

 

There was once another charming president from the South, a man who committed acts of adultery, which were forgiven by much of the public. He was a president many in congress wanted to impeach but a man they decided to censure. Commentator Richard Rosenfeld provides details of this tale, the story of our seventh president. "Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, the great Democrat, the first president born in a log cabin, who went through a marriage ceremony and lived for two years with a woman before her real husband divorced her on the basis of her adultery with Jackson. Jackson claimed that he didn't know that that woman was already married, and he did re-marry her when she got her divorce. So the public forgave Andrew Jackson, electing him to the house, then to the senate, then to the presidency. You see, the public loved Andy Jackson but his congressional opponents did not. When Jackson as president, began to dismantle the congressionally sanctioned Bank of the United States and to shift federal funds to state charted banks, those congressional opponents cried out that he had exceeded his presidential authority, violated the constitution, and his presidential oath to uphold the law. But those opponents didn't hold a majority in the house of representatives to vote articles of impeachment, and they didn't have a two-thirds majority in the senate which is what they would have needed to convict. All they had was a simple majority in the senate which they used in March of 1834 to vote a resolution of censure against Old Hickory for violating the constitution, for violating the law. Some feared old soldier Jackson would send fellow soldiers to clear the senate chamber, but the president sent a message instead, which accused the senate itself of violating the constitution and argued that each of the three government branches is, in Jackson's words, 'the co-equal of the other two and all are the servants of the American people without power or right to control or censure each other.' He said that unless congress wanted to impeach the president, they could not judge him because, in Jackson's words, 'the president is the direct representative of the American people. Only to the people does the president have to account.' But the senate stood firm and re-enacted the censure, remaining firm that is, until two congressional elections later, when the voters had reconstituted the senate, sending a message that members couldn't ignore. So just weeks before Jackson left the presidential office, bedridden with disease and exhausted from his battles, he learned that a reconstituted senate had rescinded the censure and expunged it completely from the Congressional Record. The public who loved Andy Jackson had spoken, once again. When we're thinking about censure as an alternative to impeachment, we might think about Old Hickory, his congress, and his time, and whether censure doesn't preserve for the public two of democracy's greatest advantages which are the continuing right to judge our presidents and the continuing right to change our congresses' mind." The comments of author and historian Richard Rosenfeld. Copyright (c) 1998 National Public Radio. Morning Edition, November 30, 1998

 Summary

At first glance, Andrew Jackson seems a study in contradictions: an advocate of states' rights who forced South Carolina to back down in the nullification controversy; a champion of the West who removed the Indians from land east of the Mississippi River and who issued the specie circular, which brought the region's "flush times" to a disastrous halt; a nationalist who allowed Georgia to ignore the Supreme Court; and a defender of majority rule who vetoed the Bank after the majority's representatives, the Congress, had passed it. Perhaps he was, as his enemies argued, simply out for himself. But in the end, few would argue that Andrew Jackson was a popular president, if not so much for what he did as for what he was. Jackson symbolized what Americans perceived (or wished) themselves to be--defiant, bold, independent. He was someone with whom they could identify. So what if the image was a bit contrived, it was still a meaningful image. Thus Jackson was reelected by an overwhelming majority and was able to transfer that loyalty to his successor, a man who hardly lived up to the image. But all this left a curious question unanswered. Was this new democracy voting for leaders whose programs they favored or, rather, for images that could be altered and manipulated almost at will? The answer was essential for the future of American politics, and the election of 1840 gave the nation a clue.

 

Chapter 10: America’s Economic Revolution

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Ten should enable the student to understand:

1. The changes that were taking place within the nation in terms of population growth, population movement, urbanization, and the impact of immigration.

2. The importance of the Erie Canal for the development of the West and of New York City.

3. The changes that were taking place in transportation, business, industry, labor, and commerce as the full impact of the industrial revolution was felt in the United States.

4. The reasons why the Northeast and Northwest tended to become more dependent on each other, while the South became isolated from the rest of the nation in the 1840s and 1850s.

5. The vast changes taking place in the Northeast as agriculture declined while urbanization and industrialization progressed at a rapid rate.

6. The characteristics of the greatly increased immigration of the 1840s and 1850s, and the immigrants' effects on the development of the free states.

7. The reasons for the appearance of the nativist movement in the 1850s.

8. The living and working conditions of both men and women in the northern factory towns and on the northwestern farms.

 

Glossary

1. division of labor: The assigning of various duties to various workers rather than having one worker do an entire project. As a result, the worker becomes more specialized, more competent, and more productive.
2. industrial capitalist: One who invests capital in manufacturing.
3. merchant capitalist: One who invests capital in the buying, selling, and shipping of goods, but not in their production.
4. antebellum: The period preceding the Civil War
5. landed gentry: Especially in England, the element of society which inherited land and the family estates, generally the first born son, primogeniture.  Not royalty, but probably a low to middle member of the aristocracy.
6. nativism: a defense of native-born people and a hostility to the foreign born, usually combined with a desire to stop or slow immigration.

 

Chapter  10  -  America’s Economic Revolution - 260

 

Pre 1812 – an agrarian nation (nation of farmers)

Modest / expanding manufacturing – mostly in the northeast

Primarily local vs. national / international economies

 

By 1861 (Civil War) economic transformation

National and international market economy

• Manufacturing sector
• Early stages of an American Industrial Revolution
• Even Cotton as an international commodity

 

Two distinct cultures were developing – North and South

North:

• Economic, social, cultural, and political changes
• Modern manufacturing, factory vs. home based
• Large cities
• Profitable commercial farming
• An unequal society – classes – SES
• Based on free labor
• Most Americans still lived east of the Mississippi River
• Farms west of the Mississippi tended to be larger, commercial ventures
• Linked to the capitalist economy of the Northeast

 

South:

• Southern agriculture – primarily cotton
• Demand for cotton from New England textile mills
• Similar demand for cotton from England
• South remained less economically developed
• Based on slave labor with a near pathological defense of the “peculiar institution”
• Economically, the South was being left behind – and choosing to be left behind

 

The Changing American Population - 262

 

Prerequisites to the American Industrial Revolution

• Farming population large enough and efficient to grow its own food and provide food for the industrial economy
• Transportation / Communication systems to support commerce over a wide geographic area
• Technology to permit large scale manufacturing
• Business organizations capable of managing an industrial enterprise
• By 1860, the North was thus positioned

 

1. The changes that were taking place within the nation in terms of population growth, population movement, urbanization, and the impact of immigration.

 

The American Population 1820 – 1840 – 262

 

1820 – 1840 – dramatic population increase

·        ·        Concentrated in the northeast and northwest (Midwest)

·        ·        Supported a growing factory system

·        ·        Three trends

o       o       Increasing population

o       o       Migrating westward

o       o       Moving to towns and cities

§         §         Eastern farms smaller, poorer soil than western farms – competition difficult

 

Year	Population
1790	4 million
1820	10 million
1830	13 million
1840	17 million

 

·        ·        Improvements in public health

·        ·        Fewer epidemics

·        ·        Lower mortality rate – longer life expectancy

·        ·        High birth rate – 6.14 children – white women

·        ·        Lower infant / childhood mortality

·        ·        Lower immigration 1800 – 30

·        ·        Higher immigration in 1830s – 50s

o       o       Irish Catholics – many to the northeast

 

1790 – 1 in 30 lived in a city

1820 – 1 in 20 lived in a city

1840 – 1 in 12  lived in a city

Most cities in the north / northeast

 

New York City – 1800s

·        ·        Largest city

·        ·        Superior natural harbor

·        ·        Erie Canal (1825) gave it access to the interior – as far a Minnesota / Wisconsin

·        ·        Liberal state laws attractive to foreign and domestic commerce

·        ·        Situated between Boston and Philadelphia (Baltimore, Washington)

 

Immigration and Urban Growth, 1840 – 1860 - 263

 

Growth in the Cities

City	Year	Population
NYC	1840	312,000
	1860	805,000 – 1,200,000 counting Brooklyn
Philadelphia	1840	220,000
	1860	565,000
Boston	1840	93,000
	1860	177,000
All Towns/Cities	1840	14% of national population
	1860	26% of national population

 

Between 1820 – 1860 river and canal traffic contributed to the rapid growth of:

·        ·        St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville (Mississippi River)

·        ·        Buffalo, Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Chicago (Canals & Lakes)      

 

1860 – America’s population larger than Britain’s – the original mother country

          From 104 men in 1607 Jamestown and 102 Pilgrims in 1620 (50% died the first winter)

 

1830 – 1860

·        ·        4 million immigrants – 87% in free states; of the 13% majority were in St. Louis

·        ·        NYC – 50% immigrants

 

·        ·        Significant Irish and German immigration in this period

·        ·        Also, England, France, Italy, Scandinavia, Poland, Holland

 

Push – Pull Immigration issues

·        ·        Germany – economic dislocation from industrial revolution / became farmers / had money

·        ·        Ireland – oppressive English rule, Potato famine (1,000,000 dead) / generally poor

·        ·         

2. The reasons for the appearance of the nativist movement in the 1850s.

 

The Rise of Nativism - 266

 

·        ·        Industrialists welcomed arrival of cheap labor

·        ·        Land speculators profited with the arrival of new farmers to the west

·        ·        Political leaders (west) welcomed increased population (statehood / influence / power)

o       o       Wisconsin – easy voting for newcomers – 1 yr, intention of seeking citizenship      

 

Nativism: defense of native-born people and a hostility to the foreign born, usually combined with a desire to stop or slow immigration

·        ·        Simple racism

·        ·        Overlook their own immigrant heritage

·        ·        Socially unfit – lacked standards of civilization

·        ·        Stealing jobs – willing to work for low wages

·        ·        Religious prejudice – particularly Catholic – influence of Rome / Pope

·        ·        Voting preferences (Democratic) – selling votes

 

Secret Societies   

·        ·        Native American Association – 1837 (whites, not Indians)

·        ·        Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner – 1850

o       o       Ban Catholics & foreign born from holding public office

o       o       Restrictive immigration laws

o       o       Literacy tests for voting

o       o       Strict code of secrecy

o       o       Their password… “I Know nothing”  - hence, became known as the Know nothings    

o       o       New political party – 1852 – American Party

§         §         Successful in NY, Penn, Mass.

§         §         Declined after 1854

§         §         Most significant impact

·        ·        Contributed to the collapse of existing party system

·        ·        Contributed to new national political alignments

                  

3. The importance of the Erie Canal for the development of the West and of New York City.

 

Transportation, Communications, and Technology – 268

 

Industrial Revolution / Expanding population required

• Efficient transportation / communication
• Access to food supplies

Serve as a catalyst to other technical advances and new knowledge

 

The Canal Age – 268

 

Roads alone inadequate

Larger rivers – flat barges – one way traffic – downstream only

Upstream vessels – 4 months to navigate the Mississippi

 

1820s – Steam powered boats – improved design, capacity, speed, passenger traffic

Canals – alternative to long circuitous route to market

 

Canals vs. Roads

Number of horses required to pull	Weight of Load	Distance per Day
4	3000 lbs	18 miles
4	200,000 lbs	24 miles

 

Digging a canal was a huge undertaking

·        ·        Distance

·        ·        Water at both ends

·        ·        Elevation changes (locks)

·        ·        $$$$$

 

Canals were largely state enterprises

·        ·        Erie Canal – New York –

o       o       Albany to Buffalo (Hudson River to Lake Erie)

o       o       Critical break in the Appalachian chain – Mohawk Valley

o       o       350 miles – 40 feet wide, 4 feet deep, towpaths on each side

o       o       88 locks

o       o       New York to Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, etc.

o       o       New York could now compete with New Orleans

 

·        ·        Indiana and Ohio

o       o       Additional canals creating a network linking northeast and northwest

o       o       Appalachian chain of mountains prohibited many other attempts

 

·        ·        Canals highly successful where feasible

·        ·        Canals limited by geography – would not serve the expanding west

·        ·        What’s next?

 

The Early Railroads – 273

 

Secondary role in the 1820s & 30s

It was a beginning – laid the groundwork

By mid to late century – railroads were the nation’s primary transportation system

 

Technological and entrepreneurial innovations

Tracks, steam powered locomotives, railroad cars passengers/freight, telegraph

 

Like canals –

·        ·        a significant capital investment

·        ·        Geographic challenges – but easier than canals

·        ·        Standardization – gauge of tracks – width between rails – time schedules

 

4. The reasons why the Northeast and Northwest tended to become more dependent on each other, while the South became isolated from the rest of the nation in the 1840s and 1850s.

 

 

The Triumph of the Rails – 273

 

By the start of the Civil War, the northeast had 4 times as much track as the South

·        ·        Railroads linked the Midwest and the East

·        ·        Eroded the link between the Midwest and South via the Mississippi

 

By 1860, Congress allots 30,000,000 acres to eleven states to assist railroad construction

 

Growth of the Railroads

 

Innovations in Communications and Journalism – 275

 

Telegraph develops along with the railroad

·        ·        Lines parallel the tracks

·        ·        Instant communication

·        ·        Since greater track miles in north / northwest vs. south

o       o       Greater socio-economic activity between north and northwest

o       o       Lesser socio-economic activity – hence isolation – with the south

 

1860 – 50,000 miles of telegraph wire – consolidated into Western Union

 

1846

·        ·        Steam Cylinder Rotary Press for newspapers – faster, better, cheaper

·        ·        Associated Press formed – cooperative news gathering by wire

 

Publishing…

·        ·        New York – Tribune, Herald, Times

·        ·        Most major magazines & newspapers printed in the north

·        ·        Further sense of subjugation in the South

o       o       Tribune & Herald circulation alone exceed circulation of all southern newspapers

·        ·        DeBow’s Review – 1846 - 1880

o       o       Advocating southern commercial and agricultural expansion

o       o       Many advertisements from northern manufacturing firms

o       o       Printed in NY – no New Orleans printer had adequate facilities

 

Growing sense of increasing sectional differences

5. The changes that were taking place in transportation, business, industry, labor, and commerce as the full impact of the industrial revolution was felt in the United States.

 

Commerce and Industry – 275

Modern Capitalist Economy

Advanced Industrial Capacity

 

The Expansion of Business, 1820 – 1840 - 276

Population Growth + Transportation Improvements + Entrepreneurial Spirit = Business Expansion

Retail specialization – grocery, hardware, dry goods

Rural areas – general stores – business by barter

 

Individual merchant giving way to the corporation

·        ·        Combining resources

·        ·        Limited risk – only lose the value of your investment

·        ·        Ease of incorporation – no longer required state legislature approval

·        ·        Enables larger manufacturing and business enterprises

·        ·        Corporations could get credit – minimally functional banking system

 

Bank failures were frequent

Bank deposits were insecure

Impediment to economic growth

 

The Emergence of the Factory – 277

 

Factory replacing household as a center for manufacturing

New England textile industry

New machines – larger – water powered

All under one roof

Shoe industry

Task Specialization – one component vs. entire product

Early 1800s – America still catching up to Europe / Britain

By 1840, Europeans traveling to US to observe methods

 

Advances in Technology – 277

 

Year	Value of Factory Goods
1840	$  483,000,000
1850	$1,000,000,000
1860	$2,000,000,000

 

1860 – value of manufactured goods equals agricultural products

More than half of manufacturing facilities located in the northeast

Northeast produces more than 2/3^rd of all manufactured goods

 

Industries remained immature – efficiencies would increase over time

Principle of interchangeable parts aids factory efficiencies

Coal replacing wood – steam replacing water

Enabled locating factories away from streams

 

Pittsburgh is the coal producing center – 280 times increase in demand in 40 years

 

Year	Patented Inventions
1830	544
1850	993
1860	4,778

 

Innovations in Corporate Organization - 278

 

Merchant capitalism declining in favor of manufacturing

Declining profitability of export trade – British competition – government subsidies

New investments in factories

·        ·        Northeast merchant class had existing capital and Entrepreneurial Spirit

·        ·        1840s – corporate organization spreading

·        ·        Moving away from individuals and families toward stockholders

·        ·        Industrial capitalists became the new ruling class – NE aristocrats

·        ·        Economic dominance – political influence

 

6. The vast changes taking place in the Northeast as agriculture declined while urbanization and industrialization progressed at a rapid rate.

 

Men and Women at Work - 278

Recruiting a Native Work Force - 278

 

Difficulty recruiting labor – 90% lived on farms

Skilled artisans – independent – managed their own shops

 

Transformation of American agriculture

·        ·        Increased food production – Midwest soil, tools, transportation

·        ·        Fewer workers required

·        ·        Inter-region food shipments

·        ·        Unprofitable smaller farms

·        ·        Rural folk migrate to cities

 

New York / Philadelphia System

·        ·        Import entire families – parents / children work in the mills

 

Lowell / Waltham system

·        ·        Young women – farmers daughters

o       o       Worked, saved, married – factory or hometown – assumed domestic roles

o       o       Factory provided dormitories – clean – supervised – curfews – church attendance

o       o       Low wages

o       o       Cultural problems…

§         §         Difficult transition from farm to factory

§         §         Living among strangers

§         §         Loneliness / disorientation

§         §         Long hours – sunrise to sunset

§         §         Tedious monotonous jobs

o       o       Few options

§         §         Barred from construction, work as sailors, docks

§         §         Could not travel alone

·        ·        Lowell system collapsed due to competitive costs – too expensive to run

 

Factory Girls Association – 1834

·        ·        Labor Union

o       o       Struck to protest 25% wage cut

o       o       Struck 2 years later to protest a rent increase

o       o       Lost both strikes

 

Mill girls gradually found other occupations – teaching, domestic service, marriage

·        ·        The Beecher Tradition

Mills gravitated towards immigrant labor

 

Labor conditions better than England – that isn’t saying much

England – children, especially orphans, hired out to mills

US – children worked close to parents – parental supervision

 

The Immigrant Work Force – 281

 

1840s increasing supply of immigrant labor

Boon to manufacturers

Low cost – women paid less than men – immigrants paid less than women

 

Irish immigrants – heavy unskilled work – turnpikes, canals, railroads

Difficult to make enough to minimally support their families

 

Irish dominate NE textile mills

Mill pay piece rate

Lowell – once enlightened labor mecca – labor slum

 

Factories – large, noisy, unsanitary, dangerous, long hours 12 – 14 hours per day

 

             Weekly wages

Skilled Male	$4 - $10
Unskilled Male	$1 - $6
Women	Less than unskilled male
Immigrants	Less than women

 

 

The Factory System and the Artisan Tradition – 282

 

Artisans suffered from the factory system – competition

·        ·        Older, Jeffersonian version of America was disappearing

·        ·        Skilled artisans were losing

o       o       Economic independence

o       o       Social / economic position in society

o       o       Unable to compete with mass produced items

 

Skilled workers formed craft unions for mutual aid

Individual unions federated with each other – strength in numbers

Early craft movement was not a success

Courts viewed a combination among workers as an illegal conspiracy

 

Fighting for Control – 282

 

Workers pressed with little success - state legislatures to set maximum work day laws

·        ·        Massachusetts, New Hampshire, & Pennsylvania passed laws

o       o       limiting child labor to 10 hours per day,  unless their parents agreed to something longer

o       o       Of course, if parents did not agree, they got fired.

 

Massachusetts State Supreme Court

·        ·        Commonwealth v. Hunt – 1842

o       o       Unions were lawful organizations

o       o       Strikes were a legal action for unions

Industrial workers were usually not large enough or strong enough to strike

 

Artisans & skilled workers

·        ·        More in common with preindustrial guilds than modern labor unions

·        ·        Restricted admission to skilled trades

·        ·        Women excluded

 

Female protective unions had little power

 

Status of Labor 1840 – 1860

·        ·        Modest power, if any at all

·        ·        Weakened by availability of immigrant labor

o       o       Willing to work for lower wages / conditions

·        ·        Internal conflict within the organizations

·        ·        Inability to focus collective efforts against employers

·        ·        Strength of capitalists

o       o       Political and social power

 

Patterns of Industrial Society – 283

 

Selected economically developed regions

Dramatically wealthier

Increasing gap between rich and poor

Transforming social relationships

7. The living and working conditions of both men and women in the northern factory towns and on the northwestern farms.

 

The Rich and the Poor – 283

 

Commercial and industrial growth elevated average income

Wealth distributed highly unequally

Slaves, Indians, landless farmers, unskilled labor – bottom of the barrel

1860 – 5% of the population possessed more than 50% of the nation’s wealth

Merchants / Industrialists accumulating enormous wealth

·        ·        Culture of wealth emerges

·        ·        Neighborhoods of astonishing opulence

·        ·        Private clubs

·        ·        Great mansions

·        ·        High society homes of Newport, RI

 

Flip side of the coin…

·        ·        Significant population of destitute people

·        ·        No resources, homeless, dependent on charity

·        ·        Failed to find work or adjust to life

·        ·        Victims of native prejudice

o       o       Irish were victims

o       o       Free blacks were most victimized

§         §         Urban centers had black populations

§         §         Life often not much better – in some cases worse – than slavery

§         §         Freedom of movement but -

§         §         Could not vote

§         §         Could not attend public schools

 

Social Mobility – 285

 

Absolute living standard of most laborers was improving

Better for factory workers than on the farms or in Europe

Better fed, better clothed

Significant amount of mobility within the working class

Very small number of rags to riches stories

Not uncommon to move up the ladder one rung – unskilled to skilled

 

High geographic mobility

·        ·        Much of the west opened for settlement in 1840s & 1850s

·        ·        Frederick Jackson Turner – “safety valve” for discontent

·        ·        Urban workers lacked means or expertise to take advantage

·        ·        Laborers more likely to move from town to town

·        ·        Made labor organization more difficult

·        ·        Political participation offered another “safety valve”

 

Middle Class Life – 285

 

Middle class – fastest growing group

Growth of industrial / commercial economy

·        ·        Own or work in business

·        ·        Own shops

·        ·        Engage in trade

·        ·        Enter professions

Commerce and industry permitted accumulation of wealth without land ownership

·        ·        Europe – land ownership limited - wealth measured in controlled land

·        ·        US – unlimited land opportunities – wealth can also occur from controlling labor

Middle class – think about these “advances in lifestyle”

·        ·        Lived in solid, often substantial homes

·        ·        Own their own homes

·        ·        Women often were “stay at home moms”

·        ·        Had servants – young unmarried women

·        ·        Cast iron stove for cooking & heat

·        ·        Increased variety of foods including meats, grains, dairy products

·        ·        Some had iceboxes

·        ·        More elaborately decorated and furnished – carpeting, wallpaper

·        ·        Separate bedrooms

·        ·        Indoor plumbing

 

The Changing Family -286

 

Movement of families from farms to urban areas

·        ·        Fathers no longer controlled land distribution to sons

·        ·        Sons and daughters more likely to leave the family in search of work

·        ·        Income earning work performed outside the home

·        ·        Family no longer the principal unit of economic activity

 

Farms of the Northwest

·        ·        Size and profitability of the farms expanded

·        ·        Commercialized farming

·        ·        More hired male farm hands – replaced women and children’s chores

·        ·        Increased domesticity of farm women – removed as income producers

·        ·        Women had lower economic status in the family

 

Families in the industrial economy

·        ·        Decline in traditional family economic function

·        ·        Income earners worked outside the home

·        ·        Public workplace / private family

o       o       Family dominated by housekeeping & children

o       o       Dominated by women

·        ·        Decline in birthrate most notable among middle class women

o       o       Some access to birth control devices

o       o       Rise in abortions (20%)

o       o       Increased abstinence

·        ·        Size of family and social goals became an economic decision

·        ·        Sign of increasingly secular, rationalized, progressive viewpoint

 

Women and the “Cult of Domesticity” – 288

 

Distinction between public and private worlds

Increasing distinction between social roles of men and women

·        ·        Women long denied legal & political rights

·        ·        Husband / father traditionally ruled

·        ·        Women unable to obtain divorces

o       o       Men would retain custody of children

o       o       Wife beating was illegal in only a few states

·        ·        Women did not speak before public audiences (meetings)

·        ·        Less access to education – elementary level only

·        ·        Oberlin College, Ohio – first female students in 1837 (4)

 

In industrial society,

·        ·        Husband remained head of the family

·        ·        Women relegated from income producer to domestic home maker

·        ·        Women were guardians of domestic virtues

o       o       Mediator, peacekeeper, moral guidance for children –

o       o       Custodian of morality and benevolence

o       o       Religious instruction

·        ·        Limited opportunity – marriage, teachers, nurses, domestic servants

·        ·        Unmarried women dependent upon generosity of relatives

·        ·        Separate sphere

o       o       Female friendships, social networks, literature

o       o       Increasingly isolated from the public / business world

o       o       In all… a “Cult of Domesticity”

 

Leisure Activities (Urban) – 289

 

Leisure the exclusive province of the wealthy

·        ·        Most people worked long hours

·        ·        Worked Saturday

·        ·        No vacations

·        ·        Sundays reserved for religion and pious rest

·        ·        No commercial activity on Sunday

·        ·        Holidays became important – 4^th of July – one vacation day per year

 

For the educated / wealthier who had time…

·        ·        Reading – newspapers, magazines, books

·        ·        Women – Romance Novels

·        ·        Theaters – Shakespeare, minstrel shows (blackface)

·        ·        Sports – boxing, horse racing, cockfighting

·        ·        Circus – P.T. Barnum

·        ·        Lectures – Science or Travels

 

The Agricultural North – 292

 

Most remained tied to the agricultural world

Could not compete in the commercial Northeast

Simultaneously flourished in the Northwest

 

Northeastern Agriculture – 292

 

In the Northeast – decline and transformation after 1840

·        ·        Could not compete with the richer soil of the northwest

·        ·        Wheat, corn, grapes, cattle, sheep, hogs

o       o       In 1840 – NY, Penn, Ohio, Virginia

o       o       In 1860 – Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan

·        ·        Some eastern farmers moved west

·        ·        Some survived – focus on fresh vegetables & fruits, potatoes

·        ·         

8. The reasons why the Northeast and Northwest tended to become more dependent on each other, while the South became isolated from the rest of the nation in the 1840s and 1850s.

 

The Old Northwest – 293

 

1840 – 1860 steady industrial growth (canals / railroads)

1860 – 35,000 manufacturing establishments

Industrial areas along the waterways – Great Lakes / Rivers / canals

Industry served agriculture – farm implements / processing farm goods

Meatpacking, leather, flour milling

In the north - still the frontier – many Indians – sedentary agriculture

 

Most farms prosperous

·        ·        200 acres – owned by those who worked them

·        ·        Single crop for market

·        ·        Good water routes – New York, New Orleans

·        ·        Strong economic relationship to the East

o       o       Feeding an industrialized nation (East)

o       o       East providing industrial goods to the northwest farmers

o       o       Profitable to both – isolating to the South

 

Increased production by expanding settlement and new agricultural techniques

·        ·        Reduced labor requirements

·        ·        Better soil conservation

·        ·        Hardier varieties of crops and farm stock

·        ·        Improved tools – steel plows, reaper, thresher (7 bushels/day to 25/hour)

Opportunity abounded for white males – very democratic (small d)

 

Rural Life - 294

 

Different from life in the cities; varied from region to region

Institutions defined the community: churches, schools, stores, taverns

Further west meant greater isolation

Towns often defined by common social and religious backgrounds

Mutual aid – barn raisings, harvesting, quilting & canning bees

Less contact with popular culture

Communication with the outside world through writings, magazines, etc.

Separation, autonomy, freedom, and challenges.

 

 

 Summary

During this period a combination of a rapid growth in population, the expansion of communication and transportation systems, and the development of an agricultural system sufficient to feed an urban population gave rise to the American industrial revolution. The two sections of the nation most affected by this were the Northeast and the Northwest, which were drawn closer together as a result. Canals, railroads, and the telegraph made it easier to move goods and information. Business expanded as corporations began to shape the world of trade and commerce. Technological innovations helped expand industries, and soon the factory system began to replace the artisan tradition. In the Northwest, agriculture also expanded to meet the increasing demand for farm products. All of this had profound implications for American men and women, both in the way they worked and in their family lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11: Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South

 

The South is a place.  East, west, and north are nothing but directions.

Letter to the editor, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1995, as quoted in Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, (Pantheon Books, New York, 1998), 18.

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Eleven should enable the student to understand:

1. The significance of the shift of economic power from the "upper South" to the "lower South."

2. How cotton became "king," and the role it played in shaping the "southern way of life."

3. How trade and industry functioned under the southern agricultural system.

4. The structure of southern society, and the role of an enslaved people in that society.

5. The place of the South, with its increasing reliance on King Cotton, in the nation's economy.

6. The continuing historical debate over the South, its "peculiar institution," and the effects of enslavement on the blacks.

 

Glossary

1. manumission: The act of freeing a slave.
2. planter: A term used to identify one of those southerners whose combination of land and slaves was such that they stood out as the prominent staple producers in their area. A social as well as an economic designation, it was used to identify the agricultural elite in the South.

Chapter 11: Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South - 299

The South is a place.  East, west, and north are nothing but directions.

Letter to the editor, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1995, as quoted in Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, (Pantheon Books, New York, 1998), 18.

 

Growth Without Development

·        ·        1860 – South remains a primarily agrarian / agriculture region

·        ·        Few important cities – little industry

·        ·        Economic system dominated by plantation system and slave labor

·        ·        The South Grew but it did not develop

·        ·        Increasingly sensitive to what it considered to be threats to its distinctive way of life

 

 

1. The significance of the shift of economic power from the "upper South" to the "lower South."

 

The Cotton Economy – 298

·        ·        Shift of economic power from the “upper South” original states (Atlantic Coast) to…

·        ·        “lower South” – expanding agriculture regions of new southwest (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)

·        ·        Dominance of cotton in the southern economy

 

The Rise of King Cotton - 298

1800s

·        ·        Upper South – Virginia, Maryland, parts of North Carolina

o       o       Tobacco

§         §         Cash crop – unstable, fluctuating market

§         §         Depleted the soil – switch to other crops – wheat

§         §         Tobacco farming moves west into the Piedmont

·        ·        Coastal South – coastal South Carolina, Georgia, parts of Florida

o       o       Rice – stable, lucrative

§         §         Long growing season – limited growing area

·        ·        Gulf Coast

o       o       Sugar cultivation

§         §         Profitable, stable

§         §         Intensive debilitating labor

§         §         Limited to relatively wealthy planters

·        ·        Lower South - Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana (later to include Texas & Arkansas)

·        ·        New cotton growing region following relocation of Indians 1820s & 30s

o       o       Short-Staple Cotton – new variety

§         §         Hardier and coarser strain of fiber

§         §         Tolerate a variety of warm climates and soils

§         §         Seeds more difficult to remove

·        ·        Resolved by the cotton gin

2. How cotton became "king," and the role it played in shaping the "southern way of life."

 

Demand for cotton growing rapidly

§         §         Textile industry

o       o       Britain 1820s & 30s

o       o       New England 1840s & 50s

1850 – cotton the lynchpin of southern economy

Cotton accounted for 2/3^rds of total export trade of US

 

Pull Migration

Economic opportunity attracted white settlers to the lower South

Non-cotton planters migrated to cotton

Small farmers hoped to move to the planter class

 

Expansion / Migration of Slavery

 

State	1820 Slave Population	1860 Slave Population
Alabama	41,000	435,000
Mississippi	32,000	436,000
Virginia	425,000	490,000

 

·        ·        Excess of slaves in the upper South

·        ·        Slaves sold, often with the breakup of families from upper South to lower South

·        ·        Some slave accompanied planters to new plantations in lower South (again with potential slave family breakup)

·        ·        Slave sales was a significant economic activity in the upper South

·        ·        What happened in 1808?

3. How trade and industry functioned under the southern agricultural system.

 

Southern Trade and Industry - 300

 

Some minor milling and textile growth in the upper South

·        ·        Largely insignificant to the entire economy – 2%

Commercial sector served the cotton agriculture

Brokers, Factors, buyers / sellers, bankers, suppliers

 

Lack of Development of Infrastructure

·        ·        Primitive banking system

·        ·        Lacking other basic services to support industrial growth

• Farming population large enough and efficient to grow its own food and provide food for the industrial economy
• Transportation / Communication systems to support commerce over a wide geographic area
• Technology to permit large scale manufacturing
• Business organizations capable of managing an industrial enterprise

 

South fell behind the North in terms of roads, canals, and railroads

• Southern railroads unconnected to the national railroad system

·        ·        “From the rattle with which the nurse tickles the ear of the child born in the South to the shroud that covers the cold form of the dead, everything comes to us from the North.”  Arkansas Journalist, Albert Pike

 

DeBow’s Review – 1846 - 1880

·        ·        Advocating southern commercial and agricultural expansion

·        ·        Many advertisements from northern manufacturing firms

·        ·        Printed in NY – no New Orleans printer had adequate facilities

4. The structure of southern society, and the role of an enslaved people in that society.

 

Sources of Southern Difference – 301

 

Region’s “colonial dependency”

Why did the South do so little to develop an industrial / commercial economy?

Why did it remain isolated and different from the North?

·        ·        Cotton Production –highly profitable

·        ·        Large capital investment in land and slaves

·        ·        Oppressive climate (hot / humid) less conducive to industrialization

·        ·        Lack of a strong work ethic – relative to the North

 

Cavalier Image

·        ·        Pseudo-Aristocracy

·        ·        Chivalry, Leisure, Honor – refined gracious way of life

·        ·        Free from the base, acquisitive instincts of the “Yankees”

5. The place of the South, with its increasing reliance on King Cotton, in the nation's economy.

 

White Society in the South – 302

Small number of southern whites owned slaves –

Year	% of whites owning slaves (white male head of household)	% of white families owning slaves (5 members per family)
1850	5.8	29.0  (5.8 * 5)
1860	4.7	23.5  (4.7 * 5*

Only a small proportion owned substantial numbers of slaves

 

The Planter Class – 302

 

Despite the numbers – South pictured as a society of great plantations and wealthy landowners

·        ·        Planter aristocracy

·        ·        Cotton magnates, sugar, rice, tobacco power brokers

·        ·        Whites who owned 50 or more slaves and 800 or more acres

·        ·        Exercised power far in excess of their n umbers

·        ·        Apex of political, economic, and social life

·        ·        Class to which others deferred

 

Planter class (self compared) to old English upper class

·        ·        Most cases, not similar at all – longstanding aristocracy was a myth

·        ·        New kids on the block – new money and power

·        ·        Most of the South unsettled as late as 1840

·        ·        Farming was a risky enterprise

·        ·        Struggled to attain position – determined to defend them

·        ·        Defense of Slavery and the South’s rights

 

Aristocratic Values

·        ·        Men avoided coarse occupations such as trade and commerce

·        ·        Some chose a suitable military career – knightly, honorable

·        ·        Special role for southern white women

 

“Honor” - 302

White males adopted an elaborate code of chivalry

Defense of their honor – dueling

Displays of courtesy

Isolate themselves from direct management of slaves

Dignity and authority – saving face

 

SC Congressman Preston Brooks

·        ·        In the US Senate chamber -

·        ·        Savagely beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane for insulting a relative

o       o       In the North, Brooks reviled as a savage

o       o       In the South, he became a popular hero

Avenging insults to white southern women was an important obligation

·        ·        The Murder of Emmett Till

 

 

The “Southern Lady” – 303

 

In some respects – similar to life of middle / upper class women of the North

Home centered

Companions and hostesses

Nurturing mothers

 

In the South…

Less access to education / 25% illiterate

Female academies trained southern women to be suitable wives

Southern white birth rate 20% higher

Higher infant mortality

 

White men more dominant / white women more subordinate

·        ·        The right to protection involves the obligation to obey

·        ·        Isolated lives – little access to the public world

·        ·        Involved in home / farm economics

·        ·        Spinning, weaving, agricultural tasks, slave supervision

Plantation Mistress

·        ·        Ornament for her husband

·        ·        Defended class lines that distinguished them from poorer whites

 

Slavery –

·        ·        Relieved women of arduous labor

·        ·        Afforded men “amorous” relationships

o       o       Sexual relationships with female slaves

o       o       Constant reminder of infidelity

 

The Plain Folk - 305

75% of all white families owned no slaves

Subsistence farmers

·        ·        1850s – non-slaveholding landowners increased faster than slaveholding landowners

·        ·        Little prospect of substantially improving themselves

 

Southern Education System – or lack of same…

·        ·        Poor whites – few educational opportunities / limited advancement

·        ·        Sons of the wealthy / upper class – ample opportunities for education

·        ·        500,000 illiterate whites – 50% of total illiterates in the country

 

So, where has this “progressed” to – what is the contemporary commentary?

 

Hill Country Southerners –

·        ·        Isolated – Appalachian / Ozarks

·        ·        Backcountry  - isolated from mainstream south

·        ·        No surplus crops – local barter

·        ·        Virtually no slaves – proud sense of seclusion / independence

·        ·        Fervent loyalty to the nation as a whole – resisted secession

 

Domination of Planters

 

Non-slave owning whites tied to plantation system economically / socially

·        ·        Access to cotton gins, markets, credit

·        ·        Kinship networks – poor to rich

·        ·        Politics – democratic within the South – voting, social events

·        ·        Office holders among the elites

·        ·        Male dominated / chauvinist culture – rich and poor

·        ·        Assault on any element of southern society seen as a first among many

·        ·        First slavery, then patriarchy

 

Crackers…

·        ·        Sand Hillers, Poor White Trash, Clay Eaters

·        ·        Poor – foraging / hunting

·        ·        Planters and small farmers held them in contempt

·        ·        Southern white underclass

·        ·        “From childhood, the one thing in their condition which has made life valuable to the mass of whites has been that the niggers are yet their inferiors.”

 

Slavery: The “Peculiar Institution”- 306

 

Slavery was largely eliminated in the Americas in the 1820s

·        ·        1850 - Except for Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Cuba

·        ·        The American South was the only area in the western world where slavery existed

·        ·        Greater isolation resulted in greater defense of the Peculiar Institution

 

Slavery isolated blacks from whites – socially / economically

Africans developed their own society and culture

6. The continuing historical debate over the South, its "peculiar institution," and the effects of enslavement on the blacks.

 

Varieties of Slavery - 307

 

Slavery established and regulated by law

·        ·        Slave Codes prohibited slaves

o       o       Owning property

o       o       Leave masters’ premises without permission

o       o       Being in public after dark

o       o       Congregating with other slaves – except church

o       o       Carrying firearms

o       o       To strike a white person – even in self defense

o       o       Testify against a white person in court

·        ·        Prohibited whites

o       o       Teaching slaves to read or write

 

Owners could kill a slave during the course of punishment without legal accountability

Slave faced death penalty for

·        ·        Resisting a white person

·        ·        Inciting revolt

 

Any trace of African ancestry was defined as black

 

Enforcement of slave codes was spotty and uneven

·        ·        Some slaves acquired property / learned to read & write

·        ·        Master / slave relationships varied

·        ·        Considerable variety within the system – often dependent on the size of plantation

·        ·        From tyranny to “paternalistic”

However – slaves were still property – still slaves

 

Life Under Slavery – 308

 

Generally, slaves received enough necessities to live and work

·        ·        They were property – expensive to replace

May have cultivated private gardens

Lived in slave shacks

Female slaves – slave chores plus domestic responsibilities

Less healthy than the white population

Higher death rate

Material conditions may have been better than northern and European factory workers

 

Use of hired labor for unhealthy or dangerous tasks

Irish used to

·        ·        Clear malarial swamps

·        ·        Handle cotton bales at the bottom of chutes

·        ·        If an Irish worker died, another could be hired for $1 per day or less

 

House slaves

·        ·        Easier physically

·        ·        More isolated from fellow slaves (companionship)

·        ·        Less privacy / transgressions more visible

·        ·        Females vulnerable to sexual abuse

·        ·        House servants more likely to leave upon emancipation

 

Slavery in the Cities – 310

 

Considerable market in southern cities for labor

Masters hired slave out:

·        ·        Common labor

·        ·        Mining

·        ·        Lumbering

·        ·        Dock workers

·        ·        Construction

·        ·        Females – in the few southern textile mills

 

Urban slaves intermingled – free blacks / slaves / whites

·        ·        Danger to southern society

·        ·        Slaves decreased in cities – particularly men

·        ·        Forced segregation of urban blacks

 

Free African Americans - 311

 

Some (few) managed to buy their families freedom

·        ·        Usually urban blacks

Some manumission by will (death)

1830s – state laws became more rigid

·        ·        Anti-abolitionist sentiment

·        ·        Free Africans prohibited from entering southern states

·        ·        Some forced freed slaves to leave the state

 

The Slave Trade – 311

 

Development of the southwest (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)

Transfer of slaves from upper to lower South

·        ·        Slave traders – minimal ethics – (rather redundant)

·        ·        Break up slave families, forced marches, dying gray hair to appear younger

·        ·        Domestic slave trade was necessary to the perpetuity of slavery

·        ·        Federal law outlawed importation in 1808 – 1^st constitutional opportunity

 

Slave Resistance – 312

 

Passive Resistance

·        ·        “Sambo” actions – expected by whites – slow, simple – work avoidance

·        ·        Losing / breaking tools

·        ·        Runaway slaves

·        ·        Underground Railroad

o       o       Assistance to runaways

o       o       Most runaways – high odds against success

o       o       White slave patrols

Some aggressive resistance – usually by individuals vs. groups

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

·        ·        Slave Rebellion – 1831 – Southampton, Virginia

·        ·        60 whites killed before being overpowered by state & federal troops

·        ·        Only 19^th century slave rebellion

 

Post Emancipation / Civil War

·        ·        Once freed – few chose to remain in service to former owners

 

The Culture of Slavery – 313

·        ·        Adaption

·        ·        No realistic alternative

·        ·        Sense of racial pride and unity

 

Language and Music - 313

 

“Pidgin” language – African / English

Slaves spoke different languages in Africa

Music a part of African culture

 

African-American Religion - 315

Autonomous black churches banned

Slaves assumed denominations of their masters

Modification included voodoo / polytheistic worship

More emotional religions –

·        ·        chanting, exclamations, joyous, affirming

·        ·        dream of freedom and deliverance

·        ·        Call us home, deliver us to freedom, take us to the Promised Land

 

The Slave Family - 315

 

Legality of marriages lacked formality of whites

No condemnation of premarital pregnancy

Early childbearing – 14 or 15

Marriage ceremony with vows - not state sanctioned

·        ·        Marriages occurred among slaves on different plantations

·        ·        Visits occurred in secret

·        ·        Families often broken up by slave trading – extended kinship networks

Women subject to sexual advances of masters – bearing their children

·        ·        Children became slaves

All slaves were dependent on white masters

·        ·        Material means of existence

·        ·        Security and protection

 

 Summary

In the 1830s and 1840s, as the societies of the North and South developed, the two diverged, and this had an impact on the growth of the nation. During the period both sections expanded physically and economically; but while the northern economy was characterized by industrial expansion, by the growth of transportation systems (especially railroads), and by an increasingly diverse population, the southern economy continued to rest on staple-crop agriculture and slave labor. This is not to say that the South did not experience many of the same changes felt in the North, but in comparison, the slave states' way of life seemed more rooted in the past than in the future. As the economic power of the region shifted from the "upper" South to the "lower," cotton became "king," and trade and business served this master. In a short period of time a planter class spread across the South, and though planters were a minority, they influenced society and politics far beyond their numbers. During this period the "cavalier" myth was born and the "Southern lady" made her appearance. Though most Southerners could be considered "plain folk," they supported the slaveholding elites and hoped someday to be part of it. All the while slaves worked, endured, resisted, and under the most trying of conditions created a culture that remains an important part of American life.
 

Chapter 12: Antebellum Culture and Reform

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Twelve should enable the student to understand:

1. The two basic impulses that were reflected in the reform movements, and examples of groups illustrating each impulse.

2. The contributions of a new group of literary figures (such as James Fenimore Cooper, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe) to American cultural nationalism.

3. The transcendentalists and their place in American society.

4. The sources of American religious reform movements, why they originated where they did, their ultimate objectives, and what their leadership had in common.

5. The two distinct sources from which the philosophy of reform arose.

6. American educational reform in the antebellum period, and the contribution of education to the growth of nationalism.

7. The role of women in American society, and the attempts to alter their relationships with men.

8. The origins of the antislavery movement, and the sources of its leadership.

9. The role of abolitionism in the antislavery movement, and the strengths and weaknesses of that part of the movement.

 

Glossary

1. romanticism: The intellectual movement that replaced the Age of Reason (rationalism). Stressing imagination, emotion, and sentiment, the movement emphasized individual thought and action as well as human goodness and equality.
2. socialism: A social, economic, and political theory based on collective ownership of the means of production and distribution, whereby the means of production and distribution are managed by the government for the people.
3. temperance: The use of moderation in one's indulgences. In the context of the reform movement, the abstinence from alcoholic drinks and ultimately the prohibition of these beverages.

 

1. The two basic impulses that were reflected in the reform movements, and examples of groups illustrating each impulse.

 

The Romantic Impulse – 320

• In arts and literature – romanticism: The intellectual movement that replaced the Age of Reason (rationalism). Stressing imagination, emotion, and sentiment, the movement emphasized individual thought and action as well as human goodness and equality.

 

Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting – 320

American  Paintings

Wonder of the nation’s landscape – wild spectacular areas

 

Hudson River School – nature – more than civilization – the best source of wisdom and spiritual fulfillment

 

 

2. The contributions of a new group of literary figures (such as James Fenimore Cooper, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe) to American cultural nationalism.

 

 

Literature and the Quest for Liberation – 320

 

• Walter Scott – British Novelist – Ivanhoe
• James Fenimore Cooper – American – Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer
• Walt Whitman – American Poems – Leaves of Grass
• Herman Melville – Moby Dick, Billy Budd
• Edgar Allan Poe – The Raven – exploring spirit and emotions

 

Literature in the Antebellum South – 321

• Beverly Tucker, William Alexander Caruthers, John Pendleton Kennedy (Richmond)
• Charleston – William Gilmore Simms – defender of southern institutions, including slavery
• Augustus B. Longstreet, Joseph G. Baldwin, Johnson J. Hooper – southern realists – common people
• Mark Twain – Samuel Clemens

 

 

3. The transcendentalists and their place in American society.

 

 

The Transcendentalists – 322

Individuals innate ability to grasp beauty and truth through instincts and emotion

• Ralph Waldo Emerson – committed nationalist – Concord Hymn
• Henry David Thoreau –
• Work for self realization by resisting pressures to conform to society’s expectation
• Walden – Resistance to Civil Government
• Individuals personal morality had the first claim on his or her actions, that a government which required violation of that morality had no legitimate authority. 
• Civil disobedience – public refusal to obey unjust laws.

 

• I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
  Henry David Thoreau
  Quotation from Walden

 

4. The sources of American religious reform movements, why they originated where they did, their ultimate objectives, and what their leadership had in common.

 

 

The Defense of Nature - 323

• Spirituality did not come from formal religion, but through communion with the natural world
• Expressed horror at the destruction of the wilderness
• Predecessor to the Environmental Movement
• Essential unity between humanity and nature

 

 

Visions of Utopia – 323

Experiments in communal living

• West Roxbury – individual freedom vs. communal society
• Failure of West Roxbury experiment
• New Harmony, Indiana – Robert Owen – philanthropist
• Village of Cooperation – economic failure

 

Redefining Gender Roles – 324

Early variation of feminism

Redefinition of gender roles crucial to utopian communities

• Oneida Community
• Rejected traditional notions of family and marriage
• All residents were married to other residents
• No permanent conjugal ties
• “Carefully monitored sexual behavior”
• Women liberated from demands of male lust
• Shakers
• Redefinition of sexuality and gender roles
• More than 20 communities in northeast and northwest
• Body trembles during religious experience
• Commitment to complete celibacy – no one born into Shakerism
• Male / female contact very limited
• Sexual equality
• Amana Community
• German immigrants
• Christian ideals by creating an ordered, socialist society

 

The Mormons – 325

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – Mormons

• Joseph Smith – upstate NY –
• The Book of Mormon – golden tablets found in NY hills
• Civilization in America – one of the lost tribes of Israel – pre-Columbian
• Jesus comes to America after his resurrection
• Subsequent generations strayed – civilization collapsed
• God punished the sinful by making their skin dark – descendents of American Indians
• Practiced polygamy
• Driven to multiple communities – settled in Nauvoo, Illinois
• Joseph Smith arrested (treason)
• Crowd storms the jail
• Capture Smith, shoot and kill him
• New leader, Brigham Young leads Mormons to Salt Lake City
• Religious rituals celebrate ancestors / reunification in heaven
• Mormons retain intense interest in genealogy

 

 

5. The two distinct sources from which the philosophy of reform arose.

 

 

Remaking Society – Revivalism, Morality, and Order – 327

• Optimistic vision – rejection of Calvinist doctrines (predestination)
• Embraced Unitarianism and Universalism
• Protestant Revivalism
• Individual was capable of salvation
• May be created by individual effort
• Popular along the Erie Canal – multiple revivals
• Result of canal construction / economic transformation / social fabric
• More successful mobilizing women
• Crusade against personal immorality
• Temperance – the Moral Reform

         

The Temperance Crusade - 327

Crusade against drunkenness

• Women at the core of the movement
• Impact on women
• Money spent on alcohol denies families basic necessities
• Abuse of wives and children
• Western farmers – grew more grain than they could sell
• Distilled into whiskey
• Average male in 1830s consumed 3 times the alcohol of a contemporary male
• Society for the Promotion of Temperance
• Promoting abstinence, - promote self improvement of individuals
• Some towns adopted temperance as part of their structure (and name)

 

Map of Temperance, Michigan

 

 

 

Health Fads and Phrenology – 328

Interest in new theories of health and knowledge

No understanding of bacteria, antibiotics, virus

Health Spas – water cures

Dietary theories – Sylvester Graham – invented the Graham Cracker as a  health food

Phrenology

• Shape of the skull indicated character and intelligence
• Size and strength of different parts of the brain
• Determined an individuals fitness for various positions in life
• We now know this had no scientific value at all

           

Medical Science – 329

Science of medicine lagged behind other technologies

• Required humans as subjects
• No medical practice regulations – quacks and snake oil salesmen
• Lack of basic knowledge of disease
• No knowledge of how disease was transmitted
• Edward Jenner – vaccination against smallpox
• William Morton – (dentist) ether         
• Both met with resistance from the medical elite
• Contagion identified as a disease transmittal method 1843
• Ignaz Semmelweis – medical students to wash hands
•  

6. American educational reform in the antebellum period, and the contribution of education to the growth of nationalism

 

Reforming Education – 330

Need for a system of public education

• Belief in innate capacity of every person and of society’s obligation
• Promote stable social values – resist instability (indoctrination vs. education)
• Horace Mann – Massachusetts
• Counterwork tendency to the domination of capital and servility of labor
• Reorganized Massachusetts school system
• Lengthened the academic year (to 6 months)
• Doubled teachers’ salaries (yeah!)
• Enriched curriculum
• Methods for professional training
• Elsewhere…
• New schools & teachers colleges
• Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York – tax supported schools
• In the South…
• Black population barred from formal education
• Only 1/3^rd of whites enrolled in school – in the north, 72%.

 

Growing movement to educate Indians – could be civilized

• Missionaries – educate and assimilate
• Most Indians remained outside educational reform

 

By 1860 US had one of the highest literacy rates in the world

Group	Location	Literacy Rate
General Population	North	94%
White Population	South	84%
General Population	South	58%

 

Benevolent Empire

• Assistance for the handicapped
• Perkins School for the Blind – Boston
• Discover inner strength and wisdom

 

Broader Educational Reform

• Use schools to impose a set of social value on children (indoctrination vs. education)
• Thrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority
• Extending democracy
• “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

 

 

Rehabilitation - 331

• Asylums for criminals and mentally ill
• Debtors, criminals, mentally ill, senile all lumped together in jail
• Jails could be literally holes in the ground
• Connecticut – an abandoned mine shaft served as a jail
• New penitentiaries and mental institutions
• Reform and rehabilitate inmates
• Rid prisoners of “laxness”
• Meditate on their wrongdoings – hence “penitentiary” – cultivate penitence

 

 

• Soon overcrowding – warehouses for criminals – little reform
• Orphanages reformed as educational institutions
• Alms houses and work houses

 

The Indian Reservation – 333

 

Reform approach to the Indian relationship – Reservations

• Previously – get the Indians out of the way of white settlement
• Reservations continued to get Indians out of the way
• Also served, in theory, to permit regeneration of the race, opportunity to compete and sustain themselves

 

(Note: pg 333 “Even Andrew Jackson, whose animus toward Indians was legendary, once described the removals as part of the nation’s ‘moral duty… to protect and if possible to preserve and perpetuate the scattered remnants of the Indian race.’”  This harsh message should have been documented in the Jacksonian America chapter.)

 

 

7. The role of women in American society, and the attempts to alter their relationships with men.

The Rise of Feminism – 333

Seneca Falls, New York – 1848

 

• Women previously focused on Temperance and Abolition
• Women now excluded from income production for the family (home vs. factory)
• Women leaders -
• Sarah and Angelina Grimké – argued for equality of women
• Catharine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe (her sister, Uncle Tom’s Cabin), Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dorthea Dix – all part of the early women’s movement
• Many attended the world Anti-Slavery Convention in London – turned away by men
• Now convinced women should seek their own equality
• Seneca Falls Convention – 1848 – Declaration of Sentiments
• Right to vote
• Many Quakers – background of sexual equality
• Many individuals and groups remained equally focused on Abolition
• During the Civil War, women’s groups put aside their own goals to support Abolition efforts, often with the agreement from the Abolition groups that after the war, the abolition groups would support the struggle for women’s rights.  The latter never happened.

8. The origins of the antislavery movement, and the sources of its leadership.

The Crusade Against Slavery –

 

Early Opposition to Slavery – 334

• Early 1800s – moral disapproval – little activism
• One solution – Colonization – return blacks to Africa – or Caribbean Islands, or Central America – anywhere but the US
• As late as July 1862, 5 months before the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln was considering a colonization solution
• 1817 – American Colonization Society
• Gradual manumission, compensation, transportation
• 1830 – Liberia established.  The capital, Monrovia, named for James Monroe
• ACS ineffective – funding, logistics
• In 10 years, they colonized fewer slaves than were born in the US in one month
• Many slaves were now 3^rd generation Americans, with little affinity for Africa
• South committed to slavery

 

Garrison and Abolitionism - 335

 

• William Lloyd Garrison – publisher
• Liberator – 1831
• Garrison on the extreme, non-negotiable edge of anti-slavery
• Slavery should be viewed from the point of view of the black man, not white
• Should not focus on what slavery does to whites – rather what it does to blacks
• Reject gradualism – demand immediate, unconditional, universal abolition
• Scorned Colonizationists
• Proposed extending citizenship to African-Americans
• Realized he was holding an unpopular position
• “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice… I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
• New England Anti-Slavery Society – 1832
• 1835 – 400 chapters
• 1838 – 1350 chapters – 250,000 members

 

Black Abolitionists - 335

250,000 free blacks in the North in 1850

• Lived in poverty, oppression, ghettos, often worse than physical slave conditions
• English Traveler – Could not imagine the source of prejudice against blacks – in the North, a prejudice unknown in the South
• Tocqueville – “the prejudice which repels the Negroes seems to increase in proportion as they are emancipated.”
• In the north – mob violence, no education, menial occupations, few voting opportunities
• They still had freedom

 

African American Leaders

• David Walker
• Boston
• Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens
• America more ours than the whites – built with black blood and tears
• Slaves should cut their masters’ throats, should “kill or be killed!”
• Sojourner Truth
• Freed black
• Powerful and eloquent spokeswoman for abolition
• “Ain’t I a woman?”
• Frederick Douglass
• Born a slave in Maryland
• Escaped to Massachusetts – 1838
• Lectured 2 years in England
• Purchased his freedom in 1847
• North Star – antislavery newspaper – Rochester, NY
• Autobiography – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – 1845
• Demanded full social and economic equality

 

Anti Abolitionism – 338

Abolition provoked powerful opposition – North and South

Northern abolitionists were never more than a small, dissenting minority

Threat to the status quo – existing social system

Potential for civil war

Exodus of blacks to the North

Threat to stability and order

 

Violence directed toward abolitionists

• Prudence Crandall
• Private Connecticut school – admitted African-Americans
• Locals had her arrested
• Contaminated her drinking well
• Forced her to close her school
• Philadelphia
• Temple of Liberty – abolitionist headquarters – burned to the ground – 1834
• Garrison seized in Boston
• Mob threatened to hang him – 1835
• Elijah Lovejoy – abolitionist newspaperman – Alton Illinois
• Three times had his presses destroyed
• Fourth time, attackers set fire to the building, shot, killed Lovejoy

 

Anti-Abolitionists were only the most violent of those who shared their sentiments

9. The role of abolitionism in the antislavery movement, and the strengths and weaknesses of that part of the movement.

 

Abolitionism Divided – 339

 

Free Soil

• Keep slavery out of new territories
• Some saw it as keeping the west for whites
• A position favorable to a majority of whites in the North

 

Varying intensity of positions led to divisions

• Garrison – extreme
• The Constitution was “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell”
• Nation’s churches were bulwarks of slavery
• 1843 – northern secession from the South – end slavery by expelling the slave states
• Saw Free Soil as white-man-ism
• Moderate views
• Moral stance
• Immediate abolition gradually accomplished
• Appeal to the conscience of slaveholders
• Assist runaway slaves
• Amistad
• Slave ship bound for Cuba – 1839
• Slaves revolt – sail to US
• International slave trade illegal in US since 1808
• Supreme Court declared Africans free – returned to Africa
• Prigg v. Pennsylvania – 1842
• Supreme Court rules states need not enforce fugitive slave laws
• Personal Liberty Laws – forbade states to return runaway slaves
• John Brown - abolitionists
• Bloody Kansas – Pottawatomie Creek raid
• Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Reached a wider audience
• The little lady that started the Civil War

 

 

 Summary

 

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Thirteen should enable the student to understand:

1. Manifest Destiny, and its influence on the nation in the 1840s.

2. The origin of the Republic of Texas, and the controversy concerning its annexation by the United States.

3. The reasons why the United States declared war on Mexico, and how the Mexican War was fought to a successful conclusion.

4. The impact of the Wilmot Proviso on the sectional controversy.

5. The methods used to enact the Compromise of 1850, and its reception by the American people.

6. The role of the major political parties in the widening sectional split.

7. The part played by Stephen A. Douglas in the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the effect of this act on his career and on the attitudes of the people in all sections.

8. The impact of the Dred Scott decision on sectional attitudes and on the prestige of the Supreme Court.

9. The reasons for Abraham Lincoln's victory in 1860, and the effect of his election on the sectional crisis.

 

Chapter 13: The Impending Crisis – 343

 

1. Manifest Destiny, and its influence on the nation in the 1840s.

 

Looking Westward – Manifest Destiny - 344

 

Manifest Destiny characterized American nationalism

·        ·        America was destined – by God and history – to expand the North American continent

·        ·        Altruistic attempt to extend American liberty

·        ·        Explicit racial justification – superiority of American race / northern European origins

·        ·        Movement to spread a political system and racially defined society

·        ·        Popularized by the “penny press” – inexpensive newspapers aimed at a mass audience

 

 

2. The origin of the Republic of Texas, and the controversy concerning its annexation by the United States.

 

Americans in Texas – 345

 

Mexico encouraged American immigration into Texas

·        ·        Hoped to strengthen economy of Mexico – instead economy aligned with US

·        ·        Mexico anticipated “Mexicanization” of Americans – didn’t happen

·        ·        Land suitable for cotton – immigrants brought slaves

·        ·        American intermediaries received large land grants (Stephen Austin – what is the capital of Texas?)

·        ·        1835 – 30,000 Americans settled in Texas (Mexican state – not independent, not part of the US)

 

Tensions Between the United States and Mexico – 346

 

Tensions between American settlers in Texas and Mexico – social, cultural, economic

• Desire to legalize slavery – illegal in Texas/Mexico since 1830
• Austin lead Amer/Texans desired semi-autonomy
• 1835 – Santa Anna seizes power in Mexico
• 1836 – increasing tensions – American settlers declare independence from Mexico
• Santa Anna decimates American garrison at The Alamo

·        ·        April 23, 1836 – Battle of San Jacinto (Houston)

o       o       Santa Anna captured – grants Texas independence (not part of the US until 1845)

·        ·        Mexicans fighting with Americans driven out of Texas

 

Sam Houston / Texans send a delegation to Washington seeking annexation

·        ·        Anti-slavery forces opposed to new large slave state

·        ·        Northerners opposed to increasing southern votes in Congress / Electoral College

·        ·        President Jackson (later Van Buren / Harrison) feared provoking Mexico and starting a war

·        ·        1844 President Tyler courted annexation

o       o       Calhoun presented annexation coupled with slavery

o       o       Rejected by northern senators

·        ·        Election of 1844 (Page 350)

o       o       James K. Polk supports annexation of Texas

o       o       Post election / pre-inauguration Pres. Tyler gets congressional approval for annexation in Feb. 1845 (territory)

o       o       December 1845 Texas became a state

         

Oregon – 347

 

Oregon territory contained parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and British Columbia

Both Britain & US claimed sovereignty in the region

·        ·        American missionaries desire to convert Indians (Nez Pierce, Flathead tribes)

·        ·        Efforts to Christianize largely unsuccessful

·        ·        Change of tactics – encourage white immigration

o       o       By repudiating Christianity the Indians had abdicated the right to the land.  “When a people refuse or neglect to fill the designs of Providence, they ought not to complain of the results.”

o       o       White immigration increased in 1840s

o       o       Measles / disease again decimates the Indians

o       o       American settlers encouraging US government to take possession of the disputed territory

o       o       President Polk proposes 49° N. Latitude as the northern border (Page 350)

§         §         Britain refuses

§         §         War talk on both sides of the Atlantic

§         §         Calmer heads prevail – Polk’s proposition accepted – remains the US / Canadian border today

 

The Westward Migration – 347

1840s – 1860s

·        ·        Southerners to Texas

·        ·        Midwesterners continue to migrate west

·        ·        Men traveled to lumbering / mining areas

·        ·        Families traveled to farming areas

·        ·        Merchants, farmers, miners – all seeking economic opportunity

 

Life on the Trail – 348

 

Several overland trails

·        ·        Oregon – Independence, Missouri through south pass of Rockies to Oregon or California trail

·        ·        Santa Fe Trail – Independence, Missouri to New Mexico

·        ·        See Page 349 for other trails

·        ·        Journeys lasted 5 – 6 months

o       o       Must clear the Rockies before the snows

·        ·        Indians generally more helpful than hostile

o       o       Few hostilities caused wide spread fear

·        ·        Tasks divided by gender

·        ·        Everyone walked the majority of the time

·        ·         

3. The reasons why the United States declared war on Mexico, and how the Mexican War was fought to a successful conclusion.

 

Expansion and War – The Democrats and Expansion – 350

Texas annexation – previously discussed – see above

Oregon territory border – previously discussed – see above

 

The Southwest and California – 351

 

Texas admitted to statehood – Mexico breaks diplomatic relations with the US

Boundary disagreements between Texas and Mexico – Nueces or Rio Grande Rivers?

·        ·        American settlers and influence in New Mexico (part of Mexico)

·        ·        Increasing American interest in California (part of Mexico)

·        ·        President Polk –

o       o       Desires to acquire New Mexico and California

o       o       Sends secret instructions to Pacific naval squadron to seize California ports if Mexico declares war

o       o       Americans in California told US sympathetic to a revolt against Mexico

 

The Mexican War – 351

 

Polk tries to buy disputed (Texas) territories – Mexico refuses

Polk orders army to the Rio Grande

·        ·        Mexican troops cross Rio Grande – attack US troops

·        ·        War declared against Mexico May 13, 1846

·        ·        Whig critics charge a “staged border incident” perhaps with some truth

 

·        ·        Zachary Taylor captures Monterey – September 1846

·        ·        Polk orders other offensives against New Mexico and California

o       o       Santa Fe captured

o       o       Autumn 1846 California captured

o       o       General Winfield Scott – advances, captures Mexico City

o       o       New government of Mexico willing to negotiate a treaty

o       o       Presidential envoy Nicholas Trist – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

§         §         Mexico cedes California and New Mexico to US

§         §         Acknowledges Rio Grande as southern Texas border

§         §         US pays Mexico $15 million, assumes claims of new citizens against Mexico

·        ·        Other than the Gadsden Purchase and purchase of Alaska, North American expansion of US is complete

 

4. The impact of the Wilmot Proviso on the sectional controversy.

 

The Sectional Debate – 355

Northerners and Westerners unhappy with Polk believing his policies favored the south

 

Slavery and the Territories – 355

 

During the Mexican War, Polk asked congress to appropriate $2 million to purchase peace with Mexico

Wilmot Proviso added – prohibiting slavery in any new territory

Passed the House – failed in the Senate

 

Polk proposes extending Missouri Compromise line westward 36° 30’ N. Latitude (southern border of Missouri)

Others propose “Popular Sovereignty”  voters of each territory decide for themselves

 

Election of 1848

·        ·        Polk in poor health – declines to run for a second term

·        ·        Democrats nominate Lewis Cass of Michigan

·        ·        Whigs nominate Zachary Taylor – hero of the Mexican War

·        ·        Anti-Slavery coalition unhappy with either form the Free Soil Party

o       o       Endorse the Wilmot Proviso

o       o       Nominate Martin Van Buren

·        ·        Taylor wins a narrow victory

·        ·        Free Soil party elects 10 members to congress

·        ·        Inability of existing parties to resolve the passions of slavery

 

The California Gold Rush – 355

 

 

January 1848 – Sutter’s Creek – foothills of Sierra Nevadas

California Gold Rush

·        ·        Population of San Francisco declined to 100 people as everyone went to the hills in search of gold

·        ·        People worldwide flocked to the gold fields – 95% were young, single men

·        ·        Among the first Chinese immigrants – Emigration brokers – lent money for passage

·        ·        Serious labor shortage in California

o       o       Indian slave labor – loitering or orphans assigned to indentured labor

·        ·        Indian Hunters – hunting and killing Indians

·        ·        1850 – 1870 Indian population declined 150,000 to 30,000

 

Few ‘49ers got rich, but many stayed

·        ·        By 1856, San Francisco had 50,000 people

·        ·        Heterogeneous – white Americans, Europeans, Chinese, South Americans, Mexicans, free blacks, slaves of Southerners

·        ·        California a turbulent place

 

Rising Sectional Tensions – 357

 

President Taylor wanted to leave the issue of slavery to the new states – popular sovereignty

·        ·        Proposes admission of California (free) and New Mexico ASAP

·        ·        Southerners balk

o       o       Anti-Slavery forces trying to abolish slavery in Washington DC

o       o       Southerners upset regarding Personal Liberty laws in the north

o       o       Two new states added to the northern majority

o       o       1849 – 15 free, 15 slave states – balanced in the Senate – south would fall to a minority in the senate

o       o       South already in a minority in the house (population)

o       o       New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah would further upset the balance

o       o       Every northern state legislature but one, resolutions demanding prohibition of slavery in the territories

§         §         Talk of secession beginning among moderate Southerners

§         §          

5. The methods used to enact the Compromise of 1850, and its reception by the American people.

 

The Compromise of 1850 - 357

 

The Great Triumvirate: Henry Clay (73), Daniel Webster (68), John Calhoun (68 & failing health)

·        ·        Clay’s proposed solution

o       o       California admitted as a free state

o       o       Remaining (Mexican) territorial governments established without restriction on slavery

o       o       Abolition of slave trade – but not slavery, in Washington DC

o       o       New, more effective fugitive slave law

·        ·        John C. Calhoun

o       o       North grant South equal rights in territories

o       o       Agree to observe fugitive slave laws

o       o       Cease attacking slavery

o       o       Create dual presidencies – North and South, each with a veto

·        ·        Daniel Webster

o       o       Tried to rally northern moderates to Clay’s compromise

July 1850 – Congress defeated Clay’s proposal

 

Younger leaders emerge

·        ·        William H. Seward (49) – NY anti-slavery (later to lead purchase of Alaska) opposed Clay’s compromise

·        ·        Jefferson Davis (42)  – Mississippi – saw slavery as an economic, not a moral issue

·        ·        Stephen A. Douglas (37) Illinois (Lincoln/Douglas debates) parochial / sectional interests

 

President Taylor – compromise only after admission of California – dies of stomach disorder

·        ·        Succeeded by Millard Filmore (NY) politically flexible and persuasive

·        ·        Douglas broke the compromise into individual components

·        ·        Able to broker deals to get all components passed individually

 

 

6. The role of the major political parties in the widening sectional split.

 

The Crises of the 1850s – The Uneasy Truce – 359

 

Election of 1852

Democrats and Whigs endorse Compromise of 1850

·        ·        Democrats

o       o       Franklin Pierce (NH)

o       o       Division of the Whigs produced a Democratic victory

 

·        ·        Whigs

o       o       General Winfield Scott (Mexican War) – unknown political views

o       o       Suffered massive defections from anti-slavery party members

 

·        ·        Free Soil

o       o       John P. Hale – Anti-slavery candidate

o       o       Repudiated the Compromise of 1850

 

Franklin Pierce

·        ·        Amiable – no characteristics of particular distinction

·        ·        Attempted to maintain party and national harmony

·        ·        Attempted to avoid divisive issues – the issue - slavery

Northern opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act intensified

Northern states passed laws barring deportation of fugitive slaves

White Southerners angered at Northern defiance

 

“Young America” – 359

Expansion of American Democracy would divert attention from slavery

Republicanism in Europe, expanded US commerce in the Pacific

Pierce attempted to buy Cuba from Spain

·        ·        Northerners angered at possible introduction of a new slave state

·        ·        Southerners opposed any new territory which prohibited slavery

·        ·        Hawaii denied annexation due to slavery prohibition

·        ·        Movement to annex Canada – limited in scope, but nonetheless hampered by anti-slavery issues

 

Slavery, Railroads, and the West – 359

Great Plains recognized a prime farming land – not the Great American Desert

Railroads and slavery would intermingle

Where would the eastern end of the trans-continental railroad be?  North or South – Chicago or St. Louis?

A southern route would go through Mexican territory

US affects the Gadsden Purchase for $10,000,000

 

7. The part played by Stephen A. Douglas in the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the effect of this act on his career and on the attitudes of the people in all sections.

 

The Kansas-Nebraska Controversy – 360

 

Stephen A. Douglas - Illinois – wanted the northern railroad through his city and section

·        ·        Introduced a bill to territorialize what is now Kansas and Nebraska

·        ·        Appeased southerners with a popular sovereignty clause

·        ·        Clause repealing the Missouri Compromise - line westward 36° 30’ N. Latitude

·        ·        Kansas more likely to enter as a slave state

Acrimony destroyed the Whig party and split northern Democrats

1854 – Republican party formed – party of Lincoln – survives today

 

“Bleeding Kansas” – 360

·        ·        Settlers enter Nebraska and Kansas

·        ·        Spring of 1855 – 1500 legal voters in Kansas – vote on territorial government

·        ·        6000 Missouri pro-slavery forces cross the border to Kansas, pack the ballot

o       o       Elect pro-slavery legislature

·        ·        Free state advocates hold an alternate convention in Topeka

o       o       Create a slave free constitution, elect governor, legislature, petition for statehood

o       o       Pres. Pierce denounces them – supports pro-slavery government

§         §         Federal marshals & Missouri posse sack Lawrence, Kansas headquarters, burn the governors mansion

·        ·        Pottawatomie Massacre followed

·        ·        John Brown

o       o       Instrument of God’s will to destroy slavery

o       o       Murdered and mutilated 5 pro-slavery settlers – as a message

o       o       More retributions… let to “Bleeding Kansas”

Led to the - SC Congressman Preston Brooks incident

·        ·        In the US Senate chamber -

·        ·        Savagely beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane for insulting a relative

o       o       In the North, Brooks reviled as a savage

o       o       In the South, he became a popular hero

 

The Free-Soil Ideology – 361

Ideas and ideologies hardened between the North and the South

Each saw a growing America in its own image

The Northern View

·        ·        Free soil, Free Labor

·        ·        Abolitionists – slavery was immoral

·        ·        Slavery had a negative impact on whites – desensitization

·        ·        Right to own property

·        ·        Control their own labor

·        ·        Opportunity for advancement

·        ·        Slavery preserved white aristocracy

·        ·        Poor whites no opportunity for advancement

·        ·        North prospering – South stagnating – rejecting individualism and progress

·        ·        South seen as anti-capitalist – intent on destroying northern capitalism

·        ·        Republican Party view – fight the spread of slavery (not immediate elimination)

 

The Pro-Slavery Argument – 362

The Southern View

·        ·        Nat Turner’s Rebellion - 1831 terrified southern whites

·        ·        Expansion of slavery necessary for southern economy – cotton – lucrative

·        ·        Northern attacks…

o       o       Garrison, other abolitionists, Uncle Tom’s Cabin

·        ·        Intellectual defense of slavery

o       o       Slavery was a positive good

o       o       Good for the slaves – better conditions than northern factory workers

o       o       Only way two races could live in peace

o       o       Good for the southern economy

o       o       Southern economy was the key to national prosperity

o       o       Served as the basis for the southern way of life – superior to any other way of life

o       o       Northerners viewed as venal, corrupt, covetous, mean and selfish

o       o       Biological inferiority of Africans

o       o       Religious and biblical justification

 

 

Buchanan and Depression - 363

Election of 1856

Democrats – James Buchanan of Pennsylvania

Republicans –

1^st presidential election

Denounce Kansas-Nebraska Act – offer internal improvements (Whig program)

Nominate John C. Fremont – explorer

Know Nothings & Whigs nominate Millard Filmore

 

Buchanan wins a narrow victory

·        ·        Republicans / Fremont get virtually no votes in the south

·        ·        Buchanan is ineffective as president

o       o       1857 Depression  occurs,

o       o       Economy seen as influenced by southern Democratic policies

o       o       Strengthening the Republicans in the north

o       o        

8. The impact of the Dred Scott decision on sectional attitudes and on the prestige of the Supreme Court.

 

The Dred Scott Decision – 363

 

Dred Scott v. Sandford

·        ·        Scott – Missouri slave taken into Illinois and Wisconsin where slavery prohibited

o       o       1846 - Master dies, Scott sues widow for his freedom

o       o       Claims residence in Illinois / Wisconsin gained his freedom

o       o       1850 Missouri court declared him free

·        ·        John Sanford, brother of surgeon’s widow, appeals the decision

o       o       Missouri State Supreme Court reversed the decision

·        ·        Scott appeals to federal courts

o       o       Sanford’s attorney claims Scott has no standing – he is not a citizen but rather property

o       o       Affirmed by the Supreme court / Taney

o       o       Blacks had no claim to citizenship and virtually no rights under the Constitution.  Slaves were property, and the 5^th amendment prohibited congress from taking property without “due process of law.”  Consequently, Congress possessed no authority to pass a law depriving persons of their slave property in the territories.  The Missouri Compromise, therefore, had always been unconstitutional.

 

Taney was by today’s standards a racist, but did indicate that he was simply following the constitution and if that caused grief to some, there were processes to amend the Constitution.  Don’t blame the courts – blame congress.

 

The ruling did not prohibit states from prohibiting slavery.

The ruling sanction parts of the most extreme southern argument.

 

Deadlock over Kansas – 364

·        ·        Buchanan supported admitting Kansas as a slave state

·        ·        Pro-slavery territorial legislature called an election for a constitutional convention

·        ·        Pro-slavery forces won, met in Lecompton, pro slavery Constitution,

·        ·        Voters did not have a chance to vote on the Lecompton Constitution

·        ·        Next election - Anti-slavery voters voted in an anti-slavery legislature

o       o       New legislature submitted Lecompton Constitution to a vote of the people – rejected by more than 10,000 votes

·        ·        Buchanan pressured Congress to admit Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution

o       o       Douglas & western Democrats refused – statehood bill died in the House

·        ·        1858 – Congressional compromise – resubmit Lecompton to a second vote

o       o       If approved – Kansas becomes a state

o       o       If rejected – statehood would be postponed

o       o       Kansas voters rejected it a second time

·        ·        1861 – after several southern states seceded from the union, did Kansas get statehood – as a free state

 

The Emergence of Lincoln – 365

Senate elections of 1858

Lincoln/Douglas debates –

·        ·        Lincoln saw slavery as morally wrong, but was not an abolitionist

·        ·        More of a free labor advocate – saw dangers of denying other groups rights

·        ·        Africans not prepared (maybe never would be) for citizenship / equality

·        ·        Opposed to further spread of slavery – would not challenge it where it currently existed

Douglas wins the senate seat

Lincoln wins national recognition

 

John Brown’s Raid – 366

Previous raid at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas

1859 Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Seize US arsenal at Harpers Ferry

Intended to distribute weapons to local slaves

Incite a slave rebellion

Failed effort – surrendered, tried for treason, hung

Southerners convinced they could not live in harmony with the north

Some believed, incorrectly, the north was committed to a slave insurrection

 

9. The reasons for Abraham Lincoln's victory in 1860, and the effect of his election on the sectional crisis.

 

The Election of Lincoln – 367

 

Election of 1860

Democratic party fragmented

Southerners wanted pro-slavery endorsement

Westerners wanted popular sovereignty

April convention endorsed popular sovereignty

Eight lower south states walk out

Remainder agree to meet again in June

Douglas nominated at June convention

Disenchanted southerners meet in Richmond nominate John C. Breckinridge (Ky)

Conservative ex-Whigs meet in Baltimore – Constitutional Party – John Bell (Tenn)

Republicans – nominate Lincoln – platform of broad base (northern) appeal

Firm but moderate position on slavery

Lincoln wins majority of electoral votes, 2/5 ^ths of popular vote

Republicans fail to win majority in congress

To the south, Lincoln’s election signals a position of hopelessness

Seven states secede from the union before Lincoln’s inauguration

South Carolina –     Dec 20

Mississippi -          Jan 9

Florida -                Jan 10

Alabama -              Jan 11

Georgia -               Jan 19

Louisiana -             Jan 26

Texas -                  Feb 1

February 1861 – in Montgomery, Alabama – Confederate States of America

 

 

 Summary

 

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter Fourteen should enable the student to understand:

1. The reasons why all attempts to reach a compromise in the time-honored way failed in 1860 and 1861.

2. The unique problems faced by the newly inaugurated President Lincoln, and his use of executive powers to solve them up to July 4, 1861.

3. The many interpretations of the causes of the Civil War advanced by historians.

4. The ways in which the Confederate States of America compared with the United States in manpower, natural resources, finances, industrial potential, and public support.

5. The significant legislation enacted by Congress once southern members were no longer a factor.

6. The considerations involved in President Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and its reception in the North, in the South, and in Europe.

7. The basic structure of the government of the Confederate States of America, how it differed from that of the United States, and how it dealt with the vital question of states' rights.

8. The efforts of presidents Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to act as commanders in chief under their respective constitutions.

9. How other nations, particularly England and France, viewed the struggle, and how their courses of action affected the outcome.

The Secession Crisis –

The Withdrawal of the South -  372

 

Republicans – nominate Lincoln – platform of broad base (northern) appeal

Firm but moderate position on slavery

Lincoln wins majority of electoral votes, 2/5 ^ths of popular vote

Republicans fail to win majority in congress

To the south, Lincoln’s election signals a position of hopelessness

Seven states secede from the union before Lincoln’s inauguration

South Carolina – hotbed of Southern nationalism seceded first

 

South Carolina –     Dec 20

Mississippi -          Jan 9

Florida -                Jan 10

Alabama -              Jan 11

Georgia -               Jan 19

Louisiana -             Jan 26

Texas -                  Feb 1

February 1861 – in Montgomery, Alabama – Confederate States of America

1. The reasons why all attempts to reach a compromise in the time-honored way failed in 1860 and 1861.

 

The Failure to Compromise – 372

 

Crittenden Compromise

·        ·        Based on constitutional amendments

o       o       Permanent existence of slavery in the slave states

o       o       Enforcement of fugitive slave laws

o       o       Slavery in the District of Columbia

o       o       Re-establishment of Missouri Compromise line of 36° 30’ north latitude

o       o       Slavery prohibited north the line – permitted south of the line

·        ·        Republicans rejected – antithesis of their fundamental position that slavery not be allowed to expand

2. The unique problems faced by the newly inaugurated President Lincoln, and his use of executive powers to solve them up to July 4, 1861.

 

Lincoln’s inauguration

·        ·        Sneaks into the city in disguise to avoid assassination in the slave state of Maryland

·        ·        Inaugural address

o       o       Union older than the constitution

o       o       No state could leave the union

o       o       Acts of force in support of secession were insurrectionary

·        ·        Government would hold, occupy, and possess federal property in the seceded states

 

Fort Sumter – 372

 

Union fort located in Charleston Harbor

·        ·        Under siege from South Carolina forces – conditions deteriorating – supplies needed

·        ·        Lincoln needs to maintain (not surrender) the fort or lose credibility to maintain the union

·        ·        Informs SC authorities union would not send troops or munitions (only food, etc.)

·        ·        SC forces decide that permitting ships to dock would appear cowardly (honor)

·        ·        SC General P.G.T. Beauregard orders Sumter taken by force

·        ·        Bombards April 12 – 13, 1861

·        ·        The Civil War had begun

 

Four more secessions – joined Confederacy

Virginia                 April 17

Arkansas               May 6

Tennessee              June 8

North Carolina       May 20

 

Two distinct and incompatible civilizations

·        ·        Emerson:  I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute one state.

·        ·        Southerner: These Northern people h ate us, annoy us, and would have us assassinated by our slaves if they dared.  They are a different people from us, whether better or worse, and there is no love between us.  Why then continue together?

3. The ways in which the Confederate States of America compared with the United States in manpower, natural resources, finances, industrial potential, and public support.

 

The Opposing Sides – 374

 

North –

Material advantages

·        ·        Population – twice the South – 4 times the Southern white population

·        ·        Advanced industrial system – could manufacture its own war materials

·        ·        Superior transportation system

o       o       Canals, roads, railroads – twice the track – integrated system

·        ·        Fighting mostly in the south

o       o       Long lines of communication

o       o       Hostile local populations

o       o       Limited by south’s inadequate rail system

·        ·        Political support for the war divided and shaky

·        ·        To win – north had to conquer the south

South –

·        ·        Virtually no industry

·        ·        Needed to rely on imports from Europe

·        ·        Inferior railroads – inability to maintain the infrastructure of same

·        ·        Diplomatically, needed to gain recognition and support of foreign governments

·        ·        South fighting a defensive war on its own territory

·        ·        Commitment of white population clear and firm

·        ·        To win - South had only to maintain the status quo

 

 

Subject	North	South
Population	61% twice as large, 4 times as large as the non slave population	39%
Railroad Mileage	66%	34%
Railroad System	Integrated Trunk & Main line	Disjointed – varying gauges
Farms (Food)	67%	33%
Wealth Produced	75%	25%
Factories	81% Could manufacture all its war materials	19% Little industry – dependent on Europe
Military	Long lines of communication – hostile territory North needed to defeat the south Overwhelming Naval power	Fighting a defensive war on familiar territory South had only to avoid defeat Virtually no navy
Political	Shaky political support for the war Strong central government with strong leadership (Lincoln) Lincoln’s leadership, strategy	Clear and firm support for the war States rights counterproductive to central government Davis lack of decisive leadership or integrated military strategy
Economic	Established banking system – stable currency	No infrastructure, unstable local bank notes
Diplomatically	Needed only to preserve status quo	Needed to enlist recognition and support of foreign governments

 

4. The significant legislation enacted by Congress once southern members were no longer a factor.

 

The Mobilization of the North –

Economic Measures - 375

 

South gone from Congress

Republican Party – nationalistic program of economic development

·        ·        Homestead Act of 1862 - 160 acres – reside on land for 5 years

·        ·        Morrill Land Grant Act

o       o       Transfer to states – sell land to finance public education – Land grant universities

·        ·        Protective Tariff bills – protect young domestic industries

·        ·        Transcontinental Railroad

o       o       Union Pacific – westward from Omaha

o       o       Central Pacific – eastward fro California

o       o       Free public lands / generous loans

·        ·        National Bank Acts of 1863 & 1864

o       o       Private banks could join if they had sufficient capital – 1/3 to government securities

o       o       Could issue US Treasury notes as currency

o       o       Created a uniform system of bank notes

 

Financing the war –

·        ·        Taxes

o       o       Income tax – 10% above 5000

·        ·        Paper currency

o       o       Not backed by gold – value floated with the success of the union armies

·        ·        Borrowing

o       o       Largest source of money – most from large banks & financial interests

 

Raising the Union Armies – 378

 

·        ·        2,000,000 served

·        ·        1861 – only 16,000 in uniform – mostly western assignments

·        ·        Relied on volunteers – state militias

·        ·        Congress authorized enlisting 500,000 volunteers for 3 years

·        ·        March 1863 – national draft law

o       o       All young males eligible

o       o       Could hire a replacement or buy out for $300

o       o       Force of draft encouraged volunteers

 

New national experience – up close and personal with the federal government

·        ·        New York City draft riots – July 1863

o       o       100 dead

o       o       Irish angry at black strikebreakers in a recent longshoreman’s strike

o       o       Blame blacks for the war

o       o       Anticipate freed blacks to soon be competing for Irish jobs

o       o       Rioters lynched blacks, burned free black homes and black orphanage

 

Wartime Politics – 379

 

Lincoln quickly established himself as a capable leader

·        ·        Sent troops into battle without asking for a Declaration of War

o       o       Not a war – a domestic insurrection – a declaration of war would constitute recognition of the Confederacy

·        ·        Widespread popular opposition to the war

·        ·        Peace Democrats – Copperheads

o       o       Northwest losing influence to the East

o       o       Republican nationalism eroding states’ rights

·        ·        Lincoln

o       o       Order military arrests of civilian dissenters

o       o       Suspend right of habeas corpus

o       o       Disloyal subject to martial law – 13,000 imprisoned

o       o       Representative  Vallandingham -  Ohio – banished to the Confederacy

o       o       Ignores Supreme Court order to release prisoner

 

Lincoln wins re-election in 1864 with a coalition (Union Party) of Republicans and War Democrats 

Lincoln made special arrangements to allow union troops to vote

Several positive developments for the Union in the fall of 1864 contribute to victory

5. The considerations involved in President Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and its reception in the North, in the South, and in Europe.

 

The Politics of Emancipation – 380

 

Radical Republicans wanted to use the war to abolish slavery immediately

Others, including Lincoln, favored a slower approach

 

·        ·        Confiscation Act – 1861

o       o       All slaves used in support of Confederate military effort would be considered free

·        ·        1862 – slavery outlawed in DC and western territories

·        ·        Second Confiscation Act - July 1862

o       o       Freed slaves of persons supporting the insurrection

o       o       Authorized use of blacks, including slaves, as Union soldiers

o       o       Emancipation became a war aim – nothing less would justify the sacrifice

·        ·        January 1, 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation

o       o       Freed slaves in the Confederacy NOT under Union control

o       o       Did not apply to the border slave states that did not secede

o       o       Emancipation became a reality as federal troops occupied the South

·        ·        1865 – passage of 13^th Amendment abolishing slavery after 245 years

 

African Americans and the Union Cause – 381

 

186,000 emancipated blacks served as soldiers

Multiple obstacles to enlistment

Enlistment increased following the Emancipation Proclamation

Black units had white commanders

Assigned to menial tasks – high mortality due to disease / unsanitary conditions

Paid 1/3^rd less than white soldiers

Captured blacks sent back to their masters or often executed

 

The War and Economic Development – 381

 

War sped economic development

Dominance of the Republican party

Coal production increased 20%

Standard gauge railroads

Loss of labor pool forced farmers to mechanize

 

Industrial workers experienced loss of purchasing power

·        ·        Prices rose 70%

·        ·        Wages rose 40%

·        ·        Immigrant workers kept wages low

·        ·        Increased mechanization of production

·        ·        Creation and increase of union memberships

 

Women, Nursing, and the War – 382

 

Unfamiliar roles – positions vacated by men

Teachers, sales clerks, office workers, mill & factory

Desperate for money

Men away – women often destitute

Nursing – previously dominated by men

·        ·        Patient care

·        ·        Cooking, cleaning, laundering

·        ·        Resistance from male doctors

·        ·        Women taking care of strange men – inappropriate

 

War (opportunity) was a liberating experience

Twice as many soldiers died of disease than in combat

6. The basic structure of the government of the Confederate States of America, how it differed from that of the United States, and how it dealt with the vital question of states' rights.

 

The Mobilization of the South –

The Confederate Government – 383

 

Confederate Constitution very similar to the US Constitution

Exceptions:

·        ·        Sovereignty of the individual states – although no right of secession

·        ·        Sanctioned slavery

·        ·        Abolition of slavery nearly impossible

ARTICLE I.   Section II.  Clause 3 - Slaves counted as 3/5ths of a person for purpose of taxation and representation   “ARTICLE I.   Section IX. Clause 4 -  No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.”   “ARTICLE IV.   Section II. Clause 1 - The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.”   “ARTICLE IV.   Section II. Clause 3 - No slave or other person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the Confederate States, under the laws thereof, escaping or lawfully carried into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such slave belongs; or to whom such service or labor may be due.”   “ARTICLE IV.   Section III. Clause 3 - The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.”   Source: University of Oklahoma, College of Law: http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/csa.constitution.html

 

 

7. The efforts of presidents Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to act as commanders in chief under their respective constitutions.

 

Jefferson Davis – Mississippi, selected / elected President

Alexander H. Stephens, Georgia, Vice President

 

Davis rarely provided genuine national leadership

Lacked the strategic leadership provided by Lincoln

 

Many backcountry / hill country southerners where slavery was limited did not recognize the Confederacy

·        ·        Some even fought for the union

·        ·        Most white southerners supported the war

·        ·        Critics of the war existed in both the north and south

 

The Mobilization of the South –

Money and Manpower – 383

 

Financing the Confederate war effort was a virtual impossible task

·        ·        Needed to create and operate a national revenue system in a society unaccustomed to significant tax burdens

·        ·        Dependent upon small and unstable banking system with little capital

·        ·        Liquidity was scarce (invested in slaves and land)

·        ·        Confederacy faced problems similar to the US under the Articles of Confederation

·        ·        Income tax provided only 1% of requirements

·        ·        Worthless bonds issued – little success borrowing in Europe

·        ·        Printed paper money (worthless)

o       o       Inflation in the north during the war – 80%

o       o       Inflation in the south during the war – 9000%

 

Conscription Act – 1862

·        ·        All white males 18 – 35

·        ·        3 years

·        ·        Could furnish a substitute

·        ·        Exemptions – 1 white man on each plantation with 20 or more slaves

·        ·        Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight

·        ·        More white southerners were exempt from service than northerners

·        ·        Highly unpopular – repealed 1863

 

1862 – 500,000 confederate soldiers – 900,000 served at some time during the war

·        ·        Slaves recruited for menial work, freeing whites to fight

 

1864 severe manpower shortages

·        ·        Draft limits 17 – 50

·        ·        100,000 desertions

·        ·        Confederate Congress authorized conscription of 300,000 slaves – war ended before implementation

 

The Mobilization of the South –

States’ Rights versus Centralization – 386

 

Many white southerners resisted efforts to exert national authority, even those necessary to win the war

By 1865, southern bureaucracy larger than the northern bureaucracy

Became increasingly like the region from which it was trying to escape

 

The Mobilization of the South –

Economic and Social Effects of the War – 386

 

Devastating effect on southern economy

·        ·        Cut off from northern markets

·        ·        Overseas cotton sales more difficult

·        ·        Conscription of males hurt small farms & industry

·        ·        Agricultural and industrial production down by 1/3^rd

 

Almost all major battles occurred in the south –

·        ·        Devastation - railroads, farmland, plantations

·        ·        Northern naval blockade – massive shortages in the south

·        ·        Inadequate food for its needs

·        ·        Doctors to blacksmiths conscripted – leaving localities without services

·        ·        Food riots

 

Changing roles for southern women

·        ·        Forced to assume roles of absent men

·        ·        Question prevailing southern assumptions as to gender roles

 

Decimation of the male population – gender ratio imbalance

Women forced to find employment

 

Strategy and Diplomacy - 388

The Commanders - 388

 

Lincoln the most important military commander

Successful Commander in Chief

·        ·        Realized that numbers and resources on his side and willing to take advantage of same

·        ·        Objective – destruction of Confederate armies, not southern occupation

·        ·        Lincoln was the chief strategist – not his generals

·        ·        General Winfield Scott -  unprepared for the magnitude of the war

·        ·        General George McClellan – inadequate grasp of war strategy

·        ·        General Henry W. Halleck – another ineffectual strategist

·        ·        March 1864 – Ulysses S. Grant – strategy (destroy southern army, not occupation) consistent with Lincoln’s

 

Southern command centered on President Davis

·        ·        Failed to create an effective command system

·        ·        General Robert E. Lee named principal military advisor

·        ·        Davis had no intention of sharing control of strategy

·        ·        Davis planned strategy alone

 

Field Commanders on both sides graduates of West Point & Annapolis

·        ·        Grant & Sherman the more successful – seeing beyond academic training

·        ·        Destruction of resources as important as battlefield tactics

 

Amateur officers from volunteer regiments

·        ·        Local economic or social leaders

·        ·        Round up a “posse” and appoint themselves leaders

 

The Role of Sea Power – 390

 

Overwhelming advantage for the north

Enforcing blockade of southern coast

Assisting union armies in field operations

 

Blockade able to keep oceangoing ships out of Confederate ports

·        ·        Some blockade runners – but generally successful

·        ·        Significant impact on the confederacy

 

Navy supported troops – moving troops & supplies in the western campaign

·        ·        Occasionally joined in attacking Confederate strong points.

·        ·        Eventually controlled the river systems, splitting the Confederacy

 

·        ·        Southern ironclad Merrimac (Virginia) sank and scattered wooden Union ships

·        ·        Battle of ironclads – Monitor & Merrimac – changed naval history – end of the wooden boats

8. How other nations, particularly England and France, viewed the struggle, and how their courses of action affected the outcome.

 

Europe and the Disunited States – 391

Governments of England and France initially sympathetic to the Confederacy

·        ·        Cotton for their textile mills

·        ·        Weaken the US as a commercial rival

·        ·        Admiration for the pseudo-aristocracy of the South

 

France waited for England to take the lead – recognizing the Confederacy

·        ·        English people had popular sympathy for the Union – free vs. slave

·        ·        Southern leaders pin hopes on King Cotton Diplomacy

·        ·        British had a surplus of cotton inventory – found alternate supply from Egypt & India

·        ·        No European nation recognized or assisted the Confederacy

·        ·        Did not want to antagonize the US unless the Confederacy appeared near victory

 

Diplomatic Irritations

·        ·        Britain and France declared their neutrality

o       o       US furious – neutrality implies equal stature

o       o       US claimed an internal insurrection – that only 1, not 2, governments existed

 

·        ·        Trent Affair

o       o       Two Confederate diplomats make their way to Cuba

o       o       Board English steamer, Trent, for passage to England

o       o       Trent stopped by USS San Jacinto – diplomats taken to Boston

o       o       British protest – violation of maritime law

o       o       US eventually issues an apology

 

·        ·        Confederacy purchase of surplus British ships

o       o       Confederacy bought 6 ships

o       o       US protests that sale violated laws of neutrality

o       o       Basis of damage claims by US against Britain after the war

 

The American West and the War – 392

 

West largely removed from the fighting

Western states and territories remained loyal to the Union

Kansas

·        ·        Missouri / Kansas (slave / free) battles continued

·        ·        Quantrill’s Raiders – murderous guerrilla fighters

·        ·        Terrorized Kansas / Missouri border area

·        ·        Lawrence, Kansas – killed 150

·        ·        Quantrill killed by Union troops

 

Union sympathizers (Jayhawkers) slightly less vicious in their reprisals

 

Missouri / Kansas border among the bloodiest & terrorized places in the war

 

The Course of Battle – 392

 

Four years of battle

Highest casualties of any American war

War	Casualties	% of Population
Revolutionary War	5,000
Civil War	618,000	2%
World War I	115,000	0.10%
World War II	318,000	0.24%
Korean War	37,000
Vietnam	58,000

Sources: Revolutionary, Civil, WW I & WW II – textbook, Korea & Vietnam Microsoft Encarta

 

The Technology of Battle – 392

 

First “modern or total” war

Technology transformed the nature of battle

·        ·        Repeating weapons – rifle

·        ·        Gatling gun – revolving machine gun

·        ·        Improved cannons and artillery

 

Increasingly deadly technology – changed the nature of battle

·        ·        Infantry not lined up in formation

·        ·        Fortifications & trenches

 

·        ·        Hot air balloons for observation

·        ·        Railroads and Telegraph lines

·        ·        Ironclad ships

·        ·        Torpedoes and submarines

·        ·        Great battles rather than small engagements

 

The Opening Clashes, 1861 - 393

 

First Battle of Manassas / Bull Run (Bull Run is a small stream north of Manassas)

·        ·        Many battles had two names – the northern name and the southern name – Manassas / Bull Run

·        ·        30 miles from Washington - picnic spectators came to watch the battle

·        ·        If the north could defeat the south, perhaps an early end to the war

o       o       North: General Irvin McDowell

o       o       South: P.G.T. Beauregard

·        ·        North had the initial advantage

·        ·        Confederates mounted a counter-attack scattered the disorganized northerners

·        ·        It would be a long war

 

·        ·        Missouri – union forces defeated Missouri secessionists

·        ·        Virginia - Union – McClellan “liberated” anti secessionist mountain area of western Virginia

o       o       New government established in that area

o       o       Admitted to the union in 1863 as what we now know as West Virginia

o       o       Little strategic value – greater symbolic value / victory

 

The Western Theater – 394

Interactive Map

 

·        ·        Seize the Mississippi River

o       o       April 1862 – ironclads and wooden ships sailed from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi to New Orleans

o       o       New Orleans surrendered on April 25

o       o       Mouth of the Mississippi was closed to Confederate trade

o       o       South’s largest and most important banking center was in union hands

 

·        ·        Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers – Fort Henry & Donelson – April 1862

o       o       Forts attacked by ironclads & ground troops (Grant)

o       o       Fort Henry surrenders quickly, Donelson some resistance but surrendered

o       o       Control of the rivers & communications forced the confederates out of Kentucky and half of Tennessee

 

·        ·        Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing – on Tennessee River, near Tennessee / Mississippi border)

o       o       North: General Ulysses Grant

o       o       South: Albert Johnston / P.G.T. Beauregard

§         §         April 6, 1862 – southerners drove Grant back across the river (Johnston killed)

§         §         April 7, 1862 – 25,000 northern reinforcements arrive

§         §         Grant retakes lost ground – forces southern withdrawal

§         §         Grant occupies Corinth, Mississippi – rail hub – controls Mississippi as far south as Memphis

 

·        ·        Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone’s River – central Tennessee)

o       o       North: Don Carlos Buell / William Rosecrans

o       o       South: Braxton Bragg

§         §         Bragg wants to recapture Tennessee and Kentucky

§         §         Several months of maneuvering – small battles

§         §         December 31, 1862 – Battle of Murfreesboro – Bragg forced to withdraw – campaign a failure

 

The war would be won or lost in the East – remember the strategy…

·        ·        Realize that numbers and resources on the side of the north and Lincoln is willing to take advantage of same

·        ·        Objective – destruction of Confederate armies, not southern occupation

 

The Virginia Front, 1862 - 394

 

1862 – George McClellan – superb trainer – unwilling to commit to battle – lost opportunities

 

·        ·        Union - McClellan leads campaign to attack Richmond, capital of the Confederacy – complicated approach – Peninsular Campaign

·        ·        Confederate – Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson leads his army thru the Shenandoah Valley – approaching Washington

o       o       In the “Valley Campaign” May 4 – June 9, 1862, Jackson defeats two Union forces

·        ·        Confederate Johnston attacking McClellan – Battle of Fair Oaks / Seven Pines May 31 – June 1, 1862

o       o       Lee calls in reinforcements (Jackson) launches Battle of the Seven Days (June 25 – July 1)

o       o       McClellan withdraws across the James River to safety – reassembles – reluctant to resume the attack

·        ·        McClellan to join Pope – Lee follows attacks Pope before McClellan arrives

o       o       Second Battle of Bull Run / Manassas (Aug 29 – 30) Lee repels Pope – assault on Richmond in disarray

o       o       Lincoln removes Pope – puts McClellan in charge

o       o       McClellan finds out Lee has split his forces but McClellan delays attacking – Lee reassembles

·        ·        Sharpsburg – Sept 17 – bloodiest single day engagement

o       o       McClellan attacks – 6,000 casualties, 17,000 injuries

o       o       McClellan allows Lee to retreat into Virginia – does not pursue

o       o       Lincoln finally relieved McClellan of command

 

1863 Year of Decision - 398

 

Chancellorsville – May 1 – 5

·        ·        North: Gen. Joseph Hooker

·        ·        South: Lee / Stonewall Jackson

o       o       With only half the forces of the north, Lee split his troops and attacked

o       o       Lee defeats the Union forces in battle, but the union army escapes – Jackson is killed

 

Vicksburg – on the Mississippi River – May – July

·        ·        Confederate stronghold – well protected north & west & river artillery

·        ·        Grant marches around – attacks from the rear

·        ·        Six week siege – residents starving – surrender

·        ·        Union controls the entire Mississippi – splits Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas from rest of the Confederacy

 

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – July 1 – 3

·        ·        North: George C. Meade (90,000)

·        ·        South: Robert E. Lee (75,000)

o       o       Union – strong, well protected, position on hills

§         §         Lee attacked – 1^st assault on Cemetery Ridge failed

o       o       Next day – larger effort – Pickett’s Charge

§         §         15,000 confederates across 1 mile of open country

§         §         Only 5,000 make it  up the ridge – finally surrender or retreat

o       o       July 4 – Lee withdraws from Gettysburg

 

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address –

Delivered November 19, 1863 - 4 months after the battle

Only 267 words in length, among the best remembered speeches in history

 

Chattanooga / Battle of Chickamauga – Sep 19 – 20

·        ·        North: Rosecrans / Grant

·        ·        South: Braxton Bragg

·        ·        Union forces occupy Chattanooga Sept 9

o       o       Rosecrans begins pursuit of Bragg’s forces

o       o       Bragg joins up with other confederate forces in Georgia

o       o       Bragg has numerical superiority 70,000 to 56,000

o       o       Union forces fail to break thru – retreat back to Chattanooga

·        ·        Bragg begins a siege of Chattanooga – cutting off supplies

·        ·        Grant to the rescue – Nov 23 – 25 – drives confederates back to Georgia

o       o       Union now controls the Tennessee River

o       o       Tennessee also cut off from the Confederacy

 

The Last Stage, 1864 – 1865 - 400

 

1864 – Grant, General in Chief of Union Armies

·        ·        Believed in using North’s overwhelming advantage in troops and material

·        ·        Not afraid to absorb massive casualties as long as he inflicted same

 

Two offenses for 1864

·        ·        Richmond in the north

·        ·        Atlanta in the south (Sherman)

 

Richmond / Petersburg

·        ·        North: Grant (115,000)

·        ·        South: Lee (75,000)

·        ·        Lee avoids battle for several weeks

o       o       Battle of the Wilderness May 5 – 7 – Lee repels Union forces

o       o       Grant pushes on

·        ·        Battle of Spotsylvania Court House – May 1864 – 5 days duration

o       o       12,000 Union casualties – unknown number of confederate casualties

o       o       Grant pushes on

·        ·        Cold Harbor – just north of Richmond

o       o       Union casualties 7,000 – confederate 1,500

o       o       In total, the Wilderness Campaign cost union 55,000, confederate 31,000

o       o       Richmond had still not fallen

·        ·        Petersburg

o       o       Grant changed his tactics

o       o       Seize Petersburg – rail center 20 miles southeast of Richmond

 

Sherman / Georgia / March to the Sea

·        ·        North: Sherman (90,000)

·        ·        South: Johnston (60,000) reluctant to engage

·        ·        Kennesaw Mountain – June 27, Confederate victory – Sherman marches on

·        ·        Sherman takes Atlanta on September 2

o       o       Unites Republican Party behind Lincoln

·        ·        Sherman’s March to the Sea

o       o       Living off the land, destroying supplies, denying confederacy supplies or support of the people

o       o       60 mile wide swath of destruction from Atlanta to Savannah

o       o       December 20, 1864 – captures Savannah – President Lincoln’s Christmas present

o       o       Continued his march north through South Carolina into North Carolina

 

 

Petersburg - continued

Nine month siege – captured Petersburg April 1865

Lee can no longer defend Richmond (army down to 25,000)

Attempts to escape union forces – escape routes blocked

April 9, 1864 – Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia

 

 Summary

 

 

A thorough study of Chapter Fifteen should enable the student to understand:

1. The conditions in the former Confederacy after Appomattox that would have made most difficult any attempt at genuine reconstruction.

2. The differences between the Conservative and Radical views on the reconstruction process, and the reasons for the eventual Radical domination.

3. The functioning of the impeachment process in the case of President Andrew Johnson, and the significance of his acquittal for the future of Reconstruction.

4. Radical Reconstruction in practice, and Southern (black and white) reaction to it.

5. The debate among historians concerning the nature of Reconstruction, its accomplishments, and its harmful effects on the South.

6. The national problems faced by President Ulysses S. Grant, and the reasons for his lack of success as chief executive.

7. The diplomatic successes of the Johnson and Grant administrations, and the role of the presidents in achieving them.

8. The greenback question, and how it reflected the postwar financial problems of the nation.

9. The alternatives that were available during the election of 1876, and the effects of the so-called Compromise of 1877 on the South and on the nation.

10. The methods used in the South to regain control of its own affairs, and what course of action it chose thereafter.

11. The reasons for the failure of the South to develop a strong industrial economy after Reconstruction.

12. The ways in which Southerners decided to handle the race question, and the origin of the system identified with "Jim Crow."

13.     The response of blacks to conditions in the South following Reconstruction.

 

 

 

As noted in the text, the south constructed many monuments to the Confederacy. Here is an example, found on the state capital in Austin, Texas. Note the inscription on the monument, as indicated in the photo to the right.

 

 

Glossary

1. solid South: Refers to the fact that the South became overwhelmingly Democratic as a reaction to Republican actions during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Democratic domination of Southern politics persisted for over a century despite occasional cracks, especially in presidential elections.
2. spoils system: The political equivalent of the military axiom "To the victor belong the spoils." In the nineteenth century, the victorious political party in national, state, and local elections routinely dismissed most officeholders and replaced them with workers loyal to the incoming party. The "spoils" were the many patronage jobs available in the government. At the national level, this included thousands of post office and customs positions. Political organizations especially adept at manipulating spoils to remain in power were often called machines. Civil- service reformers demanded that nonpolicymaking jobs be filled on the basis of competitive examinations and that officeholders would continue in office as long as they performed satisfactorily.
3. Unionists: Residents of the Confederate states who counseled against secession and who often remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Unionists were more common in upcountry regions of the South, where the slave-based plantation economy was less influential than in coastal areas of the South. Some Unionists left the South during the Civil War, but many remained.
4. veto/pocket veto: The president's refusal to sign a bill passed by Congress. He must send it back to Congress with his objections. Unless two-thirds of each house votes to override the president's action, the bill will not become law. A pocket veto occurs when Congress has adjourned and the president refuses to sign a bill within ten days. Because Congress is not in session, the president's action cannot be overridden. (See the Constitution, Article I, Section 7.)
5. Whigs: A major political party between 1834 and the 1850s. The Whigs were unified by their opposition to Andrew Jackson and their support for federal policies to aid business. The party was strongest among the merchants and manufacturers of the Northeast, the wealthy planters of the South, and the farmers of the West most eager for internal improvements. Abraham Lincoln and many other Republicans had been Whigs before the issues of sectionalism destroyed the party.

Summary

The military aspect of the American Civil War lasted less than five years and ended in April 1865, but it would take another dozen years of Reconstruction to determine what the results of the war would be. The only questions clearly settled by the time of Appomattox were that the nation was indivisible and that slavery must end. The nation faced other issues with far-reaching implications. What would be the place of the freedmen in Southern society? How would the rebellious states be brought back into their "proper relationship" with the Union? The victorious North was in a position to dominate the South, but Northern politicians were not united in either resolve or purpose. For over two years after the fighting stopped, there was no coherent Reconstruction policy. Congress and the president struggled with each other, and various factions in Congress had differing views on politics, race, and union. Congress finally won control and dominated the Reconstruction process until Southern resistance and Northern ambivalence led to the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Enormous changes had taken place, but the era still left a legacy of continuing racism and sectionalism that was revealed when Southern whites established the Jim Crow system to evade the spirit of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Meanwhile the South continued its colonial relationship with the North, and Southern plain folk, black and white, found themselves trapped by crop liens in circumstances some felt were almost as bad as slavery.