AMERICAN HISTORY

Historia y Civilización Norteamericana

Laura Marín
 1. Native American Society on the Eve of British Colonization
In Renaissance times, Europeans were not the only ones accomplishing great things. No one
can deny the beauty of Michelangelo's brushwork or the brilliance of Shakespeare's verse. But
societies elsewhere also flourished. As the modern world turned 1600, it seems as though each
corner of the globe had its own "renaissance." The Native American societies of North America
were no different. They had diverse cultures and languages, much like Europe.
When the British staked their claim to the east coast of the modern United States, they could
not have dreamed of the complexity of the peoples they were soon to encounter.
There are between 140 and 160 different AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES. There is no single
Native American language. It would be as difficult for the Mohawk Indians of the East to
converse with Zuni Indians of the West as it would be for Germans to converse with Turks.
Twenty-seven states derive names from Indian languages. Native Americans turned wild plants
such as corn, potatoes, pumpkin, yams, and lima beans into farm crops for human consumption.
More than half of modern American farm products were grown by Native Americans before
British colonization.
Medicine was not an unknown science in the Western Hemisphere. Most natural herbs used
for medicinal purposes in the modern world had also been used by Native Americans before
European contact. Archaeologists have learned that North American Indians made salt by
evaporation and mined a great many minerals including copper, lead, and coal.
Despite myths to the contrary, not all Native Americans were peaceful. Like Europe, the
American continent faced tribal warfare that sometimes led to human and cultural destruction.
In short, there is no simple way to tell the tale of a continent that had been peopled by diverse
communities for thousands of years. Their tales are as complex as any others, their cultures as
rich, their knowledge as deep. British contact did not mark the replacement of established
cultures by a better way of life, but rather the beginning of a new civilization based on a blend
of diverse folkways.
An examination of three groups — Anasazi, Iroquois, and Algonkian — serves as a beginning
to learning about the American world that once was.
a. Diversity of Native American Groups
Since 1492, European explorers and settlers have tended to ignore the vast diversity of the
people who had previously lived here. It soon became common to lump all such groups under
the term "Indian." In the modern American world, we still do. There are certain experiences
common to the survivors of these tribes. They all have had their lands compromised in some
way and suffered the horrors of reservation life.
Language Lessons
Stereotyping Indians in this way denies the vast cultural differences between tribes. First, there
is the issue of language. The Navajo people of the Southwest and the Cherokees of the
Southeast have totally unrelated languages.
There were over 200 North American tribes speaking over 200 different languages. The United
States used the uniqueness of the Navajo language to its advantage in World War II. Rather
than encrypting radio messages, it proved simpler to use Navajos to speak to each other in their
everyday language to convey high-security messages. It worked.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
Lifestyles varied greatly. Most tribes were domestic, but the LAKOTA followed the buffalo
as nomads. Most engaged in war, but the Apache were particularly feared, while the Hopis
were pacifistic. Most societies were ruled by men, but the Iroquois women chose the leaders.
Native Americans lived in WIGWAMS, HOGANS, IGLOOS, TEPEES, and longhouses.
Some relied chiefly on hunting and fishing, while others DOMESTICATED crops. The
Algonkian chiefs tried to achieve consensus, but the Natchez "Sun" was an absolute monarch.
The TOTEM POLE was not a universal Indian symbol. It was used by tribes such as the
Chinook in the Pacific Northwest to ward off evil spirits and represent family history.
It is important that students of history explore tribal nuances. Within every continent, there is
tremendous diversity. The tribal differences that caused the Apache and Navajo peoples to fight
each other are not so different from the reasons Germans fought the French. Recognizing tribal
diversity is an important step in understanding the history of America.
c. The Algonkian Tribes
Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoag tribe and father of Metacomet, meets with settlers. The
Wampanoag helped the settlers survive their first winter by providing them with much needed
supplies. But as more and more colonists arrived in New England, their relationship began to
deteriorate.
When the British set foot on the North American continent at Jamestown, they encountered the
Powhatan Indians. The Pequots and Narragansetts lived in New England as the Pilgrims and
Puritans established a new home. William Penn encountered the Leni Lenape natives while
settling "Penn's Woods." Although these tribes have great differences, they are linked
linguistically. All of these tribes (or nations) speak an Algonquin language. These Algonkian
(or Algonquian) groups were the first the English would encounter as these early settlements
began to flourish.
Algonkian or Algonquian
Which word is correct? When anthropologists classified Native American languages, they took
all of the languages of the same language family as the Algonkin tribe (also called the
Algonquin tribe) and called it the Algonquian or Algonkian language family.
ALGONQUIAN and ALGONKIAN both refer to the Algonquin language or to the group of
tribes that speak related dialects. Therefore, the Algonquian tribes (including the
DELAWARE, the NARRAGANSETTS, the PEQUOT, and the Wampanoag) are so called
because they all speak the Algonkin or Algonquin language. The Algonkians relied as much
on hunting and fishing for food as working the land. These tribes used canoes to travel the
inland waterways. The BOW AND ARROW brought small and large game, and the SPEAR
generated ample supplies of fish for the Algonkian peoples. Corn and SQUASH were a few of
the CROPS that were cultivated all along the eastern seaboard.
The group of Native Americans that lived in Pennsylvania and the surrounding area before
European settlement referred to themselves as Lenni-Lenape. It was the Europeans who called
them Delaware.
Misunderstandings
This painting, by Tall Oak of the Narragansett tribe, depicts a scene from King Philip's War
which pitted Metacomet against the British settlers.
As the first group to encounter the English, the Algonkians became the first to illustrate the
deep cultural misunderstandings between British settlers and Native Americans. British
Americans thought Algonquian women were oppressed because of their work in the fields.
Algonkian men laughed at the British men who farmed — traditionally work reserved for
females. Hunting was a sport in England, so British settlers thought the Algonkian hunters to
be unproductive.
The greatest misunderstanding was that of land ownership. In the minds of the Algonkians
selling land was like selling air. Eventually this confusion would lead to armed conflict.
The Powhatan Confederacy
The POWHATAN organized a confederacy. Virginians were met with strong resistance as
they plunged westward. In New England, WAMPANOAGS under the leadership of
METACOMET fought with Puritan farmers over the encroachment west onto Indian land.
The pacifist Quakers were notable exceptions. Pennsylvania refused to raise a militia against
the Indians for as long as Quakers dominated the government.
Unfortunately, the good times between the groups were few. The marriage of POCAHONTAS
to JOHN ROLFE and the first THANKSGIVING with the Puritans did little to prevent the
fighting. In most cases, each side regarded the other with fear and suspicion.
d. The Iroquois Tribes
The Masssachusetts Mohawk Trail began as a Native American footpath used for trade,
hunting, and social calling by five tribes, including the Pocumtuck and the Mohawk.
The Iroquois people have inhabited the areas of Ontario and upstate New York for well over
4,000 years.
Technically speaking, "Iroquois" refers to a language rather than a particular tribe. In fact, the
IROQUOIS consisted of five tribes prior to European colonization. Their society serves as an
outstanding example of political and military organization, complex lifestyle, and an elevated
role of women.
Governance and War
Mohawk Indian chief Joseph Brant served as a spokesman for his people, a Christian
missionary of the Anglican church, and a British military officer during the Revolutionary War.
Until the 1500s, the five tribes of the Iroquois devoted much energy toward fighting and killing
each other. According to ORAL TRADITION, it was about this time that they came to their
senses and united into a powerful confederation.
The five tribes designed quite an elaborate political system. This included a bicameral (two-
house) legislature, much like the British Parliament and modern U.S. Congress. The
representatives, or SACHEMS, from the SENECA and MOHAWK tribes met in one house
and those of the ONEIDA and CAYUGA met in the other. The ONONDAGA sachems broke
ties and had the power to veto decisions made by the others. There was an unwritten
constitution that described these proceedings at least as early as 1590. Such a complex political
arrangement was unknown in Europe at that time.
Excerpts from the Iroquois Constitution
Roots have spread out from the Tree of the Great Peace, one to the north, one to the east, one
to the south and one to the west. The name of these roots is The Great White Roots and their
nature is Peace and Strength...
The soil of the earth from one end of the land to the other is the property of the people who
inhabit it. By birthright the Ongweoweh (original beings) are the owners of the soil which they
own and occupy and none other may hold it. The same law has been held from the oldest times.
The Great Creator has made us of the one blood and of the same soil he made us and as only
different tongues constitute different nations he established different hunting grounds and
territories and made boundary lines between them...
Whenever a foreign nation is conquered or has by their own will accepted the Great Peace their
own system of internal government may continue, but they must cease all warfare against other
nations...
The women of every clan of the Five Nations shall have a Council Fire ever burning in
readiness for a council of the clan. When in their opinion it seems necessary for the interest of
the people they shall hold a council and their decisions and recommendations shall be
introduced before the Council of the Lords by the War Chief for its consideration.
Although the tribes began to work together, they surely did not renounce war. They fought and
captured other native tribes as well as wave after wave of European immigrants who presented
themselves. They fought the early French and British settlers. During the French and Indian
War they remained officially neutral but would join either side to exploit an advantage. Both
sides courted Iroquois support during the Revolution. As a result, there was a split in the
CONFEDERACY for the first time in over 200 years. Iroquois fought Iroquois once more.

Iroquois Society
The Iroquoi Tribes, also known as the Haudenosuanee, are known for many things. But they
are best known for their longhouses. Each longhouse was home to many members of a
Haudenosuanee family.
The LONGHOUSE was the center of Iroquois life. Archaeologists have unearthed longhouse
remains that extend more than the length of a football field.
Agriculture was the main source of food. In Iroquois society, women held a special role.
Believed to be linked to the earth's power to create life, women determined how the food would
be distributed — a considerable power in a farming society.
Women were also responsible for selecting the sachems for the Confederacy. Iroquois society
was MATRILINEAL; when a marriage transpired, the family moved into the longhouse of
the mother, and FAMILY LINEAGE was traced from her.
Women were also responsible for selecting the sachems for the Confederacy. Iroquois society
was MATRILINEAL; when a marriage transpired, the family moved into the longhouse of
the mother, and FAMILY LINEAGE was traced from her.
The Iroquois society proved to be the most persistent military threat the European settlers
would face. Although conquest and treaty forced them to cede much of their land, their legacy
lingers. Some historians even attribute some aspects of the structure of our own Constitution
to Iroquois ideas. In fact, one of America's greatest admirers of the Iroquois was none other
than Benjamin Franklin.
2. Britain in the New World
Most modern American citizens consider Great Britain to be their European "parent" country.
However, by the time British arrived in the New World and established their first permanent
settlement at Jamestown in 1607, much of the continent had already been claimed by other
European nations.
All of the modern Southwest, including Texas and California, had been peopled by Spanish
settlers for about a century. The entire expanse of land between the Appalachian Mountains
and the Rocky Mountains had at one point been claimed by France.
Many factors contributed to Britain's tardiness. England was not the most powerful European
nation in the 16th century. Spain was most influential. Along with Portugal, Spain dominated
New World exploration in the decades that followed Columbus. France, the Netherlands, and
Sweden all showed greater interest in the Western Hemisphere than England did.
Late Expectations
A voyage by John Cabot on behalf of English investors in 1497 failed to spark any great interest
in the NEW WORLD. England was divided in the 1500s by great religious turmoil. When
HENRY VIII broke with the Catholic Church in 1533, decades of religious strife ensued.
Finally, under Henry's daughter ELIZABETH, the English were prepared to stake their claims.
Although England was an island and therefore a seafaring nation, Spain was the undisputed
superpower of the seas in the 16th century. Many of England's adventurous sea captains found
that plundering Spanish ships was a far simpler means of acquiring wealth than establishing
colonies.
Sea Dogs and the Spanish Armada
These sea dogs, including Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, and the infamous John Hawkins,
helped provoke the eventual showdown between Elizabeth I's England and PHILIP II'S Spain.
PHILIP was certain that his great fleet of ships would put an end to England's piracy. In 1588,
one of the greatest turning points in world history occurred when Spain's "invincible"
ARMADA of 130 ships sailed into the English Channel. Despite their numerical inferiority,
the English ships were faster and easier to maneuver than the Spanish fleet. With the aid of a
great storm, Elizabeth's ships humiliated Philip's navy, which returned to Spain with fewer than
half their original number.
This battle marked the beginning of the end of Spain's domination of Europe and the Western
Hemisphere. More importantly for England, it marked the dawn of the era of permanent
ENGLISH SETTLEMENT of the New World.
a. Early Ventures Fail
When John White returned to Roanoke Island in 1590, the colonists he hoped to find had
vanished. Their homes were gone, and the only clue was the word "CROATOAN."
What kind of investment was Queen Elizabeth making? As a financial backer of English sea
captain FRANCIS DRAKE, she supported a buccaneer who found it easier to plunder the
gold of others than mine it himself.
This philosophy of plunder motivated the sea dogs of Queen Elizabeth's time. Making a
business of raiding Spanish ships, John Hawkins and Francis Drake gained riches for
themselves and their investors.
Once, after raiding ports in New Spain, Drake was faced with a difficult dilemma. Because
the Spanish fleet would surely destroy him if he attempted a conventional return, he
proceeded to circumnavigate the globe in his flight. Upon Drake's safe arrival in England, the
Spanish demanded his arrest.
New Spain
NEW SPAIN refers to Spanish-controlled territories in North America. These territories
included what would become the southwest United States, Florida, Mexico, Central America
north of Panama, some West Indian islands, and the islands of the Philippines.
The Knight Stuff
Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. Connect the dots to
trace his routes.
Of course, Elizabeth refused to comply with Spain's demands. She was one of Drake's
investors. Instead, she knighted him on the deck of his treasure-laden ship. In the process,
Drake became the first to sail around the world since FERDINAND MAGELLAN's voyage.
He completed perhaps the longest escape route in the history of the world.
As tensions flared between England and Spain, it soon became sensible for England to
establish permanent settlements in the New World to rival the Spanish. If nothing more, they
could serve as bases from which to raid Spanish ships.
Early Attempts at Colonizing
The first to attempt such a venture was HUMPHREY GILBERT. Gilbert had already made
a name for himself as a colonizer. Throughout the 1560s and 1570s, he ruthlessly put down
Irish rebellions. Due to his fervor for the Church of England, he stopped short of nothing —
torture, starvation, or beheading — in the name of the queen. He took this philosophy and
loyalty to Newfoundland with the goal of establishing the first permanent English settlement
in the New World.
The first English baby born in the new colony, Virginia Dare, disappeared along with the rest
of the "lost colony."
In 1583, he rushed ashore and proudly claimed the land for his queen — despite the fact that
fishermen from other countries had lived there for decades. His ship was lost at sea on his
return home.
Roanoke
Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to ROANOKE did not fare much better. In 1585, Raleigh's
men settled on the small island off the coast of modern-day North Carolina. Relations with
the Native American inhabitants were peaceful at first, but as the colonists' supplies
dwindled, amity dwindled too. The colonists left in 1586 after beheading the local Indian
chief, WINGINA.
Raleigh arranged for GOVERNOR JOHN WHITE and a group of families to return to live
in peace with the natives in 1587. Violence, however, is not easily forgotten. Within one
month, hostilities resumed, and White was forced to return to England to ask Raleigh for
reinforcements.
Time was not on White's side. When the war with Spain erupted, White could not return to
the colony for three years. When he set foot on Roanoke Island in August 1590, he searched
frantically for the settlers, including his daughter and granddaughter, the first English New
World baby, named VIRGINIA DARE.
All that could be found was the remains of a village and a mysterious word, "CROATOAN,"
engraved on a tree. White concluded there must be a connection between the word and a
nearby Indian tribe, but before he could investigate, a violent storm forced him out to sea and
back to England.
This lost colony remains one of the greatest mysteries of the colonial period.
c. Jamestown Settlement and the "Starving Time"
The first joint-stock company to launch a lasting venture to the New World was the VIRGINIA
COMPANY OF LONDON. The investors had one goal in mind: gold. They hoped to repeat
the success of Spaniards who found gold in South America.
In 1607, 144 English men and boys established the JAMESTOWN colony, named after King
James I. The colonists were told that if they did not generate any wealth, financial support for
their efforts would end. Many of the men spent their days vainly searching for gold. As a
consequence, the colonists spent little time farming. Food supplies dwindled. MALARIA and
the harsh winter besieged the colonists, as well. After the first year, only 38 of the original 144
had survived.
"Work or Starve"
The colony may well have perished had it not been for the leadership of JOHN SMITH. He
imposed strict discipline on the colonists. "Work or starve" was his motto, and each colonist
was required to spend four hours per day farming.
An accidental gunpowder burn forced Smith to return to England in 1609. After his departure,
the colony endured even more hardships. A new boatload of colonists and supplies sank off the
coast of Bermuda on its way to help the hungry settlement. The winter of 1609-10, known as
the "STARVING TIME," may have been the worst of all.
Disease and hunger ravaged Jamestown. Two desperate colonists were tied to posts and left to
starve as punishment for raiding the colonies' stores. One colonist even took to cannibalism,
eating his own wife. The fate of the venture was precarious. Yet still more colonists arrived,
and their numbers included women.
Despite the introduction of tobacco cultivation, the colony was a failure as a financial venture.
The king declared the Virginia Company bankrupt in 1624.
About 200,000 pounds were lost among the investors. The charter was thereby revoked, and
Virginia became a royal colony, the first in America to be ruled by the Crown.
Investments in permanent settlements were risky indeed. The merchants and gentry paid with
their pocketbooks. Many colonists paid with their lives. For every six colonists who ventured
across the Atlantic, only one survived.
d. The Growth of the Tobacco Trade
Virginia's economic future did not lie with gold. There was too little gold to be found there.
Looking for new ways to make its investments pay dividends, the Virginia Company of London
began encouraging multiple ventures by 1618.
Jamestown settlers experimented with GLASSBLOWING, VINEYARD cultivation, and
even silkworm farming. Despite efforts to diversify Virginia's economy, by the end of the
1620s only one Virginia crop was drawing a fair market price in England: tobacco.
Drinking Smoke
TOBACCO was introduced to Europe by the Spanish, who had learned to smoke it from
Native Americans. Despite some early criticism of "drinking smoke," tobacco became popular
among the middle classes in England. Much of the tobacco smoked in England was grown in
the WEST INDIES.
JOHN ROLFE thought that Virginia might be an outstanding site for tobacco growth. Early
attempts to sell Virginian tobacco had fallen short of expectations. Smokers felt that the tobacco
of the Caribbean was much less harsh than Virginian tobacco.
Rolfe reacted to consumer demand by importing seed from the West Indies and cultivating the
plant in the Jamestown colony. Those tobacco seeds became the seeds of a huge economic
empire. By 1630, over a million and a half pounds of tobacco were being exported from
Jamestown every year.
The tobacco economy rapidly began to shape the society and development of the colony.
Growing tobacco takes its toil on the soil. Because tobacco drained the soil of its nutrients,
only about three successful growing seasons could occur on a plot of land. Then the land had
to lie fallow for three years before the soil could be used again. This created a huge drive for
new farmland.
Settlers grew tobacco in the streets of Jamestown. The yellow-leafed crop even covered
cemeteries. Because tobacco cultivation is labour intensive, more settlers were needed.
Indentured Servants
Indentured servants became the first means to meet this need for labour. In return for free
passage to Virginia, a labourer worked for four to five years in the fields before being granted
freedom. The Crown rewarded planters with 50 acres of land for every inhabitant they brought
to the New World.
Naturally, the colony began to expand. That expansion was soon challenged by the Native
American confederacy formed and named after Powhatan.
e. War and Peace with Powhatan's People
Fortunately for the English settlers, Powhatan had a plan.
He regarded the English settlers suspiciously, as he had previously regarded Spanish settlers.
But the English had guns and powder. These items might just give him the advantage he needed
to defeat surrounding tribes.
And the English seemed so harmless at first. If it were not for the good nature of Powhatan's
people, the English settlers never would have survived their first few seasons in the New World.
Good relations with these new inhabitants might help forge a powerful alliance.
Plundering, Peace, and Pocahontas
Before long, Powhatan's hopes were dashed. During the "starving time," colonists took to
raiding Native American food supplies. In retaliation, Powhatan ordered an attack.
War raged on and off for the next few years with unspeakable brutality committed by both
sides. Unsuspecting colonists were riddled with arrows. Children of defeated tribes were
drowned in the James River. Finally, in 1614, Powhatan accepted peace with the English. His
daughter Pocahontas, after being kidnapped and ransomed, was married to John Rolfe and
taken to England. Unfortunately, she died of disease only three years later. Powhatan died in
despair in 1618.
Powhatan's brother, OPECHANCANOUGH, was determined to continue the fight. On Good
Friday in 1622, he led an attack that nearly finished the Jamestown colony. Three hundred
forty-seven settlers were killed before the situation stabilized. Fighting continued between the
Algonquian peoples and the English until 1645. Opechancanough was captured and executed.
The English forced the tribes of the warring confederacy to cede land and recognize English
authority.
No-Man's-Land
Many cultural differences separated the Native Americans and the colonists. The most
important contrast was each side's differing view of land ownership. According to Powhatan's
people, land was owned by no one; rather, it was collectively used by the tribe.
Because land could not be owned, it could not be sold or yielded in treaty. Selling land was the
equivalent of selling air. The English view of individual land ownership was completely
foreign to the Powhatans, who could not understand being pushed off tribal lands so it could
be sold to individuals. To the Powhatans, the loss of their land was a matter worth fighting for.
f. The House of Burgesses
Although many differences separated Spain and France from England, perhaps the factor that
contributed most to distinct paths of colonization was the form of their government. Spain and
France had absolute monarchies, but Britain had a limited monarchy. In New France and New
Spain, all authority flowed from the Crown to the settlers, with no input from below.
More Information ...
An absolute monarchy is a state in which the monarch has sovereign power and controls all
aspects of government without being checked by any representative assemblies.
A limited or constitutional monarchy is a state in which the power of the monarch is checked
by other constitutionally sanctioned institutions, such as a REPRESENTATIVE
ASSEMBLY (e.g., the British Parliament).
The English kings who ruled the 13 original colonies reserved the right to decide the fate of
their colonies as well, but not alone. The colonists drew upon their claims to traditional English
rights and insisted on raising their own representative assemblies. Such was the case with the
VIRGINIA HOUSE OF BURGESSES, the first popularly elected legislative body in the
New World.
The Magna Carta
English landowners had insisted on meeting with their leaders for consultation in local matters
ever since the MAGNA CARTA was signed in 1215. Virginia settlers expected that same
right.
Modelled after the English Parliament, the General Assembly was established in 1619. In 1643
it became a bicameral body, establishing the House of Burgesses as one of its two chambers.
Members would meet at least once a year with their royal governor to decide local laws and
determine local taxation. KING JAMES I, a believer in the divine right of monarchs,
attempted to dissolve the assembly, but the Virginians would have none of it. They continued
to meet on a yearly basis to decide local matters.
Democracy in Practice
What is the importance of a small legislative body formed so long ago? The tradition
established by the House of Burgesses was extremely important to colonial development. Each
new English colony demanded its own legislature in turn.
Historians often ponder why the American Revolution was successful. The French, Russian,
and Chinese Revolutions each ended with a rise to power of a leader more autocratic than the
pre-revolutionary monarch. But starting with the Virginia General Assembly, Americans had
157 years to practice democracy. By the time of the Declaration of Independence, they were
quite good at it.
3. The New England Colonies
The FOUNDERS of the New England colonies had an entirely different mission from the
Jamestown settlers. Although economic prosperity was still a goal of the New England settlers,
their true goal was spiritual. Fed up with the ceremonial Church of England, Pilgrims and
Puritans sought to recreate society in the manner they believed God truly intended it to be
designed.
Religious strife reached a peak in England in the 1500s. When Henry VIII broke with the
Catholic Church of Rome, spiritual life in England was turned on its ear. The new church under
the king's leadership was approved by the English Parliament, but not all the people in England
were willing to accept the Church of England. At first, the battles were waged between English
Catholics and the followers of the new Church — the ANGLICANS. The rule of Queen
Elizabeth brought an end to bloodshed, but the battle waged on in the hearts of the English
people.
PILGRIMS and Puritans both believed in the teachings of JOHN CALVIN. According to
Calvin, neither the teachings of the Catholic nor the Anglican Churches addressed God's will.
By the end of Elizabeth's reign, England was a nation of many different faiths.
The STUART FAMILY, who ascended to the throne after the demise of Elizabeth, made
matters worse for the followers of John Calvin. King James and his son CHARLES supported
the Church of England, but secretly admired the ceremonies of the Catholic Church. To these
kings, Calvin was a heretic, a man whose soul was doomed for his religious views.
The Pilgrims, called the SEPARATISTS in England because of their desire to separate from
the Anglican Church, were persecuted by agents of the throne. The Puritans, so named for their
desire to purify the Church of England, experienced the same degree of harassment. By the
second and third decades of the 1600s, each group decided that England was no place to put
their controversial beliefs into practice.
Where else but in the New World could such a golden opportunity be found? The land was
unspoiled. Children could be raised without the corruption of old English religious ideas. The
chance to create a perfect society was there for the taking. The Stuart kings saw America a
means to get rid of troublemakers. Everything was falling into place.
By 1620, the seeds for a new society, quite different from the one already established at
Jamestown, were planted deeply within the souls of a few brave pioneers. Their quest would
form the basis of New England society.
a. The Mayflower and Plymouth Colony
At the time of its famous voyage, the Mayflower was roughly 12 years old and had been in the
business of shipping wine. Seen here is the replica Mayflower II.
Not all the English Separatists set out for the New World.
The first group to leave England actually headed for the Dutch Netherlands in 1608. They
became uneasy in their new land as their children started speaking Dutch and abandoning
English traditions. Even worse to the Separatists, the tolerance shown to them by the Dutch
was shown to many different faiths. They became disgusted with the attention paid to worldly
goods, and the presence of many "unholy" faiths.
The great Separatist experiment in the Netherlands came to a quick end, as they began to look
elsewhere for a purer place to build their society. Some headed for English islands in the
Caribbean. Those who would be forever known to future Americans as the Pilgrims set their
sights on the New World in late 1620.
Crossing the Atlantic
The Mayflower Compact, signed aboard the ship on its way from England to the New World,
acknowledged their loyalty to the King and pledged their obedience to such just and equal laws
as would be necessary to the general good of the colony to be established after landing. This
document represents the first example of a written constitution in North America.
Over a hundred travelers embarked on the voyage of the Mayflower in September 1620. Less
than one third were Separatists. The rest were immigrants, adventurers, and speculators.
When the weather was good, the passengers could enjoy hot food cooked on deck. When there
was high wind or storms, they lived on salted beef, a dried biscuit called "HARD TACK,"
other dried vegetables, and beer. The nearest thing to resemble a bathroom was a bucket.
Their voyage took about two months, and the passengers enjoyed a happier experience than
most trans-Atlantic trips. One death was suffered and one child was born. The child was named
OCEANUS after the watery depths beneath them.
Are We There Yet?
The 102 travellers aboard the Mayflower landed upon the shores of Plymouth in 1620. This
rock still sits on those shores to commemorate the historic event.
One of the greatest twists of fate in human history occurred on that epochal voyage. The
Pilgrims were originally bound for Virginia to live north of Jamestown under the same charter
granted to citizens of Jamestown. Fate charted a different course. Lost at sea, they happened
upon a piece of land that would become known as Cape Cod. After surveying the land, they set
up camp not too far from PLYMOUTH ROCK. They feared venturing further south because
winter was fast approaching.

The Pilgrims had an important question to answer before they set ashore. Since they were not
landing within the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, they had no CHARTER to govern
them. Who would rule their society?
In the landmark MAYFLOWER COMPACT OF 1620, the Pilgrims decided that they would
rule themselves, based on majority rule of the townsmen. This independent attitude set up a
tradition of self-rule that would later lead to TOWN MEETINGS and elected legislatures in
New England. Like the Virginia House of Burgesses established the previous year, Plymouth
colony began to lay the foundation for democracy in the American colonies.
b. William Bradford and the First Thanksgiving
As was the custom in England, the Pilgrims celebrated their harvest with a festival. The 50
remaining colonists and roughly 90 Wampanoag tribesmen attended the "First Thanksgiving."
The major similarity between the first Jamestown settlers and the first Plymouth settlers was
great human suffering.
November was too late to plant crops. Many settlers died of scurvy and malnutrition during
that horrible first winter. Of the 102 original Mayflower passengers, only 44 survived. Again
like in Jamestown, the kindness of the local Native Americans saved them from a frosty death.
The Pilgrims' remarkable courage was displayed the following spring. When the Mayflower
returned to Europe, not a single Pilgrim deserted Plymouth.
Helping Hands
Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, signed a treaty with the Pilgrams in 1621, that was
never broken. As a result, the two groups enjoyed a peaceful coexistence.
By early 1621, the Pilgrims had built crude huts and a common house on the shores of Plymouth
Bay. Soon neighboring Indians began to build relations with the Pilgrims. SQUANTO, a local
Indian who had been kidnapped and taken to England nearly a decade before, served as an
interpreter with the local tribes. Squanto taught the Pilgrims to fertilize the soil with dried fish
remains to produce a stellar corn crop.
MASSASOIT, the chief of the nearby Wampanoags, signed a treaty of alliance with the
Pilgrims in the summer. In exchange for assistance with defense against the feared Narragansett
tribe, Massasoit supplemented the food supply of the Pilgrims for the first few years.
Governor Bradford
The modern conception of a Pilgrim might include a man in a black hat with a buckle, but not
all of the original settlers of Plymouth County fit this description.
Successful colonies require successful leadership. The man to step forward in Plymouth colony
was WILLIAM BRADFORD. After the first governor elected under the Mayflower Compact
perished from the harsh winter, Bradford was elected governor for the next thirty years. In May
of 1621, he performed the colony's first marriage ceremony.
Under Bradford's guidance, Plymouth suffered less hardship than their English compatriots in
Virginia. Relations with the local natives remained relatively smooth in Plymouth and the food
supply grew with each passing year.
By autumn of 1621, the Pilgrims had much for which to be thankful. After the harvest,
Massasoit and about ninety other Indians joined the Pilgrims for the great English tradition of
HARVEST FESTIVAL. The participants celebrated for several days, dining on venison,
goose, duck, turkey, fish, and of course, cornbread, the result of a bountiful corn harvest. This
tradition was repeated at harvest time in the following years.
It was President Lincoln who declared Thanksgiving a national celebration in 1863. The
Plymouth Pilgrims simply celebrated survival, as well as the hopes of good fortune in the years
that lay ahead.
c. Massachusetts Bay — "The City Upon a Hill"
This woodcut represents the earliest known map of New England from 1677. The mapmaker
showed west at the top with north to the right.
The passengers of the Arbella who left England in 1630 with their new charter had a great
vision. They were to be an example for the rest of the world in rightful living. Future governor
JOHN WINTHROP stated their purpose quite clearly: "We shall be as a city upon a hill, the
eyes of all people are upon us."
The Arbella was one of eleven ships carrying over a thousand Puritans to Massachusetts that
year. It was the largest original venture ever attempted in the English New World. The
passengers were determined to be a beacon for the rest of Europe, "A Modell of Christian
Charity," in the words of the governor.
Puritans believed in PREDESTINATION. This doctrine holds that God is all-powerful and
all-knowing; therefore, the fate of each individual soul is known to God at birth. Nothing an
individual can do or say could change their ultimate fate. Puritans believed that those chosen
by God to be saved — the elect — would experience "CONVERSION." In this process, God
would reveal to the individual His grace, and the person would know he was saved.
Only the elect could serve as Church members. If a person were truly saved, he would only be
capable of behavior endorsed by God. These "living saints" would serve as an example to the
rest of the world. During the early years, ministers such as JOHN COTTON carefully
screened individuals claiming to have experienced conversion.
The colony needed more than a fervent church to survive. Many DISSENTERS — Christian
men and women who were not converted — also lived within the ranks of Massachusetts Bay.
Towns such as MARBLEHEAD were founded by non-Puritan settlers. The Puritans allowed
this for the sake of commerce. Many skills were necessary for a vibrant economy.
John Winthrop travelled to the New World aboard the Arbella. He was elected and dismissed
as governor of the Massachsetts Bay Colony several times.
This engraving shows the Harvard campus as it looked during the 18th century.
An elected legislature was established, echoing the desire for self-government already seen in
other English colonies. Although ministers were prohibited from holding political office, many
of the most important decisions were made by the clergy. In 1636, HARVARD COLLEGE
was instituted for the purpose of training Puritan ministers.
By the end of the 1630s, as part of a "GREAT MIGRATION" of Puritans out of England,
nearly 14,000 more Puritan settlers came to Massachusetts, and the colony began to spread. In
1691, Plymouth colony, still without a charter, was absorbed by their burgeoning neighbor to
the West.
The great experiment seemed to be a smashing success for the first few decades. In the end
however, worldly concerns led to a decline in religious fervor as the 1600s grew old.
d. Puritan Life
As minister of Boston's Old North Church, Cotton Mather was a popular voice in Puritan New
England. His involvement in the witch trials of the 1680s would bring him even more notoriety.
New England life seemed to burst with possibilities.
The life expectancy of its citizens became longer than that of Old England, and much longer
than the Southern English colonies. Children were born at nearly twice the rate in Maryland
and Virginia. It is often said that New England invented grandparents, for it was here that
people in great numbers first grew old enough to see their children bear children.
LITERACY RATES were high as well. Massachusetts law required a tax-supported school
for every community that could boast 50 or more families. Puritans wanted their children to be
able to read the Bible, of course.
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY was a man's world. Women did not participate in town
meetings and were excluded from decision making in the church. Puritan ministers furthered
MALE SUPREMACY in their writings and sermons. They preached that the soul had two
parts, the immortal masculine half, and the mortal feminine half.
Puritan law was extremely strict; men and women were severly punished for a variety of
crimes. Even a child could be put to death for cursing his parents. It was believed that women
who were pregnant with a male child had a rosy complexion and that women carrying a female
child were pale. Names of women found in census reports of Massachusetts Bay include
Patience, Silence, Fear, Prudence, Comfort, Hopestill, and Be Fruitful. This list reflects Puritan
views on women quite clearly.
Church attendance was mandatory. Those that missed church regularly were subject to a fine.
The sermon became a means of addressing town problems or concerns. The church was
sometimes patrolled by a man who held a long pole. On one end was a collection of feathers to
tickle the chins of old men who fell asleep. On the other was a hard wooden knob to alert
children who giggled or slept. Church was serious business indeed. The Puritans believed they
were doing God's work. Hence, there was little room for compromise. Harsh punishment was
inflicted on those who were seen as straying from God's work. There were cases when
individuals of differing faiths were hanged in BOSTON COMMON.
Adulterers might have been forced to wear a scarlet "A" if they were lucky. At least two known
adulterers were executed in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Public whippings were commonplace.
The STOCKADE forced the humiliated guilty person to sit in the public square, while
onlookers spat or laughed at them. Puritans felt no remorse about administering punishment.
They believed in Old Testament methods. Surely God's correction would be far worse to the
individual than any earthly penalty.
Contrary to myth, the Puritans did have fun. There were celebrations and festivals. People sang
and told stories. Children were allowed to play games with their parents' permission. Wine and
beer drinking were commonplace. Puritans did not all dress in black as many believe. The
fundamental rule was to follow God's law. Those that did lived in peace in the BIBLE
COMMONWEALTH. Made famous by author Nathaniel Hawthorne in his book of the same
name, the Scarlet Letter was a real form of punishment in Puritan society.
g. Witchcraft in Salem
George Jacobs Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret were both accused of witchcraft, but
Margaret managed to escape harm by claiming that Grandpa was indeed a witch. He was
convicted and hanged in August 1692.
Surely the Devil had come to SALEM in 1692. Young girls screaming and barking like a dog?
Strange dances in the woods? This was behavior hardly becoming of virtuous teenage maidens.
The town doctor was called onto the scene. After a thorough examination, he concluded quite
simply — the girls were bewitched. Now the task was clear. Whomever was responsible for
this outrage must be brought to justice.
The ordeal originated in the home of Salem's REVEREND SAMUEL PARRIS. Parris had a
slave from the Caribbean named TITUBA. Several of the town's teenage girls began to gather
in the kitchen with Tituba early in 1692. As winter turned to spring the townspeople were
aghast at the behaviors exhibited by Tituba's young followers. They were believed to have
danced a black magic dance in the nearby woods. Several of the girls would fall to the floor
and scream hysterically. Soon this behavior began to spread across Salem. Ministers from
nearby communities came to Salem to lend their sage advice. The talk turned to identifying the
parties responsible for this mess.
Puritans believed that to become bewitched a WITCH must draw an individual under a spell.
The girls could not have possibly brought this condition onto themselves. Soon they were
questioned and forced to name their tormentors. Three townspeople, including Tituba, were
named as witches. The famous Salem witchcraft trials began as the girls began to name more
and more community members.
Evidence admitted in such trials was of five types. First, the accused might be asked to pass a
test, like reciting the Lord's Prayer. This seems simple enough. But the young girls who
attended the trial were known to scream and writhe on the floor in the middle of the test. It is
easy to understand why some could not pass. Second, physical evidence was considered. Any
birthmarks, warts, moles, or other blemishes were seen as possible portals through which
SATAN could enter a body.
Witness testimony was a third consideration. Anyone who could attribute their misfortune to
the SORCERY of an accused person might help get a conviction. Fourth was spectral
evidence. Puritans believed that Satan could not take the form of any unwilling person.
Therefore, if anyone saw a ghost or spirit in the form of the accused, the person in question
must be a witch.
Last was the CONFESSION. Confession seems foolhardy to a defendant who is certain of his
or her innocence. In many cases, it was the only way out. A confessor would tearfully throw
himself or herself on the mercy of the town and court and promise repentance. None of the
confessors were executed. Part of repentance might of course include helping to convict others.
As 1692 passed into 1693, the hysteria began to lose steam. The governor of the colony, upon
hearing that his own wife was accused of witchcraft ordered an end to the trials. However, 20
people and 2 dogs were executed for the crime of witchcraft in Salem. One person was pressed
to death under a pile of stones for refusing to testify.
No one knows the truth behind what happened in Salem. Once witchcraft is ruled out, other
important factors come to light. Salem had suffered greatly in recent years from Indian attacks.
As the town became more populated, land became harder and harder to acquire. A
SMALLPOX epidemic had broken out at the beginning of the decade. Massachusetts was
experiencing some of the worst winters in memory. The motives of the young girls themselves
can be questioned. In a society where women had no power, particularly young women, is it
not understandable how a few adolescent girls, drunk with unforeseen attention, allowed their
imaginations to run wild? Historians make educated guesses, but the real answers lie with the
ages.
4. The Middle Colonies
Americans have often prided themselves on their rich diversity. Nowhere was that diversity
more evident in pre-Revolutionary America than in the MIDDLE COLONIES of
Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. European ethnic groups as manifold as
English, Swedes, Dutch, Germans, Scots-Irish and French lived in closer proximity than in any
location on continental Europe. The middle colonies contained Native American tribes of
Algonkian and Iroquois language groups as well as a sizable percentage of African slaves
during the early years. Unlike solidly Puritan New England, the middle colonies presented an
assortment of religions. The presence of Quakers, MENNONITES, LUTHERANS, DUTCH
CALVINISTS, and PRESBYTERIANS made the dominance of one faith next to impossible.
Advantaged by their central location, the middle colonies served as important distribution
centers in the English mercantile system. New York and Philadelphia grew at a fantastic rate.
These cities gave rise to brilliant thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin, who earned respect on
both sides of the Atlantic. In many ways, the middle colonies served as the crossroads of ideas
during the colonial period.
In contrast to the South where the cash crop plantation system dominated, and New England
whose rocky soil made large-scale agriculture difficult, the middle colonies were FERTILE.
Land was generally acquired more easily than in New England or in the plantation South.
Wheat and corn from local farms would feed the American colonies through their colonial
infancy and revolutionary adolescence.
The middle colonies represented exactly that — a middle ground between its neighbours to the
North and South. Elements of both New England towns and sprawling country estates could
be found. Religious dissidents from all regions could settle in the relatively tolerant middle
zone. Aspects of New England SHIPBUILDING and LUMBERING and the large farms of
the South could be found. Aptly named, they provided a perfect nucleus for English America.
a. New Netherland to New York
England was not the first European power to settle the land known now as New York. That
distinction belongs to the Dutch.
Ironically, the English explorer HENRY HUDSON brought the region to the attention of the
Netherlands in 1609 by sailing into New York Bay and up the river that would eventually bear
his name.
NEW NETHERLAND became a reality fourteen years later. The Dutch West India Company
hoped to reap the profits of the area's fur trade.
Governor Stuyvesant, appointed by the Dutch West India Company, told the colonists of New
Netherland, "I shall govern you as a father his children."
Wait Just a Minuit
Shortly after setting up camp, PETER MINUIT made one of the greatest real estate purchases
in history. He traded TRINKETS (small ornaments, jewelry, etc.) with local Native Americans
for Manhattan Island. The town that was established there was named NEW AMSTERDAM.
The Dutch had no patience for democratic institutions. The point of the colony was to enrich
its stockholders.
The most famous governor of the colony, PETER STUYVESANT, ruled New Amsterdam
with an iron fist. Slavery was common during the Dutch era, as the DUTCH WEST INDIA
COMPANY was one of the most prominent in the world's trade of slaves.
Languages that could be heard in the streets of New Amsterdam include Dutch, French,
Flemish, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and several other European and African tongues.
Northwest of New Amsterdam, New Netherland approached feudal conditions with the
awarding of large tracts of land to wealthy investors. This would create eventual instability as
the gap between the landed and the landless grew more obvious.
The British Are Coming
After CHARLES II came to the throne, the English became very interested in the Dutch
holdings. In 1664, he granted the land to his brother, the Duke of York, before officially owning
it.
When a powerful English military unit appeared in New Amsterdam, Governor Stuyvesant was
forced to surrender, and New Netherland became New York.
Santa Claus and Easter Eggs
Cultural contributions left by the Dutch include the pastimes of bowling and skating. Christmas
and Easter were transformed by the introduction of Santa Claus and Easter eggs.
Any resident or visitor to Harlem or Brooklyn should recognize the Dutch influence in the
names of locales. Although majority Dutch presence was short-lived, the legacy remains.
b. Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
WILLIAM PENN was a dreamer. He also had the king over a barrel. Charles II owed his
father a huge debt. To repay the Penns, William was awarded an enormous tract of land in the
New World. Immediately he saw possibilities. People of his faith, the Quakers, had suffered
serious persecution in England. With some good advertising, he might be able to establish a
religious refuge. He might even be able to turn a profit. Slowly, the wheels began to spin. In,
1681, his dream became a reality.
Central to the Quaker way of life was the Meeting House. Here, Quakers would come together
to worship. The above image depicts one of London's Quaker Meeting Houses.
QUAKERS, or the Society of Friends, had suffered greatly in England. As religious dissenters
of the Church of England, they were targets much like the Separatists and the Puritans. But
Friends were also devout pacifists. They would not fight in any of England's wars, nor would
they pay their taxes if they believed the proceeds would assist a military venture. They believed
in total equality. Therefore, Quakers would not bow down to nobles. Even the king would not
receive the courtesy of a tipped hat. They refused to take oaths, so their allegiance to the Crown
was always in question. Of all the Quaker families that came to the New World, over three
quarters of the male heads of household had spent time in an English jail.
The Quakers of Penn's colony, like their counterparts across the Delaware River in New Jersey,
established an extremely liberal government for the seventeenth century. Religious freedom
was granted and there was no tax-supported church. Penn insisted on developing good relations
with the Native Americans. Women saw greater freedom in Quaker society than elsewhere, as
they were allowed to participate fully in Quaker meetings.
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") and planner of Philadelphia,
established a very liberal government by 17th century standards. Religious freedom and good
relations with Native Americans were two keystones of Penn's style.
PENNSYLVANIA, or "Penn's Woods," benefited from the vision of its founder. Well-
advertised throughout Europe, skilled artisans and farmers flocked to the new colony. With
Philadelphia as its capital, Pennsylvania soon became the KEYSTONE of the English
colonies. New Jersey was owned by Quakers even before Penn's experiment, and the remnants
of NEW SWEDEN, now called Delaware, also fell under the Friends' sphere of influence.
William Penn's dream had come true.
5. The Southern Colonies
Virginia was the first successful southern colony. While Puritan zeal was fueling New
England's mercantile development, and Penn's Quaker experiment was turning the middle
colonies into America's breadbasket, the South was turning to cash crops. Geography and
motive rendered the development of these colonies distinct from those that lay to the North.
Immediately to Virginia's north was MARYLAND. Begun as a Catholic experiment, the
colony's economy would soon come to mirror that of Virginia, as tobacco became the most
important crop. To the south lay the Carolinas, created after the English Civil War had been
concluded. In the Deep South was GEORGIA, the last of the original thirteen colonies.
Challenges from Spain and France led the king to desire a buffer zone between the cash crops
of the Carolinas and foreign enemies. Georgia, a colony of debtors, would fulfill that need.
English American Southerners would not enjoy the generally good health of their New England
counterparts. Outbreaks of malaria and YELLOW FEVER kept life expectancies lower. Since
the northern colonies attracted religious dissenters, they tended to migrate in families. Such
family connections were less prevalent in the South.
The economy of growing CASH CROPS would require a labor force that would be unknown
north of Maryland. Slaves and indentured servants, although present in the North, were much
more important to the South. They were the backbone of the Southern economy.
Settlers in the Southern colonies came to America to seek economic prosperity they could not
find in Old England. The English countryside provided a grand existence of stately manors and
high living. But rural England was full, and by law those great estates could only be passed on
to the eldest son. America provided more space to realize a lifestyle the new arrivals could
never dream to achieve in their native land.
b. Indentured Servants
The growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need
for labor in Southern English America. Without the aid of modern machinery, human sweat
and blood was necessary for the planting, cultivation, and harvesting of these cash crops. While
slaves existed in the English colonies throughout the 1600s, indentured servitude was the
method of choice employed by many planters before the 1680s. This system provided
incentives for both the master and servant to increase the working population of the Chesapeake
colonies.
This picture, Industry and Idleness, shows 2 apprentices starting in identical circumstances,
one is the industrious Francis Goodchild and the other is the unsuccessful Thomas Idlefrom.
Virginia and Maryland operated under what was known as the "HEADRIGHT SYSTEM."
The leaders of each colony knew that labor was essential for economic survival, so they
provided incentives for planters to import workers. For each labourer brought across the
Atlantic, the master was rewarded with 50 acres of land. This system was used by wealthy
plantation aristocrats to increase their land holdings dramatically. In addition, of course, they
received the services of the workers for the duration of the indenture.
This system seemed to benefit the servant as well. Each INDENTURED SERVANT would
have their fare across the Atlantic paid in full by their master. A contract was written that
stipulated the length of service — typically five years. The servant would be supplied room
and board while working in the master's fields. Upon completion of the contract, the servant
would receive "freedom dues," a pre-arranged termination bonus. This might include land,
money, a gun, clothes or food. On the surface it seemed like a terrific way for the luckless
English poor to make their way to prosperity in a new land. Beneath the surface, this was not
often the case.
Only about 40 percent of indentured servants lived to complete the terms of their contracts.
Female servants were often the subject of harassment from their masters. A woman who
became pregnant while a servant often had years tacked on to the end of her service time. Early
in the century, some servants were able to gain their own land as free men. But by 1660, much
of the best land was claimed by the large landowners. The former servants were pushed
westward, where the mountainous land was less arable and the threat from Indians constant. A
class of angry, impoverished pioneer farmers began to emerge as the 1600s grew old. After
BACON'S REBELLION in 1676, planters began to prefer permanent African slavery to the
headright system that had previously enabled them to prosper.
e. Life in the Plantation South
PLANTATION life created a society with clear class divisions. A lucky few were at the top,
with land holdings as far as the eyes could see. Most Southerners did not experience this degree
of wealth. The contrast between rich and poor was greater in the South than in the other English
colonies, because of the labor system necessary for its survival. Most Southerners were
YEOMAN farmers, indentured servants, or slaves. The plantation system also created changes
for women and family structures as well.
Slave Cabin at Sotterley Plantation, Maryland, is one of the only remaining freely accessible
examples of its kind in the state.
The TIDEWATER ARISTOCRATS were the fortunate few who lived in stately plantation
manors with hundreds of servants and slaves at their beck and call. Most plantation owners
took an active part in the operations of the business. Surely, they found time for leisurely
activities like hunting, but on a daily basis they worked as well. The distance from one
plantation to the next proved to be isolating, with consequences even for the richest class.
Unlike New England, who required public schooling by law, the difficulties of travel and the
distances between prospective students impeded the growth of such schools in the South.
Private tutors were hired by the wealthiest families. The boys studied in the fall and winter to
allow time for work in the fields during the planting times.
The girls studied in the summer to allow time for weaving during the colder months. Few cities
developed in the South. Consequently, there was little room for a merchant middle class.
URBAN PROFESSIONALS such as lawyers were rare in the South. Artisans often worked
right on the plantation as slaves or servants.
The roles of women were dramatically changed by the plantation society. First of all, since
most indentured servants were male, there were far fewer women in the colonial South. In the
Chesapeake during the 1600s, men entered the colony at a rate of seven to one. From one
perspective, this increased women's power. They were highly sought after by the overwhelming
number of eager men. The high death rate in the region resulted in a typical marriage being
dissolved by death within seven years. Consequently, there was a good deal of remarriage, and
a complex web of half-brothers and half-sisters evolved. Women needed to administer the
property in the absence of the male. Consequently, many developed managerial skills.
However, being a minority had its downside. Like in New England, women were completely
excluded from the political process. Female slaves and indentured servants were often the
victims of aggressive male masters.
6. African Americans in the British New World
b. "The Middle Passage"
Two by two the men and women were forced beneath deck into the bowels of the slave ship.
The "packing" was done as efficiently as possible. The captives lay down on unfinished
planking with virtually no room to move or breathe. Elbows and wrists will be scraped to the
bone by the motion of the rough seas.
Some will die of disease, some of starvation, and some simply of despair. This was the fate of
millions of West Africans across three and a half centuries of the slave trade on the voyage
known as the "middle passage."
This illustration depicts what one reporter saw on the upper deck of a slave ship — "about four
hundred and fifty native Africans, in a sitting or squatting posture, the most of them having
their knees elevated so as to form a resting place for their heads and arms."
Two philosophies dominated the loading of a slave ship. "LOOSE PACKING" provided for
fewer slaves per ship in the hopes that a greater percentage of the cargo would arrive alive.
"TIGHT PACKING" captains believed that more slaves, despite higher casualties, would
yield a greater profit at the trading block.
Doctors would inspect the slaves before purchase from the African trader to determine which
individuals would most likely survive the voyage. In return, the traders would receive guns,
gunpowder, rum or other sprits, textiles or trinkets.
The "MIDDLE PASSAGE," which brought the slaves from West Africa to the West Indies,
might take three weeks. Unfavourable weather conditions could make the trip much longer.
The Transatlantic (Triangular) Trade involved many continents, a lot of money, some cargo
and sugar, and millions of African slaves.
Slaves were fed twice daily, and some captains made vain attempts to clean the hold at this
time. Air holes were cut into the deck to allow the slaves breathing air, but these were closed
in stormy conditions. The bodies of the dead were simply thrust overboard. And yes, there were
uprisings.
Upon reaching the West Indies, the slaves were fed and cleaned in the hopes of bringing a high
price on the block. Those that could not be sold were left for dead. The slaves were then
transported to their final destination. It was in this unspeakable manner that between ten and
twenty million Africans were introduced to the New World.
c. The Growth of Slavery
Africans were the immigrants to the British New World that had no choice in their destinations
or destinies. The first African Americans that arrived in Jamestown in 1619 on a Dutch trading
ship were not slaves, nor were they free. They served time as indentured servants until their
obligations were complete. Although these lucky individuals lived out the remainder of their
lives as free men, the passing decades would make this a rarity. Despite the complete lack of a
slave tradition in Mother England, slavery gradually replaced indentured servitude as the chief
means for plantation labour in the Old South.
Virginia would become the first British colony to legally establish slavery in 1661. Maryland
and the Carolinas were soon to follow. The only Southern colony to resist the onset of slavery
was Georgia, created as an Enlightened experiment. Seventeen years after its formation,
Georgia too succumbed to the pressures of its own citizens and repealed the ban on African
slavery. Laws soon passed in these areas that condemned all children of African slaves to
lifetimes in chains. The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, now New York, received its first
large shipment of slaves directly from Africa in 1655.
No northern or middle colony was without its slaves. From Puritan Massachusetts to Quaker
Pennsylvania, Africans lived in BONDAGE. Economics and geography did not promote the
need for slave importation like the plantation South. Consequently, the slave population
remained small compared to their southern neighbours. While laws throughout the region
recognized the existence of slavery, it was far less systematized. Slaves were more frequently
granted their freedom, and opposition to the institution was more common, especially in
Pennsylvania.
As British colonists became convinced that Africans best served their demand for labour,
importation increased. By the turn of the eighteenth-century AFRICAN SLAVES numbered
in the tens of thousands in the British colonies. Before the first shots are fired at Lexington and
Concord, they totalled in the hundreds of thousands. The cries for liberty by the colonial leaders
that were to follow turned out to be merely white cries.
The first African Americans in the New World arrived at Jamestown on a Dutch ship in 1619.
d. Slave Life on the Farm and in the Town
In the first decades of European settlement in America, the physical labor of establishing
homes, agriculture, and commerce was carried out by "bound" laborers—that is unpaid workers
who were owned by ("bound" to) a "master" who controlled not only their labor, but also all
other aspects of their lives. These workers were "indentured servants" from Europe, who were
freed after some years of service, or indigenous native Americans (who often knew how to
escape into areas where European "masters" could not find them), or by laborers bought in
Africa and stranded in America, unable to return to their homes, and easily identifiable by their
dark skins. Sometimes African workers were treated like indentured servants and freed after
some years of service. But after 1690, the status of slavery hardened: bound labour, based on
race, became a lifetime sentence, inherited from generation to generation.
Enslaved people on Southern plantations worked a variety of tasks and performed many kinds
of labour.
What was it like to live in bondage? The experiences of enslaved people varied somewhat,
depending upon region and the local economy. Sometimes, the type of life an enslaved person
could expect depended on whether they lived on farms or in towns—and on the temperament
or mood of their masters.
Often, the first image that comes to mind when considering slavery is the image of the large
plantation, where the cultivation of the planter's crop was the first priority. Beyond these duties,
enslaved people's skills might be used to clear land, design and construct houses or fences, to
breed and tend livestock, to create and tend gardens, craft medicines from local plants, or other
jobs as particular circumstances might dictate. White overseers might be assigned to monitor
the work. Overseers had less economic investment in the slave, and the enslaved people often
bore the brunt of an overseer's resentment of the master's wealth, power, and privilege.
Sometimes an enslaved person, called a "driver," would be enticed into holding this position.
Not surprisingly, both overseers and drivers were often disliked by the people they controlled.
On large plantations, enslaved people's living quarters were often set at some distance from the
master's house. These "slave quarters" as they were called, were small and spartan, and—unless
the residents kept their own gardens or made their own clothing—food and clothing were often
sparse and of low quality.
Large plantations might also have a few enslaved people living and/or working inside the
masters' houses. These domestic servants might prepare the master's meals, repair or tend the
house, make or repair clothing, prepare for guests, and often care for the masters' children.
Though in some cases these "house slaves" were considered part of the extended family, they
could not forget that they were property, with no protection from being mistreated, beaten, or
sold. However, at the height of the slave era (1830–1860), only a few thousand masters owned
as many as 300 people. Most rural enslaved people were owned by masters who had 10–20
enslaved people, who often were housed in closer proximity to masters, perhaps sharing
housing, and perhaps having access to closer relations with their masters than plantation slaves
had. Sometimes—but not always—this housing arrangement could lead to kinder treatment.
Sometimes, too, this closeness could open opportunities for black laborers to purchase their
own freedom, or the freedom of their wives—a great advantage, since a child born to a free
mother was automatically free.
Some urban merchants and artisans employed slave labor in their shops. This enabled enslaved
people to ply the craft skills they brought with them, as well as to acquire skills that were
marketable in their new environment. In that setting, however, enslaved workers sometimes
encountered the resentment of white craftsmen who felt displaced. Generally, enslaved people
who lived in towns had greater freedom than those who lived on farms. They could become
more aware of opportunities for escape, and they could form a more diverse community with
other people of African descent who were enslaved or who were free. Daring (or desperate)
individuals—in both rural and urban settings—sometimes used such connections to seize the
opportunity for escape.
f. "Slave Codes"
Slaves did not accept their fate without protest. Many instances of REBELLION were known
to Americans, even in colonial times. These rebellions were not confined to the South. In fact,
one of the earliest examples of a slave UPRISING was in 1712 in Manhattan. As African
Americans in the colonies grew greater and greater in number, there was a justifiable paranoia
on the part of the white settlers that a violent rebellion could occur in one's own neighbourhood.
It was this fear of rebellion that led each colony to pass a series of laws restricting slaves'
behaviours. The laws were known as SLAVE CODES.
Although each colony had differing ideas about the rights of slaves, there were some common
threads in slave codes across areas where slavery was common. Legally considered property,
slaves were not allowed to own property of their own. They were not allowed to assemble
without the presence of a white person. Slaves that lived off the plantation were subject to
special curfews.
In the courts, a slave accused of any crime against a white person was doomed. No testimony
could be made by a slave against a white person. Therefore, the slave's side of the story could
never be told in a court of law. Of course, slaves were conspicuously absent from juries as well.
Slave codes had ruinous effects on African American society. It was illegal to teach a slave to
read or write. Religious motives sometimes prevailed, however, as many devout white
Christians educated slaves to enable the reading of the Bible. These same Christians did not
recognize marriage between slaves in their laws. This made it easier to justify the breakup of
families by selling one if its members to another owner.
As time passed and the numbers of African Americans in the New World increased, so did the
fears of their white captors. With each new rebellion, the slave codes became ever stricter,
further abridging the already limited rights and privileges this oppressed people might hope to
enjoy.
g. A New African-American Culture
When immigrants reach a new land, their old ways die hard. This has been the case with most
immigrant groups to the New World. The language, customs, values, religious beliefs, and
artistic forms they bring across the Atlantic are reshaped by the new realities of America and,
in turn, add to its fabric. The rich traditions of Africa combined with the British colonial
experience created a new ethnicity — the African American.
Much controversy arises when attempts are made to determine what African traditions have
survived in the New World. Hundreds of words, such as "BANJO" and "OKRA" are part of
American discourse. Africans exercised their tastes over cuisine whenever possible. Song and
dance traditions comparable to African custom were commonly seen in the American South.
FOLK ARTS such as basket weaving followed the African model. Even marriage patterns
tended to mirror those established overseas.
Much of African history is known through ORAL TRADITION. Folk tales passed down
through the generations on the African continent were similarly dispatched in African
American communities. Some did learn the written word. Poet and slave PHILLIS
WHEATLEY is still studied. Her writings vividly depict the slave experience on the eve of
the American Revolution.
Many devout British colonists saw CONVERSION of slaves to Christianity as a divine duty.
Consequently, the Christian religion was widely adopted by slaves. The practice of Christianity
by slaves differed from white Christians. Musical traditions drew from rhythmic African and
melodic European models. The religious beliefs of many African tribes merged with elements
of Christianity to form VOODOO. Spirituals also demonstrate this merger.
Despite laws regulating slave literacy, African Americans learned many elements of the
English language out of sheer necessity. Since the planters' children were often raised by slaves,
their dialects, values and customs were often transmitted back. This reflexive relationship is
typical of cultural fusion throughout American history.
8. America's Place in the Global Struggle
b. The French and Indian War
Round four of the global struggles between England and France began in 1754. Unlike the
three previous conflicts, this war began in America. French and British soldiers butted heads
with each other over control of the Ohio Valley. At stake were the lucrative fur trade and access
to the all-important Mississippi River, the lifeline of the FRONTIER to the west. A squadron
of soldiers led by a brash, unknown, twenty-two-year-old George Washington attacked a
French stronghold named FORT DUQUESNE. Soon after the attack, Washington's troops
were forced to surrender. Shortly after that, a second British force also met with defeat. When
news of this reached London, war was declared, and the conflict known in Europe as the
SEVEN YEARS WAR began. Americans would call this bout the FRENCH AND INDIAN
WAR.
The first phase of this war was a sheer disaster for Britain. Assaults on French territory ended
in bitter defeat. The French and their Indian allies inspired fear on the British frontier by
burning and pillaging settlements. The French struck within sixty miles of Philadelphia.
Americans were disheartened. They believed that Britain was not making the proper
commitment to North America.
The turning point in the war came when WILLIAM PITT took over the wartime operations.
He believed North America was critical for England's global domination. Pitt turned
recruitment and supplies over to local authorities in America and promised to reimburse them
for their efforts. He committed more troops and juggled the command, replacing old war heroes
with vigorous young ones.
Militarily, the tide began to turn, as the British captured LOUISBOURG, an important
strategic port the British used to close the ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY. The death blow to
the French cause was struck in Quebec in 1759. Commander JAMES WOLFE bravely sent
his forces up a rocky embankment to surprise the French. The battle that followed on the
PLAINS OF ABRAHAM killed Wolfe and the French commander, as the crucial stronghold
was transferred to British hands. It would only be a matter of time before MONTREAL
suffered the same fate.
The French chapter of North American history had ended in a bloody finale.
9. The Events Leading to Independence
In 1763, few would have predicted that by 1776 a revolution would be unfolding in British
America.
The ingredients of discontent seemed lacking — at least on the surface. The colonies were not
in a state of economic crisis; on the contrary, they were relatively prosperous. Unlike the Irish,
no groups of American citizens were clamoring for freedom from England based on national
identity. KING GEORGE III was not particularly despotic — surely not to the degree his
predecessors of the previous century had been.
Furthermore, the colonies were not unified. Benjamin Franklin discovered this quite clearly
when he devised the ALBANY PLAN OF UNION in 1754. This plan, under the slogan "Join,
or Die," would have brought the colonial rivals together to meet the common threat of the
French and Indians. Much to Franklin's chagrin, this plan was soundly defeated.
How, then, in a few short years did everything change? What happened to make the American
colonists, most of whom thought of themselves as English subjects, want to break the ties that
bound them to their forebears? What forces led the men and women in the 13 different colonies
to set aside their differences and unanimously declare their independence?
Much happened between the years of 1763 and 1776. The colonists felt unfairly taxed, watched
over like children, and ignored in their attempts to address grievances. Religious issues rose to
the surface, political ideals crystallized, and, as always, economics were the essence of many
debates.
For their part, the British found the colonists unwilling to pay their fair share for the
administration of the Empire. After all, citizens residing in England paid more in taxes than
was asked of any American during the entire time of crisis.
This was not the first time American colonists found themselves in dispute with Great Britain.
But this time the cooler heads did not prevail. Every action by one side brought an equally
strong response from the other. The events during these important years created sharp divisions
among the English people, among the colonists themselves, and between the English and the
Colonists.
Over time, the geographic distance between England and the colonies became more and more
noticeable. It took England time to respond to colonial provocations and to administer the
settled areas of America. Further, some now questioned how it could be that a tiny island nation
could contain and rule the American continent.
Before long, the point of no return was reached.
a. The Royal Proclamation of 1763
The TREATY OF PARIS, which marked the end of the French and Indian War, granted
Britain a great deal of valuable North American land. But the new land also gave rise to a
plethora of problems.
The ceded territory, known as the Ohio Valley, was marked by the APPALACHIAN
MOUNTAINS in the east and the Mississippi River in the west.
Don't Go West, Young Man
Despite the acquisition of this large swath of land, the British tried to discourage American
colonists from settling in it. The British already had difficulty administering the settled areas
east of the Appalachians. Americans moving west would stretch British administrative
resources thin.
Further, just because the French government had yielded this territory to Britain did not mean
the Ohio Valley's French inhabitants would readily give up their claims to land or trade routes.
Scattered pockets of French settlers made the British fearful of another prolonged conflict. The
war had dragged on long enough, and the British public was weary of footing the bill.
Moreover, the Native Americans, who had allied themselves with the French during the Seven
Years' War, continued to fight after the peace had been reached. Pontiac's Rebellion continued
after the imperial powers achieved a ceasefire. The last thing the British government wanted
were hordes of American colonists crossing the Appalachians fuelling French and Native
American resentment. The solution seemed simple. The ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF
1763 was issued, which declared the boundaries of settlement for inhabitants of the 13 colonies
to be Appalachia.
Proclaim and Inflame
But what seemed simple to the British was not acceptable to their colonial subjects. This
remedy did not address some concerns vitally important to the colonies. Colonial blood had
been shed to fight the French and Indians, not to cede land to them. What was to be said for
American colonists who had already settled in the West?
In addition, the colonies themselves had already begun to set their sights on expanding their
western boundaries; such planning sometimes even causing tension among the colonies. Why
restrict their appetites to expand? Surely this must be a plot to keep the American colonists
under the imperial thumb and east of the mountains, where they could be watched.
Consequently, this law was observed with the same reverence the colonists reserved for the
mercantile laws. Scores of wagons headed westward. How could the British possibly enforce
this decree? It was nearly impossible. The Proclamation of 1763 merely became part of the
long list of events in which the intent and actions of one side was misunderstood or disregarded
by the other.
b. The Stamp Act Controversy
Something was dreadfully wrong in the American colonies.
All of sudden after over a century and a half of permitting relative self-rule, Britain was
exercising direct influence over colonial life. In addition to restricting westward movement,
the parent country was actually enforcing its trade laws.
Puttin' on the Writs
WRITS OF ASSISTANCE, or general search warrants, were granted to British customs
inspectors to search colonial ships. The inspectors had long been charged with this directly but,
until this time, had not carried it out. Violators did not receive the benefit of a trial by jury;
rather, they were at the mercy of the British admiralty courts.
Worst of all, the British now began levying taxes against American colonists. What had gone
wrong?
The British point of view is not difficult to grasp. The Seven Years' War had been terribly
costly. The TAXES asked of the American colonists were lower than those asked of mainland
English citizens. The revenue raised from taxing the colonies was used to pay for their own
defense. Moreover, the funds received from American colonists barely covered one-third of
the cost of maintaining British troops in the 13 colonies.
The Americans, however, saw things through a different lens. What was the purpose of
maintaining British GARRISONS in the colonies now that the French threat was gone?
Americans wondered about contributing to the maintenance of troops they felt were there only
to watch them.
True, those in England paid more in taxes, but Americans paid much more in sweat. All the
land that was cleared, the Indians who were fought, and the relatives who died building a colony
that enhanced the British Empire made further taxation seem insulting.
In addition to emotional appeals, the colonists began to make a political argument, as well. The
tradition of receiving permission for levying taxes dated back hundreds of years in British
history. But the colonists had no representation in the British Parliament. To tax them without
offering representation was to deny their traditional rights as English subjects. This could not
stand.
The Stamp Act of 1765 was not the first attempt to tax the American colonies. Parliament had
passed the SUGAR ACT and Currency Act the previous year. Because tax was collected at
ports though, it was easily circumvented. Indirect taxes such as these were also much less
visible to the consumer.
The Stamp Act
When Parliament passed the STAMP ACT in March 1765, things changed. It was the first
direct tax on the American colonies. Every legal document had to be written on specially
stamped paper, showing proof of payment. Deeds, wills, marriage licenses — contracts of any
sort — were not recognized as legal in a court of law unless they were prepared on this paper.
In addition, newspaper, dice, and playing cards also had to bear proof of tax payment. American
activists sprang into action.
Taxation in this manner and the QUARTERING ACT (which required the American colonies
to provide food and shelter for British troops) were soundly thrashed in colonial assemblies.
From Patrick Henry in Virginia to James Otis in Massachusetts, Americans voiced their protest.
A Stamp Act Congress was convened in the colonies to decide what to do.
The colonists put their words into action and enacted widespread boycotts of British goods.
Radical groups such as the Sons and Daughters of Liberty did not hesitate to harass tax
collectors or publish the names of those who did not comply with the boycotts.
Soon, the pressure on Parliament by business-starved British merchants was too great to bear.
The Stamp Act was repealed the following year.
The crisis was over, but the uneasy peace did not last long.
c. The Boston Patriots
The American Revolution was not simply a series of impersonal events. Men and women made
fateful, often difficult decisions that led to the great clash.
Although patriots could be found in any of the 13 colonies, nowhere were they more numerous
than in the city of Boston.
Perhaps the prevalence of shipping in Boston made Bostonians especially resent the restrictions
on trade. Maybe its legacy of religious quarrels with the Church of England made Bostonians
more rebellious. Its long history of town meetings and self-rule may have led New Englanders
to be more wary of royal authority.
Perhaps a combination of these and other factors led the city of Boston to be the leading voice
against British authority. It was, after all, the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.
Furthermore, fierce patriots such as James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock,
and Paul Revere were all citizens of one great city: Boston.
James Otis
Quick-tempered JAMES OTIS was one of the first vociferous opponents of British taxation
policies. As early as 1761, Boston merchants hired him to provide legal defense against British
search warrants.
His widely distributed pamphlet, THE RIGHTS OF THE BRITISH COLONISTS
ASSERTED AND PROVED, was one of the first legal criticisms of Parliament's taxation
policies. A large man with a large heart for British liberties, he was perceived by many in
London to be the center of treasonous American activity.
But Otis also saw himself as fiercely loyal to the English Constitution. Once he stormed into
BOSTON'S ROYAL COFFEE HOUSE to face drawn swords because his loyalty had been
called into question. Violence ensued. Otis was so severely beaten that he never really
recovered. The wounds he received from British made him somewhat of a martyr around
Boston.
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams was perhaps the fieriest supporter of American liberty in the 13 colonies. His
mind drew a sharp distinction between the evils of the British Empire and simple American
life. His skills as a political organizer drove the colonies toward declaring independence.
Adams chaired the Boston town meeting that preceded the infamous tea party.
Rather unsuccessful in a series of pursuits prior to the Revolution, Adams found his calling in
organizing and rabble-rousing. He served as an active member of the Sons of Liberty and the
creator of the first significant committee of correspondence. As the Revolution approached, the
cries for Adams' head grew louder and louder in the streets of London.
John Adams
JOHN ADAMS, Samuel's second cousin was no less a patriot. His early fame as a defence
attorney for the British soldiers in the trial that followed the Boston Massacre cannot be taken
in isolation.
He provided the wording of the resistance message sent to George III that was adopted by the
First Continental Congress. John and Samuel Adams represented the radical wing of the
Second Continental Congress that demanded a taking up of arms against Britain. John Adams
was also a member of the committee of five who drafted the Declaration of Independence.
John Hancock
The man with the famous signature — JOHN HANCOCK — was also a Bostonian. Hancock
earned the early ire of British officials as a major smuggler. The seizure of one of his ships
brought a response from Bostonians that led directly to British occupation in 1768.
Later, Hancock and Samuel Adams were the two agitators whose arrest was ordered by
GENERAL GAGE after the battles at Lexington and Concord. As a man of great wealth, he
had much to lose by resisting Britain. Nevertheless, he did not bend.
Paul Revere
PAUL REVERE did not come from the same social class as the aforementioned patriots. As
a silversmith, he was a man of humbler means, but his attitudes about Britain were anything
but humble. His famous midnight ride that warned of the advancing British troops was only
one of his revolutionary actions. He was also an illustrator, whose image of the Boston
Massacre became iconic.
When the British suspended the Massachusetts legislature for refusing to retract its circular
letter, Revere engraved the names of the 92 assemblymen who stood up to Parliament. His
engravings were used by patriots as anti-British propaganda, particularly his famous engraving
of the Boston Massacre.
These five were but a handful of Bostonians who became the thorn in the British side. Their
brave actions encouraged American patriotism throughout the 13 colonies. As the American
Revolution was dawning, the Boston patriots led the way.
d. The Townshend Acts
"Nervous tension" is the term that best describes the relationship between the American
colonies and England in the aftermath of the Stamp Act repeal. Several issues remained
unresolved. First, Parliament had absolutely no wish to send a message across the Atlantic that
ultimate authority lay in the colonial legislatures. Immediately after repealing the Stamp Act,
Parliament issued the Declaratory Act. This act proclaimed Parliament's ability "to bind the
colonies in all cases whatsoever." The message was clear: under no circumstances did
Parliament abandon in principle its right to legislate for the 13 colonies.
In the Western Hemisphere, leaders were optimistic about the repeal of the Stamp Act but
found the suggestions of the Declaratory Act threatening. Most American statesmen had drawn
a clear line between legislation and taxation. In 1766, the notion of Parliamentary supremacy
over the law was questioned only by a radical few, but the ability to tax without representation
was another matter. The DECLARATORY ACT made no such distinction. "All cases
whatsoever" could surely mean the power to tax. Many assemblymen waited anxiously for the
issue to resurface.
Sure enough, the "truce" did not last long. Back in London, CHARLES TOWNSHEND
persuaded the HOUSE OF COMMONS to once again tax the Americans, this time through
an import tax on such items as glass, paper, lead, and tea.
The Ties that Bind
Townshend had ulterior motives, however. The revenue from these duties would now be used
to pay the salaries of colonial governors. This was not an insignificant change. Traditionally,
the legislatures of the colonies held the authority to pay the governors. It was not uncommon
for a governor's salary to be withheld if the legislature became dissatisfied with any particular
decision. The legislature could, in effect, blackmail the governor into submission. Once this
important leverage was removed, the governors could be freer to oppose the assemblies.
Townshend went further by appointing an AMERICAN BOARD OF CUSTOMS
COMMISSIONERS. This body would be stationed in the colonies to enforce compliance with
tax policy. Customs officials received bonuses for every convicted smuggler, so there were
obvious incentives to capture Americans. Given that violators were tried in juryless admiralty
courts, there was a high chance of conviction.
Townshend also pressed the Americans to the limit by suspending the New York legislature
for failing to provide adequate supplies for the British troops stationed there. Another
showdown appeared imminent.
Reactions in the colonies were similar to those during the Stamp Act Crisis. Once again
nonimportation was implemented. Extra-legal activities such as harassing tax collectors and
merchants who violated the boycotts were common. The colonial assemblies sprang into
action.
Take It Back
In a CIRCULAR LETTER to the other colonies, the Massachusetts legislature recommended
collective action against the British Parliament. Parliament, in turn, threatened to disband the
body unless they repealed the letter. By a vote of 92 to 17, the Massachusetts lawmakers refused
and were duly dissolved. Other colonial assemblies voiced support of Massachusetts by
affirming the circular letter.
More Information ...
The Massachusetts Circular Letter was penned by Samuel Adams in 1768. It voiced
Massachusetts opposition to taxation without representation and was sent to several colonial
legislatures inviting them to unite in their actions against British government. In response,
LORD HILLSBOROUGH warned colonial legislatures to treat the Circular Letter with
contempt and threatened dissolution to any legislative body that adhered to Massachusetts'
plea. His words fell on deaf ears as legislative assemblies throughout the colonies, including
New York, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, rose to the occasion and accepted the petition set
forth by Samuel Adams and Massachusetts.
BRITISH PRIME
PERIOD EVENT
MINISTER
1762-63 John Stuart, Earl of Brute End of Seven Years War,
Treaty of Paris
1763-65 George Grenville Issue Sugar Act, Stamp Act,
and Currency Act
1765-66 Charles-Watson Wentworth, Repeal Stamp Act, Issue
Marquess of Rockingham Declaratory Act
1766-68 William Pitt the Elder, Earl Issue Townshend Acts
of Chatham
1768-70 Augustus Fitzroy, Duke of Unable to implement policy
Grafton of conciliation towards
colonies because of chaos in
Parliament
1770-82 Lord North Boston Massacre, Repeal
Townshend Duties, Issue
Tea Act and Intolerable Acts,
American Revolution begins
 with Battles of Lexington
and Concord
1782 Charles-Watson Wentworth, Open peace negotiations
Marquess of Rockingham with America
1782-83 William Fitzmaurice, Earl of End of American
Shelburne Revolution, Treaty of Paris,
1783
The tighter the British grip grew, the more widespread was the resistance. By 1769, British
merchants began to feel the sting of nonimportation. In April 1770, news of a partial repeal —
the tax on tea was maintained — reached America's shores.
The second compromise came at a high price. It was reached only after a military occupation
of Boston and the ensuing Boston Massacre.
e. The Boston Massacre
American blood was shed on American soil.
The showdown between the British and the Americans was not simply a war of words. Blood
was shed over this clash of ideals. Although large-scale fighting between American minutemen
and the British redcoats did not begin until 1775, the 1770 BOSTON MASSACRE gave each
side a taste of what was to come.
No colony was thrilled with the Townshend duties, but nowhere was there greater resentment
than in Boston. British officials in Boston feared for their lives. When attempts were made to
seize two of John Hancock's trading vessels, Boston was ready to riot. LORD
HILLSBOROUGH, Parliament's minister on American affairs, finally ordered four regiments
to be moved to Boston.
The British Make the Americans Skittish
Samuel Adams and James Otis did not take this lightly. Less than three weeks prior to the
arrival of British troops, Bostonians defiantly, but nervously, assembled in FANEUIL HALL.
But when the redcoats marched boldly through the town streets on October 1, the only
resistance seen was on the facial expressions of the townspeople. The people of Boston had
decided to show restraint.
The other 12 colonies watched the Boston proceedings with great interest. Perhaps their fears
about British tyranny were true. Moderates found it difficult to argue that the Crown was not
interested in stripping away American civil liberties by having a standing army stationed in
Boston. Throughout the occupation, sentiment shifted further and further away from the
London government.
The Massacre
On March 5, 1770, the inevitable happened. A mob of about 60 angry townspeople descended
upon the guard at the CUSTOMS HOUSE. When reinforcements were called, the crowd
became more unruly, hurling rocks and snowballs at the guard and reinforcements.
In the heat of the confusing melee, the British fired without CAPTAIN THOMAS
PRESTON's command. Imperial bullets took the lives of five men, including Crispus Attucks,
a former slave. Others were injured.
Trial and Error
Captain Preston and four of his men were cleared of all charges in the trial that followed. Two
others were convicted of manslaughter but were sentenced to a mere branding of the thumb.
The lawyer who represented the British soldiers was none other than patriot John Adams.
At the same time Preston's men drew blood in Boston, the Parliament in London decided once
again to concede on the issue of taxation. All the Townshend duties were repealed save one,
the tax on tea. It proved to another error in judgment on the part of the British.
The Massachusetts legislature was reconvened. Despite calls by some to continue the tea
boycott until all taxes were repealed, most American colonists resumed importation.
The events in Boston from 1768 through 1770 were not soon forgotten. Legal squabbles were
one thing, but bloodshed was another. Despite the verdict of the soldiers' trial, Americans did
not forget the lesson they had learned from this experience.
What was the lesson? Americans learned that the British would use force when necessary to
keep the Americans obedient. If it could happen in Boston, where would it happen next?
f. The Tea Act and Tea Parties
The British were in a spot — all because of tea.
The partial repeal of the Townshend Acts did not bring the same reaction in the American
colonies as the repeal of the Stamp Act. Too much had already happened. Not only had the
Crown attempted to tax the colonies on several occasions, but two taxes were still being
collected — one on sugar and one on tea.
Military occupation and bloodshed, whether intentional or not, cannot be forgotten easily.
Although importation had largely been resumed, the problems of customs officers continued.
One ill-fated customs ship, the Gaspee, was burnt to ashes by angry Rhode Islanders when the
unfortunate vessel ran aground. Tensions mounted on both sides. It would take time for wounds
to heal. But Parliament would not give that time.
Playing Monopoly
The BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY was on the brink of financial collapse. LORD
NORTH hatched a scheme to deal simultaneously with the ailing corporation and the problem
of taxing the colonies. He decided to grant the British East India Company a trading monopoly
with the American colonies.
A tax on tea would be maintained, but the company would actually be able to sell its tea for a
price that was lower than before. A MONOPOLY doesn't allow for competition. As such the
British East India Company could lower its prices.
The colonists, Lord North hoped, would be happy to receive cheaper tea and willing to pay the
tax. This would have the dual result of saving the tea company and securing compliance from
Americans on the tax issue. It was a brilliant plan. There was, of course, one major flaw in his
thinking.
The colonists saw through this thinly veiled plot to encourage tax payment. Furthermore, they
wondered how long the monopoly would keep prices low.
Activists were busy again, advocating boycott. Many went further. British ships carrying the
controversial cargo were met with threats of violence in virtually all colonial ports. This was
usually sufficient to convince the ships to turn around. In Annapolis, citizens burned a ship and
the tea it carried.
Boston, of course, reacted in a similarly extreme fashion.
The Boston Tea Party
Governor THOMAS HUTCHINSON allowed three ships carrying tea to enter Boston Harbor.
Before the tax could be collected, Bostonians took action. On a cold December night, radical
townspeople stormed the ships and tossed 342 chests of tea into the water. Disguised as Native
Americans, the offenders could not be identified.
The damage in modern American dollars exceeded three quarters of a million dollars. Not a
single British East India Company chest of tea bound for the 13 colonies reached its destination.
Not a single American colonist had a cup of that tea.
Only the fish in Boston Harbor had that pleasure.
g. The Intolerable Acts
Someone was going to pay.
Parliament was utterly fed up with colonial antics. The British could tolerate strongly worded
letters or trade boycotts. They could put up with defiant legislatures and harassed customs
officials to an extent.
But they saw the destruction of 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company
as wanton destruction of property by Boston thugs who did not even have the courage to admit
responsibility.
Someone was going to pay.
Calami-tea
The British called their responsive measures to the Boston Tea Party the COERCIVE ACTS.
Boston Harbor was closed to trade until the owners of the tea were compensated. Only food
and firewood were permitted into the port. Town meetings were banned, and the authority of
the royal governor was increased.
To add insult to injury, General Gage, the British commander of North American forces, was
appointed governor of Massachusetts. British troops and officials would now be tried outside
Massachusetts for crimes of murder. Greater freedom was granted to British officers who
wished to house their soldiers in private dwellings.
The Quebec Act
Parliament seemed to have a penchant for bad timing in these years. Right after passing the
Coercive Acts, it passed the QUEBEC ACT, a law that recognized the Roman Catholic Church
as the established church in Quebec. An appointed council, rather than an elected body, would
make the major decisions for the colony. The boundary of Quebec was extended into the Ohio
Valley.
In the wake of the passage of the Quebec Act, rage spread through the 13 colonies. With this
one act, the British Crown granted land to the French in Quebec that was clearly desired by the
American colonists. The extension of tolerance to Catholics was viewed as a hostile act by
predominantly Protestant America.
Democracy took another blow with the establishment of direct rule in Quebec. Although the
British made no connection between the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act, they were seen on
the American mainland as malicious deed and collectively called the INTOLERABLE ACTS.
INTOLERABLE ACTS
Boston Port Act An act to discontinue, in such manner, and
for or such time as are therein mentioned, the
landing and discharging, lading or shipping,
of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the
town, and within the harbour, of Boston, in
 the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North
America.
Massachusetts Government Act An Act for the better regulating the
government of the province of the
Massachusetts Bay in New England.
Administration of Justice Act An act for the impartial administration of
justice in the case of persons questioned for
any acts done by them in the execution of the
law, or for the suppression of riots and
tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts
Bay, in New England.
Quebec Act An Act for making effectual Provision for the
Government of the Province of Quebec in
North America.
Throughout the colonies, the message was clear: what could happen in Massachusetts could
happen anywhere. The British had gone too far. Supplies were sent to the beleaguered colony
from the other twelve. For the first time since the Stamp Act Crisis, an intercolonial conference
was called.
It was under these tense circumstances that the FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774.
10. E Pluribus Unum
The unanimous Declaration of Independence was a curious outcome. Remember the failed
Albany Plan of Union in 1754. Benjamin Franklin's political cartoon appeal — "Join, or Die"
fell on deaf colonial ears. In 1763, it was difficult to get the original thirteen to agree on the
time of day. This "coming together" will happen very gradually. We have examined the events
and people that propelled the colonies to revolt. A careful examination of the stages of unity is
in order.
The DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE was a product of the SECOND
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. Two earlier intercolonial conferences had occurred, each
building important keystones of colonial unity. The Stamp Act Congress and the First
Continental Congress brought the delegates from differing colonies to agreement on a message
to send to the king. Each successive Congress brought greater participation. Each time the
representatives met, they were more accustomed to compromise. As times grew more
desperate, the people at home became more and more willing to trust their national leaders.
Organizations were also formed to meet intercolonial objectives. The LONG ROOM CLUB,
of which James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere were members, was one
of the earliest known organizations formed in reaction to British measures. The Association
actively promoted nonimportation beyond Massachusetts. The SONS AND DAUGHTERS
OF LIBERTY proved to be the most effective. THE SONS OF LIBERTY represented the
radical wing of patriots through the years of crisis. They would not hesitate to scare a customs
official out of town or tar and feather an enemy. Although strongest in Boston, the Sons of
Liberty were active in many port cities, reaching as far South as Charleston.
The DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY performed an equally important function. If
nonimportation were to succeed, women must be involved. The Daughters of Liberty ensured
that women did not purchase British goods. In addition, if British cloth was not imported, more
homespun cloth must be made. The Daughters of Liberty advanced this cause most effectively.
No unity could be reached without communication. Great literature was produced throughout
these critical years. Patrick Henry's VIRGINIA RESOLVES and JOHN DICKINSON's
famous circular letter are two such examples that were widely read in each of the colonies.
Samuel Adams organized the first committee of correspondence to circulate the important
arguments of the day. THOMAS PAINE's Common Sense sold 120,000 copies in the first
three months of publication. Even the Declaration of Independence served not only to send a
message to King George, but to convince many American colonists of the glory of their cause.
d. First Continental Congress
Americans were fed up. The "Intolerable Acts" were more than the colonies could stand.
In the summer that followed Parliament's attempt to punish Boston, sentiment for the patriot
cause increased dramatically. The printing presses at the Committees of Correspondence were
churning out volumes.
There was agreement that this new quandary warranted another intercolonial meeting. It was
nearly ten years since the Stamp Act Congress had assembled.
It was time once again for intercolonial action. Thus, on September 5, 1774, the First
Continental Congress was convened in Philadelphia.
The Intolerable Acts
− Quartering Act (March 24, 1765): This bill required that Colonial Authorities to
furnish barracks and supplies to British troops. In 1766, it was expanded to public
houses and unoccupied buildings.
− Boston Port Bill (June 1, 1774): This bill closed the port of Boston to all colonists until
the damages from the Boston Tea Party were paid for.
− Administration of Justice Act (May 20, 1774): This bill stated that British Officials
could not be tried in provincial courts for capital crimes. They would be extradited back
to Britain and tried there.
− Massachusetts Government Act (May 20, 1774): This bill annulled the Charter of the
Colonies, giving the British Governor complete control of the town meetings.
− Quebec Act (May 20, 1774): This bill extended the Canadian borders to cut off the
western colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia.
This time participation was better. Only Georgia withheld a delegation. The representatives
from each colony were often selected by almost arbitrary means, as the election of such
representatives was illegal.
Still, the natural leaders of the colonies managed to be selected. Sam and John Adams from
Massachusetts were present, as was John Dickinson from Pennsylvania. Virginia selected
Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, and Patrick Henry. It took seven weeks for the
country's future heroes to agree on a course of action.
First and most obvious, complete nonimportation was resumed. The Congress set up an
organization called the Association to ensure compliance in the colonies.
A declaration of colonial rights was drafted and sent to London. Much of the debate revolved
around defining the colonies' relationship with Mother England.
A plan introduced by JOSEPH GALLOWAY of Pennsylvania proposed an imperial union
with Britain. Under this program, all acts of Parliament would have to be approved by an
American assembly to take effect.
Such an arrangement, if accepted by London, might have postponed revolution. But the
delegations voted against it — by one vote.
One decision by the Congress often overlooked in importance is its decision to reconvene in
May 1775 if their grievances were not addressed. This is a major step in creating an ongoing
intercolonial decision-making body, unprecedented in colonial history.
When Parliament chose to ignore the Congress, they did indeed reconvene that next May, but
by this time boycotts were no longer a major issue. Unfortunately, the Second Continental
Congress would be grappling with choices caused by the spilling of blood at Lexington and
Concord the previous month.
It was at CARPENTERS' HALL that America came together politically for the first time on
a national level and where the seeds of participatory democracy were sown.
e. Second Continental Congress
Times had taken a sharp turn for the worse. Lexington and Concord had changed everything.
When the Redcoats fired into the Boston crowd in 1775, the benefit of the doubt was granted.
Now the professional imperial army was attempting to arrest patriot leaders, and minutemen
had been killed in their defence. In May 1775, with Redcoats once again storming Boston, the
Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia.
The questions were different this time. First and foremost, how would the colonist meet the
military threat of the British. It was agreed that a CONTINENTAL ARMY would be created.
The Congress commissioned George Washington of Virginia to be the supreme commander,
who chose to serve without pay. How would supplies be paid for? The Congress authorized the
printing of money. Before the leaves had turned, Congress had even appointed a standing
committee to conduct relations with foreign governments, should the need ever arise to ask for
help. No longer was the Congress dealing with mere grievances. It was a full-fledged governing
body.
Still, in May of 1775 the majority of delegates were not seeking independence from Britain.
Only radicals like John Adams were of this mindset. In fact, that July Congress approved the
OLIVE BRANCH PETITION, a direct appeal to the king. The American delegates pleaded
with George III to attempt peaceful resolution and declared their loyalty to the Crown. The
King refused to receive this petition and instead declared the colonies to be in a state of
rebellion in August. Insult turned to injury when George ordered the hiring of HESSIAN
mercenaries to bring the colonists under control. Americans now felt less and less like their
English brethren. How could their fellow citizens order a band of ruthless, foreign goons? The
moderate voice in the Continental Congress was dealt a serious blow.
As the seasons changed and hostilities continued, cries for independence grew stronger. The
men in Philadelphia were now wanted for treason. They continued to govern and hope against
hope that all would end well. For them, the summer of 1776 brought the point of no return —
a formal declaration of independence.
11. The American Revolution
c. Lexington and Concord
Britain's General Gage had a secret plan.
During the wee hours of April 19, 1775, he would send out regiments of British soldiers
quartered in Boston. Their destinations were LEXINGTON, where they would capture
colonial leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock, then CONCORD, where they would seize
gunpowder.
But spies and friends of the Americans leaked word of Gage's plan.
Two lanterns hanging from Boston's North Church informed the countryside that the British
were going to attack by sea. A series of horseback riders — men such as Paul Revere,
WILLIAM DAWES and DR. SAMUEL PRESCOTT — galloped off to warn the
countryside that the REGULARS (British troops) were coming.
Lexington and the Minutemen
Word spread from town to town, and militias prepared to confront the British and help their
neighbours in Lexington and Concord.
These COLONIAL MILITIAS had originally been organized to defend settlers from civil
unrest and attacks by French or Native Americans. Selected members of the militia were called
MINUTEMEN because they could be ready to fight in a minute's time.
Sure enough, when the advance guard of nearly 240 British soldiers arrived in Lexington, they
found about 70 minutemen formed on the LEXINGTON GREEN awaiting them. Both sides
eyed each other warily, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, a bullet buzzed through the
morning air.
It was "the shot heard round the world."
Concord
The numerically superior British killed seven Americans on Lexington Green and marched off
to Concord with new regiments who had joined them. But American militias arriving at
Concord thwarted the British advance.
As the British retreated toward Boston, new waves of colonial militia intercepted them.
Shooting from behind fences and trees, the militias inflicted over 125 casualties, including
several officers. The ferocity of the encounter surprised both sides.
The first bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, marked the crossing of a threshold, and the
momentum from these events pushed both sides farther apart. Following the battles, neither the
British nor the Americans knew what to expect next.
Indignation against the British ran high in the Colonies — for they had shed American blood
on American soil. Radicals such as Sam Adams took advantage of the bloodshed to increase
tensions through propaganda and rumor-spreading. The Americans surrounded the town of
Boston, and the rebel army started gaining many new recruits.
During the battles of Lexington and Concord, 73 British soldiers had been killed and 174
wounded; 26 were missing. LORD PERCY, who led the British back into Boston after the
defeat suffered at Concord, wrote back to London, "Whoever looks upon them [THE
REBELS] as an irregular mob will be much mistaken." Three British major generals —
WILLIAM HOWE, HENRY CLINTON, and "GENTLEMAN JOHNNY" BURGOYNE
— were brought to Boston to lend their expertise and experience to the situation.
Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen Join the Cause
Shortly after the battle, an express rider carried the news to New Haven, Connecticut, where a
local militia commander and wealthy shopkeeper named Benedict Arnold demanded the keys
to a local powder house.
After arming himself and paying money from his own pocket to outfit a group of militias from
Massachusetts, Arnold and his men set off for upstate New York. He was searching for artillery
that was badly needed for the colonial effort and reckoned that he could commandeer some
cannon by capturing Fort Ticonderoga, a rotting relic from the French and Indian War.
Up in the HAMPSHIRE GRANTS, part of modern-day Vermont, ETHAN ALLEN who led
a group called the GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS, also had the idea to capture Fort
Ticonderoga. The two reluctantly worked together and surprised the poorly manned British fort
before dawn on May 10, 1775.
The fort's commander had been asleep and surrendered in his pajamas!
d. Bunker Hill
On the night of June 16, 1775, a detail of American troops acting under orders from
ARTEMAS WARD moved out of their camp, carrying picks, shovels, and guns. They
entrenched themselves on a rise located on Charleston Peninsula overlooking Boston. Their
destination: BUNKER HILL.
From this hill, the rebels could bombard the town and British ships in Boston Harbor. But
Ward's men misunderstood his orders. They went to BREED'S HILL by mistake and
entrenched themselves there — closer to the British position.
Cannon for Breakfast
The next morning, the British were stunned to see Americans threatening them. In the 18th
century, British military custom demanded that the British attack the Americans, even though
the Americans were in a superior position militarily (the Americans had soldiers and cannon
pointing down on the British).
Major General William Howe, leading the British forces, could have easily surrounded the
Americans with his ships at sea, but instead chose to march his troops uphill. Howe might have
believed that the Americans would retreat in the face of a smashing, head-on attack.
He was wrong.
His Majesty's ships opened fire on the Americans. Early in the afternoon, 28 barges of British
soldiers crossed the CHARLES RIVER and stormed the hills. The Americans waited until the
British were within 15 paces, and then unleashed a bloody fusillade. Scores of British troops
were killed or wounded; the rest retreated down the hill.
Again, the British rushed the hill in a second wave. And again, they retreated, suffering a great
number of casualties. By the time the third wave of British charged the hill, the Americans
were running low on ammunition. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued. The British eventually took
the hill, but at a great cost. Of the 2,300 British soldiers who had gone through the ordeal, 1,054
were either killed or wounded.
On July 2, 1775, George Washington rode into Cambridge, Massachusetts, to take command
of the new AMERICAN ARMY. He had a formidable task ahead of him. He needed to
establish a CHAIN OF COMMAND and determine a course of action for a war — if there
would be a war.
In London, the news of Bunker Hill convinced the king that the situation in the Colonies had
escalated into an organized uprising and must be treated as a foreign war. Accordingly, he
issued a Proclamation of Rebellion.
This Means War
The British had taken the initiative, but they, like Washington, needed to establish a plan of
action. How did they plan to win the war? With the help of loyal colonials! "There are many
inhabitants in every province well affected to Government, from whom no doubt we shall have
assistance," General Howe wrote. But he hedged: the Loyalists could not rally "until His
Majesty's armies have a clear superiority by a decisive victory."
The general needed a showdown. But first he needed supplies, reinforcements, and a scheme
to suppress the rebels. Almost 11 months after the shots at Bunker Hill were fired, Howe
departed Boston and moved north to Nova Scotia to wait and plan. He did win decisive victories
later, but his assumption that the Loyalists would rally behind him was simply wrong.
g. The Battle of Saratoga
The BATTLE OF SARATOGA was the turning point of the Revolutionary War.
The scope of the victory is made clear by a few key facts: On October 17, 1777, 5,895 British
and Hessian troops surrendered their arms. General John Burgoyne had lost 86 percent of his
expeditionary force that had triumphantly marched into New York from Canada in the early
summer of 1777.
Divide and Conquer
The DIVIDE-AND-CONQUER strategy that Burgoyne presented to British ministers in
London was to invade America from Canada by advancing down the Hudson Valley to Albany.
There, he would be joined by other British troops under the command of Sir William Howe.
Howe would be bringing his troops north from New Jersey and New York City.
Burgoyne believed that this bold stroke would not only isolate New England from the other
American colonies but achieve command of the Hudson River and demoralize Americans and
their would-be allies, such as the French.
In June 1777, Burgoyne's army of over 7,000 men (half of whom were British troops and the
other half Hessian troops from Brunswick and Hesse-Hanau) departed from St. Johns on Lake
Champlain, bound for Fort Ticonderoga, at the southern end of the lake.
As the army proceeded southward, Burgoyne drafted and had his men distribute a proclamation
that, among other things, included the statement "I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces
under my direction, and they amount to thousands," which implied that Britain's enemies would
suffer attacks from Native Americans allied to the British.
More than any other act during the campaign, this threat and subsequent widely reported
atrocities such as the scalping of JANE MCCREA stiffened the resolve of the Americans to
do whatever it took to assure that the threat did not become reality.
Round One to the British
The American forces at Fort Ticonderoga recognized that once the British mounted artillery on
high ground near the fort, Ticonderoga would be indefensible. A retreat from the Fort was
ordered, and the Americans floated troops, cannon, and supplies across Lake Champlain to
Mount Independence.
From there the army set out for HUBBARDTON where the British and German troops caught
up with them and gave battle. Round one to the British.
Burgoyne continued his march towards Albany, but miles to the south a disturbing event
occurred. Sir William Howe decided to attack the Rebel capital at Philadelphia rather than
deploying his army to meet up with Burgoyne and cut off New England from the other
Colonies. Meanwhile, as Burgoyne marched south, his supply lines from Canada were
becoming longer and less reliable.
Bennington: "the compleatest Victory gain'd this War"
In early August, word came that a substantial supply depot at BENNINGTON, Vermont, was
alleged to be lightly guarded, and Burgoyne dispatched German troops to take the depot and
return with the supplies. This time, however, stiff resistance was encountered, and American
general JOHN STARK surrounded and captured almost 500 German soldiers. One observer
reported Bennington as "the compleatest Victory gain'd this War."
Burgoyne now realized, too late, that the Loyalists (TORIES) who were supposed to have
come to his aid by the hundreds had not appeared, and that his Native American allies were
also undependable.
American general Schuyler proceed to burn supplies and crops in the line of Burgoyne's
advance so that the British were forced to rely on their ever-longer and more and more
unreliable supply line to Canada. On the American side, General Horatio Gates arrived in New
York to take command of the American forces.
Battle of Freeman's Farm
By mid-September, with the fall weather reminding Burgoyne that he could not winter where
he was and needed to proceed rapidly toward Albany, the British army crossed the Hudson and
headed for Saratoga.
On September 19 the two forces met at FREEMAN'S FARM north of ALBANY. While the
British were left as "masters of the field," they sustained heavy human losses. Years later,
American HENRY DEARBORN expressed the sentiment that "we had something more at
stake than fighting for six Pence pr Day."
Battle of Saratoga
In late September and during the first week of October 1777, Gate's American army was
positioned between Burgoyne's army and Albany. On October 7, Burgoyne took the offensive.
The troops crashed together south of the town of Saratoga, and Burgoyne's army was broken.
In mop-up operations 86 percent of Burgoyne's command was captured.
The victory gave new life to the American cause at a critical time. Americans had just suffered
a major setback the Battle of the Brandywine along with news of the fall of Philadelphia to the
British.
One American soldier declared, "It was a glorious sight to see the haughty Brittons march out
& surrender their arms to an army which but a little before they despised and called paltroons."
A stupendous American victory in October 1777, the success at Saratoga gave France the
confidence in the American cause to enter the war as an American ALLY. Later American
successes owed a great deal to French aid in the form of financial and military assistance.
A Word about Spies
SPIES worked for both British and American armies. Secret messages and battle plans were
passed in a variety of creative ways, including being sewn into buttons. Patriots and loyalists
penned these secret letters either in code, with invisible ink, or as mask letters.
Here is an example of Loyalist Sir Henry Clinton's mask letter. The first letter is the mask letter
with the secret message decoded; the second is an excerpt of the full letter.
i. Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris
The outlook for General Washington and the Americans never looked better.
Although the American military was still enduring losses in 1780, the French were making a
difference. The French navy was disrupting the British blockade. French commanders such as
LAFAYETTE and ROCHAMBEAU earned the respect and admiration of the American
troops.
Although, the British occupied much of the south, they had still been unable to mobilize the
local Loyalists. Grumbling in England grew louder over the war's expense and duration. The
morale of Washington's men was improving. The war was by no means over, but the general
could now see a bright side.
The Siege of Yorktown
The year 1781 found a large squadron of British troops led by LORD CORNWALLIS at
YORKTOWN, Virginia. Cornwallis hoped to keep his men in the Chesapeake town until fresh
supplies and reinforcements could arrive from Britain. The French and the Americans
conspired to capture the British before that could happen.
A French naval unit led by ADMIRAL DE GRASSE headed north from the West Indies.
Washington's army was stationed near New York City at the time. Along with a French unit
from Rhode Island, Washington's troops marched over 300 miles south toward Yorktown.
Along the way, he staged fake military maneuvers to keep the British off guard.
When Washington reached Virginia, Americans led by Lafayette joined in the siege. The
French navy kept the British out of CHESAPEAKE BAY until Cornwallis was forced to
surrender his entire unit of nearly 8,000 troops on October 19, 1781. The capture of the troops
severely hampered the British war effort
Peace and the Treaty of Paris
Despite the American victory, the British military continued to fight. But the Battle of
Yorktown turned the British public against the war. The following March, a pro-American
Parliament was elected and peace negotiations began in earnest.
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and JOHN JAY met with the British in the hopes of securing
a peace treaty. The Americans played off European rivalries to reach a most favorable
agreement.
In the 1783 TREATY OF PARIS the British agreed to recognize American independence as
far west as the Mississippi River. Americans agreed to honor debts owed to British merchants
from before the war and to stop persecuting British Loyalists.
David had triumphed over Goliath. Independence was achieved at last!
13. When Does the Revolution End?
The United States was created as a result of the AMERICAN REVOLUTION, when thirteen
colonies on the east coast of North America fought to end their membership in the British
Empire. This was a bold, dangerous, and even foolish thing to do at the time, since Great Britain
was the strongest country in the world. While American success in the Revolution seems
obvious today, it wasn't at the time.
The war for American independence began with military conflict in 1775 and lasted at least
until 1783 when the peace treaty with the British was signed. In fact, Native Americans in the
west (who were allied with the British, but not included in the 1783 negotiations) continued to
fight and didn't sign a treaty with the United States until 1795. The Revolution was a long,
hard, and difficult struggle.
One Nation, Many Revolutions
Even among Patriots there was a wide range of opinion about how the Revolution should shape
the new nation. For example, soldiers often resented civilians for not sharing the deep personal
sacrifice of fighting the war. Even among the men who fought, major differences often
separated officers from ordinary soldiers. Finally, no consideration of the Revolution would be
complete without considering the experience of people who were not Patriots. Loyalists were
Americans who remained loyal to the British Empire. Almost all Native American groups
opposed American Independence. Slaves would be made legally free if they fled Patriot
masters to join the British Army, which they did in large numbers. This section reviews diverse
Revolutionary experiences that helped shape the nation in different ways.
A constant question for our exploration, as well as for people at the time, is what does the
Revolution mean and when did it end? Have the ideals of the Revolution been achieved even
today? One of our challenges is to consider the meaning of the Revolution from multiple
perspectives.
a. The Declaration of Independence and Its Legacy
"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."
So begins the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. But what was the Declaration? Why
do Americans continue to celebrate its public announcement as the birthday of the United
States, July 4, 1776? While that date might just mean a barbecue and fireworks to some today,
what did the Declaration mean when it was written in the summer of 1776?
On the one hand, the Declaration was a formal LEGAL DOCUMENT that announced to the
world the reasons that led the thirteen colonies to separate from the British Empire. Much of
the Declaration sets forth a list of abuses that were blamed on King George III. One charge
levied against the King sounds like a Biblical plague: "He has erected a multitude of New
Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
The Declaration was not only legalistic, but practical too. Americans hoped to get financial or
military support from other countries that were traditional enemies of the British. However,
these legal and pragmatic purposes, which make up the bulk of the actual document, are not
why the Declaration is remembered today as a foremost expression of the ideals of the
Revolution.
The Declaration's most famous sentence reads: "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." Even today,
this inspirational language expresses a profound commitment to human equality.
This ideal of equality has certainly influenced the course of American history. Early women's
rights activists at SENECA FALLS in 1848 modelled their "DECLARATION OF
SENTIMENTS" in precisely the same terms as the Declaration of Independence. "We hold
these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that all men and women are created equal."
Similarly, the African-American anti-slavery activist DAVID WALKER challenged white
Americans in 1829 to "See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own
language?" Walker dared America to live up to its self-proclaimed ideals. If all men were
created equal, then why was slavery legal?
The ideal of full human equality has been a major legacy (and ongoing challenge) of the
Declaration of Independence. But the signers of 1776 did not have quite that radical an agenda.
The possibility for sweeping social changes was certainly discussed in 1776. For instance,
ABIGAIL ADAMS suggested to her husband John Adams that in the "new Code of Laws"
that he helped draft at the Continental Congress, he should, "Remember the Ladies, and be
more generous and favourable to them." It didn't work out that way.
Thomas Jefferson provides the classic example of the contradictions of the Revolutionary Era.
Although he was the chief author of the Declaration, he also owned slaves, as did many of his
fellow signers. They did not see full human equality as a positive social goal. Nevertheless,
Jefferson was prepared to criticize slavery much more directly than most of his colleagues. His
original draft of the Declaration included a long passage that condemned King George for
allowing the slave trade to flourish. This implied criticism of slavery — a central institution in
early American society — was deleted by a vote of the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS before
the delegates signed the Declaration.
So what did the signers intend by using such idealistic language? Look at what follows the line,
"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.
These lines suggest that the whole purpose of GOVERNMENT is to secure the PEOPLE'S
RIGHTS and that government gets its power from "the CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED."
If that consent is betrayed, then "it is the right of the people to alter or abolish" their
government. When the Declaration was written, this was a radical statement. The idea that the
people could reject a monarchy (based on the superiority of a king) and replace it with a
republican government (based on the consent of the people) was a revolutionary change.
While the signers of the Declaration thought of "the people" more narrowly than we do today,
they articulated principles that are still vital markers of American ideals. And while the
Declaration did not initially lead to equality for all, it did provide an inspiring start on working
toward equality.
c. The Loyalists
The year is 1774. Whether you are a merchant in Massachusetts, a German-born farmer living
in Pennsylvania, a tavern-owning woman of Maryland, or a slave-owner in the South, you share
some things in common. For instance, you probably don't like paying taxes on such goods as
tea that wind up going to support the royal coffers in London. At the same time you like the
notion of being part of the British Empire, the most powerful in the world.
Chances are you speak English and have many British relatives or ancestors. Or, even if you're
a German farmer with no ties to Britain, you are still grateful for the opportunity to farm
peacefully in this British-ruled land. Yet, you hear murmurings — radical notions about
separating from Britain are making the rounds. Those hotheads in Boston recently threw a load
of tea in the harbor and the British retaliated with something called the INTOLERABLE
ACTS. A confrontation is looming.
Who will you support? The radical Americans or the British? Fact is, it's not an easy decision.
Not only will your way of life be drastically affected, but whomever you choose to side with
will make you instant enemies.
Any full assessment of the American Revolution must try to understand the place of
LOYALISTS, those Americans who remained faithful to the British Empire during the war.
Although Loyalists were steadfast in their commitment to remain within the British Empire, it
was a very hard decision to make and to stick to during the Revolution. Even before the war
started, a group of Philadelphia QUAKERS were arrested and imprisoned in Virginia because
of their perceived support of the British. The Patriots were not a tolerant group, and Loyalists
suffered regular harassment, had their property seized, or were subject to personal attacks.
The process of "TAR AND FEATHERING," for example, was brutally violent. Stripped of
clothes, covered with hot tar, and splattered with feathers, the victim was then forced to parade
about in public. Unless the British Army was close at hand to protect Loyalists, they often
suffered bad treatment from Patriots and often had to flee their own homes. About one-in-six
Americans was an active Loyalist during the Revolution, and that number undoubtedly would
have been higher if the Patriots hadn't been so successful in threatening and punishing people
who made their Loyalist sympathies known in public.
One famous Loyalist is THOMAS HUTCHINSON, a leading Boston merchant from an old
American family, who served as governor of Massachusetts. Viewed as pro-British by some
citizens of Boston, Hutchinson's house was burned in 1765 by an angry crowd protesting the
Crown's policies. In 1774, Hutchinson left America for London where he died in 1780 and
always felt exiled from his American homeland. One of his letters suggested his sad end, for
he, "had rather die in a little country farm-house in New England than in the best nobleman's
seat in old England." Like his ancestor, ANNE HUTCHINSON who suffered religious
persecution from Puritan authorities in the early 17th-century, the Hutchinson family suffered
severe punishment for holding beliefs that other Americans rejected.
Perhaps the most interesting group of Loyalists were enslaved African-Americans who chose
to join the British. The British promised to LIBERATE slaves who fled from their Patriot
masters. This powerful incentive, and the opportunities opened by the chaos of war, led some
50,000 slaves (about 10 percent of the total slave population in the 1770s) to flee their Patriot
masters. When the war ended, the British evacuated 20,000 formerly enslaved African
Americans and resettled them as free people.
Along with this group of black Loyalists, about 80,000 other Loyalists chose to leave the
independent United States after the Patriot victory in order to remain members of the British
Empire. Wealthy men like Thomas Hutchinson who had the resources went to London. But
most ordinary Loyalists went to Canada where they would come to play a large role in the
development of Canadian society and government. In this way, the American Revolution
played a central role shaping the future of two North American countries.
d. Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Slavery
e. Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Women
f. Revolutionary Limits: Native Americans
14. Making Rules
b. Articles of Confederation
While the state constitutions were being created, the Continental Congress continued to meet
as a general political body. Despite being the central government, it was a loose confederation
and most significant power was held by the individual states. By 1777 members of Congress
realized that they should have some clearly written rules for how they were organized. As a
result, the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION were drafted and passed by the Congress in
November.
This first national "constitution" for the United States was not particularly innovative, and
mostly put into written form how the Congress had operated since 1775.
Even though the Articles were rather modest in their proposals, they would not be ratified by
all the states until 1781. Even this was accomplished largely because the dangers of war
demanded greater cooperation.
The purpose of the central government was clearly stated in the Articles. The Congress had
control over diplomacy, printing money, resolving controversies between different states, and,
most importantly, coordinating the war effort. The most important action of the Continental
Congress was probably the creation and maintenance of the Continental Army. Even in this
area, however, the central government's power was quite limited. While Congress could call
on states to contribute specific resources and numbers of men for the army, it was not allowed
to force states to obey the central government's request for aid.
The organization of CONGRESS itself demonstrates the primacy of state power. Each state
had one vote. Nine out of thirteen states had to support a law for it to be enacted. Furthermore,
any changes to the Articles themselves would require unanimous agreement. In the ONE-
STATE, ONE-VOTE RULE, state sovereignty was given a primary place even within the
national government. Furthermore, the whole national government consisted entirely of the
unicameral (one body) Congress with no executive and no judicial organizations.
The national Congress' limited power was especially clear when it came to money issues. Not
surprisingly, given that the Revolution's causes had centered on opposition to unfair taxes, the
central government had no power to raise its own revenues through taxation. All it could do
was request that the states give it the money necessary to run the government and wage the
war. By 1780, with the outcome of the war still very much undecided, the central government
had run out of money and was BANKRUPT! As a result the paper money it issued was
basically worthless.
ROBERT MORRIS, who became the Congress' superintendent of finance in 1781, forged a
solution to this dire dilemma. Morris expanded existing government power and secured special
privileges for the BANK OF NORTH AMERICA in an attempt to stabilize the value of the
paper money issued by the Congress. His actions went beyond the limited powers granted to
the national government by the Articles of Confederation, but he succeeded in limiting runaway
INFLATION and resurrecting the fiscal stability of the national government.
15. Drafting the Constitution
The 1780s has often been termed the "CRITICAL PERIOD" for the new nation. The dangers
posed by economic crisis and the disillusionment that came with the collapse of Revolutionary
expectations for dramatically improved conditions combined to make the decade a period of
discontent, reconsideration, and, in the end, a dramatic new proposal for redirecting the nation.
Just as the Revolution had been born of diverse and sometimes conflicting perspectives, even
among the Patriots, so too, ideas about the future of the United States in the 1780s were often
cast in dramatic opposition to one another.
The new plan for the nation was called the FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. It had been drafted
by a group of national leaders in Philadelphia in 1787, who then presented it to the general
public for consideration. The Constitution amounted to a whole new set of rules for organizing
national government and indicates the intensity of political thought in the era as well as how
much had changed since 1776. The proposed national framework called for a strong central
government that would have authority over the states. At the same time, the proposed
Constitution also centrally involved the people in deciding whether or not to accept the new
plan through a process called RATIFICATION.
c. The Tough Issues
In spite of the common vision and status that linked most of the delegates to the Philadelphia
Convention, no obvious route existed for how to revise the Articles of Confederation to build
a stronger central government.
The meeting began by deciding several important procedural issues that were not controversial
and that significantly shaped how the Convention operated. First, George Washington was
elected as the presiding officer. They also decided to continue the voting precedent followed
by the Congress where each state got one vote.
They also agreed to hold their meeting in secret.
There would be no public access to the Convention's discussions and the delegates agreed not
to discuss matters with the PRESS. The delegates felt that secrecy would allow them to explore
issues with greater honesty than would be possible if everything that they said became public
knowledge.
In fact, the public knew almost nothing about the actual proceedings of the Convention until
James Madison's notes about it were published after his death in the 1840s.
The delegates also made a final crucial and sweeping early decision about how to run the
Convention. They agreed to go beyond the instructions of the Congress by not merely
considering revisions to the Articles of Confederation, but to try and construct a whole new
national framework.
The stage was now set for James Madison, the best prepared and most influential of the
delegates at the Philadelphia Convention. His proposal, now known as the VIRGINIA PLAN,
called for a strong central government with three distinctive elements.
First, it clearly placed NATIONAL SUPREMACY above state sovereignty.
Second, this strengthened central government would have a close relationship with the people,
who could directly vote for some national leaders.
Third, Madison proposed that the CENTRAL GOVERNMENT be made up of three distinct
branches: a BICAMERAL LEGISLATURE, an EXECUTIVE, and a JUDICIARY. The
lower house of the legislature would be elected directly by the people and then the lower house
would elect the upper house. Together they would choose the executive and judiciary.
By having the foundational body of the proposed national government elected by the people at
large, rather than through their state legislatures, the national government would remain a
republic with a direct link to ordinary people even as it expanded its power.
Madison's VIRGINIA PLAN was bold and creative. Further, it established a strong central
government, which most delegates supported. Nevertheless, it was rejected at the Convention
by opposition from delegates representing states with small populations.
These small states would have their national influence dramatically curbed in the proposed
move from one-state one-vote (as under the Articles) to general voting for the lower legislative
house where overall population would be decisive.
The Virginia Plan was unacceptable to all the small states, who countered with another
proposal, dubbed the NEW JERSEY PLAN, that would continue more along the lines of how
Congress already operated under the Articles. This plan called for a unicameral legislature with
the one vote per state formula still in place.
Although the division between large and small states (really between high and low population
states) might seem simplistic, it was the major hurdle that delegates to the Convention needed
to overcome to design a stronger national government, which they all agreed was needed.
After long debates and a close final vote, the Virginia Plan was accepted as a basis for further
discussion. This agreement to continue to debate also amounted to a major turning point. The
delegates had decided that they should craft a new constitutional structure to replace the
Articles.
This was so stunning a change and such a large expansion of their original instructions from
the Congress that two New York delegates left in disgust.
Could the states ever form a more perfect union?
d. Constitution Through Compromise
"REPRESENTATION" remained the core issue for the Philadelphia Convention. What was
the best way for authority to be delegated from the people and the states to a strengthened
central government?
After still more deeply divided argument, a proposal put forward by delegates from
Connecticut (a small population state), struck a compromise that narrowly got approved. They
suggested that representatives in each house of the proposed bicameral legislature be selected
through different means. The UPPER HOUSE (or SENATE) would reflect the importance of
state sovereignty by including two people from each state regardless of size. Meanwhile, the
LOWER HOUSE (the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES) would have different numbers
of representatives from each state determined by population. Representation would be adjusted
every ten years through a federal census that counted every person in the country.
By coming up with a mixed solution that balanced state sovereignty and popular sovereignty
tied to actual population, the Constitution was forged through what is known as the
CONNECTICUT COMPROMISE. In many respects this compromise reflected a victory for
small states but compared with their dominance in the Congress under the Articles of
Confederation it is clear that negotiation produced something that both small and large states
wanted.
Other major issues still needed to be resolved, however, and once again, compromise was
required on all sides. One of the major issues concerned elections themselves. Who would be
allowed to vote? The different state constitutions had created different rules about how much
property was required for white men to vote. The delegates needed to figure out a solution that
could satisfy people with many different ideas about who could have the franchise (that is, who
could be a voter).
For the popular lower house, any white man who paid taxes could vote. Thus, even those
without property, could vote for who would represent them in the House of Representatives.
This expanded the franchise in some states. To balance this opening, the two Senators in the
upper house of the national government would be elected by the STATE LEGISLATURES.
Finally, the PRESIDENT (that is, the executive branch) would be elected at the state level
through an ELECTORAL COLLEGE whose numbers reflected representation in the
legislature.
To modern eyes, the most stunning and disturbing constitutional compromise by the delegates
was over the issue of slavery. Some delegates considered slavery an evil institution and
GEORGE MASON of Virginia even suggested that the trans-Atlantic slave trade be made
illegal by the new national rules. Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia where slavery
was expanding rapidly in the late-18th century angrily opposed this limitation. If any
limitations to slavery were proposed in the national framework, then they would leave the
convention and oppose its proposed new plan for a stronger central government. Their fierce
opposition allowed no room for compromise and as a result the issue of slavery was treated as
a narrowly political, rather than a moral, question.
The delegates agreed that a strengthened union of the states was more important than the
Revolutionary ideal of equality. This was a pragmatic, as well as a tragic, constitutional
compromise, since it may have been possible (as suggested by George Mason's comments) for
the slave state of Virginia to accept some limitations on slavery at this point.
The proposed constitution actually strengthened the power of slave states in several important
respects. Through the "FUGITIVE CLAUSE," for example, governments of free states were
required to help recapture runaway slaves who had escaped their masters' states. Equally
disturbing was the "THREE-FIFTHS FORMULA" established for determining
representation in the lower house of the legislature. Slave states wanted to have additional
political power based on the number of human beings that they held as slaves. Delegates from
free states wouldn't allow such a blatant manipulation of political principles, but the inhumane
compromise that resulted meant counting enslaved persons as three-fifths of a free person for
the sake of calculating the number of people a state could elect to the House of Representatives.
After hot summer months of difficult debate in Philadelphia from May to September 1787, the
delegates had fashioned new rules for a stronger central government that extended national
power well beyond the scope of the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution created a
national legislature that could pass the supreme law of the land, could raise taxes, and with
greater control over commerce. The proposed rules also would restrict state actions, especially
in regard to passing PRO-DEBTOR LAWS. At the end of the long process of creating the
new plan, thirty-eight of the remaining forty-one delegates showed their support by signing the
proposed Constitution. This small group of national superstars had created a major new
framework through hard work and compromise.
Now another challenge lay ahead. Could they convince the people in the states that this new
plan was worth accepting?
16. Ratifying the Constitution
a. Federalists
The supporters of the proposed Constitution called themselves "FEDERALISTS." Their
adopted name implied a commitment to a loose, decentralized system of government. In many
respects "FEDERALISM" — which implies a strong central government — was the opposite
of the proposed plan that they supported. A more accurate name for the supporters of the
Constitution would have been "NATIONALISTS."
The "nationalist" label, however, would have been a political liability in the 1780s. Traditional
political belief of the Revolutionary Era held that strong centralized authority would inevitably
lead to an abuse of power. The Federalists were also aware that that the problems of the country
in the 1780s stemmed from the weaknesses of the central government created by the Articles
of Confederation.
For Federalists, the Constitution was required in order to safeguard the liberty and
independence that the American Revolution had created. While the Federalists definitely had
developed a new political philosophy, they saw their most import role as defending the social
gains of the Revolution. As James Madison, one of the great Federalist leaders later explained,
the Constitution was designed to be a "republican remedy for the diseases most incident to
republican government."
The Federalists had more than an innovative political plan and a well-chosen name to aid their
cause. Many of the most talented leaders of the era who had the most experience in national-
level work were Federalists. For example, the only two national-level celebrities of the period,
Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, favoured the Constitution. In addition to these
impressive superstars, the Federalists were well organized, well-funded, and made especially
careful use of the printed word. Most newspapers supported the Federalists' political plan and
published articles and pamphlets to explain why the people should approve the Constitution.
In spite of this range of major advantages, the Federalists still had a hard fight in front of them.
Their new solutions were a significant alteration of political beliefs in this period. Most
significantly, the Federalists believed that the greatest threat to the future of the United States
did not lie in the abuse of central power, but instead could be found in what they saw as the
excesses of democracy as evidenced in popular disturbances like Shays' Rebellion and the pro-
debtor policies of many states.
How could the Federalists convince the undecided portion of the American people that for the
nation to thrive, democracy needed to be constrained in favour of a stronger central
government?
17. George Washington
e. Mount Vernon and the Dilemma of a Revolutionary Slave Holder
18. Unsettled Domestic Issues
Washington's towering stature and legacy might misleadingly suggest that the early years of
the new nation were times of great confidence and self-congratulation. In fact, just the opposite
was nearly the case. Americans knew that the historical record of the long-term success of
republican governments was exceedingly poor. Previous examples and classical political
theory suggested that republics almost all suffered the fate of collapsing into anarchy and then
being taken over by a power-seizing tyrant.
The Philadelphia patriot BENJAMIN RUSH keenly understood the risks facing the new
nation. As a result he sharply rejected the idea that the military defeat of the British meant the
end of the American Revolution. "On the contrary," he wrote in 1787," nothing but the first act
of the great drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of
government."
The unsettled domestic issues that threatened to overturn the new republic were varied and
complex. Any one of the major crisis points of the early 1790s might overturn the fragile new
government. Where was the greatest threat: the challenging legal and political issues raised
during the ratification of the Constitution, the disastrous economy of the 1780s, popular
protests against federal policies in the west, or the varied military threats from Native
Americans, the British in Canada, and war in Europe? If any one of them could have toppled
the government, imagine how their combination must have made Americans fear for the future
of the country.
Most of these deeply unsettling threats would be addressed by the first federal government and
usually in an aggressive manner that scored decisive victory. Interestingly, however, the
solutions achieved by the first wielders of federal power also helped to create the conditions
that would force them from office and lead to a dramatic change in American politics by 1800.
To understand how much changed between the presidential elections of George Washington
(1789) and Thomas Jefferson (1800), the kinds of challenges that had to be faced in the first
decade of government under the new federal Constitution must be examined.
a. The Bill of Rights
The first national election occurred in 1789. Along with President Washington, voters elected
a large number of supporters of the Constitution. In fact, almost half of the ninety-one members
of the first Congress had helped to write or ratify the Constitution.
Not surprisingly, given Anti-Federalists' opposition to the strong new central government, only
eight opponents of the Constitution were sent to the House of Representatives. Most Anti-
Federalists concentrated their efforts in state politics.
Protection of Individual Rights
An immediate issue that the new Congress took up was how to modify the Constitution.
Representatives were responding to calls for amendments that had emerged as a chief issue
during the ratification process. Crucial states of Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York
(among others) had all ultimately supported the Constitution — but only with the expectation
that explicit protections for individual rights would be added to the highest law of the land.
Now that supporters of the Constitution controlled the federal government, what would they
do?
The legal tradition of having a precise statement of individual rights had deep roots in Anglo-
American custom. So it's not surprising that the first Congress amended the Constitution by
adding what became known as the Bill of Rights.
James Madison, now a member of Congress from Virginia, once again took the leading role
crafting proposed amendments that would be sent to the states for approval. Madison skillfully
reviewed numerous proposals and examples from state constitutions and ultimately selected
nineteen potential amendments to the Constitution.
As one might expect, the nationalist Madison took care to make sure that none of the proposed
amendments would fundamentally weaken the new central government. In the end, ten
amendments were ratified in 1791.
Ten Amendments
These first ten amendments to the Constitution became known as the Bill of Rights and still
stand as both the symbol and foundation of American ideals of individual liberty, LIMITED
GOVERNMENT, and the rule of law. Most of the Bill of Rights concerns legal protections
for those accused of crimes.
Rights and Protections Guaranteed in the Bill of Rights
Amendment Rights and Protections
First − Freedom of speech
− Freedom of the press
− Freedom of religion
− Freedom of assembly
− Right to petition the government
Second − Right to bear arms
Third − Protection against housing soldiers in
civilian homes
Fourth − Protection against unreasonable
search and seizure
− Protection against the issuing of
warrants without probable cause
Fifth − Protection against
o trial without indictment
o double jeopardy
o self-incrimination
o property seizure
Sixth − Right to a speedy trial
 −
Right to be informed of charges
−
Right to be confronted by witnesses
−
Right to call witnesses
−
Right to a legal counsel
Seventh −
Right to trial by jury
Eighth −
Protection against
o excessive bail
o excessive fines
o cruel and unusual punishment
Ninth − Rights granted in the Constitution
shall not infringe on other rights.
Tenth − Powers not granted to the Federal
Government in the Constitution
belong to the states or the people.
For instance, the fourth through eighth amendments provide protection from unreasonable
SEARCH AND SEIZURE, the privilege against SELF-INCRIMINATION, and the right to
a FAIR AND SPEEDY JURY TRIAL that will be free from unusual punishments.
The FIRST AMENDMENT, perhaps the broadest and most famous of the Bill of Rights,
establishes a range of political and civil rights including those of FREE SPEECH, assembly,
press, and religion.
The last two amendments, respectively, spell out that this list of individual protections is not
meant to exclude other ones, and, by contrast, set forth that all powers claimed by the federal
government had to be expressly stated in the Constitution.
While the Bill of Rights created no deep challenge to federal authority, it did respond to the
central Anti-Federalist fear that the Constitution would unleash an oppressive central
government too distant from the people to be controlled.
By responding to this opposition and following through on the broadly expressed desire for
amendments that emerged during the ratification process, the Bill of Rights helped to secure
broad political support for the new national government. A first major domestic issue had been
successfully resolved.
Understanding the Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights remains an active force in contemporary American life as a major element
of CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. The meaning of its protections remains hotly debated. For
example, the privilege to bear arms to support a militia, which appears in the second
amendment, produces significant political controversy today.
More sweepingly, the extension of the Bill of Rights to protect individuals from abuse not only
by the federal government, but also from state and local governments remains an unsettled
aspect of Constitutional interpretation.
Originally, the protections were solely meant to limit the federal government, but with the
fourteenth amendment's guarantee in 1868 that no state could deprive its citizens of the
protections in the Bill of Rights this original view began to be expanded. To this day the
SUPREME COURT has not definitively decided if the entire Bill of Rights should always be
applied to all levels of government.
b. Hamilton's Financial Plan
Presidents Washington ($1), Lincoln ($5), Jackson ($20), and Grant ($50) all appear on
currency. But what about this guy Alexander Hamilton on the ten-spot? How did he get there?
A sawbuck says you'll know the answer after reading this piece.
A major problem facing the first federal government was how to deal with the financial chaos
created by the American Revolution. States had huge war debts. There was runaway inflation.
Almost all areas of the economy looked dismal throughout the 1780s. Economic hard times
were a major factor creating the sense of crisis that produced the stronger central government
under the new Constitution.
George Washington chose the talented ALEXANDER HAMILTON, who had served with him
throughout the Revolutionary War, to take on the challenge of directing federal economic
policy as the treasury secretary. Hamilton is a fascinating character whose ambition fueled
tremendous success as a self-made man. Born in the West Indies to a single mother who was a
shopkeeper, he learned his first economic principles from her and went on to apprentice for a
large mercantile firm. From these modest origins, Hamilton would become the foremost
advocate for a modern capitalist economy in the early national United States.
Hamilton's influential connections were not just with Washington but included a network of
leading New York merchants and financiers. His 1780 marriage to ELIZABETH SCHUYLER,
from a wealthy Hudson River valley land holding family, deepened his ties to rich and powerful
leaders in New York. His innovative financial policies helped overcome the fiscal problems of
the CONFEDERACY, and also benefited an economic elite with which he had close ties.
The first issue that Hamilton tackled as Washington's SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
concerned the problem of PUBLIC CREDIT. Governments at all levels had taken on so much
debt during the Revolution. The commitment to pay them back was not taken very seriously.
By the late 1780s, the value of such public securities had plunged to a small fraction of their
face value. In other words, state IOU's — the money borrowed to finance the Revolution —
were viewed as nearly worthless.
Hamilton issued a bold proposal. The federal government should pay off all
CONFEDERATION (state) debts at full value. Such action would dramatically enhance the
legitimacy of the new central government. To raise money to pay off the debts, Hamilton would
issue new SECURITIES bonds). Investors who had purchased these public securities could
make enormous profits when the time came for the United States to pay off these new debts.
Hamilton's vision for reshaping the American economy included a federal charter for a national
financial institution. He proposed a BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. Modeled along the
lines of the Bank of England, a central bank would help make the new nation's economy
dynamic through a more stable paper CURRENCY.
The central bank faced significant opposition. Many feared it would fall under the influence of
wealthy, urban northeasterners and speculators from overseas. In the end, with the support of
George Washington, the bank was chartered with its first headquarters in Philadelphia.
The third major area of Hamilton's economic plan aimed to make American manufacturers self-
sufficient. The American economy had traditionally rested upon large-scale
AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS to pay for the import of British MANUFACTURED GOODS.
Hamilton rightly thought that this dependence on expensive foreign goods kept the American
economy at a limited level, especially when compared to the rapid growth of early
industrialization in Great Britain.
Rather than accept this condition, Hamilton wanted the United States to adopt a
MERCANTILIST economic policy. This would protect American manufacturers through
direct government SUBSIDIES (handouts to business) and TARIFFS (taxes on imported
goods). This PROTECTIONIST policy would help fledgling American producers to compete
with inexpensive European imports.
Hamilton possessed a remarkably acute economic vision. His aggressive support for
manufacturing, banks, and strong public credit all became central aspects of the modern
capitalist economy that would develop in the United States in the century after his death.
Nevertheless, his policies were deeply controversial in their day.
Many Americans neither like Hamilton's elitist attitude nor his commitment to a British model
of economic development. His pro-British foreign policy was potentially explosive in the wake
of the Revolution. Hamilton favored an even stronger central government than the Constitution
had created and often linked democratic impulses with potential anarchy. Finally, because the
beneficiaries of his innovative economic policies were concentrated in the northeast, they
threatened to stimulate divisive geographic differences in the new nation.
Regardless, Hamilton's economic philosophies became touchstones of the modern American
capitalist economy.
Bet you $10 you now see why he's on the $10 bill.
19. Politics in Transition: Public Conflict in the 1790s
c. Two Parties Emerge
The ELECTION OF 1796 was the first election in American history where political
CANDIDATES at the local, state, and national level began to run for OFFICE as members of
organized political parties that held strongly opposed political principles.
This was a stunning new phenomenon that shocked most of the older leaders of the
Revolutionary Era. Even Madison, who was one of the earliest to see the value of political
parties, believed that they would only serve as temporary coalitions for specific controversial
elections. The older leaders failed to understand the dynamic new conditions that had been
created by the importance of popular sovereignty — democracy — to the American
Revolution. The people now understood themselves as a fundamental force in legitimating
government authority. In the modern American political system, voters mainly express
themselves through allegiances within a competitive party system. 1796 was the first election
where this defining element of modern political life began to appear.
The two parties adopted names that reflected their most cherished values. The Federalists of
1796 attached themselves to the successful campaign in favor of the Constitution and were
solid supporters of the federal administration. Although Washington denounced parties as a
horrid threat to the republic, his vice president John Adams became the de facto presidential
candidate of the Federalists. The party had its strongest support among those who favored
Hamilton's policies. Merchants, creditors and urban artisans who built the growing commercial
economy of the northeast provided its most dedicated supporters and strongest regional
support.
The opposition party adopted the name DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS, which suggested
that they were more fully committed to extending the Revolution to ordinary people. The
supporters of the Democratic-Republicans (often referred to as the Republicans) were drawn
from many segments of American society and included farmers throughout the country with
high popularity among German and Scots-Irish ethnic groups. Although it effectively reached
ordinary citizens, its key leaders were wealthy southern tobacco elites like Jefferson and
Madison. While the Democratic-Republicans were more diverse, the Federalists were wealthier
and carried more prestige, especially by association with the retired Washington.
The 1796 election was waged with uncommon intensity. Federalists thought of themselves as
the "friends of order" and good government. They viewed their opponents as dangerous radicals
who would bring the anarchy of the French Revolution to America.
The Democratic-Republicans despised Federalist policies. According to one Republican-
minded New York newspaper, the Federalists were "aristocrats, endeavouring to lay the
foundations of monarchical government, and Republicans [were] the real supporters of
independence, friends to equal rights, and warm advocates of free elective government."
Clearly there was little room for compromise in this hostile environment.
The outcome of the presidential election indicated the close balance between the two sides.
New England strongly favoured Adams, while Jefferson overwhelmingly carried the southern
states. The key to the election lay in the mid-Atlantic colonies where party organizations were
the most fully developed. Adams ended up narrowly winning in the electoral college 71 to 68.
A sure sign of the great novelty of political parties was that the Constitution had established
that the runner-up in the presidential election would become the vice president.
John Adams took office after a harsh campaign and narrow victory. His political opponent
Jefferson served as second in command.
20. Jeffersonian America: A Second Revolution?
The harsh public antagonism of the 1790s largely came to an end with the victory of the
Democratic- Republicans in the 1800 election. "THE REVOLUTION OF 1800," as Jefferson
described his party's successful election many years later, was "as real a revolution in the
principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form."
To Jefferson and his supporters, the defeat of the Federalists ended their attempt to lead
America on a more conservative and less democratic course. Since the Federalists never again
played a national political role after the defeat in 1800, it seems that most American voters of
the era shared Jefferson's view.
Jefferson's election inaugurated a "VIRGINIA DYNASTY" that held the presidency from
1801 to 1825. After Jefferson's two terms as president, he was followed by two other two-term
Democratic-Republicans from Virginia, James Madison and James Monroe. Regular
Democratic-Republican majorities in Congress supported their long rule. Political leaders and
parties played a pivotal role shaping the new nation because they could serve as outlets for
large numbers of people to express their opinions about issues of public significance. For
Jefferson, the election of 1800 stands as a second revolution that protected and extended the
gains achieved in the Revolution of 1776.
Jefferson and his values serve as a useful organizing tool to think about the changes that
America experienced in the first decade of the nineteenth century. JEFFERSONIAN
DEMOCRACY refers to an American ideal as well as to a remarkably successful political
movement. At the heart of both meanings of the term lies the household farm worked by
ordinary families. Jeffersonian America marked a victory for common farmers as both the ideal
embodiment of the American citizen and as a practical reality of who voted. As a result
Jeffersonian America required that new western farmlands be cultivated as an absolute
necessity for the future of the republic.
Although Jeffersonian Democracy remains a greatly celebrated American ideal, it is important
to recall that in its own day, as well as today, it drew intense criticism. Federalists never again
controlled national politics like they had in the 1790s, but they remained an important force in
American life and offered deep criticism of many Jeffersonian developments. The federal
government itself embraced this ongoing disagreement. The CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE
SUPREME COURT throughout the JEFFERSONIAN ERA, JOHN MARSHALL, was an
ardent Federalist. Even while his political opponents controlled elected national office,
Marshall consistently supported the supremacy of national power over the states. He led the
court in establishing legal precedents to support this view.
The most serious flaw in the "SECOND REVOLUTION" of Jeffersonian America, however,
came from its embrace of slavery. The party's national leaders were slave-owning elites who
had no intention of including African-Americans in their broadened commitment to
democracy. Jefferson probed the fundamental contradiction between slavery and democracy
more eloquently than any American of the day. This led him to conclusions that were far less
than revolutionary. Jefferson repeatedly acknowledged that slavery was wrong, but he never
saw a way to eliminate the institution.
To Jefferson, slavery meant holding "a wolf by the ears." It was a danger that could never be
released. Most disturbingly of all, Jefferson could not imagine America as a place where free
blacks and whites could live together. To him, a biracial society of equality would "produce
convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of one or the other race."
JEFFERSONIAN AMERICA is a term that helps us enter the contested and deeply
contradictory nature of the United States at the start of the 19th century. Grappling fully with
its meaning requires the use of sophisticated analytical skills that assess both its strengths and
its weaknesses. To merely celebrate or condemn, seeing one side, but not the other, is to judge
without attempting to understand.
Seeing how the best and the worst of Jeffersonian America were deeply intermixed, and
continue to inform American life in our transformed circumstances of the 21st century, is
among the most important purposes of historical inquiry.
b. Jeffersonian Ideology
c. Westward Expansion: The Louisiana Purchase
Jefferson's plans for the nation depended upon western expansion and access to international
markets for American farm products. This vision was threatened, however, when France
regained control of Louisiana. NAPOLEON, who had now risen to power in the French
Revolution, threatened to block American access to the important port of New Orleans on the
Mississippi River. New American settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains depended
upon river transport to get their goods to market since overland trade to the east was expensive
and impractical.
Blocking American access to New Orleans was such a grave threat to American interests that
President Jefferson considered changing his traditional foreign policy stance to an anti-French
alliance with the British. At the same time that he sent diplomats to France to bargain for
continued trade access along the Mississippi, he also sent diplomats to Britain to pursue other
policy options. James Monroe, the top person negotiating in Paris, was empowered to purchase
New Orleans and West Florida for between two and ten million dollars.
Surprisingly, however, Napoleon offered much more. He was militarily overextended and
needing money to continue his war against Britain. Knowing full well that he could not force
Americans out of the land France possessed in North America, Napoleon offered all of
LOUISIANA to the U.S. for 15 million dollars. The massive territory stretched from the
Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and more than doubled the size of the United States.
Napoleon's asking price worked out to be about four cents an acre.
The deal was struck in April 1803, but it brought a good deal of controversy. While American
development in the 19th century depended on WESTERN EXPANSION, it also raised
controversial issues that might lead to the disunion of the United States. Some New England
Federalists, for example, began to talk of seceding from the U.S. since their political power
was dramatically reduced by the purchase.
Further, Jefferson had clearly not followed his own strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Federalist critics howled that the Constitution nowhere permitted the federal government to
purchase new land. Jefferson was troubled by the inconsistency, but in the end decided that the
Constitution's treaty-making provisions allowed him room to act.
Most of the Senate agreed and the LOUISIANA PURCHASE easily passed 26 to 6. The
dramatic expansion also contradicted Jefferson's commitment to reduce the national debt as
swiftly as possible. Although 15 million dollars was a relatively small sum for such a large
amount of land, it was still an enormous price tag for the modest federal budget of the day.
The Louisiana Purchase demonstrates Jefferson's ability to make pragmatic political decisions.
Although contrary to some of his central principles, guaranteeing western expansion was so
important to Jefferson's overall vision that he took bold action. The gains were dramatic, as the
territory acquired would in time add 13 new states to the union. In 1812, Louisiana became the
first state to join the union from land bought in the purchase. Louisiana was allowed to enter
the United States with its French legal traditions largely in place. Even today, Louisiana's legal
code retains many elements that do not follow English common law traditions. The federal
system could be remarkably flexible.
21. The Expanding Republic and the War of 1812
a. The Importance of the West
Land. Lots of land.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 intensified AMERICAN MIGRATION to the west that was
already well underway. Anglo-American settlement in the 18th century had largely been
confined to the eastern seaboard. It made its boldest inroads where rivers allowed easy internal
transportation. As a result the chief population centers of early North America were clustered
on the coast or along its major inland waterways.
In 1790 the fast-growing population of the United States was 3.9 million, but only 5% of
Americans lived west of the Appalachian Mountains that run from Maine to Georgia. By 1820,
however, the total U.S. population had already reached 9.6 million and fully 25 percent of them
lived west of the Appalachians in nine new states and three territories.
CINCINNATI, in present-day southwest Ohio, provides a good example of the speed of
western expansion during the early republic. Founded in 1788 as a fort to repel Shawnee and
Miami Indian attacks, it served a chiefly military purpose until the major Indian defeat at Fallen
Timbers in 1794. Soon thereafter, however, its location 450 miles downriver from Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, made it a strategic trade location for agricultural products from newly settled
farm lands. Although its population was a modest 750 in 1800, by 1810 that figure had tripled
and vastly larger numbers passed through Cincinnati on their way to settle the "OLD
NORTHWEST" of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Western migration had become central to the American way of life and as much as two-thirds
of all western families moved every decade. Interestingly, Cincinnati's most important TRADE
connection was not with relatively nearby (but upriver) Pittsburgh, but instead lay 1500 miles
south along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers at the great port of New Orleans. The most
efficient route to market remained along waterways and access to New Orleans remained
crucial for the western economy and its settlement.
This rapid POPULATION GROWTH and geographic expansion caused a great deal of
conflict. Native Americans in the west resisted American intrusion and fought renewed wars
in the early 19th century. Furthermore, the expansion of plantation slavery beyond the coastal
southeast meant that huge numbers of slaves were forcibly moved to new territories. In spite
of these enormous human costs, the overwhelming majority of white Americans saw western
expansion as a major opportunity. To them, access to western land offered the promise of
independence and prosperity to anyone willing to meet the hardships of frontier life.
Most politicians of the era believed that the health of the republic depended upon providing
affordable land to ordinary white Americans. Among Jeffersonian Republicans most popular
policies was an expansionist agenda that encouraged western development. This played an
important part in cementing the Democratic-Republican party's strength in the south and west.
Even among white settlers who benefited most from western migration, the expansion of the
nation caused major alterations in American life. For instance, getting crops to market required
improved transportation. States responded by giving charters to private companies to build
roads (called turnpikes since they charged a fee), bridges, canals, or to operate ferry services.
The state gave these companies special legal privileges because they provided a service that
could benefit a wide segment of the population.
Nevertheless, many people opposed these special benefits as contradicting republican notions
of equal opportunity for all. These new transportation projects reshaped the American
landscape, but the larger economic promise for most of the new western lands lay in the
massive inland rivers of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi, all of which ultimately flowed
south to New Orleans.
Long before newspaper editors such as JOHN SOULE and HORACE GREELEY were
urging readers to "GO WEST, YOUNG MAN," Americans were doing exactly that.
b. Exploration: Lewis and Clark
Even before Jefferson had completed the Louisiana Purchase, he had begun to make plans for
a bold journey to explore the vast interior of North America that remained completely unknown
to American citizens. That plan took on new importance once the United States had acquired
the huge new territory from France.
In May 1804, a group of 50 Americans led by MERIWETHER LEWIS, Jefferson's personal
secretary, and WILLIAM CLARK, an army officer, headed northwest along the Missouri
River from St. Louis. Their varied instructions reveal the multiple goals that Jefferson hoped
the expedition could accomplish. While trying to find a route across the continent, they were
also expected to make detailed observations of the natural resources and geography of the west.
Furthermore, they were to establish good relations with native groups in an attempt to disrupt
British dominance of the lucrative Indian fur trade of the continental interior.
By mid-October 1804, the LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION reached the MANDAN
villages on the banks of the upper Missouri River in present-day NORTH DAKOTA. Here
they found several large, successful settlements with an overall population of about 5,000
people. The Mandan villages were an important trade center that brought together many
different native groups as well as a handful of multilingual Frenchmen. The expedition chose
to spend the winter in this attractive location and it proved to be a crucial decision for the
success of their journey.
During the winter they established good relations with the Mandans and received a great deal
of information about the best route for heading west to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition also
hired several of the Frenchmen who lived among the Mandans to serve as guides and
translators. Along with them came a fifteen-year-old SHOSHONE named SACAJAWEA
who was married to one of the Frenchmen. Her knowledge of the west and language skills
played an important role in the success of the expedition. Additionally, the presence of
Sacajawea and her baby helped assure other Indian groups encountered further west that this
could not be a war party.
From the Mandan villages the now enlarged expedition headed west to cross the Rockies, the
highest mountain range in North America. By the winter of 1805 they had reached the Pacific
Ocean via the COLUMBIA RIVER, becoming the first U.S. citizens to succeed in a trans-
continental crossing north of Mexico. They were not, however, the first whites to accomplish
this feat since ALEXANDER MACKENZIE had done so for a British-Canadian fur-trading
company in 1793. Nevertheless, the Columbia River proved a much easier route than the one
Mackenzie had taken a decade earlier. When the long overdue expedition finally returned to
St. Louis in September 1806, they were celebrated as heroes who had accomplished an
extraordinary feat.
The expedition combined several qualities from scientific and military to trade and diplomatic,
but the underlying motivation was prompted by Thomas Jefferson's widely shared belief that
the future prosperity of the republic required the expansion of yeoman farmers in the west. This
noble dream for what Jefferson called an "EMPIRE OF LIBERTY" also had harsh
consequences. For instance, FORT CLARK was soon established at the Mandan villages. At
first it provided the Mandans with a useful alternative to trading with the British and also
offered military support from their traditional native enemies the Sioux.
However, Americans at the fort unwittingly brought new diseases to the area that decimated
the local native population. Where the Mandans had a thriving and sophisticated trading center
when Lewis and Clark arrived in 1804, by the late 1830s their total population had been reduced
to less than 150.
The nation's growth combined tragedy and triumph at every turn.
f. Claiming Victory from Defeat
22. Social Change and National Development
The United States changed dramatically in its first half century. In 1776 the U.S. consisted of
THIRTEEN COLONIES clustered together on the eastern seaboard. By 1821 eleven new
states had been added from Maine to Louisiana. This geographic growth and especially the
political incorporation of the new states demonstrated that the United States had resolved a
fundamental question about how to expand. This growth not only built upon the Louisiana
Purchase but included military intervention in SPANISH FLORIDA which the United States
then claimed by treaty in 1819.
The new shape of the nation required thinking about the United States in new ways. For
instance, a classic text on American geography in 1793 taught that the United States was
composed of three basic divisions: northern, middle, and southern. But the 1819 edition of that
same book included a new region because western states and territories needed recognition as
well. By 1820, over two million Americans lived west of the APPALACHIAN
MOUNTAINS.
The growing regional distinctiveness of American life was complex. Four basic regions with
distinct ways of life had developed along the eastern seaboard in the colonial period. Starting
in the north, they were NEW ENGLAND (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut); the MID-ATLANTIC (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania); the
CHESAPEAKE (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia); and the LOWER SOUTH (the
Carolinas and Georgia). As people from these regions joined new immigrants to the United
States in settling the west, they established additional distinctive regions that combined frontier
conditions with ways of doing things from their previous places of origin.
The newly settled western lands of this period can be grouped in several ways, but four basic
divisions were most evident: the BORDER AREA (Kentucky and Tennessee, the first trans-
Appalachian states to join the nation), the Old Northwest (Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois), the OLD
SOUTHWEST (Alabama and Mississippi), and the TRANS-MISSISSIPPI RIVER WEST
(Louisiana and Missouri).
The new shape of the nation reflected much more than just physical expansion. This period
also witnessed dramatic economic and religious changes. A new capitalist economy
enormously expanded wealth and laid the foundation for the Industrial Revolution that
flourished later in the 19th century. The great opportunities of economic development also
brought new hardships for many people, especially those who toiled as slaves under the
startlingly new system of cotton slavery that boomed in the early 19th century.
A dynamic religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening also transformed the
nation in this period. Although springing from internal spiritual convictions, the new character
of American Protestantism in the early 19th century reinforced the modern economic and
political developments that created the new nation by the end of the 1820s.
The United States had claimed political independence in 1776, but its ability to make that claim
a reality required at least another fifty years to be fully settled. The War of 1812, however
fitfully, had demonstrated American military independence, but breaking free of the economic
and cultural dominance of Great Britain would prove to be longer and more complicated
struggles. In 1823 when President Monroe declared that the entire western hemisphere is
"henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers,"
it was a claim made without the power to back it up. Although his Monroe Doctrine became a
central plank of U.S. foreign policy only at the end of the century, Americans had clearly
fashioned a bold new national identity by the 1820s.
b. Cotton and African-American Life
The American Industrial Revolution, concentrated in the northeast, would ultimately prove to
be the most significant force in the development of the modern United States. This economic
innovation sprung primarily from necessity. New England's agricultural economy was the
poorest in the country and that helped to spur experimentation there. Meanwhile, the far more
fertile southern states remained fully committed to agriculture as the central source of its
wealth, here, too, dramatic changes created a wholly new economy that would have been
unrecognizable to late-18th century Americans.
The slave-based TOBACCO ECONOMY that sustained the Chesapeake region was in deep
crisis in the late-18th century and some Virginia leaders even talked about ending slavery. But
technological innovations to process cotton soon gave new life to slavery, which would flourish
in the new nation as never before.
ELI WHITNEY was among the first to develop a COTTON GIN (short for "engine") that
separated seeds from short-staple cotton. This hardier cotton variety thrived in the new land of
the Old Southwest, and could now be processed far more efficiently than had been possible by
hand. Indeed, the gin increased by fifty times what a single person could process in a day. This
new cotton production, in turn, provided the raw material for the booming industrial textile
mills of the American northeast and Great Britain. Technological innovation and geographic
expansion made the south the world's largest producer and exporter of cotton in the 19th
century.
This economic triumph, however, was accompanied by an immeasurable human tragedy. By
1820 all of the northern states had outlawed slavery, but the rise of cotton made the enormous
profits of the slave system irresistible to most white southerners. Distinctive northern and
southern sections of the United States were emerging with the former more urban and industrial
and the latter more agricultural, but the new economies of each section were deeply
intertwined. Not only did southern cotton feed northern textile mills, but northern insurers and
transporters played a major part in the growth of the modern slave economy of the cotton south.
The rise of "KING COTTON" as the defining feature of southern life revitalized slavery. The
promise of cotton profits encouraged a spectacular rise in the direct importation of African
slaves in the years before the TRANS-ATLANTIC TRADE was made illegal in 1808.
250,000 new slaves arrived in the United States from 1787 to 1808, a number equal to the entire
slave importation of the colonial period. After 1808, the internal SLAVE TRADE forced
African Americans from the border states and Chesapeake into the new cotton belt, which
ultimately stretched from upcountry Georgia to eastern Texas. In fact, more than half of the
Americans who moved to the Southwest after 1815 were enslaved blacks.
With a growing FREE BLACK POPULATION in northern and border states, 95 percent of
the country's African American population was enslaved in 1820. Generalizing about African
American experience under slavery is especially difficult because the oppressive slave system
all but entirely eliminated the avenues for slaves to honestly express themselves in public.
There can be absolutely no doubt, however, that enslaved people rejected their status and that
their constant resistance in small ways and large made white masters resort to terrifying
violence in order to make the slave system work.
Enslaved people's greatest act of collective resistance lay in the constant ways that they
demonstrated their humanity and challenged the legitimacy of slavery. In the face of
abominable conditions, enslaved African Americans created communities that gave meaning
and purpose to their lives. At the heart of black communities lay two central institutions: family
and religion. Slave marriages were not legally recognized in slave societies and as many as a
third of all slave marriages were broken up by masters. In spite of this, enslaved African
Americans formed long-term marital bonds.
Furthermore, the severity of slave life encouraged the development of extended kin relations.
Since young adults were especially likely to be sold, parents and children were frequently
separated leading most slave communities to act collectively by respecting all elders and
nurturing all children like one large family.
Religion also provided a major source of support to enslaved African Americans. It was only
in the early 19th century that significant numbers of slaves became Christians. Partly this
represents an increasing Americanization among African Americans, many of whom had now
lived in the New World for several generations.
But to be a black Christian was not necessarily to have the same values as a white Christian.
Slaves undoubtedly adjusted Christianity to fit their own life experiences and there is little
doubt that Moses' leading the enslaved Israelites to the Promised Land had special resonance
among American slaves. Black spirituals like "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel ... and why not
every man" had similar subversive messages.
c. Religious Transformation and the Second Great Awakening
d. Institutionalizing Religious Belief: The Benevolent Empire
e. New Roles for White Women
f. Early National Arts and Cultural Independence
23. Politics and the New Nation
a. The Era of Good Feelings and the Two-Party System
The War of 1812 closed with the Federalist Party all but destroyed. The 1816 presidential
election was the last one when the Federalists' ran a candidate. He lost resoundingly.
The 1818 Congressional election brought another landslide victory for Democratic-
Republicans who controlled 85 percent of the seats in the U.S. Congress. James Monroe, yet
another Virginian, followed Madison in the Presidency for two terms from 1817 to 1825.
Although this period has often been called the ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS due to its one-
party dominance, in fact, Democratic-Republicans were deeply divided internally and a new
political system was about to be created from the old Republican-Federalist competition that
had been known as the FIRST PARTY SYSTEM.
Although Democratic-Republicans were now the only active national party, its leaders
incorporated major economic policies that had been favored by Federalists since the time of
Alexander Hamilton. President Monroe continued the policies begun by Madison at the end of
his presidency to build an American System of national economic development. These policies
had three basic aspects: a national bank, protective tariffs to support American manufactures,
and federally-funded internal improvements.
The first two elements received strong support after the War of 1812. The chartering of the
Second Bank of the United States in 1816, once again headquartered in Philadelphia, indicates
how much of the old Federalist economic agenda the Democratic-Republicans now supported.
Whereas Jefferson had seen a national bank as a threat to ordinary farmers, the leaders of his
party in 1816 had come to a new understanding of the need for a strong federal role in creating
the basic infrastructure of the nation.
The cooperation among national politicians that marked the one-party Era of Good Feelings
lasted less than a decade. A new style of American politics took shape in the 1820s and 1830s
whose key qualities have remained central to American politics up to the present. In this more
modern system, political parties played the crucial role building broad and lasting coalitions
among diverse groups in the American public. Furthermore, these parties represented more
than the distinct interests of a single region or economic class. Most importantly, modern
parties broke decisively from a political tradition favoring personal loyalty and patronage.
Although long-lasting parties were totally unpredicted in the 1780s, by the 1830s they had
become central to American politics.
The New York politician MARTIN VAN BUREN played a key role in the development of
the Second Party System. He rose to lead the new Democratic party by breaking from the more
traditional leadership of his own Democratic-Republican party. He achieved this in New York
by 1821 and helped create the system on a national scale while serving in Washington D.C. as
a senator and later as president.
Van Buren perceptively responded to the growing DEMOCRATIZATION of American life
in the first decades of the 19th century by embracing mass public opinion. As he explained,
"Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs;
but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only
secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the face of the universe."
Rather than follow a model of elite political leadership like that of the Founding Fathers, Van
Buren saw "genius" in reaching out to the "multitude" of the general public.
Like other new party leaders of the period, Van Buren made careful use of newspapers to spread
the word about party positions and to ensure close discipline among party members. In fact,
the growth of newspapers in the new nation was closely linked to the rise of a competitive party
system. In 1775 there had been just 31 newspapers in the colonies, but by 1835 the number of
papers in the nation had soared to 1200. Rather than make any claim to objective reporting,
newspapers existed as PROPAGANDA vehicles for the political parties that they supported.
Newspapers were especially important to the new party system because they spread
information about the PARTY PLATFORM, a carefully crafted list of policy commitments
that aimed to appeal to a broad public.

b. The Expansion of the Vote: A White Man’s Democracy

The rise of political parties as the fundamental organizing unit of the Second (Two) Party
System represented a sharp break from the values that had shaped Republican and Federalist
political competition. Leaders in the earlier system remained deeply suspicious that parties
could corrupt and destroy the young republic. At the heart of the new legitimacy of parties, and
their forthright celebration of democracy, was the dramatic expansion of VOTING RIGHTS
for white men.
Immediately after the Revolution most states retained some PROPERTY REQUIREMENTS
that prevented poor people from voting. Following republican logic, citizens were believed to
need an economic stake in society in order to be trusted to vote wisely. If a voter lacked
economic independence, then it seemed that those who controlled his livelihood could easily
manipulate his vote.
Ironically, just as industrial wage labor began to create dependent laborers on a large new scale,
the older republican commitment to propertied voters fell out of favor. As property
requirements for voting were abolished, economic status disappeared as a foundation for
citizenship. By 1840 more than 90 percent of adult white men possessed the right to vote.
Not only that, voters could now cast their opinion for more offices. Previously, governors and
presidential electors had usually been selected by state legislatures as part of a republican
strategy that limited the threat of direct democratic control over the highest political offices.
The growing democratic temper of the first decades of the 19th century changed this and
increasingly all offices were chosen by direct vote. The United States was the world leader in
allowing popular participation in elections. This triumph of American politics built upon, but
also expanded, the egalitarian ideals of the American Revolution.
This democratic triumph, however, also had sharp limitations that today seem quite shocking.
At the same time that state legislatures opened SUFFRAGE (that is, the right to vote) to all
white men, they simultaneously closed the door firmly on white women and free African
Americans. This movement was especially disappointing since it represented a retreat from a
broader sense of political rights that had been included in some early state constitutions.
For example, New Jersey revised its state constitution to abolish property requirements in 1807,
but at the same time prevented all women from voting (even wealthy ones who had been
allowed to vote there since 1776) as well as all free blacks. New York acted similarly in 1821
when its legislature extended the franchise to almost all white men, but simultaneously created
high property requirements for free blacks. As a result, only 68 of the 13,000 free African
Americans in New York City could vote in 1825. When Pennsylvania likewise denied free
blacks the right to vote in the late 1830s, a state legislator explained that "The people of this
state are for continuing this commonwealth, what it has always been, a political community of
white persons." While he was correct about the prevailing racist sentiment among white voters,
free blacks with property had not been excluded from the franchise by the earlier Revolutionary
state constitution.
Tragically, the democratization of American politics to include nearly universal white
manhood suffrage also intensified DISCRIMINATION by race and gender. The idea of total
democracy remained too radical for full implementation.
 e. John Quincy Adams
24. The Age of Jackson

f. The Trail of Tears – The Indian Removals

Not everyone was included in the new Jacksonian Democracy. There was no initiative from
Jacksonian Democrats to include women in political life or to combat slavery. But, it was the
NATIVE AMERICAN who suffered most from Andrew Jackson's vision of America.
Jackson, both as a military leader and as President, pursued a policy of removing INDIAN
TRIBES from their ANCESTRAL LANDS. This relocation would make room for
SETTLERS and often for SPECULATORS who made large profits from the purchase and
sale of land.
Indian policy caused the President little political trouble because his primary supporters were
from the southern and western states and generally favored a plan to remove all the Indian
tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River. While Jackson and other politicians put a very
positive and favorable spin on Indian removal in their speeches, the removals were in fact often
brutal. There was little the Indians could do to defend themselves. In 1832, a group of about a
thousand SAC AND FOX INDIANS led by CHIEF BLACK HAWK returned to Illinois, but
militia members easily drove them back across the Mississippi. The Seminole resistance in
Florida was more formidable, resulting in a war that began under CHIEF OSCEOLA and
lasted into the 1840s.
The CHEROKEES of Georgia, on the other hand, used legal action to resist. The Cherokee
people were by no means frontier savages. By the 1830s they developed their own written
language, printed newspapers and elected leaders to representative government. When the
government of Georgia refused to recognize their autonomy and threatened to seize their lands,
the Cherokees took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won a favorable decision. John
Marshall's opinion for the Court majority in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia was essentially that
Georgia had no jurisdiction over the Cherokees and no claim to their lands. But Georgia
officials simply ignored the decision, and President Jackson refused to enforce it. Jackson was
furious and personally affronted by the Marshall ruling, stating, "Mr. Marshall has made his
decision. Now let him enforce it!"
Finally, federal troops came to Georgia to remove the tribes forcibly. As early as 1831, the
army began to push the Choctaws off their lands to march to Oklahoma. In 1835, some
Cherokee leaders agreed to accept western land and payment in exchange for relocation. With
this agreement, the TREATY OF NEW ECHOTA, Jackson had the green light to order
Cherokee removal. Other Cherokees, under the leadership of CHIEF JOHN ROSS, resisted
until the bitter end. About 20,000 Cherokees were marched westward at gunpoint on the
infamous TRAIL OF TEARS. Nearly a quarter perished on the way, with the remainder left
to seek survival in a completely foreign land. The tribe became hopelessly divided as the
followers of Ross murdered those who signed the Treaty of New Echota.
The Trail of Tears is the most sorrowful legacy of the Jacksonian Era.
25. The Rise of American Industry
b. Early American Railroads
The development of RAILROADS was one of the most important phenomena of the Industrial
Revolution. With their formation, construction and operation, they brought profound social,
economic and political change to a country only 50 years old. Over the next 50 years, America
would come to see magnificent bridges and other structures on which trains would run,
awesome depots, ruthless rail magnates and the majesty of rail locomotives crossing the
country.
The railroad was first developed in Great Britain. A man named GEORGE STEPHENSON
successfully applied the steam technology of the day and created the world's first successful
locomotive. The first engines used in the United States were purchased from the
STEPHENSON WORKS in England. Even rails were largely imported from England until
the Civil War. Americans who had visited England to see new STEAM LOCOMOTIVES
were impressed that railroads dropped the cost of shipping by carriage by 60-70%.
Baltimore, the third largest city in the nation in 1827, had not invested in a canal. Yet, Baltimore
was 200 miles closer to the frontier than New York and soon recognized that the development
of a railway could make the city more competitive with New York and the Erie Canal in
transporting people and goods to the West. The result was the BALTIMORE AND OHIO
RAILROAD, the first railroad chartered in the United States. There were great parades on the
day the construction started. On July 4, 1828, the first spadeful of earth was turned over by the
last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, 91-year-old CHARLES CARROLL.
New railroads came swiftly. In 1830, the SOUTH CAROLINA CANAL AND RAIL-ROAD
COMPANY was formed to draw trade from the interior of the state. It had a steam locomotive
built at the West Point Foundry in New York City, called THE BEST FRIEND OF
CHARLESTON, the first steam locomotive to be built for sale in the United States. A year
later, the Mohawk & Hudson railroad reduced a 40-mile wandering canal trip that took all day
to accomplish to a 17-mile trip that took less than an hour. Its first steam engine was named
the DeWitt Clinton after the builder of the Erie Canal.
Although the first railroads were successful, attempts to finance new ones originally failed as
opposition was mounted by turnpike operators, canal companies, stagecoach companies and
those who drove wagons. Opposition was mounted, in many cases, by tavern owners and
innkeepers whose businesses were threatened. Sometimes opposition turned to violence.
Religious leaders decried trains as sacriligious. But the economic benefits of the railroad soon
won over the skeptics.
Perhaps the greatest physical feat of 19th century America was the creation of the
TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD. Two railroads, the CENTRAL PACIFIC starting
in San Francisco and a new railroad, the Union Pacific, starting in Omaha, Nebraska, would
build the rail-line. Huge forces of immigrants, mainly Irish for the UNION PACIFIC and
Chinese for the Central Pacific, crossed mountains, dug tunnels and laid track. The two
railroads met at PROMONTORY, UTAH, on May 10, 1869, and drove a last, golden spike
into the completed railway.
c. The first American Factories
There was more than one kind of frontier and one kind of pioneer in early America.
While many people were trying to carve out a new existence in states and territories continually
stretching to the West, another group pioneered the AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION. They developed new, large forms of business ENTERPRISE that involved
the use of power-driven machinery to produce products and goods previously produced in the
home or small shop. The machinery was grouped together in factories.
Part of the technology used in forming these new business enterprises came from England,
however, increasingly they came from American inventors and scientists and mechanics.
The first factory in the United States was begun after George Washington became President.
In 1790, SAMUEL SLATER, a cotton spinner's apprentice who left England the year before
with the secrets of textile machinery, built a factory from memory to produce spindles of yarn.
The factory had 72 spindles, powered by by nine children pushing foot treadles, soon replaced
by waterpower. Three years later, JOHN AND ARTHUR SHOFIELD, who also came from
England, built the first factory to manufacture woollens in Massachusetts.
From these humble beginnings to the time of the Civil War there were over two million spindles
in over 1200 cotton factories and 1500 woollen factories in the United States.
From the TEXTILE INDUSTRY, the factory spread to many other areas. In Pennsylvania,
large furnaces and rolling mills supplanted small local forges and blacksmiths. In Connecticut,
tin ware and clocks were produced. Soon reapers and sewing machines would be manufactured.
At first, these new factories were financed by business partnerships, where several individuals
invested in the factory and paid for business expenses like advertising and product distribution.
Shortly after the War of 1812, a new form of business enterprise became prominent — the
corporation. In a CORPORATION, individual INVESTORS are financially responsible for
business debts only to the extent of their investment, rather than extending to their full net
worth, which included his house and property.
First used by bankers and builders, the corporation concept spread to manufacturing. In 1813,
FRANCES CABOT LOWELL, NATHAN APPLETON and PATRICK JOHNSON
formed the BOSTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY to build America's first integrated
textile factory, that performed every operation necessary to transform cotton lint into finished
cloth.
Over the next 15 years they charted additional companies in Massachusetts and New
Hampshire. Others copied their corporation model and by 1840 the corporate manufacturer was
commonplace.
Lowell and his associates hoped to avoid the worst evils of British industry. They built their
production facilities at Massachusetts. To work in the textile mills, Lowell hired young,
unmarried women from New England farms. The "MILL GIRLS" were chaperoned by
matrons and were held to a strict curfew and moral code.
Although the work was tedious (12 hours per day, 6 days per week), many women enjoyed a
sense of independence they had not known on the farm. The wages were about triple the going
rate for a domestic servant at the time.
The impact of the creation of all these factories and corporations was to drive people from rural
areas to the cities where factories were located. This movement was well underway by the Civil
War. During the 1840s, the population of the country as a whole increased by 36%. The
population of towns and cities of 8,000 or more increased by 90%. With a huge and growing
market, unconstrained by European traditions that could hamper their development, the
corporation became the central force in America's economic growth.
f. Irish and German Immigration
In the middle half of the nineteenth century, more than one-half of the population of IRELAND
emigrated to the United States. So did an equal number of GERMANS. Most of them came
because of civil unrest, severe unemployment or almost inconceivable hardships at home. This
wave of immigration affected almost every city and almost every person in America. From
1820 to 1870, over seven and a half million immigrants came to the United States — more than
the entire population of the country in 1810. Nearly all of them came from northern and western
Europe — about a third from Ireland and almost a third from Germany. Burgeoning companies
were able to absorb all that wanted to work. Immigrants built canals and constructed railroads.
They became involved in almost every labor-intensive endeavor in the country. Much of the
country was built on their backs.
In Ireland almost half of the population lived on farms that produced little income. Because of
their poverty, most Irish people depended on potatoes for food. When this crop failed three
years in succession, it led to a great FAMINE with horrendous consequences. Over 750,000
people starved to death. Over two million Irish eventually moved to the United States seeking
relief from their desolated country. Impoverished, the Irish could not buy property. Instead,
they congregated in the cities where they landed, almost all in the northeastern United States.
Today, Ireland has just half the population it did in the early 1840s. There are now more Irish
Americans than there are Irish nationals.
In the decade from 1845 to 1855, more than a million Germans fled to the United States to
escape economic hardship. They also sought to escape the political unrest caused by riots,
rebellion and eventually a revolution in 1848. The Germans had little choice — few other
places besides the United States allowed German immigration. Unlike the Irish, many Germans
had enough money to journey to the Midwest in search of farmland and work. The largest
settlements of Germans were in New York City, Baltimore, Cincinnati, St. Louis and
Milwaukee.
With the vast numbers of German and Irish coming to America, hostility to them erupted. Part
of the reason for the opposition was religious. All of the Irish and many of the Germans were
Roman Catholic. Part of the opposition was political. Most immigrants living in cities became
Democrats because the party focused on the needs of commoners. Part of the opposition
occurred because Americans in low-paying jobs were threatened and sometimes replaced by
groups willing to work for almost nothing in order to survive. Signs that read NINA — "NO
IRISH NEED APPLY" — sprang up throughout the country.
Ethnic and ANTI-CATHOLIC RIOTING occurred in many northern cites, the largest
occurring in Philadelphia in 1844 during a period of economic depression. Protestants,
Catholics and local militia fought in the streets. 16 were killed, dozens were injured and over
40 buildings were demolished. "NATIVIST" political parties sprang up almost overnight. The
most influential of these parties, the KNOW NOTHINGS, was anti-Catholic and wanted to
extend the amount of time it took immigrants to become citizens and voters. They also wanted
to prevent foreign-born people from ever holding public office. Economic recovery after the
1844 depression reduced the number of serious confrontations for a time, as the country seemed
to be able to use all the labor it could get.
But NATIVISM returned in the 1850s with a vengeance. In the 1854 elections, Nativists won
control of state governments in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire
and California. They won elections in Maryland and Kentucky and took 45% of the vote in 5
other states. In 1856, Millard Fillmore was the American Party candidate for President and
trumpeted anti-immigrant themes. Nativism caused much splintering in the political landscape,
and the Republicans, with no platform or policies about it, benefited and rode to victory in the
divisive election of 1860.
27. The Peculiar Institution
b. Slave Life and Slave Codes
Slave life varied greatly depending on many factors.
Life on the fields meant working sunup to sundown six days a week and having food sometimes
not suitable for an animal to eat. Plantation slaves lived in small shacks with a dirt floor and
little or no furniture. Life on large plantations with a cruel overseer was oftentimes the worst.
However, work for a small farm owner who was not doing well could mean not being fed.
The stories about cruel overseers were certainly true in some cases. The OVERSEER was paid
to get the most work out of the slaves; therefore, overseers often resorted to whatever means
was necessary. Sometimes the slaves would drive the overseer off the plantation in desperation.
When slaves complained that they were being unfairly treated, slaveholders would most often
be very protective of their "property" and would release the overseer.
In some cases, a driver was used rather than an overseer. The difference between the overseer
and the DRIVER was simple: drivers were slaves themselves. A driver might be convinced by
a master to manage the slaves for better privileges. Drivers were usually hated by the rest of
the slaves. These feelings often led to violence.
Large plantations often required some slaves to work in the plantation home. These slaves
enjoyed far better circumstances. DOMESTIC SLAVES lived in better quarters and received
better food. They sometimes were able to travel with the owner's family. In many cases, a class
system developed within the slave community. Domestic slaves did not often associate
themselves with plantation slaves. They often aspired to arrange courtships for their children
with other domestic slaves.
As the Peculiar Institution spread across the South, many states passed "SLAVE CODES,"
which outlined the rights of slaves and the acceptable treatment and rules regarding slaves.
Slave codes varied from state to state, but there were many common threads. One could not do
business with a slave without the prior consent of the owner. Slaves could be awarded as prizes
in raffles, wagered in gambling, offered as security for loans, and transferred as gifts from one
person to another.
A slave was not permitted to keep a gun. If caught carrying a gun, the slave received 39 lashes
and forfeited the gun. Blacks were held incompetent as witnesses in legal cases involving
whites. The education of slaves was prohibited. Anyone operating a school or teaching reading
and writing to any African-American in Missouri could be punished by a fine of not less than
$500 and up to six months in jail. Slaves could not assemble without a white person present.
Marriages between slaves were not considered legally binding. Therefore, owners were free to
split up families through sale.
Any slave found guilty of arson, rape of a white woman, or conspiracy to rebel was put to
death. However, since the slave woman was chattel, a white man who raped her was guilty
only of a trespass on the master's property. Rape was common on the plantation, and very few
cases were ever reported.
c. The Plantation & Chivalry
Southern belles, gentlemen, and hospitality.
During the 1600s, patterns of life were borrowed from the English countryside and transplanted
onto America's southern shores. These included a glorification of riding, hunting, and etiquette.
TOBACCO played the central role in defining social class, local politics, the labor system; in
fact, it shaped the entire life of the region. The PLANTER was essentially a country gentleman,
looking to England for political and economic guidance as well as for its literature, manner of
dress, and etiquette. In the 1700s the Virginia gentry established a code of behavior that can
still be seen in parts of the south today. ARISTOCRATS had certain rights and privileges,
and, in return, had certain responsibilities for their "inferiors." By around 1825, the dominance
of Virginia was fading and the emergence of King Cotton shifted the center of Southern
influence to South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
The SOUTHERN CODE addressed the behaviors of both men and women. Gentlemen must
be courteous, truthful and honorable. Sins of the flesh were forgiven. He should have a broad
understanding of the humanities, including the Greek and Roman classics. Hospitality and
generosity were of utmost importance. The ideal man respected his family and treated women
with high regard. Strength and courage were glorified. A man was to defend the family name,
with his life if necessary. A personal insult to an individual or his family would necessitate a
fight, if not a duel.
The SOUTHERN WOMAN was genteel and gracious. She knew how to entertain guests and
tenaciously defended her husband and children. She was not outspoken and was pure of mind
and body.
A proper GENTLEMAN, it was believed, should be a lawyer, politician, planter, or military
man, rather than be a businessman or other occupation. Because plantation owners had their
money tied up in property and slaves, many of the generation could not afford to send their
children to prestigious colleges but were able to send them to the esteemed military schools.
This created a generation of very able and talented military officers. Many were trained at
WEST POINT and VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE. They held to old-fashioned ideals
of what honourable warfare meant. When the Civil War arrived, most of the military leadership
talent was southern.
d. Free (?) African-Americans
When Americans think of African-Americans in the DEEP SOUTH before the Civil War, the
first image that invariably comes to mind is one of slavery. However, many African-Americans
were able to secure their freedom and live in a state of semi-freedom even before slavery was
abolished by war. FREE BLACKS lived in all parts of the United States, but the majority lived
amid slavery in the American South. According to the 1860 U.S. Census, there were 250,787
free blacks living in the South in contrast to 225,961 free blacks living everywhere else in the
country including the Midwest and the Far West; however, not everyone, particularly free
blacks, were captured by census takers. In the upper south, the largest population of free blacks
were in Maryland and Virginia; in the mid-Atlantic, the largest population of free blacks was
in Philadelphia.
How did African-Americans become free? Some slaves bought their own freedom from their
owners, but this process became more and more rare as the 1800s progressed. Many slaves
became free through MANUMISSION, the voluntary EMANCIPATION of a slave by a
slaveowner. Manumission was sometimes offered because slaves had outlived their usefulness
or were held in special favor by their masters. The offspring of interracial relations were often
set free. Some slaves were set free by their masters as the abolitionist movement grew.
Occasionally slaves were freed during the master's lifetime, and more often through the
master's will. Many African-Americans freed themselves through escape. A few Americans of
African descent came to the United States as immigrants, especially common in the New
Orleans area.
Were free blacks offered the same rights as free whites? The answer is quite simply no. For
example, a Virginia law, passed in the early 1830s, prohibited the teaching of all blacks to read
or write. Free blacks throughout the South were banned from possessing firearms, or preaching
the Bible. Later laws even prohibited Negroes who went out of state to get an education from
returning. In many states, the slave codes that were designed to keep African-Americans in
bondage were also applied to free persons of color. Most horrifically, free blacks could not
testify in court. If a slave catcher claimed that a free African-American was a slave, the accused
could not defend himself in court.
The church often played a central role in the community of free blacks. The establishment of
the AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH represents an important shift. It was
established with black leadership and spread from Philadelphia to Charleston and to many other
areas in the South, despite laws which forbade blacks from preaching. The church suffered
brutalities and massive arrests of its membership, clearly an indication of the fear of black
solidarity. Many of these leaders became diehard abolitionists.
Free blacks were highly skilled as artisans, business people, educators, writers, planters,
musicians, tailors, hairdressers, and cooks. African-American inventors like THOMAS L.
JENNINGS, who invented a method for the dry cleaning of clothes, and HENRY BLAIR
GLENN ROSS, who patented a seed planter, contributed to the advancement of science. Some
owned property and kept boarding houses, and some even owned slaves themselves. Prominent
among free persons of color of the period are Frederick Douglass, Richard Allen, Absalom
Jones, and Harriet Tubman.
e. Rebellions on and off the Plantation
Starting as early as 1663, slaves were organizing revolts to regain their freedom. Hundreds of
minor uprisings occurred on American plantations during the two and a half centuries of
slavery. Most of the uprisings were small in scope and were put down easily. Some were larger
in ambition and sent a chill down the spines of countless Southern planters. Two of the most
famous REVOLTS were in the early nineteenth century. One was led by Denmark Vesey and
the other was led by Nat Turner.
Most likely enslaved from birth, DENMARK VESEY won a lottery and purchased his
freedom. He worked as a carpenter in South Carolina as a respected artisan for years and was
quite satisfied with his life. He was an educated man, fluent in several languages, which he
learned while he was enslaved to a widely traveled slave trader. But a profound repulsion to
slavery, plus encouragement from the successful slave revolt in Haiti led him to plan to murder
every white in the South, with the help of thousands of slaves and supporters. The date was set
for Sunday, July 24, 1822. Before the uprising began, his plan was revealed and he was
captured, tried, and hanged. Forty-seven African-Americans were condemned to death for
alleged involvement in the plot. An estimated 9,000 individuals were involved.
NAT TURNER was somewhat of a mystic. He frequently was said to have religious visions,
and he claimed at times to have spoken with God. In 1831, Turner claimed to be responding to
one of these visions and organized about 70 slaves who went from plantation to plantation and
murdered about 75 men, women and children. As they continued on their rampage they
gathered additional supporters but when their ammunition was exhausted, they were captured.
Turner and about 18 of his supporters were hanged. This was even more shocking than any
previous uprising. Turner had done what others had not. He actually succeeded in killing a
large number of white Southerners. The South responded by increasing slave patrols and
tightening their ever more repressive slave codes.
Rebellion would often find voice in less dramatic ways and more personal ways. The slave
codes bear witness to the growing fear of slave insurrection and revolt. Slaves ran away in
droves, following the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada and the Northern states.
They fled to the Indians and joined them in their wars against the white settlers. Some accounts
tell of slaves poisoning their masters and mistresses. Some slaves banded together and stopped
working, while others deliberately slowed down their pace. The history of slave resistance and
revolts is the story of the desperate and sometimes successful attempt of people to gain their
liberty in the face of systematic repression and bondage.
f. The Southern Argument for Slavery
Those who defended slavery rose to the challenge set forth by the Abolitionists. The defenders
of slavery included economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even
humanitarianism, to further their arguments.
Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a
profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the
foundation of their economy. The cotton economy would collapse. The tobacco crop would
dry in the fields. Rice would cease being profitable.
Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread
unemployment and chaos. This would lead to uprisings, bloodshed, and anarchy. They pointed
to the mob's "rule of terror" during the French Revolution and argued for the continuation of
the status quo, which was providing for affluence and stability for the slaveholding class and
for all free people who enjoyed the bounty of the slave society.
Defenders of slavery argued that slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural
state of mankind. The Greeks had slaves, the Romans had slaves, and the English had slavery
until very recently.
Defenders of slavery noted that in the Bible, Abraham had slaves. They point to the Ten
Commandments, noting that "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, ... nor his manservant,
nor his maidservant." In the New Testament, Paul returned a runaway slave, Philemon, to his
master, and, although slavery was widespread throughout the Roman world, Jesus never spoke
out against it.
Defenders of slavery turned to the courts, who had ruled, with the Dred Scott Decision, that all
blacks — not just slaves — had no legal standing as persons in our courts — they were
property, and the Constitution protected slave-holders' rights to their property.
Defenders of slavery argued that the institution was divine, and that it brought Christianity to
the heathen from across the ocean. Slavery was, according to this argument, a good thing for
the enslaved. John C. Calhoun said, "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from
the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not
only physically, but morally and intellectually."
Defenders of slavery argued that by comparison with the poor of Europe and the workers in
the Northern states, that slaves were better cared for. They said that their owners would protect
and assist them when they were sick and aged, unlike those who, once fired from their work,
were left to fend helplessly for themselves.
JAMES THORNWELL, a minister, wrote in 1860, "The parties in this conflict are not merely
Abolitionists and slaveholders, they are Atheists, Socialists, Communists, Red Republicans,
Jacobins on the one side and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other."
When a society forms around any institution, as the South did around slavery, it will formulate
a set of arguments to support it. The Southerners held ever firmer to their arguments as the
political tensions in the country drew us ever closer to the Civil War.
28. Abolitionist Sentiment Grows
As the cotton industry took hold and slavery became more and more entrenched across the
American south, the opposition to the Peculiar Institution began to grow.
The first widely accepted solution to the slavery question in the 1820s was colonization. In
effect, supporters of colonization wanted to transplant the slave population back to Africa.
Their philosophy was simple: slaves were brought to America involuntarily. Why not give
them a chance to enjoy life as though such a forced migration had never taken place? Funds
were raised to transport freed African-Americans across the Atlantic in the opposite direction.
The nation of Liberia was created as a haven for former American slaves.
But most African-Americans opposed this practice. The vast majority had never set foot on
African soil. Many African-Americans rightly believed that they had helped build this country
and deserved to live as free citizens of America. By the end of the decade, a full-blown
Abolitionist movement was born.
These new Abolitionists were different from their forebears. ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES
had existed in America since 1775, but these activists were more radical. Early Abolitionists
called for a gradual end to slavery. They supported compensation to owners of slaves for their
loss of property. They raised money for the purchase of slaves to grant freedom to selected
individuals.
The new Abolitionists thought differently. They saw slavery as a blight on America. It must be
brought to an end immediately and without compensation to the owners. They sent petitions to
Congress and the states, campaigned for office, and flooded the south with inflammatory
literature.
Needless to say, eyebrows were raised throughout the north and the south. Soon the battle lines
were drawn. President Andrew Jackson banned the post office from delivering Abolitionist
literature in the south. A "GAG RULE" was passed on the floor of the House of
Representatives forbidding the discussion of bills that restricted slavery. Abolitionists were
physically attacked because of their outspoken anti-slavery views. While northern churches
rallied to the Abolitionist cause, the churches of the south used the Bible to defend slavery.
Abolitionists were always a minority, even on the eve of the Civil War. Their dogged
determination to end human bondage was a struggle that persisted for decades. While mostly
peaceful at first, as each side became more and more firmly rooted, pens were exchanged for
swords. Another seed of sectional conflict had been deeply planted.
b. African-American Abolitionists
The abolition of slavery was the cause of free African-Americans.
Once the colonization effort was defeated, FREE AFRICAN-AMERICANS in the North
became more active in the fight against slavery. They worked with white abolitionists like
William Lloyd Garrison and WENDELL PHILLIPS to spread the word. They developed
publications and contributed money. Many, such as ROBERT PURVIS, dedicated their lives
to freeing individual slaves from bondage. Although many pledged their lives to the cause,
three African-American abolitionists surpassed others in impact. They were David Walker,
Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth.
While Garrison is considered the prime organizer of the abolitionist movement, David Walker
published his APPEAL two years before The Liberator. In 1829, Walker declared slavery a
malignancy, calling for its immediate termination. He cited the four evils causing the greatest
harm to African Americans as slavery, ignorance, Christianity, and colonization. Even white
abolitionists decried the violent nature of his text. In the South, an award was raised for his
capture, and nine months after publishing his Appeal he died mysteriously. Walker originated
radical abolitionism.
The best known African American abolitionist was FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Douglass
escaped from slavery when he was 21 and moved to Massachusetts. As a former house servant,
Douglass was able to read and write. In 1841, he began to speak to crowds about what it was
like to be enslaved. His talents as an orator and writer led people to question whether or not he
had actually been born a slave.
All this attention put him at great risk. Fearful that his master would claim him and return him
to bondage, Douglass went to England, where he continued to fight for the cause. A group of
abolitionists eventually bought his freedom and he was allowed to return to the United States.
He began publishing an anti-slavery newspaper known as the NORTH STAR. Douglass served
as an example to all who doubted the ability of African Americans to function as free citizens.
SOJOURNER TRUTH was born into slavery in New York but was freed when the state
outlawed the practice in 1827. She was born ISABELLA BAUMFREE BUT changed her
name because she believed God wanted her to travel about the country and spread the word.
Truth was one of the best-known abolitionists, renowned for her stirring oratory. Also
concerned with women's rights, she joined the campaign for female suffrage. When slavery
was ended, she continued to fight for equality by protesting SEGREGATION LAWS.
c. The Underground Railroad
Any cause needs speakers and organizers. Any mass movement requires men and women of
great ideas.
But information and mobilization are not enough. To be successful, revolutionary change
requires people of action — those who little by little chip away at the forces who stand in the
way. Such were the "conductors" of the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. Not content to wait
for laws to change or for slavery to implode itself, railroad activists helped individual fugitive
slaves find the light of freedom.
The Underground Railroad operated at night. Slaves were moved from "station" to "station" by
abolitionists. These "stations" were usually homes and churches — any safe place to rest and
eat before continuing on the journey to freedom, as faraway as Canada. Often whites would
pretend to be the masters of the fugitives to avoid capture. Sometimes lighter skinned African
Americans took this role. In one spectacular case, HENRY "BOX" BROWN arranged for a
friend to put him in a wooden box, where he had only a few biscuits and some water. His friend
mailed him to the North, where bemused abolitionists received him in Philadelphia.
Most of the time, however, slaves crept northward on their own, looking for the signal that
designated the next safe haven. This was indeed risky business, because SLAVE CATCHERS
and sheriffs were constantly on the lookout. Over 3,200 people are known to have worked on
the railroad between 1830 and the end of the Civil War. Many will remain forever anonymous.
Perhaps the most outstanding "conductor" of the Underground Railroad was HARRIET
TUBMAN. Born a slave herself, she began working on the railroad to free her family members.
During the 1850s, Tubman made 19 separate trips into slave territory. She was terribly serious
about her mission. Any slave who had second thoughts she threatened to shoot with the pistol
she carried on her hip. By the end of the decade, she was responsible for freeing about 300
slaves. When the Civil War broke out, she used her knowledge from working the railroad to
serve as a spy for the Union.
Needless to say, the Underground Railroad was not appreciated by the slaveowners. Although
they disliked Abolitionist talk and literature, this was far worse. To them, this was a simple
case of stolen property. When Northern towns rallied around freed slaves and refused
compensation, yet another brick was set into the foundation of SOUTHERN SECESSION.
d. Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
"So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war."
This was Abraham Lincoln's reported greeting to HARRIET BEECHER STOWE when he
met her ten years after her book UNCLE TOM'S CABIN was published. Although the
President may have been exaggerating a bit, few novels in American history have grabbed the
public spotlight and caused as great an uproar as Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Across the north, readers became acutely aware of the horrors of slavery on a far more personal
level than ever before. In the south the book was met with outrage and branded an irresponsible
book of distortions and overstatements. In such an explosive environment, her story greatly
furthered the Abolitionist cause north of the Mason-Dixon Line and promoted sheer
indignation in plantation America.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born into a prominent family of preachers. Her father, Lyman
Beecher, was one of the most renowned ministers in his generation. Her brother HENRY
WARD BEECHER was already an outspoken Abolitionist, and by the mid 1850s would
become the driving force behind aiding the FREE-SOIL cause in "BLEEDING KANSAS"
(not permitting slavery in the new territory). While living for a short while in Cincinnati, Stowe
became exposed to actual runaway slaves. Her heart ached at the wretched tales she heard. She
began to write a series of short stories depicting the plight of plantation slaves.
Encouraged by her sister-in-law, Stowe decided to pen a novel. First published as a series in
1851, it first appeared as a book the following year. The heart-wrenching tale portrays slave
families forced to cope with separation by masters through sale. Uncle Tom mourns for the
family he was forced to leave. In one heroic scene, Eliza makes a daring dash across the frozen
Ohio River to prevent the sale of her son by slave traders. The novel also takes the perspective
that slavery brings out the worst in the white masters, leading them to perpetrate moral
atrocities they would otherwise never commit.
The reaction was incredible. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold 300,000 copies in the North alone. The
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, passed in 1850, could hardly be enforced by any of Stowe's
readers. Although banned in most of the south, it served as another log on the growing fire.
The book sold even more copies in Great Britain than in the United States. This had an
immeasurable appeal in swaying British public opinion. Many members of the British
Parliament relished the idea of a divided United States. Ten years after the publication of Uncle
Tom's Cabin, the British people made it difficult for its government to support the Confederacy,
even though there were strong economic ties to the South. In the end, Mr. Lincoln may not
have been stretching the truth after all.
29. Manifest Destiny
32. From Uneasy Peace to Bitter Conflict
a. The Dred Scott Decision
From the 1780s, the question of whether slavery would be permitted in new territories had
threatened the Union. Over the decades, many compromises had been made to avoid disunion.
But what did the Constitution say on this subject? This question was raised in 1857 before the
Supreme Court in case of DRED SCOTT VS. SANDFORD. DRED SCOTT was a slave of
an army surgeon, John Emerson. Scott had been taken from Missouri to posts in Illinois and
what is now Minnesota for several years in the 1830s, before returning to Missouri. The
Missouri Compromise of 1820 had declared the area including MINNESOTA free. In 1846,
Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had lived in a free state and a free territory
for a prolonged period of time. Finally, after eleven years, his case reached the Supreme Court.
At stake were answers to critical questions, including slavery in the territories and citizenship
of African-Americans. The verdict was a bombshell.
− The Court ruled that Scott's "sojourn" of two years to Illinois and the Northwest
Territory did not make him free once he returned to Missouri.
− The Court further ruled that as a black man Scott was excluded from United States
citizenship and could not, therefore, bring suit. According to the opinion of the Court,
African-Americans had not been part of the "SOVEREIGN PEOPLE" who made the
Constitution.
 − The Court also ruled that Congress never had the right to prohibit slavery in any
territory. Any ban on slavery was a violation of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibited
denying property rights without due process of law.
− The Missouri Compromise was therefore unconstitutional.
The Chief Justice of the United States was ROGER B. TANEY, a former slave owner, as were
four other southern justices on the Court. The two dissenting justices of the nine-member Court
were the only Republicans. The north refused to accept a decision by a Court they felt was
dominated by "Southern fire-eaters." Many Northerners, including Abraham Lincoln, felt that
the next step would be for the Supreme Court to decide that no state could exclude slavery
under the Constitution, regardless of their wishes or their laws.
Two of the three branches of government, the Congress and the President, had failed to resolve
the issue. Now the Supreme Court rendered a decision that was only accepted in the southern
half of the country. Was the American experiment collapsing? The only remaining national
political institution with both northern and southern strength was the Democratic Party, and it
was now splitting at the seams. The fate of the Union looked hopeless.
b. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In 1858, as the country moved ever closer to disunion, two politicians from Illinois attracted
the attention of a nation. From August 21 until October 15, Stephen Douglas battled Abraham
Lincoln in face-to-face DEBATES around the state. The prize they sought was a seat in the
Senate. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a war of ideas. Douglas took the challenge. The debates
were to be held at 7 locations throughout Illinois. The fight was on, and the nation was
watching.
The spectators came from all over Illinois and nearby states by train, by canal-boat, by wagon,
by buggy, and on horseback. They briefly swelled the populations of the towns that hosted the
debates. The audiences participated by shouting questions, cheering the participants as if they
were prize-fighters, applauding and laughing. The debates attracted tens of thousands of voters
and newspaper reporters from across the nation.
During the debates, Douglas still advocated "popular sovereignty," which maintained the right
of the citizens of a territory to permit or prohibit slavery. It was, he said, a sacred right of self-
government. Lincoln pointed out that Douglas's position directly challenged the Dred Scott
decision, which decreed that the citizens of a territory had no such power.
In what became known as the FREEPORT DOCTRINE, Douglas replied that whatever the
Supreme Court decided was not as important as the actions of the citizens. If a territory refused
to have slavery, no laws, no Supreme Court ruling, would force them to permit it. This
sentiment would be taken as betrayal to many southern Democrats and would come back to
haunt Douglas in his bid to become President in the election of 1860.
Time and time again, Lincoln made that point that "A HOUSE DIVIDED COULD NOT
STAND." Douglas refuted this by noting that the founders, "left each state perfectly free to do
as it pleased on the subject." Lincoln felt that blacks were entitled to the rights enumerated in
the Declaration of Independence, which include "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Douglas argued that the founders intended no such inclusion for blacks.
Neither Abraham Lincoln nor Stephen Douglas won a popular election that fall. Under rules
governing Senate elections, voters cast their ballots for local legislators, who then choose a
Senator. The Democrats won a majority of district contests and returned Douglas to
Washington. But the nation saw a rising star in the defeated Lincoln. The entire drama that
unfolded in Illinois would be played on the national stage only two years later with the highest
of all possible stakes.
c. John Brown’s Raid
On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a small army of 18 men into the small town of
HARPER'S FERRY, Virginia. His plan was to instigate a major slave rebellion in the South.
He would seize the arms and ammunition in the federal arsenal, arm slaves in the area and
move south along the Appalachian Mountains, attracting slaves to his cause. He had no rations.
He had no escape route. His plan was doomed from the very beginning. But it did succeed to
deepen the divide between the North and South.
John Brown and his cohorts marched into an unsuspecting Harper's Ferry and seized the federal
complex with little resistance. It consisted of an armory, arsenal, and engine house. He then
sent a patrol out into the country to contact slaves, collected several hostages, including the
great grandnephew of George Washington, and sat down to wait. The slaves did not rise to his
support, but local citizens and militia surrounded him, exchanging gunfire, killing two
townspeople and eight of Brown's company. Troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel
Robert E. Lee arrived from Washington to arrest Brown. They stormed the engine house, where
Brown had withdrawn, captured him and members of his group, and turned them over to
Virginia authorities to be tried for treason. He was quickly tried and sentenced to hang on
December 2.
Brown's strange effort to start a rebellion was over less than 36 hours after it started; however,
the consequences of his raid would last far longer. In the North, his raid was greeted by many
with widespread admiration. While they recognized the raid itself was the act of a madman,
some northerners admired his zeal and courage. Church bells pealed on the day of his execution
and songs and paintings were created in his honor. Brown was turned into an instant martyr.
Ralph Waldo Emerson predicted that Brown would make "the gallows as glorious as the cross."
The majority of northern newspapers did, however, denounce the raid. The Republican Party
adopted a specific plank condemning John Brown and his ill-fated plan. But that was not what
the south saw.
Southerners were shocked and outraged. How could anyone be sympathetic to a fanatic who
destroyed their property and threatened their very lives? How could they live under a
government whose citizens regarded John Brown as a martyr? Southern newspapers labeled
the entire north as John Brown sympathizers. Southern politicians blamed the Republican Party
and falsely claimed that Abraham Lincoln supported Brown's intentions. Moderate voices
supporting compromise on both sides grew silent amid the gathering storm. In this climate of
fear and hostility, the election year of 1860 opened ominously. The election of Abraham
Lincoln became unthinkable to many in the south.
d. The Election of 1860
The Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860 to select their candidate for
President in the upcoming election. It was turmoil. Northern democrats felt that Stephen
Douglas had the best chance to defeat the "BLACK REPUBLICANS." Although an ardent
supporter of slavery, southern Democrats considered Douglas a traitor because of his support
of popular sovereignty, permitting territories to choose not to have slavery. Southern democrats
stormed out of the convention, without choosing a candidate. Six weeks later, the northern
Democrats chose Douglas, while at a separate convention the Southern Democrats nominated
then VICE-PRESIDENT JOHN C. BRECKENRIDGE.
The Republicans met in Chicago that May and recognized that the Democrat's turmoil actually
gave them a chance to take the election. They needed to select a candidate who could carry the
North and win a majority of the Electoral College. To do that, the Republicans needed someone
who could carry New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania — four important states that
remained uncertain. There were plenty of potential candidates, but in the end Abraham Lincoln
had emerged as the best choice. Lincoln had become the symbol of the frontier, hard work, the
self-made man and the American dream. His debates with Douglas had made him a national
figure and the publication of those debates in early 1860 made him even better known. After
the third ballot, he had the nomination for President.
A number of aging politicians and distinguished citizens, calling themselves the
CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY, nominated JOHN BELL of Tennessee, a wealthy
slaveholder as their candidate for President. These people were for moderation. They decided
that the best way out of the present difficulties that faced the nation was to take no stand at all
on the issues that divided the north and the south.
With four candidates in the field, Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote and 180
electoral votes — enough to narrowly win the crowded election. This meant that 60% of the
voters selected someone other than Lincoln. With the results tallied, the question was, would
the South accept the outcome? A few weeks after the election, South Carolina seceded from
the Union.
e. The South Secedes
The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. South Carolina acted
first, calling for a convention to SECEDE from the Union. State by state, conventions were
held, and the CONFEDERACY was formed.
Within three months of Lincoln's election, seven states had seceded from the Union. Just as
Springfield, Illinois celebrated the election of its favorite son to the Presidency on November
7, so did Charleston, South Carolina, which did not cast a single vote for him. It knew that the
election meant the formation of a new nation. The Charleston Mercury said, "The tea has been
thrown overboard, the revolution of 1860 has been initiated."
South Carolina Ordinance of Secession
Within a few days, the two United States Senators from South Carolina submitted their
resignations. On December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0, the South Carolina legislature enacted
an "ordinance" that "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under
the name of 'The United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." As GIST had hoped, South
Carolina's action resulted in conventions in other southern states. Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all left the Union by February 1. On February 4,
delegates from all these states except Texas met in Montgomery, Alabama, to create and staff
a government called the Confederate States of America. They elected PRESIDENT
JEFFERSON DAVIS. The gauntlet was thrown. How would the North respond?
A few last ditch efforts were made to end the crisis through Constitutional amendment.
SENATOR JOHN JORDAN CRITTENDEN proposed to amend the Constitution to extend
the old 36°30' line to the Pacific. All territory North of the line would be forever free, and all
territory south of the line would receive federal protection for slavery. Republicans refused to
support this measure.
On March 2, 1861, two days before Lincoln's inauguration, the 36th Congress passed the
Corwin Amendment and submitted it to the states for ratification as an amendment to the
Constitution. Senator William H. Seward of New York introduced the amendment in the Senate
and Representative Thomas Corwin of Ohio introduced it in the House of Representatives.
Note that, much like the rest of the language in the Constitution prior to the Civil War, the
proposed amendment never uses the word "slavery," instead employing the euphemisms
"domestic institutions" and "persons held to labor or service." The proposed amendment was
designed to reassure the seceding slave states that the federal government would not interfere
with their "peculiar institution." If it had passed, it would have rendered unconstitutional any
subsequent amendments restricting slavery, such as the 13th Amendment, which outlawed
slavery throughout the nation. The Corwin Amendment passed the state legislatures in Ohio,
Kentucky, Rhode Island and Maryland. Even Lincoln's own state of Illinois passed it, though
the lawmakers who voted for it in Illinois were not actually the elected legislators but were
delegates to a state constitutional convention.
The amendment failed to get the required approval of 3/4 of all state legislatures for a
Constitutional Amendment, largely because many of the southern slave states had already
seceded and did not vote on it.
What was the President doing during all this furor? Abraham Lincoln would not be inaugurated
until March 4. JAMES BUCHANAN presided over the exodus from the Union. Although he
thought secession to be illegal, he found using the army in this case to be unconstitutional. Both
regions awaited the arrival of President Lincoln and wondered anxiously what he would do.
33. A House Divided
The most destructive war in America's history was fought among its own people.
The CIVIL WAR was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. For four long and bloody years,
Americans were killed at the hands of other Americans. One of every 25 American men
perished in the war. Over 640,000 soldiers were killed. Many civilians also died — in numbers
often unrecorded.
At the battle of Antietam, more Americans were killed than on any other single day in all of
American history. On that day, 22,719 soldiers fell to their deaths — four times the number of
Americans lost during the D-Day assault on Normandy in WWII. In fact, more American
soldiers died in the Civil War than in all other American wars combined.
The war was fought in American fields, on American roads, and in American cities with a
ferocity that could be evoked only in terrible nightmares. Nearly every family in the nation was
touched by this war. Scarcely a family in the South did not lose a son, brother, or father.
Four long years of battle changed everything. No other event since the Revolutionary War
altered the political, social, economic, and cultural fabric of the United States. In the end, a
predominantly industrial society triumphed over an agricultural one. The Old South was
forever changed. The blemish of slavery was finally removed from American life, though its
legacy would long linger.
In 1861, everyone predicted a short war. Most believed that one battle of enormous proportion
would settle a dispute at least 90 years in the making. But history dictated a far more destructive
course.
a. Fort Sumter
It all began at Fort Sumter.
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Five days later, 68 federal
troops stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, withdrew to FORT SUMTER, an island in
CHARLESTON HARBOR. The North considered the fort to be the property of the United
States government. The people of South Carolina believed it belonged to the new Confederacy.
Four months later, the first engagement of the Civil War took place on this disputed soil.
The commander at Fort Sumter, MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON, was a former slave owner
who was nevertheless unquestionably loyal to the Union. With 6,000 South Carolina militia
ringing the harbor, Anderson and his soldiers were cut off from reinforcements and resupplies.
In January 1861, as one the last acts of his administration, President James Buchanan sent 200
soldiers and supplies on an unarmed merchant vessel, STAR OF THE WEST, to reinforce
Anderson. It quickly departed when South Carolina artillery started firing on it.
In February 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the provisional president of the
Confederate States of America, in Montgomery, Alabama. On March 4,1861, Abraham
Lincoln took his oath of office as president of the Union in Washington, DC. The fate of Fort
Sumter lay in the hands of these two leaders.
As weeks passed, pressure grew for Lincoln to take some action on Fort Sumter and to reunite
the states. Lincoln thought of the Southern secession as "artificial." When Jefferson Davis sent
a group of commissioners to Washington to negotiate for the transfer of Fort Sumter to South
Carolina, they were promptly rebuffed.
Lincoln had a dilemma. Fort Sumter was running out of supplies, but an attack on the fort
would appear as Northern aggression. States that still remained part of the Union (such as
Virginia and North Carolina) might be driven into the secessionist camp. People at home and
abroad might become sympathetic to the South. Yet Lincoln could not allow his troops to starve
or surrender and risk showing considerable weakness.
At last he developed a plan. On April 6, Lincoln told the governor of South Carolina that he
was going to send provisions to Fort Sumter. He would send no arms, troops, or ammunition
— unless, of course, South Carolina attacked.
Now the dilemma sat with Jefferson Davis. Attacking Lincoln's resupply brigade would make
the South the aggressive party. But he simply could not allow the fort to be resupplied. J.G.
GILCHRIST, a Southern newspaper writer, warned, "Unless you sprinkle the blood in the
face of the people of Alabama, they will be back in the old Union in less than ten days."
Davis decided he had no choice but to order Anderson to surrender Sumter. Anderson refused.
The Civil War began at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery, under the
command of GENERAL PIERRE GUSTAVE T. BEAUREGARD, opened fire on Fort
Sumter. Confederate batteries showered the fort with over 3,000 shells in a three-and-a-half
day period. Anderson surrendered. Ironically, Beauregard had developed his military skills
under Anderson's instruction at West Point. This was the first of countless relationships and
families devastated in the Civil War. The fight was on.
b. Strengths and Weaknesses: North vs. South
Within days of the fall of Fort Sumter, four more states joined the Confederacy: Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The battle lines were now drawn.
On paper, the Union outweighed the Confederacy in almost every way. Nearly 21 million
people lived in 23 Northern states. The South claimed just 9 million people — including 3.5
million slaves — in 11 CONFEDERATE STATES. Despite the North's greater population,
however, the South had an army almost equal in size during the first year of the war.
The North had an enormous industrial advantage as well. At the beginning of the war, the
Confederacy had only one-ninth the industrial capacity of the Union. But that statistic was
misleading. In 1860, the North manufactured 97 percent of the country's firearms, 96 percent
of its railroad locomotives, 94 percent of its cloth, 93 percent of its pig iron, and over 90 percent
of its boots and shoes. The North had twice the density of railroads per square mile. There was
not even one rifleworks in the entire South.
All of the principal ingredients of GUNPOWDER were imported. Since the North controlled
the navy, the seas were in the hands of the Union. A blockade could suffocate the South. Still,
the Confederacy was not without resources and willpower.
The South could produce all the food it needed, though transporting it to soldiers and civilians
was a major problem. The South also had a great nucleus of TRAINED OFFICERS. Seven
of the eight military colleges in the country were in the South.
The South also proved to be very resourceful. By the end of the war, it had established armories
and foundries in several states. They built huge gunpowder mills and melted down thousands
of church and plantation bells for bronze to build cannon.
The South's greatest strength lay in the fact that it was fighting on the defensive in its own
territory. Familiar with the landscape, Southerners could harass Northern invaders.
The military and political objectives of the Union were much more difficult to accomplish. The
Union had to invade, conquer, and occupy the South. It had to destroy the South's capacity and
will to resist — a formidable challenge in any war.
Southerners enjoyed the initial advantage of morale: The South was fighting to maintain its
way of life, whereas the North was fighting to maintain a union. Slavery did not become a
moral cause of the Union effort until Lincoln announced the EMANCIPATION
PROCLAMATION in 1863.
When the war began, many key questions were still unanswered. What if the slave states of
Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Delaware had joined the Confederacy? What if Britain or
France had come to the aid of the South? What if a few decisive early Confederate victories
had turned Northern public opinion against the war?
Indeed, the North looked much better on paper. But many factors undetermined at the outbreak
of war could have tilted the balance sheet toward a different outcome.
c. First Blood and Its Aftermath
When the war began in April 1861, most Americans expected the conflict to be brief.
When President Lincoln called upon the governors and states of the Union to furnish him with
75,000 soldiers, he asked for an enlistment of only 90 days. When the Confederacy moved its
capital to Richmond, Virginia, 100 miles from Washington, everyone expected a decisive battle
to take place on the ground between the two cities.
In the spring of 1861, 35,000 Confederate troops led by General Pierre Beauregard moved
north to protect Richmond against invasion. Lincoln's army had almost completed its 90-day
enlistment requirement and still its field commander, GENERAL IRVIN MCDOWELL, did
not want to fight. Pressured to act, on July 18 (three months after the war had begun) McDowell
marched his army of 37,000 into Virginia.
Hundreds of reporters, congressional representatives, and other civilians had traveled from
Washington in carriages and on horses to see a real battle. It took the Northern troops two and
a half days to march 25 miles. Beauregard was warned of McDowell's troop movement by a
Southern belle who concealed the message in her hair. He consolidated his forces along the
south bank of Bull Run, a river a few miles north of MANASSAS JUNCTION, and waited
for the Union troops to arrive.
Early on July 21, the FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN began. During the first two hours of
battle, 4,500 Confederates gave ground grudgingly to 10,000 Union soldiers. But as the
Confederates were retreating, they found a brigade of fresh troops led by Thomas Jackson
waiting just over the crest of the hill.
Trying to rally his infantry, GENERAL BERNARD BEE of South Carolina shouted, "Look,
there is Jackson with his Virginians, standing like a stone wall!" The Southern troops held firm,
and Jackson's nickname, "Stonewall," was born.
During the afternoon, thousands of additional Confederate troops arrived by horse and by train.
The Union troops had been fighting in intense heat — many for 14 hours. By late in the day,
they were feeling the effects of their efforts. At about 4 p.m., when Beauregard ordered a
massive counterattack, Stonewall Jackson urged his soldiers to "yell like furies." The rebel yell
became a hallmark of the Confederate Army. A retreat by the Union became a rout.
Over 4,800 soldiers were killed, wounded, or listed as missing from both armies in the battle.
The next day, Lincoln named MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN to
command the new ARMY OF THE POTOMAC and signed legislation for the enlistment of
one million troops to last three years.
The high esprit de corps of the Confederates was elevated by their victory. For the North, which
had supremacy in numbers, it increased their caution. Seven long months passed before
McClellan agreed to fight. Meanwhile, Lincoln was growing impatient at the timidity of his
generals.
In many ways, the Civil War represented a transition from the old style of fighting to the new
style. During Bull Run and other early engagements, traditional uniformed lines of troops faced
off, each trying to outflank the other. As the war progressed, new weapons and tactics changed
warfare forever. There were no civilian spectators during the destructive battles to come.
d. Sacred Beliefs
The Civil War was fought with awe-inspiring passion.
On the Union side, President Lincoln believed that failure to preserve the Union was a betrayal
of the founders of the republic and the promise of the Declaration of Independence. He would
not see it "perish from this earth."
Many others in the North echoed similar thoughts. On the day before the first battle of Bull
Run, Major Sullivan Ballou of Rhode Island wrote to his wife: "I know how strongly American
Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to
those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution." He died one
week later in battle.
The cause of union did not drive all Northerners. Abolitionists believed they were acting with
divine guidance to fulfill God's will. They would tolerate neither compromise nor legal
obstacle. Majority consent was not necessary. WENDELL PHILLIPS, a well-known
abolitionist, declared, "One, on God's side, is a majority." Abolitionists saw slavery as an
affront to God to be ended by any means necessary. Abolitionists incited riots throughout the
South that resulted in hundreds of deaths.
Passions raged as hot in the South. Like Lincoln, Jefferson Davis also believed in the
Declaration of Independence. He insisted that governments existed with the consent of the
governed. Northern interference with popular Southern law was an affront to this ideals.
ROBERT E. LEE, who did not favor secession, felt that the North was seeking to wrest from
the South its dearest rights. THOMAS "STONEWALL" JACKSON, a devout Presbyterian,
believed that the Southern cause was a sacred one. He ascribed his successes to God's will, and
preached that religious certitude to his troops.
Many Southerners believed the Northern position was an outright attack on the Southern way
of life. They observed that the poverty suffered by Northern industrial workers created living
conditions worse than those endured by Southern slaves. They also cited the Bible in defense
of plantation life.
Southern legalists believed that the North was undermining the original intent of the Founding
Fathers. The cornerstone of the American system was the state government, for which
Confederates believed the Northerners had little respect.
Such fiery passions were difficult to reconcile. After decades of compromise attempts, these
sacred beliefs finally raged against each other in the cauldron of war.
e. Bloody Antietam
The South was on the move.
In August 1862, a Confederate Army invaded Kentucky from Tennessee. They seized
FRANKFORT and seated a Confederate governor. During that same month, Robert E. Lee's
ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA had defeated the Union Army again at the SECOND
BATTLE OF BULL RUN.
Lee and Jefferson Davis believed that one more successful campaign might bring British and
French recognition of the Confederacy. Foreign powers are reluctant to enter a conflict on the
losing side. Although Britain and France both saw advantages of a split United States, neither
country was willing to support the Confederacy without being convinced the South could win.
Lee and Davis were desperately seeking that decisive victory.
Lee wanted to attack the North on its own territory. His target was the federal rail center at
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but the Union General George McClellan was pursuing him. Lee
decided to stop and confront the Union Army at SHARPSBURG, Maryland. In front of the
town ran a little creek called Antietam.
On September 15, Lee deployed his 30,000 soldiers on some four miles of rising ground behind
ANTIETAM CREEK. He utilized the cover of rock outcroppings, rolling farmland, stone
walls, fields of standing corn, and a sunken road in the center of his line.
Two days earlier, a Union corporal had found a copy of Lee's special orders wrapped around
three cigars. But McClellan refused to act because he thought Lee's troops outnumbered his
own. When McClellan started deploying his troops on September 16, he had 60,000 active
soldiers and 15,000 in reserve. Had he thrust his complete force against the Confederates on
September 15 or 16, he might have smashed Lee's army.
The battle began early on the morning of September 17 when Union troops under the command
of GENERAL JOSEPH HOOKER attacked the forces of Stonewall Jackson across a
cornfield that lay between them. The fighting was ferocious. The battle surged back and forth
across the cornfield 15 times, costing each side nine generals. Within five hours, 12,000
soldiers lay dead or wounded, and the weary opponents stopped fighting for the day.
By midday, the struggle had shifted to a sunken country road between two farms. Two
Confederate brigades stood their ground repeatedly as Union soldiers attacked and fell back.
Finally, Union attackers assumed a position from which they could shoot down on the
Confederate soldiers occupying the road. It was quickly filled with the dead and dying,
sometimes two and three deep. The road earned a new name: BLOODY LANE. The
Confederates fell back, and McClellan again had the opportunity to cut Lee's army in two and
ruin it. But McClellan did not follow through, and the battlefield fell silent.
This day sits in history as the bloodiest single day America has ever suffered. Over 22,000
soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing — more than all such casualties during the entire
American Revolution. Lee lost a quarter of his army; the survivors headed back to Virginia the
next night.
The horror of Antietam proved to be one of the war's critical events. Lee and Davis did not get
their victory. Neither Britain nor France was prepared to recognize the Confederacy. Five days
after the battle, Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. On November 5,
Lincoln, impatient with McClellan's hesitancy, relieved him of command, and replaced him
with GENERAL AMBROSE BURNSIDE.
Antietam changed everything.
g. Gettysburg: High Watermark of the Confederacy
Robert E. Lee had a vision.
He proposed to take the offensive, invade Pennsylvania, and defeat the Union Army in its own
territory. Such a victory would relieve Virginia of the burden of war, strengthen the hand of
PEACE DEMOCRATS in the North, and undermine Lincoln's chances for reelection. It
would reopen the possibility for European support that was closed at Antietam. And perhaps,
it would even lead to peace.
The result of this vision was the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent.
This was GETTYSBURG, where more than 170,000 fought and over 40,000 were casualties.
Lee began his quest in mid-June 1863, leading 75,000 soldiers out of Virginia into south-central
Pennsylvania. Forty miles to the south of Lee, the new commander of the Union Army of the
Potomac, GENERAL GEORGE MEADE, headed north with his 95,000 soldiers. When Lee
learned of the approach of this concentrated force, he sent couriers to his generals with orders
to reunite near Gettysburg to do battle. As sections of the Confederate Army moved to join
together, CSA GENERAL A.P. HILL, heard a rumor that that there was a large supply of
shoes at Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, he sent one of his divisions to get those shoes. The battle
of Gettysburg was about to begin.
As Hill approached Gettysburg from the west, he was met by the Union cavalry of JOHN
BUFORD. Couriers from both sides were sent out for reinforcements. By early afternoon,
40,000 troops were on the battlefield, aligned in a semicircle north and west of the town. The
Confederates drove the outnumbered Union troops to CEMETERY HILL, just south of town,
where Union artillery located on the hill halted the retreat.
At noon on July 2, the second day of the battle, Lee ordered his divisions to attack, hoping to
crumble both sides of the Union line and win the battle. The BIG ROUND TOP and LITTLE
ROUND TOP were nearby hills that had been left unprotected. If the Confederates could take
these positions, they could surround the Union forces.
Union troops under COLONEL JOSHUA CHAMBERLAIN arrived just in time to meet
Confederate troops charging up the hill to Little Round Top. In some of the most ferocious
fighting of the battle, Chamberlain's 20th Maine held on to Little Round Top and perhaps saved
the Union from defeat.
Lee was determined to leave Pennsylvania with a victory. On the third day of battle, he ordered
a major assault against the center of the Union line on CEMETERY RIDGE. Confederate
batteries started to fire into the Union center. The firing continued for two hours. At 3 p.m.,
14,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of GENERAL GEORGE PICKETT began
their famous charge across three-quarters of a mile of open field to the Union line.
Few Confederates made it. Lee's attempt for a decisive victory in Pennsylvania had failed. He
had lost 28,000 troops — one-third of his army. A month later, he offered his resignation to
Jefferson Davis, which was refused. Meade had lost 23,000 soldiers.
The hope for Southern recognition by any foreign government was dashed. The war continued
for two more years, but Gettysburg marked the end of Lee's major offensives. The Confederacy
tottered toward its defeat.
h. Northern Plans to End the War
Only one day after their victory at Gettysburg, Union forces captured Vicksburg, the last
Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Lincoln and Union commanders began to
make plans for finishing the war.
The Union strategy to win the war did not emerge all at once. By 1863, however, the Northern
military plan consisted of five major goals:
1. Fully blockade all Southern coasts. This strategy, known as the ANACONDA PLAN,
would eliminate the possibility of Confederate help from abroad.
2. Control the Mississippi River. The river was the South's major inland waterway. Also,
Northern control of the rivers would separate Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the
other Confederate states.
3. Capture RICHMOND. Without its capital, the Confederacy's command lines would be
disrupted.
4. Shatter Southern civilian morale by capturing and destroying ATLANTA,
SAVANNAH, and the heart of Southern secession, South Carolina.
5. Use the numerical advantage of Northern troops to engage the enemy everywhere to
break the spirits of the Confederate Army.
By early 1864, the first two goals had been accomplished. The blockade had successfully
prevented any meaningful foreign aid. General Ulysses Grant's success at Vicksburg delivered
the Mississippi River to the Union. Lincoln turned to Grant to finish the job and, in the spring
of 1864, appointed Grant to command the entire Union Army.
Grant had a plan to end the war by November. He mounted several major simultaneous
offensives. General George Meade was to lead the Union's massive Army of the Potomac
against Robert E. Lee. Grant would stay with Meade, who commanded the largest Northern
army. GENERAL JAMES BUTLER was to advance up the JAMES RIVER in Virginia and
attack Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. General William Tecumseh Sherman was to
plunge into the heart of the South, inflicting as much damage as he could against their war
resources.
Meade faced Lee's army in Virginia. Lee's strategy was to use terrain and fortified positions to
his advantage, thus decreasing the importance of the Union's superiority in numbers. He hoped
to make the cost of trying to force the South back into the Union so high that the Northern
public would not stand for it. He almost accomplished this. From May 5 to May 24, the full
force of Grant's and Lee's armies fought continually with enormous casualties.
But, unlike the Union commanders of the past, Grant had the determination to press on despite
the cost. Twenty-eight thousand soldiers were casualties of the BATTLE OF THE
WILDERNESS. A few days later, another 28,000 soldiers were casualties in the BATTLE
OF SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE. More than two-thirds of the casualties of these
battles were Union soldiers.
At COLD HARBOR the following week, Grant lost another 13,000 soldiers — 7,000 of them
in half an hour. In the 30 days that Grant had been fighting Lee, he lost 50,000 troops — a
number equal to half the size of the Confederate army at the time. As a result, Grant became
known as "THE BUTCHER." Congress was appalled and petitioned for his removal. But
Lincoln argued that Grant was winning the battles and refused to grant Congress's request.
Butler failed to capture Richmond, and the Confederate capital was temporarily spared. On
May 6, one day after Grant and Lee started their confrontation in the Wilderness, Sherman
entered Georgia, scorching whatever resources that lay in his path. By late July, he had forced
the enemy back to within sight of Atlanta. For a month, he lay siege to the city. Finally, in early
September he entered Atlanta — one day after the Confederate army evacuated it.
Sherman waited until seven days after Lincoln's hotly fought reelection before putting Atlanta
to the torch and starting his MARCH TO THE SEA. No one stood before him. His soldiers
pillaged the countryside and destroyed everything of conceivable military value as they
traveled 285 miles to Savannah in a march that became legendary for the misery it created
among the civilian population. On December 22, Savannah fell.
Next, Sherman ordered his army to move north into South Carolina. Their intent was to destroy
the state where secession began. Exactly a month later, its capital, Columbia, fell to him. On
the same day, Union Forces retook Fort Sumter.
The war was almost over.
i. The Road to Appomattox
The end was in sight.
Only Lee's Army of Northern Virginia remained as a substantial military force to oppose the
Union Army. For nine months, Grant and Lee had faced each other from 53 miles of trenches
during the SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. Lee's forces had been reduced to 50,000, while Grant's
had grown to over 120,000.
The Southern troops began to melt away as the end became clear. On April 2, Grant ordered
an attack on Petersburg and broke the Confederate line. Lee and his shrinking army were able
to escape.
Lee sent a message to Jefferson Davis saying that Richmond could no longer be defended and
that he should evacuate the city. That night Jefferson Davis and his cabinet set fire to everything
of military value in Richmond, then boarded a train to Danville, 140 miles to the south. Mobs
took over the streets and set more fires. The next day, Northern soldiers arrived. And one day
after that, Lincoln visited the city and sat in the office of Jefferson Davis.
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, now reduced in size to 35,000 troops, had escaped to the
west. They were starving, and Lee had asked the CONFEDERATE COMMISSARY
DEPARTMENT to have rations for his infantry waiting at the AMELIA COURTHOUSE.
But when he arrived there, no rations awaited his troops, and they were forced to forage the
countryside for food. The delay caused by his need to acquire food proved fatal to the
Confederate effort.
Now 125,000 Union soldiers were surrounding Lee's army, whose numbers had been reduced
to 25,000 troops and were steadily falling. Still, Lee decided to make one last attempt to break
out. On April 9, the remaining Confederate Army, under JOHN GORDON, drove back Union
cavalry blocking the road near the village of APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE. But beyond
them were 50,000 Union infantry, and as many or more were closing in on Lee from his rear.
It was over.
Lee sent a note to Grant, and later that afternoon they met in the home of WILMER
MCLEAN. Grant offered generous terms of surrender. Confederate officers and soldiers could
go home, taking with them their horses, sidearms, and personal possessions. Also, Grant
guaranteed their immunity from prosecution for treason. At the conclusion of the ceremony,
the two men saluted each other and parted. Grant then sent three day's worth of food rations to
the 25,000 Confederate soldiers. The official surrender ceremony occurred three days later,
when Lee's troops stacked their rifles and battle flags.
President Lincoln's will to save the Union had prevailed. He looked with satisfaction on the
survival of his country and with deep regret on the great damage that had been done. These
emotions did not last long, however.
Lincoln had only five days left to live.
34. The War Behind the Lines
Modern wars are not confined to the battlefield. Americans in the North and South contributed
to the war effort unlike civilians of any previous conflict. The political leaders in the Union
and Confederacy each had battles of their own to wage. The Civil War would also require a
complete revolution in the economies of both regions. The results of such changes would not
only determine the outcome of the war, but would utterly transform the new nation politically,
socially, and economically.
In the North, President Lincoln had been elected by a minority of voters in his first election
and had to continually battle to win reelection. COPPERHEADS, also known as "Peace"
Democrats repeatedly thwarted the President's leadership initiatives. In the South, Jefferson
Davis was in no easier position. How could a government formed on the basis of states' rights
provide the strong, centralized leadership necessary to prevail in war? Davis constantly had to
fight with individuals and state legislatures for the power he needed to run the Confederate
government.
One of the most important challenges for each leader was foreign relations. If the South could
get Britain to support the Confederacy, then maybe, with the most powerful navy in the world,
the British could break the Union blockade of Southern ports. This would provide the South
with large markets for its cotton and perhaps a source of money large enough to finance the
war. Lincoln's job, of course, was to prevent this at all costs. A great game of diplomacy was
under way.
As the war progressed, a stark contrast between the two economies emerged. Both the North
and the South experienced high rates of inflation, but the South's rate was 80 times greater than
in the North. Labor shortages occurred on both sides, as did increasing class conflict between
the wealthy and the poor. Since most of the battles in the Civil War took place in the South,
great physical destruction was wrought throughout the region, causing mass poverty and
despair.
The war also brought significant new roles for Northern and Southern women at home and at
work as they replaced almost two million men going off to war. They plowed the fields and
did jobs previously done only by the men. Through organization and sheer tenacity they
broadened their influence on many problems facing society.
Men were military nurses before this time. It was not considered proper for women to tend to
injured and dying men, assisting in operations and care. In fighting for this right, women earned
respect and admiration of generals, politicians, and husbands. They would use this success to
continue to enlarge their role in the evolving fabric of the nation.
The Civil War presents a struggle between two societies, not merely two armies. It showed
how a predominantly industrial society could prevail over an agricultural one. It demonstrated
like no previous war that the efforts of all individuals matter. Lastly, although he would not
live to see the results, the handling of the Civil War is a testament to the wisdom, determination
and leadership of Abraham Lincoln, arguably America's greatest President.
a. The Emancipation Proclamation (moved between 33.e and g)
Americans tend to think of the Civil War as being fought to end slavery. Even one full year
into the Civil War, the elimination of slavery was not a key objective of the North. Despite a
vocal Abolitionist movement in the North, many people and many soldiers, in particular,
opposed slavery, but did not favor emancipation. They expected slavery to die on its own over
time.
By mid-1862 Lincoln had come to believe in the need to end slavery. Besides his disdain for
the institution, he simply felt that the South could not come back into the Union after trying to
destroy it. The opposition Democratic Party threatened to turn itself into an antiwar party.
Lincoln's military commander, General George McClellan, was vehemently against
emancipation. Many Republicans who backed policies that forbid black settlement in their
states were against granting blacks additional rights. When Lincoln indicated he wanted to
issue a proclamation of freedom to his cabinet in mid-1862, they convinced him he had to wait
until the Union achieved a significant military success.
That victory came in September at Antietam. No foreign country wants to ally with a potential
losing power. By achieving victory, the Union demonstrated to the British that the South may
lose. As a result, the British did not recognize the Confederate States of America, and Antietam
became one of the war's most important diplomatic battles, as well as one of the bloodiest. Five
days after the battle, Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, effective January
1, 1863. Unless the Confederate States returned to the Union by that day, he proclaimed their
slaves "shall be then, thenceforward and forever free."
It is sometimes said that the Emancipation Proclamation freed no slaves. In a way, this is true.
The proclamation would only apply to the Confederate States, as an act to seize enemy
resources. By freeing slaves in the Confederacy, Lincoln was actually freeing people he did
not directly control. The way he explained the Proclamation made it acceptable to much of the
Union army. He emphasized emancipation as a way to shorten the war by taking Southern
resources and hence reducing Confederate strength. Even McClellan supported the policy as a
soldier. Lincoln made no such offer of freedom to the border states.
The Emancipation Proclamation created a climate where the doom of slavery was seen as one
of the major objectives of the war. Overseas, the North now seemed to have the greatest moral
cause. Even if a foreign government wanted to intervene on behalf of the South, its population
might object. The Proclamation itself freed very few slaves, but it was the death knell for
slavery in the United States. Eventually, the Emancipation Proclamation led to the proposal
and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolished
slavery throughout the land.
e. The Election of 1864 (moved between 33.h and I)
It is hard for modern Americans to believe that Abraham Lincoln, one of history's most beloved
Presidents, was nearly defeated in his reelection attempt in 1864. Yet by that summer, Lincoln
himself feared he would lose. How could this happen? First, the country had not elected an
incumbent President for a second term since Andrew Jackson in 1832 — nine Presidents in a
row had served just one term. Also, his embrace of emancipation was still a problem for many
Northern voters.
Despite Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg a year earlier, the Southern armies came
back fighting with a vengeance. During three months in the summer of 1864, over 65,000
Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing-in-action. In comparison, there had been
108,000 Union casualties in the first three years. General Ulysses S. Grant was being called
The Butcher. At one time during the summer, Confederate soldiers under JUBAL EARLY
came within five miles of the White House.
Lincoln had much to contend with. He had staunch opponents in the Congress. Underground
Confederate activities brought rebellion to parts of Maryland. Lincoln's suspension of the
WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS was ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court Chief Justice
Roger B. Taney — an order Lincoln refused to obey. But worst of all, the war was not going
well.
Meanwhile the DEMOCRATIC PARTY SPLIT, with major opposition from Peace
Democrats, who wanted a negotiated peace at any cost. They chose as their nominee George
B. McClellan, Lincoln's former commander of the Army of the Potomac. Even Lincoln
expected that McClellan would win.
The South was well aware of Union discontent. Many felt that if the Southern armies could
hold out until the election, negotiations for Northern recognition of Confederate independence
might begin.
Everything changed on September 6, 1864, when General Sherman seized Atlanta. The war
effort had turned decidedly in the North's favor and even McClellan now sought military
victory.
Two months later, Lincoln won the popular vote that eluded him in his first election. He won
the electoral college by 212 to 21 and the Republicans had won three-fourths of Congress. A
second term and the power to conclude the war were now in his hands.
f. The Assassination of the President
On April 11, 1865, two days after LEE'S SURRENDER at Appomattox, Lincoln delivered a
speech outlining his plans for peace and reconstruction. In the audience was JOHN WILKES
BOOTH, a successful actor, born and raised in Maryland. Booth was a fervent believer in
slavery and white supremacy. Upon hearing Lincoln's words, he said to a companion, "Now,
by God, I'll put him through. That is the last speech he will ever make."
After failing in two attempts earlier in the year to kidnap the President, Booth decided Lincoln
must be killed. His conspiracy was grand in design. Booth and his collaborators decided to
assassinate the President, Vice President ANDREW JOHNSON, and Secretary of State
William Seward all in the same evening. Lincoln decided to attend a British comedy, OUR
AMERICAN COUSIN, at Ford's Theater, starring the famous actress LAURA KEENE.
Ulysses S. Grant had planned to accompany the President and his wife, but during the day he
decided to see his son in New Jersey. Attending the play that night with the Lincolns were
MAJOR HENRY RATHBONE and his fiancée, CLARA HARRIS, the daughter of a
prominent Senator.
In the middle of the play that night, Booth slipped into the entryway to the President's box,
holding a dagger in his left hand and a Derringer pistol in his right. He fired the pistol six inches
from Lincoln and slashed Rathbone's arm with his knife. Booth then vaulted over the front of
the President's box, caught his right leg in a flag and landed on the stage, breaking his leg. He
waved his dagger and shouted what is reported to be SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS — Latin for
"thus be it ever to tyrants." Some reported that he said, "The South is avenged." He then ran
limpingly out of the theater, jumped on his horse, and rode off towards Virginia.
The bullet entered Lincoln's head just behind his left ear, tore through his brain and lodged just
behind his right eye. The injury was mortal. Lincoln was brought to a nearby boarding house,
where he died the next morning. The other targets escaped death. Lewis Powell, one of Booth's
accomplices, went to Seward's house, stabbed and seriously wounded the Secretary of State,
but Seward survived. Another accomplice, GEORGE ATZERODT, could not bring himself
to attempt to assassinate Vice President Johnson.
Two weeks later, on April 26, Union cavalry trapped Booth in a Virginia tobacco barn. The
soldiers had orders not to shoot and decided to burn him out of the barn. A fire was started.
Before Booth could even react, SERGEANT BOSTON CORBETT took aim and fatally shot
Booth. The dying assassin was dragged to a porch where his last words uttered were, "Useless
... useless!"
A train carried Lincoln's body on a circuitous path back home for burial in Springfield, Illinois.
A mourning nation turned out by the hundreds of thousands to say good-bye to their President,
the first to fall by an assassin's bullet.
35. Reconstruction
RECONSTRUCTION refers to the period following the Civil War of rebuilding the United
States. It was a time of great pain and endless questions. On what terms would the Confederacy
be allowed back into the Union? Who would establish the terms, Congress or the President?
What was to be the place of freed blacks in the South? Did Abolition mean that black men
would now enjoy the same status as white men? What was to be done with the Confederate
leaders, who were seen as traitors by many in the North?
Although the military conflict had ended, Reconstruction was in many ways still a war. This
important struggle was waged by radical northerners who wanted to punish the South and
Southerners who desperately wanted to preserve their way of life.
Slavery, in practical terms, died with the end of the Civil War. Three Constitutional
amendments altered the nature of African-American rights. The THIRTEENTH
AMENDMENT formally abolished slavery in all states and territories. The FOURTEENTH
AMENDMENT prohibited states from depriving any male citizen of equal protection under
the law, regardless of race. The FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT granted the right to vote to
African-American males. Ratification of these amendments became a requirement for Southern
states to be readmitted into the Union. Although these measures were positive steps toward
racial equality, their enforcement proved extremely difficult.
The period of PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION lasted from 1865 to 1867. Andrew
Johnson, as Lincoln's successor, proposed a very lenient policy toward the South. He pardoned
most Southern whites, appointed provisional governors and outlined steps for the creation of
new state governments. Johnson felt that each state government could best decide how they
wanted blacks to be treated. Many in the North were infuriated that the South would be
returning their former Confederate leaders to power. They were also alarmed by Southern
adoption of Black Codes that sought to maintain white supremacy. Recently freed blacks found
the postwar South very similar to the prewar South.
The CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS OF 1866 brought RADICAL REPUBLICANS to
power. They wanted to punish the South, and to prevent the ruling class from continuing in
power. They passed the MILITARY RECONSTRUCTION ACTS OF 1867, which divided
the South into five military districts and outlined how the new governments would be designed.
Under federal bayonets, blacks, including those who had recently been freed, received the right
to vote, hold political offices, and become judges and police chiefs. They held positions that
formerly belonged to Southern Democrats. Many in the South were aghast. President Johnson
vetoed all the Radical initiatives, but Congress overrode him each time. It was the Radical
Republicans who impeached President Johnson in 1868. The Senate, by a single vote, failed to
convict him, but his power to hinder radical reform was diminished.
Not all supported the Radical Republicans. Many Southern whites could not accept the idea
that former slaves could not only vote but hold office. It was in this era that the Ku Klux Klan
was born. A reign of terror was aimed both at local Republican leaders as well as at blacks
seeking to assert their new political rights. Beatings, lynchings, and massacres, were all in a
night's work for the clandestine Klan. Unable to protect themselves, Southern blacks and
Republicans looked to Washington for protection. After ten years, Congress and the radicals
grew weary of federal involvement in the South. The WITHDRAWAL OF UNION
TROOPS IN 1877 brought renewed attempts to strip African-Americans of their newly
acquired rights.
a. Presidential Reconstruction
In 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson, a Democratic senator from
Tennessee, as his Vice Presidential candidate. Lincoln was looking for Southern support. He
hoped that by selecting Johnson he would appeal to Southerners who never wanted to leave the
Union.
Johnson, like Lincoln, had grown up in poverty. He did not learn to write until he was 20 years
old. He came to political power as a backer of the small farmer. In speeches, he railed against
"SLAVEOCRACY" and a bloated "Southern aristocracy" that had little use for the white
working man.
The views of the Vice President rarely matter too much, unless something happens to the
President. Following Lincoln's assassination, Johnson's views now mattered a great deal.
Would he follow Lincoln's moderate approach to reconciliation? Would he support limited
black suffrage as Lincoln did? Would he follow the Radical Republicans and be harsh and
punitive toward the South?
Johnson believed the Southern states should decide the course that was best for them. He also
felt that African-Americans were unable to manage their own lives. He certainly did not think
that African-Americans deserved to vote. At one point in 1866 he told a group of blacks visiting
the White House that they should emigrate to another country.
He also gave amnesty and pardon. He returned all property, except, of course, their slaves, to
former Confederates who pledged loyalty to the Union and agreed to support the 13th
Amendment. Confederate officials and owners of large taxable estates were required to apply
individually for a Presidential pardon. Many former Confederate leaders were soon returned to
power. And some even sought to regain their Congressional seniority.
Johnson's vision of Reconstruction had proved remarkably lenient. Very few Confederate
leaders were prosecuted. By 1866, 7,000 Presidential pardons had been granted. Brutal beatings
of African-Americans were frequent. Still-powerful whites sought to subjugate freed slaves via
harsh laws that came to be known as the BLACK CODES. Some states required written
evidence of employment for the coming year or else the freed slaves would be required to work
on plantations.
In South Carolina, African-Americans had to pay a special tax if they were not farmers or
servants. They were not even allowed to hunt or fish in some areas. Blacks were unable to own
guns — and even had their dogs taxed. African-Americans were barred from orphanages,
parks, schools and other public facilities. The FREEDMAN'S BUREAU, a federal agency
created to help the transition from slavery to emancipation, was thwarted in its attempts to
provide for the welfare of the newly emancipated. All of these rules resulted in the majority of
freed slaves remaining dependent on the plantation for work.
Andrew Johnson's policies were initially supported by most Northerners, even Republicans.
But, there was no consensus as to what rights African-Americans received along with
Emancipation. Yet a group of Radical Republicans wanted the rights promised in the
Declaration of Independence extended to include all free men, including those who were
formerly slaves. A political power struggle was in the offing.
b. Radical Reconstruction
The Radical Republicans believed blacks were entitled to the same political rights and
opportunities as whites. They also believed that the Confederate leaders should be punished for
their roles in the Civil War. Leaders like Pennsylvania REPRESENTATIVE THADDEUS
STEVENS and Massachusetts SENATOR CHARLES SUMNER vigorously opposed
Andrew Johnson's lenient policies. A great political battle was about to unfold.
Americans had long been suspicious of the federal government playing too large a role in the
affairs of state. But the Radicals felt that extraordinary times called for direct intervention in
state affairs and laws designed to protect the emancipated blacks. At the heart of their beliefs
was the notion that blacks must be given a chance to compete in a free-labor economy. In 1866,
this activist Congress also introduced a bill to extend the life of the Freedmen's Bureau and
began work on a CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.
President Johnson stood in opposition. He vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, claiming that it
would bloat the size of government. He vetoed the Civil Rights Bill rejecting that blacks have
the "same rights of property and person" as whites.
Moderate Republicans were appalled at Johnson's racism. They joined with the Radicals to
overturn Johnson's Civil Rights Act veto. This marked the first time in history that a major
piece of legislation was overturned. The Radicals hoped that the Civil Rights Act would lead
to an active federal judiciary with courts enforcing rights.
Congress then turned its attention to amending the Constitution. In 1867 they approved the far-
reaching Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibited "states from abridging equality before the
law." The second part of the Amendment provided for a reduction of a state's representatives
if suffrage was denied. Republicans, in essence, offered the South a choice — accept black
enfranchisement or lose congressional representation. A third clause barred ex-Confederates
from holding state or national office.
Emboldened by the work of the Fourteenth Amendment and by local political victories in the
1866 elections, the Republicans went on to introduce the Reconstruction Act of 1867. This
removed the right to vote and seek office by "leading rebels." Now the SOUTHERN
UNIONISTS — Southerners who supported the Union during the War — became the new
Southern leadership. The Reconstruction Act also divided the South into five military districts
under commanders empowered to employ the army to protect black property and citizens.
The first two years of Congressional Reconstruction saw Southern states rewrite their
Constitutions and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress seemed fully in
control. One thing stood in the way — it was President Johnson himself. Radical leaders
employed an extraordinary Constitutional remedy to clear the impediment — Presidential
impeachment.
c. A President Impeached
In the spring of 1868, Andrew Johnson became the first President to be IMPEACHED. The
heavily Republican House of Representatives brought 11 articles of impeachment against
Johnson. Many insiders knew that the Congress was looking for any excuse to rid themselves
of an uncooperative President.
Impeachment refers to the process specified in the Constitution for trial and removal from
office of any federal official accused of misconduct. It has two stages. The House of
Representatives charges the official with articles of impeachment. "TREASON, BRIBERY,
OR OTHER HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS" are defined as impeachable
offenses. Once charged by the House, the case goes before the Senate for a trial.
In 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act, which EDWIN STANTON, as Secretary of
War, was charged with enforcing. Johnson opposed the Act and tried to remove Stanton — in
direct violation of the TENURE OF OFFICE ACT. Nine of the articles of impeachment
related to Johnson's removal of Stanton. Another two charged Johnson with disgracing
Congress.
Johnson's defense was simple: only a clear violation of the law warranted his removal.
But as with politics, things are rarely simple. Other factors came into play. Since there was no
Vice President at the time, the next in line for the Presidency was BENJAMIN WADE, a
Radical unpopular with businessmen and moderates. And along with legal wrangling,
assurance was given from Johnson's backers that the Radicals' Southern policies would be
accepted.
In May of 1868, 35 Senators voted to convict, one vote short of the required 2/3 majority.
Seven Republican Senators had jumped party lines and found Johnson not guilty. Johnson
dodged a bullet and was able to serve out his term. It would be 130 years before another
President — BILL CLINTON — would be impeached.
d. Rebuilding the Old Order
Many Southerners, whether white or black, rich or poor, barely recognized the world in which
they now lived. Wealthy whites, long-accustomed to plush plantation life and the perks of
political power, now found themselves barred from voting and holding office. Their estates
were in shambles. African-Americans were loathe to return to work for them. Poor white
farmers now found blacks competing with them for jobs and land.
For the freed slave, Reconstruction offered a miraculous window of hope. Those born into
slavery could now vote and own land. In parts of the South, blacks could ride with whites on
trains and eat with them in restaurants. Schools, orphanages, and public relief projects aimed
at improving the lives of blacks were emerging all over the South. Perhaps most stunning of
all, African-Americans were holding political office. Blacks were becoming sheriffs and
judges. They were elected to school boards and city councils. Sixteen blacks sat in Congress
from 1867-77. HIRAM REVELS of Mississippi became the first African-American Senator
in 1870. In December 1872 P.B.S. PINCHBACK of Louisiana became the first African-
American Governor. All in all, about 600 blacks served as legislators on the local level. But as
the saying goes, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Economically, African-Americans were disadvantaged. Most had skills best suited to the
plantation. By the early 1870s sharecropping became the dominant way for the poor to earn a
living. Wealthy whites allowed poor whites and blacks to work land in exchange for a share of
the harvest. The landlord would sometimes provide food, seed, tools, and shelter.
SHARECROPPERS often found themselves in debt, for they had to borrow on bad terms and
had to pay excessively for basic supplies. When the harvest came, if the debt exceeded harvest
revenues, the sharecropper remained bound to the owner. In many ways, this system resembled
slavery.
Many whites resented and rejected the changes taking place all about them. Taxes were high.
The economy was stagnant. Corruption ran rampant. Carpetbaggers and scalawags made
matters worse. CARPETBAGGERS were Northerners who saw the shattered South as a
chance to get rich quickly by seizing political office now barred from the old order. After the
war these Yankees hastily packed old-fashioned traveling bags, called carpetbags, and rushed
south. "SCALAWAGS" were southern whites, who allied themselves with the Carpetbaggers,
and also took advantage of the political openings.
Out of a marriage of hatred and fear, the KU KLUX KLAN, the KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE
CAMELIA, and the WHITE BROTHERHOOD were born. They are all supremacy groups
who aimed at controlling African-Americans through violence and intimidation. Massacres,
lynching, rape, pillaging and terror were common. In essence, these groups were paramilitary
forces serving all those who wanted white supremacy. And it was not only ex-Confederate
soldiers and poor whites. Ministers, merchants, military officers and other professionals
donned hoods, burned crosses, and murdered those who interfered with their vision.
Emancipated blacks began finding the new world looking much like the old world. Pressure to
return to plantations increased. Poll taxes, violence at the ballot box, and literacy tests kept
African-Americans from voting — sidestepping the 15th Amendment.
Slavery was over. The struggle for equality had just begun.
36. The Gilded Age
From the ashes of the American Civil War sprung an economic powerhouse.
The factories built by the Union to defeat the Confederacy were not shut down at the war's end.
Now that the fighting was done, these factories were converted to peacetime purposes.
Although industry had existed prior to the war, agriculture had represented the most significant
portion of the American economy.
After the war, beginning with the railroads, small businesses grew larger and larger. By the
century's end, the nation's economy was dominated by a few, very powerful individuals. In
1850, most Americans worked for themselves. By 1900, most Americans worked for an
employer.
The growth was astounding. From the end of RECONSTRUCTION in 1877 to the disastrous
PANIC OF 1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size. New technologies and new
ways of organizing business led a few individuals to the top. The competition was ruthless.
Those who could not provide the best product at the cheapest price were simply driven into
bankruptcy or were bought up by hungry, successful industrialists.
The so-called captains of industry became household names: John D. Rockefeller of Standard
Oil, Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel, and J. Pierpont Morgan, the powerful banker who
controlled a great many industries. Their tactics were not always fair, but there were few laws
regulating business conduct at that time.
Industrial Strength
Nevertheless, the American economy grew and grew. By 1914, the small nation once seen as
a playground for European empires had now surpassed them all. The United States had become
the largest industrial nation in the world.
However, the prosperity of America did not reach everyone. Amid the fabulous wealth of the
new economic elite was tremendous poverty. How did some manage to be so successful while
others struggled to put food on the table? Americans wrestled with this great question as new
attitudes toward wealth began to emerge.
What role did the government play in this trend? Basically, it was pro-business. Congress, the
Presidents, and the Courts looked favourably on this new growth. But leadership was generally
lacking on the political level. CORRUPTION spread like a plague through the city, state, and
national governments. Greedy legislators and "forgettable" Presidents dominated the political
scene.
True leadership, for better or for worse, resided among the magnates who dominated the Gilded
Age.
a. Binding the Nation by Rail
The LOCOMOTIVE was not an invention of the GILDED AGE. Indeed, Americans had
travelled by rail in the decades that preceded the Civil War. But such travel was risky.
Passengers often sat in the same room as a wood burner and had to be watchful of wayward
sparks landing on their clothing. Braking systems were not always trustworthy. Several engines
even exploded while trying to reach a destination.
Traveling also represented a tremendous investment in time. Rail passengers often had to
change trains frequently because the width between tracks varied from company to company.
Such a journey could be uncomfortable, boring, and dangerous.
Give Me a Brake
After the Civil War many rail problems were solved. GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE invented
the air brake and trains could stop more reliably as a result. Railroad firms agreed on a standard
width between tracks to reduce transfers. The PULLMAN CAR COMPANY produced
sleeper cars and dining cars to make travel more comfortable.
The Transcontinental Railroad
Soon after the railroad made its appearance in the U.S. in the 1830s, Americans dreamed of
linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by rail. A TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
would allow for settlement of the west, open new markets for eastern manufacturers, and bring
relief to overcrowded eastern cities.
Some even believed that it was divinely intended that Americans should control the whole of
the continental U.S. In 1845, a Democratic journalist named JOHN L. O'SULLIVAN coined
the phrase "MANIFEST DESTINY."
Steaming locomotives would hasten western settlement, spread democratic values, and
increase the size of the United States (Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico etc., were not yet
states, only TERRITORIES). Western SETTLEMENT was a paramount national interest.
As such, the federal government awarded the contract to link the coasts by rail to two
companies, the UNION PACIFIC and the CENTRAL PACIFIC.
I've Been Working on the Railroad
Union Pacific workers, many of whom were Irish and Chinese immigrants, started at Omaha,
Nebraska, and hammered their way westward. From Sacramento, California, the Central
Pacific made its way eastward with the assistance of thousands of Chinese immigrants.
Those working on the railroad gave their sweat and sometimes their lives blasting through the
often-unforgiving terrain. Other dangers that workers faced were disease, searing summer heat,
freezing temperatures in the mountains, Native American raids and the lawlessness and
violence of pioneer towns.
The Golden Spike
The government declared that the two lines would merge at PROMONTORY SUMMIT near
Ogden, Utah. On May 10, 1869, LELAND STANFORD, representing the Central Pacific
Railroad, was provided the honour to hammer a golden spike into the ground that marked the
completion of the coast-to-coast line. Celebrations erupted across the land. Even the Liberty
Bell tolled once again to commemorate the occasion.
Soon, other transcontinental lines were constructed and travel across the continent became
worlds simpler, less expensive, and much faster, than by the old Conestoga wagon.
On the Right Track
The engineering achievement was monumental. The costs of the operation to railroads were
enormous. Tens of thousands of workers had to be paid, sheltered, and fed. Tons of steel and
wood were required.
However, the economic incentives to railroads were enormous. The government offered
generous loans to companies who were willing to assume the risk. The greatest reward was
land. For each mile of track laid by the Central and Union Pacific Railroads, the companies
received 640 acres of public land. In other rail projects, state governments often kicked in
additional acres for a growing number of rail companies.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
All in all, the railroads received nearly 200 million acres of land from the U.S. government for
fulfilling contracts. Directors of some railroads made fortunes. Foremost among the
RAILROAD TYCOONS were CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, JAMES J. HILL, and JAY
GOULD.
But freight railroad abuses grew rampant. Money lined the pockets of greedy public officials
who awarded generous terms to the railroads. Railroad companies set their own shipping rates.
Sometimes it was more expensive for a small farmer to ship goods to a nearby town than to a
faraway city. Because the companies kept their rates secret, one farmer could be charged more
than another for the same freight transport.
To reduce competition, railroad companies established pools. These were informal
arrangements between companies to keep rates above a certain level. Consequently, the public
suffered. Finally, in 1887, Congress responded to public outcry by creating the INTERSTATE
COMMERCE COMMISSION to watch over the rail industry. This was the nation's first
REGULATORY AGENCY. Due to inconcise wording in its enabling legislation, the ICC
was largely ignored until the early 20th century.
But the public also reaped great benefits. Eastern businessmen could now sell their goods to
California citizens. As a result of improved transportation all Americans had access to more
goods at a cheaper price. The westward movement was greatly accelerated. Those seeking a
new start in life could much more easily "go west.".
No industrial revolution can occur without a transport web. The nation was now bound together
by this enormous network and its citizens were ready to reap the rewards.
b. The New Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller
e. New Attitudes Toward Wealth
Not everybody was getting rich. The new wealthy class, although more prominent, larger, and
richer than any class in American history, was still rather small.
People soon began to ask fundamental questions. How did one get rich in America? Was it
because of a combination of hard work and intelligence? Was it because of inheritance? Did
education and skill play a role? Or was it simply luck?
Old attitudes about the importance of inheritance were still prevalent, but new ideas also
emerged. Among the most popular were Social Darwinism, the Gospel of Wealth, and
Algerism.
Survival of the Fittest
When a popular conception of "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST" grew from CHARLES
DARWIN's idea of the process of NATURAL SELECTION in the wild, the world was
forever changed. Church leaders condemned him as a heretic, and ordinary people everywhere
cringed at the idea that humans may have evolved from apes. It was inevitable that intellectuals
would soon point Darwin's concepts at human society.
These SOCIAL DARWINISTS, led by HERBERT SPENCER and WILLIAM GRAHAM
SUMNER, believed that the humans who were the most fit became the most successful.
Whatever people had the necessary skills to prosper — perhaps talent, brains, or hard work —
would be the ones who would rise to the top. Why were some people poor? To the Social
Darwinist, the answer was obvious. They simply did not have the required skills.
Social Darwinists went further in their application of Darwin. Darwin stated that the weaker
members of a species in nature would die and that over time only the stronger genes would be
passed on. Social Darwinists believed the same should happen with humans. They opposed
government handouts, or safety regulations, or laws restricting child labour. Such actions
would coddle the weak, and the unfit would be allowed to survive.
Gospel of Wealth
Some Americans tried to reconcile their Christian beliefs with Social Darwinism. Because the
Church had been such an opponent of Darwin's ideas, it was difficult for religious folks to
accept Social Darwinism.
Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller both agreed that the most successful people were the
ones with the necessary skills. But they each believed that God played a role in deciding who
got the skills.
Because God granted a select few with the talent to be successful, Christian virtue demanded
that some of that money be shared. This is where the difference lies between the hardcore
Social Darwinist and the proponent of the GOSPEL OF WEALTH. Carnegie and Rockefeller
became philanthropists — wealthy citizens who donated large sums of money for the public
good.
Horatio Alger's American Dream
A third influence American thinking was HORATIO ALGER. Alger was not an intellectual;
rather, he wrote DIME NOVELS for the hordes of immigrant masses rushing to America's
shores. Although he penned many stories, each book answered the question of how to get rich
in America. Alger believed that a combination of hard work and good fortune — pluck and
luck, in his words — was the key.
A typical Alger story would revolve around a hardworking immigrant who served on the
bottom rung of the corporate ladder, perhaps as a stock boy. One day he would be walking
down the street and see a safe falling from a tall building. Our hero would bravely push aside
the hapless young woman walking below and save her life. Of course, she was the boss's
daughter. The two would get married, and he would become vice-president of the corporation.
This is what the masses wished to believe. Success would not come to a select few based-on
nature or divine intervention. Anyone who worked hard could make it in America if they caught
a lucky break. This idea is the basis for the "AMERICAN DREAM."
Is Alger's dream a reality or just folklore? There simply is no answer. Thousands of Americans
have found this idyllic path, but as many or more have not.
f. Politics of the Gilded Age
The Gilded Age will be remembered for the accomplishments of thousands of American
thinkers, inventors, entrepreneurs, writers, and promoters of social justice. Few politicians had
an impact on the tremendous change transforming America. The Presidency was at an all-time
low in power and influence, and the Congress was rife with corruption. State and city leaders
shared in the graft, and the public was kept largely unaware. Much like in the colonial days,
Americans were not taking their orders from the top; rather, they were building a new society
from its foundation.
The American Presidents who resided in the White House from the end of the Civil War until
the 1890s are sometimes called "THE FORGETTABLE PRESIDENTS." A case-by-case
study helps illustrates this point.
ANDREW JOHNSON was so hated he was impeached and would have been removed from
office were it not for a single Senate vote.
A Soldier in the White House
ULYSSES S. GRANT was a war hero but was unprepared for public office. He had not held
a single elected office prior to the Presidency and was totally naive to the workings of
Washington. He relied heavily on the advice of insiders who were stealing public money. His
secretary of war sold Indian land to investors and pocketed public money. His private secretary
worked with officials in the Treasury Department to steal money raised from the tax on
whiskey.
Many members of his Administration were implicated in the CRÉDIT MOBILIER
SCANDAL, which defrauded the American public of common land. Grant himself seemed
above these scandals but lacked the political skill to control his staff or replace them with
officers of integrity.
Electoral Woes
His successor was RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. Hayes himself had tremendous integrity, but
his Presidency was weakened by the means of his election. After the electoral votes were
counted, his opponent, SAMUEL TILDEN, already claimed a majority of the popular vote
and needed just one electoral vote to win. Hayes needed twenty. Precisely twenty electoral
votes were in dispute because the states submitted double returns — one proclaiming Hayes
the victor, the other Tilden. A Republican-biased electoral commission awarded all 20 electoral
votes to the Republican Hayes, and he won by just one electoral vote.
While he was able to claim the White House, many considered his election a fraud, and his
power to rule was diminished.
Assassination
JAMES GARFIELD succeeded Hayes to the Presidency. After only four months, his life was
cut short by an assassin's bullet. CHARLES GUITEAU, the killer, was so upset with Garfield
for overlooking him for a political job that he shot the President in cold blood on the platform
of the Baltimore and Potomac train station.
Vice-President CHESTER ARTHUR became the next leader. Although his political history
was largely composed of appointments of friends, the tragedy that befell his predecessor led
him to believe that the system had gone bad. He signed into law the PENDLETON CIVIL
SERVICE ACT, which opened many jobs to competitive exam rather than political
connections. The Republican Party rewarded him by refusing his nomination for the Presidency
in 1884.
One President impeached, one President drowning in corruption, one President elected by
possible fraud, one President assassinated, and one disgraced by his own party for doing what
he thought was right. Clearly this was not a good time in Presidential history.
Congressional Supremacy
This was an era of CONGRESSIONAL SUPREMACY. The REPUBLICAN PARTY
dominated the Presidency and the Congress for most of these years. Both houses of Congress
were full of representatives owned by big business.
Laws regulating campaigns were minimal and big money bought a government that would not
interfere. Similar conditions existed in the states. City governments were dominated by
political machines. Members of a small network gained power and used the public treasury to
stay in power — and grow fabulously rich in the process.
Not until the dawn of the 20th century would serious attempts be made to correct the abuses of
Gilded Age government.
38. From the Countryside to the City
The AGE OF INDUSTRY brought tremendous change to America. Perhaps the single greatest
impact of industrialization on the growing nation was urbanization. THOMAS JEFFERSON
had once idealized America as a land of small, independent farmers who became educated
enough to participate in a republic. That notion was forever a part of history.
As large farms and improved technology displaced the small farmer, a new demand grew for
labour in the American economy. Factories spread rapidly across the nation, but they did not
spread evenly. Most were concentrated in urban areas, particularly in the Northeast, around the
Great Lakes, and on the West Coast. And so the American workforce began to migrate from
the countryside to the city.
The speed with which American cities expanded was shocking. About 1/6 of the American
population lived in urban areas in 1860. URBAN was defined as population centers consisting
of at least 8000 people, only a modest-sized town by modern standards. By 1900 that ratio grew
to a third. In just 40 years the urban population increased four times, while the rural population
doubled. In 1900, an American was twenty times more likely to move from the farm to the city
than vice-versa. The 1920 census declared that for the first time, a majority of Americans lived
in the city.
The Best and Worst of American Life
These new cities represented both the best and the worst of American life. Never before in
American history had such a large number of Americans lived so close to each other. The ease
with which these people could share ideas was never greater. Although these cities produced
many products, they were also a huge market. Now, in one small area, citizens could enjoy
better and cheaper products. TECHNOLOGY created possibilities as the skyscraper changed
the skyline, and electric cars and trolleys decreased commuting time. The light bulb and the
telephone transformed every home and business.
There was also a darker side. Beneath the magnificent skylines lay slums of abject poverty.
Immigrant neighbourhoods struggled to realize the American dream. Overcrowding, disease,
and crime plagued many urban communities. Pollution and sewage plagued the new
metropolitan centers. Corruption in local leadership often blocked needed improvements.
American values were changing as a result. Urban dwellers sought new faiths to cope with new
realities. Relations between men and women, and between adults and children also changed.
As the 20th century approached, American ways of life were not necessarily better or worse
than before. But they surely were different.
a. The Glamour of American Cities
They spread like wildfire. For a new factory to beat the competition, it had to be built quickly.
Laborers needed fast, cheap housing located close to work. Roads would be hastily built to
connect the factory with the market. There was no grand design, and consequently, the new
American city spread unpredictably. Urban sprawl had begun. But the growing beast brought
benefits that raised the standard of living to new heights.
Going Up
As surely as the city spread outward across the land, it also spread upward toward the sky.
Because urban property was in great demand, industrialists needed to maximize small holdings.
If additional land was too expensive, why not increase space by building upward? The critical
invention leading to this development was of course the fast ELEVATOR, developed by
ELISHA OTIS in 1861.
Steel provided a plentiful, durable substance that could sustain tremendous weight. Chicago
architect LOUIS SULLIVAN was the foremost designer of the modern SKYSCRAPER. His
designing motto was "FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION." In other words, the purpose of a
structure was to be highlighted over its elegance. Beginning with the WAINWRIGHT
BUILDING of St. Louis in 1892, Sullivan's steel-framed colossus became the standard for the
American skyscraper for the next twenty years. CHICAGO was the perfect site for this new
development, because much of the city had been destroyed by a great fire in 1871.
Seeing, Talking, Shopping, and Moving
Few inventions allowed humans to challenge nature more than the light bulb. No longer
dependent on the rising and setting of the sun, city dwellers, with their ample supply of
ELECTRICITY, could now enjoy a night life that candles simply could not provide.
Developed by THOMAS EDISON in 1879, urban areas consumed them at a staggering rate.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL added a new dimension to communications with his
TELEPHONE in 1876. The implications for the business world were staggering, as the
volume of trade skyrocketed with faster communications. In addition to the telephone, many
urban denizens enjoyed electric fans, electric sewing machines, and electric irons by 1900.
The farm could not compete. Most of these new conveniences were confined to the cities
because of the difficulties of sending electric power to isolated areas. Indoor plumbing and
improved sewage networks added a new dimension of comfort to city life. Department stores
such as WOOLWORTH'S, JOHN WANAMKER'S, and MARSHALL FIELD'S provided
a large variety of new merchandise of better quality and cheaper than ever before.
People could reach their destinations faster and faster because of new methods of mass transit.
CABLE CARS were operational in cities such as San Francisco and Chicago by the mid-
1880s. Boston completed the nation's first underground SUBWAY system in 1897. Middle-
class Americans could now afford to live farther from a city's core. Bridges such as the
BROOKLYN BRIDGE and improved regional transit lines fueled this trend.
The modern American city was truly born in the Gilded Age. The bright lights, tall buildings,
material goods, and fast pace of urban life emerged as America moved into the 20th century.
However, the marvellous horizon of urban opportunity was not accessible to all. Beneath the
glamour and glitz lay social problems previously unseen in the United States.
b. The Underside of Urban Life
Lights, trolleys, skyscrapers, romance, action. These were among the first words to enter the
minds of Americans when contemplating the new urban lifestyle. While American cities
allowed many middle- and upper-class Americans to live a glamorous lifestyle, this was simply
a fantasy to many poorer urban dwellers. Slums, crime, overcrowding, pollution, disease. These
words more accurately described daily realities for millions of urban Americans.
Tenements
Much of the urban poor, including a majority of incoming immigrants, lived in tenement
housing. If the skyscraper was the jewel of the American city, the tenement was its boil. In
1878, a publication offered $500 to the architect who could provide the best design for MASS-
HOUSING. JAMES E. WARE won the contest with his plan for a DUMBBELL
TENEMENT. This structure was thinner in the center than on its extremes to allow light to
enter the building, no matter how tightly packed the tenements may be. Unfortunately, these
"vents" were often filled with garbage. The air that managed to penetrate also allowed a fire to
spread from one tenement to the next more easily.
Because of the massive overcrowding, disease was widespread. CHOLERA and YELLOW-
FEVER epidemics swept through the slums on a regular basis. TUBERCULOSIS was a huge
killer. Infants suffered the most. Almost 25% of babies born in late-19th century cities died
before reaching the age of one.
The Stench of Waste, the Stench of Crime
The cities stank. The air stank, the rivers stank, the people stank. Although public sewers were
improving, disposing of human waste was increasingly a problem. People used private
cesspools, which overflowed with a long, hard rain. Old sewage pipes dumped the waste
directly into the rivers or bays. These rivers were often the very same used as water sources.
Trash collection had not yet been systemized. Trash was dumped in the streets or in the
waterways. Better sewers, water purification, and trash removal were some of the most pressing
problems for city leadership. As the 20th century dawned, many improvements were made, but
the cities were far from sanitary.
POVERTY often breeds crime. Desperate people will often resort to theft or violence to put
food on the family table when the factory wages would not suffice. Youths who dreaded a life
of monotonous factory work and pauperism sometimes roamed the streets in GANGS. VICES
such as gambling, prostitution, and alcoholism were widespread. Gambling rendered the hope
of getting rich quick. Prostitution provided additional income. Alcoholism furnished a false
means of escape. City police forces were often understaffed and underpaid, so those with
wealth could buy a better slice of justice.
The glamour of American cities was real indeed. As real was the sheer destitution of its slums.
Both worlds — plenty and poverty — existed side by side. As the 20th century began, the
plight of the urban poor was heard by more and more reformers, and meaningful change finally
arrived.
c. The Rush of Immigrants
IMMIGRATION was nothing new to America. Except for Native Americans, all United
States citizens can claim some immigrant experience, whether during prosperity or despair,
brought by force or by choice. However, immigration to the United States reached its peak
from 1880-1920. The so-called "OLD IMMIGRATION" brought thousands of Irish and
German people to the New World.
This time, although those groups would continue to come, even greater ethnic diversity would
grace America's populace. Many would come from Southern and Eastern Europe, and some
would come from as far away as Asia. New complexions, new languages, and new religions
confronted the already diverse American mosaic.
The New Immigrants
Most immigrant groups that had formerly come to America by choice seemed distinct, but in
fact had many similarities. Most had come from Northern and Western Europe. Most had some
experience with representative democracy. With the exception of the Irish, most were
PROTESTANT. Many were literate, and some possessed a fair degree of wealth.
The new groups arriving by the boatload in the Gilded Age were characterized by few of these
traits. Their nationalities included Greek, Italian, Polish, Slovak, Serb, Russian, Croat, and
others. Until cut off by federal decree, Japanese and Chinese settlers relocated to the American
West Coast. None of these groups were predominantly Protestant.
The vast majority were ROMAN CATHOLIC or EASTERN ORTHODOX. However, due
to increased persecution of JEWS in Eastern Europe, many Jewish immigrants sought freedom
from torment. Very few newcomers spoke any English, and large numbers were illiterate in
their native tongues. None of these groups hailed from democratic regimes. The American form
of government was as foreign as its culture.
The new American cities became the destination of many of the most destitute. Once the trend
was established, letters from America from friends and family beckoned new immigrants to
ethnic enclaves such as CHINATOWN, GREEKTOWN, or LITTLE ITALY. This led to an
urban ethnic patchwork, with little integration. The dumbbell tenement and all of its woes
became the reality for most newcomers until enough could be saved for an upward move.
Despite the horrors of tenement housing and factory work, many agreed that the wages they
could earn and the food they could eat surpassed their former realities. Still, as many as 25%
of the European immigrants of this time never intended to become American citizens. These
so-called "BIRDS OF PASSAGE" simply earned enough income to send to their families and
returned to their former lives.
Resistance to Immigration
Not all Americans welcomed the new immigrants with open arms. While factory owners
greeted the rush of cheap labour with zeal, laborers often treated their new competition with
hostility. Many religious leaders were awestruck at the increase of non-Protestant believers.
RACIAL PURISTS feared the genetic outcome of the eventual pooling of these new bloods.
Gradually, these "NATIVISTS" lobbied successfully to restrict the flow of immigration. In
1882, Congress passed the CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT, barring this ethnic group in its
entirety. Twenty-five years later, Japanese immigration was restricted by executive agreement.
These two Asian groups were the only ethnicities to be completely excluded from America.
Criminals, contract workers, the mentally ill, anarchists, and alcoholics were among groups to
be gradually barred from entry by Congress. In 1917, Congress required the passing of a
literacy test to gain admission. Finally, in 1924, the door was shut to millions by placing an
absolute cap on new immigrants based on ethnicity. That cap was based on the United States
population of 1890 and was therefore designed to favour the previous immigrant groups.
But millions had already come. During the age when the STATUE OF LIBERTY beckoned
the world's "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," American diversity mushroomed. Each
brought pieces of an old culture and made contributions to a new one. Although many former
Europeans swore to their deaths to maintain their old ways of life, their children did not agree.
Most enjoyed a higher standard of living than their parents, learned English easily, and sought
American lifestyles. At least to that extent, America was a MELTING POT.
39. New Dimensions in Everyday Life
c. Women in the Gilded Age
The idea was to create a maternal commonwealth. Upper-middle-class women of the late 19th
century were not content with the cult of domesticity of the early 1800s. Many had become
college educated and yearned to put their knowledge and skills to work for the public good.
MATERNAL COMMONWEALTH meant just that. The values of WOMEN'S SPHERE
— caretaking, piety, purity — would be taken out of the home and placed in the public life.
The result was a broad reform movement that transformed America.
Just Say No to Alcohol
Many educated women of the age felt that many of society's greatest disorders could be traced
to ALCOHOL. According to their view, alcohol led to increased domestic violence and
neglect. It decreased the income families could spend on necessities and promoted prostitution
and adultery. In short, PROHIBITION of alcohol might diminish some of these maladies.
Frances Willard was the president of the WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE
UNION, the nation's foremost prohibition organization. Although national prohibition was not
enacted until 1919, the WCTU was successful at pressuring state and local governments to pass
dry laws. Willard advocated a "DO EVERYTHING" policy, which meant that chapters of the
WCTU also served as soup kitchens or medical clinics.
The WCTU worked within the system, but there were radical TEMPERANCE advocates who
did not. CARRY NATION preferred the direct approach of taking an ax into saloons and
chopping the bars to pieces.
Homes for the Destitute
Another way women promoted the values of women's sphere into the public arena was through
the SETTLEMENT HOUSE MOVEMENT. A SETTLEMENT HOUSE was a home
where destitute immigrants could go when they had nowhere else to turn. Settlement houses
provided family-style cooking, lessons in English, and tips on how to adapt to American
culture.
The first settlement house began in 1889 in Chicago and was called HULL HOUSE. Its
organizer, JANE ADDAMS, intended Hull House to serve as a prototype for other settlement
houses. By 1900 there were nearly 100 settlement houses in the nation's cities. Jane Addams
was considered the founder of a new profession — social work.
Different Backgrounds, Different Lives
Most of the advocates of maternal commonwealth were white, upper-middle-class women.
Many of these women had received a college education and felt obliged to put it to use. About
half of the women in this demographic group never married, choosing instead independence.
Other college educated women were content to join literary clubs to keep academic pursuits
alive.
For women who did not attend college, life was much different. Many single, middle-class
women took jobs in the new cities. Clerical jobs opened as typewriters became indispensable
to the modern corporation. The telephone service required switchboard operators and the new
department store required sales positions. Many of these women found themselves feeling
marvellously independent, despite the lower wages they were paid in comparison with their
male counterparts.
For others, life was less glamorous. Wives of immigrants often took extra tenants called
BOARDERS into their already crowded tenement homes. By providing food and laundry
service at a fee, they generated necessary extra income for the families. Many did domestic
work for the middle class to supplement income.
In the South, the lives of wealthy women changed from managing a home on a slave plantation
to one with hired work. Women who found themselves with new freedom from slavery still
suffered great difficulties. SHARECROPPING was a male and female task. Women in these
conditions found themselves doing double duty by working the fields by day and the house by
night.
d. Victorian Values in a New Age
Victorian values dominated American social life for much of the 19th century. The notion of
separate spheres of life for men and women was commonplace. The male sphere included wage
work and politics, while the female sphere involved childrearing and domestic work.
Industrialization and urbanization brought new challenges to Victorian values. Men grew
weary of toiling tireless hours and yearned for the blossoming leisure opportunities of the age.
Women were becoming more educated, but upon graduation found themselves shut out of
many professions. Immigrants had never been socialized in the Victorian mindset. As the
century drew to a close, a revolt was indeed brewing.
Victoria Battles the Victorians
At the vanguard of revolt were the young, single, middle-class women who worked in the cities.
Attitudes toward sex were loosening in private, yet few were brave enough to discuss the
changes publicly.
One exception was VICTORIA WOODHULL. In 1871, she declared the right to love the
person of her choice as inalienable. Indeed, she professed the right to free love. She and her
sister, TENNESSEE CLAFLIN, published their beliefs in the periodical WOODHULL AND
CLAFLIN'S WEEKLY.
A devout feminist, Woodhull protested the male hold on politics by running for President in
1872. She became the first female American to do so in a time when women did not even enjoy
the right to vote.
The Comstock Law
As energetic as the rebellion may have been, the reaction was equally as forceful. Criticizing
the evils of modern urban life — prostitution, gambling, promiscuity, and alcohol — Victorians
fought to maintain the values they held dear.
ANTHONY COMSTOCK lobbied Congress to pass the notorious COMSTOCK LAW
banning all mailings of materials of a sexual nature. As a special agent for the UNITED
STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Comstock confiscated thousands of books and pictures he
deemed objectionable. Over 3,000 arrests were made for violations of the Comstock Law.
However valiantly Victorians fought to maintain their view of morality, they could not stop the
changes. A greater acceptance of sexual expression naturally followed — especially in the new
American city. For example, regions such as the BOWERY in New York were known by city
dwellers as areas where homosexuals found community.
America was evolving, and no one could bottle up that change. The public struggle between
Victoria Woodhull and Anthony Comstock merely illustrated the underlying tensions between
old and new values.
40. Closing the Frontier
b. Custer’s Last Stand
Another Broken Treaty
Gold broke the delicate peace with the Sioux. In 1874, a scientific exploration group led by
GENERAL GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER discovered the precious metal in the heart
of the BLACK HILLS OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
When word of the discovery leaked, nothing could stop the masses of prospectors looking to
get rich quick, despite the treaty protections that awarded that land to the Sioux. SITTING
BULL and CRAZY HORSE, the local Indian leaders, decided to take up arms to defend their
dwindling land supply.
Little Big Horn
Custer was perhaps the most flamboyant and brash officer in the United States Army. He was
confident that his technologically superior troops could contain the Native American fighters.
Armed with new weapons of destruction such as the rapid-firing GATLING GUN, Custer and
his soldiers felt that it was only a matter of time before the Indians would surrender and submit
to life on a smaller reservation. Custer hoped to make that happen sooner rather than later.
His orders were to locate the Sioux encampment in the BIG HORN MOUNTAINS of
Montana and trap them until reinforcements arrived. But the prideful Custer sought to engage
the Sioux on his own.
On June 25, 1876, he discovered a small Indian village on the banks of the LITTLE BIG
HORN River. Custer confidently ordered his troops to attack, not realizing that he was
confronting the main Sioux and Cheyenne encampment. About three thousand Sioux warriors
led by Crazy Horse descended upon Custer's regiment, and within hours the entire SEVENTH
CAVALRY and General Custer were massacred.
The victory was brief for the warring Sioux. The rest of the United States regulars arrived and
chased the Sioux for the next several months. By October, much of the resistance had ended.
Crazy Horse had surrendered but Sitting Bull and a small band of warriors escaped to Canada.
Eventually they returned to the United States and surrendered because of hunger.
Reactions Back East
CUSTER'S LAST STAND caused massive debate in the East. War hawks demanded an
immediate increase in federal military spending and swift judgment for the noncompliant
Sioux.
Critics of United States policy also made their opinions known. The most vocal detractor,
HELEN HUNT JACKSON, published A CENTURY OF DISHONOR in 1881. This
blistering assault on United States Indian policy chronicled injustices toward Native Americans
over the past hundred years.
The American masses, however, were unsympathetic or indifferent. A systematic plan to end
all native resistance was approved, and the Indians of the West would not see another victory
like the Little Big Horn.
d. Life on the Reservations
After being forced off their native lands, many American Indians found life to be most difficult.
Beginning in the first half of the 19th century, federal policy dictated that certain tribes be
confined to fixed land plots to continue their traditional ways of life.
The problems with this approach were manifold. Besides the moral issue of depriving a people
of life on their historic land, many economic issues plagued the reservation. Nomadic tribes
lost their entire means of subsistence by being constricted to a defined area. Farmers found
themselves with land unsuitable for agriculture. Many lacked the know-how to implement
complex irrigation systems. Hostile tribes were often forced into the same proximity. The
results were disastrous.
The Dawes Act
Faced with disease, alcoholism, and despair on the RESERVATIONS, federal officials
changed directions with the DAWES SEVERALTY ACT of 1887. Each Native American
family was offered 160 acres of tribal land to own outright. Although the land could not be sold
for 25 years, these new land owners could farm it for profit like other farmers in the West.
Congress hoped that this system would end the dependency of the tribes on the federal
government, enable Indians to become individually prosperous, and assimilate the Indians into
mainstream American life. After 25 years, participants would become American citizens.
The Dawes Act was widely resisted. Tribal leaders foretold the end of their ancient folkways
and a further loss of communal land. When individuals did attempt this new way of life, they
were often unsuccessful. Farming the West takes considerable expertise. Lacking this
knowledge, many were still dependent upon the government for assistance.
Many 19th century Americans saw the Dawes Act as a way to "civilize" the Native Americans.
Visiting missionaries attempted to convert the Indians to Christianity, although they found few
new believers.
"Americanizing" the Indians
Land not allotted to individual landholders was sold to railroad companies and settlers from
the East. The proceeds were used to set up schools to teach the reading and writing of English.
Native American children were required to attend the established reservation school. Failure to
attend would result in a visit by a truant officer who could enter the home accompanied by
police to search for the absent student. Some parents felt resistance to "white man education"
was a matter of honour.
In addition to disregarding tribal languages and religions, schools often forced the pupils to
dress like eastern Americans. They were given shorter haircuts. Even the core of individual
identity — one's name — was changed to "AMERICANIZE" the children. These practices
often led to further tribal divisions. Each tribe had those who were friendly to American
"assistance" and those who were hostile. Friends were turned into enemies.
The Dawes Act was an unmitigated disaster for tribal units. In 1900, land held by Native
American tribes was half that of 1880. Land holdings continued to dwindle in the early 20th
century. When the Dawes Act was repealed in 1934, alcoholism, poverty, illiteracy, and suicide
rates were higher for Native Americans than any other ethnic group in the United States. As
America grew to the status of a world power, the first Americans were reduced to hopelessness.
e. The Wounded Knee Massacre
The armed resistance was over. The remaining Sioux were forced into reservation life at
gunpoint. Many Sioux sought spiritual guidance. Thus began a religious awakening among the
tribes of North America.
Arrival of the "Ghost Dance"
Called the "Ghost Dance" by the white soldiers who observed the new practice, it spread rapidly
across the continent. Instead of bringing the answer to their prayers, however, the "Ghost
Dance" movement resulted in yet another human travesty.
It all began in 1888 with a Paiute holy man called WOVOKA. During a total eclipse of the
sun, Wovoka received a message from the Creator. Soon an Indian messiah would come and
the world would be free of the white man. The Indians could return to their lands and the buffalo
would once again roam the Great Plains.
Wovoka even knew that all this would happen in the spring of 1891. He and his followers
meditated, had visions, chanted, and performed what became known as the GHOST DANCE.
Soon the movement began to spread. Before long, the Ghost Dance had adherents in tribes
throughout the South and West.
Although Wovoka preached nonviolence, whites feared that the movement would spark a great
Indian rebellion. Ghost Dance followers seemed more defiant than other Native Americans,
and the rituals seemed to work its participants into a frenzy. All this was disconcerting to the
soldiers and settlers throughout the South and West. Tragedy struck when the Ghost Dance
movement reached the Lakota Sioux.
Local residents of South Dakota demanded that the Sioux end the ritual of the Ghost Dance.
When they were ignored, the United States Army was called for assistance. Fearing aggression,
a group of 300 Sioux did leave the reservation. Army regulars believed them to be a hostile
force preparing for attack. When the two sides came into contact, the Sioux reluctantly agreed
to be transported to WOUNDED KNEE CREEK on PINE RIDGE RESERVATION.
A Final Tragedy
On the morning of December 29, 1890, the army demanded the surrender of all Sioux weapons.
Amid the tension, a shot rang out, possibly from a deaf brave who misunderstood his chief's
orders to surrender.
The Seventh Cavalry — the reconstructed regiment lost by George Armstrong Custer —
opened fire on the Sioux. The local chief, BIG FOOT, was shot in cold blood as he recuperated
from pneumonia in his tent. Others were cut down as they tried to run away. When the smoke
cleared almost all of the 300 men, women, and children were dead. Some died instantly, others
froze to death in the snow.
This massacre marked the last showdown between Native Americans and the United States
Army. It was nearly 400 years after Christopher Columbus first contacted the first Americans.
The 1890 United States census declared the frontier officially closed.
41. Western Folkways
a. The Mining Boom
Bonanza
BONANZA! That was the exclamation when a large vein of valuable ore was discovered.
Thousands of optimistic Americans and even a few foreigners dreamed of finding a bonanza
and retiring at a very young age.
Ten years after the 1849 CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH, new deposits were gradually found
throughout the West. Colorado yielded gold and silver at PIKES PEAK in 1859 and
LEADVILLE IN 1873. NEVADA claimed COMSTOCK LODE, the largest of American
silver strikes.
From COEUR D'ALENE in Idaho to TOMBSTONE in Arizona, BOOM TOWNS flowered
across the American West. They produced not only gold and silver, but zinc, copper, and lead,
all essential for the eastern Industrial Revolution. Soon the West was filled with ne'er-do-wells
hoping to strike it rich.
Prospecting
Few were so lucky. The chances of an individual prospector finding a valuable lode were slim
indeed. The gold-seeker often worked in a stream bed. A tin pan was filled with sediment and
water. After shaking, the heavier gold nuggets would sink to the bottom. Rarely was anything
found of substantial size.
Once the loose chunks of gold were removed from the surface, large machinery was required
to dig into the earth and to split the quartz where the elusive gold was often hidden. This was
too large of an operation for an individual prospector. Eastern investors conducted these
ventures and often profited handsomely. The best-case scenario for the prospector was to locate
a large deposit and sell the claim. Those who were not as lucky often eventually went to work
in the mines of the Eastern financiers.
WESTERN MINING wrought havoc on the local environment. Rock dust from drilling was
often dumped into river beds, forming silt deposits downstream that flooded towns and
farmlands. Miners and farmers were often at loggerheads over the effects of one enterprise on
the other. Poisonous underground gases, mostly containing sulfur, were released into the
atmosphere. Removing gold from quartz required mercury, the excess of which polluted local
streams and rivers. Strip mining caused erosion and further desertification. Little was done to
regulate the mining industry until the turn of the 20th century.
Life in a Mining Town
Each mining bonanza required a town. Many towns had as high as a 9-to-1 male-to-female
ratio. The ethnic diversity was great. Mexican immigrants were common. Native Americans
avoided the mining industry, but mestizos, the offspring of Mexican and Native American
parents, often participated. Many African Americans aspired to the same get-rich-quick idea as
whites. Until excluded by federal law in 1882, Chinese Americans were numerous in mining
towns.
The ethnic patchwork was intricate, but the socio-economic ladder was clearly defined. Whites
owned and managed all of the mines. Poor whites, Mexicans and Chinese Americans worked
the mine shafts. A few African Americans joined them, but many worked in the service sector
as cooks or artisans.
It is these mining towns that often conjure images of the mythical American Wild West. Most
did have a saloon (or several) with swinging doors and a player piano. But miners and
prospectors worked all day; few had the luxury of spending it at the bar. By nighttime, most
were too tired to carouse. Weekends might bring folks out to the saloon for gambling or
drinking, to engage in the occasional bar fight, or even to hire a prostitute.
Law enforcement was crude. Many towns could not afford a sheriff, so vigilante justice
prevailed. Occasionally a posse, or hunting party, would be raised to capture a particularly
nettlesome miscreant.
When the bonanza was at its zenith, the town prospered. But eventually the mines were
exhausted or proved fruitless. Slowly its inhabitants would leave, leaving behind nothing but a
ghost town.
b. The Ways of the Cowboy
Mining was not the only bonanza to be found in the West. Millions could be made in the
CATTLE INDUSTRY. A calf bought for $5 in Southern Texas might sell for $60 in Chicago.
The problem was, of course, getting the cattle to market.
In 1867, JOSEPH MCCOY tracked a path known as the CHISHOLM TRAIL from Texas
to Abilene, Kansas. The Texas cowboys drove the cattle the entire distance — 1500 miles.
Along the way, the cattle enjoyed all the grass they wanted, at no cost to the RANCHERS. At
Abilene and other railhead towns such as Dodge City and Ellsworth, the cattle would be sold,
and the cowboys would return to Texas.
No vision of the American West is complete without the cowboy. The imagery is
quintessentially American, but many myths cloud the truth about what life was like on the long
drive.
Myth vs. Reality
Americans did not invent cattle raising. This tradition was learned from the vaquero, a Mexican
cowboy. The vacqueros taught the tricks of the trade to the Texans, who realized the potential
for great profits.
The typical COWBOY wore a hat with a wide brim to provide protection from the unforgiving
sunlight. Cattle kicked up clouds of dust on the drive, so the cowboy donned a bandanna over
the lower half of his face. CHAPS, or leggings, and high boots were worn as protection from
briars and cactus needles.
Contrary to legend, the typical cowboy was not a skilled marksman. The lariat, not the gun,
was how the cattle drover showed his mastery. About a quarter of all cowboys were African
Americans, and even more were at least partially Mexican. To avoid additional strain on the
horses, cowboys were usually smaller than according to legend.
The lone cowboy is an American myth. Cattle were always driven by a group of DROVERS.
The cattle were branded so the owner could distinguish his STEER from the rest. Several times
per DRIVE, cowboys conducted a roundup where the cattle would be sorted and counted again.
Work was very difficult. The workdays lasted fifteen hours, much of which was spent in the
saddle. Occasionally, shots were fired by hostile Indians or farmers. Cattle RUSTLERS
sometimes stole their steers.
One of the greatest fears was the STAMPEDE, which could result in lost or dead cattle or
cowboys. One method of containing a stampede was to get the cattle to run in a circle, where
the steer would eventually tire.
Upon reaching Abilene, the cattle were sold. Then it was time to let loose. Abilene had twenty-
five saloons open all hours to service incoming riders of the long drive.
Twilight of the Cowboy
The heyday of the long drive was short. By the early 1870s, rail lines reached Texas so the
cattle could be shipped directly to the slaughterhouses. Ranchers then began to allow cattle to
graze on the open range near rail heads. But even this did not last. The invention of BARBED
WIRE by JOSEPH GLIDDEN ruined the OPEN RANGE. Now farmers could cheaply mark
their territory to keep the unwanted steers off their lands. Overproduction caused prices to fall,
leading many ranchers out of business.
Finally, the winter of 1886-87 was one of the worst in American history. Cattle died by the
thousands as temperatures reached fifty below zero in some parts of the West. The era of the
open range was over.
42. Progressivism Sweeps the Nation
 c. Women's Suffrage at Last
After the SENECA FALLS CONVENTION of 1848 demanded WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE
for the first time, America became distracted by the coming Civil War. The issue of the vote
resurfaced during Reconstruction.
The FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT to the Constitution proposed granting the right to vote to
African American males. Many female suffragists at the time were outraged. They simply
could not believe that those who suffered 350 years of bondage would be enfranchised before
America's women.
A Movement Divided
Activists such as FREDERICK DOUGLASS, LUCY STONE, and HENRY
BLACKWELL argued that the 1860s was the time for the black male. Linking black suffrage
with female suffrage would surely accomplish neither. SUSAN B. ANTHONY,
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, and SOJOURNER TRUTH disagreed. They would
accept nothing less than immediate federal action supporting the vote for women.
Stone and Blackwell formed the AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION and
believed that pressuring state governments was the most effective route. Anthony and Stanton
formed the NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION and pressed for a
constitutional amendment. This split occurred in 1869 and weakened the suffrage movement
for the next two decades.
Anthony and Stanton engaged in high-profile, headline-grabbing tactics. In 1872, they
endorsed VICTORIA WOODHULL, the FREE LOVE CANDIDATE, for President. The
NWSA was known to show up to the polls on election day to force officials to turn them away.
They set up mock ballot boxes near the election sites so women could "vote" in protest. They
continued to accept no compromise on a national amendment eliminating the gender
requirement.
The AWSA chose a much more understated path. Stone and Blackwell actively lobbied state
governments. WYOMING became the first state to grant full women's suffrage in 1869, and
UTAH followed suit the following year. But then it stopped. No other states granted full
suffrage until the 1890s.
The NAWSA to the Rescue
After Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell passed away, their daughter, ALICE STONE
BLACKWELL saw the need for a unified front. She approached the aging leadership of the
NWSA, and in 1890, the two splinter groups formed the NATIONAL AMERICAN
WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION (NAWSA), with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan
B. Anthony taking turns at the presidency.
Although the movement still had internal divisions, the mood of progressive reform breathed
new life into its rank and file. Although Stanton and Anthony died before ever having
accomplished their goal, the stage was set for a new generation to carry the torch.
The fight to victory was conducted by CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT. By 1910, most states
west of Mississippi had granted full suffrage rights to women. States of the Midwest at least
permitted women to vote in Presidential elections. But the Northeast and the South were
steadfast in opposition. Catt knew that to ratify a national amendment, NAWSA would have to
win a state in each of these key regions. Once cracks were made, the dam would surely burst.
Amid the backdrop of the United States entry into World War I, success finally came. In 1917,
New York and Arkansas permitted women to vote, and momentum shifted toward suffrage.
NAWSA supported the war effort throughout the ratification process, and the prominent
positions women held no doubt resulted in increased support.
On August 18, 1920, the state legislature of Tennessee ratified the NINETEENTH
AMENDMENT, giving it the necessary approval in 3/4 of the states, making it the supreme
law of the land. The long struggle for voting rights was over.
43. Progressives in the White House
44. Seeking Empire
c. “Remember the Maine”!
There was more than one way to acquire more land. If the globe had already been claimed by
imperial powers, the United States could always seize lands held by others. Americans were
feeling proud of their growing industrial and military prowess. The long-dormant Monroe
Doctrine could finally be enforced. Good sense suggested that when treading on the toes of
empires, America should start small. In 1898, Spain was weak, and Americans knew it. Soon
the opportunity to strike arose.
Involvement in Cuba
CUBA became the nexus of Spanish-American tensions. Since 1895, Cubans had been in open
revolt against Spanish rule. The following year, Spain sent GENERAL VALERIANO
WEYLER to Cuba to sedate the rebels. Anyone suspected of supporting independence was
removed from the general population and sent to concentration camps. Although few were
summarily executed, conditions at the camps led over 200,000 to die of disease and
malnutrition. The news reached the American mainland through the newspapers of the yellow
journalists. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were the two most prominent
publishers who were willing to use sensational headlines to sell papers. Hearst even sent the
renowned painter FREDERICK REMINGTON to Cuba to depict Spanish misdeeds. The
American public was appalled.
The Maine Sinks
In February 1898, relations between the United States and Spain deteriorated further. DUPUY
DE LÔME, the Spanish minister to the United States had written a stinging letter about
President McKinley to a personal friend. The letter was stolen and soon found itself on the desk
of Hearst, who promptly published it on February 9. After public outcry, de Lôme was recalled
to Spain and the Spanish government apologized. The peace was short-lived, however. On the
evening of February 15, a sudden and shocking explosion tore a hole in the hull of the American
battleship MAINE, which had been on patrol in HAVANA HARBOR. The immediate
assumption was that the sinking of the Maine and the concomitant deaths of 260 sailors was
the result of Spanish treachery. Although no conclusive results have ever been proven, many
Americans had already made up their minds, demanding an immediate declaration of war.
McKinley proceeded with prudence at first. When the Spanish government agreed to an
armistice in Cuba and an end to concentration camps, it seemed as though a compromise was
in reach. But the American public, agitated by the yellow press and American imperialists,
demanded firm action. "REMEMBER THE MAINE, TO HELL WITH SPAIN!" was the
cry. On April 11, 1898, McKinley asked the Congress for permission to use force in Cuba. To
send a message to the rest of the world that the United States was interested in Cuban
independence instead of American colonization, Congress passed the TELLER
AMENDMENT, which promised that America would not annex the precious islands. After
that conscience-clearing measure, American leaders threw caution to the wind and declared
open warfare on the Spanish throne.
d. The Spanish-American War and Its Consequences
The United States was simply unprepared for war. What Americans had in enthusiastic spirit,
they lacked in military strength. The navy, although improved, was simply a shadow of what
it would become by World War I. The UNITED STATES ARMY was understaffed,
underequipped, and undertrained. The most recent action seen by the army was fighting the
Native Americans on the frontier. Cuba required summer uniforms; the US troops arrived with
heavy woolen coats and pants. The food budget paid for substandard provisions for the soldiers.
What made these daunting problems more managable was one simple reality. Spain was even
less ready for war than the United States.
Battle of Manila Bay
Prior to the building of the Panama Canal, each nation required a two-ocean navy. The major
portion of Spain's Pacific fleet was located in the Spanish Philippines at MANILA BAY. Under
orders from Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, ADMIRAL GEORGE
DEWEY descended upon the Philippines prior to the declaration of war. Dewey was in the
perfect position to strike, and when given his orders to attack on May 1, 1898, the American
navy was ready. Those who look back with fondness on American military triumphs must count
the BATTLE OF MANILA BAY as one of the greatest success stories. The larger, wooden
Spanish fleet was no match for the newer American steel navy. After Dewey's guns stopped
firing, the entire Spanish squadron was a hulking disaster. The only American casualty came
from sunstroke. The Philippines remained in Spanish control until the army had been recruited,
trained, and transported to the Pacific.
Invading Cuba
The situation in Cuba was far less pretty for the Americans. At the outbreak of war, the United
States was outnumbered 7 to 1 in army personnel. The invading force led by GENERAL
WILLIAM SHAFTER landed rather uneventfully near SANTIAGO. The real glory of the
Cuban campaign was grabbed by the Rough Riders. Comprising cowboys, adventurous college
students, and ex-convicts, the Rough Riders were a volunteer regiment commanded by
LEONARD WOOD BUT organized by Theodore Roosevelt. Supported by two African
American regiments, the Rough Riders charged up SAN JUAN HILL and helped Shafter
bottle the Spanish forces in Santiago harbor. The war was lost when the Spanish Atlantic fleet
was destroyed by the pursuing American forces.
Treaty of Paris
The TREATY OF PARIS was most generous to the winners. The United States received the
Philippines and the islands of GUAM and PUERTO RICO. Cuba became independent, and
Spain was awarded $20 million dollars for its losses. The treaty prompted a heated debate in
the United States. ANTI-IMPERIALISTS called the US hypocritical for condemning
European empires while pursuing one of its own. The war was supposed to be about freeing
Cuba, not seizing the Philippines. Criticism increased when Filipino rebels led by Emilio
Aguinaldo waged a 3-year insurrection against their new American colonizers. While the
Spanish-American War lasted ten weeks and resulted in 400 battle deaths, the PHILIPPINE
INSURRECTION lasted nearly three years and claimed 4000 American lives. Nevertheless,
President McKinley's expansionist policies were supported by the American public, who
seemed more than willing to accept the blessings and curses of their new expanding empire.
45. America in the First World War
46. The Decade That Roared
The 1920s saw the culmination of fifty years of rapid American industrialization. New products
seemed to burst from American production lines with the potential of revolutionizing American
life. Other products that had previously been toys for the rich were now available to a majority
of Americans. The standard of living increased as the economy grew stronger and stronger.
The results were spectacular. The America of 1929 was vastly different from the America of
1919.
The automobile was first and foremost among these products. The practices of Henry Ford
made these horseless carriages affordable to the American masses. Widespread use of the
automobile ushered in changes in work patterns and leisure plans. A host of support industries
were launched. Dating and education were changed by the automobile. Radio usage brought
further changes. For the first time, a national popular culture was supplanting regional
folkways. Americans across the continent were sharing the same jokes, participating in the
same fads, and worshipping the same heroes. Housework was minimized with the introduction
of labour saving devices. As a result, leisure time was increased.
The bleak outlook and large sacrifices of the wartime era were now a part of the past. Young
Americans were looking to cut loose and have a good time. Prohibition did not end alcohol
usage. The romantic subculture of the speakeasy kept the firewater flowing. Organized crime
flourished as gangland violence related to bootlegged liquor plagued America's cities. Flapper
women strove to eliminate double standard values. Young females engaged in behaviours
previously reserved for men including smoking and drinking. Sigmund Freud's assertion that
sexual behaviour was a natural instinct brought down more barriers as young Americans delved
into sexual experimentation. The Harlem Renaissance brought a new form of entertainment.
The sounds of jazz bands had appeal that transcended African American audiences, as
thousands flocked to hear the new sounds.
The 1920s ushered in more lasting changes to the American social scene than any previous
decade. Escapism loomed large as many coped with change by living in the present and
enjoying themselves. The economic boom that unleashed the transformation and its
consequences made the Roaring Twenties an era to remember.
a. The Age of the Automobile
Perhaps no invention affected American everyday life in the 20th century more than the
automobile.
Although the technology for the AUTOMOBILE existed in the 19th century, it took HENRY
FORD to make the useful gadget accessible to the American public. Ford used the idea of the
ASSEMBLY LINE for automobile manufacturing. He paid his workers an unprecedented $5
a day when most laborers were bringing home two, hoping that it would increase their
productivity. Furthermore, they might use their higher earnings to purchase a new car.
Ford reduced options, even stating that the public could choose whatever color car they wanted
— so long as it was black. The MODEL T sold for $490 in 1914, about one quarter the cost
of the previous decade. By 1920, there were over 8 million registrations. The 1920s saw
tremendous growth in automobile ownership, with the number of registered drivers almost
tripling to 23 million by the end of the decade.
Economic Spin-offs
The growth of the AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY caused an economic revolution across the
United States. Dozens of spin-off industries blossomed. Of course the demand for vulcanized
rubber skyrocketed. Road construction created thousands of new jobs, as state and local
governments began funding highway design.
Even the federal government became involved with the FEDERAL HIGHWAY ACT OF
1921. GAS STATIONS began to dot the land, and mechanics began to earn a living fixing the
inevitable problems. Oil and steel were two well-established industries that received a serious
boost by the demand for automobiles. Travelers on the road needed shelter on long trips, so
MOTELS began to line the major long-distance routes.
Even cuisine was transformed by the automobile. The quintessential American foods —
hamburgers, French fries, milk shakes, and apple pies — were hallmarks of the new roadside
DINER. Drivers wanted cheap, relatively fast food so they could be on their way in a hurry.
Unfortunately, as new businesses flourished, old ones decayed. When America opted for the
automobile, the nation's rails began to be neglected. As European nations were strengthening
mass transit systems, individualistic Americans invested in the automobile infrastructure.
Effects of the Automobile
The social effects of the automobile were as great. Freedom of choice encouraged many family
vacations to places previously impossible. Urban dwellers had the opportunity to rediscover
pristine landscapes, just as rural dwellers were able to shop in towns and cities. Teenagers
gained more and more independence with driving freedom. Dating couples found a portable
place to be alone as the automobile helped to facilitate relaxed sexual attitudes.
Americans experienced TRAFFIC JAMS for the first time, as well as traffic accidents and
fatalities. Soon demands were made for licensure and safety regulation on the state level.
Despite the drawbacks, Americans loved their cars. As more and more were purchased, drivers
saw their worlds grow much larger.
b. The Fight Against “Demon Rum”
Saloons were closed, bottles were smashed, and kegs were split wide open. When the states
ratified the EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT in 1919, the manufacture, sale, and
transportation of alcoholic beverages was outlawed. Protestant ministers and progressive
politicians rejoiced and proclaimed a holier and safer America. It was predicted that worker
productivity would increase, families would grow closer, and urban slums would disappear.
Yet for all its promise, prohibition was repealed fourteen years later, after being deemed a
dismal failure.
Advantages to Prohibition
In fairness, there were advantages to prohibition. Social scientists are certain that actual
consumption of alcohol actually decreased during the decade. Estimates indicate that during
the first few years of prohibition, alcohol consumption declined to a mere third of its prewar
level. Although no polls or surveys would be accurate, health records indicate a decrease in
alcoholism and alcohol-related diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver. Family savings did
increase during the decade, but it was difficult to determine whether the increase was due to
decreased alcohol consumption or a robust economy.
Disadvantages to Prohibition
The minuses seemed to outweigh the pluses. First, federal allocation of funds to enforce
prohibition were woefully inadequate. Gaping loopholes in the VOLSTEAD ACT, the law
implemented to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, encouraged abuse. Alcohol possession
was permitted for medical purposes, and production of small amounts was permitted for home
use. The manufacturing of NEAR BEER — regular beer without the alcohol — was also
permitted. The problem was that to make near beer, it was first necessary to brew the real
variety, so illegal breweries could insist their product was scheduled to have the alcohol
removed. Soon a climate of lawlessness swept the nation, as Americans everywhere began to
partake in illegal drink. Every city had countless SPEAKEASIES, which were not-so-secret
bars hidden from public view.
While the number of drinkers may have decreased, the strength of the beverages increased.
People drank as much as they could as fast as they could to avoid detection. Because alcoholic
production was illegal, there could be no regulation. Desperate individuals and heartless
profiteers distilled anything imaginable, often with disastrous results. Some alcohol sold on the
black market caused nerve damage, blindness, and even death. While women of the previous
generation campaigned to ban alcohol, the young women of the twenties consumed it with a
passion.
Organized Crime
The group that profited most from the illegal market was ORGANIZED CRIME. City crime
bosses such as AL CAPONE of Chicago sold their products to willing buyers and even
intimidated unwilling customers to purchase their illicit wares. Crime involving turf wars
among mobsters was epidemic. Soon the mobs forced legitimate businessmen to buy
protection, tainting those who tried to make an honest living. Even city police took booze and
cash from the likes of Al Capone. After several years of trying to connect Capone to
BOOTLEGGING, federal prosecutors were able to convict him for income tax evasion.
The Eighteenth Amendment was different from all previous changes to the Constitution. It was
the first experiment at social engineering. Critics pointed out that it was the only amendment
to date that restricted rather than increased individual rights. Civil liberties advocates
considered prohibition an abomination. In the end, economics doomed prohibition. The costs
of ineffectively policing the nation were simply too high. At the deepest point of the Great
Depression, government officials finally ratified the TWENTY-FIRST AMENDMENT,
repealing the practice once and for all.
c. The Invention of the Teenager
In the 19th century, the American world consisted of children and adults. Most Americans tried
their best to allow their children to enjoy their youth while they were slowly prepared for the
trials and tribulations of adulthood. Although child labour practices still existed, more and more
states were passing restrictions against such exploitation. The average number of years spent
in school for young Americans was also on the rise. Parents were waiting longer to goad their
youngsters into marriage rather than pairing them off at the tender age of sixteen or seventeen.
In short, it soon became apparent that a new stage of life — the TEENAGE phase — was
becoming a reality in America. American adolescents were displaying traits unknown among
children and adults. Although the word teenager did not come into use until decades later, the
teenage mindset dawned in the 1920s.
From Courtship to Dating
The single greatest factor that led to the emergence of the independent teenager was the
automobile. Teens enjoyed a freedom from parental supervision unknown to previous
generations. The courtship process rapidly evolved into dating. In earlier times, young boys
and girls spent their first dates at home. The boy would meet the girl's parents, they would have
a sitting in the parlor, followed by dinner with the entire family. Later in the evening, the couple
might enjoy a few moments alone on the front porch. After several meetings, they could be
lucky enough to be granted permission for an unchaperoned walk-through town. The
automobile simply shattered these old-fashioned traditions. Dating was removed from the
watchful eyes of anxious parents. Teenagers were given privacy, and a sexual revolution swept
America. Experimentation with sexual behaviours before marriage became increasingly
common. Young Americans were now able to look beyond their own small towns at an
enlarged dating pool.
Impact of the Automobile
Automobile technology led directly to the other major factor that fostered a teenage culture:
the consolidated HIGH SCHOOL. Buses could now transport students farther from their
homes, leading to the decline of the one-room schoolhouse. Furthermore, Americans were
realizing the potential of a longer education, and states were adding more years to their
compulsory schooling laws. As a result, a larger number of teenagers were thrown into a
common space than ever before. It was only natural that discussions about commonalties would
occur. Before long, schools developed their own cultural patterns, completely unlike the
childhood or adult experience. School athletics and extracurricular activities only enhanced this
nascent culture. The American teenager was born.
d. Flappers
The battle for suffrage was finally over. After a 72-year struggle, women had won the precious
right to vote. The generations of suffragists that had fought for so long proudly entered the
political world. Carrie Chapman Catt carried the struggle into voting awareness with the
founding of the League of Women Voters. Alice Paul vowed to fight until an EQUAL
RIGHTS AMENDMENT was added to the Constitution. MARGARET SANGER declared
that female independence could be accomplished only with proper BIRTH CONTROL
methods. To their dismay, the daughters of this generation seemed uninterested in these grand
causes. As the 1920s roared along, many young women of the age wanted to have fun.
Life of the Flappers
FLAPPERS were northern, urban, single, young, middle-class women. Many held steady jobs
in the changing American economy. The clerking jobs that blossomed in the Gilded Age were
more numerous than ever. Increasing phone usage required more and more operators. The
consumer-oriented economy of the 1920s saw a burgeoning number of department stores.
Women were needed on the sales floor to relate to the most precious customers — other
women. But the flapper was not all work and no play.
By night, flappers engaged in the active city nightlife. They frequented jazz clubs and
vaudeville shows. Speakeasies were a common destination, as the new woman of the twenties
adopted the same carefree attitude toward prohibition as her male counterpart. Ironically, more
young women consumed alcohol in the decade it was illegal than ever before. Smoking, another
activity previously reserved for men, became popular among flappers. With the political field
levelled by the Nineteenth Amendment, women sought to eliminate social double standards.
Consequently, the flapper was less hesitant to experiment sexually than previous generations.
SIGMUND FREUD's declaration that the libido was one of the most natural of human needs
seemed to give the green light to explore.
The Flapper Look
The flapper had an unmistakable look. The long locks of Victorian women lay on the floors of
beauty parlors as young women cut their hair to shoulder length. Hemlines of dresses rose
dramatically to the knee. The cosmetics industry flowered as women used make-up in large
numbers. Flappers bound their chests and wore high heels. CLARA BOW, Hollywood's "It"
Girl, captured the flapper image for the nation to see.
Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a female declaration of independence.
Experimentation with new looks, jobs, and lifestyles seemed liberating compared with the
socially silenced woman in the Victorian Age. The flappers chose activities to please
themselves, not a father or husband. But critics were quick to elucidate the shortcomings of
flapperism. The political agenda embraced by the previous generation was largely ignored until
the feminist revival of the 1960s. Many wondered if flappers were expressing themselves or
acting like men. Smoking, drinking, and sexual experimentation were characteristic of the
modern young woman. Short hair and bound chests added to the effect. One thing was certain:
Despite the potential political and social gains or losses, the flappers of the 1920s sure managed
to have a good time.
e. The Harlem Renaissance
It was time for a cultural celebration. African Americans had endured centuries of slavery and
the struggle for abolition. The end of bondage had not brought the promised land many had
envisioned. Instead, WHITE SUPREMACY was quickly, legally, and violently restored to
the New South, where ninety percent of African Americans lived. Starting in about 1890,
African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers. This GREAT MIGRATION
eventually relocated hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the rural South to the
urban North. Many discovered they had shared common experiences in their past histories and
their uncertain present circumstances. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, the recently
dispossessed ignited an explosion of cultural pride. Indeed, African American culture was
reborn in the HARLEM RENAISSANCE.
The Great Migration
The Great Migration began because of a "push" and a "pull." Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow
laws led many African Americans to hope for a new life up north. Hate groups and hate crimes
cast alarm among African American families of the Deep South. The promise of owning land
had not materialized. Most blacks toiled as sharecroppers trapped in an endless cycle of debt.
In the 1890s, a boll weevil blight damaged the cotton crop throughout the region, increasing
the despair. All these factors served to push African Americans to seek better lives. The
booming northern economy forged the pull. Industrial jobs were numerous, and factory owners
looked near and far for sources of cheap labor.
Unfortunately, northerners did not welcome African Americans with open arms. While the
legal systems of the northern states were not as obstructionist toward African American rights,
the prejudice among the populace was as acrimonious. White laborers complained that African
Americans were flooding the employment market and lowering wages. Most new migrants
found themselves segregated by practice in run down urban slums. The largest of these was
Harlem. Writers, actors, artists, and musicians glorified African American traditions, and at the
same time created new ones.
Writers and Actors
The most prolific writer of the Harlem Renaissance was LANGSTON HUGHES. Hughes cast
off the influences of white poets and wrote with the rhythmic meter of blues and jazz.
CLAUDE MCKAY urged African Americans to stand up for their rights in his powerful
verses. JEAN TOOMER wrote plays and short stories, as well as poems, to capture the spirit
of his times. Book publishers soon took notice and patronized many of these talents. ZORA
NEALE HURSTON was noticed quickly with her moving novel, THEIR EYES WERE
WATCHING GOD. Music met prose in the form of musical comedy. The 1921 production of
SHUFFLE ALONG is sometimes credited with initiating the movement. Actor PAUL
ROBESON electrified audiences with his memorable stage performances.
Musicians
No aspect of the Harlem Renaissance shaped America and the entire world as much as jazz.
JAZZ flouted many musical conventions with its syncopated rhythms and improvised
instrumental solos. Thousands of city dwellers flocked night after night to see the same
performers. IMPROVISATION meant that no two performances would ever be the same.
Harlem's COTTON CLUB boasted the talents of DUKE ELLINGTON. Singers such as
BESSIE SMITH and BILLIE HOLIDAY popularized blues and jazz vocals. JELLY ROLL
MORTON and LOUIS ARMSTRONG drew huge audiences as white Americans as well as
African Americans caught jazz fever.
The continuing hardships faced by African Americans in the Deep South and the urban North
were severe. It took the environment of the new American city to bring in close proximity some
of the greatest minds of the day. Harlem brought notice to great works that might otherwise
have been lost or never produced. The results were phenomenal. The artists of the Harlem
Renaissance undoubtedly transformed African American culture. But the impact on all
American culture was equally strong. For the first time, white America could not look away.
 f. A Consumer Economy
The 1920s was a decade of increasing conveniences for the middle class. New products made
household chores easier and led to more leisure time. Products previously too expensive
became affordable. New forms of financing allowed every family to spend beyond their current
means. ADVERTISING capitalized on people's hopes and fears to sell more and more goods.
Changing Housework
By the end of the 1920s, HOUSEHOLD WORK was revolutionized. A typical work week
for a housewife before the twenties involved many tedious chores. All the furniture was moved
off the carpets, which were rolled up and dragged outside to beat out the week's dirt and dust.
The ice in the icebox was replaced and the waterpan that lay beneath was repeatedly changed.
The clothes were scrubbed in a washing tub on a washboard. An iron was heated on the stove
to smooth out the wrinkles. Women typically spent the summer months canning food for the
long winter. Clothes were made from patterns, and bread was made from scratch. Very few of
these practices were necessary by the end of the decade. Vacuum cleaners displaced the carpet
beater. Electric refrigerators, washing machines, and irons saved hours of extra work. New
methods of canning and freezing made store-bought food cheap and effective enough to
eliminate this chore. Off-the-rack clothing became more and more widespread. Even large
bakeries were supplying bread to the new SUPERMARKETS. The hours saved in household
work were countless.
Buying on Credit
"BUY NOW, PAY LATER" became the credo of many middle-class Americans of the
ROARING TWENTIES. For the single-income family, all these new conveniences were
impossible to afford at once. But retailers wanted the consumer to have it all. DEPARTMENT
STORES opened up generous LINES OF CREDIT for those who could not pay up front but
could demonstrate the ability to pay in the future. Similar INSTALLMENT PLANS were
offered to buyers who could not afford the lump sum but could afford "twelve easy payments."
Over half of the nation's automobiles were sold on CREDIT by the end of the decade.
America's consumers could indeed have it all, if they had an iron stomach for debt. Consumer
debt more than doubled between 1920 and 1930.
Advertising
Fuelling consumer demand were new techniques in advertising. This was not a new business,
but in the increasingly competitive marketplace, manufacturers looked to more and more
aggressive advertising campaigns. One major trend of the decade was to use pop psychology
methods to convince Americans that the product was needed. The classic example was the
campaign for Listerine. Using a seldom heard term for bad breath — halitosis — Listerine
convinced thousands of Americans to buy their product. Consumers might not have known
what halitosis was, but they surely knew they did not want it.
Advertisers were no longer simply responding to demand; they were creating demand. Radio
became an important new means of communicating a business message. Testimonials from
Hollywood film stars sold products in record numbers.
The advertising business created demand for the gadgets and appliances being manufactured
by American factories.
47. Old Values vs. New Values
e. Domestic and International Politics
Despite all the verve of the American social scene in the 1920s, the Presidential leadership of
the decade was quite unremarkable. WARREN HARDING won his bid for the White House
in 1920 with the campaign slogan "RETURN TO NORMALCY." Republicans believed
Americans had grown weary of the turmoil caused by World War I and promised tranquillity.
Harding found himself mired in scandals unknown in America since the Grant Administration.
Although Harding himself was above the graft, his friends were more than willing to dip into
the public treasury. Fraud and bribery plagued the Veterans Bureau and the Justice Department.
The TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL exposed Secretary of the Interior ALBERT FALL for
accepting bribes for allowing private oil companies to lease public lands. Harding fell ill in
1923 and died shortly thereafter.
The Progressives
CALVIN COOLIDGE brought no significant change to Harding's laissez faire, pro-business
style. Progressives bemoaned the end of activist Presidents protecting the public good,
prompting FIGHTING BOB LAFOLLETTE to launch an unsuccessful run for the
Presidency under the Progressive Party banner in 1924. The only successful progressive
reforms occurred on the state and local levels. Politics became interesting in the election year
of 1928. The Democrats nominated AL SMITH, the first Catholic ever to earn the nomination
of a major party. Smith raised eyebrows with an open opposition to the Prohibition amendment.
As a result, the South broke with a long tradition of supporting Democrats and helped Herbert
Hoover to continue Republican domination of the Presidency.
The International Scene
On the international scene, two themes dominated American diplomacy. The first was to take
steps to avoid the mistakes that led to World War I. To this end, President Harding convened
the WASHINGTON NAVAL ARMS CONFERENCE in 1921. The United States, Great
Britain, and Japan agreed to a ten-year freeze on the construction of battleships and to maintain
a capital ship ratio of 5:5:3. They also agreed to uphold the OPEN DOOR POLICY and to
respect each other's holdings in the Pacific. In 1928, the United States and France led an
initiative called the KELLOGG-BRIAND PACT, in which 62 nations agreed to outlaw war.
These two measures showed the degree to which Americans hoped to forestall another
disastrous war. The second priority dealt with outstanding international debt. While practicing
political isolation, the United States was completely entangled with Europe economically. The
Allies owed the United States an enormous sum of money from World War I. Lacking the
resources to reimburse America, the Allies relied on German reparations. The German
economy was so debased by the Treaty of Versailles provisions that they relied on loans from
American banks for support. In essence, American banks were funding the repayment of the
foreign debt. As Germany slipped further and further into depression, the United States
intervened again. The DAWES PLAN allowed Germany to extend their payments on more
generous terms. In the end, when the GREAT DEPRESSION struck, only Finland was able
to make good on its debt to the United States.
48. The Great Depression
a. The Market Crashes
It was a boom time for the STOCKHOLDER. STOCK PRICES soared to record levels.
Millionaires were made overnight. Sound like the stock market of the 1990s? Try the New
York Stock Exchange on the eve of the GREAT CRASH in 1929.
Although the 1920s were marked by growth in stock values, the last four years saw an
explosion in the market. In 1925, the total value of the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
was $27 billion. By September 1929, that figure skyrocketed to $87 billion. This means that
the average stockholder more than tripled the value of the stock portfolio he or she was lucky
enough to possess.
In his LADIES' HOME JOURNAL article, "Everyone Ought to Be Rich," wealthy financier
JOHN J. RASKOB advised Americans to invest just $15 dollars a month in the market. After
twenty years, he claimed, the venture would be worth $80,000. Stock fever was sweeping the
nation, or at least those that had the means to invest.
Fuelling the rapid expansion was the risky practice of buying stock on margin. A MARGIN
PURCHASE allows an investor to borrow money, typically as much as 75% of the purchase
price, to buy a greater amount of stock. Stockbrokers and even banks funded the reckless
SPECULATOR. Borrowers were often willing to pay 20% interest rates on loans, being dead
certain that the risk would be worth the rewards. The lender was so certain that the market
would rise that such transactions became commonplace, despite warnings by the Federal
Reserve Board against the practice. Clearly, there had to be a limit to how high the market
could reach.
What causes stock prices to fall? Although the workings of the New York Stock Exchange can
be quite complex, one simple principle governs the price of stock. When investors believe a
stock is a good value, they are willing to pay more for a share and its value rises. When traders
believe the value of a security will fall, they cannot sell it at as high of a price. If all investors
try to sell their shares at once and no one is willing to buy, the value of the market shrinks.
On October 24, 1929, "BLACK THURSDAY," this massive sell-a-thon began. By the late
afternoon, wealthy financiers like J.P. Morgan pooled their resources and began to buy stocks
in the hopes of reversing the trend.
But the bottom fell out of the market on Tuesday, October 29. A record 16 million shares were
exchanged for smaller and smaller values as the day progressed. For some stocks, no buyers
could be found at any price. By the end of the day, panic had erupted, and the next few weeks
continued the downward spiral. In a matter of ten short weeks the value of the entire market
was cut in half. Suicide and despair swept the investing classes of America.
b. Sinking Deeper and deeper: 1929-33
When the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, few Americans believed that a decade
long depression was underway. After all, only 4 million Americans had money invested on
Wall Street. 90% of American households owned precisely zero shares of stock. President
Herbert Hoover quickly addressed the nation, professing his faith in the soundness of the
American economy. But soothing words were clearly not enough to stop the shrinking of a
deeply flawed national economic system.
The stock market crash had many short-term consequences. Banks that improvidently lent
money to futures traders to buy stock on margin found that many of those loans would go
unpaid. Consequently, a rash of BANK FAILURES swept the nation. This had a tremendous
ripple effect on the economy. If a working-class family was unfortunate enough to have their
savings held in trust by a failed bank — too bad for them, all their money was lost.
As Americans saw banks close and savings disappear, less money was spent on goods and
services. Many consumers who had bought the new conveniences of the GOLDEN
TWENTIES on the installment plan were unable to make their payments. Businesses began
to lay off workers to offset new losses. Many manufacturers had overproduced and created
huge inventories.
Unemployment brought even less savings and spending, and the economy slowed yet another
notch. The downward spiral continued into 1933. The $87 billion 1929 New York Stock
Exchange was worth a mere $15 billion in 1932. UNEMPLOYMENT rose from 1.5 million
Americans in 1929 to a debilitating 12 million in 1932.
Despair swept the nation. In addition to the nationwide 25% unemployment rate, many laborers
were forced to choose between wage cuts and a PINK SLIP. Most people who retained their
jobs saw their incomes shrink by a third. SOUP KITCHENS and CHARITY LINES,
previously unknown to the middle class, were unable to meet the growing demand for food.
Desperate for income, thousands performed odd jobs from taking in laundry to collecting and
selling apples on the street. College professors in New York City drove taxicabs to make ends
meet. Citizens of Washington State lit forest fires in the hopes of earning a few bucks
extinguishing them. Millions of backyard gardens were cultivated to grow vegetables.
Americans prowled landfills waiting for the next load of refuse to arrive in the hopes of finding
a few table scraps among the trash.
The strife was uneven across the land. Oklahoma was particularly hard hit, as a DROUGHT
brought dry winds, kicking up a "DUST BOWL" that forced thousands to migrate westward.
African Americans endured unemployment rates of nearly twice the white communities, as
African American workers were often the last hired and the first fired. Mexican Americans in
California were offered free one-way trips back to Mexico to decrease job competition in the
state. The Latino population of the American Southwest sharply decreased throughout the
decade, as ethnic violence increased.
As the days and weeks of the GREAT DEPRESSION turned into months and years,
Americans began to organize their discontent.
c. The Bonus March
Many in America wondered if the nation would survive.
Although the United States had little history of massive social upheaval or coup attempts
against the government, hunger has an ominous way of stirring those passions among any
population. As bread riots and shantytowns grew in number, many began to seek alternatives
to the status quo. Demonstrations in the nation's capital increased, as Americans grew
increasingly weary with President Hoover's perceived inaction. The demonstration that drew
the most national attention was the BONUS ARMY MARCH of 1932.
In 1924, Congress rewarded VETERANS of WORLD WAR I with certificates redeemable
in 1945 for $1,000 each. By 1932, many of these former servicemen had lost their jobs and
fortunes in the early days of the Depression. They asked Congress to redeem their BONUS
CERTIFICATES early.
Led by WALTER WATERS of Oregon, the so-called Bonus Expeditionary Force set out for
the nation's capital. Hitching rides, hopping trains, and hiking finally brought the Bonus Army,
now 15,000 strong, into the capital in June 1932. Although President Hoover refused to address
them, the veterans did find an audience with a congressional delegation. Soon a debate began
in the Congress over whether to meet the demonstrators' demands.
As deliberation continued on Capitol Hill, the Bonus Army built a SHANTYTOWN across
the Potomac River in ANACOSTIA FLATS. When the Senate rejected their demands on June
17, most of the veterans dejectedly returned home. But several thousand remained in the capital
with their families. Many had nowhere else to go. The Bonus Army conducted itself with
decorum and spent their vigil unarmed.
However, many believed them a threat to national security. On July 28, Washington police
began to clear the demonstrators out of the capital. Two men were killed as tear gas and
bayonets assailed the Bonus Marchers. Fearing rising disorder, Hoover ordered an army
regiment into the city, under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur. The army,
complete with infantry, cavalry, and tanks, rolled into Anacostia Flats forcing the Bonus Army
to flee. MacArthur then ordered the shanty settlements burned.
Many Americans were outraged. How could the army treat veterans of the Great War with such
disrespect? Hoover maintained that political agitators, anarchists, and communists dominated
the mob. But facts contradict his claims. Nine out of ten Bonus Marchers were indeed veterans,
and 20% were disabled. Despite the fact that the Bonus Army was the largest march on
Washington up to that point in history, Hoover and MacArthur clearly overestimated the threat
posed to national security. As Hoover campaigned for reelection that summer, his actions
turned an already sour public opinion of him even further bottomward.
America sank deeper in Depression.

d. Hoover's Last Stand

PRESIDENT HERBERT HOOVER had the distinction of stepping into the White House at
the height of one of the longest periods of growth in American history. Less than seven months
after his inauguration, the worst depression in American history began.
Undoubtedly, the fault of the Great Depression was not Hoover's. But as the years of his
Presidency passed and the country slipped deeper and deeper into its quagmire, he would
receive great blame. Urban shantytowns were dubbed HOOVERVILLES. Newspapers used
by the destitute as bundling for warmth became known as Hoover blankets. Pockets turned
inside out were called Hoover flags. Somebody had to be blamed, and many Americans blamed
their President.
Running for President under the slogan "RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM" made it difficult for
Hoover to promote massive government intervention in the economy. In 1930, succumbing to
pressure from American industrialists, Hoover signed the HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF
which was designed to protect American industry from overseas competition. Passed against
the advice of nearly every prominent economist of the time, it was the largest TARIFF in
American history.
The amount of protection received by industry did not offset the losses brought by a decrease
in foreign trade. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff proved to be a disaster. Believing in a balanced
budget, Hoover's 1931 economic plan cut federal spending and increased taxes, both of which
inhibited individual efforts to spur the economy.
Finally in 1932 Hoover signed legislation creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
This act allocated a half billion dollars for loans to banks, corporations, and state governments.
Public works projects such as the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE and the Los Angeles Aqueduct
were built as a result of this plan.
Hoover and the RFC stopped short of meeting one demand of the American masses — federal
aid to individuals. Hoover believed that government aid would stifle initiative and create
dependency where individual effort was needed. Past governments never resorted to such
schemes and the economy managed to rebound. Clearly Hoover and his advisors failed to grasp
the scope of the Great Depression.
The stage was set for the ELECTION OF 1932. New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt
won the Democratic nomination on the fourth ballot of their national convention. Roosevelt
promised "a new deal for the American people" that included a repeal of the prohibition
amendment. The Republicans renominated Hoover, perhaps because there were few other
interested GOP candidates.
Election day brought a landslide for the Democrats, as Roosevelt earned 58% of the popular
vote and 89% of the electoral vote, handing the Republicans their second-worst defeat in their
history. Bands across America struck up Roosevelt's theme song — "HAPPY DAYS ARE
HERE AGAIN" — as millions of Americans looked with hope toward their new leader.
 e. Social and Cultural Effects of the Depression
No nation could emerge from the cauldron of national crisis without profound social and
cultural changes. While many undesirable vices associated with hopelessness were on the rise,
many family units were also strengthened through the crisis. MASS MIGRATIONS reshaped
the American mosaic. While many businesses perished during the Great Depression, others
actually emerged stronger. And new forms of expression flourished in the culture of despair.
The Great Depression brought a rapid rise in the CRIME RATE as many unemployed workers
resorted to petty theft to put food on the table. Suicide rates rose, as did reported cases of
malnutrition. Prostitution was on the rise as desperate women sought ways to pay the bills.
Health care in general was not a priority for many Americans, as visiting the doctor was
reserved for only the direst of circumstances. Alcoholism increased with Americans seeking
outlets for escape, compounded by the repeal of prohibition in 1933. Cigar smoking became
too expensive, so many Americans switched to cheaper cigarettes.
Higher education remained out of reach for most Americans as the nation's universities saw
their student bodies shrink during the first half of the decade. High school attendance increased
among males, however. Because the prospects of a young male getting a job were so incredibly
dim, many decided to stay in school longer. However, public spending on education declined
sharply, causing many schools to open understaffed or close due to lack of funds.
Demographic trends also changed sharply. Marriages were delayed as many males waited until
they could provide for a family before proposing to a prospective spouse. Divorce rates dropped
steadily in the 1930s. Rates of abandonment increased as many husbands chose the "poor man's
divorce" option — they just ran away from their marriages. Birth rates fell sharply, especially
during the lowest points of the Depression. More and more Americans learned about birth
control to avoid the added expenses of unexpected children.
Mass migrations continued throughout the 1930s. Rural New England and upstate New York
lost many citizens seeking opportunity elsewhere. The GREAT PLAINS lost population to
states such as California and Arizona. The Dust Bowl sent thousands of "OKIES" and
"ARKIES" looking to make a better life. Many of the MIGRANTS were adolescents seeking
opportunity away from a family that had younger mouths to feed. Over 600,000 people were
caught hitching rides on trains during the Great Depression. Many times offenders went
unpunished.
Popular culture saw new trends as well. Despite the costs of an evening out, two out of every
five Americans saw at least one movie per week.
Classic films like FRANKENSTEIN, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, and GONE WITH THE
WIND debuted during the Great Depression. Radio flourished as those who owned a radio set
before the crash could listen for free. President Roosevelt made wide use of radio technology
with his periodic "fireside chats" to keep the public informed. Dorothea Lange depicted the
sadness of Depression farm life with her stirring photographs.
And an apt musical form — the blues — gained popularity during the decade.
49. The New Deal
a. A Bank Holiday
In days past, depositing money in a savings account carried a degree of RISK. If a bank made
bad investments and was forced to close, individuals who did not withdraw their money fast
enough found themselves out of luck. Sometimes a simple rumor could force a bank to close.
When DEPOSITORS feared a bank was unsound and began removing their funds, the news
would often spread to other customers. This often caused a panic, leading people to leave their
homes and workplaces to get their money before it was too late.
These runs on banks were widespread during the early days of the Great Depression. In 1929
alone, 659 banks closed their doors. By 1932, an additional 5102 banks went out of business.
Families lost their life savings overnight. Thirty-eight states had adopted restrictions on
withdrawals in an effort to forestall the panic. Bank failures increased in 1933, and Franklin
Roosevelt deemed remedying these failing financial institutions his first priority after being
inaugurated.

Roosevelt, unlike Hoover, was quick to act. Two days after taking the oath of office, Roosevelt
declared a "BANK HOLIDAY." From March 6 to March 10, banking transactions were
suspended across the nation except for making change. During this period, Roosevelt presented
the new Congress with the EMERGENCY BANKING ACT. The law empowered the
President through the TREASURY DEPARTMENT to reopen banks that were solvent and
assist those that were not. The House allowed only forty minutes of debate before passing the
law unanimously, and the Senate soon followed with overwhelming support.
Banks were divided into four categories. Surprisingly, slightly over half the nation's banks were
deemed first category and fit to reopen. The second category of banks was permitted to allow
a percentage of its deposits to be withdrawn. The third category consisted of banks that were
on the brink of collapse. When the holiday was ended, these banks were only permitted to
accept deposits. Five percent of banks were in the final category — unfit to continue business.
On the Sunday evening before the banks reopened, Roosevelt addressed the nation through one
of his signature "FIRESIDE CHATS." With honest words in soothing tones, the President
assured sixty million radio listeners that the crisis was over and the nation's banks were secure.
On the first day back in business, deposits exceeded withdrawals. By the beginning of April,
Americans confidently returned a billion dollars to the banking system. The bank crisis was
over.
But the legislation was not. On June 16, 1933, Roosevelt signed the GLASS-STEAGALL
BANKING REFORM ACT. This law created the FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE
CORPORATION. Under this new system, depositors in member banks were given the
security of knowing that if their bank were to collapse, the federal government would refund
their losses. Deposits up to $2500, a figure that would rise through the years, were henceforth
100% safe. The act also restricted banks from recklessly speculating depositors' money in the
stock market. In 1934, only 61 banks failed.
Letters poured in to the White House from grateful Americans. Workers and farmers were
thrilled that their savings were indeed now safe. Bankers breathed a sigh of relief knowing that
Roosevelt did not intend to nationalize the banking system as many European countries had
already done. Although radical in speed and scope, Roosevelt's banking plan strengthened the
current system, without fundamentally altering it. One of his advisors quipped, "Capitalism
was saved in eight days."
b. Putting People Back to Work
Out of work Americans needed jobs. To the unemployed, many of whom had no money left in
the banks, a decent job that put food on the dinner table was a matter of survival.
Unlike Herbert Hoover, who refused to offer direct assistance to individuals, Franklin
Roosevelt knew that the nation's unemployed could last only so long. Like his banking
legislation, aid would be immediate. Roosevelt adopted a strategy known as "priming the
pump." To start a dry pump, a farmer often has to pour a little into the pump to generate a heavy
flow. Likewise, Roosevelt believed the national government could jump start a dry economy
by pouring in a little federal money.
The first major help to large numbers of jobless Americans was the FEDERAL
EMERGENCY RELIEF ACT. This law gave $3 billion to state and local governments for
direct relief payments. Under the direction of HARRY HOPKINS, FERA assisted millions of
Americans in need. While Hopkins and Roosevelt believed this was necessary, they were
reticent to continue this type of aid. Direct payments might be "narcotic," stifling the initiative
of Americans seeking paying jobs. Although FERA lasted two years, efforts were soon shifted
to "work-relief" programs. These agencies would pay individuals to perform jobs, rather than
provide handouts.
The first such initiative began in March 1933. Called the CIVILIAN CONSERVATION
CORPS, this program was aimed at over two million unemployed unmarried men between the
ages of 17 and 25. CCC participants left their homes and lived in camps in the countryside.
Subject to military-style discipline, the men built reservoirs and bridges, and cut fire lanes
through forests. They planted trees, dug ponds, and cleared lands for camping. They earned
$30 dollars per month, most of which was sent directly to their families. The CCC was
extremely popular. Listless youths were removed from the streets and given paying jobs and
provided with room and shelter.
There were plenty of other opportunities for the unemployed in the New Deal. In the fall of
1933, Roosevelt authorized the CIVIL WORKS ADMINISTRATION. Also headed by
Hopkins, this program employed 2.5 million in a month's time, and eventually grew to a
multitudinous 4 million at its peak.
Earning $15 per week, CWA workers tutored the illiterate, built parks, repaired schools, and
constructed athletic fields and swimming pools. Some were even paid to rake leaves. Hopkins
put about three thousand writers and artists on the payroll as well. There were plenty of jobs to
be done, and while many scoffed at the make-work nature of the tasks assigned, it provided
vital relief during trying times.
The largest relief program of all was the WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION. When
the CWA expired, Roosevelt appointed Hopkins to head the WPA, which employed nearly 9
million Americans before its expiration. Americans of all skill levels were given jobs to match
their talents. Most of the resources were spent on public works programs such as roads and
bridges, but WPA projects spread to artistic projects too.
The FEDERAL THEATER PROJECT hired actors to perform plays across the land. Artists
such as BEN SHAHN beautified cities by painting larger-than-life murals. Even such
noteworthy authors as JOHN STEINBECK and RICHARD WRIGHT were hired to write
regional histories. WPA workers took traveling libraries to rural areas. Some were assigned the
task of transcribing documents from colonial history; others were assigned to assist the blind.
Critics called the WPA "We Piddle Around" or "We Poke Along," labelling it the worst waste
of taxpayer money in American history. But most every county in America received some
service by the newly employed, and although the average monthly salary was barely above
subsistence level, millions of Americans earned desperately needed cash, skills, and self-
respect.
c. The Farming Problem
Farmers faced tough times. While most Americans enjoyed relative prosperity for most of the
1920s, the Great Depression for the American farmer really began after World War I. Much of
the Roaring '20s was a continual cycle of debt for the American farmer, stemming from falling
farm prices and the need to purchase expensive machinery. When the stock market crashed in
1929 sending prices in an even more downward cycle, many American farmers wondered if
their hardscrabble lives would ever improve.
The first major New Deal initiative aimed to help farmers attempted to raise farm prices to a
level equitable to the years 1909-14. Toward this end, the AGRICULTURAL
ADJUSTMENT ADMINISTRATION was created. One method of driving up prices of a
commodity is to create artificial scarcity. Simply put, if farmers produced less, the prices of
their crops and livestock would increase.
The AAA identified seven BASIC FARM PRODUCTS: wheat, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice,
hogs, and milk. Farmers who produced these goods would be paid by the AAA to reduce the
amount of acres in cultivation or the amount of LIVESTOCK raised. In other words, farmers
were paid to farm less!
The press and the public immediately cried foul. To meet the demands set by the AAA, farmers
plowed under millions of acres of already planted crops. Six million young pigs were
slaughtered to meet the subsidy guidelines. In a time when many were out of work and tens of
thousands starved, this wasteful carnage was considered blasphemous and downright wrong.
But farm income did increase under the AAA. Cotton, wheat, and corn prices doubled in three
years. Despite having misgivings about receiving government subsidies, farmers
overwhelmingly approved of the program. Unfortunately, the bounty did not trickle down to
the lowest economic levels. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers did not receive government aid;
the subsidy went to the landlord. The owners often bought better machinery with the money,
which further reduced the need for farm labour. In fact, the Great Depression and the AAA
brought a virtual end to the practice of sharecropping in America.
The Supreme Court put an end to the AAA in 1936 by declaring it unconstitutional. At this
time the Roosevelt administration decided to repackage the agricultural subsidies as incentives
to save the environment. After years and years of plowing and planting, much of the soil of the
Great Plains and become depleted and weak. Great winds blew clouds of dust that fell like
brown snow to cover homes across the region as residents of the "Dust Bowl" moved west in
search of better times.
The SOIL CONSERVATION AND DOMESTIC ALLOTMENT ACT paid farmers to
plant clover and alfalfa instead of wheat and corn. These crops return nutrients to the soil. At
the same time, the government achieved its goal of reducing crop acreage of the key
commodities.
Another major problem faced by American farmers was mortgage foreclosure. Unable to make
the monthly payments, many farmers were losing their property to their banks. Across the
CORN BELT of the Midwest, the situation grew desperate. Farmers pooled resources to bail
out needy friends. Minnesota and North Dakota passed laws restricting FARM
FORECLOSURES. Vigilante groups formed to intimidate bill collectors. In Le Mars, Iowa,
an angry mob beat a foreclosing judge to the brink of death in April 1933.
FDR intended to stop the madness. The FARM CREDIT ACT, passed in March 1933
refinanced many mortgages in danger of going unpaid. The FRAZIER-LEMKE FARM
BANKRUPTCY ACT allowed any farmer to buy back a lost farm at a law price over six years
at only one percent interest. Despite being declared unconstitutional, most of the provisions of
Frazier-Lemke were retained in subsequent legislation.
In 1933 only about one out of every ten American farms was powered by electricity. The
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION AUTHORITY addressed this pressing problem. The
government embarked on a mission of getting electricity to the nation's farms. Faced with
government competition, private utility companies sprang into action and by sending power
lines to rural areas with a speed previously unknown. By 1950, nine out of every ten farms
enjoyed the benefits of electric power.
d. Social Security
PENSIONS for the retired or the notion of Social Security was not always the domain of the
federal government. Individuals were expected to save a little of each paycheck for the day
they would at last retire. Those who were aggressive enough to negotiate a pension plan with
an employer were few indeed. The majority of working Americans, however, lived check to
check, with little or nothing extra to be saved for the future. Many became a drag on the rest of
the family upon retirement. The SOCIAL SECURITY ACT OF 1935 aimed to improve this
predicament.
Many nations in Europe had already experimented with pension plans. Britain and Germany
had found exceptional success. The American plan was a bit different in its design. SOCIAL
SECURITY was described as a "contract between generations." The current generation of
workers would pay into a fund while the retirees would take in a monthly stipend. Upon
reaching the age of 65, individuals would start receiving payments based upon the amount
contributed over the years.
Employees would have one percent of their incomes automatically deducted from their pay
checks, a rate that was originally envisioned to reach 3%. Employers would also contribute for
their employees. The plan was mandatory except for individuals in exempted professions.
Roosevelt knew that this reform would be permanent. He guessed that once workers had paid
into a system for decades, they would expect to receive their checks. Woe to the politician who
tried to end the system once it was in place.
A committee of staffers led by SECRETARY OF LABOR FRANCES PERKINS, the first
female ever to hold a Cabinet position, penned the Social Security Act. In addition to providing
old- age pensions, the legislation created a safety net for other Americans in distress.
Unemployment insurance was part of the plan, to be funded by employers. The federal
government also offered to match state funds for the blind and for job training for the physically
disabled. Unmarried women with dependent children also received funds under the Social
Security Act.
Roosevelt and his advisers knew that the Social Security Act was not perfect. Like other
experiments, he hoped the law would set the groundwork for a system that could be refined
over time. Social Security differed from European plans in that it made no effort to provide
universal health insurance. The pensions that retirees received were extremely modest — below
poverty level standards in most cases. Still, Roosevelt knew the plan was revolutionary. For
the first time, the federal government accepted permanent responsibility for assisting people in
need. It paved the way for future legislation that would redefine the relationship between the
American people and their government.
50. The Road to Pearl Harbor
51. America in the Second World War
52. Postwar Challenges
a. The Cold War Erupts
In 1945, one major war ended, and another began.
The Cold War lasted about 45 years. There were no direct military campaigns between the two
main antagonists, the United States and the Soviet Union. Yet billions of dollars and millions
of lives were lost in the fight.
The United States became the leader of the free-market capitalist world. America and its allies
struggled to keep the communist, totalitarian Soviet Union from expanding into Europe, Asia,
and Africa. Theaters as remote as Korea and Vietnam, Cuba and Grenada, Afghanistan and
Angola, became battlegrounds between the two ideologies. One postwar pattern quickly
became clear. The United States would not retreat into its former isolationist stance as long as
there was a Cold War to wage.
The long-term causes of the Cold War are clear. Western democracies had always been hostile
to the idea of a communist state. The United States had refused recognition to the USSR for 16
years after the Bolshevik takeover. Domestic fears of communism erupted in a RED SCARE
in America in the early Twenties. American business leaders had long feared the consequences
of a politically driven workers' organization. World War II provided short-term causes as well.
There was hostility on the Soviet side as well. Twenty million Russian citizens perished during
World War II. Stalin was enraged that the Americans and British had waited so long to open a
front in France. This would have relieved pressure on the Soviet Union from the attacking
Germans. Further, The United States terminated Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union before the
war was complete. Finally, the Soviet Union believed in communism.
Stalin made promises during the war about the freedom of eastern Europe on which he blatantly
reneged. At the YALTA CONFERENCE, the USSR pledged to enter the war against Japan
no later than three months after the conclusion of the European war. In return, the United States
awarded the Soviets territorial concessions from Japan and special rights in Chinese
Manchuria.
When the Soviet Union entered the war between the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the
United States no longer needed their aid, but Stalin was there to collect on Western promises.
All these factors contributed to a climate of mistrust that heightened tensions at the outbreak
of the Cold War.
At Potsdam, the Allies agreed on the postwar outcome for Nazi Germany. After territorial
adjustments, Germany was divided into four OCCUPATION ZONES with the United States,
Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union each administering one. Germany was to be
democratized and de-Nazified. Once the Nazi leaders were arrested and war crimes trials
began, a date would be agreed upon for the election of a new German government and the
withdrawal of Allied troops.
This process was executed in the zones held by the western Allies. In the eastern Soviet
occupation zone, a puppet communist regime was elected. There was no promise of repatriation
with the west. Soon such governments, aided by the Soviet Red Army came to power all across
eastern Europe. Stalin was determined to create a buffer zone to prevent any future invasion of
the Russian heartland.
Winston Churchill remarked in 1946 that an "iron curtain had descended across the continent."
54. A New Civil Rights Movement
In 1950, the United States operated under an apartheid-like system of legislated white
supremacy.
Although the Civil War did bring an official end to slavery in the United States, it did not erase
the social barriers built by that "PECULIAR INSTITUTION."
Despite the efforts of RADICAL RECONSTRUCTIONISTS, the American South emerged
from the CIVIL WAR with a system of laws that undermined the freedom of African
Americans and preserved many elements of white privilege. No major successful attack was
launched on the segregation system until the 1950s.
Beginning with the Supreme Court's school integration ruling of 1954, the American legal
system seemed sympathetic to African American demands that their FOURTEENTH
AMENDMENT CIVIL RIGHTS be protected. Soon, a peaceful equality movement began
under the unofficial leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A wave of marches, boycotts, sit-
ins, and freedom rides swept the American South and even parts of the North.
Public opinion polls across the nation and the world revealed a great deal of sympathy for
African Americans. The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations gave the Civil
Rights Movement at least tacit support. Although many obstacles to complete racial equity
remained, by 1965 most legal forms of discrimination had been abolished.
Legal equality did not bring economic equality and social acceptance. Gains made by civil
rights activists did not bring greater unity in the movement. On the contrary, as the 1960s
progressed, a radical wing of the movement grew stronger and stronger. Influenced by Malcolm
X, the Black Power Movement rejected the policy of nonviolence at all costs and even believed
integration was not a desirable short-term goal. Black nationalists called for the establishment
of a nation of African Americans dependent on each other for support without the interference
or help of whites.
Race-related violence began to spread across the country. Beginning in 1964, a series of "long,
hot summers" of rioting plagued urban centers. More and more individuals dedicated to African
American causes became victims of assassination. Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin
Luther King Jr. were a few of the more famous casualties of the tempest.
Hope and optimism gave way to alienation and despair as the 1970s began. Many realized that
although changing racist laws was actually relatively simple, changing racist attitudes was a
much more difficult task.
b. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
On a cold December evening in 1955, ROSA PARKS quietly incited a revolution — by just
sitting down.
She was tired after spending the day at work as a department store seamstress. She stepped
onto the bus for the ride home and sat in the fifth row — the first row of the "COLORED
SECTION."
In Montgomery, Alabama, when a bus became full, the seats nearer the front were given to
white passengers.
Montgomery bus driver JAMES BLAKE ordered Parks and three other African Americans
seated nearby to move ("Move y'all, I want those two seats,") to the back of the bus.
Three riders complied; Parks did not.
The following excerpt of what happened next is from Douglas Brinkley's 2000 Rosa Park's
biography.
After Parks refused to move, she was arrested and fined $10. The chain of events triggered by
her arrest changed the United States.
King, Abernathy, Boycott, and the SCLC
In 1955, a little-known minister named MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. led the DEXTER
AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH in Montgomery.
King studied the writings and practices of Henry David Thoreau and MOHANDAS GANDHI.
Their teaching advocated civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to social injustice.
A staunch devotee of nonviolence, King and his colleague RALPH ABERNATHY were a
part of a community organization, the MONTGOMERY IMPROVEMENT
ASSOCIATION (MIA), which organized a BOYCOTT OF MONTGOMERY'S BUSES.
The demands they made were simple: Black passengers should be treated with courtesy.
Seating should be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis, with white passengers sitting from
front to back and black passengers sitting from back to front. And African American drivers
should drive routes that primarily serviced African Americans. On Monday, December 5, 1955,
the boycott went into effect.
Montgomery officials stopped at nothing in attempting to sabotage the boycott. King and
Abernathy were arrested. Violence began during the action and continued after its conclusion.
Four churches — as well as the homes of King and Abernathy — were bombed. But the boycott
continued.
The MIA had hoped for a 50 percent support rate among African Americans. To their surprise
and delight, 99 percent of the city's African Americans refused to ride the buses. People walked
to work or rode their bikes, and carpools were established to help the elderly. The bus company
suffered thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Finally, on November 23, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the MIA.
SEGREGATED BUSING was declared unconstitutional. City officials reluctantly agreed to
comply with the Court Ruling. The black community of Montgomery had held firm in their
resolve.
The Montgomery bus boycott triggered a firestorm in the South. Across the region, blacks
resisted "moving to the back of the bus." Similar actions flared up in other cities. The boycott
put Martin Luther King Jr. in the national spotlight. He became the acknowledged leader of the
nascent CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
With Ralph Abernathy, King formed the SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP
CONFERENCE (SCLC).
This organization was dedicated to fighting Jim Crow segregation. African Americans boldly
declared to the rest of the country that their movement would be peaceful, organized, and
determined.
To modern eyes, getting a seat on a bus may not seem like a great feat. But in 1955, sitting
down marked the first step in a revolution.
f. Martin Luther King Jr.
As the unquestioned leader of the peaceful Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, DR.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. was at the same time one of the most beloved and one of the
most hated men of his time. From his involvement in the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955
until his untimely death in 1968, King's message of change through peaceful means added to
the movement's numbers and gave it its moral strength. The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
is embodied in these two simple words: equality and nonviolence.
King was raised in an activist family. His father was deeply influenced by MARCUS
GARVEY's BACK TO AFRICA MOVEMENT in the 1920s. His mother was the daughter
of one of Atlanta's most influential African American ministers. As a student, King excelled.
He easily moved through grade levels and entered Morehouse College, his father's alma mater,
at the age of fifteen. Next, he attended Crozer Theological Seminary, where he received a
Bachelor of Divinity degree. While he was pursuing his doctorate at Boston University, he met
and married CORETTA SCOTT. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1955, King accepted an
appointment to the Dexter Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
After his organization of the bus boycott, King formed the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, which dedicated itself to the advancement of rights for African Americans. In
April 1963, King organized a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, a city King called "the most
thoroughly segregated city in the United States." Since the end of World War II, there had been
60 unsolved bombings of African American churches and homes.
Boycotts, sit-ins and marches were conducted. When Bull Connor, head of the Birmingham
police department, used fire hoses and dogs on the demonstrators, millions saw the images on
television. King was arrested. But support came from around the nation and the world for King
and his family. Later in 1963, he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to thousands
in Washington, D.C.
After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, King turned his efforts to registering African
American voters in the South. In 1965, he led a march in Selma, Alabama, to increase the
percentage of African American voters in Alabama. Again, King was arrested. Again, the
marchers faced attacks by the police. Tear gas, cattle prods, and billy clubs fell on the peaceful
demonstrators. Public opinion weighed predominantly on the side of King and the protesters.
Finally, President Johnson ordered the National Guard to protect the demonstrators from attack,
and King was able to complete the long march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery.
The action in Selma led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Early in the morning of April 4, 1968, King was shot by JAMES EARL RAY. Spontaneous
violence spread through urban areas as mourners unleashed their rage at the loss of their leader.
Rioting burst forth in many American cities.
But the world never forgot his contributions. Time magazine had named him "Man of the Year"
in 1963. In 1964, he won the Nobel Peace Prize and was described as "the first person in the
Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence." In 1977, he
was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian
American can earn. In the 1980s, his birthday became a national holiday, creating an annual
opportunity for Americans to reflect on the two values he dedicated his life to advancing:
equality and nonviolence.
57. Shaping a New America
a. Modern Feminism
"Motherhood is bliss." "Your first priority is to care for your husband and children."
"Homemaking can be exciting and fulfilling."
Throughout the 1950s, educated middle-class women heard advice like this from the time they
were born until they reached adulthood. The new suburban lifestyle prompted many women to
leave college early and pursue the "cult of the housewife." Magazines such as Ladies Home
Journal and Good Housekeeping and television shows such as "Father Knows Best" and "The
Donna Reed Show" reinforced this idyllic image.
But not every woman wanted to wear pearls and bring her husband his pipe and slippers when
he came home from work. Some women wanted careers of their own.
In 1963, BETTY FRIEDAN published a book called THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE that
identified "the problem that has no name." Amid all the demands to prepare breakfast, to drive
their children to activities, and to entertain guests, Friedan had the courage to ask: "Is this all
there is?" "Is this really all a woman is capable of doing?" In short, the problem was that many
women did not like the traditional role society prescribed for them.
Friedan's book struck a nerve. Within three years of the publication of her book, a new feminist
movement was born, the likes of which had been absent since the suffrage movement. In 1966,
Friedan, and others formed an activist group called the NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR
WOMEN. NOW was dedicated to the "full participation of women in mainstream American
society."
They demanded equal pay for equal work and pressured the government to support and enforce
legislation that prohibited gender discrimination. When Congress debated that landmark Civil
Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in employment on account of race,
conservative Congressmen added gender to the bill, thinking that the inclusion of women
would kill the act. When this strategy backfired and the measure was signed into law, groups
such as NOW became dedicated to its enforcement.
Like the anti-war and civil rights movements, feminism developed a radical faction by the end
of the decade. Women held "consciousness raising" sessions where groups of females shared
experiences that often led to their feelings of enduring a common plight.
In 1968, radical women demonstrated outside the Miss America Pageant outside Atlantic City
by crowning a live sheep. "FREEDOM TRASH CANS" were built where women could
throw all symbols of female oppression including false eyelashes, hair curlers, bras, girdles,
and high-heeled shoes. The media labelled them bra burners, although no bras were actually
burned.
The word "SEXISM" entered the American vocabulary, as women became categorized as a
target group for discrimination. Single and married women adopted the title MS. as an
alternative to Miss or Mrs. to avoid changing their identities based upon their relationships with
men. In 1972, GLORIA STEINEM founded a feminist magazine of that name.
Authors such as the feminist GERMAINE GREER impelled many women to confront social,
political, and economic barriers. In 1960, women comprised less than 40 percent of the nation's
undergraduate classes, and far fewer women were candidates for advanced degrees. Despite
voting for four decades, there were only 19 women serving in the Congress in 1961. For every
dollar that was earned by an American male, each working American female earned 59¢. By
raising a collective consciousness, changes began to occur. By 1980, women constituted a
majority of American undergraduates.
As more and more women chose careers over housework, marriages were delayed to a later
age and the birthrate plummeted. Economic independence led many dissatisfied women to
dissolve unhappy marriages, leading to a skyrocketing divorce rate.
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, invoking the memory of her
mother, evokes the mood of the women's rights movement: "I pray that I may be all that she
would have been had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve, and daughters
are cherished as much as sons."
d. Roe v. Wade and Its Impact
No topic related to the feminist movement has aroused such passion and controversy as much
as the right to an abortion. In the 1960s, there was no federal law regulating abortions, and
many states had banned the practice entirely, except when the life of the mother was
endangered.
Women's groups argued that illegality led many women to seek black market abortions by
unlicensed physicians or to perform the procedure on themselves. As a result, several states
such as California and New York began to legitimize abortions. With no definitive ruling from
the federal government, women's groups sought the opinion of the United States Supreme
Court.
The battle began in Texas, which outlawed any type of abortion unless a doctor determined
that the mother's life was in danger. The anonymous Jane Roe challenged the Texas law, and
the case slowly made its way to the highest court in the land.
After two years of hearing evidence, the Court invalidated the Texas law by a 7-2 vote. Using
the same reasoning as the Griswold v. Connecticut decision, the majority of the justices
maintained that a right to privacy was implied by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments. No
state could restrict abortions during the first three months, or trimester, of a pregnancy.
States were permitted to adopt restrictive laws in accordance with respecting the mother's
health during the second trimester. The practice could be banned outright during the third
trimester. Any state law that conflicted with this ruling was automatically overturned.
Women's groups were ecstatic. But immediately an opposition emerged. The Roman Catholic
Church had long criticized abortion as a form of infanticide. Many fundamentalist Protestant
ministers joined the outcry. The NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE formed with
the explicit goal of reversing Roe v. Wade.
The issue is fundamentally thorny because it involves basic faiths. Those who believe life
begins at conception feel that the unborn child deserves the same legal protections as an adult.
Ending such a life is equivalent to murder to those who subscribe to this belief. Others argue
that life begins at birth, and that laws restricting abortion interfere with the right of a woman
to decide what is in her own best interests. Opponents of abortion use the label "PRO-LIFE"
to define their cause. Supporters of Roe v. Wade identify themselves as "PRO-CHOICE."
Since 1973, the battle has raged. Pro-life groups began to lobby their Senators and
Representatives to propose a Right-to-Life Amendment to the Constitution. Although
introduced in Congress, the measure has never received the necessary support. Pro-choice
groups such as the NATIONAL ABORTION RIGHTS ACTION LEAGUE fear that a slow
erosion of abortion rights has taken place since Roe v. Wade.
The HYDE AMENDMENT OF 1976 prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds to be used
for abortions. Later Court decisions such as PLANNED PARENTHOOD V. CASEY(1992)
have upheld the right of states to impose waiting periods and parental notification requirements.
President George Bush imposed a "gag rule" that prohibited workers in federally funded clinics
from even mentioning abortion as an option with their patients. Bill Clinton promptly ended
the gag rule in 1993.
Planned Parenthood clinics have become local battlegrounds over the abortion controversy.
Since Planned Parenthood prides itself in providing safe, inexpensive abortions, protesters
regularly picket outside their offices. Several Planned Parenthood sites have even been bombed
by antiabortion extremists.
The fate of Roe v. Wade continues to lie with the Supreme Court. Although every ruling since
1973 upheld the decision, the composition of the Court changes with every retirement. Activists
on each side demand a "litmus test" for any justice named to the federal courts. Republicans
have tended to appoint pro-life judges, and Democrats have selected pro-choice nominees.
At the dawn of the 21st century, the battle remains as fierce as ever.
 f. Others Demand Equality
The 1960s broadened the traditional definition of civil rights, as the politics of identity
exploded in the United States. As African Americans and women demanded much needed
reforms, other groups who felt on the margins of American society organized as well. The
climate was conducive to change, and many felt the need to seize the moment. Latino
Americans, Native Americans, and gay Americans demanded fair treatment and inclusion
under the banner of civil rights.
MEXICAN AMERICANS, or CHICANOS, were steadily growing in population in the
American Southwest throughout the twentieth century. In 1965, CESAR CHAVEZ led a strike
on behalf of the migrant farm workers in California. Chavez used the strategies of Martin
Luther King to reach his goals of higher pay and better working conditions. In addition to the
strike, he organized the UNITED FARM WORKERS union and enacted a nationwide boycott
of grapes to support his cause. Responding to the mistreatment of union membership in the
fields, Chavez commenced a three-week hunger strike to receive national attention. When the
grape growers recognized his union in 1970, his deeds were vindicated.
Not all Mexican American activism followed King's approach. A group known as the BROWN
BERETS, who modelled themselves after the Black Panthers, strove to take control of the
streets of Chicano neighbourhoods. They battled the Immigration and Naturalization Service
and chanted "Brown Power" in the same spirit that Stokely Carmichael chanted "Black Power."
As politics became more radicalized, a "RED POWER" MOVEMENT emerged in Native
American communities. In urban Native American ghettoes across the Midwest, the
AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT (AIM) took shape. Members of AIM were tired of
working through a system they believed was the primary reason many Native Americans lived
in dire poverty. They chose attention-grabbing stunts as the means to draw attention to their
cause.
In 1969, members of AIM seized ALCATRAZ ISLAND in San Francisco Bay. AIM members
offered the United States government the equivalent amount of trinkets that PETER MINUIT
paid to the inhabitants of Manhattan Island in 1626. For 18 months the occupation forces held
firm. In 1972, AIM protesters occupied the BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS building in
Washington, DC. The final battle of the war for the Great Plains was re-enacted in 1973 when
members of AIM seized WOUNDED KNEE in South Dakota. After a 71-day holdout, the
siege collapsed.
Identity politics flared among HOMOSEXUAL AMERICANS as well. The catalyst for the
gay rights movement came when New York City police officers raided the STONEWALL
INN in May 1969. The patrons of the bar felt singled out for police harassment for years, but
this time they fought back, hurling rocks, fists, and insults at the police. On the one-year
anniversary of the STONEWALL RIOT, the first gay rights parade was staged in New York
City. Although many legal rights and protections such as marriage for gay Americans remained
out of reach into the twenty-first century, small gains were achieved in the years that followed
Stonewall. In 1974, the American Psychiatric Association officially removed homosexuality
from its list of mental illnesses. By the mid-1970s, the FBI no longer considered homosexuals
a security risk, and gays were no longer denied civil service jobs based on their sexual
orientation.
Although the fight for societal acceptance rages on, the many civil rights movements were born
in the cauldron of the protest movements of the turbulent 1960s.