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Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
BRIEF
Contents
Prologue Enduring Vision, Enduring Land xxvii
1 Native Peoples of America, to 1500 2
2 The Rise of the Atlantic World, 1400–1625 22
3 The Emergence of Colonial Societies, 1625–1700 50
4 The Bonds of Empire, 1660–1750 84
5 Roads to Revolution, 1750–1776 116
6 Securing Independence, Defining Nationhood, 1776–1788 146
7 Launching the New Republic, 1788–1800 178
8 America at War and Peace, 1801–1824 210
9 The Transformation of American Society, 1815–1840 236
10 Democratic Politics, Religious Revival, and Reform, 1824–1840 264
11 Technology, Culture, and Everyday Life, 1840–1860 294
12 The Old South and Slavery, 1830–1860 320
13 Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict, 1840–1848 348
14 From Compromise to Secession, 1850–1861 374
15 Crucible of Freedom: Civil War, 1861–1865 400
16 Reconstruction and Resistance, 1865–1877 436
Appendix A-1
Index I-1
Brief Contents vii

Contents
Special Features xv Portugal and the Atlantic, 1400–1500 30 • African Trade,
Maps xvi the “New Slavery,” and Racism 31 • To the Americas
Figures xvii and Beyond, 1492–1522 32 • Spain’s Conquistadors,
Tables xvii 1492–1536 34 • The Columbian Exchange 37
Preface xix O Going to the Source First Encounter 36
About the Authors xxv
Footholds in North America, 1512–1625 38
Spain’s Northern Frontier 38 • France: Colonizing
Prologue Enduring Vision, Canada 41 • England and the Atlantic World,
1558–1603 42 • Failure and Success in Virginia,
Enduring Land xxvii 1603–1625 43 • New England Begins, 1614–1625 45
• A “New Netherland” on the Hudson, 1609–1625 46
The Continent and Its Regions xxviii
The West xxviii • The Heartland xxx • The Atlantic The Whole Vision 47
Seaboard xxxi
A Legacy and a Challenge xxxii
3 The Emergence of Colonial
Societies, 1625–1700 50
1 Native Peoples of America, Chronology, 1625–1700 51
to 1500 2 Chesapeake Society 52
Chronology, 13,000 b.c.e.–c.e. 1500 3 State and Church in Virginia 52 • State and Church
in Maryland 52 • Gender, Kinship, and Demographics
The First Americans, ca. 13,000–2500 B.C.E. 33 in the Chesapeake 53 • Social Life in Tobacco Country,
Peopling New Worlds 4 • Archaic Societies 5 1630–1675 54 • Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676 56 • From
The Emergence of Tribal Societies, ca. 2500 Servitude to Slavery: Racializing the Chesapeake 57
B.C.E.–C.E. 1500 5 New England: Puritanism and Its Decline 58
Mesoamerica and South America 7 • The Southwest 9 • A City upon a Hill 58 • New England Ways 59 •
The Eastern Woodlands 11 • Nonfarming Societies 13 Towns, Families, and Farm Life 61 • Economic
Native American Kinship, Gender, and Culture, and Religious Tensions 64 • Expansion and Native
ca. 1500 C.E. 14 Americans 66 • Salem Witchcraft, 1691–1693 67
Kinship and Marriage 15 • Gender and Work 15 • O Going to the Source Chesapeake Society Anne
Spirituality, Rituals and Beliefs 16 • Native American Hutchinson versus John Winthrop 62
Social Values 17 The Spread of Slavery: The Caribbean and
Going to the Source A Cherokee Oral Tradition 18
O Carolina 70
The Whole Vision 20 Sugar and Slaves: The West Indies 70 • Rice and Slaves:
Carolina 71
The Middle Colonies: Ethnic and Religious
2 The Rise of the Atlantic World, Diversity 72
Precursors: New Netherland and New Sweden 72 •
1400–1625 22 English Conquests: New York and New Jersey 73 •
Chronology, 1400–1625 23 Quaker Pennsylvania 75
The Context for European Exploration 24 Rivals for North America: France and Spain 76
European Culture and Society 24 • Traditional Values in France Claims a Continent 77 • New Mexico: The Pueblo
Flux 26 • Religious Fractures 27 • The Impact of the Revolt 78 • Florida and Texas 80
Reformation in England, 1533–1625 28 The Whole Vision 81
Exploration, Interaction, and Early Contact in the
Atlantic World, 1400–1600 30
Contents ix
over the Townshend Acts, 1767–1770 129 • Women
4 The Bonds of Empire, and Colonial Resistance 130 • Customs “Racketeering,”
1767–1770 131 • “Wilkes and Liberty,” 1768–1770 132
1660–1750 84
The Deepening Crisis, 1770–1774 133
Chronology, 1660–1750 85 The Boston Massacre, 1770 133 • The Committees of
England’s Wars and Colonial Reverberations, Correspondence, 1772–1773 134 • Conflicts in the
1660–1713 85 Colonial West 135 • The Tea Act, 1773 136
Royal Centralization, 1660–1688 86 • The Glorious Toward Independence, 1774–1776 137
Revolution, 1688–1689 86 • A Generation of War, Liberty for African Americans 137 • The “Intolerable
1689–1713 88 Acts” 139 • The Continental Congress 139 •
Colonial Economies and Societies, 1660–1750 88 From Resistance to Rebellion 140 • Common
England’s Mercantilist Empires in America 89 • Mercantilism Sense 141 • Declaring Independence 142
in the Hands of France and Spain 90 • Population Growth and The Whole Vision 144
Diversity 91 • New Immigrants—Free and Unfree—to the
British Colonies 91 • Rural White Men and Women 94
• Colonial Farmers and the Environment 95 • The
Urban Paradox 96 • Slavery 97 • The Rise of Colonial
Elites 100
6 Securing Independence, Defining
O Going to the Source A Planter Describes the Task
Nationhood, 1776–1788 146
System 99 Chronology, 1776–1788 147
Competing for a Continent, 1713–1750 101 The Prospects of War 148
France and the American Heartland 101 • Native Loyalists and Other British Sympathizers 148 • Slaves
Americans and British Expansion 103 • British and Native Americans During the War 149 • Military
Expansion in the South: Georgia 104 • Spain’s Preparedness on Both Sides 150
Borderlands 104 • The Return of War, 1739–1748 106
War and Peace, 1776–1783 151
Public Life in British America, 1689–1750 107 Shifting Fortunes in the North, 1776–1778 151 •
Colonial Politics 107 • The Enlightenment 109 • The War in the West, 1776–1782 154 • Victory in the
The Great Awakening 111 South, 1778–1781 155 • Peace at Last, 1782–1783 157
The Whole Vision 114 The Revolution and Social Change 158
Egalitarianism Among White Men 158 • White
Women in Wartime 159 • A Revolution for African
Americans 160 • Native Americans and the Revolution 162
5 Roads to Revolution, Forging New Governments, 1776–1787 163
1750–1776 116 From Colonies to States 163 • Formalizing a Confederation,
1776–1781 164 • Finance, Trade, and the Economy,
Chronology, 1750–1776 117 1781–1786 165 • The Confederation and the West 166
Triumph and Tensions: The British Empire, Going to the Source The Northwest Ordinance 168
O
1750–1763 118
A Fragile Peace, 1750–1754 118 • The Seven Years’
Toward a New Constitution, 1786–1788 169
Shays’s Rebellion, 1786–1787 170 • The Philadelphia
War in America, 1754–1760 119 • The End of French
Convention, 1787 170 • The Struggle over Ratification,
North America, 1760–1763 120 • Anglo-American
1787–1788 173
Friction 121 • Frontier Tensions 122
O Going to the Source Pontiac Recounts a Prophet’s The Whole Vision 176
Vision 123
Imperial Authority, Colonial Opposition,
1760–1766 124
Writs of Assistance, 1760–1761 124 • The Sugar Act,
7 Launching the New Republic,
1764 125 • The Stamp Act Crisis, 1765–1766 125 •
1788–1800 178
Ideology, Religion, and Resistance 128 Chronology, 1788–1800 179
Resistance Resumes, 1766–1770 129 Economic and Social Change 180
Opposing the Quartering Act, 1766–1767 129 • Crisis Producing for Markets 180 • White Women in
x Contents
the Republic 181 • Land and Culture: Native The Awakening of American Nationalism 228
Americans 183 • African American Struggles 186 Madison’s Nationalism and the Era of Good Feelings,
O G
oing to the Source Two African American 1817–1824 228 • John Marshall and the Supreme
Assertions of Equality: Benjamin Banneker to Thomas Court 230 • The Missouri Compromise,
Jefferson and the Quock Walker Case 188 1820–1821 230 • Foreign Policy Under Monroe 232 •
Constitutional Government and New Domestic The Monroe Doctrine, 1823 233
Policies, 1788–1794 191 The Whole Vision 234
Implementing Government 191 • The Federal Judiciary
and the Bill of Rights 191 • Establishing the Nation’s
Credit 192 • Creating a National Bank 193 • Emerging
Partisanship 194 • The Whiskey Rebellion 195 9 The Transformation of American
The United States in a Wider World, Society, 1815–1840 236
1789–1796 196 Chronology, 1815–1840 237
Spanish Power in Western North America 196 •
Challenging American Expansion, 1789–1792 197 • France Westward Expansion 238
and Factional Politics, 1793 198 • Diplomacy and War, Western Society and Customs 238 • The Far
1793–1796 200 West 239 • The Federal Government and the
West 240 • The Removal of the Indians 240 • Working
Parties and Politics, 1793–1800 201 the Land: The Agricultural Boom 242
Ideological Confrontation, 1793–1794 201 •
The Republican Party, 1794–1796 202 • The Election The Growth of the Market Economy 243
of 1796 203 • The French Crisis, 1798–1799 203 • Federal Land Policy, Speculators, and Squat-
The Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798 205 • ters 243 • The Panic of 1819 244 • The Transportation
The Election of 1800 206 Revolution 245 • The Growth of the Cities 246
The Whole Vision 208 Industrial Beginnings 248

Causes of Industrialization 250 • Women and Textile
Towns in New England 250 • Artisans and Workers
in Mid-Atlantic Cities 252
8 America at War and Peace, The Revolution in Social Relationships 253
1801–1824 210 Urban Inequality: The Rich and the Poor 253 • Free
Blacks in the North 254 • The “Middling Classes” 255 •
Chronology, 1801–1824 211 The Challenge to Family Authority 256 • Wives and
The Age of Jefferson 212 Husbands 257
Jefferson and Jeffersonianism 212 • Jefferson’s Going to the Source Tocqueville on American
O
“Revolution” 213 • Jefferson and the Judiciary 213 • Democracy 259
Extending the Land: The Louisiana Purchase, 1803 215 •
The Election of 1804 215 • Exploring the Land: The Lewis The Whole Vision 261
and Clark Expedition 216
The Gathering Storm 217
Challenges on the Home Front 217 • The Suppres-
sion of American Trade and Impressment 220 • The
10 Democratic Politics, Religious
Embargo Act of 1807 220 • James Madison and the
Revival, and Reform, 1824–1840 264
Failure of Peaceable Coercion 222 • Tecumseh and the Chronology, 1824–1840 265
Prophet 222 • Congress Votes for War 223
The Rise of Democratic Politics, 1824–1832 266
Going to the Source Meriwether Lewis’s Journal 219
O
Democratic Ferment 266 • The Election of 1824 and the
The War of 1812 225 Adams Presidency 267 • The Rise of Andrew Jackson and
On to Canada 225 • The British Offensive 226 the Election of 1828 268 • Jackson in Office 268 •
• The Treaty of Ghent, 1814 227 • The Hartford Nullification 269 • The Bank Veto and the Election of
Convention 228 1832 271
Contents xi
The Bank Controversy and the Second Party System,
1833–1840 272
The War on the Bank 272 • The Rise of Whig
12 The Old South and Slavery,
Opposition 273 • The 1836 Election and the Panic of
1830–1860 320
1837 274 • Log Cabins, Hard Cider, and a Maturing Chronology, 1830–1860 321
Second Party System 275
King Cotton 322
The Rise of Popular Religion 277 The Lure of Cotton 322 • Ties Between the Lower
The Second Great Awakening 277 • The Burned-Over and Upper South 325 • The North and South
District 278 • Critics of Revivals: The Unitarians 279 Diverge 325
Mormonism 279 • The Shakers 280
The White South 327
The Age of Reform 281 Planters and Plantation Mistresses 328 • The Small
The War on Liquor 281 • Public-School Reform 283 • Slaveholders 330 • The Yeomen and Pine Barrens
Abolition 283 • Woman’s Rights 286 • Penitentiaries Whites 331 • Conflict and Consensus in the White
and Asylums 288 • Utopian Communities 289 South 331 • The Proslavery Argument 333
Going to the Source The Declaration of
O
Life Under Slavery 334
Sentiments 287 Work and Discipline of Plantation Slaves 334 • The
The Whole Vision 291 Slave Family 336 • The Longevity, Diet, and Health of
Slaves 337 • Away from the Plantation: Town Slaves and
Free Blacks 338 • Slave Resistance 339
The Emergence of African American Culture 341
11 Technology, Culture, The Language of Slaves 341 • African American
Religion 341 • Black Music and Dance 344
and Everyday Life, 1840–1860 294
Going to the Source Henry Bibb on Slave
O
Chronology, 1840–1860 295 Resistance 343
Technology and Economic Growth 296 The Whole Vision 345
Agricultural Advancement 296 • Technology and
Industrial Progress 297 • The Railroad Boom 298 •
Rising Prosperity 300
The Quality of Life 301 13 Immigration, Expansion, and
Dwellings 301 • Conveniences and Inconveniences 301
• Disease and Medicine 303 • Popular Health
Sectional Conflict, 1840–1848 348
Movements 303 • Phrenology 304 Chronology, 1840–1848 349
Commercializing Leisure 304 Newcomers and Natives 350

Newspapers 305 • The Theater 305 • Minstrel Expectations and Realities 350 • The Germans 352 •
Shows 306 • P.T. Barnum 306 The Irish 352 • Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor
Protest 353 • Immigrant Politics 354
The American Renaissance in Literature
and Art 307 The West and Beyond 355
Roots of the American Renaissance 308 • Cooper, The Far West 355 • Far Western Trade 355 •
Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and Whitman 308 • Mexican Government in the Far West and Texas Revolu-
Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville 311 • Literature in the tion of 1836 357 • The Overland Trail to California, New
Marketplace 312 • American Landscape Painting 313 Mexico, and Oregon 359
Going to the Source Henry David Thoreau, “Walking”

O The Politics of Expansion, 1840–1846 360
(1862) 310 The Whig Ascendancy 360 • Tyler and the Annexation
of Texas 361 • The Election of 1844 361 • Manifest
The Whole Vision 317 Destiny, 1845 362 • Polk and Oregon 363
xii Contents
The U.S. War with Mexico and Its Aftermath, Emancipation Transforms the War, 1863 415
1846–1848 364 From Confiscation to Emancipation 416 • Crossing
The Origins of the U.S. War with Mexico 364 • Union Lines 417 • The Black Experience: Union Sol-
The U.S. War with Mexico 366 • The War’s Effects on Sec- diers and Wartime Slavery 417 • The Turning Point of
tional Conflict 367 • The Wilmot Proviso and the Election 1863 420
of 1848 367 • The California Gold Rush 370 Going to the Source Frederick Douglass Calls for Black
O
Going to the Source Polk on Texas and Oregon 369

O Troops 418
The Whole Vision 372 War and Society, North and South 422
The War’s Economic Impact: The North 423 •
The War’s Economic Impact: The South 423 • Dealing
14 From Compromise to Secession, with Dissent 425 • Women and the War 426
The Union Victorious, 1864–1865 428
1850–1861 374 The Eastern Theater in 1864 429 • Lincoln’s Reelec-
Chronology, 1850–1861 375 tion and Sherman’s Total War 429 • Toward Appomat-
tox 431 • The Impact of the War 432
The Compromise of 1850 376
Taylor’s and Clay’s Strategies for The Whole Vision 434
Compromise 376 • Assessing the Compromise and the
Fugitive Slave Act 377 • Uncle Tom’s Cabin 380
The Collapse of the Second Party System,
1853–1856 381
16 Reconstruction and Resistance,
The Kansas-Nebraska Act 381 • The Surge of Free
1865–1877 436
Soil 382 • The Whigs and the Know-Nothings, Chronology, 1863–1879 437
1853–1856 383 • The Republican Party and the Crisis in
Reconstruction Politics, 1865–1868 438
Kansas, 1855–1856 384 • The Election of 1856 386
Lincoln’s Plan 438 • Presidential
The Crisis of the Union, 1857–1860 387 Reconstruction 439 • Congress versus
The Dred Scott Case, 1857 387 • The Lecompton Con- Johnson 440 • The Fourteenth Amendment,
stitution, 1857 388 • The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1866 441 • Congressional Reconstruction,
1858 389 • The Legacy of Harpers Ferry 392 1866–1867 442 • The Impeachment Crisis,
The Union Fragments, 1860–1861 392 1867–1868 443 • The Fifteenth Amendment and the
The Election of 1860 392 • The Gospel of Disunion 394 • Question of Woman Suffrage, 1869–1870 444
The Upper South and the Coming of War 394 Reconstruction Governments 446
Going to the Source Lincoln at Cooper Union 395
O A New Electorate 446 • Republican
Rule 447 • Counterattacks 448
The Whole Vision 398
The Impact of Emancipation 450
Confronting Freedom 450 • African
15 Crucible of Freedom: Civil War, American Institutions 451 • Land, Labor,

and Sharecropping 453 • Toward a Crop-Lien
Economy 454
1861–1865 400
Going to the Source The Barrow Plantation 455
O
Chronology, 1861–1865 401
New Concerns in the North, 1868–1876 457
Mobilizing for War 402 Grantism 458 • The Liberals’ Revolt 459 • The
Recruitment and Conscription 402 • Financing Panic of 1873 459 • Reconstruction
the War 404 • Political Leadership in and the Constitution 460 • Republicans in Retreat 461
Wartime 405 • Securing the Union’s Borders 406
Reconstruction Abandoned,
In Battle, 1861–1862 407 1876–1877 461
Armies, Weapons, and Strategies 407 • Stalemate in
“Redeeming” the South 462 • The Election of
the East 409 • The War in the West 411 •
1876 462 • Reconstruction: Success or Failure? 465
The Soldiers’ War 412 • Ironclads and Cruisers: The Naval
War 413 • The Diplomatic War 414 The Whole Vision 466
Contents xiii
Density and Distribution, 1790–2010 A-13 • Changing
Appendix A-1 Characteristics of the U.S. Population
Immigration Totals by Decade A-15
A-14 • Estimated
• Major Sources
Documents A-1 of Immigration, 1820–2000 A-15 • The American
Declaration of Independence A-1 • Constitution of the Worker A-16
United States of America A-3
The American Government A-17
The American Land A-12 Presidential Elections, 1789–2012 A-17
Admission of States into the Union A-12 •
The American Economy A-21
Territorial Expansion A-12
Key Economic Indicators A-21 • Federal Budget Outlays
The American People A-13 and Debt A-22
Population, Percentage Change, and Racial Composition
for the United States, 1790–2010 A-13 • Population
Index I-1
xiv Contents
S P EC I AL
Features
GOING TO THE SOURCE
A Cherokee Oral Tradition 18
First Encounter 36
Chesapeake Society Anne Hutchinson versus John Winthrop 62
A Planter Describes the Task System 99
Pontiac Recounts a Prophet’s Vision 123
The Northwest Ordinance 168
Two African American Assertions of Equality: Benjamin Banneker to Thomas
Jefferson and the Quock Walker Case 188
Meriwether Lewis’s Journal 219
Tocqueville on American Democracy 259
The Declaration of Sentiments 287
Henry David Thoreau, “Walking” (1862) 310
Henry Bibb on Slave Resistance 343
Polk on Texas and Oregon 369
Lincoln at Cooper Union 395
Frederick Douglass Calls for Black Troops 418
The Barrow Plantation 455
Special Features xv
Maps
P.1 North American Climatic Regions ix 7.1 American Expansion and Indian Land Cessions,
P.2 Land Use and Major Mineral Resources in the 1768–1800 185
United States x 7.2 Spanish Settlements In Alta California, 1800 197
P.3 Natural Vegetation of the United States x 7.3 Disputed Territorial Claims in the West,
1.1 The Peopling of the Americas 6 1783–1796 199
1.2 Major Mesoamerican Cultures, ca. 8.1 The Louisiana Purchase and the Exploration
1000 b.c.e.–c.e. 1519 7 of the West 216
1.3 Major Andean Cultures, 900 b.c.e.–c.e. 1432 9 8.2 The Three U.S. Invasions of 1812 226
1.4 Locations of Selected Native American Peoples, 8.3 The Missouri Compromise, 1820–1821 232
c.e. 1500 17 9.1 The Removal of the Native Americans to
2.1 Europe, Africa, and Southwestern Asia in 1500 25 the West, 1820–1840 242
2.2 Major Religions in Europe, ca. 1560 29 9.2 Major Rivers, Roads, and Canals, 1825–1860 247
2.3 Major Transatlantic Explorations, 1000–1542 33 9.3 Population Distribution, 1790 and 1850 248
2.4 The Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1610 38 9.4 American Cities, 1820 and 1860 249
2.5 Native American-European Contacts, 9.5 Cotton Mills in the Northeast 251
1497–1600 39 10.1 The Election of 1828 269
2.6 European Imperial Claims and Settlements in Eastern 10.2 The Election of 1840 276
North America, 1565–1625 40 10.3 Religious and Utopian Communities,
3.1 English Migration, 1610–1660 52 1800–1845 280
3.2 Pattern of Settlement in Surry County, Virginia, 11.1 Railroad Growth, 1850–1860 300
1620–1660 55 12.1 Distribution of Slaves, 1820 and 1860 323
3.3 Chesapeake Expansion, 1607–1700 57 12.2 The Internal Slave Trade, 1810–1860 325
3.4 Land Divisions in Central Sudbury, Massachusetts, 13.1 Trails to the West, 1840 356
1639–1656 63 13.2 Major Battles in the Texas Revolution,
3.5 New England Expansion, 1620–1674 65 1835–1836 359
3.6 The Geography of Witchcraft: Salem Village, 1692 69 13.3 The Election of 1844 362
3.7 The Caribbean Colonies, 1670 70 13.4 Oregon Boundary Dispute 364
3.8 European Colonization in the Middle and North 13.5 Major Battles of the Mexican-American War 368
Atlantic, ca. 1650 73 14.1 The Compromise of 1850 378
3.9 New York Manors and Land Grants 75 14.2 The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 382
4.1 Immigration and British Colonial Expansion 14.3 Bleeding Kansas 385
to 1755 93 14.4 The Election of 1860 393
4.2 Main Sources of African Slaves, ca. 1500–1800 94 14.5 Secession 396
4.3 European Occupation of North America, to 15.1 The War in the East, 1861–1862 410
1750 102 15.2 The War in the West, 1861–1862 411
5.1 The Seven Years’ War in North America, 15.3 The Sea Islands 420
1754–1760 119 15.4 Gettysburg, 1863 421
5.2 European Territorial Claims, 1763 121 15.5 The War in the West, 1863: Vicksburg 422
6.1 The War in the North, 1775–1778 152 15.6 Sherman’s March Through the South,
6.2 The War in the West, 1776–1782 155 1864–1865 431
6.3 The War in the South, 1778–1781 156 15.7 The Final Virginia Campaign, 1864–1865 432
6.4 State Claims to Western Lands, and State 16.1 The Reconstruction of the South 443
Cessions to the Federal Government, 1782–1802 166 16.2 The Barrow Plantation, 1860 and 1881 455
6.5 The Northwest Territory, 1785–1787 167 16.3 Southern Sharecropping, 1880 457
6.6 Federalist and Antifederalist Strongholds, 16.4 The Disputed Election of 1876 464
1787–1790 175
xvi Maps
Figures
2.1 Decline in Real Wages in England, 1500–1700 26 12.2 Growth of Cotton Production and the Slave
3.1 Chesapeake Tobacco Prices, 1618–1710 55 Population, 1790–1860 324
4.1 Distribution of Europeans and Africans within 12.3 Slave Ownership in the South, 1860 327
the British Mainland Colonies, 1700–1755 92 13.1 German, Irish, and Total Immigration,
4.2 Populations of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, 1830–1860 351
1690–1776 97 15.1 Opposing Armies of the Civil War 403
7.1 Number and Percentage of Free Blacks, 15.2 Comparative Population and Economic Resources
by State, 1800 187 of the Union and the Confederacy, 1861 407
12.1 Value of Cotton Exports as a Percentage of All U.S. 15.3 Civil War Deaths Compared with U.S. Deaths
Exports, 1800–1860 324 in Other Wars 433
Tables
15.1 Emancipation of Slaves in the Atlantic World: 16.3 Percentage of Persons Unable to Write, by Age Group,
A Selective List 430 1870–1890, in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
16.1 Major Reconstruction Legislation 442 Mississippi, and Louisiana 452
16.2 The Reconstruction Amendments 445 16.4 The Duration of Republican Rule in the
Ex-Confederate States 461
Figures xvii
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Preface
The history of the United States has been shaped by an endur-
ing vision, a shared commitment to a set of beliefs and values—
Newer Approaches
including individual freedom, social equality, the rule of law,
and openness to diversity—that run like threads through the
to the American Past
lives of the American people. Those powerful beliefs and val- This new ninth edition of The Enduring Vision sustains the
ues express the people’s collective determination to give mean- emphasis on social and cultural history that was established in
ing to America. Over the course of U.S. history, even when the first edition. Religious history remains an important focus,
those values have been violated, that central vision of America from the spiritual values of pre-Columbian communities to
has endured. The Enduring Vision, Ninth Edition, continues its the political activism of contemporary conservative Christian
authors’ commitment, first undertaken nearly 30 years ago, to groups. Family history and the history of education receive
convey the strength of that enduring vision over centuries of serious attention. Visual culture—paintings, photographs,
often destabilizing change. cartoons, and other illustrations—is investigated through all
Over the past 50 years, the discipline of history itself chapters in the volume. For the ninth edition, Andrew Rieser
has changed dramatically, moving from an earlier focus on of the State University of New York, Dutchess Community
national political narrative toward a rich and complex array College, is an important addition to the author team, bringing
of approaches—such as social, cultural, environmental, and notable expertise in cultural history.
global history. The Enduring Vision aims to integrate the best
recent scholarship in all fields of American history without Environmental History
abandoning a clear political and chronological framework. In
keeping with our central theme, our primary emphasis from From the first edition on, The Enduring Vision has also paid close
the first edition to this new ninth edition has been social and attention to the environmental history of America’s past because
cultural history, the fields that have shaped the authors’ own it is clear that geography, land, and landscape have played an
teaching and scholarship. We are attentive to the lived his- important role throughout human history. The Enduring Vision’s
torical experiences of women, African Americans, Hispanic unique Prologue on the American Land solidly establishes those
Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans—that is, themes early on, and our extensive coverage of environmental
of men and women of all ethnic groups, regions, and social history, the land, and the West is fully integrated into the narra-
classes who make up the American mosaic. It was in their tive and treated analytically—not simply “tacked on” to a tradi-
daily lives, their lived experience of American history, that the tional account. We seek to encourage students’ spatial thinking
enduring vision of America was articulated—and it was their about historical developments by offering a map program rich
actions that put those visionary values to the test. in information, easy to read, and visually appealing. And our
The Enduring Vision is designed for both college class- primary source feature, Going to the Source (described in
rooms and Advanced Placement courses in U.S. history. more detail later), offers a number of primary sources involving
Though it offers an appropriately complex treatment of the the land, including excerpts from Meriwether Lewis’s Journal,
American past, it requires no prerequisite knowledge from Thoreau’s essay “Walking,” and a Dust Bowl diary.
students. Our approach is not only comprehensive, but read-
able, lively, and illuminating. The Enduring Vision is also atten- Global History
tive to the process of historical learning. Recent research on
In response to newer developments in the history discipline,
history education has emphasized the crucial importance of
recent editions of The Enduring Vision have underscored the
teaching students the fundamental skills of historical think-
global context of American history. We continue to engage
ing, such as addressing both continuity and change over time,
with new literature on global history throughout the narrative.
using evidence to construct and test their own hypotheses,
In addition, our online MindTap resource includes a special
understanding past events in their own contexts, and coming
feature titled Beyond America—Global Interactions, which
to terms with the contingency of history. The Enduring Vision
was first introduced in the sixth edition. From the origins of
is especially effective in helping students understand the con-
agriculture ten millennia ago to the global impact of environ-
nections between particular historical events and larger trends
mental changes today, we have emphasized how all facets of
and developments.
our historical experience emerge with fresh new clarity when
viewed within a broader world framework.
Preface xix
Histories of Technology Special Features
and Medicine In MindTap, every chapter of The Enduring Vision provides
Students show a particular fascination with the histories of students with either a Beyond America—Global Interactions
technology and medicine. In our popular Technology & feature or a Technology & Culture feature. Beyond America—
Culture feature (available in MindTap), and throughout the Global Interactions offers provocative, in-depth discussions
print text, we continue to highlight the historical importance of America’s place in world history, focusing on such global
of new inventions and technological innovations. In addi- developments as the origins and spread of agriculture, slave
tion to discussing the applications of science and technology, emancipation in the Atlantic World, and global climate change.
we note the often unanticipated cultural, social, and political Technology & Culture provides fascinating insight into such
consequences of such innovations—from new hunting imple- subjects as sugar production in the Americas, guns and gun cul-
ments developed by Paleo-Indians to contemporary break- ture, and the interstate highway system. Both features address
throughs in information processing and debates over net important developments in U.S. history from the perspective
neutrality. Medicine and disease receive extensive coverage, of major new approaches to the past, with an intensity of detail
and we look at the epidemics brought by European explorers geared to engaging students’ curiosity and analytic engagement.
and settlers as well as today’s AIDS crisis, bioethics debates, Among the many new exciting additions to The Enduring
and controversies over health care financing. Vision’s MindTap is a thought-provoking unit reflection activ-
ity titled “Thinking Like an Historian” that challenges students’
critical thinking skills by walking them through a brief histo-
Organization and riography based on recent scholarship, asking them to analyze
a related set of primary source images, and finally presenting
Special Features of them with an overarching essay question that aims at the heart
of a core unit theme.
The Enduring Vision Every chapter in the print version of The Enduring Vision
The general organization of the text is chronological, with indi- also includes a primary source feature, Going to the Source,
vidual chapters conforming to important historical periods. first introduced in the seventh edition. Its pedagogical purpose
In keeping with our emphasis on social and cultural history, is not only to bring history alive for our students, but to offer
some chapters take a more thematic approach, overlapping opportunities for their direct engagement in historical inter-
chronologically with those that precede and follow them, thus pretation and analysis. Going to the Source offers a rich selec-
introducing students to a more sophisticated understanding tion of primary sources, drawing on speeches, diaries, letters,
of the different levels—political, cultural, economic, social—of and other materials created by Americans who lived through
historical periodization. and helped shape the great events and historical changes of
successive periods. In selecting documents, we focused espe-
cially, but not exclusively, on environmental themes. A brief
Pedagogical Structure introduction places each selection in context, and focus ques-
Within each chapter, we offer a number of features designed to tions suggest assignment and discussion possibilities. The
help students grasp its structure and purpose. A brief chapter voices captured in Going to the Source include both promi-
introduction prepares students for the broader developments, nent historical figures (from Christopher Columbus to Barack
themes, and historical problems that are addressed in that Obama) and lesser-known men and women (such as the
chapter. A chapter outline lists both the major headings and Cherokee named Swimmer who explained the place of human
the subheads of the chapter, while also providing focus ques- beings in the natural world to an early anthropologist, and
tions for each section—questions designed to help students North Dakota farm girl Anna Marie Low who endured the
read the chapter actively rather than passively. Those ques- terrible dust storms of the 1930s).
tions also appear under the major headings within the body of
each chapter. Chronologies appear near the beginning of each
chapter to provide an overview of key events. The chapter con- Chapter-by-Chapter
clusion, The Whole Vision, addresses and answers the focus
questions, providing students with an opportunity to review Updates to the
what they’ve read.
As a further pedagogical aid, each chapter includes key
Ninth Edition
terms and definitions that appear in marginal boxes near This edition of The Enduring Vision brings the work fully up to
where the boldfaced term first appears in the chapter. All date, incorporating major developments and scholarship since
terms are also grouped at the end of the chapter for quick and the eighth edition went to press. In our chapter revisions, we
easy review. In addition, an annotated, up-to-date list of core have introduced new material and new visual images, tight-
readings, available on the website, offers guidance for those ened and clarified lines of argument, and responded to review-
wishing to explore a particular topic in depth. ers’ suggestions for strengthening our work.
xx Preface
For the ninth edition of The Enduring Vision, we have Chapter 22 updates the treatment of the 1918 influenza epi-
carefully assessed the coverage, interpretations, and analytic demic, reflecting new scientific research. Chapter 23 includes
framework of each chapter to incorporate the latest scholar- new material on the formation of the credit industry and its
ship and emerging themes. This process is reflected both in role in facilitating consumerism. Chapter 24 improves the
our textual revisions and in the new works of scholarship cited coverage of Hollywood’s “Golden Age” while Chapters 25 and
in the end-of-chapter bibliographies. A chapter-by-chapter 26 provide condensed opening vignettes and other improve-
glimpse of some of the changes highlights new content and ments in clarity and readability.
up-to-the-minute scholarship. Chapter 27 enhances the treatment of the interstate high-
Chapter 1 significantly revises and expands coverage on way system and racial segregation in the North. Chapter 28
Native American food ways, spirituality, marriage, and gender offers expanded discussions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
roles, while providing a more focused discussion of regional and new paragraphs on the post–civil rights struggle for
differences between native peoples. Chapter 2 enhances black equality, with particular emphasis on mass incarcera-
the treatment of initial contact between Europeans and tion. Chapter 29 expands the treatment of 1960s student pro-
Native Americans, updates the material on West Africa and test, including new material comparing U.S. protests in 1968
African slavery, and provides a stronger treatment of gender with those in Mexico and Europe. Taking advantage of new
throughout. In Chapter 3, the topics of race and slavery in the scholarship on the conservative movement, Chapter 30 sup-
Chesapeake and gender dynamics in colonial New England plies a thoroughly reorganized section on that topic, including
and New Netherland have been refined and extended. Chapter new material tracing the origins of modern conservatism to
4 extends treatment of the Middle Passage and includes new anti–New Deal activism in the 1930s. Supply-side economics
material on women in the Great Awakening. is now clearly defined and its contribution to conservatism in
Chapter 5 includes expanded treatment of the role of the 1970s and 1980s explained.
women in colonial resistance against British policies. Chapter Chapter 31 has been significantly reworked and updated
6 increases the coverage of slave experiences and women’s roles with new narratives and analysis of the Obama presidency
during the revolutionary war and also contributes new mate- and foreign policy challenges. The chapter updates readers on
rial on the impact of the war on Native American culture and recent climate change agreements and trade pacts; the status
society. Chapter 7 supplies a new chapter opener and greatly of the Afghan war; worsening U.S. relations with Russia; and
enhanced treatment of women and African Americans in the
events in the Middle East (including the Syrian Civil War and
new republic. Chapter 8 expands coverage of women’s roles in
the ISIS threat). The chapter also provides improved treat-
the War of 1812 and broadens the discussion of the economic
ment of the Tea Party and new sections on political polariza-
significance of the cotton gin. Chapter 9 expands the treatment
tion, congressional gridlock, and the 2014 midterm elections;
of the Trail of Tears and elaborates on women’s factory work and
developments in civil liberties, including NSA spying, mar-
the ideology of separate spheres. Chapter 10 extends the treat-
riage equality, and voting rights; current demographic and
ment of abolitionism and the experience of free blacks. Chapter
economic trends, stressing the uneven quality of the economic
11 sharpens the discussion of the impact of mechanization on
recovery and the ongoing racial inequities that prompted a
workers’ lives and brings in new material on the impact of the
wave of urban unrest in 2014 and 2015; and the 2016 presi-
rising market economy for women’s household roles.
dential primaries and general election.
Chapter 12 includes new material on yeoman farmers’
wives, southern paternalism, and secret slave churches.
Chapter 13 provides new details on gender roles for families
on the trek west, Native American experiences, and Lincoln’s Supplements
reactions to the U.S. war with Mexico. Chapter 14 consolidates r MindTap Instant Access Code (Full Volume): ISBN
sections on the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave 9781337113724
Act while providing new material on the southern response
r MindTap Instant Access Code (Volume 1): ISBN
to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Chapter 15 increases discussion of the
9781337111287
role of women in the Civil War and the effect of the war on
women’s lives. r MindTap Instant Access Code (Volume 2): ISBN
Chapter 16 adds new material on the Memphis Riot of 9781337113809
1866 and a new section analyzing the successes and failures of r MindTap Printed Access Card (Full Volume): ISBN
Reconstruction. Chapter 17 includes new material on Plains 9781337113731
Indians family structure and gender roles. Chapters 18 and 19 r MindTap Printed Access Card (Volume 1): ISBN
include condensed opening vignettes and other revisions for 9781337111294
improved clarity and readability. Chapter 20 improves the treat-
ment of the Populist support for women’s suffrage and enhanced r MindTap Printed Access Card (Volume 2): ISBN
analysis of the political impact of Populism’s defeat in 1896. 9781337113816
Chapter 21 condenses and consolidates two sections on the MindTap for The Enduring Vision, Ninth Edition, is a person-
national phase of the Progressive Movement into one section. alized, online learning platform that provides students with
Preface xxi
an immersive learning experience to build and foster critical “soup-to-nuts” approach to researching and writing about his-
thinking skills. Through a carefully designed chapter-based tory addresses every step of the process: locating your sources,
learning path, MindTap allows students to easily identify gathering information, writing and citing according to various
learning objectives; draw connections and improve writing style guides, and avoiding plagiarism.
skills by completing unit-level essay assignments; read short, Writing for College History (ISBN: 9780618306039),
manageable sections from the e-book; and test their content Prepared by Robert M. Frakes of Clarion University. This brief
knowledge with map- and timeline-based critical thinking handbook for survey courses in American, western, and world
questions. history guides students through the various types of writing
MindTap allows instructors to customize their content, assignments they may encounter in a history class. Providing
providing tools that seamlessly integrate YouTube clips, out- examples of student writing and candid assessments of student
side websites, and personal content directly into the learning work, this text focuses on the rules and conventions of writing
path. Instructors can assign additional primary source content for the college history course.
through the Instructor Resource Center and Questia primary The Modern Researcher, Sixth Edition (ISBN: 9780495318705),
and secondary source databases that house thousands of peer- Prepared by Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff of Columbia
reviewed journals, newspapers, magazines, and full-length University. This classic introduction to the techniques of
books. research and the art of expression thoroughly covers every
The additional content available in MindTap mirrors and aspect of research, from the selection of a topic through the
complements the authors’ narrative, but also includes primary gathering of materials, analysis, writing, revision, and publica-
source content and assessments not found in the printed text. tion of findings. They present the process not as a set of rules
To learn more, ask your Cengage Learning sales representative but through actual cases that put the subtleties of research in a
to demo it for you—or go to www.Cengage.com/MindTap. useful context. Part One covers the principles and methods of
Instructor’s Companion Website The Instructor’s Companion research; Part Two covers writing, speaking, and getting one’s
Website, accessed through the Instructor Resource Center work published.
(login.cengage.com), houses all of the supplemental materi- Reader Program Cengage Learning publishes a number of
als you can use for your course. This includes a Test Bank, readers. Some contain exclusively primary sources, others are
Instructor’s Resource Manual, and PowerPoint Lecture devoted to essays and secondary sources, and still others pro-
Presentations. The Test Bank, offered in Microsoft Word and vide a combination of primary and secondary sources. All of
Cognero formats, contains multiple-choice, short-answer, these readers are designed to guide students through the pro-
map-based, and essay questions for each chapter. Cognero is cess of historical inquiry. Visit www.cengage.com/history for a
a flexible, online system that allows you to author, edit, and complete list of readers.
manage test bank content for The Enduring Vision. Create Custom Options Nobody knows your students like you, so
multiple test versions instantly and deliver through your LMS why not give them a text that tailor-fits their needs? Cengage
from your classroom, or wherever you may be, with no spe- Learning offers custom solutions for your course—whether
cial installs or downloads required. The Instructor’s Resource it’s making a small modification to World Civilizations, Ninth
Manual includes chapter outlines, a review of each chapter’s Edition, to match your syllabus or combining multiple sources to
core themes, suggested lecture topics, and additional teaching create something truly unique. Contact your Cengage Learning
resources. Finally, the PowerPoint lectures are ADA-compliant representative to explore custom solutions for your course.
slides that collate the key takeaways from each chapter in con-
cise visual formats perfect for in-class presentations or for stu-
dent review.
Acknowledgments
Cengagebrain.com Save your students time and money. In undertaking revisions of our textbook, we have drawn on
Direct them to www.cengagebrain.com for a choice in for- our own scholarly work and teaching experience. We have
mats and savings and a better chance to succeed in your class. also kept abreast of new work of historical interpretation, as
Cengagebrain.com, Cengage Learning’s online store, is a single reported by our U.S. history colleagues in their books, schol-
destination for more than 10,000 new textbooks, eTextbooks, arly articles, and papers at historical meetings. We list much of
eChapters, study tools, and audio supplements. Students have this new work in the books cited in the bibliographies on The
the freedom to purchase à la carte exactly what they need Enduring Vision website. We are much indebted to all these
when they need it. Students can save 50 percent on the elec- colleagues.
tronic textbook and can purchase an individual eChapter for A special thanks goes to Debra Michals of Merrimack
as little as $1.99. College whose expertise as a U.S. history author and women’s
Doing History: Research and Writing in the Digital Age, history scholar helped round out Volume I of the ninth edition
Second Edition (ISBN: 9781133587880), Prepared by Michael of The Enduring Vision with numerous important scholarly
J. Galgano, J. Chris Arndt, and Raymond M. Hyser of James details and insights.
Madison University. Whether you’re starting down the path We have also benefited from the comments and sugges-
as a history major or simply looking for a straightforward, tions of instructors who have adopted The Enduring Vision;
systematic guide to writing a successful paper, this text’s from colleagues and students who have written us about
xxii Preface
specific details; and from the following scholars and teachers of keeping us all on track. Cathy Brooks, Senior Content
who offered systematic evaluations of specific chapters. Their Production Manager at Cengage, and Patty Donovan, Senior
perceptive comments have been most helpful in the revision Production Editor at partner SPi Global, ably shepherded the
process. work through the crucial stages of production.
While Paul Boyer is no longer with us, his example of
Charles deWitt, Nashville State Community College professionalism and attention to detail served as an ongoing
Gabrielle Everett, Jefferson College inspiration for everyone involved in the project. Paul was a
distinguished cultural and intellectual historian who served as
Kristen Foster, Marquette University the leader of The Enduring Vision team for 25 years until his
William Grose, Wytheville Community College death in 2012. For every successive edition, he worked tire-
John Hayes, Georgia Regents University lessly to bring the textbook up to date and incorporate new
perspectives and authors. He was a gentle and generous col-
Charles Hughes, Oklahoma State University league; he is missed and fondly remembered; and we dedicate
Johnny Moore, Radford University this volume to him.
Earl Mulderink, Southern Utah University
Paul S. Boyer (deceased)
Melanie Storie, East Tennessee State University Clifford E. Clark, Jr.
Karen Halttunen
Finally, we salute the skilled professionals at Cengage
Joseph F. Kett
Learning and its partners whose expertise and enthusiastic
Andrew Rieser
commitment to this new ninth edition guided us through
Neal Salisbury
every stage and helped sustain our own determination to make
Harvard Sitkoff
this the best book we could possibly write. Senior Content
Nancy Woloch
Developer Tonya Lobato managed the day-to-day challenges
Preface xxiii
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
singular, the said Frederick Baily alias
Douglass unto the said Hugh Auld, his
executors and administrators, and against all and
every other person or persons whatsoever, shall
and will warrant and forever defend by these
presents. In witness whereof, I set my hand and
seal, this thirteenth day of November, eighteen
hundred and forty-six (1846.)
Thomas Auld.
“Signed, sealed, and delivered, in presence of
Wrightson Jones, John C. Lear.”
The authenticity of this bill of sale is attested
by N. Harrington, a justice of the peace of the
state of Maryland, and for the county of Talbot,
dated same day as above.
* * * * *
“To all whom it may concern: Be it known that
I, Hugh Auld, of the city of Baltimore, in Baltimore
county in the state of Maryland, for divers good
causes and considerations, me thereunto
moving, have released from slavery, liberated,
manumitted, and set free, and by these presents
do hereby release from slavery, liberate,
manumit, and set free, my negro man, named
Frederick Baily, otherwise called Douglass,
being of the age of twenty-eight years, or
thereabouts, and able to work and gain a
sufficient livelihood and maintenance; and him
the said negro man, named Frederick
Douglass, I do declare to be henceforth free,
manumitted, and discharged from all manner of
servitude to me, my executors and
administrators forever.
“In witness whereof, I the said Hugh Auld,
have hereunto set my hand and seal the fifth of
December, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and forty-six.
Hugh Auld.
“Sealed and delivered in presence of T.
Hanson Belt, James N. S. T. Wright.”
Having remained abroad nearly two years, and being about to

return to America, not as I left it—a slave, but a freeman, prominent
friends of the cause of emancipation intimated their intention to make
me a testimonial both on grounds of personal regard to me, and also
to the cause to which they were so ardently devoted. How such a
project would have succeeded I do not know, but many reasons led
me to prefer that my friends should simply give me the means of
obtaining a printing press and materials, to enable me to start a
paper, advocating the interests of my enslaved and oppressed
people. I told them that perhaps the greatest hindrance to the
adoption of abolition principles by the people of the United States,
was the low estimate everywhere in that country placed upon the
negro as a man: that because of his assumed natural inferiority,
people reconciled themselves to his enslavement and oppression, as
being inevitable if not desirable. The grand thing to be done,
therefore, was to change this estimation, by disproving his inferiority
and demonstrating his capacity for a more exalted civilization than
slavery and prejudice had assigned him. In my judgment a tolerably
well conducted press in the hands of persons of the despised race,
would by calling out and making them acquainted with their own
latent powers, by enkindling their hope of a future, and developing
their moral force, prove a most powerful means of removing
prejudice and awakening an interest in them. At that time there was
not a single newspaper regularly published by the colored people in
the country, though many attempts had been made to establish
such, and had from one cause or another failed. These views I laid
before my friends. The result was, that nearly two thousand five
hundred dollars were speedily raised towards my establishing such a
paper as I had indicated. For this prompt and generous assistance,
rendered upon my bare suggestion, without any personal effort on
my part, I shall never cease to feel deeply grateful, and the thought
of fulfilling the expectations of the dear friends who had given me
this evidence of their confidence, was an abiding inspiration for
persevering exertion.
Proposing to leave England, and turning my face toward America
in the spring of 1847, I was painfully reminded of the kind of life
which awaited me on my arrival. For the first time in the many
months spent abroad, I was met with proscription on account of my
color. While in London I had purchased a ticket, and secured a berth,
for returning home in the Cambria—the steamer in which I had come
from thence—and paid therefor the round sum of forty pounds,
nineteen shillings sterling. This was first cabin fare; but on going on
board I found that the Liverpool agent had ordered my berth to be
given to another, and forbidden my entering the saloon. It was rather
hard after having enjoyed for so long a time equal social privileges,
after dining with persons of great literary, social, political, and
religious eminence, and never, during the whole time, having met
with a single word, look, or gesture, which gave me the slightest
reason to think my color was an offense to anybody—now to be
cooped up in the stern of the Cambria, and denied the right to enter
the saloon, lest my presence should disturb some democratic fellow-
passenger. The reader can easily imagine what must have been my
feelings under such an indignity.
This contemptible conduct met with stern rebuke from the British
press. The London Times, and other leading journals throughout the
United Kingdom, held up the outrage to unmitigated condemnation.
So good an opportunity for calling out British sentiment on the
subject had not before occurred, and it was fully embraced. The
result was that Mr. Cunard came out in a letter expressive of his
regret, and promising that the like indignity should never occur again
on his steamers, which promise I believe has been faithfully kept.
CHAPTER VII.
TRIUMPHS AND TRIALS.
New Experiences—Painful Disagreement of Opinion with old Friends—Final

Decision to Publish my Paper in Rochester—Its Fortunes and its Friends
—Change in my own Views Regarding the Constitution of the United
States—Fidelity to Conviction—Loss of Old Friends—Support of New
Ones—Loss of House, etc., by Fire—Triumphs and Trials—Underground
Railroad—Incidents.
PREPARED as I was to meet with many trials and perplexities on

reaching home, one of which I little dreamed was awaiting me. My
plans for future usefulness, as indicated in the last chapter, were all
settled, and in imagination I already saw myself wielding my pen as
well as my voice in the great work of renovating the public mind, and
building up a public sentiment, which should send slavery to the
grave, and restore to “liberty and the pursuit of happiness” the
people with whom I had suffered.
My friends in Boston had been informed of what I was intending,
and I expected to find them favorably disposed toward my cherished
enterprise. In this I was mistaken. They had many reasons against it.
First, no such paper was needed; secondly, it would interfere with my
usefulness as a lecturer; thirdly, I was better fitted to speak than to
write; fourthly, the paper could not succeed. This opposition from a
quarter so highly esteemed, and to which I had been accustomed to
look for advice and direction, caused me not only to hesitate, but
inclined me to abandon the undertaking. All previous attempts to
establish such a journal having failed, I feared lest I should but add
another to the list, and thus contribute another proof of the mental
deficiencies of my race. Very much that was said to me in respect to
my imperfect literary attainments, I felt to be most painfully true. The
unsuccessful projectors of all former attempts had been my
superiors in point of education, and if they had failed how could I
hope for success? Yet I did hope for success, and persisted in the
undertaking, encouraged by my English friends to go forward.
I can easily pardon those who saw in my persistence an
unwarrantable ambition and presumption. I was but nine years from
slavery. In many phases of mental experience I was but nine years
old. That one under such circumstances should aspire to establish a
printing press, surrounded by an educated people, might well be
considered unpractical if not ambitious. My American friends looked
at me with astonishment. “A wood-sawyer” offering himself to the
public as an editor! A slave, brought up in the depths of ignorance,
assuming to instruct the highly civilized people of the north in the
principles of liberty, justice, and humanity! The thing looked absurd.
Nevertheless I persevered. I felt that the want of education, great as
it was, could be overcome by study, and that wisdom would come by
experience; and further (which was perhaps the most controlling
consideration) I thought that an intelligent public, knowing my early
history, would easily pardon the many deficiencies which I well knew
that my paper must exhibit. The most distressing part of it all was the
offense which I saw I must give my friends of the old Anti-Slavery
organization, by what seemed to them a reckless disregard of their
opinion and advice. I am not sure that I was not under the influence
of something like a slavish adoration of these good people, and I
labored hard to convince them that my way of thinking about the
matter was the right one, but without success.
From motives of peace, instead of issuing my paper in Boston,
among New England friends, I went to Rochester, N. Y., among
strangers, where the local circulation of my paper—“The North
Star”—would not interfere with that of the Liberator or the Anti-
Slavery Standard, for I was then a faithful disciple of Wm. Lloyd
Garrison, and fully committed to his doctrine touching the pro-slavery
character of the Constitution of the United States, also the non-
voting principle of which he was the known and distinguished
advocate. With him, I held it to be the first duty of the non-
slaveholding States to dissolve the union with the slaveholding
States, and hence my cry, like his, was “No union with slaveholders.”
With these views I came into western New York, and during the first
four years of my labors here I advocated them with pen and tongue,
to the best of my ability. After a time, a careful reconsideration of the
subject convinced me that there was no necessity for dissolving the
“union between the northern and southern States;” that to seek this
dissolution was no part of my duty as an abolitionist; that to abstain
from voting was to refuse to exercise a legitimate and powerful
means for abolishing slavery; and that the Constitution of the United
States not only contained no guarantees in favor of slavery, but on
the contrary, was in its letter and spirit an anti-slavery instrument,
demanding the abolition of slavery as a condition of its own
existence, as the supreme law of the land.
This radical change in my opinions produced a corresponding
change in my action. To those with whom I had been in agreement
and in sympathy, I came to be in opposition. What they held to be a
great and important truth I now looked upon as a dangerous error. A
very natural, but to me a very painful thing, now happened. Those
who could not see any honest reasons for changing their views, as I
had done, could not easily see any such reasons for my change, and
the common punishment of apostates was mine.
My first opinions were naturally derived and honestly
entertained. Brought directly, when I escaped from slavery, into
contact with abolitionists who regarded the Constitution as a
slaveholding instrument, and finding their views supported by the
united and entire history of every department of the government, it is
not strange that I assumed the Constitution to be just what these
friends made it seem to be. I was bound not only by their superior
knowledge to take their opinions in respect to this subject, as the
true ones, but also because I had no means of showing their
unsoundness. But for the responsibility of conducting a public
journal, and the necessity imposed upon me of meeting opposite
views from abolitionists outside of New England, I should in all
probability have remained firm in my disunion views. My new
circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject, and study
with some care not only the just and proper rules of legal
interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, powers, and
duties of civil governments, and also the relations which human
beings sustain to it. By such a course of thought and reading I was
conducted to the conclusion that the Constitution of the United
States—inaugurated “to form a more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty”—
could not well have been designed at the same time to maintain and
perpetuate a system of rapine and murder like slavery, especially as
not one word can be found in the Constitution to authorize such a
belief. Then, again, if the declared purposes of an instrument are to
govern the meaning of all its parts and details, as they clearly
should, the Constitution of our country is our warrant for the abolition
of slavery in every State of the Union. It would require much time
and space to set forth the arguments which demonstrated to my
mind the unconstitutionality of slavery; but being convinced of the
fact my duty was plain upon this point in the farther conduct of my
paper. The North Star was a large sheet, published weekly, at a cost
of $80 per week, and an average circulation of 3,000 subscribers.
There were many times, when in my experience as editor and
publisher, I was very hard pressed for money, but by one means or
another I succeeded so well as to keep my pecuniary engagements,
and to keep my anti-slavery banner steadily flying during all the
conflict from the autumn of 1847 till the union of the States was
assured and emancipation was a fact accomplished. I had friends
abroad as well as at home who helped me liberally. I can never be
too grateful to Rev. Russell Laut Carpenter and to Mrs. Carpenter,
for the moral and material aid they tendered me through all the
vicissitudes of my paper enterprise. But to no one person was I more
indebted for substantial assistance than to Mrs. Julia Griffiths Crofts.
She came to my relief when my paper had nearly absorbed all my
means, and was heavily in debt, and when I had mortgaged my
house to raise money to meet current expenses; and by her
energetic and effective management, in a single year enabled me to
extend the circulation of my paper from 2,000 to 4,000 copies, pay
off the debts and lift the mortgage from my house. Her industry was
equal to her devotion. She seemed to rise with every emergency,
and her resources appeared inexhaustible. I shall never cease to
remember with sincere gratitude the assistance rendered me by this
noble lady, and I mention her here in the desire in some humble
measure to “give honor to whom honor is due.” During the first three
or four years my paper was published under the name of the North
Star. It was subsequently changed to Frederick Douglass’ Paper in
order to distinguish it from the many papers with “Stars” in their titles.
There were “North Stars,” “Morning Stars,” “Evening Stars,” and I
know not how many other stars in the newspaper firmament, and
some confusion arose naturally enough in distinguishing between
them; for this reason, and also because some of these stars were
older than my star I felt that mine, not theirs, ought to be the one to
“go out.”
Among my friends in this country, who helped me in my earlier
efforts to maintain my paper, I may proudly count such men as the
late Hon. Gerrit Smith, and Chief Justice Chase, Hon. Horace Mann,
Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, Hon. Charles Sumner, Hon. John G.
Palfry, Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Rev. Samuel J. May, and many others,
who though of lesser note were equally devoted to my cause.
Among these latter ones were Isaac and Amy Post, William and
Mary Hallowell, Asa and Hulda Anthony, and indeed all the
committee of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. They held
festivals and fairs to raise money, and assisted me in every other
possible way to keep my paper in circulation, while I was a non-
voting abolitionist, but withdrew from me when I became a voting
abolitionist. For a time the withdrawal of their coöperation
embarrassed me very much, but soon another class of friends were
raised up for me, chief amongst whom were the Porter family of
Rochester. The late Samuel D. Porter and his wife Susan F. Porter,
and his sisters, Maria and Elmira Porter, deserve grateful mention as
among my steadfast friends, who did much in the way of supplying
pecuniary aid.
Of course there were moral forces operating against me in
Rochester, as well as material ones. There were those who regarded
the publication of a “Negro paper” in that beautiful city as a blemish
and a misfortune. The New York Herald, true to the spirit of the
times, counselled the people of the place to throw my printing press
into Lake Ontario and to banish me to Canada, and while they were
not quite prepared for this violence, it was plain that many of them
did not well relish my presence amongst them. This feeling, however,
wore away gradually, as the people knew more of me and my works.
I lectured every Sunday evening during an entire winter in the
beautiful Corinthian Hall, then owned by Wm. R. Reynolds, Esq.,
who though he was not an abolitionist, was a lover of fair-play and
was willing to allow me to be heard. If in these lectures I did not
make abolitionists I did succeed in making tolerant the moral
atmosphere in Rochester; so much so, indeed, that I came to feel as
much at home there as I had ever done in the most friendly parts of
New England. I had been at work there with my paper but a few
years before colored travelers told me that they felt the influence of
my labors when they came within fifty miles. I did not rely alone upon
what I could do by the paper, but would write all day, then take a
train to Victor, Farmington, Canandaigua, Geneva, Waterloo,
Batavia, or Buffalo, or elsewhere, and speak in the evening,
returning home afterwards or early in the morning, to be again at my
desk writing or mailing papers. There were times when I almost
thought my Boston friends were right in dissuading me from my
newspaper project. But looking back to those nights and days of toil
and thought, compelled often to do work for which I had no
educational preparation, I have come to think that, under the
circumstances it was the best school possible for me. It obliged me
to think and read, it taught me to express my thoughts clearly, and
was perhaps better than any other course I could have adopted.
Besides it made it necessary for me to lean upon myself, and not
upon the heads of our Anti-Slavery church. To be a principal, and not
an agent. I had an audience to speak to every week, and must say
something worth their hearing, or cease to speak altogether. There is
nothing like the lash and sting of necessity to make a man work, and
my paper furnished this motive power. More than one gentleman
from the south, when stopping at Niagara, came to see me, that they
might know for themselves if I could indeed write, having as they
said believed it impossible that an uneducated fugitive slave could
write the articles attributed to me. I found it hard to get credit in some
quarters either for what I wrote or what I said. While there was
nothing very profound or learned in either, the low estimate of Negro
possibilities induced the belief that both my editorials and my
speeches were written by white persons. I doubt if this scepticism
does not still linger in the minds of some of my democratic fellow-
citizens.
The 2d of June, 1872, brought me a very grievous loss. My
house in Rochester was burnt to the ground, and among other things
of value, twelve volumes of my paper, covering the period from 1848
to 1860, were devoured by the flames. I have never been able to
replace them, and the loss is immeasurable. Only a few weeks
before, I had been invited to send these bound volumes to the library
of Harvard University where they would have been preserved in a
fire-proof building, and the result of my procrastination attests the
wisdom of more than one proverb. Outside the years embraced in
the late tremendous war, there has been no period, more pregnant
with great events, or better suited to call out the best mental and
moral energies of men, than that covered by these lost volumes. If I
have at any time said or written that which is worth remembering or
repeating, I must have said such things between the years 1848 and
1860, and my paper was a chronicle of most of what I said during
that time. Within that space we had the great Free Soil Convention at
Buffalo, the Nomination of Martin Van Buren, the Fugitive Slave Law,
the 7th March Speech by Daniel Webster, the Dred Scott decision,
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas Nebraska bill,
the Border war in Kansas, the John Brown raid upon Harper’s Ferry,
and a part of the War against the Rebellion, with much else, well
calculated to fire the souls of men having one spark of Liberty and
Patriotism within them. I have only fragments now, of all the work
accomplished during these twelve years, and must cover this chasm,
as best I can from memory and the incidental items, which I am able
to glean from various sources. Two volumes of the North Star have
been kindly supplied me, by my friend, Marshall Pierce of Saco, Me.
He had these carefully preserved and bound in one cover and sent
to me in Washington. He was one of the most systematically careful
men of all my anti-slavery friends, for I doubt if another entire volume
of the paper exists.
One important branch of my anti-slavery work in Rochester, in
addition to that of speaking and writing against slavery, must not be
forgotten or omitted. My position gave me the chance of hitting that
old enemy some telling blows, in another direction than these. I was
on the southern border of Lake Ontario, and the Queen’s Dominions
were right over the way—and my prominence as an abolitionist, and
as the editor of an anti-slavery paper, naturally made me the station
master and conductor of the underground railroad passing through
this goodly city. Secrecy and concealment were necessary
conditions to the successful operation of this railroad, and hence its
prefix “underground.” My agency was all the more exciting and
interesting, because not altogether free from danger. I could take no
step in it without exposing myself to fine and imprisonment, for these
were the penalties imposed by the fugitive slave law, for feeding,
harboring, or otherwise assisting a slave to escape from his master;
but in face of this fact, I can say, I never did more congenial,
attractive, fascinating, and satisfactory work. True as a means of
destroying slavery, it was like an attempt to bail out the ocean with a
teaspoon, but the thought that there was one less slave, and one
more freeman,—having myself been a slave, and a fugitive slave—
brought to my heart unspeakable joy. On one occasion I had eleven
fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for
them to remain with me, until I could collect sufficient money to get
them on to Canada. It was the largest number I ever had at any one
time, and I had some difficulty in providing so many with food and
shelter, but as may well be imagined, they were not very fastidious in
either direction, and were well content with very plain food, and a
strip of carpet on the floor for a bed, or a place on the straw in the
barn loft.
The underground railroad had many branches; but that one with
which I was connected had its main stations in Baltimore,
Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester,
and St. Catharines (Canada). It is not necessary to tell who were the
principal agents in Baltimore; Thomas Garrett was the agent in
Wilmington; Melloe McKim, William Still, Robert Purvis, Edward M.
Davis, and others did the work in Philadelphia; David Ruggles, Isaac
T. Hopper, Napolian, and others, in New York city; the Misses Mott
and Stephen Myers, were forwarders from Albany; Revs. Samuel J.
May and J. W. Loguen, were the agents in Syracuse; and J. P.
Morris and myself received and dispatched passengers from
Rochester to Canada, where they were received by Rev. Hiram
Wilson. When a party arrived in Rochester, it was the business of Mr.
Morris and myself to raise funds with which to pay their passages to
St. Catharines, and it is due to truth to state, that we seldom called in
vain upon whig or democrat for help. Men were better than their
theology, and truer to humanity, than to their politics, or their offices.
On one occasion while a slave master was in the office of a
United States commissioner, procuring the papers necessary for the
arrest and rendition of three young men who had escaped from
Maryland, (one of whom was under my roof at the time, another at
Farmington, and the other at work on the farm of Asa Anthony just a
little outside the city limits,) the law partner of the commissioner, then
a distinguished democrat, sought me out, and told me what was
going on in his office, and urged me by all means to get these young
men out of the way of their pursuers and claimants. Of course no
time was to be lost. A swift horseman was dispatched to Farmington,
eighteen miles distant, another to Asa Anthony’s farm about three
miles, and another to my house on the south side of the city, and
before the papers could be served, all three of the young men were
on the free waves of Lake Ontario, bound to Canada. In writing to
their old master, they had dated their letter at Rochester, though they
had taken the precaution to send it to Canada to be mailed, but this
blunder in the date had betrayed their whereabouts, so that the
hunters were at once on their tracks.
So numerous were the fugitives passing through Rochester that I
was obliged at last to appeal to my British friends for the means of
sending them on their way, and when Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter and
Mrs. Croffts took the matter in hand, I had never any further trouble
in that respect. When slavery was abolished I wrote to Mrs.
Carpenter, congratulating her that she was relieved of the work of
raising funds for such purposes, and the characteristic reply of that
lady was that she had been very glad to do what she had done, and
had no wish for relief.
My pathway was not entirely free from thorns in Rochester, and
the wounds and pains inflicted by them were perhaps much less
easily borne, because of my exemption from such annoyances while
in England. Men can in time become accustomed to almost anything,
even to being insulted and ostracised, but such treatment comes
hard at first, and when to some extent unlooked for. The vulgar
prejudice against color, so common to Americans, met me in several
disagreeable forms. A seminary for young ladies and misses, under
the auspices of Miss Tracy, was near my house on Alexander street,
and desirous of having my daughter educated like the daughters of
other men, I applied to Miss Tracy for her admission to her school.
All seemed fair, and the child was duly sent to “Tracy Seminary,” and
I went about my business happy in the thought that she was in the
way of a refined and Christian education. Several weeks elapsed
before I knew how completely I was mistaken. The little girl came
home to me one day and told me she was lonely in that school; that
she was in fact kept in solitary confinement; that she was not allowed
in the room with the other girls, nor to go into the yard when they
went out; that she was kept in a room by herself and not permitted to
be seen or heard by the others. No man with the feeling of a parent
could be less than moved by such a revelation, and I confess that I
was shocked, grieved, and indignant. I went at once to Miss Tracy to
ascertain if what I had heard was true, and was coolly told it was,
and the miserable plea was offered that it would have injured her
school if she had done otherwise. I told her she should have told me
so at the beginning, but I did not believe that any girl in the school
would be opposed to the presence of my daughter, and that I should
be glad to have the question submitted to them. She consented to
this, and to the credit of the young ladies, not one made objection.
Not satisfied with this verdict of the natural and uncorrupted sense of
justice and humanity of these young ladies, Miss Tracy insisted that
the parents must be consulted, and if one of them objected she
should not admit my child to the same apartment and privileges of
the other pupils. One parent only had the cruelty to object, and he
was Mr. Horatio G. Warner, a democratic editor, and upon his
adverse conclusion, my daughter was excluded from “Tracy
Seminary.” Of course Miss Tracy was a devout Christian lady after
the fashion of the time and locality, in good and regular standing in
the church.
My troubles attending the education of my children were not to
end here. They were not allowed in the public school in the district in
which I lived, owned property, and paid taxes, but were compelled, if
they went to a public school, to go over to the other side of the city,
to an inferior colored school. I hardly need say that I was not
prepared to submit tamely to this proscription, any more than I had
been to submit to slavery, so I had them taught at home for a while,
by Miss Thayer. Meanwhile I went to the people with the question
and created considerable agitation. I sought and obtained a hearing
before the Board of Education, and after repeated efforts with voice
and pen, the doors of the public schools were opened and colored
children were permitted to attend them in common with others.
There were barriers erected against colored people in most other
places of instruction and amusements in the city, and until I went
there they were imposed without any apparent sense of injustice or
wrong, and submitted to in silence; but one by one they have
gradually been removed and colored people now enter freely all
places of public resort without hindrance or observation. This change
has not been wholly effected by me. From the first I was cheered on
and supported in my demands for equal rights by such respectable
citizens as Isaac Post, Wm. Hallowell, Samuel D. Porter, Wm. C.
Bloss, Benj. Fish, Asa Anthony, and many other good and true men
of Rochester.
Notwithstanding what I have said of the adverse feeling exhibited
by some of its citizens at my selection of Rochester as the place to
establish my paper, and the trouble in educational matters just
referred to, that selection was in many respects very fortunate. The
city was, and still is, the center of a virtuous, intelligent, enterprising,
liberal, and growing population. The surrounding country is
remarkable for its fertility; and the city itself possesses one of the
finest water-powers in the world. It is on the line of the New York
Central railroad—a line that with its connections, spans the whole
country. Its people were industrious and in comfortable
circumstances; not so rich as to be indifferent to the claims of
humanity, and not so poor as to be unable to help any good cause
which commanded the approval of their judgment.
The ground had been measurably prepared for me by the labors
of others—notably by Hon. Myron Holley, whose monument of
enduring marble now stands in the beautiful cemetery at Mount
Hope, upon an eminence befitting his noble character. I know of no
place in the Union where I could have located at the time with less
resistance, or received a larger measure of sympathy and
coöperation, and I now look back to my life and labors there with
unalloyed satisfaction, and having spent a quarter of a century
among its people, I shall always feel more at home there than any
where else in this country.
Portrait of John Brown.

CHAPTER VIII.
JOHN BROWN AND MRS. STOWE.
My First Meeting with Capt. John Brown—The Free Soil Movement—Colored

Convention—Uncle Tom’s Cabin—Industrial School for Colored People—
Letter to Mrs. H. B. Stowe.
ABOUT the time I began my enterprise in Rochester I chanced to

spend a night and a day under the roof of a man whose character
and conversation, and whose objects and aims in life made a very
deep impression upon my mind and heart. His name had been
mentioned to me by several prominent colored men, among whom
were the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet and J. W. Loguen. In speaking
of him their voices would drop to a whisper, and what they said of
him made me very eager to see and know him. Fortunately I was
invited to see him in his own house. At the time to which I now refer
this man was a respectable merchant in a populous and thriving city,
and our first place of meeting was at his store. This was a substantial
brick building, on a prominent, busy street. A glance at the interior,
as well as at the massive walls without, gave me the impression that
the owner must be a man of considerable wealth. From this store I
was conducted to his house, where I was kindly received as an
expected guest. My welcome was all I could have asked. Every
member of the family, young and old, seemed glad to see me, and I
was made much at home in a very little while. I was, however, a little
disappointed with the appearance of the house and with its location.
After seeing the fine store I was prepared to see a fine residence, in
an eligible locality, but this conclusion was completely dispelled by
actual observation. In fact, the house was neither commodious nor
elegant, nor its situation desirable. It was a small wooden building,
on a back street, in a neighborhood chiefly occupied by laboring men
and mechanics; respectable enough to be sure, but not quite the
place, I thought, where one would look for the residence of a
flourishing and successful merchant. Plain as was the outside of this
man’s house, the inside was plainer. Its furniture would have
satisfied a Spartan. It would take longer to tell what was not in this
house than what was in it. There was an air of plainness about it
which almost suggested destitution. My first meal passed under the
misnomer of tea, though there was nothing about it resembling the
usual significance of that term. It consisted of beef soup, cabbage,
and potatoes; a meal such as a man might relish after following the
plow all day, or performing a forced march of a dozen miles over a
rough road in frosty weather. Innocent of paint, veneering, varnish, or
table-cloth, the table announced itself unmistakably of pine and of
the plainest workmanship. There was no hired help visible. The
mother, daughters, and sons did the serving and did it well. They
were evidently used to it, and had no thought of any impropriety or
degradation in being their own servants. It is said that a house in
some measure reflects the character of its occupants; this one
certainly did. In it there were no disguises, no illusions, no make
believes. Everything implied stern truth, solid purpose, and rigid
economy. I was not long in company with the master of this house
before I discovered that he was indeed the master of it, and was
likely to become mine too if I stayed long enough with him. He
fulfilled St. Paul’s idea of the head of the family. His wife believed in
him, and his children observed him with reverence. Whenever he
spoke his words commanded earnest attention. His arguments,
which I ventured at some points to oppose, seemed to convince all;
his appeals touched all, and his will impressed all. Certainly I never
felt myself in the presence of a stronger religious influence than
while in this man’s house.
In person he was lean, strong, and sinewy, of the best New
England mould, built for times of trouble, fitted to grapple with the
flintiest hardships. Clad in plain American woolen, shod in boots of
cowhide leather, and wearing a cravat of the same substantial
material, under six feet high, less than 150 pounds in weight, aged
about fifty, he presented a figure, straight and symmetrical as a
mountain pine. His bearing was singularly impressive. His head was
not large, but compact and high. His hair was coarse, strong, slightly
gray and closely trimmed, and grew low on his forehead. His face
was smoothly shaved, and revealed a strong square mouth,
supported by a broad and prominent chin. His eyes were bluish gray,
and in conversation they were full of light and fire. When on the
street, he moved with a long, springing race horse step, absorbed by
his own reflections, neither seeking or shunning observation. Such
was the man, whose name I had heard in whispers, such was the
spirit of his house and family, such was the house in which he lived,
and such was Captain John Brown, whose name has now passed
into history, as one of the most marked characters, and greatest
heroes known to American fame.
After the strong meal already described, Captain Brown
cautiously approached the subject which he wished to bring to my
attention; for he seemed to apprehend opposition to his views. He
denounced slavery in look and language fierce and bitter, thought
that slaveholders had forfeited their right to live, that the slaves had
the right to gain their liberty in any way they could, did not believe
that moral suasion would ever liberate the slave, or that political
action would abolish the system. He said that he had long had a plan
which could accomplish this end, and he had invited me to his house
to lay that plan before me. He said he had been for some time
looking for colored men to whom he could safely reveal his secret,
and at times he had almost despaired of finding such men, but that
now he was encouraged, for he saw heads of such rising up in all
directions. He had observed my course at home and abroad, and he
wanted my coöperation. His plan as it then lay in his mind, had much
to commend it. It did not, as some suppose, contemplate a general
rising among the slaves, and a general slaughter of the slave
masters. An insurrection he thought would only defeat the object, but
his plan did contemplate the creating of an armed force which should
act in the very heart of the south. He was not averse to the shedding
of blood, and thought the practice of carrying arms would be a good
one for the colored people to adopt, as it would give them a sense of
their manhood. No people he said could have self respect, or be
respected, who would not fight for their freedom. He called my
attention to a map of the United States, and pointed out to me the
far-reaching Alleghanies, which stretch away from the borders of
New York, into the Southern States. “These mountains,” he said, “are
the basis of my plan. God has given the strength of the hills to
freedom, they were placed here for the emancipation of the negro
race; they are full of natural forts, where one man for defense will be
equal to a hundred for attack; they are full also of good hiding
places, where large numbers of brave men could be concealed, and
baffle and elude pursuit for a long time. I know these mountains well,
and could take a body of men into them and keep them there despite
of all the efforts of Virginia to dislodge them. The true object to be
sought is first of all to destroy the money value of slave property; and
that can only be done by rendering such property insecure. My plan
then is to take at first about twenty-five picked men, and begin on a
small scale; supply them arms and ammunition, post them in squads
of fives on a line of twenty-five miles, the most persuasive and
judicious of whom shall go down to the fields from time to time, as
opportunity offers, and induce the slaves to join them, seeking and
selecting the most restless and daring.”
He saw that in this part of the work the utmost care must be
used to avoid treachery and disclosure. Only the most conscientious
and skillful should be sent on this perilous duty; with care and
enterprise he thought he could soon gather a force of one hundred
hardy men, men who would be content to lead the free and
adventurous life to which he proposed to train them, when these
were properly drilled, and each man had found the place for which
he was best suited, they would begin work in earnest; they would run
off the slaves in large numbers, retain the brave and strong ones in
the mountains, and send the weak and timid to the north by the
underground railroad; his operations would be enlarged with
increasing numbers, and would not be confined to one locality.
When I asked him, how he would support these men? he said
emphatically, he would subsist them upon the enemy. Slavery was a
state of war, and the slave had a right to anything necessary to his
freedom. But said I, “suppose you succeed in running off a few
slaves, and thus impress the Virginia slaveholder with a sense of
insecurity in their slaves, the effect will be only to make them sell
their slaves further south.” “That,” said he, “will be first what I want to
do; then I would follow them up. If we could drive slavery out of one
county, it would be a great gain; it would weaken the system
throughout the state.” “But they would employ bloodhounds to hunt
you out of the mountains.” “That they might attempt,” said he, “but
the chances are, we should whip them, and when we should have
whipt one squad, they would be careful how they pursued.” “But you
might be surrounded and cut off from your provisions or means of
subsistence.” He thought that could not be done so they could not
cut their way out, but even if the worst came, he could but be killed,
and he had no better use for his life than to lay it down in the cause
of the slave. When I suggested that we might convert the
slaveholders, he became much excited, and said that could never
be, “he knew their proud hearts and that they would never be
induced to give up their slaves, until they felt a big stick about their
heads.” He observed that I might have noticed the simple manner in
which he lived, adding that he had adopted this method in order to
save money to carry out his purposes. This was said in no boastful
tone, for he felt that he had delayed already too long and had no
room to boast either his zeal or his self denial. Had some men made
such display of rigid virtue, I should have rejected it, as affected,
false and hypocritical, but in John Brown, I felt it to be real as iron or
granite. From this night spent with John Brown in Springfield, Mass.,
1847, while I continued to write and speak against slavery, I became
all the same less hopeful of its peaceful abolition. My utterances
became more and more tinged by the color of this man’s strong
impressions. Speaking at an anti-slavery convention in Salem, Ohio,
I expressed this apprehension that slavery could only be destroyed
by bloodshed, when I was suddenly and sharply interrupted by my
good old friend Sojourner Truth with the question, “Frederick, is God
dead?” “No.” I answered, and “because God is not dead slavery can
only end in blood.” My quaint old sister was of the Garrison school of
non-resistants, and was shocked at my sanguinary doctrine, but she
too became an advocate of the sword, when the war for the
maintenance of the Union was declared.
In 1848 it was my privilege to attend, and in some measure to
participate in the famous Free-Soil Convention held in Buffalo, New

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(eBook PDF) Out of Many A History of the American

(eBook PDF) Out of Many: A History of the American

1 Native Peoples of America, to 1500 2

2 The Rise of the Atlantic World, 1400–1625 22

3 The Emergence of Colonial Societies, 1625–1700 50

4 The Bonds of Empire, 1660–1750 84

5 Roads to Revolution, 1750–1776 116

6 Securing Independence, Defining Nationhood, 1776–1788 146

7 Launching the New Republic, 1788–1800 178

8 America at War and Peace, 1801–1824 210

9 The Transformation of American Society, 1815–1840 236

10 Democratic Politics, Religious Revival, and Reform, 1824–1840 264

11 Technology, Culture, and Everyday Life, 1840–1860 294

12 The Old South and Slavery, 1830–1860 320

13 Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict, 1840–1848 348

14 From Compromise to Secession, 1850–1861 374

15 Crucible of Freedom: Civil War, 1861–1865 400

16 Reconstruction and Resistance, 1865–1877 436

Brief Contents vii

The Whole Vision 208 Industrial Beginnings 248

Commercializing Leisure 304 Newcomers and Natives 350

Going to the Source Henry David Thoreau, “Walking”

Going to the Source Polk on Texas and Oregon 369

15 Crucible of Freedom: Civil War, American Institutions 451 • Land, Labor,

Engage with your course content, enjoy the ﬂexibility of

TO GET STARTED VISIT

Having remained abroad nearly two years, and being about to

New Experiences—Painful Disagreement of Opinion with old Friends—Final

PREPARED as I was to meet with many trials and perplexities on

Portrait of John Brown.

My First Meeting with Capt. John Brown—The Free Soil Movement—Colored

ABOUT the time I began my enterprise in Rochester I chanced to

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