RAHHHH APUSH (UNIT 3) AP REVIEW

French and Indian War

• 1756-1763

• The British ministry could no longer let the colonies manage their own affairs while it minimally oversaw Atlantic trade

• British interests and responsibilities now extended far into the continental interior, but neither the colonists or Native Americans were inclined to cooperate

• British administrators worried that American colonists felt entitled to “a greater measure of Liberty than is enjoyed by the people of England”

• Enormous costs– debt soard to 133 million, and the ministry had to raise taxes, mostly sales taxes

• The government doubled the size of the tax bureaucracy and increased penalties for offenders

• Revealed how little power Britain wielded in its American colonies– colonial assemblies

Proclamation Line

• 1763

• Drew a boundary between the colonies and Indigenous land

• Oroginally intended as a temporary barrier, prohibiting settlement temporarily

• Also created three new mainland colonies– Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida

• Many colonists were still interested in westward expansion

  • Gentlemen who had invented in western land petitioned the crown for large land grants in the West

  • Officers who had served in the Seven Years’ War were paid in land warrants

  • Some had recieved land grants from the Ohio Indians, who hoped to sell land titles

  • The reset were squatters

• The influx of colonial interest antagonized the Ohio Indians– the Shawnees joined with other groups to form the Scioto Confederacy, which pledged to oppose any further expansion into the Ohio country

• The Proclamation Line progressively hardened– for colonists who were already moving west, this shift inpolicy caused confusion and frustration

Sugar Act

• 1764

• Why it was passed:

  • Intended to replace the widely ignored Molasses Act of 1733, which set a high tax rate

  • The colonial merchants previously bribed customs officials

• What it did: Grenville intended to allow the colonists to buy French molasses for a duty of 3 pence per gallon, which merchants could still pay and turn a profit

• The Sugar Act garnered little support– merchants publically claimed that the Sugar Act would ruin the distilling industry and privately continued to evade the duty by smuggling or bribing officials

• Colonists argued that taxes ought to originate with the people– “they who are taxed at pleasure by others cannot possibly have any property, and they who have no property, can have no freedom”

• Later repealed by Grenville’s successor to a penny a gallon

Vice-Admiralty Courts

• 1764

• Merchants prosecuted under the Sugar Act would be tried in vice-admiralty courts, tribunals run by British-appointed judges

• Previously, merchants who violated the Navigation Acts were tried by local common-law courts, where friendly juries often accquited them

Stamp Act

• 1765

• Grenville hoped the Stam Act would raise 60,000 per year

• What it did: Required a tax on all printed items, from diplomas, court documents, land titles, and contracts to newspapers, almanacs, and playing cards

  • Bore more heavily on the rich– charged lower taxes for common items

  • Required no new bureaucracy

  • Violations of the Stamp Act were also tried in vice-admiralty courts

• Resistance:

  • Groups such as the Sons of Liberty attacked the homes of tax collectors; others marched through streets and rioted

  • In nearly every colony, angry crowds intimidated royal officials

First American boycott

• 1765

• Americans at the Stamp Act Congress organized a boycott of British goods

Quartering Act

• 1765

• What it did: Required colonial governments to provide barracks and food for British troops

Stamp Act Congress

• 1765

• Nine assemblies sent delegates to this congress, which met in NYC

• The congress protested the loss of American “rights and liberties,” especially the right to trial by jury

• Challenged the constitutionalilty of the Stamp and Sugar Acts by declaring that only elected representatives could tax them

• Moderates wanted compromise, not confrontation; they humbly petitioned for repeal of the Stamp Act or favored peaceful boycotts

Stamp Act repealed

• 1766

• Mass resistance prompted frightened tax collectors to resign their offices in all thirteen colonies

• Grenville’s successor, the Earl of Rockingham, repealed the Stamp Act

Declaratory Act

• 1766

• Explicitly reaffirmed Parliament’s “full power and authority to make laws and statutes… to bind the colonies and the people of America… in all cases whatsoever”

Townshend Duties

• 1767

• What it did: Imposed duties on colonial imports of paper, paint, class, and tea; intended to raise about 40,000 pounds a year

  • Intended to pay the salaries of enforcement officers– judges, royal governors, and otehr imperial officials– to prevent them from being easily bribed

• Revived the constitutional debate over taxation; most colonial leaders rejected the legitimacy of the Townshend duties

Letters rom a Farmer in PA

• 1768

• Written by John Dickinson

• Urged colonists to “remember [their] ancestors and [their] posterity” and oppose parliamentary taxes

• Circulated widely and served as an early call to resistance

• “We are taxed without our own consent… We are therefore– SLAVES”

Nonimportation movement

• 1768

• Boston and NY merchants began a new boycott of British goods

• Throughout New England, ministers and public officials discouraged the purchase of foreign goods and promoted the domestic manufacture of cloth and otehr necessities

• Women were highly important to this movement

• Soon spread to Philadelphia and the House of Burgesses

• By 1768, the colonies had cut imports of British manufactures in half; by 1769, the mainland colonies had a trade surplus with Britain of 816,000

• British merchants and manufacturers petitioned Parliament to repeal the Townshend duties

Partial repeal of Townshend Act

• 1770

• Lord North was willing to compromise with the colonists– argued that it was foolish to tax British exports to America, raising their price and decreasing consumption

• Persuaded Parliament to repeal most of the Townshend duties

• North retained the tax on tea as a symbol of Parliament’s supremacy

Boston Massacre

• 1770

• British soldiers numbered 10% of the local popualtion, and their presence wore on the locals

• A group of nine British recdcoats fired into a crowd, killing five townspeople

• A subsequent trial exonerated the soldiers, but Boston’s Radical Whigs labeled the incident a “massacre” and used it to rally sentiment against imperial power

Committees of correspondence

• 1772

• Radical patriots persuaded town meetings to set up committees of correspondence “to state the Rights of the Colonists of this Province”

• Spread to Virginia and other colonies

• Allowed Patriots to communicate with leaders in other colonies when new threats to liberty occurrecd

Dunmore’s War

• 1772

• After the end of Pontiac’s Rebellion, at least 10,000 people had traveled to the headwaters of the Ohio River and stakes claims to land around Pittsburgh

• Settlers relied on protection from Fort Pitt, but the revenue crisis forced General Gage to cut expenses

• Settler relations with the neighboring Ohio Indians were tenuous nad ill-defined

• Both PA and VA attempted to claim the region

• VA’s Dunmore organized a local militia, and defying both his royal instructions and the House of Burgesses, he led the militia against the Ohio Shawnees

• The Shawnees were defeated, and Dunmore and his forces claimed Kentucky as their own

• Some settlers felt this war was justified, as without a king, they were allowed to do as they pleased

Tea Act

• 1773

• Provided financial relief for the East India Company

• The East India Company was deeply in debt, and had a huge surplus of tae as a result of high import duties, leading Britons and colonists to drink smuggled Dutch Tea

• What it did: Gave the East India Company a monopoly on tea and cancelled the import duties on tea

  • Let the company sell directly to colonial agents and bypass American merchants, making American merchants lose out as middlemen

• Radical Patriots accused the British ministry of bribing Americans with the cheaper tea

• Merchants joined the protests too

Boston Tea Party

• 1773

• The Sons of Liberty prevented East India Company ships from delivering their cargoes in NY, PA, and Charleston

• In MA, artisans and laborers disguised themselves as Native Americans and boarded three ships carrying tea, breaking open 342 chests of tea valued at 10,000 pounds, and threw them into the harbor

Coercive Acts

• 1774

• Declared by George III; forced MA to pay for the tea and submit to imperial authority

• Boston Port Bill– closed Boston Harbor to shipping

• The MA Government Act– annulled the colony’s charter and prohibited most town meetings

• Quartering Act– mandated new barracks for Britihs troops

• The Justice Act– allowed trials for capital crimes to be transferred to other colonies or to Britain

• Patriot leaders throughout the colonies branded the measures “Intolerable” and rallied support for MA

Continental Congress meets

• 1774

• Opinions:

  • Southern leaders feared a British plot to overturn the constitution and introduce a new system of arbitrary government and advocated an economic boycott

  • Indpendence-minded representatives from New England demanded political union and defensive military preparations

  • Delegates from the Middle Atlantic colonies favored compromise

• Proposals:

  • Unsuccessfully proposed a system similar to Franklin’s– created a new continent-wide body to handle general American affairs; this plan failed by a single vote

  • The delegates demanded the repeal of the Coercive Acts and stipulated that British control be limited to matters of trade

  • Also approved a third economic boycott– Americans would stop importing British goods, and if the British didn’t repeal the Coercive Acts in time, the colonists would cut off all exports to Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies

• Responses:

  • North set stringent terms, demanding that Americans pay for their own defense and administration and acknowledge Parliament’s authority to tax them

  • North imposed a naval blockade on Americna trade with foreign nations

Continental Association/Third American boycott

• 1774

• In Concord, MA, 80% of the families signed a petition supporting nonimportation

• In many towns, colonists threatened violence against shopkeepers who traded in violation of the boycott

Quebec Act

• 1774

• Extended Quebec’s boundaries into the Ohio River Valley, angering land speculators in VA and PA and ordinary settlers

• Colonists saw it as further proof of Parliament’s intention to control American affairs

Lexington and Concord

• 1775

• Dartmouth proclaimed MA to be in “open rebellion” and ordered Gage to capture colonial leaders and supplies at Concord

• Paul Revere and a series of other riders warned Patriots in many towns, and at down, militiamen confronted the British at Lexington and Concord

• The British retreated, and militias from neighboring towns repeatedly ambushed them

Continental Army created

• 1775

• At the Second Continental Congress, British troops attacked American fortifications on Breed’s and Bunker hill

• John Adams exhorted Congress to rise to the “defense of American liberty” by creating a continental army, nominating GW to lead it

Lord Dunmore recruits Loyalist slaves

• 1775

• Skirmishes between Patriot and Loyalist forces broke out in the South

• After being ousted by Patriots, Dunmore organized two military forces– one white and one black, consisting of slaves who had fled their Patriot owners

• Dunmore issued a proclamation promising freedom to black slaves and white indentured servants who jonied the Loyalists

• White planters denounced this scheme, fearing a new rising of the black and white underclasses; called for a final break with Britain

Common Sense

• 1776

• Americans still largely divided

• A rousing call for independence and a republican form of government

• Assaulted the monarchial order; Paine mixed insults with biblical quotations to blast the British system of “mixed government,” arguing that it yielded monarchial tyranny

• Argued for American independence by turning the traditional metaphor of patriarchal authority on its head

Olive Branch Petition

• 1775

• A last attempt at peacemaking; supported by quite a few

• Despite his Letters, Dickinson believed that war with Great Britain would be folly

• Dickinson’s petition pleaded with the king to negotiate

Declaration of Independence

• 1776

• Primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson

• Justified independence and republicanism to Americans by vilifying George III, dubbing him a tyrant unfit to be the ruler of a free people

• Jefferson proclaimed a series of “self-evident” truths– the unalienable rights of life, liberty and happiness, the idea that the government derives its just powers from the consent of the government and could be overthrown if it “became destructive of these ends” 

• Linked the doctrines of individual liberty, popular sovereignty, and republican government with American independence, establishing them as the defining political values of the new nation

• The Declaration was widely supported in france and Germany

British troops

• Britain deployed a peacetime force of 7,500 troops

• Intended to prevent colonists from defying the Proclamation line while managing relations with Native Americans and the French residents of Canada

• Financial implications– Parliament expected the colonies to bear the cost of the troops stationed in America

Grenville

• Proposed the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act

• Viewed Americans as second-class subjects of the king, with rights limited by the Navigation Acts, parliamentary laws, and British interests

• Fashioned a system where British officials governed the colonies with little regard for the local assemblies

Benjamin Franklin

• Proposed giving Americans representation in Parliament– this idea was rejected by British politicians as too radical

  • Parliamentary leaders argued that colonists already had virtual representation because some of its members were transatlantic merchants and West Indian sugar planters

  • Colonial leaders were also skeptical of his plan

• Began to condemn slavery as a violation of slaves’ natural rights with the rise of revolutionary rhetoric

Farmers

• Initially had little interest in imperial affairs

• Imerial policies had increasingly intruded into the lives of farm families by sending their sons to war and raising their taxes

• Many felt personally threatened by British policies

Continental Association

• Created by the Continental Congress to enforce a third boycott of British goods

Charles Townshend

• Left in charge by William Pitt

• Unsympathetic toward America; he strongly supported the Stamp Act and hoped to find a new source of revenue in America

Sons of Liberty

• When the Stamp Act went into effect, disciplined mobs burned effigies of tax collectors and attacked their homes

  • Bostonions attacked Andrew Oliver and his brother-in-law

• Often encouraged by wealthy merchants and Patriot lawyers

• Feared that imperial reform would undermine political liberty

• During the nonimportation movement, the names of merchants who imported British goods and harassed their employers and customers

Daughters of Liberty

• Women were critical to the nonimportation movement

• Reduced their households’ consumption of imported goods and produced large quantities of homespun cloth

• Celebrated American products by “drinking rye coffee and dining on bear venison”

• Supported the boycott with charitable work, spinning flax and wool for the needy

• Celebrated by newspapers– brought thousands of women into the public arena

Lord North

• Prime minister of England beginning in 1770

• Willing to compromise with the colonists– argued that it was foolish to tax British exports to America, raising their price and decreasing consumption

• Persuaded Parliament to repeal most of the Townshend duties

Committees of Correspondence

• Radical patriots persuaded town meetings to set up committees of correspondence “to state the Rights of the Colonists of this Province”

• Spread to Virginia and other colonies

• Allowed Patriots to communicate with leaders in other colonies when new threats to liberty occurred

Loyalists

• Many Patriot leaders were wealthy planters, and their poorer neighbors regarded the movement with suspicion

• Many tenant farmers supported the king because they hated their landlords

• Some felt that Patriot leaders were subverting British rule only to advance their won selfish interests

• Others worried that resistance to England would undermine all political institutions and introduce Anarchy and disorder

• Turned away by mob violence

• Many were pressured by their neighbors to join the boycotts and subject to violence and humiliation if they refused; they were often forced out of their homes

Neutralists

• Pacifist Quakers and Germans resisted conscription and violence out of religious conviction

Southern planters

• Many were deeply in debt to British merchants– planters resented financial dependence on British creditors and feared political subservience to British officials

• Feared that Parliament would dissolve the House of Burgesses and help British merchants to seize debt-burdened properties

• Supported demands by indebted yeomen farmers to close the law courts so they could bargain with merchants over debts without the threat of legal action

Motives for crowd resistance

• Some were roused by the Great Awakening– evangelical Protestants resented arrogant British military officers and corrupt royal bureaucrats

• New Englanders harbored old antimonarchy sentiments

Ideological roots of resistance

• English common law– many lawyers used English law to challenge imperial policies, stating that they violated specific “liberties and privileges” granted in colonial charters or the British constitution

• Enlightenment rationalism

  • Drew on the idea of natural rights, arguing that the British government had to protect them

• Republican and Whig traditions in Britain

  • Many colonists praised the Whigs for creating a constitutional monarchy that prevented the king from imposing taxes and other measures

Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776

• Democratic impulse flowered thanks to a coalition of Scots-Irish farmers, Philadelphia artisans, and Enlightenment-influenced intellectuals

• In 1776, insurgents ousted every office-holder of the Penn family’s proprietary government, abolished property ownership as a qualification for voting, and granted all taxpaying men the right to vote and hold office

• Created a one-house legislature with complete power

• Alarmed many leading Patriots– John Adams denounced the legislature as “too democratic”

Thoughts on Government

• 1776

• Written by John Adams to counter the PA Constitution

• Adams adapted the British Whig theory of mixed government to a republican society– insisted on a legislature, executive branch, and judiciary

• Adams demanded a two-house legislature with an upper house of substantial property owners to offset the popular majorities in the lower one

• Also proposed an elected governor with veto power and an appointed– not elected– judiciary

Articles of Confederation

• Not ratified until 1781

• The Articles provided for a loose union where each state retained its “sovereignty, freedom, and independence”

• Each state had one vote regardless of its size, population, or wealth

• Important laws needed the approval of nine of the thirteen states, and changes in the Articles required unanimous consent

• The Confederation could declare war, make treaties with foreign nations, adjudicate disputes between the states, borrow and print money, and requisition funds from the states

• No chief executive or judiciary; could not enforce the provisions of treaties; lacked the power to tax the states and the people

• Delay stems from conflict over western lands

  • The royal charters of VA, MA, CT, and other states set boundaries stretching to the Pacific Ocean

  • States without western lands refused to accept the Articles until the land-rich states relinquished their claims to the Confederation

Saratoga

• 1777

• The turning point of the war– the patriots captured more than 5,000 British troops and ensured the diplomatic successes of American representatives in Paris, who won a military alliance with France

SC’s constitution of 1778

• Elite planters used property rules to disqualify about 90% of white men from office holding

• Required candidates for governor to have a debt-free estate, for senators to be worth a large sum of money, and assembly men to own property valued above 1,000 pounds

Franco-American alliance

• 1778

• The French foreign minister was determined to avenge the loss of Canada during the Great War for Empire and persuaded the king to provide the rebellious colonies with a secret loan and much-needed gunpowder

• Franklin and other American diplomats craftily exploited France’s rivalry with Britain to win explicit commitment to American independence

• The Treaty of Alliance specified that once France entered the war, neither partner would sign a seperate peace without the “liberty, sovereignty, and indepndence” of the US

• The CC agreed to recognize any French conquests in the West Indies

• Gave new life to the Patriots’ cause– officers insisted on military pensions

North seeks political settlement

• 1778

• George III ordered North to seek a negotiated settlement as the war became progressively unpopular in Britain

• North persuaded Parliament to repeal the Tea and Prohibitory Acts, and to renounce its power to tax the colonies

Philipsburg Proclamation

• 1778

• Declared that any slave who deserted a rebel master would recieve protection, freedom, and land from Great Britain

  • Led some 30,000 African Americans to join the British

Inflation of continental currency

• 1778-1781

• Most states were afraid to raise taxes, so officials issued bonds to secure gold or silver from wealthy individuals

• Once gold and silver ran out, individual states financed the war by printing so much paper money that it lost worth

• Because Congress lacked the authority to impose taxes, they relied on funds requisitioned from the states, which were paid late or not at all

• Robert Morris, the treasury official, secured loans from France and Holland and sold Continental loan certificates

• Inflation sparked social upheaval– morale crumbled

• Robert Morris and his allies created the Bank of North America, a private institution in PA whose notes were intended to stabilize the inflated Continental currency

• Morris also created a central bureaucracy to manage the Confederation’s finances and urged Congress to enact a 5% mport tax

  • Rejected by RI and NY

• Congress looked to the sale of western lands to raise funds

Treaty of Paris

• The French and Spanish stalled on peace talks– hoped to seize a West Indian island or another territory

• Americans secretly negotiated with the British, prepared if necessary to ignore the Treaty of Alliance and sign a separate peace

• Great Britain formally recognized American independence and relinquished its claims to lands south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi River

• The British did not insist on a separate territory for their Indigenous allies

• Granted Americans fishing rights off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and granted Americans freedom of navigation on the Mississippi

• British merchants were allowed to pursue legal claims for prewar debts and American state legislatures were required to return confiscated property to Loyalists and grant them citizenship

Treaty of Versailles

• 1783

• Britain makes peace with France and Spain

• Spain reclaimed FL from Britain, but not the strategic fortresses they needed

• France recieved the Caribbean island of Tobago

Ordinance of 1784

• Established the principle that territories could become states as their populations grew

• Prompted by growing settlement of the west– by 1784, more than 30,000 settlers had already moved to Kentucky and Tennessee

• Provided for the orderly settlement and the admission of new states on the basis of equality

Land Ordinance of 1785

• Mandated a rectangular-grid system of surveying and specified a minimum price of $1 per acre

• Required that half of the townships be sold in single blocks of 23,040 acres each, which only large-scale speculators could afford, and the rest in parcels of 640 acres each, restricting their sale to wealthy farmers

Northwest Ordinance

• 1787

• Created the territories that would become OH, Indiana, IL, MI, and WI

• Prohibited slavery in that territory and earmarked funds from land sales for the support of schools

• Specified that congress would appoint a governor and judges to administer each new territory until the population reached 5,000 free adult men, at which point the citizens could elect a territorial legislature

• When the population reached 60,000, the legislature could devise a republican constitution and apply ro join the Confederation

• Provided for the orderly settlement and the admission of new states on the basis of equality, but extended the geographical division between slave and free areas

• Invalidated Native American claims to a large swath of territory

Shay’s Rebellion

• 1786

• The Revolution had crippled American shipping and cut exports of tobacco, rice, and wheat; the US was barred from legal trade with the British West Indies; and low-priced British manufactures were flooding American markets, driving artisans and wartime textile firms out of business

• Well-to-do merchants and landowners had invested in state bonds during the war; others speculated in debt certificates, buying them for cheap from hard-pressed farmers and soldiers

• Creditors and speculators demanded that the state governments redeem the bonds and certificates quickly and at full value– most legislatures could not afford this and instead offered to pay in installments

  • Not helpful– each isntallment is worth less due to the continual printing of paper money

• In MA, a group of mercantile elite that owned most of the state’s war bonds was elected; these officials increased taxes fivefold to pay off wartime debts, demanding that they be paid in hard currency

• Creditors threatened to seize the property of farmers that couldn’t pay the taxes

• Farmers used extralegal methods to protest high taxes, forming mobs and closoing the courts by force

• These actions grew into a full-scale revolt led by Captain Daniel Shays, a Continental army veteran

• Resembled American resistance to the British Stamp Act– linked themselves to the Patriot movement by placing pine twigs in their hats

• Significance: Showed that many middling Patriot families felt that American oppressors had replaced British tyrants

  • Sparked similar revolts across the nation

Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia

• 1787

• Some influential Patriots missed this convention, such as Adams and Jefferson

• The absence of experienced leaders and contrary-minded delegates allowed capable younger nationalists to set the agenda

• Madison and Hamilton demanded a strong central government to protect the republic

• Virginia Plan

  • Proposed by James Madison

  • Rejected state sovereignty in favor of the national government

  • Called for the national government to be established by the people (not the states) and for national laws to operate directly on citizens of the various states

    • Allowed for the national government to overturn state laws

  • Proposed a three-tier election system where ordinary voters could elect only the lower house

  • Based representation in the lower house on population, sparking fears that the populous states would “crush the small ones”

• New Jersey Plan

  • Gave the Confederation the power to raise revenue, control commerce, and make binding requisitions in teh states

  • Preserved the states’ control of their own laws and guaranteed their equality (each state had one vote)

Virginia Plan

• Proposed by James Madison

• Rejected state sovereignty in favor of the national government

• Called for the national government to be established by the people (not the states) and for national laws to operate directly on citizens of the various states

  • Allowed for the national government to overturn state laws

• Proposed a three-tier election system where ordinary voters could elect only the lower house

• Based representation in the lower house on population, sparking fears that the populous states would “crush the small ones”

New Jersey Plan

• Gave the Confederation the power to raise revenue, control commerce, and make binding requisitions in teh states

• Preserved the states’ control of their own laws and guaranteed their equality (each state had one vote)

The Federalist

• 1787-1788

• Written by Madison, Jay, and Hamilton, who defended the propsoed constitution

• Denied that a centralized government would lead to domestic tyranny

• Madison, Jay, and Hamilton pointed out that authority would be divided among the president, a bicameral legislature, and a judiciary– each branch of government woudl “check and balance” the others and preserve liberty

• Federalist no. 10– Madison challenged the view that republican governments only worked in small places; argued that a large state would better protect republican liberty

  • A free society should welcome all factions but keep any one of them from becoming dominant– something best achieved in a large republic

Federalist no. 10

• Madison challenged the view that republican governments only worked in small places; argued that a large state would better protect republican liberty

• A free society should welcome all factions but keep any one of them from becoming dominant– something best achieved in a large republic

Constitution ratified

• 1788

• Generally, backcountry delegates were especially skkeptical, while those from coastal areas were more likely to support the new Cosntitution

  • Supported by merchants, artisans, and commercial farmers in Philadelphia; other successed came from Delaware, NJ, GA, and CT

• To win over opponents, Federalist leaders suggested nine amendments that the MA delegation would submit to the new Congress for consideration

• In respect for popular sovereignty and majority rule, most Americans accepted the verdict of the ratifying conventions

Significance: Created a national republic that enjoyed broad popular support

Revolutionary war: wartime difficulties

• A British naval blockade cut off supplies of European manufactures and disrupted the New England fishing industry; the British occupation of Boston, NY, and Philadelphia reduced trade

• Governments requisitioned military supplies directly from the people

• Women resumed spinning cloth to support soldiers; others assumed the burdens of farmwork while men were away at war and acquired a taste for decision-making

  • Some women expected greater legal rights in the new republican society

• Soldiers and partisans looted farms, and disorderly troops harassed and raped women and girls

Native Americans

• In the Carolinas, the Cherokees, Shawnees, and four of the six Iroquois nations of NY allied with the British

• The British did not insist on a separate territory for their Indigenous allies in the Treaty of Paris

• As Regulators and other groups expected their land claims to be honored, legislators aimed to extinguish Native American claims to land

Baron von Steuben

• A Prussian military officer and republican-minded aristocrat who joined the American cause

• Appointed as an inspector general of the Continental army; instituted a strict drill system and encouraged officers to become more professional

• Shaped the Continental army into a tougher and better-disciplined force

Conservative Patriots

• Hoped to limit the extend of democracy– hoped to restrict office holding to “men of learning, leisure, and easy circumstances”

• Cautioned against giving ordinary citizens the vote

• Supported Adams’ proposed government in his 1776 Thoughts on Government

Women after the Revolution

• Upper-class women engaged in political debate and filled their interactions with opinions on public issues despite scorn from men

• Most women did not insist on civic equality with men– many sought only an end to restrictive customs and laws

• Abigail Adams demanded equal legal rights for married women, who under common law could not own property, enter into contracts, or initiate lawsuits

• Women’s requests were largely ignored– most husbands insisted on traditional prerogatives, remaining patriarchs in their households

• Republican belief in an educated citizenry created opportunities for some women

Patriot merchants

• Replaced Loyalists at the top of the economic ladder, supplanting a traditional economic elite that invested in real estate with entrepreneurs who tended to promote new trading ventures and domestic manufacturing → shifts America’s economic development

Robert Morris

• A nationalist-minded Patriot who persuaded Congress to charter the Bank of North America and create a central bureaucracy

Federalists (before the first party system)

• Supported a strong national government

• Diverse perspectives

  • Some feared that state governments would lose powers

  • Others worried that the central government would be run by rich men

• To keep government “close to the people,” they wanted the states to remain sovereign republics tied together only for defense and trade

• Felt that republican institutions were best suited to small polities

France

• The French foreign minister was determined to avenge the loss of Canada during the Great War for Empire and persuaded the king to provide the rebellious colonies with a secret loan and much-needed gunpowder

Factors determining American victory

• British mistakes– Howe failing to pursue Washington’s army; Howe and Burgoyne failing to coordinate their attacks; Cornwallis marching into Patriot-dominated VA

• French aid

• GW’s leadership

  • Widely supported by the Continental Congress and state governments

  • Pursued a defensive strategy that minimized casualties and maintained the morale of his officers and soldiers

• Patriot control of local governments gave Washington a greater margin for error than the British had

• American peoplle decided the outcome– thousands of farmers and artisans accepted Continental bills despite the deflated value

The Great Compromise

• The upper chamber (the Senate) had two members from each state, while seats in the lower chamber were apportioned by population

• Set a property requirement for voting in national elections

• Specified that slate legislatures would elect members of the upper house and that states would select the electors who would choose the president

• Some supported an end to American participation in the Atlantic slave trade, but SC and GA delegates rejected– threatened to leave the Union should the slave trade end

• “Fugitive clause” added– allowed masters to reclaim enslaved blacks who fled to other states

• In acknowledgement of antislavery sentiments, the delegates excluded the words slavery and slave from the Constitution

• 3/5ths compromise– each enslaved person would count as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation and taxation, allowing southern planters to dominate the national government

Contested Indigenous treaties

• 1784-1789

• In the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, US commissioners forced the pro-British Iroquois people to cede huge tracts in NY and PA

  • New York land speculators used liquor and bribes to take a million more acres, confining the Iroquois to reservations

• Treaties of Fort McIntosh (1785) and Fort Finney (1786)-- American politicians pushed the Chippewas, Delawares, Ottawas, wyandots, and Shawnees to cede most of the future state of OH

• American negotiators arranged for a comprehensive agreement at Fort Haramar (1789), which also failed

• To defend their lands, the Chippewas, Delawares, Ottawas, Wyandots, and Shawnees joined with other groups to form the Western Confederacy

French Revolution

• 1789-1799

• Fighting disrupted European farming, causing prices to leap for wheat; led to high prices for twenty years

• High prices of wheat brought substantial profits to Chesapeake and Middle Atlantic farmers

  • A boom in the export of raw cotton also boosted the economies of GA and SC

• Most Americans welcomed the French Revolution because it abolished feudalism and established a constitutional monarchy

• Many applauded the end of the monarchy and embraced the democratic ideology of the Jacobins

• Americans with strong religious beliefs condemned the new French government for closing Christian churches and promoting a rational religion based on “natural morality”

• Wealthy Americans feared revolution at home

Judiciary Act

• 1789

• What it did: Established a federal district court in each state and three circuit courts to hear appeals from the districts, with the SC having the final say

• Reflected the Federalist desire for strong national institutions

Report on public credit

• 1790

• Outlined a coherent program of national mercantilism– government-assisted economic development

• Part 1: Hamilton asked Congress to redeem at fae value the $55 million in Confederation securities held by foreign and domestic investors

  • Created a permanent national debt and tied the interests of wealthy creditors to the survival of the new nation

  • As an underdeveloped nation, the US needed good credit to secure loans from foreign financiers

  • Opposition:

    • This plan would give enormous profits to speculators, who had bought bonds off poor farmers on the cheap

    • Most Americans opposed the gains speculators stood to obtain → some proposed attempting to return the bonds to those who originally owned them; challenging and unlikely

  • Many members of the House owned Confederation securities and would profit personally from Hamilton’s plan

• Part 2: Hamilton also proposes that the national government assume the war debts of the states

  • Favored well-to-do creditors who had bought depricated government bonds on the cheap

    • Assistant Secretary of the Treasury William Duer learned of this plan in advance and secretly bought millions of dollars in southern bonds– criticized widely

  • Opposition:

    • Some states had already paid off their war debts, and it seemed unfair that delinquent states would have their debts paid by the government

  • Hamilton promises to reimburse the states that had already paid off their debts

• To earn votes, Hamilton arranged another deal to build the permanent national capital along the Potomac, where suspicious southerners could easily watch its operations

Haitian Revolution

• 1791-1803

• The background:

  • Saint-Domingue was deeply divided– a small class of elite planters ruled over some 40,000 free whites and dominated the island’s half million slaves

  • The French Revolution intensified racial conflict here, giving way to a massive slave uprising that aimed to abolish slavery

  • Toussaint L’Ouverture led black Haitians to independence by 1803, becoming the first black republic in the Atlantic world

• Thousands of refugees fled the island and traveled to American cities

• Many slaveholders panicked, fearful that the “contagion” of black liberation would undermine their own slave regimes

• The government was divided on what to do– Washington hoped to supply aid to the white population; Adams was antislavery and no friend of France and aided the rebels; Jefferson was strongly pro-France

• Jefferson later cut off aid to the rebels, imposed a trade embargo, and refused to recognize Haiti

Bill of Rights

• 1791

• The Federalists kept their promise to cnosider amendments to the Constitution

• The first ten amendments safeguarded fundamental personal rights such as freedom of speech and religion and mandated legal procedures such as trial by jury

• Significance:

  • Eased Antifederalists’ fears of an oppressive national government and secured the legitimacy of the Constitution

  • Addressed hte issue of federalism– the proper balance between the authority of the national and state governments

Bank of the US chartered

• 1791

• Hamilton asked Congress to charter the Bank of the United States, which would be owned by private stockholders and the national government

• The bank was intended to provide stability to the specie-starved economy by making loans to merchants, handling government funds, and issuing bills of credit

• Congress granted Hamilton’s bank a twenty-year charter

• Jefferson joined with Madison to oppose this plan– charged that the bank was unconstitutional because it wasn’t a power expressly delegated to the US by the Constitution

• Hamilton preferred a loose interpretation of the Constitution, arguing that a bank was “necessary and proper”

Report on Manufactures

• 1791

• Hamilton sought revenue to pay the annual interest on the national debt

• Congress imposed exise taxes, including a duty on whiskey distilled in the US– yielded $1 million a year

• In his report, Hamilton urged the expansion of American manufacturing by advocating moderate revenue tariffs that would pay the interest on the debt and other government expenses

• As American trade increased, customs revenue rose steadily and paid down the national debt

Proclamation of Neutrality

• 1793

• Issued by Washington; allowed US citizens to trade with all belligerents in the French Revolution

• American merchant ships claimed a right to pass through Britain’s naval blockade of French ports, and American firms quickly took over the lucrative sugar trade between France and the West Indies

• Commercial earnings rose spectacularly

• As the American merchant fleet increased, northern shipbuilders and merchants provided work for thousands of shipwrights, sailmakers, dockhands, and seamen

Republican Party founded

• 1794

• Hamilton’s financial measures had split the Federalists into factions

• Began the start to organized political parties

• Previously, most Americans beleived that parties were dangerous because they looked out for themselves rather than serving the public interest

Whiskey Rebellion

• 1794

• Farmers from western PA mounted the Whiskey Rebellion to protest Hamilton’s exise tax on spirits

• The excise tax had cut demand for the corn whiskey the farmers distilled and used to barter

• The Whiskey Rebels assailed tax collecters, and Washington raised a militia force to disperse the rebels

Battle of Fallen Timbers

• 1794

• Fearing an alliance between the Western Confederacy and the British in Canada, Washington doubled the size of the US Army and ordered General “Mad Anthony” Wayne to lead a new expedition

• Wayne defeated the confederacy in the Battle of Fallen Timbers

Jay’s Treaty of Britain

• 1795

• Britain’s navy seized 250 American ships carrying French sugar and other goods

• Washington dispatched Jay to Britain in hopes of protecting merchant property

• What it did: Jay returned with a controversial treaty that ignored American protections due to neutrality– accepted Britain’s right to stop netural ships and required the US government to make “full and complete compensation” to British merchants for pre-Revolutionary debts owed by US citizens

  • In return, Americans could submit claims for illeal seizures and required the British to remove their troops and Native American agents from the Northwest Territory

Treaty of Greenville

• 1794

• Continuing Native American resistance after the Battle of Fallen Timbers prompted a compromise

• What it did:

  • American negotiaters acknowledged Indigenous ownership of the land

  • In return for various payments, the Western Confederacy ceded most of Ohio

  • Native Americans also agreed to accept American sovereignty, placing themselves “under the protection of the US, and no other Power whatsoever:

• Prompted the British to reduce its trade and military aid to Native Americans in Jay’s Treaty

• Significance:

  • Sparked a new wave of white migration

  • Thousands of farm families moved into the future states of Indiana and IL, sparking new conflicts with Native peoples over land and hunting rights

Election of 1796

• Adams elected

• Party identities crystallized during this election

• Federalist and Republican leaders called caucuses in Congress and conventions in the states

• Both parties mobilized popular support by organizing public festivals and processions

  • The Federalists held banquets to celebrate Washington’s birthday

  • The rEpublicans marched through the streets on 7/4 to honor the DoI

XYZ Affair

• 1798

• The French foreign minister solicitied a loan and a bribe from American diplomats to stop the seizures

• Adams charged that Talleyrand’s agents, whom he dubbed X, Y, and Z, had insulted America’s honor

• In response, Congress cut off trade with France and authorized American privateering (allowing the seizure of French vessels)

• Sparked an undeclared maritime war that curtaield American trade with the French West Indies and resulted in teh capture of nearly two hundred French and American merchant vessels

Alien Act

• 1798

• Authorized the deportation of foreigners

• Expired in 1801 and branded by Congress as unconstitutional

Sedition Act

• 1798

• Prohibited the publication of insults or malicious attacks on the president or members of Congress

• Using the Sedition Act, Federalist prosecuters arrested more than twenty Republican newspaper editors adn a number of them were convicted and jailed

• Republicans charged that the Sedition Act violated the First Amendment, but did not take their charges to court because most of the judges were Federalists and the Court’s power to review congressional legislation was uncertain

• Expired in 1801 and branded by Congress as unconstitutional

The Naturalization Act

• 1798

• Lengthened the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years

• Designed to silence Republican critics by limiting individual rights

• Congress later amended the Naturalization Act, restoring the original waiting period of five years

VA and Kentucky Resolutions

• 1798

• What it did: Declared the Alien and Sedition Acts to be “unauthoritative, void, and of no force”

• Set forth a states’ right interpretatino of the Constitution, asserting that the states had a right to judge the legitimacy of national laws

Election of 1800

• Jefferson elected

• Federalists launched personal attacks on Jefferson and both parties changed state election laws to favor their candidates

• Jefferson won a narrow victory thanks to low Federalist turnout, a victory in NY, and the three-fifths rule

• Burr tied Jefferson, but Hamilton surprisingly supported Jefferson

  • Hamilton dubbed Burr a tyrant and “the “most unfit man in the US for the office of president”

• The Federalists’ attention to political stability and Hamilton’s persuasion prompted key Federalists to allow Jefferson’s election

• Significance: The bloodless transfer of power showed that popularly elected governments could be changed in an orderly way

Gallatin reduced national debt

• 1801-1812

• Jefferson’s secretary of the treasury and a fiscal conservative who was strongly opposed to national debt

• Limited expenditures and used customs revenue to redeem government bonds

• Reduced the national debt from $83 million in 1801 to $45 million in 1812

• The nation’s fiscal affairs were no longer run in the interests of northeastern creditors and merchants

Judiciary Act of 1801

• Proposed by Adams

• What it did: Created sixteen new judgeships and various other positions

• Adams filled these new positions at the last moment, earning his appointees the nickname “midnight appointees”

• Included Marshall of VA, the new chief justice of the SC

• Later repealed due to Jefferson’s efforts, ousting forty of the midnight appointees

Louisiana Purchase

• 1803

• When Napoleon seized power in France, he sought to re-establish France’s American empire

  • Coerced Spain into signing a secret treaty that returned LA to France and restricted American access to New Orleans, violating Pinckney’s Treaty

• Jefferson began to question his pro-French foreign policy– strongly opposed to Napoleon taking LA

  • “The day that France takes posession of New Orleans, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation”

• Jefferson sent a diplomat to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans, securing a deal that granted them the entire territory of LA

  • Napoleon’s war in Saint-Domingue was faltering, and offerred to sell the entire territory of LA for $15 million

• Forced Jefferson to reconsider his strict interpretation of the Constitution– there was no provision for adding new territory