US 1 Chapter 6 Foner - Content Review

Essential Q: Was the Revolution truly revolutionary?

What were the marginalized groups that demanded the democratization of their freedom after the American Revolution, and how successful were they?

1. Propertyless white men - very successful, the only actual success

2. Women - neutral

3. Native Americans - carnage

4. African Americans/slaves - somewhat successful

5. different religious groups - somewhat successful

Meaning of Democracy

1. whole population voted(defined by aristotle) - but fear of mob rule

2. !!**after the rev, meant greater equality (for mostly white men): THIS WAS THE REVOLUTIONARY DEFINITON

3. the condition of primitive societies

how did the revolution affect who participated in political discussions

artisans and small farmers began to discuss politics, not just the elites (like the lower-class pro-independence political groupings that came to power in PA w/ leaders like Thomas Paine and Benjamin Rush)

what were the notable clauses of the PA constitution? what states adopted the first form of government as well?

1. unicameral legislature (believed in a single body of interests of the people - georgia and vermont were the only other states that also adopted this.

2. no governor (fear of executive power from b4)

3. eliminated property requirements for voting and officeholding

What did most americans agree the system of government should be? and what did this system mean? How often did elections occur?

all states adopted constitutions supporting a Republic: a government where the power is with the people (to vote, consent of the governed).

In every state except South Carolina, elections were annually

what did John adams think governments should be formatted as? Which states adopted this format & to what extent?

he wanted a balanced government(with 3 branches), including:

1. bicameral(two-house) legislature, with one house for the poor and one house for the rich } would help represent both

2. a governor and strong judiciary to prevent infringements of rights between the two houses

All states adopted bicameral legislature except PA, Georgia, and Vermont.

Only Massachusetts, John Adams’ home state, gave the government an effective veto over laws passed by legislature (fear)

Which area of states where the least democratic, and how?/give examples

southern states were the least democratic.

• legislative houses were dominated by gentry

• governor was elected by the legislature instead of the people (VA and SC)

• property voting requirements were mostly maintained (VA and SC), while Maryland had very high property reqs for voting and officeholding - the governor needed 5000 pounds (the british money, not weight)

What were some states with unique voting requirements? (think: vermont (mention PA), NJ, and the MA constitution rewind)

1. vermont had NO property voting requirements and NO poll taxes(fees for voters) to vote. even though PA had no property voting req, they still had to pay poll taxes.

2. NJ allowed women (and blacks) to vote since their 1776 constitution said all “inhabitants” that met requirements could vote

• the requirements were being worth 50 pounds of proclamation money and having an estate

• in 1807 they specified “men” and “white” for voters :(

3. 1778 MA constitution was rejected because it retained voting property requirements —> new one in 1780 was accepted after is expanded voting rights

what was the revolutionary war’s effect religion? mention changing outlook towards catholics(and why) + the outlook on freedom of religion + the overall trend of religion

anti catholicism weakened; more cooperation with catholics

1. very important french alliance(french were catholics) in the amrev

2. Quebecians(catholics) joined patriot soldiers to fight against the british when the patriots invaded canada

People began to believe religious freedom was exercising a person’s right of conscience

religion lwk flourished since disestablishment of churches increased more churches popping up

what were the conditions/degree of religious toleration like b4 amrev(specific), and how did the outlook change (general)

pretty bad

every state besides PA and RI had:

1. a central church that received public funding

2. religious voting restrictions (jews, catholics, (dissenting protestants))

during/after amrev, freedom of religion become considered by some as a part of the right to exercise conscience (like tJeff)

generally more religious freedom

what was the religion of the Founding fathers and what did they think about religion/religious toleration.

many founding fathers were deists - believed god created the universe then stepped back to let it operate according to scientific principles

founding fathers believed in religious toleration/the need for religion to keep the people virtuous to maintain the republic.

what did thomas jefferson (VA)think about religion (jefferson bible, wall of separation, the VA bill - name it!)

• he was deist, believed in religious toleration - christican republicanism

1. wrote Jefferson Bible: the bible but took away jesus’ divine powers

2. wanted the separation of church and state (along with other deists

3. wrote the Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom - passed by house of Burgesses in 1786 after considerable amounts of controversy (he was really proud of this epitaph)

   1. eliminated religious voting and officeholding requirements ( still didn’t let jews vote i think, since only NY did that)

   2. stopped gov financial church support

4. believed religious restrictions were tyranny on the “mind of man”

how did states change their laws related to religion? (hint: think about what jefferson wanted). think good and bad

1. most disestablished their churches (stopped using taxes to fund them)

2. many states promoted “free exercise of religion”

3. MA still kept its established congregationalist church and mad attendance mandatory

• gave freedom of individual worship though

every state still prevented jews from voting, except New York

how was the US’s rep affected by increased religious freedom(mention james madison)

more religious freedom helped the US’s rep as a beacon of liberty

• James Madison considered US as an “asylum to the persecuted”

what were some of the negative and positive effects of the revolution on churches

Neg: clashes between christian liberty (the serving god stuff) and american freedom

• Young Moravians in NC challenged arranged marriage

Pos:

new religious denominations emerged and flourished —> 1,300 in US today

what were things the founders did to help raise good & educated citizens that would vote and participate in the public sphere? mention: christian republicanism + one other thing (what did Tjeff say about education)

1. Chritistian republicanims: idea (supported by most founders) that religious values were important for the country because it instilled moral qualities in its citizens —> virtuous citizens were needed to uphold/be the basis of the republic

2. founders encouraged establishment of free state-supported public schools

   1. Tjeff: “no nation could expect to be ignorant and free” - i love this guy’s quotes bro

what happened to the amount of indentured servants after the american revolution and why, and what effect did that have on the North and South relationship?

• indentured servitude basically disappeared because of more available wage workers, indentured servants completing their terms, and idea of LIBERTY/thinking it was unfair to keep indent. servants, and ISs running away during the amrev(because of LIBERTY)

  • 1784 a group of New Yorkers let free a new shipload of ISs because of LIEBRTYY

• created more of a divide between north and south states since north relied on free labor, while south still relied on slavery

what is “free labor” in terms of the north after the american revolution

After the decline of indentured servants, the northern states used mostly free labor - the people could work for wages

when americans wanted equality after the amrev, what did they mean? (opportunity vs condition)

they wanted equality of opportunity , not necessarily equality of condition

what did jefferson believe about how government should help promote freedom, and what did he do about it? (economics)

he, and many others, thought lack of economic resources = lack of freedom

• he wrote laws in VA that abolished entail: forbidding the division of land upon a person’s death beyond family (heirs couldn’t break up and sell a plot of land, had to stay intact)

• also abolished primogeniture: the practice of passing all of a family’s land to the eldest son

Note: jeff also proposed to award 50 acres of land to every grown person who didn’t already have it (to continue enhancing the liberty of the gov’s subjects) BUT AT THE COST OF THE NATIVE AMREICANS… we just can’t have it all

what was the amrev’s effect on prices, and how did people protest 

RAPID inflation 1776-1779

• wartime disruption of agriculture and trade, some people hoarding supplies, rapid printing of money by congress the war

Crowds seized food and other goods and sold them at a price they deemed ok

merchants were accused of holding scarce goods off the market

what did the US gov try to do to curtail inflation during/after the Amrev (and why), and what was the effect? what conflict did this represent?

Congress in 1779 tried to enforce price and wage controls: prices were super high! (PA had a 45% price increase in a month)

DIDN’T WORK - met with opposition by merchants and advocates of a free market

explain the term free market and Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations

free market: the idea that argued economies are driven by self-interests and would operate ideally without government interference under their own sets of natural laws like supply and demand

• supported by the wealth of nations(1776) - adam smith : publishes in england —> US

what were the two competing views about the economy after the American revolution, and which won

1. the traditional view of protecting the interests of the community/promote the public good : government regulation of economy

2. free market advocates* for economic freedom

*free market wins out: after 1779, government effort to regulate prirces stop, but conflict between these two continue

who were loyalists(how much of the population did they make up, what were their reasons

loyalists: those that retained their allegiance to the British crown

• around 20-25% of the american population

Reasons(bolded areas are the states where loyalists were most common):

• many tenants and slaves of large plantations, hoped to gain land 

  • Tenants in NY of the Livingstons/patriot familties

  • southern(carolinas and gerogia) backcountry farmers (resented domination of wealthy planters)

• wealthy men whose livelihoods depended on working relationships with Britain (merchants, Anglican ministers, imperial officials, and lawyers)

• people who were afraid of anarchy after gaining independence ( I think PA)

what injustices did Loyalists face during/after the Amrev

1. Loyalist-run newspapers were shut down

2. property:

• in PA quakers and other pacifists were arrested and lost property (for refusing to fight)

• property of wealthy loyalists were seized and sold

3. colonists forced to take congress-approved oaths of allegiance to the new nation

• refusal meant loss of voting rights and exile

4. general hatred towards loyalists: Dr. Abner Beebe from Connecticut spoke in favor of British —> house got mobbed, he was tripped and tarred

explain the quote “The flames of discord are sprouting from the seeds of liberty”

written by a british onlooker, referring to the hypocritical actions of the patriots against the loyalists in the colonies

how did loyalists react to their treatment during the Revolutionary era

60,000 loyalists left the US after the war —> nova scotia, then creation of new brunswick in Canada —> canada rebellions in 1837

what happened to loyalists that remained the country after the american revolution

they eventually reassimilated with society.

The Treaty of Paris 1783: ended government persecution of loyalists and promised to give back confiscated property

• states repealed their test oaths for voting and officeholding

• loyalists DIDNT get their land back

did the native americans experience democratization of freedom?

NO, the colonists were the biggest threat to their freedom

how did American freedom infringe on the rights of Native Americans? Who supported this push? (land, slaughter, treaty, gov)

Americans wanted to expand and gain more land (part of their freedom). The government supported this, including TJeff (removing indians from Ohio valley would “add to the Empire of Liberty an extensive and fertile country“ - remember his thing about giving 50 acres)

1. land:

• colonists took away native lands, displacing them in upstate NY, the Ohio valley, and southern backcountry

2. slaughter:

• natives that sided with the british were met with brutal and unregulated slaughter/property destruction from the patriot troops (GW)

2. left out of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which only recognized the colonists’ land claims east of the Mississippi

   1. TJeff said the natives should move west of the mississippi

what did the word “slave” or “enslave” mean to colonists leading up to the revolution?

It was a term/metaphor to describe if a colonist couldn’t vote in Parliament - a major downplaying of the impact of slavery

James Otis

MA writer that insisted on blacks being subjects of the British as well (pre-rev).

• one of the few that wrote of blacks and slavery being real flesh and blood, not just the pre-rev metaphor of lack of parliamentary vote that slavery had become

• also wrote pamphlets that popularized ideas that parliament didn’t have right to tax colonies

how did the british judge the colonists about slavery

Samuel Johnson - “how is it that we heard the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of negroes?“

often, the louders proponents of liberty owned many slaves

Obstacles to Abolitions of slavery

1. vast slave population - greater than 40% in VA, GA, and even more in SC

2. widespread use of slaves: slavery in every state, slave ads everywhere, founding fathers had slaves (except John Adams and Thomas Paine rare Adams W)

   1. T.Jeff had around 100 slaves when writing about “mankind’s unalienable rights to liberty”

3. people believed that government was responsible to protect property, INCLUDING SLAVES

4. Economic benefit - slaves drove so much of the economy at some argued white freedom wouldn’t be possible without black enslavement

how did the Amrev impact slavery (general). Mention Samuel Sewall

1. brought slavery to center of discussion, whereas before it was considered morally wrong but not really discussed

   1. 1700 the selling of Joseph by Samuel Sewall, boston merchant : THE FIRST antislavery tract printed in America

2. abolition of slavery in the north

3. development of a free black population with rights

4. slave resistance to slavery

5. slavery STILL continues to grow, even after abolition in the north, because of activity in the south

what did benjamin rush warn about slavery

1773 warned that slavery was a “national crime" that would eventually lead to “national punishment'“

how did slaves use revolutionary arguments/amrev to argue for their own freedom/rebell/resist?

1. freedom petitions - petitions brought to NE courts in the 1770s to seek freedom. first step in america towards slave emancipation

2. protests:

   1. 1766 white charlestonians had been shocked when their opposition to the stamp act inspired a group of blacks to parade the streets crying “liberty”

   2. NE slaves in 1773 protested “We have no property! We have no wives! No children! We have no city! No country!” - show white amercians the reality of slavery

3. war and increased ideals of freedom motivated many slaves to escape —> tried to pass as free blacks —> increased amount of slave ads

how did native americans view the revolutionary era of colonists differently than the african americans and slaves?

native americans were more fearful, while african americans took the chance to persistently plead for their own rights

around how many slaves left after the amrev with the british & what happened to them

a total of 15,000 slaves left the US with britain, gaining freedom through british promises that slaves who fought on their side could go free( Lord Dunmore’s proclamation of 1775, Philipburg Proclamation of General Henry Clinton 1779)

mostly went to nova scotia, england, and Sierra Leone: a settlment for former US slaves created by british on coast of West Africa

british eventually compensated same slave owners for taking away their slaves

voluntary emancipations

some chesapeake slave owners emancipated their slaves in the 1780s&90s, like Robert Carter III (VA 400) and Richard Randolph (VA 90)

Abolition of slavery in the north + drawbacks as well

started by Vermont in 1777, their constitution banned slavery —> ended with New Jersey banning in 1804

Drawbacks:

1. very gradual emancipation, and freedom didn’t apply to already working slaves, only slaves born after the laws were free, and ONLY AFTER they reached a certain age of adulthood (basically indentured servitude )

2. slaves still lived in the north until 1830s 

3. greater division between north and south (free and slavery)

4. slavery numbers still continue to grow after north abolition because of the south

free black communities & their rights

free black communities grew, creating communities with churches, schools, and leaders

all free black men that met property of money qualifications could vote in colonies, except VA, GA, and SC (the colonies with >40% slaves)

what opportunities did the revolutionary era give women: Revolutionary women and what they did

generally propelled women into new forms of public activism

1. some enlisted the army disguised as men: Deborah Sampson (continental), Hannah Snell - british army (but in 1745)

2. homespun movement

3. passing information to soldiers - SPIES

4. medical treatments

5. Ladies’ association in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was organized to raise funds for soldiers

did women get equality after rev?

NO, coverture laws still existed: british principle that meant he husband held full legal authority over his wife and her assets; husband was ultimate authority

women during this time that did politically participate felt the need to apologize for their forthrightness

women’s rights didn’t become a talking point until many years later, unlike slavery

Republican Motherhood

idea the women were expected to raise children to be “good citizens”

pros: placed more importance on women in the household, INCREASED education access for women

cons:

didn’t extend to the political realm at all

the effect of the american revolution on other countries

the american revolution inspired many other revolutions like in france (1789), haiti, and latin america