Historical Characters Part 2

Thomas Paine

* Born in England
* Political Activist, Philosopher, Political Theorist, & writer
* Heavily supported the American Revolution when only about roughly one third of the population supported independence
* Released a Pamphlet titled “Common Sense” which heavily impacted the general American population on the idea of Independence in 1776
* Traveled with the Continental Army
* He also wrote the “American Crisis” which helped inspire the troops and Americans
* Moved to France and wrote “The Rights of Man” which was a critique on the French Revolution (1791)
* Wrote an anti-church piece titled “The Age of Reason”(1794), making him a French outlaw
* Was invited back to the U.S. by Thomas Jefferson

William Penn

* Founded the **Province of Pennsylvania**
* Guaranteed free and fair trial, freedom from unjust imprisonment, free elections, and freedom of religion
* Set forth democratic practices that later influenced the United States Constitution
* **Planned out a United States of Europe**; “European Dyet, Parliament or Estates”
* Against his father’s beliefs, he followed the Quaker faith and was close friends with its founder, George Fox
* created Pennsylvania to create a safe heaven for Quakers

**Pocahontas**

* Became known as the emissary between the colonists and her tribe.
* Released fellow Powhatans, once held captive by the colonists because of her bartering with John Smith.
* Virginia Governor and Powhatan Chief allowed marriage between her and Rolfe.
* Her marriage to John Rolfe brought peace in the region between the Indians and Virginia colonists.
* She was revered as a princess in London.
* chastised John Smith for his treatment of powhatan people

**James Polk**

was the 11th President of the United States. He served one term as the dark horse president. He was also the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives and 9th Governor of Tennessee. Under his leadership the United States fought in the Mexican War. The US also gained many territories along the Pacific and Southwest. reshaped the nation, fulfilling American spirit of Manifest Destiny The cultural belief that American settlers were destined to expand across North America He established a new federal depository system

Popé

* In 1675, was arrested on suspicion of killing spanish missionaries
* Member of the Tewa Pueblo Native American tribe
* After release, hid and schemed an uprising that would become known as the pueblo revolt
* August 10th, 1680 - led a revolt on Santa Fe which was a Spanish capital
* Cleared the city of all Spanish influence and united the pueblo tribes under a common enemy
* Restored ancestral ways until after his death, when in 1692, The Spanish reclaimed the territory 

Edmund Randolph

Virginia Plan offered at the Constitutional Convention

Founding Father of the United States, attorney, and the 7th Governor of Virginia. As a delegate from Virginia, he attended the Constitutional Convention and helped to create the national constitution while serving on its Committee of Detail.

**Paul Revere**

* Joined the rebels (Sons of Liberty) and participated in the Stamp Act protest.
* Used his artisan skills to create propaganda promoting the rebellion against the British.
* Revere’s warning successfully helped the minutemen to prepare for the __Battle of Lexington and Concord__, which started the American Revolution
* participated in the Boston Tea Party boycott.
* His “midnight ride” tipped off Samuel Adams and John Hancock for them to avoid arrest by the British.
* Casted the first bell, and constructed the first iron mill.

**Sacajawea**

* was a bilingual Shoshone woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition in 1805-1806
* She was a translator, interpreter, and a guide in unfamiliar or unexplored territory.
* She also helped keep peace between the Native Americans and the expedition.
* Random fact - She was forcibly married off aged 13

**William Seward**

* Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln
* Managed international affairs during the Civil War
* Negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867
* Other diplomatic achievements include the removal of French troops from Mexico
* Was included in the Lincoln Assasinatio plot and was victim of an attempted assassination by Confederate soldier Lewis Thornton Powell (Lewis Payne)

**Daniel Shays**

* was an American officer in the American Revolution and was a leader in the Shay’s Rebellion 
* Armed rebellion in opposition to debt crisis (ocurred in Western Massachusetts and Worcester


* also fought at Bunker Hill as well as Ticonderoga 
* When the American Revolution rose up he rose to the rank of captain in the 5th Massachusetts regiment
* After the Northampton protest Shays ended up taking more of a leadership role
* Sept. 26 attempted to shut down supreme judicial court in Hampshire County and Luke Day
* headed the largest band of rebels, 1,200 which were looking to seize the federal arsenal

**William Tecumseh Sherman**

* Also was well known as a Union general for his merciless, scorched-earth approach to warfare, which often involved destroying plantations and civilian supplies to crush the spirit of the Confederacy
* His tactics were so well-known that he was accused of ordering troops to intentionally burn down the city of Columbia, South Carolina, though there is evidence that suggests the burning was unintentional on the part of the Union troops.
* Would prove to be an important military strategist whose emphasis on the use of surprise and shock to overwhelm the opponent would influence World War II-era generals

**Samuel Slater**

*  Introduced the first water-powered cotton mill to the U.S. 
* Introduced the idea of mass production
* Known as the “Father of the American Industrial Revolution”
* He stole the textile factory machinery designs as an apprentice to a pioneer in Britain before coming to the U.S. 
* Developed a family business with his sons in his later years

John Smith

* was the leader of the first English Settlement in North America (Jamestown). 
* More focused on survival and agriculture rather than other leaders focused on wealth. 
* Explored the Chickahominy River and came across the Powhatan empire. 
* Pocahontas saved him from death
* Worked with the natives to help develop his colony. 
* Eager to keep colonizing and travel America, but returned to England after pirates and never returned. 
* was known as a strong leader,  explore, and a national hero.

**Elizabeth Cady Stanton**

* Leader of the American Women’s Rights movement
* After her study in law, she wanted to achieve equal rights for women
* In 1848, Stanton and her friend, Lucretia Mott, created the first woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls in New York
* Stanton wrote “The Declaration of Sentiments” which simply added the word women into it
* She also worked with Susan B Anthony, where she was active in speeches and campaigns for the next 50 years
* founded the National Woman Suffrage Association

**Thaddeus Stevens**

* Formed the Pennsylvania Republican Party
* Enforced strict party unity 
* Impeachment of Andrew Jackson
* Pursued racial equality in the South
* Supported freedmen’s rights and insisted on requirements for readmission of southern states after the Civil War
* Served as a whig and advocated for an increase of tariffs and opposed the fugitive slave provision of the Compromise of 1850

Lucy Stone

* Was the first Massachusetts woman to earn a college degree
* When she graduated in 1847 she rejected the offer to write a commencement speech that would be read by a man 
* Was hired by William Lloyd Garrison for his American Anti-Slavey Society where she wrote and delivered speeches 
* Organized the first national Woman’s Rights Convention in Massachusetts  
* Stone gave speeches in US and Canada 
* She worked with many suffragists like Elizabeth Staton and Susan Anthony in the National Woman Suffrage Association 

**Harriet Beecher Stowe**

* Notable Activist for Women’s Rights
* Became well-known for her “Ain’t I A Woman?” Speech
* Auctioned to John Neely for $100, and a flock of sheep
* The first woman to sue a white man; and win.
* Gave well-spoken speeches, and contributed to the Civil Rights movement
* Born as Isabella Baumfree

**Charles Sumner**

* is best known for his controversial “Crimes against Kansas” speech which denounced The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the need or Kansas to become a free state, in response he was brutally assaulted by a SC representative
* During the recuperation of the following events, his empty chair in the Senate Chamber served as a symbol of the tensions between North and South in the years prior to the civil war
* Sumner was a strong leader of the anti-slavery forces in MA as a fierce advocate for civil rights
* a leader of the Radical Republicans in the US senate, during the Civil War, this group fought for slavery abolition and equality

**Mary Surratt**

* An alleged member of the Abraham Lincoln assassination conspiracy, 
* Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the U.S. government. 
* She was hung for treason in July 1865, after being tried and convicted for her role in the plot
* Random fact - she opened a boarding house and it is believed John Wilkes Booth devised his assassination plot at this location

**Roger Taney**

* Fifth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court
* The first Roman Catholic to serve on the Supreme Court
* Known for the Dred Scott Decision (1857)
* Upheld slavery in United States territory
* Denied the legality of black citizenship in America
* Declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional
* In the ruling said that Scott as an African American “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”

Zachary Taylor

* was elected the twelfth president of the United States in 1849
* He served in the army for forty years and was known as a national war hero for his battles in the Mexican War
* signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
* Established that British and American ships were allowed on any Central American canal linking the Atlantic to the Pacific
* was also a slave owner that wanted to ban the expansion of slavery into the western territories
* Interesting Fact: he died from eating cherries and milk

Tecumseh

* Organized the Native American Confederacy to stop white settlement in the North West
* His name means “shooting star” or “blazing comet” in Shawnee
* Was raised to hate the White people but the Shawnee tactics they used horrified him
* When his brother had a vision they ventured to the land they signed away in the Battle of Fallen Timbers to reclaim it while recruiting other tribes along the way
* His coalition and village were destroyed when his brother disobeyed his command

**Sojourner Truth**

* Notable Activist for Women’s Rights
* Became well-known for her “Ain’t I A Woman?” Speech
* Auctioned to John Neely for $100, and a flock of sheep
* The first woman to sue a white man; and win.
* Gave well-spoken speeches, and contributed to the Civil Rights movement
* Born as Isabella Baumfree

**Harriet Tubman**

* She was an american abolitionist and social activist 
* She was born into slavery but escaped through the underground railroad
* Made 13 missions back in order to rescue over 70 slaves 
* She was known as moses in the underground railroad, this was her “code name” 
* She was also an activist for womens suffrage

**Nat Turner**

* Originally an enslaved man
* As a deeply religious Christian, believed he was given visions from god for his purpose
* Organized a violent slave rebellion in **Southampton, Virginia on August 31, 1831**
* 200 blacks massacred; led to even **more oppressive measures on blacks**

55 white people were killed in the rebellion, though many rebels were captured and executed, including himself

**Martin Van Buren**

* 8th President of The United States
* Father was a patriot in the Revolutionary War
* Was the vice president of Andrew Jackson
* He was a founder of the Democratic Party
* Previously governor of New York
* Was largely blamed for the panic of 1837 and the subsequent economic crisis and depression that followed
* Opposed to the expansion of slavery and thus the annexation of Texas

**David Walker**

was an Abolitionist who wrote many texts including the pamphlet: *Appeal..  To the colored citizens of the world*  in 1829

* Most of his writing encouraged slaves to fight for their freedom and encouraged riots and other acts of violence
* grew up free in North Carolina but lived in Boston most of his life and that is where he helped write *Freedom’s Journal*  with some other men in 1829
* Shortly after the spread of his writings a bounty was placed on his head for an unknown amount by Williams Father’s slave owners

**Mercy Otis Warren**

* Poet and playwright during revolutionary era
* Had no formal education, learned through her brother and on her own.
* Married James Warren, a very politically involved man.
* Very close friends with John Adams (first vice president). They wrote to one another often.
* Wrote three satirical pieces criticizing the British as dramas.
* These dramas were “The Adulator” (1772), “Defeat” (1773), and “The Group” (1775).
* She aided the popularity of the boycott on British imports by urging women to participate and also supported those who partook in the Boston Tea party.
* By the end of her life she played an influential role in women’s history by being one of the most intellectual women of the Revolutionary Era.

**George Washington**

1. He led an attack on a French Port 

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2. A Founding Father of the United States 

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3. Led the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War

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4. Was the 1st President of the US

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1. Served only 2 terms as President

Daniel Webster

7th of March Speech

* Became famous through his defense of the union during the states rights nullification crisis 
* Part of the US senate from 1845 to 1850
* Influenced American Diplomacy
* Negotiated long standing disputes with Great Britain
* Helped suppress the slave trade - Bought Freedom
* Secretary of State

Theodore Dwight Weld

* Wrote many pamphlets which were largely anonymous 
* He had participated in anti-slavery debates at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati Ohio and later enrolled in Oberlin College
* In 1834 he had become an agent for the American Anti-Slave Society
* Wrote the books *The Bible Against Slavery* (1837) and *Slavery As It Is* (1839)
* His work on *Slavery As It Is* was said to have partly contributed to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s *Uncle Tom’s Cabin*
* He would later marry and go on to continue to lobby in Washington D.C. against slavery until he returned to private live and taught in schools with his wife

**Phillis Wheatley**

* shipped to the ports of Boston at the age of seven from her hometown of Senegal
* The Wheatley family taught Phillis how to read and write, eventually sparking her passion for poetry
* When Wheatley's poems were not able to be published, she turned to Archibald Bell in London where she gained support for abolitionist causes and got her poetry published
* Many of Wheatley’s poems were about the upbringing of the United States of America and connected the struggle of independence to racial freedom. 
* Even after her death, Phillis’ work was referenced by people attempting to promote education for African Americans.