Origins of the United States
Origin Stories
Origin stories explain beginnings and hold key values and meanings.
Examples: Superman, Spider-Man
Common US origin stories:
British colony evolving from English tradition.
Born in the American Revolution.
This course will offer alternative origin stories and examine history through individual stories (innumerable biographies).
Biographies will include diverse experiences: powerful and meek, those with records and those without.
Pocahontas
The Disney version is prevalent but largely incorrect.
Daniel Richter's version: Pocahontas, a beautiful Indian princess, welcomed English colonists to Jamestown in 1607 and fell in love with Captain John Smith, rescued him from execution by her father Powhatan, aided the colonists, pined when Smith left, married John Rolfe, converted to Christianity (named Rebecca), had a son Thomas, visited England, died in Gravesend, and left a legacy of love.
Most of this is historically inaccurate.
Pocahontas was likely a nickname meaning "mischievous girl." Her formal name was likely Ammonute.
Born around 1595 or 1596.
Daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of 15,000 people in the Senecaumaca alliance.
Senecaumaca means "densely inhabited land" in Algonquin.
Pocahontas's status as an "Indian princess" is questionable.
The British were patriarchal while the Algonquins were matrilineal.
Among Algonquins, inheritance and succession was traced along the female lines.
Powhatan's heir would have been his sister's son.
Pocahontas's mother's identity and status are unknown.
Marrying Pocahontas wouldn't grant rights to Powhatan's kingdom.
Powhatan favored a younger sister over Pocahontas.
No evidence suggests she welcomed the English or knew them before 1607.
She was about 12 years old at the time, while Smith was in his late 20s.
Smith's initial accounts omit the rescue scene, adding it later after Pocahontas's fame in England.
Anthropologists suggest the "execution" was a staged ceremony to establish Powhatan's authority.
The ceremony aimed to incorporate the English into the indigenous political landscape (Texacoemica).
Pocahontas's role was to be an intermediary between Powhatan and the English.
Smith was the conduit of this relationship.
Women often played such roles in indigenous politics.
Pocahontas was fulfilling a traditional role in native politics and diplomacy.
Smith was deposed and sent back to England after a revolt.
Pocahontas married an Algonquin man named Kokomo.
After Kokomo's death, she taken hostage. The English manipulated internal indigenous conflicts to capture her.
She was taken hostage by the English who demanded the Pohaten release some English prisoners he held.
Pocahontas was indoctrinated into Christianity in Jamestown.
She married John Rolfe, bringing temporary peace.
Pocahontas incorporated the English into her Algonquin world.
Rolfe, Pocahontas (now Rebecca), and their son visited England.
She was baptized Rebecca in honor of the matriarch who was the mother of two nations.
She was received at the court of King James I.
She died in England, likely from tuberculosis.
Powhatan died in 1618, and Opechka Konica took over, leading to renewed war.
In 1622, the Algonquins attacked, killing 330 English people (25% of the colonial population).
The English retaliated, imposing harsh peace terms. In 1646, they captured Opechka Conoco, tortured him, and publicly executed him.
Sally Hemings
Her story complicates the narrative of Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson: enlightenment thinker vs. slave owner and father of illegitimate children.
Sally Hemings (1773-1835): Enslaved woman, 3/4 white (quadroon).
Mother, Betty Hemings, was a mulatto, fathered by John Wiles (white slave owner and lawyer).
Slave status passed along matrilineal lines: one drop of slave blood made you a slave.
Sally Hemings had six siblings as children of Betty and Wiles and four half-siblings with Wiles's white wife. Sally Hemings's half-sister was Martha, first wife to Jefferson.
John Wiles didn't free any the children Betty bore him upon his death. They were still property. When Wiles died, Hemings became the property of Martha. By Martha being married to Jefferson, Sally Hemings was now under his ownership.
At one year old she becomes Jefferson's property.
1776: Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence.
Age 9: Martha (Jefferson's wife and Sally Hemings's half sister) dies of type 1 diabetes.
Age 11: Jefferson moves to France.
Age 15: Sally Hemings joins Jefferson in France as a hand servant, she became Jefferson's concubine or mistress and their relationship began.
Jefferson returned to the US as Secretary of State with Sally Hemings.
Hemings never legally married due to her slave status but had six or seven children with Jefferson.
Four of Sally Hemings's children reach adulthood, born while her mother was still enslaved.
Jefferson let two children "escape" in 1882 (they were 7/8 white and could pass as white).
Jefferson freed the other two in his will in 1826.
Jefferson freed only two slaves (Sally Hemings's brothers, also half-siblings to his deceased wife Martha) during his lifetime and five in his will (Hemings's two remaining children and three other Hemings family members).
Jefferson never freed Sally Hemings.
Jefferson's daughter Martha inherited Sally Hemings in 1826.
Sally Hemings in 1826 was allowed to live with her two free sons in Charlottesville, Virginia where they were recorded as white in the 1833 census.
Sally Hemings dies in 1835 as a slave.
The Hemings story reveals complex family relations, tensions between freedom and liberty, and the complexity of race.
Alexander Hamilton
Offers a different perspective on the Founding Fathers.
Born in 1755 in Nevis, West Indies, a bastard (illegitimate).
Unlike Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton was not born into privilege.
Father, James Hamilton (Scotsman), was a failed businessman.
Mother, Rachel Fawcett, was married to someone else.
Age 11: Father abandoned them.
Age 13: Mother died, leaving Hamilton orphaned and penniless (estate seized).
Worked as a clerk in a local firm with ties to New York City.
Moved to New York City at 18 in 1773.
Attended prep school in New Jersey, then King's College (Columbia).
Hamilton viewed war as a way to advance in life.
Hamilton wrote pamphlets supporting the American cause.
1776: Joined the revolutionary army, becoming captain of artillery.
Assigned to General Washington's staff as aide-de-camp and personal secretary.
Resigned in 1781 to found the Bank of New York.
Moved into politics, rising in New York politics.
Elected to the Continental Congress, frustrated by localism.
Advocated for a stronger federal government.
Delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
Appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1789.
Political opposite of Thomas Jefferson (small government advocate).
Pushed for expanded federal power and investment in finance and manufacturing.
Died in a duel with Aaron Burr (Thomas Jefferson's vice president) over Hamilton's despicable opinions of Burr at a dinner party.
Hamilton's life reveals the intensely personal nature of early American politics and the international nature of American identity.
Conclusions
The history of the United States starts with the indigenous peoples.
These biographies explore how indigenous people came to be in North America before encountering Europeans and Africans.