HIST 1301 Notes

England in the Seventeeth Century

• Unifying the English Nation

• England and Ireland

• Henry the 8th

• Kept marrying because he wanted a son to be the next king

• Mary I comes to power when he dies. Reverts everyone back to Catholic

• Wants to make england well known

• At the beginning he was considered a great king who supported Cathotic

• Pope called him Defender of the faith

• Breaks from the catholic church and starts the Anglican Church, the church of england which he is the head of.

English Religion in North America

• England and North America 

• Spreading Protestantism

• Queen Elizabeth I never gets married or has children.

• Christians

  • Catholic- ruled by the Pope

    • Orthodox

    • Eastern

  • Protestants (protesting the catholic church)

    • Baptist

    • Penecostal

    • Mormon

    • Methodist

    • Presbyterian

    • Episcopal

    • Lutheran

Social Dynamics in English North America

• The Social Crisis

• Masterless Men

English Emigration

• English Emigrants

• Indentured Servants

• Land and Liberty

• Had to work 7 years on someone's land before they could become free.

• A lot didn’t make it to 7 years

Ealy Jamestown Colony

Life in the Chesapeake

• Virginia

  • Swamp lands

  • Unhealthy: malaria, dysentery, typhoid

  •  Life expectancy DOWN ten years- lucky to see 20 years old

  • Most growth happens through immigration

  • Men Outnumber women 6-1

    • Immunity builds; more women arrive- birth rate on rise by 18th Century

      • 59,000 citizens in Virginia

      • 30,000 in Maryland

Headright system- A program that gave land to settlers in the 13 American Colonies during the European colonization period

House of Burgesses- the first elected assembly in colonial America (only landowners could vote)

Pocahontas marries John Rolfe, people suspect so that the two groups stop fighting. Changed her name to Rebecca.

Economics and Social Structure

• A Tobacco Colony

  • Tobacco economy-tobacco replaces the search for gold

  • Plant tobacco to sell before planting corn to eat!

  • Tobacco eats up land- move further inland

  • Leads to overproduction- drives prices down

  • From 1.5 million pounds to 40 million pounds

  • Colonists respond by growing more- that’ll make it worse

Spread of Slavery to Virginia

• Slavery in the West Indies

  • Origins

  • Sugar

  • Plantations

• 1619

  • White Virginians buy enslaved Africans for the first time.

Shift from indentured servitude to racial slavery

• Initially, both Europeans and Africans served as indentured servants

  • Gradual transition to race-based, hereditary slavery

• Factors contributing to the rise of slavery:

  • Increased demand for labor in tobacco and rice plantations

  • Declining availability of European indentured servants

  • Profitability of the Atlantic slave trade

  • Belief that Africans were better suited for tropical climates

• So… Why does it “boom”

  • Wages rise in England

  • Mortality rate improves

  • By 1680s– African slaves outnumber white servants

Development of slave codes

• Not a clear difference

• Until-1662: Virginia Slave Codes

  • Children inherited the status of their mother

    • Ensured that children of white men and enslaved women would be born into slavery

• Virginias 1705 slave code

• Defined slaves as property (chattel)

  • Restricted rights of enslaved people (e.g., could not own property, testify in court)

    • Could be mortgaged, sold and inherited like property

    • Prohibited slaves from assembling in groups

    • Exempted slave owners and overseers from prosecution for killing slaves during punishment

Development of New England

• The Rise of Puritanism

• Moral Liberty

  • Most Puritans hoped to purify the Church rather than seperate, but many emigrated in order to establish a “city set upon a hill.”

  • John Winthrop

    • “Natural” versus “moral” liberty

    • True freedom dependent on subjugation to authority

  • The Puritans believed God has predestined different groups of people, the “elect,” to be saved from damnation; no amount of good deeds or good works could save those not among the elect. 

The Pilgrims

• The Pilgrims at Plymouth

• Separists

• Mayflower Compact

  • Reflects on self governemt

• First written frame of government in what is now the United States

• Plymouth

• Pilgrims only survived via the help of local Indians

• Squanto

• Taught to farm and fish

• The Great Migration

• Massachusetts Bay Company had brought 21,000 Puritans by 1642

• Established the basis for a stable society

• Most settlers arrived as families

• Population grew rapidly

Who Settled North America?

Native Americans

Looking for gold

Didn’t end up with the best reputation 

• Spanish

  • Come from central south america- caribean

  • Thought it was india

  • Looking for gold

  • Not the best reputation bc of the way they treated the indians

• French

  • Trade fur

  • They adapted to the native americans

  • Come from Canada/ Northeast

• Dutch

  • Work witht he natives and paid for their land

  • Did trading

From today's new york

• Africans (enslaved)

  • Didn’t come by their own choice

  • Went into virginia first

• English

  • Puritans, Pilgrims, poor and looking for land, convicts, indentured, servants

  • Important people in English settlements-Anne Hutchinson & Roger Williams

  • Their lives revolve around religion

Mercantilism and Navigation Acts

• Navigation Acts

  • Stipulated that valuable goods first had to be shipped to and tradded in English ships and ports and that most European goods shipped to the colonies had to be shipped through England

  • Enabled the government to collect revenues and allowed English merchants, manufacturers, shipbuilders, and sailors to benefit from trade

  • American ships considered English and the acts stimulated a considerable shipbuilding industry

Africans in America

• The colonies live off slavery

  • North AND South– but primarily South

    • Harsh conditions– especially in south

    • VA-some proximity of fields left some time to see friends, family

    • Rising female slave population– reproduction

      • VA relies less on slave trade– the South still uses it

  • Up to 48,000 slaves in northern colonies

    • Work for artisans; work agriculture

    • Some evolve into carpenters, bricklayers, etc.

• African culture begins to grow and spread

  • Speech, religion, music, stories

    • Gullah- language that developed among slaves on the coast of S.C.

    • Ringshout dance

    • Banjo, bongo, etc.

• Basic human instinct to be free

• 1) New York Slave Revolt, 1712

• A revolt of slaves in NY. They killed nine whites and injured six others

• 70 Africans arrested. 27 put on trial. 21 excuted

• 2) Stono Rebellion (South Carolina), 1739

• Fifty Africans march to FL are stopped— more tightly controlled in South than in the North

Priests–highly regarded and looked up to in society

Will play a huge role in the coming years

Physicians–poorly trained

1765-first medical school established–University of Pennslyvania

Use of bleeding to “cure”

Many, many deaths to disease and epidemics

Lawyers

“Windbags” not to be trusted

On par with drunks and brothelkeepers

Navigating Colonial America

• Not until 1700s that major cities were connected by road

• Nine-day journey from Boston to Philadelphia— Today it is a 5 hour train ride

• Twenty-nine days before news of Declaration’s signing reached South Carolina from Pennsylvania

The Great Awakening

• Church membership and participation is dwindling

  • Hellfire sermons

  • Strict doctrine vs. liberal membership requirements

  • Reaction to the Enlightenment in Europe

• Jonathan Edwards

  • Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God

  • Road to hell paved with skulls of unbaptized

Provincial Culture

• Colonial Americans still saw themselves as “British” culturally and artistically

• Still largely plantation-based life in America– go to England to get proper schooling

• Architecture– largely old world 

  • Anglo inspired which was Greco-Roman inspired

    • Just look at the Capitol Building…

• Literature— Poor Richard’s Almanac— 1732-1758

  • Benjamin Franklin

  • Most popular book except for the Bible

  • Short bits of advice on various topics

    • Thrift, industry, morality, common sense

Freedom of the Press

• Most Americans aren’t reading

  • Too poor to buy or busy to read

• Still– some literature out there

  • Fifty public libraries by 1776

  • On eve of revolution– 40 newspapers in print

  • Newspapers lag– distance matters

• John Peter Zenger 1753

  • New York

  • Criticized the governor of NY and he is arrested

    • Claimed truth doesn’t matter to judges

    • Jury still finds him not guilty

This Land Aint big enough for the two of us

France and Spain do not have as many people as the English; they do have the same motives tho

• Two main powers in North America:

  • France and England

• Ohio territory is critical for France

  • Connects Canada to Louisiana/Mississippi Valley

• England feels “threatened” economically

  • France taking land; business practices

Disputed Territory

• 1749– tensions are high

  • British speculators (Virginians) secured legal rights to land

  • The French are setting up forts/ posts in same region (British, too)

    • Fort Duquesne (Ohio)

      • Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers

• George Washington ssent to Ohio Country/ Valley 

  • 150 men

  • Washington’s men fire first on French

  • French retreat, Washington wins… for now

• French come back with reinforcements

  • Fort Necessity (Ten Hours)

  • Washington forced to surrender (1754)

• Further distrust among each nation

  • Displacement of French Acadians from Novia Scotia

• Quakers

• Believe everyone is equal under God

• Each person's beliefs are individual

• Society of friends

• No wars or weapons- won't participate

• Quakers didn’t have a specific pasture they would wait for someone who was moved by the spirit to speak

• The Holy Experiment

• Quaker Liberty

• Land in Pennsylvania 

Penn envisioned his colony as a “holy experiment” to be governed on Quaker principles, including the equality of all persons (including women, blacks, and indians) under God and the primacy of the individual conscience. Penn and the colony’s Quakers treated the Indians with special consideration, making peace with them (Quakers were pacifists, and did not have militias) and taking pains to pay all Indian land claims. Above all, Penn emphasized religious freedom, which was ensured in 1682 in the colony’s Charter of Liberty.

Salem Witch Trials

• Massachusetts 1692-1693

• Girls claim to be bewitched by older women

  • Witch hunt- 20 people lynched 

    • Even a dog

• Most of the accused were from wealthy families– market economy, property-owning

  • Accused by the poor (subsistence)

• Eventually put to an end

  • Governor’s wife is accused of being a witch– he pardons her

  • Ends the trials

• People were just blaming people because they had something against them with no proof or real reason

“Salutary Neglect”- A policy of avoiding strict execution of British laws, as long as colonies remained loyal to the England

• The Rise of the Assemblies

• Politics in Public

• The Colonial Press

John Locke- philosopher- wrote Two Treatises of Government in 1680

Diversity in European Settlement, 1760

• Royal colonies

• Charter colonies 

• Proprieter colonies

Global War; Colonial Disunity

• King William’s War; Queen Anne’s War; King George’s War

  • All English-Spanish-French disputes in Europe

• Stage set for war in North America— French and Indian War (Seven Year’s War)

  • Set off by Washington/Ohio territory

  • West Indies, Philippines, Africa, North America, Ocean— all involved (World War)

  • Control of territories, economy, goods, etc.

The Albany Plan

• British goal-

  • War effort and colonial defense

  • Secure Native American (Iroquois) alliance

    • Bribery

  • Colonial unit against France

  • “Join, Or Die”

    • Only seven of thirteen colonies represented

  • Albany Plan

    • Accepted by all delegates

    • Rejected by individual colonies

      • Too little vs too much independence

So, What do I need to know about the war?

• Start of War

  • Goes Badly for Britain

• General Edward Braddock & the Regulars

  • In VA with regulars

  • Off to capture Ft. Duquesne (1758)

    • Ill disciplined soldiers

  • Heavy equipment– moves slowly

  • Encounters with French, Indians

The Tides Turn

• William Pitt– The Great Commoner

  • Will become known as the Organizer of Victory

  • A man of the people– he knew how to rally them 

  • Gifted Speaker

  • (Pittsburg)

• 1757

  • Comes to the spotlight in London

  • Focuses attacks on Canada— Quebec and Montreal

  • Picked young, energetic leaders for battle

  • Created a LARGE war debt for British subjects

Big Picture

• France loses foothold in Canada, North America

  • Still French roots in Canada

• France allowed to keep some sugar islands as part of the peace 

• France cedes its American territory to Spain

  • Spain turns Florida over to Britian for Cuba

• Britain now the dominant power in North America

  • Still a strong naval power, too

Proclamation line of 1763- follows the Appalacion mountains

Clashes with Natives

• France– out of the picture

• Spain– Limited in the picture

• Natives— still there!

  • No one to play off each other anymore

  • Deal solely with the British

• 1763— Ottawa Chief Pontiac

  • Led by French traders left behind 

  • Try to oust British in Ohio territory

Georgia

The Georgia Experiment

• 1733 by philanthropists led by James Oglethorpe, a wealthy reformer who favored the abolition of slavery. Oglethorpe wanted to create a colony in which the “worthy poor” of England could find economic opportunity. Especially for those in debtor’s prison.

• British government wanted a barrier between English and Spain and allied Indians.

• Although the colony initially banned liquor and enslaved people, many of its settlers wanted both, and by the 1740s, colonists were appealing for the English liberty of self-government in order to have enslaved people

• Slavery in the North

• French and Indian War- ended 1763

• British officer George Washinton started 

• English vs France and the Indians (not all the tribes)

• English

  • Fighting in open lands and the woods

  • Wearing bright red which makes them stand out

• Appalaccion mountains can’t go past them it's the proclamation line

Reluctant Revolutionaries

• We demand the “The Rights of Englishmen”

• Time/Distance matters!

• Republicanism, Radical Whigs, and the Enlightenment

  • American Whigs, were the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rejected British rule during the American Revolution, and declared the United States of America an independent nation in july 1776

• The end of salutary neglect; mercantilism

• Views of colonies by English

  • Limits on money; laws, etc.

  • The “younger sibling” of the British Empire

Acting Up

• “No taxation without representation”

• The two George’s you need to know

  • King George III— late twenties-early thirties

  • Prime Minister George Grenville

• England’s cost of victory and total debt

  • 140,000,000

  • Over 28 billion dollars in modern-day value

• Reinforcement of the Navigation Acts (1763)

• Sugar Act (1764)

  • Passed by Parliament

  • First tax on colonies to support the Crown

  • Raised duty on foreign sugar

  • Lowered substantially after protests

    • Even though the British believed in mercantilism, Prime Minister Robert Walpole espoused a view of “salutary neglect.” This system was in place from 1607 through 1763, during which the British were lax on enforcement of external trade relations.

• Quartering Act (1765)

  • Colonies provide food and housing for British soldiers

    • During peacetime and wartime

• Stamp Act (1765)

  • Use of stamped paper on commercial and legal document

    • Playing cards, pamphlets, newspapers, diplomas, marriage licenses, etc.

    • Heavier taxes paid in Britain— colonies need to pay their fair share

    • Paid by the individual

The Road to Revolution

New Yorkers are tearing down King George's Statue 

After the Seven Years’ War

• Consolidating the Empire

• Taxing the Colonies

  • The Stamp Act Crisis

Teapot Protesting the Stamp Act

Resistance Emerges

• Liberty and Resistance

• The Regulators

The purpose of the Boston Committee of Correspondence was to “Prepare a statement of the rights of the colonists, and of this province in particular, as men, as Christians, and subjects; Prepare a declaration of the infringement of those rights; and Prepare a letter to be sent to all the towns of this province and to the world, giving the sense of this town.”

The Stamp Act Repealed

Declaratory Act 1766

• The government can tax you whenever they want

A New Set of Taxes

• The Townshend Crisis

  • Townshend Acts, 1767

  • Daughters of Liberty

  • Homespun clothes

Escalation

• The Boston Massacre

• The Tea Act

• The Intolerable Acts

The “Spark”

• British send two regiments of troops to Boston, 1768

  • 4,000 soldiers 

  • Population of Boston was approxiamtly 20,000

• Colonists protests

  • 11-year-old shot a week earlier

  • Snowballs, rocks, and lobster tails

• Bloody Massacre, March 5, 1770

  • Five killed; six wounded

  • Crispus Attucks

    • African and Native American descent, generally regarded as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre and thus the first American killed in the American Revolution. 

• John Adams (future president)

  • Defends 8 British soldiers in court

  • Two found guilty; branded and released

Boston Teas Party, 1773

• British East India Company

  • Facing bankruptcy- overproduction of tea

  • Granted a monopoly in American Colonies

    • LOWERED the price of tea

  • Keep company afloat; tax money goes to Britain

• Protests

  • Led by the Sons of Liberty

  • Turn shiploads of tea away

  • Burn vessels and cargo

  • Refusal to accept delivery of tea into colonies

It is important to note that most American colonists at this time were still loyal to the crown. The Sons of Liberty were a small minority group run by Sam Adams

England Strikes back

• Coercive (Intolerable) Acts, 1774

  • Boston Port Act closed Boston Harbor until damages from the “party” were paid

    • Sympathy; half mast flags; rice from South Carolina

  • Limitations on town meetings

  • British soldiers who killed colonists could be sent to England for trial

  • Expansion of the Quartering Act

1st Continental Congress

• The Coercive Acts were met with widespread outrage and resistance in the American colonies. They were seen as a direct threat to colonial self governement and individual liberties. In response to these acts, the First Continental Congress concerned in Philadelphia in September 1774, where delegates from twelve colonies (excluding Georgia) discussed how to respond to the coercive measures and called for a boycott of British goods.

Colonial Response

• First Continental Congress, 1774

  • Philadelphia

  • 12/13 colonies present

    • Facing a war with neighboring Native American tribes, Georgia did not want to jeopardize British assistance.

  • 55 men present— Adams, Washington, Patrick Henry

  • “Redress grievances”

  • Declaration of rights

• The Association 

  • Calls for a complete boycott of goods

    • Non-export, -import, -consumption

  • No calls for independence… yet.

  • Reconvene in May 1775 if not addressed

Shot Heard ‘Round the World’

• Lexington, 1775

  • British sent to seize gunpowder

  • British sent to arrest Sam Adams and JohnHancock

  • Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride

• Minute Men

  • Did not disperse quickly enough

  • Shot at; eight killed

• British move on to Concord; forced to retreat

  • Find safety in Boston

  • 300 casualties; 70 deaths

• This is how revolutions begin

Independence declared

• The Declaration of Independence

  • Conception of American freedom

America Seceds from the Empire- July 24th 1776

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Jefferson’s “Explanation” of Independence

• Impact of the Declaration of Independence

  • Established colonists as rebels, not British subjects seeking reconciliation

  • Allowed America to realistically request foreign aid

    • (recognized as a country by foreign nations)

  • Influenced many other struggles for freedom in the future

Patriots and Loyalists

Loyalists

• Tended to be Southerners

• Government officials and Clergy in the Church of England

• Came from cities

• Lived in the colony of New York

• Quakers (but wanted peace)

• Indians who feared that Americans would take their land

• African-Americans wanting their freedom

People from all walks of life (farmers, businessmen, artisans, etc…)

Patriots

• Tended to come from New England and Virginia

• Indians who traded with the colonists

• Colonists looking to move west for land (farmers)

• Scholars who had become “enlightened” by reading works by Locke and other political philosophers

• African-Americans who thought there would be more equality if America won

England’s Strengths and Weaknesses going into the American revolution

Strengths

• Numbers!

  • 7.5 million Britons to 2.5 million colonists

• Money!

• Army size!

  • 50,000 soldiers for Britain, plus foreign assistance

    • 30,000 Hessians

  • Militia for the colonies

Weaknesses

• The Irish problem

• The lack to want to fight

• Poor treatment of soldiers in America BY England

  • Second-rate soldiers, at that

• Distance (matters!)

• No real urban center to target

Colonial Strengths and Weaknesses 

Strengths

• Leadership

  • Washington

• Foreign Aid

  • France

  • Marquis de Lafayette

• Defensive fighting

• Self-sustaining (agriculture)

• A reason to fight 

• History repeats itself… Underdogs win!

Weaknesses

• Little to no organization

• Lacking unity

• “Independent” with no legal document

• Jealousy/military positions

• Lack of money/depreciated value of money

• Profit over patriotism

• Only a minority wish to fight

Congress Drafts George Washington

• George Washington chosen to lead the “army” moving to Boston

  • He was a well-known Virginia planter and member of Congress

• Choosing Washington to lead was done in spite of many doubts

  • Had combat experience, but 20 years before

  • Never rose above rank of colonel in militia

  • Largest command was only 1,200 men

  • Not military genuis; he lost more battles than he won

Global Events

• An Asylum for Mankind

• The Global Declaration of Independence

Bunker Hill

• June 1775- Bunker (Breed’s) Hill

  • Colonists took Breed’s Hill overlooking Boston

  • British should have flanked (moved in from side or behind) the Americans

  • Instead, British charged up the hill with 3,000 men

    • Because the Americans were firmly entrenched with 1,500 men, they mowed down the British until their gunpowder ran out and they were forced to retreat

    • The British lost 1,100 men; the Americans lost only 300

Paine’s Contribution

• Common Sense

  • Paine’s Impact

General Wahington at Bay

• Initially, Washington and Continental Army suffered losses, but England could never make substantial headway

• During the winter, Washington headed into New Jersey, across the Delaware River, winning 2 important victories

  • On December 26, 1776, the Americans captured 1,000 Hessians sleeping off the effects of their Christmas celebration

    • (Washington crossed the Delaware at about 11:00pm on Christmas night)

  • In January 1777 the Americans defeated the British force at Princeton

Washington Crossing the Delaware

• The river is completely iced over

• It’s night and dark and they have no lights

Battle of Saratoga 1777

• British try to invade New England from Canada and isolate New England from the rest of the colonies.

• American General Horatio Gates led his army to defeat the British

• Most important result- French recognize the independence of the United States and become a military ally to Americans

• France brings manpower, money, and ships to support the Americans in the revolution against the British.

Valley Forge

Continental Army- another name for the U.S. army

Revolution in Diplomacy?

• France and America seemed ideal partners

  • France

    • Wanted to get back at Britian for their loss in the Seven Years’ War

    • Britain would not be a world power without the colonies

  • America

    • Needed help against Britain

• American conditions for treaty with France drafted into a “Model Treaty” by Continental Congress

  • Wanted end of colonialism and mercantilism

  • Wanted no political connection, no military connection, only a commercial connection with France

The Colonial War Becomes a Wider War

• War in America came to involve many world powers

  • In 1778 France declared war on Britain

  • In 1779 Spain and Holland entered the war against Britain

    • Thec combined French and Spanish fleets outnumbered even the British navy

  • War spread from just North America to Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and Asia

• Importance of France and the widening of the war

  • America deserves credit for holding off the British until 1778

  • However, America would not have achieved Independence by itself

  • The fighting in America became secondary for Brittain to fighting the European powers after 1778

  • From 1778 to 1783 France provided Americans guns, money, equipment, 1/2 of all troops and basically all of the navy

Blow and Counterblow

• Late in the 1780, General Benedict Arnold turned traitor

  • Felt he was not appreciated by the Americans

  • Promised to sell out West Point for 6,300 pounds and an officer’s commission

  • The plan was detected in the nick of time and was stopped

  • Arnold then fled to the British and became an officer in the British army

The Late War

• The War in the South

• Victory at Last- The Battle of Yorktown 1781

Treaty of Paris 1783

• Britain recognizes the U.S. as a independent country

• U.S. gets all the land up to the mississippi

Revolution is Over. Now what?

• Life carried on as normal for many of the colonists during the revolution

• “Freedom” did not come quickly— it was gradual

  • Once we had it, we had to decide what to do with it (difficult)

• Patriots at odds again

  • The thing that divided the colonies the most was what?

• Economic troubles

  • Second-rate goods

• One benefit: most of the thirteen colonies functioned similarly as individual states 

  • Questions about social structure, customs, economic practices, politics, race, class, gender

The Articles of Confederation

• Continental Congress of 1775 met to discuss a foundational document for government

• Under the Articles of Confederation

• Each state is individualistic, free

  • Making own money, militia, treaties, etc.

• 1777— Articles of Confederation (ratified by all 13 states by 1781)

• Point of discord: land

  • Land rich states better able to pay off debts

  • Poorer states not as likely 

    • But they helped fight for the cause! (kind of like the Seven-Years’ War)

    • Only way to pay off is through taxes— not good!

    • Argument— turn that land over the federal government

  • Land “poor” states hold out on approving the Articles until they know they have something!

Our First Constitution

• “Loose Confederation”/ “Loose Friendship”

• Point of it all— limit the power of the government

  • Individual over State

• A Congress with no real power

  • No chief executive

  • Judiciary left to the states

The Articles

• Weaknesses

  • Each state gets one vote— regardless of size

  • To get important bills through, 9/13 states must approve

  • Amendments must be passed by unanimous vote

  • Weak Congress (purposeful!)

  • Congress has no power to regulate commerce or collect taxes

  • Taxes established; states asked to pay voluntarily

  • Federal government could advice and appeal, but not control the states

  • Could not act on behalf of the country’s citizens

  • Could not raise an army to defend itself/state

  • Less effective than the Continental Congress!

  • Created a confederation, not a federation

  • Established a Unicameral Congress/Limited Power

• Strengths

  • It does give us the building block of our current constitution

  • Outlines some central powers of the government

  • Congress can make treaties

  • Congress can establish a postal service

  • Landmark Laws

Landmark Laws

• Old Northwest

• Ordinance of 1784

  • As population grow, territories apply for statehood

• Land Ordinance of 1785

  • Sell lands, pay off debt

  • Survey land prior to selling

  • Part of land to be set aside for public education

  • Divides land into townships; down from there

Shay’s Rebellion Against MA

• From threats Outside to the Nation, to threats within the nation

  • State upset with “King Congress”- No Real Power!’

  • Inflation is on the rise

  • States quarrel over boundaries; tax goods

• Shay’s Rebellion— 1786

  • Daniel Shays— Revolutionary Vet

  • Gathers 4,000 Poor, backcountry farmers

  • Demand paper money; ease of taxes by states; suspend property takeovers

  • MA— uses money to raise a small army to shut down rebellion

    • Shays condemned to death, later pardoned

    • Federal government doesn’t act— too weak!

  • MA rescinds much of the laws— what's next?

    • Democratic Despotism

A new convention

• 1786—Virginia calls for conventionof States on Maryland

  • Nine states appoint delegates; only five attended; nothing gets accomplished. Still focused on STATES ONLY

• Calls for another convention the following year in Philedelphia. Everyone present but Rhode Island…

  • Goal: commerce and bolster the Articles altogether

  • Federalist states bring a new document to be discussed: The Constitution

• Whigs believe the constitution will not create a republic but will give national gov too much power over the people

Compromises of the Convention

• By 1787…

• Some want to scrap the Articles altogether, not revise

• Virginia Plan (big state plan)

  • Create a bicameral congress

  • Representation in both chambers based on population

• New Jersey Plan (small state plan)

  • Create a unicameral congress

  • Population equal among states

• Great Compromise (Article I)

  • House of Representatives —> Population (435 in 2021)

    • All revenue bills originate in the House

  • Sentate —> Equal representation (2 for every state)

Other Features

• Creation of a (limited) Executive

• Checks and Balances

• Electoral College (different today!)

All men are created equal… but do they count?

• If representation is based on population…

  • Slavery

    • North doesn’t want slaves to count as a person

    • South wants slaves  to count as a person

    • 3/5 Compromise: three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives

      • The word slavery never appears in the constitution until after the Civil War

• Most states want to do away with importation of slaves

  • GA, SC protest

  • Importation allowed through 1807

Confederation Government

• The Article of Confederation

  • First written constitution

  • One-house Congress

  • No President

Congress, Settlers, and the West

• Establishmen of rules not easy as 1000,000 Indians already inhabited the area

• Claim by Congress that Indians had forfeited their rights to the land because they allied with the British

• Desire by Congress to balance the desire for access to western lands with the avoidance of endless conflict with Indians

• Rapid settlement

• Belief by settlers that possession of the western lands was an essential element of American freedom

• Congress worried about settlers, whom they saw as rowdy and unrefined

Native Responses to U.S. Land Claims

• Dangerous Neighbors

  • Native nations in the South

  • Native nations in the Ohio Valley

  • Native nations retained homelands west of Appalachian Mountains

  • Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaw, and Cherokees made alliances among themselves and Spain

  • Spanish needed NAtive allies to protect dispersed, smaller colonies

  • Native nations in Ohio Valley attacked American settlers who ventured beyond Kentucky

    • Ohio Valley Natives counted on British support form forts around Great Lakes

Problems with the Articles of Confederation

• The Confederation’s Weaknesses

• Shay’s Rebellion

Nationalism

• Nationalists of the 1780s

  • James Madison

  • Alexander Hamilton

• One man afraid of democratic excess was James Madison, a Virginian and disciple of Thomas Jefferson who led the movement to strengthen national government. He was joined by Alexander Hamilton of New York, the most vocal advocate of a robust national government, who wanted to make the nation into a world military and commercial power. These nationalists found allies among others to whom the Revolution had given a consciousness of the nation

Constitutional Convention

• The Structure of Government

  • Constitutional Convention

  • Virginia Plan

  • New Jersey Plan

The New Constitution’s Limits

• The Limits of Democracy

• Direct election of members of the House of Representatives was an expansion of democracy. They wanted to ensure that the right kind of men were elected to office. While the people would remain sovereign, they would choose those who governed them from among the elite. They assumed the Senate would be composed of each state’s most prominent citizens, and made the House of Representatives quite small assuming that only very prominent men could win elections in large districts. The president was to be chosen by the electoral college or the House, and electors were not voted upon directly, either. The electoral college was an indirect means to elect the president, because the delegates did not trust ordinary voters to choose the president and vice president directly.

• The Division and Seperation of Powers

Slavery

• The Debate over Slavery

• Slavery in the Constitution

  • It prohibited Congress from banning the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years, required states to return fugitive slaves to their owners, and stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted in determining each state’s representation in the House of Representatives and the electoral college. Many of these measures were proposed by delegates from South Carolina, who were fiercely proslavery

The Constitution Finalized

• The Final Document

  • Approved by delegates, then sent to states for ratification

  • National economic market, strong central government

The Great Debate

Sent to revise the document— now we have an entirely new one!

• Federalists (Tories)

  • Favored a stronger, more centralized government

  • George Washington, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton

  • Wealthy and educated

• Anti-Federalists (Whigs)

  • New Constitution takes sovereignty away; too much power for government

  • Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson

  • State’s Rights advocates/ Poor

  • “Gilded Trap”

  • Opposed omissions of referencing God, establishing a capital city, creation of an army, etc.

The Ratification Debate and Literature

• The Federalist

Opposition

• The Anti-Federalists Opposed ratification Bill of Rights

Compromise for Ratification

• The Bill of Rights

  • First ten amendments

  • Defined the rights of citizens

  • Religious freedom

Identity

• Who belongs? The Constitution and American Citizenship

  • No clear definition of citizenship 

  • Not until Reconstruction was principle of birthright citizenship affirmed

• National Identity

  • Not all living in the United States included as “the People”

  • In the Constitution: Indians “other persons,” and “the People”

African Americans in the New Nation

• Black Americans and the Republic

  • Gradual emancipation

  • Open immigration

Jefferson’s Outlook on Race and Slavery

• Jefferson, Slavery, and Race

• Principles of Freedom

The Current Problems

• Americans still distrusted authority and government

  • Had overthrown both the British and Articles of Confederation

• American finances were in bad shape

  • Little money coming in through tazes 

  • Huge amount of public debt

Washington for President

• George Washington

  • Unanimously elected president by the electoral college- the only nominee ever to be elected unanimously

  • Preferred farming at Mount Vernon to being president- he was the only person elected who did not want to be president

  • April 30, 1789- took the oath of office in New York City (the temporary capital of the U.S. at the time)

• Washington’s Cabinet

  • Only 3 department heads were originally in the cabinet under Washington

    • Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson

    • Secretary of the Treasury: Alexander Hamilton

    • Secretary of War: Henry Knox

    • Attorney General: Edmund Randolph

The Bill of Rights

• Amendments to the Constitution could be proposed in two ways

  • A new constitutional convention could be requested by 2/3 of the states

  • Or by a 2/3 vote of both houses of Congress

Hamilton Revives Public Credit

• Pushed for Congress to assume states’ debts ($21.5 million)

  • Justifiable since they had been incurred while fighting the Revolution

  • Hamilton primarily wanted to strengthen the U.S.

    • States would be more supportive of the national government

    • Rich creditors would support the national government (to get their money paid back)

• Hamilton’s financial goals fot the U.S.

  • Fix economic problems from the Articles of Confederation

  • Favor wealthy groups so that they would lend money and political support to the government

  • Prosperity would then trickle down from the upper to lower classes

Hamilton Battles Jefferson for a National Bank

• Jefferson opposed the bank

• Washington asked for Jefferson’s written opinion

  • Jefferson held to a “strict” interpretation of the Constitution

  • There was no specific authorization for a bank in the Constitution

  • Powers that were not specifically granted to the national government (such as the formation of a bank) were reserved for the states

  • Therefore, states had power to authorize banks, not the national government

Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton

• A genius, but not fully trusted by many due to his favoritism of the wealthy

• He openly favored aristocratic government

• Interfered in others’ departments, especially that of his bitter rival Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state

• Hamilton’s reply to Jefferson was also requested by washington

  • Hamilton held to a “loose” interpretation of the Constitution

  • Anything the Constitution did not forbid it permitted. (Jefferson believed exactly the opposite.)

The Emergence of Political Parties

• By 1793- political parties had formed

  • Democratic-Republicans (Jeffersonian)

  • Federalists (Hamiltonian)

• Foreign policy made differences between the parties even more pronounced

Federalists VS. Democratic Republicans

Federalists

• Led by Alexander Hamilton

• Thought rich, educated people should lead nation

• Wanted strong federal government

• Wanted to encourage manufacturing and trade

• Supported loose interpretation of the Constitution

Democratic Republicans

• Led by Thomas Jefferson

• Thought more people should have political power

• Wanted strong state governments

• Wanted to encourage farming

• Support strict interpretation of the Constitution

Financial Planning and Opposition

• Hamilton’s Program

• The Emergence of Opposition

• The Jefferson-Hamilton Bargain

  • Jefferson brokered a deal whereby southerners accepted Hamilton’s program (except manufacturing subsidies) in exchange for the establishment of the permanent national capital on the Potomac River.

Revolution in France

• The impact of the French Revolution

  • Political division

  • Impressment

  • Jay’s Treaty

Rebellion and Political Parties

• Political Parties

  • The Whiskey Rebellion

Mutinous Moonshiners in Pennsylvania

• Importance of whiskey to rural communities

  • Bad roads forced many farmers to convert

  • Grain to alcohol for easier and cheaper shipping to the east

  • Whiskey was even used as money in some parts of the frontier

• Hamilton’s excise tax on whisky hurt rural farmers

  • Excise taxes are placed on products of which the gov. wishes to limit consumption

• 1794- Whiskey Rebellion

  • Distillers tarred and feathered revenue officers, stopping collections

  • Cried for “Liberty and No Excise”

Embracing Popular Politics 

• The Republican Party

  • Madison and Jefferson

  • Democratic self-government

  • Critical of social and economic inequality

• Washington brought militia from several states to stop the Whiskey Rebellion

  • An army of 13,000 did march to Pennsylvania

  • The rebels dispersed when they heard troops were coming

  • Two men were convicted for rebellion; Washington pardoned them

The Growth of the Public Sphere

• An expanding Public Sphere

  • More and more citizens participate in political culture

  • Growing postal service and the rapid expansion of the American press contributed to the widening public sphere

• Democratic-Republican societies

  • Supporters of the French Revolution and critics of the Washington Administration formed political clubs

  • Federalists criticized these societies as undermining the authority of the government

  • These societies argued that constant involvement in public affairs was a part of political liberty

Women and the New Nation

• The rights of women

• 1790s offered opportunities for American women to participate in politics, and a small but growing number of women published political and literary writings in American newspapers. One of these, Judith Sargent Murray, insisted that women should have equal access to education. If women seemed intellectually inferior to men, she argued, it was because they were denied an opportunity to learn.

Washington retires– Washington’s Farewell Address

• Against Political Parties:

  • “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”

• Avoiding Foreign Entanglements:

  • “Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation… Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns.”

• Respecting the Constitution 

  • “If in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates.”

The Adams Presidency

• The Election of 1796 

  • The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798

• The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Politics in 1800

We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists

• The “Revolution of 1800”

  • Jefferson wins presidency

  • Twelfth Amendment

Revolution Abroad and Rebellion at Home

• Slavery and Politics

• The Haitian Revolution

• Gabriel’s Rebellion

Jefferson Presidency

• Judicial Review

  • Chief Justice John Marshall

  • Marbury V. Madison

Louisiana

• The Louisiana Purchase

  • Territory purchased from France

  • Doubled size of the United States

  • Agrarian character of the United States

Louisiana Purchase

• 1800— Spain cedes trans Mississippi/ New Orleans to France

• 1803: Jefferson sends James Monroe to Paris

  • The goal: buy New Orleans and land east for $10,000,000

    • If it fails— ally with England

• Napoleon agrees to sell land— actual price of $15,000,000

  • War with England

  • Napoleonic Wars

Venturing into New Territory

• Lewis and Clark

• Incorporating Louisiana

Aaron Burr

• VP during Jefferson’s first term; dropped during 2nd

• Plots to secede NE and NY from the Union

  • Hamilton uncovers and exposes the plan

  • Duel set between the two

    • Hamilton refuses to fire— dies. 

• Burr sets up more plots— failed attempts

  • Arrested, put on trial for treason

  • SCOTUS

    • Must prove treason, not just intentions

    • Burr acquitted, fled to Europe

The United States and the Barbary States

• The Barbary Wars

  • War fought to protect commerce

  • Barbary states: northern coast of Africa

  • Islamic world

Brewing War

• The Embargo

• A ban on all American vessels sailing for foreign ports

  • The embargo devastated the economies of American port cities

• Madison and Pressure for War

War with Britain Once More

• The War of 1812-2nd War of Independence

  • Declared war after continued British assaults on American shipping- impressment

  • Britain invaded the United States

  • Battle of New Orleans- Andrew Jackson

  • Treaty of Ghent

Effects and Meaning of the War of 1812

• The War’s Aftermath

• The War of 1812 and the Canadian Borderland

• The End of the Federalist Party

The Market Revolution

• The growth of the American economy transformed American life in the years leading up to the Civil War

  • A shift from production for personal use to production for sale.

  • Improved transportation networks expanded exchange networks

  • Labor-saving technology separated public and domestic spheres

  • The market revolution brought progress but also introduced challenges, including class conflict, child labor, immigration, and the expansion of slavery

The Economy and Transportation

• Roads and Steamboats

• The Erie Canal

• Railroads and the Telegraph

TheTransportation Revolution

• The Transportation Revolution opened up the western lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains

• The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, connected the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.

• Steamboats revolutionized travel on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers

• Railroads expanded significantly by 1860

The Communications Revolution

• The telegraph redefined the limits of communication

• Samuel Morse secured funding for a telegraph line from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore

• Telegraph lines played a crucial role in sharing news, especially during the Mexican-American War

Borderlands West

• The Rise of the West

  • Flood of the westward migration after the War of 1812

  • People moved in groups and established communities

  • One stream of migration brought slavery to the newly created Cotton Kingdom

  • Regional cultures in the West looked much like those migrants left behind

  • Expansion into Florida despite Spanish and Indian resistance

• An Internal Borderland-Ohio River

Cotton

• The Cotton Kingdom

  • The unfree westward movement

  • Cotton gin made possible the growing and selling of cotton on a large scale

  • Slavery embarked on a period of unprecedented expansion into new territories

  • Around 1 million enslaved people were forced to move from older slave states to the Deep South between 1800 and 1860

    • The majority were transported by slave traders to be sold at auction

    • Slave trading was a well-organized and profitable business that destroyed African American families and broke up long-standing communities

  • Cotton became the linchpin of southern development and the most important American export

Farmers and Market society

• Commercial farmers

  • North transformed into an integrated economy of commercial farms and manufacturing cities 

  • Farmers increasingly focused on growing crops or livestock for sale while consuming manufactured goods

  • Growing cities became a market for these goods and a source of credit

  • Steel plow and reaper increased agricultural output

• The Growth of Cities

  • Cities that stood at the crossroads of interregional trade grew tremendously

    • Example: Cincinnati (Porkopolis) and Chigaco 

  • Urban life transformed as entrepreneurs looked to maximize profits while keeping labor costs down

Industrial Expansion

• The Factory System

• Industrial workers

  • Gathered large groups of workers under central supervision and replaced hand tools with power-driven machinery

  • The Lowell Mills

  • American system of manufactures

  • The early industrial revolution confined to New England

  • Industrial Workers

    • Market revolution changed American conceptions of time itself

    • Clocks, not seasons, regulated work and leisure time

    • Closely supervised work tending a machine for a period determined by a clock seemed to violate American freedom and independence

    • Native-born men avoided these jobs

Women and Industry

• The “Mill Girls”

  • Female and child labor

  • Boarding houses

  • Women in the Public world

Immigration

• The Growth of Immigration

  • Irish and German newcomers

• The demand for labor was met by increased immigration

• The majority of immigrants were from Germany and Ireland and moved to northern states, where they would not have to compete with slave labor. 

• They were pushed out of Europe due to mechanization and industrialization and aided by improved ocean travel

• The largest number of immigrants came from Ireland and Germany

  • They filled unskilled and low-wage jobs while living in overcrowded and unsafe urban ghettos

  • Many Germans moved West, where they farmed and engaged in craft production

  • The result was the creation of a vibrant German-language culture

Nativism

• The rise of Nativism

• The transformation of law

  • Corporations became central to new market economy

    • Investors and directors were not personally liable for the companies debts

    • Thus corporations could raise far more capital

  • The courts upheld their validity and affirmed employers’ full authority over the workplace

Immigration and Nativism

• Between 1820 and 1860, over 5 million immigrants arrived in the United States

• Irish, German, and Jewish immigrants sought economic opportunities and new lives in America

• Nearly one out of every eight Americans by the Civil War was born outside the United States

Nativism:

• The sudden influx of immigration led to a nativist backlash among native-born Anglo Protestant Americans

• Nativists sought to limit European immigration, particularly targeting Catholics, and prevent them from establishing religious institutions

The Free Individual and the West

• The West and Freedom

  • Manifest destiny

    • Divinely appointed mission to occupy all North America

    • Those whose stood in the way of expansion as obstacles to the progress of freedom

  • A sense of physical mobility became a central component of American freedom

    • Economic independence 

    • West offered the chance to achieve economic independence

Transcendentalism-response to industrialization and urbanization

• The Transcendentalists 

  • Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Transcendentalism was a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that began in the 1820s and 1830s in New England. Transcendentalists believed that people are inherently good, and that they can experience the divine through self-reliance and immersion in nature.

• The term “individualism” was first used in this era. Unlike in the colonial period, many Americans now believed that individuals should pursue their own self-interest, no matter what the cost to the public good, and that they should and could depend only on themselves. Americans and more and more saw the realm of the private self as one in which other individuals and government should not interfere

Religious Revival

• The Second Great Awakening

  • Popular religious revivals

  • Spread to all regions of the country and democratized American Christianity

• The Awakening’s Impact

  • Stressed the right of private judgement in spiritual matters

  • Used market revolution’s improved transportation to spread message, but railed against growing greed

  • Promotion by ministers of a controlled individualism

Mormonism

• The Emergence of Mormonism

  • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

  • Founded by Joseph Smith in the 1820s

  • Controversial doctrines including polygamy led mobs to drive Mormons out of New York, Ohio, and Missouri

  • Brigham Young, Smith’s successor, led by the Mormons to Utah to practice undisturbed

  • Mormon experience revealed the limits of religious toleration in nineteenth century America but also the opportunities offered by religious pluralism

Market Revolution and Prosperity

• Liberty and Prosperity

  • Right to compete for economic advancement beecame a touchstone of American freedom

  • The emergence of the “self-made man”

    • Achievement through intelligence and hard work

    • John Jacob Astor, self-made man

• Race and Opportunity

  • Free Blacks found themselves excluded from new economic opportunities

  • Free Blacks constructed their own institutional life, including independent churches

  • Many viewed formerly enslaved people as low-wage competitors

  • Federal law barred free Blacks from access to public land, and some states prohibited them from entering their territory altogether

Seperate Spheres

• The Cult of Domesticity

  • Some embraced a new version of femininity, which glorified a woman who could create a private environment shielded from the competition of the market economy

  • Women were to sustain non market values like love and friendship

  • Values included sexual innocence and dependence on men

  • Women were supposed to remain in the private realm

• Women and Work

  • Only low-paying jobs

  • Coverture

  • People in the middle class prided themselves on women outside of the home

  • They claimed that men should earn a family wage

Early Labor Organization

• The Early Labor Movement

  • Widened the gap in wealth and income between wealthy merchants and industrialists at one end and workers and the poor on the other, especially in the urban Northeast. Worried by the erosion of their traditional skills and the danger of being

• The “Liberty of living”

  • Labor’s critique of the market economy directly challenged the idea that individual improvement offered an adequate response to social inequality

The Era of Good Feelings— NATIONALISM

• James Monroe (R) elected in 1816 

• Bridged two generations 

  • Founding Fathers

  • New age nationalists

• Mediocre compared to previous presidents

  • BUT— he was keen as to what the people wanted

• Good will tour

  • Military inspections

  • Travelled to meet the people— embraced

• Despite the “good”- sectionalism, disputed territories, tariffs, etc.

The Monroe Doctrine

• Fear of outside interference in the American hemisphere by outsiders

  • Russia, Europeans

• December 2, 1823

  • Non-colonization: America is closed to colonization 

  • Nonintervention: Europe, stay out of the western hemisphere and the US will stay out of European affairs

• “Self-defense” doctrine

  • Not about protecting other countries in the Americas

  • About protecting us— still young and weak!

  • “Insulating” the US

• Infuriated European leaders— but their hands were tied

Does Democracy work in the early republic?

• Founding fathers feared the influence that ordinary citizens would have on government if they were all allowed to vote

  • Federalists wanted to keep the vote to the educated and elite

  • Democratic-Republics wanted to open the vote for all free men

• Nonetheless, Americans increasingly showed up to vote

  • Practiced public demonstrations such as:

    • Political rallies

    • Petitioned Congress

    • Openly criticized the president

    • Consistently challenged the power or elected officials

• The actions of the general public forced politicians to recognize the wishes of the populus

Sectionalism of the north, south, and west

• Sectionalism- Dividing the Nation

•  Northerners fear Virginia has too much political power

  • 4 of the 5 presidents were from Virginia

  • The Market Revolution caused immigration to spike in states like New York

    • Immigrants usually voted Dem-Rep

  • Slavery becomes a bigger issue as Northern states become “free states” while Southern states depended more heavily on Slaves

The Missouri Crisis

• Settlers in Missouri, a territory carved out of Louisiana, applies for statehood in 1819

  • Missouri already has 10,000 slaves

    • 3/5 compromise gives slave population rpresentation in the House

    • Missouri entering as a slave state produces imbalance in the senate

• James Tallmadge proposes that Congress should admit Missouri only if children of slaves in Missouri are freed at the age of 25. (gradual emancipation)

  • Passed the House of Reps (Majority northerners)

  • Shut down in the Senate (Majority Southerners)

Henry Clay- The Great Compromiser

• Henry Clay- Senator and Congressman from Kentucky, but born in VA

  • Pushed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 thru Congress and the Senate

• While Clay owned slaves, he wrote

• “No man is more sensible of the evils of slavery than I am, nor regrets them more”

• As such, Clay, was not an ardent supporter of slavery

The Missouri Compromise

• Three part plan: 

  • 1st: Congress would admit Missouri as a slave state

  • 2nd: Congress would admit Maine as a free state, maintaining balance between free and slave states

  • 3rd: Louisiana would be divided among the 36, 30 line of latitude

    • Slavery would be prohibited in other new states North of this line

• Compromise passed the House and Senate

  • The Missouri plan gave Americans a defined line of sectionalism dividing the nation geographically, politically, economically, and industrially

• “This momentous question (of disunion), like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror, I considered it at once as the death knell of the Union.”

• Thomas Jefferson, age 77

Andrew Jackson- Legend or Fact?

• Jackson Vs. Dickinson

  • May 30, 1806- Jackson faces Charles Dickinson in a duel. Dickinson was considered the greatest duelist in Tennessee

    • Dickinson shot Jackson in the chest. Jackson then returned the fire and killed Dickinson.

    • He allowed Dickinson to die believing he had missed

The Rise of Andrew Jackson- Old Hickory

• Lawyer, slave owner, military general, 7th president

• Born March 15, 1767, on border of North & South Carolina

• Born to two Irish immigrants

• Joined American militia at age 13 and taken prisoner during Am. Rev. War

• Orphaned during the war

• Moved to Tennessee after the war

• Self educated, Successful lawyer, Land-owner, Slave owner

The Corrupt Bargain, 1824

• Multiple candidates for president

  • John Q. Adams MA

  • Henry Clay KY

  • William Crawford GA

  • Andrew Jackson TN

• Problem—> Jackson gets most popular votes; does not get majority or the electoral votes

  • Gets more popular vote than the next two combined

• 12th Amendment— the House of Representatives decided

  • In cases where no candidate holds majority of electoral votes

• Clay is out by votes— he's also Speaker of the House

  • Crawford has a stroke

  • Clay hates Jackson

Election of 1824 (corrupt bargain)

• Clay and Adams

  • Both Federalists

  • Both supporters of the American System

• 1825— decision is made

  • John Adams elected president by the House of Representatives 

  • Days later— Clay is announced as Adam’s Secretary of State

• Jackson and his supporters are outraged 

  • No evidence of a “bargain” being made

The John Quincy Adams Presidency

• Irritable. Sarcastic. Tactless

  • More success as Secretary of State than as President

• At a disadvantage— the “minority” president

  • Fewer than 1 in 3 Americans voted for him

• States were over nationalism, back to state pride

  • He urges Congress to build more roads, bridges and canals

  • He calls for the creation of a national university

  • Calls for an end to speculation of land

  • Tried to deal fairly with Native Americans and land issues

    • States resist anyway!

Jackson Reemerges

• Jackson begins campaigning in 1825 for 28’ election

• Split party

  • Nationals Republicans

    • Symbolized by Oak

  • Democratic Republicans

    • Symbolized by Hickory

• Jackson speaks to the common man— runs with it!

  • Claim that Adams is corrupt

  • Claim that Adams is “one of them” 

    • The reality— similar in kind…

Election of 1828

• Voting based on sectional lines

  • South/West for Jackson

• Popular votes enough to push him over the edge in the Electoral count

• 178-83

• Machine politics

• Influence of moving west

Jackson and the spoils system

• Democrats strike bargains, too

• Spoils system

  • Reward political supporters 

  • Brings in lesser-qualified, “new blood”

  • “Drain the swamp” of old politicians 

  • No major overhaul in government since 1800

  • Jackson appoints high-bidding donors to high positions of authority

    • Crooks, illiterate, incompetents, etc.

The Tariff of Abominations

• Tariffs still in place

  • Protect Northern Industry

  • Drive up prices of goods for all Americans

  • Europe stops buying Southern ag products

• 1824—Congress passes a tariff act

  • Americans call for higher tariffs

    • Buy more American product— market “booms”

• Jackson’s supporters call for another tariff bill- (pressured by Dem-Reps)

  • Expect it to fail

  • It passes

• Southerners infuriated— “Tariff of Abominations” 

  • Let the New England beware how she imitates the Old

  • Seen as discriminatory against the South— all regions of U.S. booming EXCEPT south

South Carolina Responds

• The South Carolina Responds

  • Written by John C. Calhoun- VP

  • Denounced the tariff

  • Called for states to nullify the law

• Nullification Crisis

  • Citizens in SC try to get a 2/3 vote of the legislature to nullify law

    • Shot down

  • New tariff bill in 1832— softens blow some, but not enough

  • Further calls for nullification, even secession

• Jackson Responds

  • Not a fan of the tariff, but don’t mess with him

    • Threatens to invade the state, hang nullifiers 

Jackson & The Trail of Tears

• Jackson, Jacksonians push for westward expansion

• Hundreds of thousands of Natives— no set policy regarding them

  • Varied by president/ congress

  • Natives harsh towards Americans; Americans don’t always honor treaties

• Push among some white citizens to welcome and assimilate Native Americans

  • Resistance from some tribes, acceptance by others

  • Cherokees adapt to ‘white’ culture

    • Council with a three-branch government; alphabet,etc

  • George declares Cherokee tribal council illegal

• SCOTUS upholds rights of the Natives

  • Andrew Jackson’s response: John Marshall has made his decision. Now, let him enforce it”

Trail of Tears

• Indians set to be “free” from white encroachments

• Bureau of Indian Affairs established

• Westward push continues

• Black Hawk War

  • Clash between whites & Natives

• War in Fl with Seminole Indians

• Indian revolts crushed; many in present-day Oklahoma

Jackson and the Bank

• Andrew Jackson is NOT anti-bank

• He is anti-monoply and anti-big business

• Jackson against the National Bank

  • Issues gold and silver, but not paper money

  • Private banks print money— value fluctuates

    • Power of the nation’s economy in the hands of the bank

    • A separate “fourth branch”

  • National Bank was a private institution

    • Answers to the investors, not the people 

    • Controls the economy!

• Against American values of democracy?

  • Foreclosures in the west, money funneling in the east

 The Bank War

• 1832—Bank War

  • Daniel Webster & Henry Clay propose to renew the bank’s charter

    • Bank not set to expire for four more years

    • Election year issue

  • If Jackson signs it— he betrays the common man 

  • If Jackson vetoes it, he loses support from the wealthy in the east

• Jackson vetoes the bill anyway— it’s “unconstitutional”

  • McCulloch v. Maryland declares the bank constitutional PRIOR to this issue

  • Jackson doesn’t care about SCOTUS ruling

• Bank is squashed– and the executive power is asserted

  • Vetoes previously made on legal grounds; this one on personal grounds

• Jackson doesn’t trust the bank to not revive itself, despite the veto

  • Removes federal deposits from the bank

    • No more depositing money into the bank

    • Use existing funds in the vaults  to pay day-to-day expenses of the government

• Consstitutional?

  • Depends on how you read the document— loosely or strictly!

    • Jackson’s advisors were against his actions

    • Jackson shuffles cabinet members around— yes men

• Biddle responds by calling in the bank’s loans to save it

• Jackson’s actions leads to a series of booms and busts

Election of 1832

• Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay— main players in the election 

  • Jackson previously favored one-term

• First time a third-party played a role 

  • Anti-Masonic Party

  • Third party importance

  • Jackson was a Mason

• First time you had a national nominating convention

• Jackson too popular to be defeated by Clay’s money advantage

A new party emerges

• By 1828— new parties emerging

• Anti-Jackson refer to him as “King Andrew”

• Democrat-Republicans become the “Democrats”

  • Donkey mascot—Andrew Jackson!

  • Opponents of Jackson routinely referred to Jackson as the party jacka**

• A new party emerges— the whigs

  • Revolutionary time; anti-monarchy

  • Anti-Jackson— censure him

  • Gain a following

    • Supporters of the American System, Southerners, Industrialists and merchants, evangelicals, Anti-Masons

  • Fairly progressive (considered themselves conservative)

    • Improve within— roads, canals, prisons, schools, etc.

    • A new party of the people

Andrew Jackson

• Rise of the common man

• Battle of New Orleans

• Corrupt Bargain— Quid pro quo

• A.J.    J. Quincy Adams

• Campaign

• Mud slinging- bringing up things from the past

• Democratic party

• Trail of Tears

• Worcester Vs Georgia

King Cotton and the Old South

• Economics

  • 60% of U.S. exports 

  • Basis of Southern economy

• Linked North and South

• Linked U.S. & Britain

Slavery and Expansion

• Post 1812 & Indian Removal

• Westward expansion

• Missouri Compromise

• Texas “Independence”

• Louisiana, ARK, OK, TX

• Profits used to buy more land, more land = more slaves, more crops = more profit = more land = more slaves = more crops

American Slavery

• 19 signers of the Constitution owned slaves

• Majority of southern Congressmen owned slaves

• 4/6 Presidents up to and including Jackson owned slaves

• $25 million in U.S. revenue vs $1 billion in slave “property”

• Shipping & ship building, insurance, banks, factories in the North

Population

• 1790: 700,000

• 1850: 4 million

• 1850: 50% grew cotton

• 25% of whites had slaves

• 50% of owners had less than 5 slaves

• 5% of planters owned 40% of all slaves in south

Slave Life

• Mortality rates were 3 times higher

• Average Life expectancy

  • Blacks 20’s 

  • Whites 40’s

• 25% sick

Slave Codes

• States laws to limit movement of slaves and define them as property

• Cannot own a gun

• Marriages not legally recognized

• No alcohol

• Passes to leave plantation

• Illegal to teach slaves to read or write

• Legalized homicide as “punishment”

“House Slaves”

• 15%-20% of slaves

• Constant contact

• Raise children

• Reading

• News

“Field Slaves”

• 75% of slaves

• 18-hour days

• Overseer (cracker)

• Music and group identity

African American Community

• Family

• Auctions

• Tribal culture

• Music, dance, spirituality

Free blacks

• Non-slaves in the South

• 6% of total Black population

• 3% of total population

• Laws limited their rights and citizenship, papers, no access to courts

• Most descended from blacks freed  in Upper South

• Mainly manual labor occupations

• Racial hierarchies based on skin color

Resistance

• Slaves had ways of limiting the amount of work they did in a day:

  • Work slow

    • “Sick”

  • Broken tools

    • “Theft”

  • Run away

    • Rebellion”

  • Gabriel Prosser

• Runaway slaves

• Over 1,000

• Upper South was often safer than going further North into free states because of “head-hunters”

• Canada was free and slaves could escape American laws that protected slave owners

• The West was sparsely populated and therefore a great place for runaways to hide

Harriet Tubman

• Birth name: Araminta Ross

• Born: March, 1822

• Conductor of the Underground Railroad

• Homes, barns, woods, trails north

• 19 missions

• 300 people

Slave Rebellions

• Gabriel Prosser 1800

  • Literate

  • Richmond, VA

  • 1000 slaves

  • “Death or Liberty”

• Denmark Vescey, 1822

  • Telemanque, born in Africa or W. Indies

  • Free, literate, preacher

  • Charleston

  • Missouri Compromise

  • 100 men

• Nat Turner, 1831

  • Virginia

  • Literate, preacher

  • Killed 50-70

• As a result of the rebellion, Virginia’s legislators enacted more laws to limit the activities of African Americans, both free and enslaved

King Cotton

• Tobacco not growing (Soil exhaustion)

• Industrial Revolution led to new inventions that made cotton farming more efficient

• Cotton Gin Eli Whitney 1793

• Northern Bankers Profited/Southern Plantation Owners

• Very Profitable

Concluding Thoughts

• Despite dependence on cotton and slavery, Southern economy became more diverse

• Slavery in Upper South declined

• Immigration provided cheap and flexible labor 

• Changes to economy made slave owners more worried

• More rebellions, abolitionists, Westward expansion, made slave codes more harsh