Black Americans, Rights, and Politics in the Early Republic

Black Americans and the Republic

The Constitution did not explicitly address the rights of free blacks.
The rights of free blacks were determined by individual states.
Abolitionist movements grew in the North.
Restrictions on free blacks increased in the South.

Free Blacks

Rights were determined by state rights.

Table 7.1: Total Population and Black Population of the United States, 1790

New England States:
- New Hampshire:
  - Total Population: 141,885
  - Free Blacks: 630
  - Slaves: 158
- Vermont:
  - Total Population: 85,536
  - Free Blacks: 271
  - Slaves: 0
- Massachusetts:
  - Total Population: 378,787
  - Free Blacks: 5,463
  - Slaves: 0
- Connecticut:
  - Total Population: 237,946
  - Free Blacks: 2,808
  - Slaves: 2,764
- Rhode Island:
  - Total Population: 68,446
  - Free Blacks: 948
  - Slaves: 958
Middle States:
- New York:
  - Total Population: 340,120
  - Free Blacks: 4,654
  - Slaves: 21,324
- New Jersey:
  - Total Population: 184,139
  - Free Blacks: 2,762
  - Slaves: 11,423
- Pennsylvania:
  - Total Population: 432,981
  - Free Blacks: 3,737
  - Slaves: 6,537
South:
- Delaware:
  - Total Population: 59,096
  - Free Blacks: 3,899
  - Slaves: 8,887
- Maryland:
  - Total Population: 319,728
  - Free Blacks: 8,043
  - Slaves: 103,038
- Virginia:
  - Total Population: 747,610
  - Free Blacks: 12,895
  - Slaves: 292,627
- North Carolina:
  - Total Population: 393,751
  - Free Blacks: 5,071
  - Slaves: 100,572
- South Carolina:
  - Total Population: 249,073
  - Free Blacks: 1,801
  - Slaves: 107,094
- Georgia:
  - Total Population: 82,548
  - Free Blacks: 398
  - Slaves: 29,264
- Tennessee:
  - Total Population: 35,691
  - Free Blacks: 361
  - Slaves: 3,417
Total Summary:
- Total Population: 3,929,214
- Total Free Blacks: 59,557
- Total Slaves: 697,897
Approximately 25% of the population was enslaved.

Citizenship and Nationalization

The Nationalization Act of 1790:
- Stated that any "free white person" could become a US citizen through immigration.
- This law would not change for Asian Americans until the 1940s.
Question Raised:
- Could Black people be considered Americans and enjoy the rights of citizenship?
State Responses:
- Many states answered "no." Being American became synonymous with being white, similar to the British colonies.
The concept of America as a melting pot at the time primarily included European descendants.

The Rights of Women

Even though women outside of New Jersey could not vote, many engaged in political discourse.
1792: Publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" sparked debate.
Judith Sargent Murray published "On the Equality of the Sexes" under a pen name.

Politics in an Age of Passion (1790s)

Guiding Key Concepts:
1. How the Washington Administration tried to put the ideas of the U.S. Constitution into action.
2. How political disagreements affected American politics in the 1790s.
3. Compare and contrast the opinions of political leaders on different issues during the 1790s.
4. How the French Revolution influenced U.S. foreign policy and politics.

Introduction

April 30, 1789: George Washington became the first president under the new Constitution.
- Elected unanimously by all sixty-nine electors.
- His unanimous selection symbolized unity for the country.
Washington retired to private life after the War of Independence, despite some officers wanting him to become a dictator.
- Known for his selfless republican values.
John Adams became the Vice President.
- Respected for leading the movement for independence.
Washington's cabinet included:
- Thomas Jefferson: Secretary of State.
- Alexander Hamilton: Head of the Treasury.
John Jay from New York led the six members of the Supreme Court.
The initial unity did not last.
American leaders believed the success of the government depended on political harmony.
- Worried about the rise of organized political parties or factions.
- Parties were seen as divisive and harmful.
Washington's view on parties:
- Serve to organize factions.
- Allow a small but clever minority to take over the will of the nation.
The Constitution didn't mention political parties.
- The original election process assumed candidates would run as individuals.
- The runner-up would become vice president.
Political parties formed quickly, starting in Congress and spreading to the public.
The 1790s became an "age of passion."
- Parties questioned each other's loyalty and attacked each other in extreme ways.
- Political arguments were intense because the stakes were high: the legacy of the Revolution, the future of the nation, and American freedom.

Alexander Hamilton’s Economic Program

Political divisions first appeared over Hamilton's financial plan (1790-1791).
Hamilton's goals:
- Immediate: Make the nation financially stable, gain support from powerful financial groups, and encourage economic growth.
- Long-term: Turn the United States into a strong commercial and military power, modeled after Great Britain.
Hamilton believed the U.S. could not become great with the weaknesses it had under the Articles of Confederation.
Hamilton's plan had five key parts:
1. Establish the nation's credit:
  - Create trust so people would lend money to the government by buying bonds.
  - The government would take responsibility for paying off the national debt from the War of Independence and the debts of the states.
2. Create a new national debt:
  - Old debts would be replaced with new bonds that would pay interest to the government's creditors.
  - This would give wealthy people a reason to support the government's stability because a strong, financially secure federal government was more likely to repay its debts.
3. Create a Bank of the United States:
  - Modeled after the Bank of England.
  - Act as the nation's main financial institution.
  - It would be a private corporation, not part of the government.
  - It would hold public money, issue bank notes (currency), lend money to the government, and earn profits for its shareholders.
4. Raise money through a tax on whiskey producers.
5. Create a tariff (tax on imported goods) and government support:
  - Encourage the growth of factories that could make products the U.S. was importing from other countries.
  - Hamilton tried to build an industrial city in Paterson, New Jersey, but it failed.
  - He also suggested creating a national army to deal with uprisings like Shays's Rebellion [an army that would exist even during times of peace].

The Emergence of Opposition

Hamilton's vision of a strong commercial nation had support from American bankers, manufacturers, and merchants.
It worried people who believed the country should take a different direction.
Hamilton's plans depended on strong ties with Britain, America's main trading partner.
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson believed the country's future was in expanding westward, not in building connections with Europe.
They didn't want to focus on manufacturing or city growth, and they didn't want economic policies to favor bankers and business leaders.
Their vision: a country of independent farmers who would sell grain, tobacco, and other products around the world.
They believed free trade, not government favors like tariffs and subsidies, would lead to American prosperity and more social equality.
Jefferson and Madison thought the biggest threat to American freedom was the combination of a powerful central government and a rising class of business capitalists, which they thought Hamilton wanted.
Jefferson considered Hamilton's ideas "opposed to liberty" and believed they would destroy the republic.
Hamilton's plan for a standing army seemed like a threat to freedom.
Critics feared the national bank and the government's assumption of state debts would bring the same kind of corruption that had ruined British liberty and would make the rich even richer at the expense of ordinary Americans.
In the 1780s, speculators had bought government bonds and paper notes, often at very low prices, from people who had fought in the Revolution or supplied the army.