Fluent Essays

For this week's discussion, we are going to work on examining secondary sources (American Yawp and another textbook, Exploring American Histories http://www.americanyawp.com/text/01-the-new-world/ chapter 3 and 4 Asking questions about what you've read is important when investigating primary sources--you've been doing that this semester in your discussions and writing assignments. Reading for history is also important in evaluating secondary sources that historians write to provides context for the primary sources we read and analyze. Think back to your reading of David Chioni Moore's essay "How to Read," earlier this semester (re-read it if necessary). Think about what you've already read from American Yawp on the New Nation/Early Republic era this week. Now, read how this same era is covered in another textbook, Hewitt/Lawson’s Exploring American Histories in their chapter "The Early Republic: 1790-1820." In your initial post to this week's discussion forum, compare information as it is presented to you in the two history textbooks. Use specifics from each book in your post to support your comments. Consider the following as your prepare your post: What do the editors/authors emphasize in the assigned chapters from each book? What is the point of view/perspective of the editors/authors in the assigned chapters from each book? Are they judgmental? Do they offer up heroes? villains? Does the narrative in of the books seem more familiar to you than the other? Why? Doe the editors/authors of either book (based on this week's assigned chapters) shape/change your thinking on this period in American history? How? Please, read the instructions carefully. 200-250 words will do. (Don't exceed the word count please) Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. WINDOW TO THE PAST William Clark, Journal, January 28, 1805 William Clark kept a detailed journal of the 1804–1806 expedition he and Meriwether Lewis led to explore the American West. They were aided by many different Indian groups, especially the Mandan Indians along the Missouri River. They camped near the Mandan in the winter of 1804, before heading into the Rocky Mountains. Here Clark draws a Mandan war hatchet, which was crucial to the tribe’s defense. To discover more about what this primary source can show us, see Document 8.8 on page 292. 241 8 A m e ri c a n P h ilo so p h ic a l S o c ie ty The Early Republic 1790–1820 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 241 07/01/16 4:17 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter you should be able to: Analyze the ways that social and cultural leaders worked to craft an American identity and how that was complicated by racial, ethnic, and class differences. Interpret how the Democratic-Republican ideal of limiting federal power was transformed by international events, westward expansion, and Supreme Court rulings between 1800 and 1808. Explain the ways that technology reshaped the American economy and the lives of distinct groups of Americans. served as a model of new ideals of companionate marriage, in which husbands and wives shared interests and affection. Professor Cleaveland believed in using scientific research to benefit society. When Brunswick workers asked him to identify local rocks, Parker began studying geology and chemistry. In 1816 he published his Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology, providing a basic text for students and interested adults. He also lectured throughout New England, displaying mineral samples and performing chemical experiments. The Cleavelands viewed the Bowdoin College community as a laboratory in which distinctly American values and ideas could be developed and sustained. So, too, did the residents of other college towns. Although less than 1 percent of men in the United States attended universities at the time, frontier colleges were considered important vehicles for bringing virtue—especially the desire to act for the public good—to the far reaches of the early republic. Yet several of these colleges were constructed with the aid of slave labor, and all were built on land bought or confiscated from Indians. The purchase of the Louisiana Territory by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 marked a new American frontier and ensured further encroachments on native lands. The territory covered 828,000 square miles and stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from New Orleans to present- day Montana. The area was home to tens of thousands of Indian inhabitants. In the late 1780s, a daughter, later named Sacagawea, was born to a family of Shoshone Indians who lived in an area that became part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1800 she was taken captive by a Hidatsa raiding party. Sacagawea and her fellow captives were marched hundreds of miles to a Hidatsa-Mandan village on the Missouri River. Eventually Sacagawea was sold to a French trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, along with another young Shoshone woman, and both became his wives. In November 1804, an expedition led by Meri- wether Lewis and William Clark set up winter camp near the Hidatsa village where Sacagawea lived. The U.S. government sent Lewis and Clark to document AMERICAN HISTORIES When Parker Cleaveland graduated from Harvard University in 1799, his parents expected him to pursue a career in medicine, law, or the ministry. Instead, he turned to teaching. In 1805 Cleaveland secured a position in Brunswick, Maine, as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Bowdoin College. A year later, he married Martha Bush. Over the next twenty years, the Cleavelands raised eight children on the Maine frontier, entertained visiting scholars, corresponded with families at other colleges, and boarded dozens of students. While Parker taught those students math and science, Martha trained them in manners and morals. The Cleavelands also 242 ( left ) Parker Cleaveland. Courtesy the Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine, USA ( right ) Shoshone woman. (No image of Sacagawea exists.) Joslyn Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, USA/Alecto Historical Editions/Bridgeman Images 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 242 07/01/16 3:27 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. The Dilemmas of National Identity 243 1790–1820 he American histories of both Parker Cleaveland and Sacagawea aided the develop- ment of the United States. Cleaveland gained fame as part of a generation of intellectuals who symbolized Americans’ ingenuity. Although Sacagawea was not considered learned, her understanding of Indian languages and western geography was crucial to Lewis and Clark’s success. Like many other Americans, Sacagawea and Cleave- land forged new identities as the young nation developed. Still, racial, class, and gender differences made it impossible to create a single American identity. At the same time, Democratic-Republican leaders sought to shape a new national identity by promising to limit federal power and enhance state authority and individual rights. Instead, western expansion, international crises, and Supreme Court decisions ensured the expansion of federal power. T portraits of her exist, her presence was crucial, as Clark noted in his journal: “The Wife of Chabono our interpreter we find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions.” Sacagawea did help persuade Indian leaders to assist the expedition, but her extensive knowledge of the terrain and fluency in Indian languages were equally important. flora and fauna in the Louisiana Territory, enhance trade, and explore routes to the Northwest. Charbon- neau, who spoke French and Hidatsa, and Sacagawea, who spoke several Indian languages, joined the expedition as interpreters in April 1805. The only woman in the party, Sacagawea traveled with her infant son strapped to her back. Although no In his inaugural address in March 1801, President Thomas Jef- ferson argued that the vast distance between Europe and the United States was a blessing, allowing Americans to develop their own unique culture and institutions. For many Americans, education offered one means of ensuring a distinctive national identity. Public schools could train American children in republican values, while the wealthiest among them could attend private academies and colleges. Newspapers, ser- mons, books, magazines, and other printed works could also help forge a common identity among the nation’s far-flung citizens. Even the presence of Indians and Africans contrib- uted to art and literature that were uniquely American. In addition, the construction of a new capital city to house the federal government offered a potent symbol of nationhood. Yet these developments also illuminated political and racial dilemmas in the young nation. The decision to move the U.S. capital south from Philadelphia was prompted by concerns among southern politicians about the power of northern economic and political elites. The very construction of the capital, in which enslaved and free workers labored side by side, highlighted racial and class differences. Educational opportunities differed by race and class as well as by sex. How could a singular notion of American identity be forged in a country where differences of race, class, and sex loomed so large? Education for a New Nation. The desire to create a specifically American culture began as soon as the Revolution ended. In 1783 Noah Webster, a schoolmaster, declared that “America must be as independent in literature as in Politics, as famous for arts as for The Dilemmas of National Identity 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 243 23/12/15 5:50 PM Chapter 8 The Early Republic244 1790–1820 Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. arms.” To promote his vision, Webster published the American Spelling Book (1810) and the American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Webster’s books were widely used in the nation’s expanding network of schools and academies and led to more standardized spelling and pronunciation of commonly used words. Before the Revolution, public education for children was widely available in New England and the Middle Atlantic region. In the South, only those who could afford private schooling—perhaps 25 percent of the boys and 10 percent of the girls—received any for- mal instruction. Few young people enrolled in high school in any part of the colonies. Fol- lowing the Revolution, state and national leaders proposed ambitious plans for public edu- cation, and in 1789 Massachusetts became the first state to demand that each town provide free schools for local children, though attendance policies were decided by the towns. The American colonies boasted nine colleges that provided higher education for young men, including Harvard, Yale, King’s College (Columbia), Queen’s College (Rut- gers), and the College of William and Mary. After independence, many Americans wor- ried that these institutions were tainted by British and aristocratic influences. New colleges based on republican ideals needed to be founded. New England Grammar School In this New England grammar school in the 1790s, boys and girls gather for instruction by their schoolmaster. They likely used one of Noah Webster’s spellers or readers. The schoolmaster taught lessons in geography, as can be seen by the wall map and the two globes at the rear of the room. Granger, NYC 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 244 23/12/15 5:50 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. The Dilemmas of National Identity 245 1790–1820 Frontier towns offered opportunities for colleges to enrich the community and bene- fit the nation. The relative isolation of these villages ensured that students would focus on education. And frontier colleges provided opportunities for ethnic and religious groups outside the Anglo-American mainstream—like Scots-Irish Presbyterians—to cement their place in American society. The young nation benefited as well, albeit at the expense of Indians and their lands. For example, the founding of Franklin College in Athens, Georgia, encouraged white settlement in the state’s interior, an area still largely populated by the Creek and Cherokee. Frontier colleges were organized as community institutions composed of extended families, where administrators, faculty, and their wives guided students, hosted social events, and hired local workers, including servants and slaves. Women were viewed as exemplars of virtue in the new nation, and professors’ wives served as maternal figures for young adults away from home. Families of modest means could send their sons to these less expensive colleges, depending on faculty couples to expand their intellect and provide moral guidance. In some towns, students at local female academies joined college men at chaperoned events to cultivate proper relations between the sexes. Literary and Cultural Developments. Older universities also contributed to the development of a national identity. A group known as the Hartford Wits, most of them Yale graduates, gave birth to a new literary tradition. Its members identified mainly as Federalists and published paeans to democracy, satires about Shays’s Rebellion, and plays about the proper role of the central government in a republican nation. A number of novelists emerged in the early republic as well. Advances in printing and the manufacture of paper increased the circulation of novels, a literary genre developed in Britain and continental Europe at the turn of the eighteenth century. Improvements in girls’ education then produced a growing audience for novels among women. Authors like Susanna Rowson and Charles Brockden Brown sought to educate readers about virtuous action by placing ordinary women and men in moments of high drama that tested their moral character. Novelists also emphasized new marital ideals, by which husbands and wives became partners and companions in creating a home and family. Washington Irving became a well-known literary figure in the early republic. He wrote a series of popular folktales, including “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” that were published in his Sketchbook in 1820. They drew on the Dutch culture of the Hudson valley region and often poked fun at more celebratory tales of early American history. In one serious essay, Irving challenged popular accounts of colonial wars that ignored courageous actions by Indians while applauding white atrocities. Still, books that glorified the nation’s past were also enormously popular. Among the most influential were the three-volume History of the Revolution (1805) written by Mercy Otis Warren and the Life of Washington (1806), a celebratory if fanciful biography by Mason Weems. The influence of American authors increased as residents in both urban and rural areas purchased growing numbers of books. Artists, too, devoted considerable attention to historical themes. Charles Willson Peale painted Revolutionary generals while serving in the Continental Army and became best known for his portraits of George Washington. Samuel Jennings offered a more radi- cal perspective on the nation’s character by incorporating women and African Americans into works like Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences (1792). Engravings, which were 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 245 23/12/15 5:50 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. Chapter 8 The Early Republic246 1790–1820 less expensive than paintings, also circulated widely. Many highlighted national symbols like flags, eagles, and Lady Liberty or uniquely American flora and fauna. William Bartram, the son of a botanist, journeyed through the south- eastern United States and Florida, and published beautiful illustrations of plants and animals in his Travels (1791). In 1780, the Massachusetts legislature established the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to promote American literature and science. Six years later, Philadel- phia’s American Philosophical Society created the first national prize for scientific endeavor. Philadelphia was also home to the nation’s first medical college, founded at the University of Pennsylvania. Frontier colleges like Bowdoin also promoted new scientific discoveries. As in the arts, American scientists built on developments in continental Europe and Britain but prided themselves on contributing their own expertise. The Racial Limits of an American Culture. American Indians received sig- nificant attention from writers and scientists. White Americans in the early republic often wielded native names and symbols as they sought to create a distinct national identity. Some Americans, including whiskey rebels, followed in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party, dressing as Indians to protest economic and political tyranny (see “The Whiskey Rebellion” in Chapter 7). But more affluent whites also embraced Indian names and sym- bols. Tammany societies, which promoted patriotism and republicanism in the late eigh- teenth century, were named after a mythical Delaware chief called Tammend. They attracted large numbers of lawyers, merchants, and skilled artisans. Poets, too, focused on American Indians. In his 1787 poem “Indian Burying Ground,” Philip Freneau offered a sentimental portrait that highlighted the lost heritage of a nearly extinct native culture in New England. The theme of lost cultures and heroic (if still sav- age) Indians became even more pronounced in American poetry in the following decades. Such sentimental portraits of American Indians were less popular along the nation’s fron- tier, where Indians continued to fight for their lands and rights. Sympathetic depictions of Africans and African Americans by white artists and authors appeared even less frequently. Most were produced in the North and were intended for the rare patrons who opposed slavery. Typical images of blacks and Indians were far more demeaning. When describing Indians in frontier regions, white Americans generally focused on their savagery and their duplicity. Most images of Africans and African Americans exaggerated their perceived physical and intellectual differences from whites, to imply an innate inferiority. Whether their depictions were realistic, sentimental, or derogatory, Africans, African Americans, and American Indians were almost always presented to the American public through the eyes of whites. Educated blacks like the Reverend Richard Allen of Philadel- phia or the Reverend Thomas Paul of Boston wrote mainly for black audiences or corre- sponded privately with sympathetic whites. Similarly, cultural leaders among American Indians worked mainly within their own nations either to maintain traditional languages and customs or to introduce their people to Anglo-American ideas and beliefs. The improved educational opportunities available to white Americans generally excluded blacks and Indians. Most southern planters had little desire to teach their slaves to read and write. Even in the North, states did not generally incorporate black children into their plans for public education. African Americans in cities with large free black Explore See Document 8.1 for one artist’s image of republican education. 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 246 23/12/15 5:51 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. The Dilemmas of National Identity 247 1790–1820 Samuel Jennings | Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences, 1792 Samuel Jennings was born in Philadelphia and attended the College of Philadelphia before the Revolution. He taught drawing and painted portraits before moving to London to study with Benjamin West in 1787. There his allegorical paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy. Jennings painted this image for the newly established Library Company of Philadelphia, many of whose directors were Quakers who opposed slavery. The directors requested that he include Lady Liberty with her cap on the end of a pole. Which arts and sciences are displayed in this painting? What does the broken chain at the feet of Lady Liberty indicate? What distinguishes the black people inside and outside the building? Put It in Context What does this painting suggest about how Jennings and the Library Company directors envisioned American identities in the early republic? Document 8.1 G U I D E D A N A LY S I S T h e L ib ra ry C o m p a n y o f P h ila d e lp h ia 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 247 23/12/15 5:51 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. Chapter 8 The Early Republic248 1790–1820 populations established the most long-lived schools for their race. The Reverend Allen opened a Sunday school for children in 1795 at his African Methodist Episcopal Church, and other free blacks formed literary and debating societies. Still, only a small percentage of African Americans received an education equivalent to that available to whites in the early republic. U.S. political leaders were more interested in the education of American Indians, but government officials left their schooling to religious groups. Several denominations sent missionaries to the Seneca, Cherokee, and other tribes, and a few successful students were then sent to American colleges to be trained as ministers or teachers for their own people. This was important since few whites bothered to learn Indian languages. The divergent approaches that whites took to Indian and African American education demonstrated broader assumptions about the two groups. Most white Americans believed that Indians were untamed and uncivilized, but not innately different from Europeans. Africans and African Americans, on the other hand, were assumed to be inferior, and most whites believed that no amount of education could change that. As U.S. frontiers expanded, white Americans considered ways to “civilize” Indians and incorporate them into the nation. But the requirements of slavery made it much more difficult for whites to imagine African Americans as anything more than lowly laborers, despite free blacks who clearly dem- onstrated otherwise. Aware of the limited opportunities available in the United States, some African Americans considered the benefits of moving elsewhere. In the late 1780s, the New- port African Union Society in Rhode Island developed a plan to establish a community for American blacks in Africa. Many whites, too, viewed the settlement of blacks in Africa as the only way to solve the nation’s racial dilemma. Over the next three decades, the idea of emigration (as blacks viewed it) or colonization (as whites saw it) received widespread attention. Those who opposed slav- ery hoped to persuade slave owners to free or sell their human property on the condition that they be shipped Benjamin Banneker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac, 1795 Benjamin Banneker (here spelled Bannaker) was a free black from Baltimore County, Maryland. Largely self-educated, he was a talented astronomer who compiled almanacs that included annual calendars, tide charts, lunar and solar observations, and statistical charts. Almanacs were widely used by farm- ers, sailors, and the general public. Banneker’s almanac included his portrait to highlight his achievements as a black man. Granger, NYC 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 248 23/12/15 5:51 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. The Dilemmas of National Identity 249 1790–1820 to Africa. Others assumed that free blacks could find opportunities in Africa that were not available to them in the United States. Still others simply wanted to rid the nation of its race problem by ridding it of blacks. In 1817 a group of southern slave owners and north- ern merchants formed the American Colonization Society (ACS) to establish colonies of freed slaves and free-born American blacks in Africa. Although some African Americans supported this scheme, northern free blacks generally opposed it, viewing colonization as an effort originating “more immediately from prejudice than philanthropy.” Ultimately the plans of the ACS proved impractical. Particularly as cotton production expanded from the 1790s on, few slave owners were willing to emancipate their workers. A New Capital for a New Nation. The construction of Washington City, the new capital, provided an opportunity to highlight the nation’s distinctive culture and iden- tity. But here, again, slavery emerged as a crucial part of that identity. The capital was situ- ated along the Potomac River between Virginia and Maryland, an area where more than 300,000 enslaved workers lived. Between 1792 and 1809, hundreds of enslaved men and a few women were hired out by their owners, who were paid $5 per month for each individ- ual’s labor. Enslaved men cleared trees and stumps, built roads, dug trenches, baked bricks, and cut and laid sandstone while enslaved women cooked, did laundry, and nursed the The United States Capitol This watercolor by William Russell Birch presents a view of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., before it was burned down by the British during the War of 1812. Birch had emigrated from England in 1794 and lived in Philadelphia. As this painting suggests, neither the Capitol nor the city was as yet a vibrant center of republican achievements. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-22593 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 249 23/12/15 5:51 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. Chapter 8 The Early Republic250 1790–1820 sick and injured. A small number performed skilled labor as carpenters or assistants to stonemasons and surveyors. Some four hundred slaves worked on the Capitol building alone, more than half the workforce. Free blacks also participated in the development of Washington. Many worked along- side enslaved laborers, but a few held important positions. Benjamin Banneker, for exam- ple, a self-taught clock maker, astronomer, and surveyor, was hired as an assistant to the surveyor Major Andrew Ellicott. In 1791 Banneker helped to plot the 100-square-mile site on which the capital was to be built. African Americans often worked alongside Irish immigrants, whose wages were kept in check by the availability of slave labor. Most workers, regardless of race, faced poor housing, sparse meals, malarial fevers, and limited medical care. Despite these obstacles, in less than a decade, a system of roads was laid out and cleared, the Executive Mansion was built, and the north wing of the Capitol was completed. More prosperous immigrants and foreign professionals were also involved in creating the U.S. capital. Irish-born James Hoban designed the Executive Mansion. A French engi- neer developed the plan for the city’s streets. A West Indian physician turned architect drew the blueprints for the Capitol building, the construction of which was directed by Englishman Benjamin Latrobe. Perhaps what was most “American” about the new capital was the diverse nationalities and races of those who designed and built it. Washington’s founders envisioned the city as a beacon to the world, proclaiming the advantages of the nation’s republican principles. But its location on a slow-moving river and its clay soil left the area hot, humid, and dusty in the summer and muddy and damp in the winter and spring. When John Adams and his administration moved to Washington in June 1800, they considered themselves on the frontiers of civilization. The tree stumps that remained on the mile-long road from the Capitol to the Executive Mansion made it nearly impossible to navigate in a carriage. On rainy days, when roads proved impassable, offi- cials walked or rode horses to work. Many early residents painted Washington in harsh tones. New Hampshire congressional representative Ebenezer Matroon wrote a friend, “If I wished to punish a culprit, I would send him to do penance in this place . . . this swamp— this lonesome dreary swamp, secluded from every delightful or pleasing thing.” Despite its critics, Washington was the seat of federal power and thus played an important role in the social and political worlds of American elites. From January through March, the height of the social season, the wives of congressmen, judges, and other offi- cials created a lively schedule of teas, parties, and balls in the capital city. When Thomas Jefferson became president, he opened the White House to visitors on a regular basis. Yet for all his republican principles, Jefferson moved into the Executive Mansion with a reti- nue of slaves. In decades to come, Washington City would become Washington, D.C., a city with broad boulevards decorated with beautiful monuments to the American political experi- ment. And the Executive Mansion would become the White House, a proud symbol of republican government. Yet Washington was always characterized by wide disparities in wealth, status, and power, which were especially visible when slaves labored in the Execu- tive Mansion’s kitchen, laundry, and yard. President Jefferson’s efforts to incorporate new territories into the United States only exacerbated these divisions by providing more eco- nomic opportunities for planters, investors, and white farmers while ensuring the expan- sion of slavery and the decimation of American Indians. 08_HEW_9462_CH08_241-274.indd 250 23/12/15 5:51 PM Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Distributed Bedford/St. Martin’s. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution. Extending Federal Power 251 1790–1820 REVIEW & RELATE How did developments in education, literature, and the arts contribute to the emergence of a distinctly American identity? How did blacks and American Indians both contribute to and challenge the predominantly white view of American identity? Thomas Jefferson, like other Democratic-Republicans, envisioned the United States as a …