1.

Native American Society on the Eve of British Colonization

In Renaissance times, Europeans were not the only ones accomplishing great things. No one can
deny the beauty of Michelangelo's brushwork or the brilliance of Shakespeare's verse. But societies
elsewhere also flourished. As the modern world turned 1600, it seems as though each corner of the
globe had its own "renaissance." The Native American societies of North America were no
different. They had diverse cultures and languages, much like Europe.
When the British staked their claim to the east coast of the modern United States, they could not
have dreamed of the complexity of the peoples they were soon to encounter.
There are between 140 and 160 different American Indian tribes. There is no single Native
American language. It would be as difficult for the Mohawk Indians of the East to converse with
Zuni Indians of the West as it would be for Germans to converse with Turks.
Twenty-seven states derive names from Indian languages. Native Americans turned wild plants such
as corn, potatoes, pumpkin, yams, and lima beans into farm crops for human consumption. More
than half of modern American farm products were grown by Native Americans before British
colonization.
Medicine was not an unknown science in the Western Hemisphere. Most natural herbs used for
medicinal purposes in the modern world had also been used by Native Americans before European
contact. Archaeologists have learned that North American Indians made salt by evaporation and
mined a great many minerals including copper, lead, and coal.
Despite myths to the contrary, not all Native Americans were peaceful. Like Europe, the American
continent faced tribal warfare that sometimes led to human and cultural destruction.
In short, there is no simple way to tell the tale of a continent that had been peopled by diverse
communities for thousands of years. Their tales are as complex as any others, their cultures as rich,
their knowledge as deep. British contact did not mark the replacement of established cultures by a
better way of life, but rather the beginning of a new civilization based on a blend of diverse
folkways.
An examination of three groups Anasazi, Iroquois, and Algonkian serves as a beginning to
learning about the American world that once was.
As you read this section, keep in mind the following questions:
1. How did European explorers respond to the language, clothing, customs, dwellings, and
food of the Native American peoples?

2. How did the Native Americans respond to the language, clothing, and customs of the
explorers?
3. What are some of the difficulties in trying to understand someone from a different culture?
4. Why was it difficult for European explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries to understand the
diversity of the native peoples who lived in the Americas?
5. How do historians and archaeologists know what the explorers experienced? How do they
know what the Native American peoples experienced?
6. What do you want to know about the Americas prior to the era of European exploration?
How can you find out?

1a. Diversity of Native American Groups

Since 1492, European explorers and settlers have tended to ignore the vast diversity of the people
who had previously lived here. It soon became common to lump all such groups under the term
"Indian." In the modern American world, we still do. There are certain experiences common to the
survivors of these tribes. They all have had their lands compromised in some way and suffered the
horrors of reservation life.
Language Lessons
Stereotyping Indians in this way denies the vast cultural differences between tribes. First, there is
the issue of language. The Navajo people of the Southwest and the Cherokees of the Southeast have
totally unrelated languages.
There were over 200 North American tribes speaking over 200 different languages. The United
States used the uniqueness of the Navajo language to its advantage in World War II. Rather than
encrypting radio messages, it proved simpler to use Navajos to speak to each other in their everyday
language to convey high-security messages. It worked.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Lifestyles varied greatly. Most tribes were domestic, but the Lakota followed the buffalo as nomads.
Most engaged in war, but the Apache were particularly feared, while the Hopis were pacifistic.
Most societies were ruled by men, but the Iroquois women chose the leaders.
Native Americans lived in wigwams, hogans, igloos, tepees, and longhouses. Some relied chiefly on
hunting and fishing, while others domesticated crops. The Algonkian chiefs tried to achieve
consensus, but the Natchez "Sun" was an absolute monarch. The totem pole was not a universal
Indian symbol. It was used by tribes such as the Chinook in the Pacific Northwest to ward off evil
spirits and represent family history.
It is important that students of history explore tribal nuances. Within every continent, there is
tremendous diversity. The tribal differences that caused the Apache and Navajo peoples to fight
each other are not so different from the reasons Germans fought the French. Recognizing tribal
diversity is an important step in understanding the history of America.

1b. The Anasazi

In the centuries that led to the year 1000, Europe was emerging from chaos. Tribes roamed the
countryside evoking fear from luckless peasants. The grandeur that was Rome had long passed.
Across the Atlantic, the North American continent was also inhabited by tribes. The Anasazi
managed to build glorious cities in the cliffs of the modern Southwest. Their rise and fall mark one
of the greatest stories of pre-Columbian American history.

Anasazi means "ancient outsiders." Like many peoples during the agricultural era, the Anasazi
employed a wide variety of means to grow high-yield crops in areas of low rainfall. Their baskets
and pottery are highly admired by collectors and are still produced by their descendants for trade. It
is their cliff dwellings, however, that captivate the modern archologist, historian, and tourist.
Cliffs, Canyons, and Kivas
The famed cliff dwellings were built into the mountainsides with but one exit for the sake of
defense. With the exception of hunting and growing food, all aspects of living could be performed
within the dwelling. Deep pits were periodically dug within the living quarters. These pits, called
kivas, served as religious temples for the ancient Anasazi. Sleeping areas were built into the sides of
the cliffs. Even water could be gathered between the porous cracks in the walls all by clever
design, of course.
Historians can only theorize why the Anasazi civilization declined. One explanation is attack by
hostile tribes. Others believe the resources of the area were becoming exhausted.
The durability of their structures has proven remarkable. Think of how our contemporary structures
fall into utter disrepair without constant maintenance. The cliff dwellings have endured over eight
hundred years of exposure to the elements and still stand proud. Modern day visitors can marvel at
Anasazi accomplishments at Mesa Verde National Park or Canyon de Chelly National Park, to
name a few.

2. Britain in the New World

Most modern American citizens consider Great Britain to be their European "parent" country.
However, by the time British arrived in the New World and established their first permanent
settlement at Jamestown in 1607, much of the continent had already been claimed by other
European nations.
All of the modern Southwest, including Texas and California, had been peopled by Spanish settlers
for about a century. The entire expanse of land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky
Mountains had at one point been claimed by France.
Many factors contributed to Britain's tardiness. England was not the most powerful European nation
in the 16th century. Spain was most influential. Along with Portugal, Spain dominated New World
exploration in the decades that followed Columbus. France, the Netherlands, and Sweden all
showed greater interest in the Western Hemisphere than England did.

Late Expectations
A voyage by John Cabot on behalf of English investors in 1497 failed to spark any great interest in
the New World. England was divided in the 1500s by great religious turmoil. When Henry VIII
broke with the Catholic Church in 1533, decades of religious strife ensued. Finally, under Henry's
daughter Elizabeth, the English were prepared to stake their claims.
Although England was an island and therefore a seafaring nation, Spain was the undisputed
superpower of the seas in the 16th century. Many of England's adventurous sea captains found that
plundering Spanish ships was a far simpler means of acquiring wealth than establishing colonies.
Sea Dogs and the Spanish Armada
These sea dogs, including Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, and the infamous John Hawkins, helped
provoke the eventual showdown between Elizabeth I's England and Philip II's Spain.

Philip was certain that his great fleet of ships would put an end to England's piracy. In 1588, one of
the greatest turning points in world history occurred when Spain's "invincible" armada of 130 ships
sailed into the English Channel. Despite their numerical inferiority, the English ships were faster
and easier to maneuver than the Spanish fleet. With the aid of a great storm, Elizabeth's ships
humiliated Philip's navy, which returned to Spain with fewer than half their original number.
This battle marked the beginning of the end of Spain's domination of Europe and the Western
Hemisphere. More importantly for England, it marked the dawn of the era of permanent English
settlement of the New World.

2a. Early Ventures Fail

What kind of investment was Queen Elizabeth making? As a finanical backer of English sea captain
Francis Drake, she supported a buccaneer who found it easier to plunder the gold of others than
mine it himself.
This philosophy of plunder motivated the sea dogs of Queen Elizabeth's time. Making a business of

raiding Spanish ships, John Hawkins and Francis Drake gained riches for themselves and their
investors.
Once, after raiding ports in New Spain, Drake was faced with a difficult dilemma. Because the
Spanish fleet would surely destroy him if he attempted a conventional return, he proceeded to
circumnavigate the globe in his flight. Upon Drake's safe arrival in England, the Spanish demanded
his arrest.
The Knight Stuff
Of course, Elizabeth refused to comply with Spain's demands. She was one of Drake's investors.
Instead, she knighted him on the deck of his treasure-laden ship. In the process, Drake became the
first to sail around the world since Ferdinand Magellan's voyage. He completed perhaps the longest
escape route in the history of the world.
As tensions flared between England and Spain, it soon became sensible for England to establish
permanent settlements in the New World to rival the Spanish. If nothing more, they could serve as
bases from which to raid Spanish ships.
Early Attempts at Colonizing
The first to attempt such a venture was Humphrey Gilbert. Gilbert had already made a name for
himself as a colonizer. Throughout the 1560s and 1570s, he ruthlessly put down Irish rebellions.
Due to his fervor for the Church of England, he stopped short of nothing torture, starvation, or
beheading in the name of the queen. He took this philosophy and loyalty to Newfoundland with
the goal of establishing the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
In 1583, he rushed ashore and proudly claimed the land for his queen despite the fact that
fishermen from other countries had lived there for decades. His ship was lost at sea on his return
home.
Roanoke
Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to Roanoke did not fare much better. In 1585, Raleigh's men settled
on the small island off the coast of modern-day North Carolina. Relations with the Native American
inhabitants were peaceful at first, but as the colonists' supplies dwindled, amity dwindled too. The
colonists left in 1586 after beheading the local Indian chief, Wingina.
Raleigh arranged for Governor John White and a group of families to return to live in peace with
the natives in 1587. Violence, however, is not easily forgotten. Within one month, hostilities

resumed, and White was forced to return to England to ask Raleigh for reinforcements.
Time was not on White's side. When the war with Spain erupted, White could not return to the
colony for three years. When he set foot on Roanoke Island in August 1590, he searched frantically
for the settlers, including his daughter and granddaughter, the first English New World baby, named
Virginia Dare.
All that could be found was the remains of a village and a mysterious word, "CROATOAN,"
engraved on a tree. White concluded there must be a connection between the word and a nearby
Indian tribe, but before he could investigate, a violent storm forced him out to sea and back to
England.
This lost colony remains one of the greatest mysteries of the colonial period.

2c. Jamestown Settlement and the "Starving Time"

The first joint-stock company to launch a lasting venture to the New World was the Virginia
Company of London. The investors had one goal in mind: gold. They hoped to repeat the success of
Spaniards who found gold in South America.
In 1607, 144 English men and boys established the Jamestown colony, named after King James I.
The colonists were told that if they did not generate any wealth, financial support for their efforts
would end. Many of the men spent their days vainly searching for gold.
As a consequence, the colonists spent little time farming. Food supplies dwindled. Malaria and the
harsh winter besieged the colonists, as well. After the first year, only 38 of the original 144 had
survived.
"Work or Starve"
The colony may well have perished had it not been for the leadership of John Smith. He imposed
strict discipline on the colonists. "Work or starve" was his motto, and each colonist was required to
spend four hours per day farming.
An accidental gunpowder burn forced Smith to return to England in 1609. After his departure, the
colony endured even more hardships. A new boatload of colonists and supplies sank off the coast of
Bermuda on its way to help the hungry settlement. The winter of 1609-10, known as the "starving
time," may have been the worst of all.
Disease and hunger ravaged Jamestown. Two desperate colonists were tied to posts and left to
starve as punishment for raiding the colonies' stores. One colonist even took to cannibalism, eating

his own wife. The fate of the venture was precarious. Yet still more colonists arrived, and their
numbers included women.
Despite the introduction of tobacco cultivation, the colony was a failure as a financial venture. The
king declared the Virginia Company bankrupt in 1624.
About 200,000 pounds were lost among the investors. The charter was thereby revoked, and
Virginia became a royal colony, the first in America to be ruled by the Crown.
Investments in permanent settlements were risky indeed. The merchants and gentry paid with their
pocketbooks. Many colonists paid with their lives. For every six colonists who ventured across the
Atlantic, only one survived.

2d. The Growth of the Tobacco Trade

Virginia's economic future did not lie with gold. There was too little gold to be found there.
Looking for new ways to make its investments pay dividends, the Virginia Company of London
began encouraging multiple ventures by 1618.
Jamestown settlers experimented with glassblowing, vineyard cultivation, and even silkworm
farming. Despite efforts to diversify Virginia's economy, by the end of the 1620s only one Virginia
crop was drawing a fair market price in England: tobacco.
Drinking Smoke
Tobacco was introduced to Europe by the Spanish, who had learned to smoke it from Native
Americans. Despite some early criticism of "drinking smoke," tobacco became popular among the
middle classes in England. Much of the tobacco smoked in England was grown in the West Indies.
John Rolfe thought that Virginia might be an outstanding site for tobacco growth. Early attempts to
sell Virginian tobacco had fallen short of expectations. Smokers felt that the tobacco of the
Caribbean was much less harsh than Virginian tobacco.
Rolfe reacted to consumer demand by importing seed from the West Indies and cultivating the plant
in the Jamestown colony. Those tobacco seeds became the seeds of a huge economic empire.
By 1630, over a million and a half pounds of tobacco were being exported from Jamestown every
year.
The tobacco economy rapidly began to shape the society and development of the colony. Growing
tobacco takes its toil on the soil. Because tobacco drained the soil of its nutrients, only about three
successful growing seasons could occur on a plot of land. Then the land had to lie fallow for three

years before the soil could be used again. This created a huge drive for new farmland.
Settlers grew tobacco in the streets of Jamestown. The yellow-leafed crop even covered cemeteries.
Because tobacco cultivation is labor intensive, more settlers were needed.
Indentured Servants
Indentured servants became the first means to meet this need for labor. In return for free passage to
Virginia, a laborer worked for four to five years in the fields before being granted freedom. The
Crown rewarded planters with 50 acres of land for every inhabitant they brought to the New World.
Naturally, the colony began to expand. That expansion was soon challenged by the Native American
confederacy formed and named after Powhatan.

2e. War and Peace with Powhatan's People

Fortunately for the English settlers, Powhatan had a plan.
He regarded the English settlers suspiciously, as he had previously regarded Spanish settlers. But
the English had guns and powder. These items might just give him the advantage he needed to
defeat surrounding tribes.
And the English seemed so harmless at first. If it were not for the good nature of Powhatan's people,
the English settlers never would have survived their first few seasons in the New World. Good
relations with these new inhabitants might help forge a powerful alliance.
Plundering, Peace, and Pocahontas
Before long, Powhatan's hopes were dashed. During the "starving time," colonists took to raiding
Native American food supplies. In retaliation, Powhatan ordered an attack.
War raged on and off for the next few years with unspeakable brutality committed by both sides.
Unsuspecting colonists were riddled with arrows. Children of defeated tribes were drowned in the
James River.
Finally, in 1614, Powhatan accepted peace with the English. His daughter Pocahontas, after being
kidnapped and ransomed, was married to John Rolfe and taken to England. Unfortunately, she died
of disease only three years later. Powhatan died in despair in 1618.
Powhatan's brother, Opechancanough, was determined to continue the fight. On Good Friday in
1622, he led an attack that nearly finished the Jamestown colony. Three hundred forty-seven settlers
were killed before the situation stabilized.

Fighting continued between the Algonquian peoples and the English until 1645. Opechancanough
was captured and executed. The English forced the tribes of the warring confederacy to cede land
and recognize English authority.
No-Man's-Land
Many cultural differences separated the Native Americans and the colonists. The most important
contrast was each side's differing view of land ownership. According to Powhatan's people, land
was owned by no one; rather, it was collectively used by the tribe.
Because land could not be owned, it could not be sold or yielded in treaty. Selling land was the
equivalent of selling air.
The English view of individual land ownership was completely foreign to the Powhatans, who
could not understand being pushed off tribal lands so it could be sold to individuals. To the
Powhatans, the loss of their land was a matter worth fighting for.

2f. The House of Burgesses

Although many differences separated Spain and France from England, perhaps the factor that
contributed most to distinct paths of colonization was the form of their government.
Spain and France had absolute monarchies, but Britain had a limited monarchy. In New France and
New Spain, all authority flowed from the Crown to the settlers, with no input from below.
More Information ...
An absolute monarchy is a state in which the monarch has sovereign power and controls all
aspects of government without being checked by any representative assemblies.
A limited or constitutional monarchy is a state in which the power of the monarch is checked by
other constitutionally sanctioned institutions, such as a representative assembly (e.g., the British
Parliament).
The English kings who ruled the 13 original colonies reserved the right to decide the fate of their
colonies as well, but not alone. The colonists drew upon their claims to traditional English rights
and insisted on raising their own representative assemblies. Such was the case with the Virginia
House of Burgesses, the first popularly elected legislature in the New World.
The Magna Carta
English landowners had insisted on meeting with their leaders for consultation in local matters ever

since the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. Virginia settlers expected that same right.
Modeled after the English Parliament, the House of Burgesses was established in 1619. Members
would meet at least once a year with their royal governor to decide local laws and determine local
taxation.
King James I, a believer in the divine right of monarchs, attempted to dissolve the assembly, but the
Virginians would have none of it. They continued to meet on a yearly basis to decide local matters.
Democracy in Practice
What is the importance of a small legislative body formed so long ago? The tradition established by
the House of Burgesses was extremely important to colonial development. Each new English
colony demanded its own legislature in turn.
Historians often ponder why the American Revolution was successful. The French, Russian, and
Chinese Revolutions each ended with a rise to power of a leader more autocratic than the prerevolutionary monarch.
But starting with the Virginia House of Burgesses, Americans had 157 years to practice democracy.
By the time of the Declaration of Independence, they were quite good at it.

3. The New England Colonies

The founders of the New England colonies had an entirely different mission from the Jamestown
settlers. Although economic prosperity was still a goal of the New England settlers, their true goal
was spiritual. Fed up with the ceremonial Church of England, Pilgrims and Puritans sought to
recreate society in the manner they believed God truly intended it to be designed.
Religious strife reached a peak in England in the 1500s. When Henry VIII broke with the Catholic
Church of Rome, spiritual life in England was turned on its ear. The new church under the king's
leadership was approved by the English Parliament, but not all the people in England were willing
to accept the Church of England. At first, the battles were waged between English Catholics and the
followers of the new Church the Anglicans. The rule of Queen Elizabeth brought an end to
bloodshed, but the battle waged on in the hearts of the English people.
Pilgrims and Puritans both believed in the teachings of John Calvin. According to Calvin, neither
the teachings of the Catholic nor the Anglican Churches addressed God's will. By the end of
Elizabeth's reign, England was a nation of many different faiths.
The Stuart family, who ascended to the throne after the demise of Elizabeth, made matters worse for

the followers of John Calvin. King James and his son Charles supported the Church of England, but
secretly admired the ceremonies of the Catholic Church. To these kings, Calvin was a heretic, a man
whose soul was doomed for his religious views.
The Pilgrims, called the Separatists in England because of their desire to separate from the Anglican
Church, were persecuted by agents of the throne. The Puritans, so named for their desire to purify
the Church of England, experienced the same degree of harassment. By the second and third
decades of the 1600s, each group decided that England was no place to put their controversial
beliefs into practice.
Where else but in the New World could such a golden opportunity be found? The land was
unspoiled. Children could be raised without the corruption of old English religious ideas. The
chance to create a perfect society was there for the taking. The Stuart kings saw America a means to
get rid of troublemakers. Everything was falling into place.
By 1620, the seeds for a new society, quite different from the one already established at Jamestown,
were planted deeply within the souls of a few brave pioneers. Their quest would form the basis of
New England society.

3a. The Mayflower and Plymouth Colony

Not all the English Separatists set out for the New World.
The first group to leave England actually headed for the Dutch Netherlands in 1608. They became
uneasy in their new land as their children started speaking Dutch and abandoning English traditions.
Even worse to the Separatists, the tolerance shown to them by the Dutch was shown to many
different faiths. They became disgusted with the attention paid to worldly goods, and the presence
of many "unholy" faiths.
The great Separatist experiment in the Netherlands came to a quick end, as they began to look
elsewhere for a purer place to build their society. Some headed for English islands in the Caribbean.
Those who would be forever known to future Americans as the Pilgrims set their sights on the New
World in late 1620.
Crossing the Atlantic
Over a hundred travelers embarked on the voyage of the Mayflower in September 1620. Less than
one third were Separatists. The rest were immigrants, adventurers, and speculators.
When the weather was good, the passengers could enjoy hot food cooked on deck. When there was
high wind or storms, they lived on salted beef, a dried biscuit called "hard tack," other dried

vegetables, and beer. The nearest thing to resemble a bathroom was a bucket.
Their voyage took about two months, and the passengers enjoyed a happier experience than most
trans-Atlantic trips. One death was suffered and one child was born. The child was named Oceanus
after the watery depths beneath them.
Are We There Yet?
One of the greatest twists of fate in human history occurred on that epochal voyage. The Pilgrims
were originally bound for Virginia to live north of Jamestown under the same charter granted to
citizens of Jamestown. Fate charted a different course. Lost at sea, they happened upon a piece of
land that would become known as Cape Cod. After surveying the land, they set up camp not too far
from Plymouth Rock. They feared venturing further south because winter was fast approaching.
The Pilgrims had an important question to answer before they set ashore. Since they were not
landing within the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, they had no charter to govern them. Who
would rule their society?
In the landmark Mayflower Compact of 1620, the Pilgrims decided that they would rule
themselves, based on majority rule of the townsmen. This independent attitude set up a tradition of
self-rule that would later lead to town meetings and elected legislatures in New England.
Like the Virginia House of Burgesses established the previous year, Plymouth colony began to lay
the foundation for democracy in the American colonies.

3b. William Bradford and the First Thanksgiving

The major similarity between the first Jamestown settlers and the first Plymouth settlers was great
human suffering.
November was too late to plant crops. Many settlers died of scurvy and malnutrition during that
horrible first winter. Of the 102 original Mayflower passengers, only 44 survived. Again like in
Jamestown, the kindness of the local Native Americans saved them from a frosty death.
The Pilgrims' remarkable courage was displayed the following spring. When the Mayflower
returned to Europe, not a single Pilgrim deserted Plymouth.
Helping Hands
By early 1621, the Pilgrims had built crude huts and a common house on the shores of Plymouth
Bay. Soon neighboring Indians began to build relations with the Pilgrims. Squanto, a local Indian
who had been kidnapped and taken to England nearly a decade before, served as an interpreter with

the local tribes. Squanto taught the Pilgrims to fertilize the soil with dried fish remains to produce a
stellar corn crop.
Massasoit, the chief of the nearby Wampanoags, signed a treaty of alliance with the Pilgrims in the
summer. In exchange for assistance with defense against the feared Narragansett tribe, Massasoit
supplemented the food supply of the Pilgrims for the first few years.
Governor Bradford
Successful colonies require successful leadership. The man to step forward in Plymouth colony was
William Bradford. After the first governor elected under the Mayflower Compact perished from the
harsh winter, Bradford was elected governor for the next thirty years. In May of 1621, he performed
the colony's first marriage ceremony.
Under Bradford's guidance, Plymouth suffered less hardship than their English compatriots in
Virginia. Relations with the local natives remained relatively smooth in Plymouth and the food
supply grew with each passing year.
By autumn of 1621, the Pilgrims had much for which to be thankful. After the harvest, Massasoit
and about ninety other Indians joined the Pilgrims for the great English tradition of Harvest
Festival. The participants celebrated for several days, dining on venison, goose, duck, turkey, fish,
and of course, cornbread, the result of a bountiful corn harvest. This tradition was repeated at
harvest time in the following years.
It was President Lincoln who declared Thanksgiving a national celebration in 1863. The Plymouth
Pilgrims simply celebrated survival, as well as the hopes of good fortune in the years that lay ahead.

3c. Massachusetts Bay "The City Upon a Hill"

The passengers of the Arbella who left England in 1630 with their new charter had a great vision.
They were to be an example for the rest of the world in rightful living. Future governor John
Winthrop stated their purpose quite clearly: "We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people
are upon us."
The Arbella was one of eleven ships carrying over a thousand Puritans to Massachusetts that year. It
was the largest original venture ever attempted in the English New World. The passengers were
determined to be a beacon for the rest of Europe, "A Modell of Christian Charity," in the words of
the governor.
Puritans believed in predestination. This doctrine holds that God is all-powerful and all-knowing;
therefore, the fate of each individual soul is known to God at birth. Nothing an individual can do or

say could change their ultimate fate. Puritans believed that those chosen by God to be saved the
elect would experience "conversion." In this process, God would reveal to the individual His
grace, and the person would know he was saved.
Only the elect could serve as Church members. If a person were truly saved, he would only be
capable of behavior endorsed by God. These "living saints" would serve as an example to the rest of
the world. During the early years, ministers such as John Cotton carefully screened individuals
claiming to have experienced conversion.
The colony needed more than a fervent church to survive. Many dissenters Christian men and
women who were not converted also lived within the ranks of Massachusetts Bay. Towns such as
Marblehead were founded by non-Puritan settlers. The Puritans allowed this for the sake of
commerce. Many skills were necessary for a vibrant economy.
An elected legislature was established, echoing the desire for self-government already seen in other
English colonies. Although ministers were prohibited from holding political office, many of the
most important decisions were made by the clergy. In 1636, Harvard College was instituted for the
purpose of training Puritan ministers.
By the end of the 1630s, as part of a "Great Migration" of Puritans out of England, nearly 14,000
more Puritan settlers came to Massachusetts, and the colony began to spread. In 1691, Plymouth
colony, still without a charter, was absorbed by their burgeoning neighbor to the West.
The great experiment seemed to be a smashing success for the first few decades. In the end
however, worldly concerns led to a decline in religious fervor as the 1600s grew old.

3d. Puritan Life

New England life seemed to burst with possibilities.
The life expectancy of its citizens became longer than that of Old England, and much longer than
the Southern English colonies. Children were born at nearly twice the rate in Maryland and
Virginia. It is often said that New England invented grandparents, for it was here that people in
great numbers first grew old enough to see their children bear children.
Literacy rates were high as well. Massachusetts law required a tax-supported school for every
community that could boast 50 or more families. Puritans wanted their children to be able to read
the Bible, of course.
Massachusetts Bay Colony was a man's world. Women did not participate in town meetings and
were excluded from decision making in the church. Puritan ministers furthered male supremacy in

their writings and sermons. They preached that the soul had two parts, the immortal masculine half,
and the mortal feminine half.
It was believed that women who were pregnant with a male child had a rosy complexion and that
women carrying a female child were pale. Names of women found in census reports of
Massachusetts Bay include Patience, Silence, Fear, Prudence, Comfort, Hopestill, and Be Fruitful.
This list reflects Puritan views on women quite clearly.
Church attendance was mandatory. Those that missed church regularly were subject to a fine. The
sermon became a means of addressing town problems or concerns. The church was sometimes
patrolled by a man who held a long pole. On one end was a collection of feathers to tickle the chins
of old men who fell asleep. On the other was a hard wooden knob to alert children who giggled or
slept. Church was serious business indeed.
The Puritans believed they were doing God's work. Hence, there was little room for compromise.
Harsh punishment was inflicted on those who were seen as straying from God's work. There were
cases when individuals of differing faiths were hanged in Boston Common.
Adulterers might have been forced to wear a scarlet "A" if they were lucky. At least two known
adulterers were executed in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Public whippings were commonplace. The
stockade forced the humiliated guilty person to sit in the public square, while onlookers spat or
laughed at them.
Puritans felt no remorse about administering punishment. They believed in Old Testament methods.
Surely God's correction would be far worse to the individual than any earthly penalty.
Contrary to myth, the Puritans did have fun. There were celebrations and festivals. People sang and
told stories. Children were allowed to play games with their parents' permission. Wine and beer
drinking were common place. Puritans did not all dress in black as many believe. The fundamental
rule was to follow God's law. Those that did lived in peace in the Bible Commonwealth.

3e. Dissent in Massachusetts Bay

There was not too much room for religious disagreement in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Puritans
defended their dogma with uncommon fury. Their devotion to principle was God's work; to ignore
God's work was unfathomable. When free-thinkers speak their minds in such a society, conflict
inevitably results.
Such was the case in Massachusetts Bay when Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams spoke their
minds.

Anne Hutchinson was a deeply religious woman. In her understanding of Biblical law, the ministers
of Massachusetts had lost their way. She thought the enforcement of proper behavior from church
members conflicted with the doctrine of predestination. She asked simply: "If God has
predetermined for me salvation or damnation, how could any behavior of mine change my fate?"
This sort of thinking was seen as extremely dangerous. If the public ignored church authority, surely
there would be anarchy. The power of the ministers would decrease. Soon over eighty community
members were gathering in her parlor to hear her comments on the weekly sermon. Her leadership
position as a woman made her seem all the more dangerous to the Puritan order.
The clergy felt that Anne Hutchinson was a threat to the entire Puritan experiment. They decided to
arrest her for heresy. In her trial she argued intelligently with John Winthrop, but the court found her
guilty and banished her from Massachusetts Bay in 1637.
Roger Williams was a similar threat.
Two ideas got him into big trouble in Massachusetts Bay. First, he preached separation of church
and state. He believed in complete religious freedom, so no single church should be supported by
tax dollars. Massachusetts Puritans believed they had the one true faith; therefore such talk was
intolerable. Second, Williams claimed taking land from the Native Americans without proper
payment was unfair.
Massachusetts wasted no time in banishing the minister.
In 1636, he purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and founded the colony of Rhode Island.
Here there would be complete religious freedom. Dissenters from the English New World came
here seeking refuge. Anne Hutchinson herself moved to Rhode Island before her fatal relocation to
New York.
America has long been a land where people have reserved the right to say, "I disagree." Many early
settlers left England in the first place because they disagreed with English practice. Roger Williams
and Anne Hutchinson were two brave souls who reminded everyone at their own great peril of that
most sacred right.

3f. Reaching to Connecticut

Despite a few internal problems, Massachusetts Bay Colony was thriving by the mid-1630s. It
would only be a matter of time before individuals within the colony would consider expansion.
There were obstacles to consider. Establishing a new colony was never easy. Pequot Indian
settlements west of the Connecticut River were an important consideration. Nevertheless, the

Puritan experiment pushed forward, creating new colonies in the likeness of Massachusetts Bay.
Thomas Hooker was a devout Puritan minister. He had no quarrels with the religious teachings of
the church. He did, however, object to linking voting rights with church membership, which had
been the practice in Massachusetts Bay.
In 1636, his family led a group of followers west and built a town known as Hartford. This would
become the center of Connecticut colony. In religious practices Connecticut mirrored Massachusetts
Bay. Politically, it allowed more access to non-church members.
In 1639, the citizens of Connecticut enacted the first written constitution in the western hemisphere.
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut called for an elected governor and a two-house legislature.
It served as a model for other colonial charters and even future state constitutions after
independence was achieved.
In 1637, under the leadership of John Davenport, a second colony was formed in the Connecticut
River Valley, revolved around the port of New Haven. Unlike the citizens in Hartford, the citizens
were very strict about church membership and the political process. They even abolished juries
because there was no mention of them in the Bible. Most citizens accused of a crime simply
reported to the magistrate for their punishment, without even furnishing a defense.
New Haven was merged into its more democratic neighbor by King Charles II in 1662.
Connecticut provides a great example of the strictness of colonial society. Laws based on scripture,
called Blue Laws, were applied to Connecticut residents. Examples include the death penalty for
crimes that seem minor by modern standards. Blue laws condemned to death any citizen who was
convicted of blaspheming the name of God or cursing their natural father or mother. These laws
were in effect at least as late as 1672 in colonial Connecticut.

3g. Witchcraft in Salem

Surely the Devil had come to Salem in 1692. Young girls screaming and barking like a dog? Strange
dances in the woods? This was behavior hardly becoming of virtuous teenage maidens. The town
doctor was called onto the scene. After a thorough examination, he concluded quite simply the
girls were bewitched. Now the task was clear. Whomever was responsible for this outrage must be
brought to justice.
The ordeal originated in the home of Salem's Reverend Samuel Parris. Parris had a slave from the
Caribbean named Tituba. Several of the town's teenage girls began to gather in the kitchen with
Tituba early in 1692. As winter turned to spring the townspeople were aghast at the behaviors
exhibited by Tituba's young followers. They were believed to have danced a black magic dance in

the nearby woods. Several of the girls would fall to the floor and scream hysterically. Soon this
behavior began to spread across Salem. Ministers from nearby communities came to Salem to lend
their sage advice. The talk turned to identifying the parties responsible for this mess.
Puritans believed that to become bewitched a witch must draw an individual under a spell. The girls
could not have possibly brought this condition onto themselves. Soon they were questioned and
forced to name their tormentors. Three townspeople, including Tituba, were named as witches. The
famous Salem witchcraft trials began as the girls began to name more and more community
members.
Evidence admitted in such trials was of five types. First, the accused might be asked to pass a test,
like reciting the Lord's Prayer. This seems simple enough. But the young girls who attended the trial
were known to scream and writhe on the floor in the middle of the test. It is easy to understand why
some could not pass.
Second, physical evidence was considered. Any birthmarks, warts, moles, or other blemishes were
seen as possible portals through which Satan could enter a body.
Witness testimony was a third consideration. Anyone who could attribute their misfortune to the
sorcery of an accused person might help get a conviction.
Fourth was spectral evidence. Puritans believed that Satan could not take the form of any unwilling
person. Therefore, if anyone saw a ghost or spirit in the form of the accused, the person in question
must be a witch.
Last was the confession. Confession seems foolhardy to a defendant who is certain of his or her
innocence. In many cases, it was the only way out. A confessor would tearfully throw himself or
herself on the mercy of the town and court and promise repentance. None of the confessors were
executed. Part of repentance might of course include helping to convict others.
As 1692 passed into 1693, the hysteria began to lose steam. The governor of the colony, upon
hearing that his own wife was accused of witchcraft ordered an end to the trials. However, 20
people and 2 dogs were executed for the crime of witchcraft in Salem. One person was pressed to
death under a pile of stones for refusing to testify.
No one knows the truth behind what happened in Salem. Once witchcraft is ruled out, other
important factors come to light. Salem had suffered greatly in recent years from Indian attacks. As
the town became more populated, land became harder and harder to acquire. A smallpox epidemic
had broken out at the beginning of the decade. Massachusetts was experiencing some of the worst
winters in memory. The motives of the young girls themselves can be questioned. In a society
where women had no power, particularly young women, is it not understandable how a few

adolescent girls, drunk with unforeseen attention, allowed their imaginations to run wild? Historians
make educated guesses, but the real answers lie with the ages.

4. The Middle Colonies

Americans have often prided themselves on their rich diversity. Nowhere was that diversity more
evident in pre-Revolutionary America than in the middle colonies of Pennsylvania, New York, New
Jersey, and Delaware. European ethnic groups as manifold as English, Swedes, Dutch, Germans,
Scots-Irish and French lived in closer proximity than in any location on continental Europe. The
middle colonies contained Native American tribes of Algonkian and Iroquois language groups as
well as a sizable percentage of African slaves during the early years. Unlike solidly Puritan New
England, the middle colonies presented an assortment of religions. The presence of Quakers,
Mennonites, Lutherans, Dutch Calvinists, and Presbyterians made the dominance of one faith next
to impossible.
Advantaged by their central location, the middle colonies served as important distribution centers in
the English mercantile system. New York and Philadelphia grew at a fantastic rate. These cities
gave rise to brilliant thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin, who earned respect on both sides of the
Atlantic. In many ways, the middle colonies served as the crossroads of ideas during the colonial
period.
In contrast to the South where the cash crop plantation system dominated, and New England whose
rocky soil made large-scale agriculture difficult, The middle colonies were fertile. Land was
generally acquired more easily than in New England or in the plantation South. Wheat and corn
from local farms would feed the American colonies through their colonial infancy and revolutionary
adolescence.
The middle colonies represented exactly that a middle ground between its neighbors to the North
and South. Elements of both New England towns and sprawling country estates could be found.
Religious dissidents from all regions could settle in the relatively tolerant middle zone. Aspects of
New England shipbuilding and lumbering and the large farms of the South could be found. Aptly
named, they provided a perfect nucleus for English America.

4a. New Netherland to New York

England was not the first European power to settle the land known now as New York. That
distinction belongs to the Dutch.
Ironically, the English explorer Henry Hudson brought the region to the attention of the Netherlands
in 1609 by sailing into New York Bay and up the river that would eventually bear his name.

New Netherland became a reality fourteen years later. The Dutch West India Company hoped to
reap the profits of the area's fur trade.
Wait Just a Minuit
Shortly after setting up camp, Peter Minuit made one of the greatest real estate purchases in history.
He traded trinkets (small ornaments, jewelry, etc.) with local Native Americans for Manhattan
Island. The town that was established there was named New Amsterdam.
The Dutch had no patience for democratic institutions. The point of the colony was to enrich its
stockholders.
The most famous governor of the colony, Peter Stuyvesant, ruled New Amsterdam with an iron fist.
Slavery was common during the Dutch era, as the Dutch West India Company was one of the most
prominent in the world's trade of slaves.
Languages that could be heard in the streets of New Amsterdam include Dutch, French, Flemish,
Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and several other European and African tongues.
Northwest of New Amsterdam, New Netherland approached feudal conditions with the awarding of
large tracts of land to wealthy investors. This would create eventual instability as the gap between
the landed and the landless grew more obvious.
The British Are Coming
After Charles II came to the throne, the English became very interested in the Dutch holdings. In
1664, he granted the land to his brother, the Duke of York, before officially owning it.
When a powerful English military unit appeared in New Amsterdam, Governor Stuyvesant was
forced to surrender and New Netherland became New York.
Santa Claus and Easter Eggs
Cultural contributions left by the Dutch include the pastimes of bowling and skating. Christmas and
Easter were transformed by the introduction of Santa Claus and Easter eggs.
Any resident or visitor to Harlem or Brooklyn should recognize the Dutch influence in the names of
locales. Although majority Dutch presence was short-lived, the legacy remains.

4b. Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

William Penn was a dreamer. He also had the king over a barrel. Charles II owed his father a huge

debt. To repay the Penns, William was awarded an enormous tract of land in the New World.
Immediately he saw possibilities. People of his faith, the Quakers, had suffered serious persecution
in England. With some good advertising, he might be able to establish a religious refuge. He might
even be able to turn a profit. Slowly, the wheels began to spin. In, 1681, his dream became a reality.
Quakers, or the Society of Friends, had suffered greatly in England. As religious dissenters of the
Church of England, they were targets much like the Separatists and the Puritans. But Friends were
also devout pacifists. They would not fight in any of England's wars, nor would they pay their taxes
if they believed the proceeds would assist a military venture. They believed in total equality.
Therefore, Quakers would not bow down to nobles. Even the king would not receive the courtesy of
a tipped hat. They refused to take oaths, so their allegiance to the Crown was always in question. Of
all the Quaker families that came to the New World, over three quarters of the male heads of
household had spent time in an English jail.
The Quakers of Penn's colony, like their counterparts across the Delaware River in New Jersey,
established an extremely liberal government for the seventeenth century. Religious freedom was
granted and there was no tax-supported church. Penn insisted on developing good relations with the
Native Americans. Women saw greater freedom in Quaker society than elsewhere, as they were
allowed to participate fully in Quaker meetings.
Pennsylvania, or "Penn's Woods," benefited from the vision of its founder. Well advertised
throughout Europe, skilled artisans and farmers flocked to the new colony. With Philadelphia as its
capital, Pennsylvania soon became the keystone of the English colonies. New Jersey was owned by
Quakers even before Penn's experiment, and the remnants of New Sweden, now called Delaware,
also fell under the Friends' sphere of influence. William Penn's dream had come true.

4c. City of Brotherly Love Philadelphia

William Penn had a distaste for cities. His colony, Pennsylvania, would need a capital that would
not bring the horrors of European urban life to the shores of his New World experiment. Penn
determined to design and to administer the city himself to prevent such an occurrence. He looked
with disdain on London's crowded conditions and sought to prevent this by designing a city plan
with streets wider than any major thoroughfare in London. Five major squares dotted the cityscape,
and Penn hoped that each dweller would have a family garden. He distributed land in large plots to
encourage a low population density. This, he thought, would be the perfect combination of city and
country. In 1681, he made it happen.
Penn's selection of a site was most careful. Philadelphia is situated at the confluence of the
Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. He hoped that the Delaware would supply the needed outlet to the

Atlantic and that the Schuylkill would be the needed artery into the interior of Pennsylvania. This
choice turned out to be controversial. The proprietors of Maryland claimed that Penn's new city lay
within the boundaries of Maryland. Penn returned to England to defend his town many times.
Eventually the issue would be decided on the eve of the Revolution by the drawing of the famed
Mason-Dixon Line.
With Penn promoting religious toleration, people of many different faiths came to Philadelphia. The
Quakers may have been tolerant of religious differences, but were fairly uncompromising with
moral digressions. It was illegal to tell lies in conversation and even to perform stage plays. Cards
and dice were forbidden. Upholding the city's moral code was taken very seriously. This code did
not extend to chattel slavery. In the early days, slavery was commonplace in the streets of
Philadelphia. William Penn himself was a slaveholder. Although the first antislavery society in the
colonies would eventually be founded by Quakers, the early days were not free of the curse of
human bondage.
Early Philadelphia had its ups and downs. William Penn spent only about four years of his life in
Pennsylvania. In his absence, Philadelphians quibbled about many issues. At one point, Penn
appointed a former soldier, John Blackwell, to bring discipline to town government. Still, before
long Philadelphia prospered as a trading center. Within twenty years, it was the third largest city,
behind Boston and New York. A century later it would emerge as the new nation's largest city, first
capital, and cradle of the Liberty Bell, Declaration of Independence, and Constitution.

4d. The Ideas of Benjamin Franklin

Throughout the early years of the English colonies, most Europeans did not take Americans
seriously. Most were seen as the chaff of English society, bound for America because they could not
make it in England.
Many viewed Americans as irrational religious fanatics or crude pioneers. American art literature,
and science were snubbed by most cultured Europeans. Benjamin Franklin would help them take
notice.
Ben Franklin was born in 1706 in colonial Boston. Apprenticed to his brother, a printer, young Ben
ran away to Philadelphia when he was seventeen. The next twenty-five years of his life he made a
fortune out of the three pennies he had carried with him to the city.
His Pennsylvania Gazette soon surpassed all Boston publications in circulation. Poor Richard's
Almanac became a staple for many of the literate colonials. People liked his insights and his dry
wit. By the age of forty-two, he made enough money to retire.

Although he gave up active control of his printing business, Franklin kept working. He decided to
devote the rest of his life to philanthropic and intellectual pursuits. He established a fire house,
library, and hospital for Philadelphia. He founded the College of Philadelphia now the University
of Pennsylvania one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the world.
He became an inventor, developing products as diverse as an efficient wood-burning stove and
bifocal reading glasses. Of course, his most famous work was with electricity. In his famed
experiment with a kite and key, Franklin proved that lightning was a form of electrical energy. His
discovery brought him honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale, as well as fame overseas.
Franklin continued his life as a public servant. Although he was seventy years old when the
Revolution began, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and as a diplomat abroad. He
was received as a celebrity when he traveled through Europe. An ardent patriot, he proved to the
world what great ideas could come from the western side of the Atlantic Ocean.

5. The Southern Colonies

Virginia was the first successful southern colony. While Puritan zeal was fueling New England's
mercantile development, and Penn's Quaker experiment was turning the middle colonies into
America's bread basket, the South was turning to cash crops. Geography and motive rendered the
development of these colonies distinct from those that lay to the North.
Immediately to Virginia's north was Maryland. Begun as a Catholic experiment, the colony's
economy would soon come to mirror that of Virginia, as tobacco became the most important crop.
To the south lay the Carolinas, created after the English Civil War had been concluded. In the Deep
South was Georgia, the last of the original thirteen colonies. Challenges from Spain and France led
the king to desire a buffer zone between the cash crops of the Carolinas and foreign enemies.
Georgia, a colony of debtors, would fulfill that need.
English American Southerners would not enjoy the generally good health of their New England
counterparts. Outbreaks of malaria and yellow fever kept life expectancies lower. Since the northern
colonies attracted religious dissenters, they tended to migrate in families. Such family connections
were less prevalent in the South.
The economy of growing cash crops would require a labor force that would be unknown north of
Maryland. Slaves and indentured servants, although present in the North, were much more
important to the South. They were the backbone of the Southern economy.
Settlers in the Southern colonies came to America to seek economic prosperity they could not find
in Old England. The English countryside provided a grand existence of stately manors and high

living. But rural England was full, and by law those great estates could only be passed on to the
eldest son. America provided more space to realize a lifestyle the new arrivals could never dream to
achieve in their native land.

5b. Indentured Servants

The growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for
labor in Southern English America. Without the aid of modern machinery, human sweat and blood
was necessary for the planting, cultivation, and harvesting of these cash crops. While slaves existed
in the English colonies throughout the 1600s, indentured servitude was the method of choice
employed by many planters before the 1680s. This system provided incentives for both the master
and servant to increase the working population of the Chesapeake colonies.
Virginia and Maryland operated under what was known as the "headright system." The leaders of
each colony knew that labor was essential for economic survival, so they provided incentives for
planters to import workers. For each laborer brought across the Atlantic, the master was rewarded
with 50 acres of land. This system was used by wealthy plantation aristocrats to increase their land
holdings dramatically. In addition, of course, they received the services of the workers for the
duration of the indenture.
This system seemed to benefit the servant as well. Each indentured servant would have their fare
across the Atlantic paid in full by their master. A contract was written that stipulated the length of
service typically five years. The servant would be supplied room and board while working in the
master's fields. Upon completion of the contract, the servant would receive "freedom dues," a prearranged termination bonus. This might include land, money, a gun, clothes or food. On the surface
it seemed like a terrific way for the luckless English poor to make their way to prosperity in a new
land. Beneath the surface, this was not often the case.
Only about 40 percent of indentured servants lived to complete the terms of their contracts. Female
servants were often the subject of harassment from their masters. A woman who became pregnant
while a servant often had years tacked on to the end of her service time. Early in the century, some
servants were able to gain their own land as free men. But by 1660, much of the best land was
claimed by the large land owners. The former servants were pushed westward, where the
mountainous land was less arable and the threat from Indians constant. A class of angry,
impoverished pioneer farmers began to emerge as the 1600s grew old. After Bacon's Rebellion in
1676, planters began to prefer permanent African slavery to the headright system that had
previously enabled them to prosper.

5e. Life in the Plantation South

Plantation life created a society with clear class divisions. A lucky few were at the top, with land
holdings as far as the eyes could see. Most Southerners did not experience this degree of wealth.
The contrast between rich and poor was greater in the South than in the other English colonies,
because of the labor system necessary for its survival. Most Southerners were yeoman farmers,
indentured servants, or slaves. The plantation system also created changes for women and family
structures as well.
The tidewater aristocrats were the fortunate few who lived in stately plantation manors with
hundreds of servants and slaves at their beck and call. Most plantation owners took an active part in
the operations of the business. Surely they found time for leisurely activities like hunting, but on a
daily basis they worked as well. The distance from one plantation to the next proved to be isolating,
with consequences even for the richest class. Unlike New England, who required public schooling
by law, the difficulties of travel and the distances between prospective students impeded the growth
of such schools in the South. Private tutors were hired by the wealthiest families. The boys studied
in the fall and winter to allow time for work in the fields during the planting times. The girls studied
in the summer to allow time for weaving during the colder months. Few cities developed in the
South. Consequently, there was little room for a merchant middle class. Urban professionals such as
lawyers were rare in the South. Artisans often worked right on the plantation as slaves or servants.
The roles of women were dramatically changed by the plantation society. First of all, since most
indentured servants were male, there were far fewer women in the colonial South. In the
Chesapeake during the 1600s, men entered the colony at a rate of seven to one. From one
perspective, this increased women's power. They were highly sought after by the overwhelming
number of eager men. The high death rate in the region resulted in a typical marriage being
dissolved by death within seven years. Consequently there was a good deal of remarriage, and a
complex web of half-brothers and half-sisters evolved. Women needed to administer the property in
the absence of the male. Consequently many developed managerial skills. However, being a
minority had its downside. Like in New England, women were completely excluded from the
political process. Female slaves and indentured servants were often the victims of aggressive male
masters.

6. African Americans in the British New World

Even before the Mayflower touched ground off Cape Cod, African Americans were living in British
North America. Although slavery itself was not foreign to West Africans, the brutal nature of the

trans-Atlantic slave trade and the nature of colonial slavery was without parallel in African history.
Millions of people deemed savages by their new "masters" were uprooted from their ways of life
and forced to adopt new ones.
Europeans and even some Africans would participate in the slave trade that brought millions of
Africans to the New World. African slave traders would ruthlessly bring their captives from the
interior of the continent where they would await the business transaction that would take them
thousands of miles from their homeland.
Slaves bound for the North American British colonies overcame tremendous odds to reach their
destinations. The dreaded "Middle Passage" often claimed half or more of its human cargo. Most of
the survivors lived harsh lives as plantation slaves. Some lived in the towns and learned trades and
some lived as domestic slaves, particularly in the North. Often overlooked are free African
Americans, who managed to escape or were lucky enough to be granted their freedom.
Yet as the seventeenth century became the eighteenth century, the institution grew. Harsh codes
were adopted across the South, and although slavery was less common in the North, many New
England shippers profited from the so-called triangular trade. Slavery was indeed becoming
entrenched in British colonial life.
The colonization of the Americas brought together for the first time three distinctive peoples from
three distant continents. The Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans that inhabited what would
become the United States of America each previously had glorious civilizations and would
contribute to a new glorious civilization that would follow. Despite the great numbers of Africans
now African Americans in bondage, a rich legacy of artistic, religious, and linguistic gifts
merge with the realities of a New World to form the foundations of what would become American
culture.

6a. West African Society at the Point of European Contact

Powerful kingdoms, beautiful sculpture, complex trade, tremendous wealth, centers for advanced
learning all are hallmarks of African civilization on the eve of the age of exploration.
Hardly living up to the "dark continent" label given by European adventurers, Africa's cultural
heritage runs deep. The empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay are some of the greatest the world
has ever known. Timbuktu, arguably the world's oldest university, was the intellectual center of its
age.
Although primarily agricultural, West Africans held many occupations. Some were hunters and
fishers. Merchants traded with other African communities, as well as with Europeans and Arabs.

Some West Africans mined gold, salt, iron, copper or even diamonds. African art was primarily
religious, and each community had artisans skilled at producing works that would please the tribal
gods.
The center of African life in ancient and modern times is the family. Since Africans consider all
individuals who can trace roots to a common ancestor, this family often comprised hundreds of
members.
Like Native American tribes, there is tremendous diversity among the peoples of West Africa. Some
traced their heritage through the father's bloodline, some through the mothers. Some were
democratic, while others had a strong ruler. Most African tribes had a noble class, and slavery in
Africa predates the written record.
The slavery known to Africans prior to European contact did not involve a belief in inferiority of
the slaves. Most slaves in West Africa were captured in war. Although legally considered property,
most African slaves were treated as family members. Their children could not be bought or sold.
Many achieved high honors in their communities, and freedom by manumission was not
uncommon. Plantation slavery was virtually unknown on the African continent.
The impending slave trade brings ruin to West Africa. Entire villages disappear. Guns and alcohol
spread across the continent. Tribes turn against other tribes as the once-fabled empires fade into
history. The Diaspora of African peoples around the world had begun.

6b. "The Middle Passage"

Two by two the men and women were forced beneath deck into the bowels of the slave ship.
The "packing" was done as efficiently as possible. The captives lay down on unfinished planking
with virtually no room to move or breathe. Elbows and wrists will be scraped to the bone by the
motion of the rough seas.
Some will die of disease, some of starvation, and some simply of despair. This was the fate of
millions of West Africans across three and a half centuries of the slave trade on the voyage known
as the "middle passage."
Two philosophies dominated the loading of a slave ship. "Loose packing" provided for fewer slaves
per ship in the hopes that a greater percentage of the cargo would arrive alive. "Tight packing"
captains believed that more slaves, despite higher casualties, would yield a greater profit at the
trading block.
Doctors would inspect the slaves before purchase from the African trader to determine which

individuals would most likely survive the voyage. In return, the traders would receive guns,
gunpowder, rum or other sprits, textiles or trinkets.
The "middle passage," which brought the slaves from West Africa to the West Indies, might take
three weeks. Unfavorable weather conditions could make the trip much longer.
Slaves were fed twice daily and some captains made vain attempts to clean the hold at this time. Air
holes were cut into the deck to allow the slaves breathing air, but these were closed in stormy
conditions. The bodies of the dead were simply thrust overboard. And yes, there were uprisings.
Upon reaching the West Indies, the slaves were fed and cleaned in the hopes of bringing a high
price on the block. Those that could not be sold were left for dead. The slaves were then transported
to their final destination. It was in this unspeakable manner that between ten and twenty million
Africans were introduced to the New World.

6c. The Growth of Slavery

Africans were the immigrants to the British New World that had no choice in their destinations or
destinies. The first African Americans that arrived in Jamestown in 1619 on a Dutch trading ship
were not slaves, nor were they free. They served time as indentured servants until their obligations
were complete. Although these lucky individuals lived out the remainder of their lives as free men,
the passing decades would make this a rarity. Despite the complete lack of a slave tradition in
mother England, slavery gradually replaced indentured servitude as the chief means for plantation
labor in the Old South.
Virginia would become the first British colony to legally establish slavery in 1661. Maryland and
the Carolinas were soon to follow. The only Southern colony to resist the onset of slavery was
Georgia, created as an Enlightened experiment. Seventeen years after its formation, Georgia too
succumbed to the pressures of its own citizens and repealed the ban on African slavery. Laws soon
passed in these areas that condemned all children of African slaves to lifetimes in chains.
No northern or middle colony was without its slaves. From Puritan Massachusetts to Quaker
Pennsylvania, Africans lived in bondage. Economics and geography did not promote the need for
slave importation like the plantation South. Consequently, the slave population remained small
compared to their southern neighbors. While laws throughout the region recognized the existence of
slavery, it was far less systematized. Slaves were more frequently granted their freedom, and
opposition to the institution was more common, especially in Pennsylvania.
As British colonists became convinced that Africans best served their demand for labor, importation
increased. By the turn of the eighteenth century African slaves numbered in the tens of thousands in

the British colonies. Before the first shots are fired at Lexington and Concord, they totaled in the
hundreds of thousands. The cries for liberty by the colonial leaders that were to follow turned out to
be merely white cries.

6d. Slave Life on the Farm and in the Town

What was it like to live in bondage? The experiences of slaves in captivity varied greatly. Indeed,
Puritan merchants and Southern planters have as much in common as their slaves. The type of life
slaves could expect to live depended first and foremost on whether they lived on farms or in towns.
The first image that comes to mind when considering chattel slavery is plantation life. Of course the
cultivation of the planter's crop was the priority. Beyond these duties, slaves might also be expected
to clear land, build a fence, or perform other odd jobs as the circumstances might dictate. Larger
plantations usually brought harsher working conditions. Overseers might be assigned to monitor the
work. As they had little connection to the slave, they tended to treat the slaves more brutally.
Sometimes a slave, called a driver, would be enticed into holding this position. Accordingly, drivers
were hated in the slave community. Living quarters were small and spartan, and food usually
consisted of a few morsels of meat and bread.
Large plantations might also have household slaves. These domestic servants would prepare the
master's meals, tend the house, prepare for guests, and sometimes look after the master's children.
Household slaves often were treated better than plantation slaves. They usually ate better and were
in some cases considered part of the extended family.
Slaves that lived on smaller farms often enjoyed closer relations with their masters than plantation
slaves. It stands to reason that a farmer working side by side with four slaves might develop closer
bonds than a planter who owns four hundred. This sometimes, but not always, led to kinder
treatment.
Some urban merchants and artisans employed slave labor in their shops. This enabled slaves to
acquire marketable skills. In fact, white craftsmen often displayed strong resentment, believing the
price of their labor would suffer. Generally, slaves that lived in towns had greater freedom than
those that lived on the farm. They met more people and became more worldly. Daring individuals
sometimes took the opportunity to escape.

6e. Free African Americans in the Colonial Era

When Crispus Attucks earned his unfortunate claim to fame as a victim in the Boston Massacre, he
was not a slave. He was one of the relatively few African Americans to achieve freedom in colonial

America. Although freedom is clearly desirable in comparison to a life in chains, free African
Americans were unfortunately rarely treated with the same respect of their white counterparts.
There were several ways African Americans could achieve their freedom. Indentured servants could
fulfill the terms of their contracts like those brought to Jamestown in 1619. In the early days, when
property ownership was permitted, skilled slaves could earn enough money to purchase their
freedom. Crispus Attucks and many others achieved liberty the hard way through a daring
escape. It only stands to reason that when faced with a perpetual sentence of bondage many slaves
would take the opportunity to free themselves, despite the great risks involved.
Another way of becoming free was called manumission the voluntary freeing of a slave by the
master. Masters did occasionally free their own slaves. Perhaps it was a reward for good deeds or
hard work. At times it was the work of a guilty conscience as masters sometimes freed their slaves
in their wills. Children spawned by slaves and masters were more likely to receive this treatment.
These acts of kindness were not completely unseen in colonial America, but they were rare. In the
spirit of the Revolution, manumission did increase, but its application was not epidemic.
Free African Americans were likely to live in urban centers. The chance for developing ties to
others that were free plus greater economic opportunities made town living sensible. Unfortunately,
this "freedom" was rather limited. Free African Americans were rarely accepted into white society.
Some states applied their slave codes to free African Americans as well. Perhaps the most
horrifying prospect was kidnapping. Slave catchers would sometimes abduct free African
Americans and force them back into slavery. In a society that does not permit black testimony
against whites, there was very little that could be done to stop this wretched practice.

6f. "Slave Codes"

Slaves did not accept their fate without protest. Many instances of rebellion were known to
Americans, even in colonial times. These rebellions were not confined to the South. In fact, one of
the earliest examples of a slave uprising was in 1712 in Manhattan. As African Americans in the
colonies grew greater and greater in number, there was a justifiable paranoia on the part of the white
settlers that a violent rebellion could occur in one's own neighborhood. It was this fear of rebellion
that led each colony to pass a series of laws restricting slaves' behaviors. The laws were known as
slave codes.
Although each colony had differing ideas about the rights of slaves, there were some common
threads in slave codes across areas where slavery was common. Legally considered property, slaves
were not allowed to own property of their own. They were not allowed to assemble without the
presence of a white person. Slaves that lived off the plantation were subject to special curfews.

In the courts, a slave accused of any crime against a white person was doomed. No testimony could
be made by a slave against a white person. Therefore, the slave's side of the story could never be
told in a court of law. Of course, slaves were conspicuously absent from juries as well.
Slave codes had ruinous effects on African American society. It was illegal to teach a slave to read
or write. Religious motives sometimes prevailed, however, as many devout white Christians
educated slaves to enable the reading of the Bible. These same Christians did not recognize
marriage between slaves in their laws. This made it easier to justify the breakup of families by
selling one if its members to another owner.
As time passed and the numbers of African Americans in the New World increased, so did the fears
of their white captors. With each new rebellion, the slave codes became ever more strict, further
abridging the already limited rights and privileges this oppressed people might hope to enjoy.

6g. A New African-American Culture

When immigrants reach a new land, their old ways die hard. This has been the case with most
immigrant groups to the New World. The language, customs, values, religious beliefs, and artistic
forms they bring across the Atlantic are reshaped by the new realities of America and, in turn, add to
its fabric. The rich traditions of Africa combined with the British colonial experience created a new
ethnicity the African American.
Much controversy arises when attempts are made to determine what African traditions have
survived in the New World. Hundreds of words, such as "banjo" and "okra" are part of American
discourse. Africans exercised their tastes over cuisine whenever possible. Song and dance traditions
comparable to African custom were commonly seen in the American South. Folk arts such as basket
weaving followed the African model. Even marriage patterns tended to mirror those established
overseas.
Much of African history is known through oral tradition. Folk tales passed down through the
generations on the African continent were similarly dispatched in African American communities.
Some did learn the written word. Poet and slave Phillis Wheatley is still studied. Her writings
vividly depict the slave experience on the eve of the American Revolution.
Many devout British colonists saw conversion of slaves to Christianity as a divine duty.
Consequently, the Christian religion was widely adopted by slaves. The practice of Christianity by
slaves differed from white Christians. Musical traditions drew from rhythmic African and melodic
European models. The religious beliefs of many African tribes merged with elements of Christianity
to form voodoo. Spirituals also demonstrate this merger.

Despite laws regulating slave literacy, African Americans learned many elements of the English
language out of sheer necessity. Since the planters' children were often raised by slaves, their
dialects, values and customs were often transmitted back. This reflexive relationship is typical of
cultural fusion throughout American history.

7b. The Great Awakening

Not all American ministers were swept up by the Age of Reason. In the 1730s, a religious revival
swept through the British American colonies. Jonathan Edwards, the Yale minister who refused to
convert to the Church of England, became concerned that New Englanders were becoming far too
concerned with worldly matters. It seemed to him that people found the pursuit of wealth to be
more important than John Calvin's religious principles. Some were even beginning to suggest that
predestination was wrong and that good works might save a soul. Edwards barked out from the
pulpit against these notions. "God was an angry judge, and humans were sinners!" he declared. He
spoke with such fury and conviction that people flocked to listen. This sparked what became known
as the Great Awakening in the American colonies.
George Whitefield was a minister from Britain who toured the American colonies. An actor by
training, he would shout the word of God, weep with sorrow, and tremble with passion as he
delivered his sermons. Colonists flocked by the thousands to hear him speak. He converted slaves
and even a few Native Americans. Even religious skeptic Benjamin Franklin emptied his coin purse
after hearing him speak in Philadelphia.
Soon much of America became divided. Awakening, or New Light, preachers set up their own
schools and churches throughout the colonies. Princeton University was one such school. The Old
Light ministers refused to accept this new style of worship. Despite the conflict, one surprising
result was greater religious toleration. With so many new denominations, it was clear that no one
religion would dominate any region.
Although the Great Awakening was a reaction against the Enlightenment, it was also a long term
cause of the Revolution. Before, ministers represented an upper class of sorts. Awakening ministers
were not always ordained, breaking down respect for betters. The new faiths that emerged were
much more democratic in their approach. The overall message was one of greater equality. The
Great Awakening was also a "national" occurrence. It was the first major event that all the colonies
could share, helping to break down differences between them. There was no such episode in
England, further highlighting variances between Americans and their cousins across the sea. Indeed
this religious upheaval had marked political consequences.

8b. The French and Indian War

Round four of the global struggle between England and France began in 1754. Unlike the three
previous conflicts, this war began in America. French and British soldiers butted heads with each
other over control of the Ohio Valley. At stake were the lucrative fur trade and access to the allimportant Mississippi River, the lifeline of the frontier to the west. A squadron of soldiers led by a
brash, unknown, twenty-two year old George Washington attacked a French stronghold named Fort
Duquesne. Soon after the attack, Washington's troops were forced to surrender. Shortly after that, a
second British force also met with defeat. When news of this reached London, war was declared,
and the conflict known in Europe as the Seven Years War began. Americans would call this bout the
French and Indian War.
The first phase of this war was a sheer disaster for Britain. Assaults on French territory ended in
bitter defeat. The French and their Indian allies inspired fear on the British frontier by burning and
pillaging settlements. The French struck within sixty miles of Philadelphia. Americans were
disheartened. They believed that Britain was not making the proper commitment to North America.
The turning point in the war came when William Pitt took over the wartime operations. He believed
North America was critical for England's global domination. Pitt turned recruitment and supplies
over to local authorities in America and promised to reimburse them for their efforts. He committed
more troops and juggled the command, replacing old war heroes with vigorous young ones.
Militarily, the tide began to turn, as the British captured Louisbourg, an important strategic port the
British used to close the St. Lawrence Seaway. The death blow to the French cause was struck in
Quebec in 1759. Commander James Wolfe bravely sent his forces up a rocky embankment to
surprise the French. The battle that followed on the Plains of Abraham killed Wolfe and the French
commander, as the crucial stronghold was transferred to British hands. It would only be a matter of
time before Montreal suffered the same fate.
The French chapter of North American history had ended in a bloody finale.

9. The Events Leading to Independence

In 1763, few would have predicted that by 1776 a revolution would be unfolding in British
America.
The ingredients of discontent seemed lacking at least on the surface. The colonies were not in a
state of economic crisis; on the contrary, they were relatively prosperous. Unlike the Irish, no
groups of American citizens were clamoring for freedom from England based on national identity.
King George III was not particularly despotic surely not to the degree his predecessors of the

previous century had been.

Furthermore, the colonies were not unified. Benjamin Franklin discovered this quite clearly when
he devised the Albany Plan of Union in 1754. This plan, under the slogan "Join, or Die," would
have brought the colonial rivals together to meet the common threat of the French and Indians.
Much to Franklin's chagrin, this plan was soundly defeated.
How, then, in a few short years did everything change? What happened to make the American
colonists, most of whom thought of themselves as English subjects, want to break the ties that
bound them to their forebears? What forces led the men and women in the 13 different colonies to
set aside their differences and unanimously declare their independence?
Much happened between the years of 1763 and 1776. The colonists felt unfairly taxed, watched
over like children, and ignored in their attempts to address grievances. Religious issues rose to the
surface, political ideals crystallized, and, as always, economics were the essence of many debates.
For their part, the British found the colonists unwilling to pay their fair share for the administration
of the Empire. After all, citizens residing in England paid more in taxes than was asked of any
American during the entire time of crisis.
This was not the first time American colonists found themselves in dispute with Great Britain. But
this time the cooler heads did not prevail. Every action by one side brought an equally strong
response from the other. The events during these important years created sharp divisions among the
English people, among the colonists themselves, and between the English and the Colonists.
Over time, the geographic distance between England and the colonies became more and more
noticeable. It took England time to respond to Colonial provocations and to administer the settled
areas of America. Further, some now questioned how it could be that a tiny island nation could
contain and rule the American continent.
Before long, the point of no return was reached.

9a. The Royal Proclamation of 1763

The Treaty of Paris, which marked the end of the French and Indian War, granted Britain a great
deal of valuable North American land. But the new land also gave rise to a plethora of problems.
The ceded territory, known as the Ohio Valley, was marked by the Appalachian Mountains in the
east and the Mississippi River in the west.

Don't Go West, Young Man

Despite the acquisition of this large swath of land, the British tried to discourage American colonists
from settling in it. The British already had difficulty administering the settled areas east of the
Appalachians. Americans moving west would stretch British administrative resources thin.
Further, just because the French government had yielded this territory to Britain did not mean the
Ohio Valley's French inhabitants would readily give up their claims to land or trade routes.
Scattered pockets of French settlers made the British fearful of another prolonged conflict. The war
had dragged on long enough, and the British public was weary of footing the bill.
Moreover, the Native Americans, who had allied themselves with the French during the Seven
Years' War, continued to fight after the peace had been reached. Pontiac's Rebellion continued after
the imperial powers achieved a ceasefire.
The last thing the British government wanted were hordes of American colonists crossing the
Appalachians fueling French and Native American resentment.
The solution seemed simple. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued, which declared the
boundaries of settlement for inhabitants of the 13 colonies to be Appalachia.
Proclaim and Inflame
But what seemed simple to the British was not acceptable to their colonial subjects. This remedy
did not address some concerns vitally important to the colonies. Colonial blood had been shed to
fight the French and Indians, not to cede land to them. What was to be said for American colonists
who had already settled in the West?
In addition, the colonies themselves had already begun to set their sights on expanding their western
boundaries; such planning sometimes even causing tension among the colonies. Why restrict their
appetites to expand? Surely this must be a plot to keep the American colonists under the imperial
thumb and east of the mountains, where they could be watched.
Consequently, this law was observed with the same reverence the colonists reserved for the
mercantile laws. Scores of wagons headed westward. How could the British possibly enforce this
decree? It was nearly impossible.
The Proclamation of 1763 merely became part of the long list of events in which the intent and
actions of one side was misunderstood or disregarded by the other.

9b. The Stamp Act Controversy

Something was dreadfully wrong in the American colonies.
All of sudden after over a century and a half of permitting relative self-rule, Britain was exercising
direct influence over colonial life. In addition to restricting westward movement, the parent country
was actually enforcing its trade laws.
Puttin' on the Writs
Writs of assistance, or general search warrants, were granted to British customs inspectors to search
colonial ships. The inspectors had long been charged with this directly but, until this time, had not
carried it out. Violators did not receive the benefit of a trial by jury; rather, they were at the mercy
of the British admiralty courts.
Worst of all, the British now began levying taxes against American colonists. What had gone
wrong?
The British point of view is not difficult to grasp. The Seven Years' War had been terribly costly.
The taxes asked of the American colonists were lower than those asked of mainland English
citizens. The revenue raised from taxing the colonies was used to pay for their own defense.
Moreover, the funds received from American colonists barely covered one-third of the cost of
maintaining British troops in the 13 colonies.
The Americans, however, saw things through a different lens. What was the purpose of maintaining
British garrisons in the colonies now that the French threat was gone? Americans wondered about
contributing to the maintenance of troops they felt were there only to watch them.
True, those in England paid more in taxes, but Americans paid much more in sweat. All the land
that was cleared, the Indians who were fought, and the relatives who died building a colony that
enhanced the British Empire made further taxation seem insulting.
In addition to emotional appeals, the colonists began to make a political argument, as well. The
tradition of receiving permission for levying taxes dated back hundreds of years in British history.
But the colonists had no representation in the British Parliament. To tax them without offering
representation was to deny their traditional rights as English subjects. This could not stand.
The Stamp Act of 1765 was not the first attempt to tax the American colonies. Parliament had
passed the Sugar Act and Currency Act the previous year. Because tax was collected at ports
though, it was easily circumvented. Indirect taxes such as these were also much less visible to the
consumer.

The Stamp Act

When Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765, things changed. It was the first direct tax on
the American colonies. Every legal document had to be written on specially stamped paper,
showing proof of payment. Deeds, wills, marriage licenses contracts of any sort were not
recognized as legal in a court of law unless they were prepared on this paper. In addition,
newspaper, dice, and playing cards also had to bear proof of tax payment. American activists sprang
into action.
Taxation in this manner and the Quartering Act (which required the American colonies to provide
food and shelter for British troops) were soundly thrashed in colonial assemblies. From Patrick
Henry in Virginia to James Otis in Massachusetts, Americans voiced their protest. A Stamp Act
Congress was convened in the colonies to decide what to do.
The colonists put their words into action and enacted widespread boycotts of British goods. Radical
groups such as the Sons and Daughters of Liberty did not hesitate to harass tax collectors or publish
the names of those who did not comply with the boycotts.
Soon, the pressure on Parliament by business-starved British merchants was too great to bear. The
Stamp Act was repealed the following year.
The crisis was over, but the uneasy peace did not last long.

9c. The Boston Patriots

The American Revolution was not simply a series of impersonal events. Men and women made
fateful, often difficult decisions that led to the great clash.
Although patriots could be found in any of the 13 colonies, nowhere were they more numerous than
in the city of Boston.
Perhaps the prevalence of shipping in Boston made Bostonians especially resent the restrictions on
trade. Maybe its legacy of religious quarrels with the Church of England made Bostonians more
rebellious. Its long history of town meetings and self-rule may have led New Englanders to be more
wary of royal authority.
Perhaps a combination of these and other factors led the city of Boston to be the leading voice
against British authority. It was, after all, the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.
Furthermore, fierce patriots such as James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, and
Paul Revere were all citizens of one great city: Boston.

James Otis
Quick-tempered James Otis was one of the first vociferous opponents of British taxation policies.
As early as 1761, Boston merchants hired him to provide legal defense against British search
warrants.
His widely distributed pamphlet, The Rights of the British Colonists Asserted and Proved, was one
of the first legal criticisms of Parliament's taxation policies. A large man with a large heart for
British liberties, he was perceived by many in London to be the center of treasonous American
activity.
But Otis also saw himself as fiercely loyal to the English Constitution. Once he stormed into
Boston's Royal Coffee House to face drawn swords because his loyalty had been called into
question. Violence ensued. Otis was so severely beaten that he never really recovered. The wounds
he received from British made him somewhat of a martyr around Boston.
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams was perhaps the fieriest supporter of American liberty in the 13 colonies. His mind
drew a sharp distinction between the evils of the British Empire and simple American life. His skills
as a political organizer drove the colonies toward declaring independence. Adams chaired the
Boston town meeting that preceded the infamous tea party.
Rather unsuccessful in a series of pursuits prior to the Revolution, Adams found his calling in
organizing and rabble-rousing. He served as an active member of the Sons of Liberty and the
creator of the first significant committee of correspondence. As the Revolution approached, the
cries for Adams' head grew louder and louder in the streets of London.
John Adams
John Adams, Samuel's second cousin, was no less a patriot. His early fame as a defense attorney for
the British soldiers in the trial that followed the Boston Massacre cannot be taken in isolation.
He provided the wording of the resistance message sent to George III that was adopted by the First
Continental Congress. John and Samuel Adams represented the radical wing of the Second
Continental Congress that demanded a taking up of arms against Britain. John Adams was also a
member of the committee of five who drafted the Declaration of Independence.
John Hancock
The man with the famous signature John Hancock was also a Bostonian. Hancock earned the

early ire of British officials as a major smuggler. The seizure of one of his ships brought a response
from Bostonians that led directly to British occupation in 1768.
Later, Hancock and Samuel Adams were the two agitators whose arrest was ordered by General
Gage after the battles at Lexington and Concord. As a man of great wealth, he had much to lose by
resisting Britain. Nevertheless, he did not bend.
Paul Revere
Paul Revere did not come from the same social class as the aforementioned patriots. As a
silversmith, he was a man of humbler means, but his attitudes about Britain were anything but
humble. His famous midnight ride that warned of the advancing British troops was only one of his
revolutionary actions. He was also an illustrator, whose image of the Boston Massacre became
iconic.
When the British suspended the Massachusetts legislature for refusing to retract its circular letter,
Revere engraved the names of the 92 assemblymen who stood up to Parliament. His engravings
were used by patriots as anti-British propaganda, particularly his famous engraving of the Boston
Massacre.
These five were but a handful of Bostonians who became the thorn in the British side. Their brave
actions encouraged American patriotism throughout the 13 colonies. As the American Revolution
was dawning, the Boston patriots led the way.

9d. The Townshend Acts

"Nervous tension" is the term that best describes the relationship between the American colonies
and England in the aftermath of the Stamp Act repeal.
Several issues remained unresolved. First, Parliament had absolutely no wish to send a message
across the Atlantic that ultimate authority lay in the colonial legislatures. Immediately after
repealing the Stamp Act, Parliament issued the Declaratory Act.
This act proclaimed Parliament's ability "to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." The message
was clear: under no circumstances did Parliament abandon in principle its right to legislate for the
13 colonies.
In the Western Hemisphere, leaders were optimistic about the repeal of the Stamp Act but found the
suggestions of the Declaratory Act threatening. Most American statesmen had drawn a clear line
between legislation and taxation. In 1766, the notion of Parliamentary supremacy over the law was
questioned only by a radical few, but the ability to tax without representation was another matter.

The Declaratory Act made no such distinction. "All cases whatsoever" could surely mean the power
to tax. Many assemblymen waited anxiously for the issue to resurface.
Sure enough, the "truce" did not last long. Back in London, Charles Townshend persuaded the
House of Commons to once again tax the Americans, this time through an import tax on such items
as glass, paper, lead, and tea.
The Ties that Bind
Townshend had ulterior motives, however. The revenue from these duties would now be used to pay
the salaries of colonial governors. This was not an insignificant change. Traditionally, the
legislatures of the colonies held the authority to pay the governors. It was not uncommon for a
governor's salary to be withheld if the legislature became dissatisfied with any particular decision.
The legislature could, in effect, blackmail the governor into submission. Once this important
leverage was removed, the governors could be freer to oppose the assemblies.
Townshend went further by appointing an American Board of Customs Commissioners. This body
would be stationed in the colonies to enforce compliance with tax policy. Customs officials received
bonuses for every convicted smuggler, so there were obvious incentives to capture Americans.
Given that violators were tried in juryless admiralty courts, there was a high chance of conviction.
Townshend also pressed the Americans to the limit by suspending the New York legislature for
failing to provide adequate supplies for the British troops stationed there. Another showdown
appeared imminent.
Reactions in the colonies were similar to those during the Stamp Act Crisis. Once again
nonimportation was implemented. Extralegal activities such as harassing tax collectors and
merchants who violated the boycotts were common. The colonial assemblies sprung into action.
Take It Back
In a circular letter to the other colonies, the Massachusetts legislature recommended collective
action against the British Parliament. Parliament, in turn, threatened to disband the body unless they
repealed the letter. By a vote of 92 to 17, the Massachusetts lawmakers refused and were duly
dissolved. Other colonial assemblies voiced support of Massachusetts by affirming the circular
letter.
More Information ...
The Massachusetts Cicular Letter was penned by Samuel Adams in 1768. It voiced Massachusetts

opposition to taxation without representation and was sent to several colonial legislatures inviting
them to unite in their actions against British government. In response, Lord Hillsborough warned
colonial legislatures to treat the Circular Letter with contempt and threatened dissolution to any
legislative body that adhered to Massachusetts' plea. His words fell on deaf ears as legislative
assemblies throughout the colonies, including New York, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, rose to the
occasion and accepted the petition set forth by Samuel Adams and Massachusetts.
The tighter the British grip grew, the more widespread was the resistance. By 1769, British
merchants began to feel the sting of nonimportation. In April 1770, news of a partial repeal the
tax on tea was maintained reached America's shores.
The second compromise came at a high price. It was reached only after a military occupation of
Boston and the ensuing Boston Massacre.

9e. The Boston Massacre

American blood was shed on American soil.
The showdown between the British and the Americans was not simply a war of words. Blood was
shed over this clash of ideals. Although large-scale fighting between American minutemen and the
British redcoats did not begin until 1775, the 1770 Boston Massacre gave each side a taste of what
was to come.
No colony was thrilled with the Townshend duties, but nowhere was there greater resentment than
in Boston. British officials in Boston feared for their lives. When attempts were made to seize two
of John Hancock's trading vessels, Boston was ready to riot. Lord Hillsborough, Parliament's
minister on American affairs, finally ordered four regiments to be moved to Boston.
The British Make the Americans Skittish
Samuel Adams and James Otis did not take this lightly. Less than three weeks prior to the arrival of
British troops, Bostonians defiantly, but nervously, assembled in Faneuil Hall. But when the
redcoats marched boldly through the town streets on October 1, the only resistance seen was on the
facial expressions of the townspeople. The people of Boston had decided to show restraint.
The other 12 colonies watched the Boston proceedings with great interest. Perhaps their fears about
British tyranny were true. Moderates found it difficult to argue that the Crown was not interested in
stripping away American civil liberties by having a standing army stationed in Boston. Throughout
the occupation, sentiment shifted further and further away from the London government.

The Massacre
On March 5, 1770, the inevitable happened. A mob of about 60 angry townspeople descended upon
the guard at the Customs House. When reinforcements were called, the crowd became more unruly,
hurling rocks and snowballs at the guard and reinforcements.
In the heat of the confusing melee, the British fired without Captain Thomas Preston's command.
Imperial bullets took the lives of five men, including Crispus Attucks, a former slave. Others were
injured.
Trial and Error
Captain Preston and four of his men were cleared of all charges in the trial that followed. Two
others were convicted of manslaughter, but were sentenced to a mere branding of the thumb. The
lawyer who represented the British soldiers was none other than patriot John Adams.
At the same time Preston's men drew blood in Boston, the Parliament in London decided once again
to concede on the issue of taxation. All the Townshend duties were repealed save one, the tax on tea.
It proved to another error in judgment on the part of the British.
The Massachusetts legislature was reconvened. Despite calls by some to continue the tea boycott
until all taxes were repealed, most American colonists resumed importation.
The events in Boston from 1768 through 1770 were not soon forgotten. Legal squabbles were one
thing, but bloodshed was another. Despite the verdict of the soldiers' trial, Americans did not forget
the lesson they had learned from this experience.
What was the lesson? Americans learned that the British would use force when necessary to keep
the Americans obedient.
If it could happen in Boston, where would it happen next?

9f. The Tea Act and Tea Parties

The British were in a spot all because of tea.
The partial repeal of the Townshend Acts did not bring the same reaction in the American colonies
as the repeal of the Stamp Act. Too much had already happened. Not only had the Crown attempted
to tax the colonies on several occasions, but two taxes were still being collected one on sugar
and one on tea.
Military occupation and bloodshed, whether intentional or not, cannot be forgotten easily. Although
importation had largely been resumed, the problems of customs officers continued. One ill-fated

customs ship, the Gaspee, was burnt to ashes by angry Rhode Islanders when the unfortunate vessel
ran aground. Tensions mounted on both sides. It would take time for wounds to heal. But Parliament
would not give that time.
Playing Monopoly
The British East India Company was on the brink of financial collapse. Lord North hatched a
scheme to deal simultaneously with the ailing corporation and the problem of taxing the colonies.
He decided to grant the British East India Company a trading monopoly with the American
colonies.
A tax on tea would be maintained, but the company would actually be able to sell its tea for a price
that was lower than before. A monopoly doesn't allow for competition. As such the British East
India Company could lower its prices.
The colonists, Lord North hoped, would be happy to receive cheaper tea and willing to pay the tax.
This would have the dual result of saving the tea company and securing compliance from
Americans on the tax issue. It was a brilliant plan. There was, of course, one major flaw in his
thinking.
The colonists saw through this thinly veiled plot to encourage tax payment. Furthermore, they
wondered how long the monopoly would keep prices low.
Activists were busy again, advocating boycott. Many went further. British ships carrying the
controversial cargo were met with threats of violence in virtually all colonial ports. This was usually
sufficient to convince the ships to turn around. In Annapolis, citizens burned a ship and the tea it
carried.
Boston, of course, reacted in a similarly extreme fashion.
The Boston Tea Party
Governor Thomas Hutchinson allowed three ships carrying tea to enter Boston Harbor. Before the
tax could be collected, Bostonians took action. On a cold December night, radical townspeople
stormed the ships and tossed 342 chests of tea into the water. Disguised as Native Americans, the
offenders could not be identified.
The damage in modern American dollars exceeded three quarters of a million dollars. Not a single
British East India Company chest of tea bound for the 13 colonies reached its destination. Not a
single American colonist had a cup of that tea.
Only the fish in Boston Harbor had that pleasure.

9g. The Intolerable Acts

Someone was going to pay.
Parliament was utterly fed up with colonial antics. The British could tolerate strongly worded letters
or trade boycotts. They could put up with defiant legislatures and harassed customs officials to an
extent.
But they saw the destruction of 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company as
wanton destruction of property by Boston thugs who did not even have the courage to admit
responsibility.
Someone was going to pay.
Calami-tea
The British called their responsive measures to the Boston Tea Party the Coercive Acts. Boston
Harbor was closed to trade until the owners of the tea were compensated. Only food and firewood
were permitted into the port. Town meetings were banned, and the authority of the royal governor
was increased.
To add insult to injury, General Gage, the British commander of North American forces, was
appointed governor of Massachusetts. British troops and officials would now be tried outside
Massachusetts for crimes of murder. Greater freedom was granted to British officers who wished to
house their soldiers in private dwellings.
The Quebec Act
Parliament seemed to have a penchant for bad timing in these years. Right after passing the
Coercive Acts, it passed the Quebec Act, a law that recognized the Roman Catholic Church as the
established church in Quebec. An appointed council, rather than an elected body, would make the
major decisions for the colony. The boundary of Quebec was extended into the Ohio Valley.
In the wake of the passage of the Quebec Act, rage spread through the 13 colonies. With this one
act, the British Crown granted land to the French in Quebec that was clearly desired by the
American colonists. The extension of tolerance to Catholics was viewed as a hostile act by
predominantly Protestant America.
Democracy took another blow with the establishment of direct rule in Quebec. Although the British
made no connection between the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act, they were seen on the
American mainland as malicious deed and collectively called the Intolerable Acts.

INTOLERABLE ACTS

Throughout the colonies, the message was clear: what could happen in Massachusetts could happen
anywhere. The British had gone too far. Supplies were sent to the beleaguered colony from the other
twelve. For the first time since the Stamp Act Crisis, an intercolonial conference was called.
It was under these tense circumstances that the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia
on September 5, 1774.

10. E Pluribus Unum

The unanimous Declaration of Independence was a curious outcome. Remember the failed Albany
Plan of Union in 1754. Benjamin Franklin's political cartoon appeal "Join, or Die" fell on deaf
colonial ears. In 1763, it was difficult to get the original thirteen to agree on the time of day. This
"coming together" will happen very gradually. We have examined the events and people that
propelled the colonies to revolt. A careful examination of the stages of unity is in order.
The Declaration of Independence was a product of the Second Continental Congress. Two earlier
intercolonial conferences had occurred, each building important keystones of colonial unity. The
Stamp Act Congress and the First Continental Congress brought the delegates from differing
colonies to agreement on a message to send to the king. Each successive Congress brought greater
participation. Each time the representatives met, they were more accustomed to compromise. As
times grew more desperate, the people at home became more and more willing to trust their national
leaders.
Organizations were also formed to meet intercolonial objectives. The Long Room Club, of which
James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere were members, was one of the earliest
known organizations formed in reaction to British measures. The Association actively promoted
nonimportation beyond Massachusetts. The Sons and Daughters of Liberty proved to be the most
effective. The Sons of Liberty represented the radical wing of patriots through the years of crisis.

They would not hesitate to scare a customs official out of town or tar and feather an enemy.
Although strongest in Boston, the Sons of Liberty were active in many port cities, reaching as far
South as Charleston.
The Daughters of Liberty performed an equally important function. If nonimportation were to
succeed, women must be involved. The Daughters of Liberty ensured that women did not purchase
British goods. In addition, if British cloth was not imported, more homespun cloth must be made.
The Daughters of Liberty advanced this cause most effectively.
No unity could be reached without communication. Great literature was produced throughout these
critical years. Patrick Henry's Virginia Resolves and John Dickinson's famous circular letter are two
such examples that were widely read in each of the colonies. Samuel Adams organized the first
committee of correspondence to circulate the important arguments of the day. Thomas Paine's
Common Sense sold 120,000 copies in the first three months of publication. Even the Declaration of
Independence served not only to send a message to King George, but to convince many American
colonists of the glory of their cause.

10a. Stamp Act Congress

"No taxation without representation!" was the cry. The colonists were not merely griping about the
Sugar Act and the Stamp Act. They intended to place actions behind their words. One thing was
clear no colony acting alone could effectively convey a message to the king and Parliament. The
appeals to Parliament by the individual legislatures had been ignored. It was James Otis who
suggested an intercolonial conference to agree on a united course of action. With that, the Stamp
Act Congress convened in New York in October 1765.
The Congress seemed at first to be an abject failure. In the first place, only nine of the colonies sent
delegates. Georgia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and the all-important Virginia were not
present. The Congress became quickly divided between radicals and moderates. The moderates
would hold sway at this time. Only an extreme few believed in stronger measures against Britain
than articulating the principle of no taxation without representation. This became the spirit of the
Stamp Act Resolves. The Congress humbly acknowledged Parliament's right to make laws in the
colonies. Only the issue of taxation was disputed.
Colonial and personal differences already began to surface. A representative from New Jersey
stormed out during the proceedings. The president of the Congress, William Ruggles of
Massachusetts, refused to sign the Stamp Act Resolves. In the end, however, the spirit of the
Congress prevailed. Every colonial legislature except one approved the Stamp Act Resolves.

In the end, the widespread boycotts enacted by individual colonists surely did more to secure the
repeal of the Stamp Act than did the Congress itself. But the gesture was significant. For the first
time, against all odds, respected delegates from differing colonies sat with each other and engaged
in spirited debate. They discovered that in many ways they had more in common than they
originally had thought. This is a tentative but essential step toward the unity that would be
necessary to declare boldly their independence from mother England.

10d. First Continental Congress

Americans were fed up. The "Intolerable" Acts were more than the colonies could stand.
In the summer that followed Parliament's attempt to punish Boston, sentiment for the patriot cause
increased dramatically. The printing presses at the Committees of Correspondence were churning
out volumes.
There was agreement that this new quandary warranted another intercolonial meeting. It was nearly
ten years since the Stamp Act Congress had assembled.
It was time once again for intercolonial action. Thus, on September 1774, the First Continental
Congress was convened in Philadelphia.
This time participation was better. Only Georgia withheld a delegation. The representatives from
each colony were often selected by almost arbitrary means, as the election of such representatives
was illegal.
Still, the natural leaders of the colonies managed to be selected. Sam and John Adams from
Massachusetts were present, as was John Dickinson from Pennsylvania. Virginia selected Richard
Henry Lee, George Washington, and Patrick Henry. It took seven weeks for the country's future
heroes to agree on a course of action.
First and most obvious, complete nonimportation was resumed. The Congress set up an
organization called the Association to ensure compliance in the colonies.
A declaration of colonial rights was drafted and sent to London. Much of the debate revolved
around defining the colonies' relationship with mother England.
A plan introduced by Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania proposed an imperial union with Britain.
Under this program, all acts of Parliament would have to be approved by an American assembly to
take effect.
Such an arrangement, if accepted by London, might have postponed revolution. But the delegations
voted against it by one vote.

One decision by the Congress often overlooked in importance is its decision to reconvene in May
1775 if their grievances were not addressed. This is a major step in creating an ongoing
intercolonial decision making body, unprecedented in colonial history.
When Parliament chose to ignore the Congress, they did indeed reconvene that next May, but by
this time boycotts were no longer a major issue. Unfortunately, the Second Continental Congress
would be grappling with choices caused by the spilling of blood at Lexington and Concord the
previous month.
It was at Carpenters' Hall that America came together politically for the first time on a national level
and where the seeds of participatory democracy were sown.

10e. Second Continental Congress

Times had taken a sharp turn for the worse. Lexington and Concord had changed everything. When
the Redcoats fired into the Boston crowd in 1775, the benefit of the doubt was granted. Now the
professional imperial army was attempting to arrest patriot leaders, and minutemen had been killed
in their defense. In May 1775, with Redcoats once again storming Boston, the Second Continental
Congress convened in Philadelphia.
The questions were different this time. First and foremost, how would the colonist meet the military
threat of the British. It was agreed that a Continental Army would be created. The Congress
commissioned George Washington of Virginia to be the supreme commander, who chose to serve
without pay. How would supplies be paid for? The Congress authorized the printing of money.
Before the leaves had turned, Congress had even appointed a standing committee to conduct
relations with foreign governments, should the need ever arise to ask for help. No longer was the
Congress dealing with mere grievances. It was a full-fledged governing body.
Still, in May of 1775 the majority of delegates were not seeking independence from Britain. Only
radicals like John Adams were of this mindset. In fact, that July Congress approved the Olive
Branch Petition, a direct appeal to the king. The American delegates pleaded with George III to
attempt peaceful resolution and declared their loyalty to the Crown. The King refused to receive this
petition and instead declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion in August. Insult turned to
injury when George ordered the hiring of Hessian mercenaries to bring the colonists under control.
Americans now felt less and less like their English brethren. How could their fellow citizens order a
band of ruthless, foreign goons? The moderate voice in the Continental Congress was dealt a
serious blow.
As the seasons changed and hostilities continued, cries for independence grew stronger. The men in

Philadelphia were now wanted for treason. They continued to govern and hope against hope that all
would end well. For them, the summer of 1776 brought the point of no return a formal
declaration of independence.

10g. The Declaration of Independence

The moment had finally come. Far too much bad blood existed between the colonial leaders and the
crown to consider a return to the past. More and more colonists felt deprived by the British not only
of their money and their civil liberties, but their lives as well. Bloodshed had begun over a year ago
and there seemed little chance of a ceasefire. The radical wing of the Continental Congress was
gaining strength with each passing day. It was time for a formal break with mother England. It was
time to declare independence.
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution to the Congress that declared the
thirteen colonies "free and independent states." Congress did not act on the resolution immediately.
A vote was set for early July. In the meantime it seemed appropriate that some sort of explanation
was in order for such a bold act. A subcommittee of five, including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson, was selected to choose the careful wording. Such a document must be
persuasive to a great many parties. Americans would read this and join the patriot cause.
Sympathetic Britons would read this and urge royal restraint. Foreign powers would read this and
aid the colonial militia. They might, that is, if the text were convincing. The five agreed that
Jefferson was the most talented writer. They would advise on his prose.
The declaration is divided into three main parts. The first was a simple statement of intent.
Jefferson's words echo down through the decades of American life until the present day. Phrases
like "all men are created equal," "unalienable rights," and "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness"
have bounced from the lips of Americans in grammar school and retirement. All are contained in the
first section that outlines the basic principles of the enlightened leaders. The next section is a list of
grievances; that is, why the colonies deemed independence appropriate. King George was guilty of
"repeated injuries" that intended to establish "absolute tyranny" in North America. He has
"plundered our seas, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people." It was difficult for
Americans to argue his points. The concluding paragraph officially dissolves ties with Britain. It
also shows modern readers the courage taken by each delegate who would sign. They were now
officially guilty of treason and would hang in the gallows if taken before a royal court. Thus, they
would "pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
Debate in the Congress followed. Jefferson watched painfully as the other delegates tweaked his
prose. Jefferson had wanted to include a passage blaming the king for the slave trade, for example,

but the southern delegates insisted upon its removal. Finally on July 4, 1776, the colonies approved
the document. The vote was twelve to zero, with the New York delegation abstaining. As president
of the Congress, John Hancock scrawled his famous signature across the bottom and history was
made. If the American effort was successful, they would be hailed as heroes. If it failed, they would
be hanged as traitors.

13. When Does the Revolution End?

The United States was created as a result of the American Revolution, when thirteen colonies on the
east coast of North America fought to end their membership in the British Empire. This was a bold,
dangerous, and even foolish thing to do at the time, since Great Britain was the strongest country in
the world. While American success in the Revolution seems obvious today, it wasn't at the time.
The war for American independence began with military conflict in 1775 and lasted at least until
1783 when the peace treaty with the British was signed. In fact, Native Americans in the west (who
were allied with the British, but not included in the 1783 negotiations) continued to fight and didn't
sign a treaty with the United States until 1795. The Revolution was a long, hard, and difficult
struggle.
One Nation, Many Revolutions
Even among Patriots there was a wide range of opinion about how the Revolution should shape the
new nation. For example, soldiers often resented civilians for not sharing the deep personal sacrifice
of fighting the war. Even among the men who fought, major differences often separated officers
from ordinary soldiers. Finally, no consideration of the Revolution would be complete without
considering the experience of people who were not Patriots. Loyalists were Americans who
remained loyal to the British Empire. Almost all Native American groups opposed American
Independence. Slaves would be made legally free if they fled Patriot masters to join the British
Army, which they did in large numbers. This section reviews diverse Revolutionary experiences
that helped shape the nation in different ways.
A constant question for our exploration, as well as for people at the time, is what does the
Revolution mean and when did it end? Have the ideals of the Revolution been achieved even today?
One of our challenges is to consider the meaning of the Revolution from multiple perspectives.

13a. The Declaration of Independence and Its Legacy

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political

bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation."
So begins the Declaration of Independence. But what was the Declaration? Why do Americans
continue to celebrate its public announcement as the birthday of the United States, July 4, 1776?
While that date might just mean a barbecue and fireworks to some today, what did the Declaration
mean when it was written in the summer of 1776?
On the one hand, the Declaration was a formal legal document that announced to the world the
reasons that led the thirteen colonies to separate from the British Empire. Much of the Declaration
sets forth a list of abuses that were blamed on King George III. One charge levied against the King
sounds like a Biblical plague: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms
of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
The Declaration was not only legalistic, but practical too. Americans hoped to get financial or
military support from other countries that were traditional enemies of the British. However, these
legal and pragmatic purposes, which make up the bulk of the actual document, are not why the
Declaration is remembered today as a foremost expression of the ideals of the Revolution.
The Declaration's most famous sentence reads: "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." Even today, this inspirational language
expresses a profound commitment to human equality.
This ideal of equality has certainly influenced the course of American history. Early women's rights
activists at Seneca Falls in 1848 modeled their "Declaration of Sentiments" in precisely the same
terms as the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that
all men and women are created equal." Similarly, the African-American anti-slavery activist David
Walker challenged white Americans in 1829 to "See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you
understand your own language?" Walker dared America to live up to its self-proclaimed ideals. If all
men were created equal, then why was slavery legal?
The ideal of full human equality has been a major legacy (and ongoing challenge) of the
Declaration of Independence. But the signers of 1776 did not have quite that radical an agenda. The
possibility for sweeping social changes was certainly discussed in 1776. For instance, Abigail
Adams suggested to her husband John Adams that in the "new Code of Laws" that he helped draft at
the Continental Congress, he should, "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable

to them." It didn't work out that way.

Thomas Jefferson provides the classic example of the contradictions of the Revolutionary Era.
Although he was the chief author of the Declaration, he also owned slaves, as did many of his
fellow signers. They did not see full human equality as a positive social goal. Nevertheless,
Jefferson was prepared to criticize slavery much more directly than most of his colleagues. His
original draft of the Declaration included a long passage that condemned King George for allowing
the slave trade to flourish. This implied criticism of slavery a central institution in early
American society was deleted by a vote of the Continental Congress before the delegates signed
the Declaration.
So what did the signers intend by using such idealistic language? Look at what follows the line,
"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."
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
Safety and Happiness.
These lines suggest that the whole purpose of government is to secure the people's rights and that
government gets its power from "the consent of the governed." If that consent is betrayed, then "it is
the right of the people to alter or abolish" their government. When the Declaration was written, this
was a radical statement. The idea that the people could reject a monarchy (based on the superiority
of a king) and replace it with a republican government (based on the consent of the people) was a
revolutionary change.
While the signers of the Declaration thought of "the people" more narrowly than we do today, they
articulated principles that are still vital markers of American ideals. And while the Declaration did
not initially lead to equality for all, it did provide an inspiring start on working toward equality.

13c. The Loyalists

The year is 1774. Whether you are a merchant in Massachusetts, a German-born farmer living in
Pennsylvania, a tavern-owning woman of Maryland, or a slave-owner in the South, you share some
things in common. For instance, you probably don't like paying taxes on such goods as tea that wind

up going to support the royal coffers in London. At the same time you like the notion of being part
of the British Empire, the most powerful in the world.
Chances are you speak English and have many British relatives or ancestors. Or, even if you're a
German farmer with no ties to Britain, you are still grateful for the opportunity to farm peacefully in
this British-ruled land. Yet, you hear murmurings radical notions about separating from Britain
are making the rounds. Those hotheads in Boston recently threw a load of tea in the harbor and the
British retaliated with something called the Intolerable Acts. A confrontation is looming.
Who will you support? The radical Americans or the British? Fact is, it's not an easy decision. Not
only will your way of life be drastically affected, but whomever you choose to side with will make
you instant enemies.
Any full assessment of the American Revolution must try to understand the place of Loyalists, those
Americans who remained faithful to the British Empire during the war.
Although Loyalists were steadfast in their commitment to remain within the British Empire, it was a
very hard decision to make and to stick to during the Revolution. Even before the war started, a
group of Philadelphia Quakers were arrested and imprisoned in Virginia because of their perceived
support of the British. The Patriots were not a tolerant group, and Loyalists suffered regular
harassment, had their property seized, or were subject to personal attacks.
The process of "tar and feathering," for example, was brutally violent. Stripped of clothes, covered
with hot tar, and splattered with feathers, the victim was then forced to parade about in public.
Unless the British Army was close at hand to protect Loyalists, they often suffered bad treatment
from Patriots and often had to flee their own homes. About one-in-six Americans was an active
Loyalist during the Revolution, and that number undoubtedly would have been higher if the Patriots
hadn't been so successful in threatening and punishing people who made their Loyalist sympathies
known in public.
One famous Loyalist is Thomas Hutchinson, a leading Boston merchant from an old American
family, who served as governor of Massachusetts. Viewed as pro-British by some citizens of
Boston, Hutchinson's house was burned in 1765 by an angry crowd protesting the Crown's policies.
In 1774, Hutchinson left America for London where he died in 1780 and always felt exiled from his
American homeland. One of his letters suggested his sad end, for he, "had rather die in a little
country farm-house in New England than in the best nobleman's seat in old England." Like his
ancestor, Anne Hutchinson who suffered religious persecution from Puritan authorities in the early
17th-century, the Hutchinson family suffered severe punishment for holding beliefs that other
Americans rejected.

Perhaps the most interesting group of Loyalists were enslaved African-Americans who chose to join
the British. The British promised to liberate slaves who fled from their Patriot masters. This
powerful incentive, and the opportunities opened by the chaos of war, led some 50,000 slaves
(about 10 percent of the total slave population in the 1770s) to flee their Patriot masters. When the
war ended, the British evacuated 20,000 formerly enslaved African Americans and resettled them as
free people.
Along with this group of black Loyalists, about 80,000 other Loyalists chose to leave the
independent United States after the Patriot victory in order to remain members of the British
Empire. Wealthy men like Thomas Hutchinson who had the resources went to London. But most
ordinary Loyalists went to Canada where they would come to play a large role in the development
of Canadian society and government. In this way, the American Revolution played a central role
shaping the future of two North American countries.

13d. Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Slavery

The American Revolution, as an anti-tax movement, centered on Americans' right to control their
own property. In the 18th century "property" included other human beings.
In many ways, the Revolution reinforced American commitment to slavery. On the other hand, the
Revolution also hinged on radical new ideas about "liberty" and "equality," which challenged
slavery's long tradition of extreme human inequality. The changes to slavery in the Revolutionary
Era revealed both the potential for radical change and its failure more clearly than any other issue.
Slavery was a central institution in American society during the late-18th century, and was accepted
as normal and applauded as a positive thing by many white Americans. However, this broad
acceptance of slavery (which was never agreed to by black Americans) began to be challenged in
the Revolutionary Era. The challenge came from several sources, partly from Revolutionary ideals,
partly from a new evangelical religious commitment that stressed the equality of all Christians, and
partly from a decline in the profitability of tobacco in the most significant slave region of Virginia
and adjoining states.
The decline of slavery in the period was most noticeable in the states north of Delaware, all of
which passed laws outlawing slavery quite soon after the end of the war. However, these gradual
emancipation laws were very slow to take effect many of them only freed the children of current
slaves, and even then, only when the children turned 25 years old. Although laws prohibited slavery
in the North, the "peculiar institution" persisted well into the 19th century.
Even in the South, there was a significant movement toward freeing some slaves. In states where

tobacco production no longer demanded large numbers of slaves, the free black population grew
rapidly. By 1810 one third of the African American population in Maryland was free, and in
Delaware free blacks outnumbered enslaved African Americans by three to one. Even in the
powerful slave state of Virginia, the free black population grew more rapidly than ever before in the
1780s and 1790s. This major new free black population created a range of public institutions for
themselves that usually used the word "African" to announce their distinctive pride and insistence
on equality.
The most famous of these new institutions was Richard Allen's African Methodist Episcopal church
founded in Philadelphia.
Although the rise of the free black population is one of the most notable achievements of the
Revolutionary Era, it is crucial to note that the overall impact of the Revolution on slavery also had
negative consequences. In rice-growing regions of South Carolina and Georgia, the Patriot victory
confirmed the power of the master class. Doubts about slavery and legal modifications that occurred
in the North and Upper South, never took serious hold among whites in the Lower South. Even in
Virginia, the move toward freeing some slaves was made more difficult by new legal restrictions in
1792. In the North, where slavery was on its way out, racism still persisted, as in a Massachusetts
law of 1786 that prohibited whites from legally marrying African Americans, Indians, or people of
mixed race. The Revolution clearly had a mixed impact on slavery and contradictory meanings for
African Americans.

13e. Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Women

The Revolutionary rethinking of the rules for society also led to some reconsideration of the
relationship between men and women. At this time, women were widely considered to be inferior to
men, a status that was especially clear in the lack of legal rights for married women. The law did
not recognize wives' independence in economic, political, or civic matters in Anglo-American
society of the eighteenth century.
Even future First Ladies had relatively little clout. After the death of her first husband, Dolley Todd
Madison, had to fight her deceased spouse's heirs for control of his estate. And Abigail Adams, an
early advocate of women's rights, could only encourage her husband John, to "Remember the
Ladies" when drawing up a new federal government. She could not participate in the creation of this
government, however.
The Revolution increased people's attention to political matters and made issues of liberty and
equality especially important. As Eliza Wilkinson of South Carolina explained in 1783, "I won't
have it thought that because we are the weaker sex as to bodily strength we are capable of nothing

more than domestic concerns. They won't even allow us liberty of thought, and that is all I want."
Judith Sargent Murray wrote the most systematic expression of a feminist position in this period in
1779 (but not published until 1790). Her essay, "On the Equality of the Sexes," challenged the view
that men had greater intellectual capacities than women. Instead she argued that whatever
differences existed between the intelligence of men and women were the result of prejudice and
discrimination that prevented women from sharing the full range of male privilege and experience.
Murray championed the view that the "Order of Nature" demanded full equality between the sexes,
but that male domination corrupted this principle.
Like many other of the most radical voices of the Revolutionary Era, Murray's support for gender
equality was largely met by shock and disapproval. Revolutionary and Early National America
remained a place of male privilege. Nevertheless, the understanding of the proper relationships
among men, women, and the public world underwent significant change in this period. The
republican thrust of revolutionary politics required intelligent and self-disciplined citizens to form
the core of the new republic. This helped shape a new ideal for wives as "republican mothers" who
could instruct their children, sons especially, to be intelligent and reasonable individuals. This
heightened significance to a traditional aspect of wives' duties brought with it a new commitment to
female education and helped make husbands and wives more equal within the family.
Although "republican motherhood" represented a move toward greater equality between husbands
and wives, it was far less sweeping than the commitment to equality put forth by women like Judith
Sargent Murray. In fact, the benefits that accompanied this new ideal of motherhood were largely
restricted to elite families that had the resources to educate their daughters and to allow wives to not
be employed outside the household. Republican motherhood did not meaningfully extend to white
working women and was not expected to have any place for enslaved women.
Nevertheless, this new way of understanding elite women's relationship to the broader world began
long-term changes whose later influence would be profound. For example, the 1790s saw the
expansion of new kinds of books aimed for a female audience and often written by women. Susanna
Haswell Rowson's tale of seduction Charlotte Temple (1791), for example, was a best-selling novel
well into the 19th century. This new form of popular writing reflected and helped further expanded
education and literacy for women. The female heroines of these novels frequently provided
examples of the unjust suffering of women in a male-dominated world.

13f. Revolutionary Limits: Native Americans

While the previous explorations of African American and white female experience suggest both the
gains and limitations produced in the Revolutionary Era, from the perspective of almost all Native

Americans the American Revolution was an unmitigated disaster. At the start of the war Patriots
worked hard to try and ensure Indian neutrality, for Indians could provide strategic military
assistance that might decide the struggle. Gradually, however, it became clear to most native
groups, that an independent America posed a far greater threat to their interests and way of life than
a continued British presence that restrained American westward expansion.
Cherokees and Creeks (among others tribes) in the southern interior and most Iroquois nations in
the northern interior provided crucial support to the British war effort. With remarkably few
exceptions, Native American support for the British was close to universal.
The experience of the Iroquois Confederacy in current-day northern New York provides a clear
example of the consequences of the Revolution for American Indians. The Iroquois represented an
alliance of six different native groups who had responded to the dramatic changes of the colonial
era more successfully than most other Indians in the eastern third of North America. Their political
alliance, which had begun to take shape in the 15th- century, even before the arrival of European
colonists, was the most durable factor in their persistence in spite of the disastrous changes brought
on by European contact. During the American Revolution, the Confederacy fell apart for the first
time since its creation as different Iroquois groups fought against one another.
The Mohawk chief Thayendanegea (known to Anglo-Americans as Joseph Brant) was the most
important Iroquois leader in the Revolutionary Era. He convinced four of the six Iroquois nations to
join him in an alliance with the British and was instrumental in leading combined Indian, British,
and Loyalist forces on punishing raids in western New York and Pennsylvania in 1778 and 1779.
These were countered by a devastating Patriot campaign into Iroquois country that was explicitly
directed by General Washington to both engage warriors in battle and to destroy all Indian towns
and crops so as to limit the military threat posed by the Indian-British alliance.
In spite of significant Native American aid to the British, the European treaty negotiations that
concluded the war in 1783 had no native representatives. Although Ohio and Iroquois Indians had
not surrendered nor suffered a final military defeat, the United States claimed that its victory over
the British meant a victory over Indians as well. Not surprisingly, due to their lack of representation
during treaty negotiations, Native Americans received very poor treatment in the diplomatic
arrangements. The British retained their North American holdings north and west of the Great
Lakes, but granted the new American republic all land between the Appalachian Mountains and the
Mississippi River. In fact, this region was largely unsettled by whites and mostly inhabited by
Native Americans. As a Wea Indian complained about the failed military alliance with the British,
"In endeavoring to assist you it seems we have wrought our own ruin." Even groups like the
Oneida, one of the Iroquois nations that allied with the Americans, were forced to give up

traditional lands with other native groups.

Despite the sweeping setback to Native Americans represented by the American Revolution, native
groups in the trans-Appalachian west would remain a vital force and a significant military threat to
the new United States. Relying on support from Spanish colonists in New Orleans as well as
assistance from the British at Fort Detroit, varied native groups continued to resist Anglo-American
incursions late into the 19th century.
This ongoing resistance resulted in treaties with the United States that would much later be the basis
for redressing some illegal losses of Indian lands. Although the meaning of the Revolution for most
Native American groups was disastrous, their continued struggle for autonomy, independence, and
full legal treatment resulted in partial victories at a much later date. In some ways, this native
struggle showed a more thorough commitment to certain revolutionary principles than that
demonstrated by the Patriots themselves.

14b. Articles of Confederation

While the state constitutions were being created, the Continental Congress continued to meet as a
general political body. Despite being the central government, it was a loose confederation and most
significant power was held by the individual states. By 1777 members of Congress realized that
they should have some clearly written rules for how they were organized. As a result the Articles of
Confederation were drafted and passed by the Congress in November.
This first national "constitution" for the United States was not particularly innovative, and mostly
put into written form how the Congress had operated since 1775.
Even though the Articles were rather modest in their proposals, they would not be ratified by all the
states until 1781. Even this was accomplished largely because the dangers of war demanded greater
cooperation.
The purpose of the central government was clearly stated in the Articles. The Congress had control
over diplomacy, printing money, resolving controversies between different states, and, most
importantly, coordinating the war effort. The most important action of the Continental Congress was
probably the creation and maintenance of the Continental Army. Even in this area, however, the
central government's power was quite limited. While Congress could call on states to contribute
specific resources and numbers of men for the army, it was not allowed to force states to obey the
central government's request for aid.
The organization of Congress itself demonstrates the primacy of state power. Each state had one
vote. Nine out of thirteen states had to support a law for it to be enacted. Furthermore, any changes

to the Articles themselves would require unanimous agreement. In the one-state, one-vote rule, state
sovereignty was given a primary place even within the national government. Furthermore, the
whole national government consisted entirely of the unicameral (one body) Congress with no
executive and no judicial organizations.
The national Congress' limited power was especially clear when it came to money issues. Not
surprisingly, given that the Revolution's causes had centered on opposition to unfair taxes, the
central government had no power to raise its own revenues through taxation. All it could do was
request that the states give it the money necessary to run the government and wage the war. By
1780, with the outcome of the war still very much undecided, the central government had run out of
money and was bankrupt! As a result the paper money it issued was basically worthless.
Robert Morris, who became the Congress' superintendent of finance in 1781, forged a solution to
this dire dilemma. Morris expanded existing government power and secured special privileges for
the Bank of North America in an attempt to stabilize the value of the paper money issued by the
Congress. His actions went beyond the limited powers granted to the national government by the
Articles of Confederation, but he succeeded in limiting runaway inflation and resurrecting the fiscal
stability of the national government.

15. Drafting the Constitution

The 1780s has often been termed the "critical period" for the new nation. The dangers posed by
economic crisis and the disillusionment that came with the collapse of Revolutionary expectations
for dramatically improved conditions combined to make the decade a period of discontent,
reconsideration, and, in the end, a dramatic new proposal for redirecting the nation. Just as the
Revolution had been born of diverse and sometimes conflicting perspectives, even among the
Patriots, so too, ideas about the future of the United States in the 1780s were often cast in dramatic
opposition to one another.
The new plan for the nation was called the Federal Constitution. It had been drafted by a group of
national leaders in Philadelphia in 1787, who then presented it to the general public for
consideration. The Constitution amounted to a whole new set of rules for organizing national
government and indicates the intensity of political thought in the era as well as how much had
changed since 1776. The proposed national framework called for a strong central government that
would have authority over the states. At the same time, the proposed Constitution also centrally
involved the people in deciding whether or not to accept the new plan through a process called
ratification.

15c. The Tough Issues

In spite of the common vision and status that linked most of the delegates to the Philadelphia
Convention, no obvious route existed for how to revise the Articles of Confederation to build a
stronger central government.
The meeting began by deciding several important procedural issues that were not controversial and
that significantly shaped how the Convention operated. First, George Washington was elected as the
presiding officer. They also decided to continue the voting precedent followed by the Congress
where each state got one vote.
They also agreed to hold their meeting in secret.
There would be no public access to the Convention's discussions and the delegates agreed not to
discuss matters with the press. The delegates felt that secrecy would allow them to explore issues
with greater honesty than would be possible if everything that they said became public knowledge.
In fact, the public knew almost nothing about the actual proceedings of the Convention until James
Madison's notes about it were published after his death in the 1840s.
The delegates also made a final crucial and sweeping early decision about how to run the
Convention. They agreed to go beyond the instructions of the Congress by not merely considering
revisions to the Articles of Confederation, but to try and construct a whole new national framework.
The stage was now set for James Madison, the best prepared and most influential of the delegates at
the Philadelphia Convention. His proposal, now known as the Virginia Plan, called for a strong
central government with three distinctive elements.
First, it clearly placed national supremacy above state sovereignty.
Second, this strengthened central government would have a close relationship with the people, who
could directly vote for some national leaders.
Third, Madison proposed that the central government be made up of three distinct branches: a
bicameral legislature, an executive, and a judiciary. The lower house of the legislature would be
elected directly by the people and then the lower house would elect the upper house. Together they
would choose the executive and judiciary.
By having the foundational body of the proposed national government elected by the people at
large, rather than through their state legislatures, the national government would remain a republic
with a direct link to ordinary people even as it expanded its power.
Madison's Virginia Plan was bold and creative. Further, it established a strong central government,

which most delegates supported. Nevertheless, it was rejected at the Convention by opposition from
delegates representing states with small populations.
These small states would have their national influence dramatically curbed in the proposed move
from one-state one-vote (as under the Articles) to general voting for the lower legislative house
where overall population would be decisive.
The Virginia Plan was unacceptable to all the small states, who countered with another proposal,
dubbed the New Jersey Plan, that would continue more along the lines of how Congress already
operated under the Articles. This plan called for a unicameral legislature with the one vote per state
formula still in place.
Although the division between large and small states (really between high and low population
states) might seem simplistic, it was the major hurdle that delegates to the Convention needed to
overcome to design a stronger national government, which they all agreed was needed.
After long debates and a close final vote, the Virginia Plan was accepted as a basis for further
discussion. This agreement to continue to debate also amounted to a major turning point. The
delegates had decided that they should craft a new constitutional structure to replace the Articles.
This was so stunning a change and such a large expansion of their original instructions from the
Congress that two New York delegates left in disgust.
Could the states ever form a more perfect union?

15d. Constitution Through Compromise

"Representation" remained the core issue for the Philadelphia Convention. What was the best way
for authority to be delegated from the people and the states to a strengthened central government?
After still more deeply divided argument, a proposal put forward by delegates from Connecticut (a
small population state ), struck a compromise that narrowly got approved. They suggested that
representatives in each house of the proposed bicameral legislature be selected through different
means. The upper house (or Senate) would reflect the importance of state sovereignty by including
two people from each state regardless of size. Meanwhile, the lower house (the House of
Representatives) would have different numbers of representatives from each state determined by
population. Representation would be adjusted every ten years through a federal census that counted
every person in the country.
By coming up with a mixed solution that balanced state sovereignty and popular sovereignty tied to
actual population, the Constitution was forged through what is known as the Connecticut

Compromise. In many respects this compromise reflected a victory for small states, but compared
with their dominance in the Congress under the Articles of Confederation it is clear that negotiation
produced something that both small and large states wanted.
Other major issues still needed to be resolved, however, and, once again, compromise was required
on all sides. One of the major issues concerned elections themselves. Who would be allowed to
vote? The different state constitutions had created different rules about how much property was
required for white men to vote. The delegates needed to figure out a solution that could satisfy
people with many different ideas about who could have the franchise (that is, who could be a voter).
For the popular lower house, any white man who paid taxes could vote. Thus, even those without
property, could vote for who would represent them in the House of Representatives. This expanded
the franchise in some states. To balance this opening, the two Senators in the upper house of the
national government would be elected by the state legislatures. Finally, the President (that is, the
executive branch) would be elected at the state level through an electoral college whose numbers
reflected representation in the legislature.
To modern eyes, the most stunning and disturbing constitutional compromise by the delegates was
over the issue of slavery. Some delegates considered slavery an evil institution and George Mason
of Virginia even suggested that the trans-Atlantic slave trade be made illegal by the new national
rules. Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia where slavery was expanding rapidly in the late18th century angrily opposed this limitation. If any limitations to slavery were proposed in the
national framework, then they would leave the convention and oppose its proposed new plan for a
stronger central government. Their fierce opposition allowed no room for compromise and as a
result the issue of slavery was treated as a narrowly political, rather than a moral, question.
The delegates agreed that a strengthened union of the states was more important than the
Revolutionary ideal of equality. This was a pragmatic, as well as a tragic, constitutional
compromise, since it may have been possible (as suggested by George Mason's comments) for the
slave state of Virginia to accept some limitations on slavery at this point.
The proposed constitution actually strengthened the power of slave states in several important
respects. Through the "fugitive clause," for example, governments of free states were required to
help recapture runaway slaves who had escaped their masters' states. Equally disturbing was the
"three-fifths formula" established for determining representation in the lower house of the
legislature. Slave states wanted to have additional political power based on the number of human
beings that they held as slaves. Delegates from free states wouldn't allow such a blatant
manipulation of political principles, but the inhumane compromise that resulted meant counting
enslaved persons as three-fifths of a free person for the sake of calculating the number of people a

state could elect to the House of Representatives.

After hot summer months of difficult debate in Philadelphia from May to September 1787, the
delegates had fashioned new rules for a stronger central government that extended national power
well beyond the scope of the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution created a national
legislature that could pass the supreme law of the land, could raise taxes, and with greater control
over commerce. The proposed rules also would restrict state actions, especially in regard to passing
pro-debtor laws. At the end of the long process of creating the new plan, thirty-eight of the
remaining forty-one delegates showed their support by signing the proposed Constitution. This
small group of national superstars had created a major new framework through hard work and
compromise.
Now another challenge lay ahead. Could they convince the people in the states that this new plan
was worth accepting?

17. George Washington

A brilliant group of political leaders emerged during the Revolutionary Era and the early years of
the new nation. Collectively, they are called the Founding Fathers and their names are familiar
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.
Late 18th-century America still had a relatively small population, yet this group of major figures
looms larger and appears more talented than any similar group at any other time in the country's
history. It seems clear that the momentous events of the period and their obvious significance,
encouraged many, perhaps most, of these individuals to step beyond the bounds of ordinary life to
achieve greatness.
Perhaps the most eminent of this group, and almost certainly the single most important for the
success of the Revolution and the stability of the new nation, was George Washington. As an able
delegate from Virginia, he participated in the First and Second Continental Congresses.
However, his role in the fight toward independence became crucial during the war itself when he
served for its duration as the commander of the Continental Army. After a brief retirement from
public service, he once again became a political leader at the Constitutional Convention in 1787,
where he was elected the presiding officer. Once Washington somewhat reluctantly agreed to be a
presidential candidate, his election in 1789 received almost universal support. Everyone knew that
he was the obvious choice to be the first president of the United States.
What made Washington such a towering figure even among this group of outstanding leaders? How
did his personality and personal experiences help shape not only his own public career, but also the

country's course in these critical founding years? Examining him in biographical detail can help us
to understand many central elements of the creation of the nation. Washington's path to greatness
also suggests significant ways that American life and politics have changed dramatically since the
nation's founding in the late 18th century.

17e. Mount Vernon and the Dilemma of a Revolutionary Slave Holder

George Washington, like most powerful Virginians of the 18th century, derived most of his wealth
and status from the labor of African and African American slaves. At his father's death in 1743,
eleven-year-old George inherited ten slaves. His property grew larger with the death of his halfbrother Lawrence in 1754, which brought him the 2600 -acre plantation of Mt. Vernon along with
another 18 slaves.
Greater still, was the wealth that Martha Custis brought to the marriage. While most of her slaves
remained on other properties, she brought 12 personal slaves with her when she moved to Mt.
Vernon in 1759. Washington was energetic and purposeful in all aspects of life, which included
being a successful plantation master. By 1786 his careful management had increased his property to
7300 acres and 216 slaves.
Washington's ability as a planter placed him within the traditional gentry elite of Virginia. His
wealth rested on the exploitation of humans as property, but he expressed no qualms about
benefiting from what we now see as a fundamentally immoral institution. However, the American
Revolution challenged Washington's traditional acceptance of slavery on both pragmatic and
idealistic grounds. When Washington arrived in Massachusetts in 1775 to take command of the
patriot militia that was surrounding the British in Boston, he was surprised to discover that New
Englanders had begun to allow free African Americans as well as slaves to join their ranks as
soldiers.
After meeting with his officers, Washington reversed this policy and tried to make an all-white
Continental Army. The following month the British Army in Virginia declared that any slave of a
patriot master who fled to fight the patriots would gain his freedom. Washington immediately
grasped the strategic crisis posed by this British promise of freedom in a country where one in every
five people was black. In fact, seventeen Mt. Vernon slaves fled to join the British during the war.
Pragmatic concerns quickly led Washington to reverse his policy and by December 1775 the
Continental Army, in the North at least, included black soldiers.
Washington's Revolutionary ideals also helped transform his attitude toward slavery. When
contemplating the British actions that compelled him to join the patriot cause, Washington
explained to his old friend George Fairfax that British "custom and use shall make us as tame and

abject slaves as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway."
Like many other patriots of the period, Washington described British tyranny as threatening to
enslave white Americans. Slavery was the condition that everyone knew to be the most extreme
example of human oppression. While the invocation of the slavery metaphor was widespread,
Washington went a major step further than most of his fellow slave masters. He decided to limit the
severity of his plantation discipline and, ultimately, he even freed his slaves.
Washington's emancipation of his slaves was an unusual and honorable decision for a man of his
day. No other Virginia Founding Father matched his bold steps. By the early 1770s Washington
clearly tried to lessen the evils of slavery on his plantation. From this point on he rarely bought a
slave and never sold them away from Mt. Vernon without their consent. Washington hoped to act as
a humane master by keeping slave families together. However, he soon discovered that slavery was
only profitable when operated in a brutal fashion. Mt. Vernon became increasingly inefficient in
Washington's final two decades.
Five months before his death, Washington drew up a will that included a detailed and exact
description of how his slaves were to be freed. Beyond freedom, those slaves who were children
were to receive occupational training and to learn to read and write, while elderly slaves were to
receive financial support. Knowing full well that some heirs would dislike this loss of their potential
inheritance, Washington insisted that "this clause respecting Slaves, and every part thereof be
religiously fulfilled ... without evasion, neglect, or delay."
In spite of these far reaching actions, some may still judge Washington's post-Revolutionary attitude
toward slavery too limited. At his death in 1799, Mt. Vernon included 317 slaves, but only 124 of
them belonged to George and only these would be freed. The rest were Martha's. Temporarily
inherited from her deceased first husband, they would pass to her heirs upon her death and could
not be legally controlled by George. More significantly, however, Washington never publicly
explained his new belief that slavery should end.
In a private letter in 1786 he stated, it is "among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by the
legislature by which slavery in this Country may be abolished by slow, sure, and imperceptible
degrees." Even his private commitment was to a cautious and gradual process, but he never allowed
even this moderate anti-slavery position to be known publicly. In the end, Washington's
commitment to national unity prevented him from throwing his enormous public stature behind the
radical cause of emancipation. He feared that such action would deeply divide the new nation.
Could Washington have forged an anti-slavery coalition that might have ended the evil institution
and avoided the bloodshed of the Civil War? Might public action on his part have caused an earlier

civil war that would have wrecked the nation still in its infancy? Those are questions that History
cannot answer and that we can never know. But it is clear that in his own cautious way Washington
struggled with the most profound question of the Revolutionary Era and ultimately decided that his
moral sense of what was right overcame his personal interest in perpetuating slavery.

18. Unsettled Domestic Issues

Washington's towering stature and legacy might misleadingly suggest that the early years of the new
nation were times of great confidence and self-congratulation. In fact, just the opposite was nearly
the case. Americans knew that the historical record of the long-term success of republican
governments was exceedingly poor. Previous examples and classical political theory suggested that
republics almost all suffered the fate of collapsing into anarchy and then being taken over by a
power-seizing tyrant.
The Philadelphia patriot Benjamin Rush keenly understood the risks facing the new nation. As a
result he sharply rejected the idea that the military defeat of the British meant the end of the
American Revolution. "On the contrary," he wrote in 1787," nothing but the first act of the great
drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of government."
The unsettled domestic issues that threatened to overturn the new republic were varied and
complex. Any one of the major crisis points of the early 1790s might overturn the fragile new
government. Where was the greatest threat: the challenging legal and political issues raised during
the ratification of the Constitution, the disastrous economy of the 1780s, popular protests against
federal policies in the west, or the varied military threats from Native Americans, the British in
Canada, and war in Europe? If any one of them could have toppled the government, imagine how
their combination must have made Americans fear for the future of the country.
Most of these deeply unsettling threats would be addressed by the first federal government and
usually in an aggressive manner that scored decisive victory. Interestingly, however, the solutions
achieved by the first wielders of federal power also helped to create the conditions that would force
them from office and lead to a dramatic change in American politics by 1800. To understand how
much changed between the presidential elections of George Washington (1789) and Thomas
Jefferson (1800), the kinds of challenges that had to be faced in the first decade of government
under the new federal Constitution must be examined.

18a. The Bill of Rights

The first national election occurred in 1789. Along with President Washington, voters elected a

large number of supporters of the Constitution. In fact, almost half of the ninety-one members of the
first Congress had helped to write or ratify the Constitution.
Not surprisingly, given Anti-Federalists' opposition to the strong new central government, only
eight opponents of the Constitution were sent to the House of Representatives. Most AntiFederalists concentrated their efforts in state politics.
Protection of Individual Rights
An immediate issue that the new Congress took up was how to modify the Constitution.
Representatives were responding to calls for amendments that had emerged as a chief issue during
the ratification process. Crucial states of Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York (among others) had
all ultimately supported the Constitution but only with the expectation that explicit protections
for individual rights would be added to the highest law of the land. Now that supporters of the
Constitution controlled the federal government, what would they do?
The legal tradition of having a precise statement of individual rights had deep roots in AngloAmerican custom. So it's not surprising that the first Congress amended the Constitution by adding
what became known as the Bill of Rights.
James Madison, now a member of Congress from Virginia, once again took the leading role crafting
proposed amendments that would be sent to the states for approval. Madison skillfully reviewed
numerous proposals and examples from state constitutions and ultimately selected nineteen
potential amendments to the Constitution.
As one might expect, the nationalist Madison took care to make sure that none of the proposed
amendments would fundamentally weaken the new central government. In the end, ten amendments
were ratified in 1791.
Ten Amendments
These first ten amendments to the Constitution became known as the Bill of Rights and still stand as
both the symbol and foundation of American ideals of individual liberty, limited government, and
the rule of law. Most of the Bill of Rights concerns legal protections for those accused of crimes.
Rights and Protections Guaranteed in the Bill of Rights

For instance, the fourth through eighth amendments provide protection from unreasonable search
and seizure, the privilege against self-incrimination, and the right to a fair and speedy jury trial that
will be free from unusual punishments.
The First Amendment, perhaps the broadest and most famous of the Bill of Rights, establishes a
range of political and civil rights including those of free speech, assembly, press, and religion.
The last two amendments, respectively, spell out that this list of individual protections is not meant
to exclude other ones, and, by contrast, set forth that all powers claimed by the federal government
had to be expressly stated in the Constitution.
While the Bill of Rights created no deep challenge to federal authority, it did respond to the central
Anti-Federalist fear that the Constitution would unleash an oppressive central government too
distant from the people to be controlled.
By responding to this opposition and following through on the broadly expressed desire for
amendments that emerged during the ratification process, the Bill of Rights helped to secure broad
political support for the new national government. A first major domestic issue had been
successfully resolved.

Understanding the Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights remains an active force in contemporary American life as a major element of
Constitutional law. The meaning of its protections remains hotly debated. For example, the privilege
to bear arms to support a militia, which appears in the second amendment, produces significant
political controversy today.
More sweepingly, the extension of the Bill of Rights to protect individuals from abuse not only by
the federal government, but also from state and local governments remains an unsettled aspect of
Constitutional interpretation.
Originally, the protections were solely meant to limit the federal government, but with the
fourteenth amendment's guarantee in 1868 that no state could deprive its citizens of the protections
in the Bill of Rights this original view began to be expanded. To this day the Supreme Court has not
definitively decided if the entire Bill of Rights should always be applied to all levels of government.

20. Jeffersonian America: A Second Revolution?

The harsh public antagonism of the 1790s largely came to an end with the victory of the
Democratic- Republicans in the 1800 election. "The Revolution of 1800," as Jefferson described his
party's successful election many years later, was "as real a revolution in the principles of our
government as that of 1776 was in its form."
To Jefferson and his supporters, the defeat of the Federalists ended their attempt to lead America on
a more conservative and less democratic course. Since the Federalists never again played a national
political role after the defeat in 1800, it seems that most American voters of the era shared
Jefferson's view.
Jefferson's election inaugurated a "Virginia dynasty" that held the presidency from 1801 to 1825.
After Jefferson's two terms as president, he was followed by two other two-term DemocraticRepublicans from Virginia, James Madison and James Monroe. Regular Democratic-Republican
majorities in Congress supported their long rule. Political leaders and parties played a pivotal role
shaping the new nation because they could serve as outlets for large numbers of people to express
their opinions about issues of public significance. For Jefferson, the election of 1800 stands as a
second revolution that protected and extended the gains achieved in the Revolution of 1776.
Jefferson and his values serve as a useful organizing tool to think about the changes that America
experienced in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Jeffersonian Democracy refers to an
American ideal as well as to a remarkably successful political movement. At the heart of both
meanings of the term lies the household farm worked by ordinary families. Jeffersonian America

marked a victory for common farmers as both the ideal embodiment of the American citizen and as
a practical reality of who voted. As a result Jeffersonian America required that new western
farmlands be cultivated as an absolute necessity for the future of the republic.
Although Jeffersonian Democracy remains a greatly celebrated American ideal, it is important to
recall that in its own day, as well as today, it drew intense criticism. Federalists never again
controlled national politics like they had in the 1790s, but they remained an important force in
American life and offered deep criticism of many Jeffersonian developments. The federal
government itself embraced this ongoing disagreement. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
throughout the Jeffersonian Era, John Marshall, was an ardent Federalist. Even while his political
opponents controlled elected national office, Marshall consistently supported the supremacy of
national power over the states. He led the court in establishing legal precedents to support this view.
The most serious flaw in the "second revolution" of Jeffersonian America, however, came from its
embrace of slavery. The party's national leaders were slave-owning elites who had no intention of
including African-Americans in their broadened commitment to democracy. Jefferson probed the
fundamental contradiction between slavery and democracy more eloquently than any American of
the day. This led him to conclusions that were far less than revolutionary. Jefferson repeatedly
acknowledged that slavery was wrong, but he never saw a way to eliminate the institution.
To Jefferson, slavery meant holding "a wolf by the ears." It was a danger that could never be
released. Most disturbingly of all, Jefferson could not imagine America as a place where free blacks
and whites could live together. To him, a biracial society of equality would "produce convulsions
which will probably never end but in the extermination of one or the other race."
Jeffersonian America is a term that helps us enter the contested and deeply contradictory nature of
the United States at the start of the 19th century. Grappling fully with its meaning requires the use
of sophisticated analytical skills that assess both its strengths and its weaknesses. To merely
celebrate or condemn, seeing one side, but not the other, is to judge without attempting to
understand.
Seeing how the best and the worst of Jeffersonian America were deeply intermixed, and continue to
inform American life in our transformed circumstances of the 21st century, is among the most
important purposes of historical inquiry.

20b. Jeffersonian Ideology

Jefferson's lasting significance in American history stems from his remarkably varied talents. He
made major contributions as a politician, statesman, diplomat, intellectual, writer, scientist, and

philosopher. No other figure among the Founding Fathers shared the depth and breadth of his wideranging intelligence.
His presidential vision impressively combined philosophic principles with pragmatic effectiveness
as a politician. Jefferson's most fundamental political belief was an "absolute acquiescence in the
decisions of the majority." Stemming from his deep optimism in human reason, Jefferson believed
that the will of the people, expressed through elections, provided the most appropriate guidance for
directing the republic's course.
Jefferson also felt that the central government should be "rigorously frugal and simple." As
president he reduced the size and scope of the federal government by ending internal taxes,
reducing the size of the army and navy, and paying off the government's debt. Limiting the federal
government flowed from his strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Finally, Jefferson also committed his presidency to the protection of civil liberties and minority
rights. As he explained in his inaugural address in 1801, "though the will of the majority is in all
cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal
rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression." Jefferson's experience
of Federalist repression in the late 1790s led him to more clearly define a central concept of
American democracy.
Jefferson's stature as the most profound thinker in the American political tradition stems beyond his
specific policies as president. His crucial sense of what mattered most in life grew from a deep
appreciation of farming, in his mind the most virtuous and meaningful human activity. As he
explained in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen
people of God." Since farmers were an overwhelming majority in the American republic, one can
see how his belief in the value of agriculture reinforced his commitment to democracy.
Jefferson's thinking, however, was not merely celebratory, for he saw two dangerous threats to his
ideal agrarian democracy. To him, financial speculation and the development of urban industry both
threatened to rob men of the independence that they maintained as farmers. Debt, on the one hand,
and factory work, on the other, could rob men of the economic autonomy essential for republican
citizens.
Jefferson's vision was not anti-modern, for he had too brilliant a scientific mind to fear
technological change. He supported international commerce to benefit farmers and wanted to see
new technology widely incorporated into ordinary farms and households to make them more
productive.
Jefferson pinpointed a deeply troubling problem. How could republican liberty and democratic

equality be reconciled with social changes that threatened to increase inequality? The awful
working conditions in early industrial England loomed as a terrifying example. For Jefferson,
western expansion provided an escape from the British model. As long as hard working farmers
could acquire land at reasonable prices, then America could prosper as a republic of equal and
independent citizens. Jefferson's ideas helped to inspire a mass political movement that achieved
many key aspects of his plan.
In spite of the success and importance of Jeffersonian Democracy, dark flaws limited even
Jefferson's grand vision. First, his hopes for the incorporation of technology at the household level
failed to grasp how poverty often pushed women and children to the forefront of the new industrial
labor. Second, an equal place for Native Americans could not be accommodated within his plans for
an agrarian republic. Third, Jefferson's celebration of agriculture disturbingly ignored the fact that
slaves worked the richest farm land in the United States. Slavery was obviously incompatible with
true democratic values. Jefferson's explanation of slaves within the republic argued that African
Americans' racial inferiority barred them from becoming full and equal citizens.
Our final assessment of Jeffersonian Democracy rests on a profound contradiction. Jefferson was
the single most powerful individual leading the struggle to enhance the rights of ordinary people in
the early republic. Furthermore, his Declaration of Independence had eloquently expressed
America's statement of purpose "that all men are created equal." Still, he owned slaves all his life
and, unlike Washington, never set them free.
For all his greatness, Jefferson did not transcend the pervasive racism of his day.

21. The Expanding Republic and the War of 1812

Expansion. Battles with Indian nations. The War of 1812. Welcome to America under Republican
rule at the onset of the 19th century.
The United States underwent dramatic changes during the period of Democratic-Republican (also
called Jeffersonian Republican, or simply Republican) political leadership in the first decades of the
19th century. The republic's expansion to the west and renewed military conflict with Indian nations
and Great Britain each posed a fundamental challenge to the fragile new republic. All three of these
factors played a role in the coming of the War of 1812.
Although the war itself had no decisive outcome, it did serve as a turning point in the history of the
young republic. The United States survived a second war with its former colonial ruler and in the
process called forth a national effort that helped Americans from distinct regions pull closer
together. The war years also led to the final disintegration of the Federalists, whose strength in New

England, which, to many, indicated a regional loyalty in conflict with national sentiments given new
importance by the war.
The United States developed in a more distinctly American fashion after the War of 1812. The years
of the early republic, from the end of the Revolutionary war in 1783 to the end of what is
sometimes called the Second War for American Independence in 1815, had itself been a period of
enormous change that included dramatic political innovations of state and federal constitutions as
well as the surge of western settlement.
America was growing up.

21a. The Importance of the West

Land. Lots of land.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 intensified American migration to the west that was already well
underway. Anglo-American settlement in the 18th century had largely been confined to the eastern
seaboard. It made its boldest inroads where rivers allowed easy internal transportation. As a result
the chief population centers of early North America were clustered on the coast or along its major
inland waterways.
In 1790 the fast-growing population of the United States was 3.9 million, but only 5% of Americans
lived west of the Appalachian Mountains that run from Maine to Georgia. By 1820, however, the
total U.S. population had already reached 9.6 million and fully 25 percent of them lived west of the
Appalachians in nine new states and three territories.
Cincinnati, in present-day southwest Ohio, provides a good example of the speed of western
expansion during the early republic. Founded in 1788 as a fort to repel Shawnee and Miami Indian
attacks, it served a chiefly military purpose until the major Indian defeat at Fallen Timbers in 1794.
Soon thereafter, however, its location 450 miles downriver from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, made it a
strategic trade location for agricultural products from newly settled farm lands. Although its
population was a modest 750 in 1800, by 1810 that figure had tripled and vastly larger numbers
passed through Cincinnati on their way to settle the "Old Northwest" of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Western migration had become central to the American way of life and as much as two-thirds of all
western families moved every decade. Interestingly, Cincinnati's most important trade connection
was not with relatively nearby (but upriver) Pittsburgh, but instead lay 1500 miles south along the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers at the great port of New Orleans. The most efficient route to market
remained along waterways and access to New Orleans remained crucial for the western economy
and its settlement.

This rapid population growth and geographic expansion caused a great deal of conflict. Native
Americans in the west resisted American intrusion and fought renewed wars in the early 19th
century. Furthermore, the expansion of plantation slavery beyond the coastal southeast meant that
huge numbers of slaves were forcibly moved to new territories. In spite of these enormous human
costs, the overwhelming majority of white Americans saw western expansion as a major
opportunity. To them, access to western land offered the promise of independence and prosperity to
anyone willing to meet the hardships of frontier life.
Most politicians of the era believed that the health of the republic depended upon providing
affordable land to ordinary white Americans. Among Jeffersonian Republicans most popular
policies was an expansionist agenda that encouraged western development. This played an
important part in cementing the Democratic-Republican party's strength in the south and west.
Even among white settlers who benefited most from western migration, the expansion of the nation
caused major alterations in American life. For instance, getting crops to market required improved
transportation. States responded by giving charters to private companies to build roads (called
turnpikes since they charged a fee), bridges, canals, or to operate ferry services. The state gave these
companies special legal privileges because they provided a service that could benefit a wide
segment of the population.
Nevertheless, many people opposed these special benefits as contradicting republican notions of
equal opportunity for all. These new transportation projects reshaped the American landscape, but
the larger economic promise for most of the new western lands lay in the massive inland rivers of
the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi, all of which ultimately flowed south to New Orleans.
Long before newspaper editors such as John Soule and Horace Greeley were urging readers to "Go
West, young man," Americans were doing exactly that.

21b. Exploration: Lewis and Clark

Even before Jefferson had completed the Louisiana Purchase, he had begun to make plans for a
bold journey to explore the vast interior of North America that remained completely unknown to
American citizens. That plan took on new importance once the United States had acquired the huge
new territory from France.
In May 1804, a group of 50 Americans led by Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson's personal secretary, and
William Clark, an army officer, headed northwest along the Missouri River from St. Louis. Their
varied instructions reveal the multiple goals that Jefferson hoped the expedition could accomplish.
While trying to find a route across the continent, they were also expected to make detailed

observations of the natural resources and geography of the west. Furthermore, they were to establish
good relations with native groups in an attempt to disrupt British dominance of the lucrative Indian
fur trade of the continental interior.
By mid-October 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the Mandan villages on the banks of
the upper Missouri River in present-day North Dakota. Here they found several large, successful
settlements with an overall population of about 5,000 people. The Mandan villages were an
important trade center that brought together many different native groups as well as a handful of
multilingual Frenchmen. The expedition chose to spend the winter in this attractive location and it
proved to be a crucial decision for the success of their journey.
During the winter they established good relations with the Mandans and received a great deal of
information about the best route for heading west to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition also hired
several of the Frenchmen who lived among the Mandans to serve as guides and translators. Along
with them came a fifteen-year-old Shoshone named Sacajawea who was married to one of the
Frenchmen. Her knowledge of the west and language skills played an important role in the success
of the expedition. Additionally, the presence of Sacajawea and her baby helped assure other Indian
groups encountered further west that this could not be a war party.
From the Mandan villages the now enlarged expedition headed west to cross the Rockies, the
highest mountain range in North America. By the winter of 1805 they had reached the Pacific
Ocean via the Columbia River, becoming the first U.S. citizens to succeed in a trans-continental
crossing north of Mexico. They were not, however, the first whites to accomplish this feat since
Alexander Mackenzie had done so for a British-Canadian fur-trading company in 1793.
Nevertheless, the Columbia River proved a much easier route than the one Mackenzie had taken a
decade earlier. When the long overdue expedition finally returned to St. Louis in September 1806,
they were celebrated as heroes who had accomplished an extraordinary feat.
The expedition combined several qualities from scientific and military to trade and diplomatic, but
the underlying motivation was prompted by Thomas Jefferson's widely shared belief that the future
prosperity of the republic required the expansion of yeoman farmers in the west. This noble dream
for what Jefferson called an "empire of liberty" also had harsh consequences. For instance, Fort
Clark was soon established at the Mandan villages. At first it provided the Mandans with a useful
alternative to trading with the British and also offered military support from their traditional native
enemies the Sioux.
However, Americans at the fort unwittingly brought new diseases to the area that decimated the
local native population. Where the Mandans had a thriving and sophisticated trading center when
Lewis and Clark arrived in 1804, by the late 1830s their total population had been reduced to less

than 150.
The nation's growth combined tragedy and triumph at every turn.

21c. Diplomatic Challenges in an Age of European War

While western movement and policies were reshaping the republic, European wars also presented a
major challenge to the new country. The Napoleonic Wars (1802-1815) were a continuation of the
conflict begun in the 1790s when Great Britain lead a coalition of European powers against
Revolutionary France, though France was now led by the brilliant military strategist Napoleon
Bonaparte. As had also been true in the 1790s, neither European superpower respected the neutrality
of the United States. Instead, both tried to prevent U.S. ships from carrying goods to their enemy.
Both Britain and France imposed blockades to limit American merchants, though the dominant
British navy was clearly more successful.
In response to this denial of American sovereignty, President Jefferson and his secretary of state
James Madison crafted an imaginative, but fundamentally flawed, policy of economic coercion.
Their Embargo of 1807 prevented U.S. ships from any trade with Europe in the belief that
dependence on American goods would soon force France and England to honor American
neutrality. The plan backfired, however, as the Republican leaders failed to understand how deeply
committed the superpowers were to carrying on their war despite its high costs.
The Embargo not only failed diplomatically, but also caused enormous domestic dissent. American
shippers, who were primarily concentrated in Federalist New England, generally circumvented the
unpopular law. Its toll was clearly marked in the sharp decline of American imports from 108
million dollars worth of goods in 1806 to just 22 million in 1808. This unsuccessful diplomatic
strategy that mostly punished Americans helped to spur a Federalist revival in the elections of 1808
and 1812. Nevertheless, Republicans from Virginia continued to hold the presidency as James
Madison replaced Jefferson in 1808.
Madison faced difficult circumstances in office with increasing Indian violence in the west and warlike conditions on the Atlantic. These combined to push him away from his policy of economic
coercion toward an outright declaration of war. This intensification was favored by a group of
westerners and southerners in Congress called "War Hawks," who were led by Henry Clay of
Kentucky.
Most historians now agree that the War of 1812 was "a western war with eastern labels." By this
they mean that the real causes of the war stemmed from desire for control of western Indian lands
and clear access to trade through New Orleans. Further, the issue of national sovereignty, so clearly

denied by British rejection of American free trade on the Atlantic, provided a more honorable
rationale for war. Even with the intense pressure of the War Hawks, the United States entered the
war hesitantly and with especially strong opposition from Federalist New England. When Congress
declared war in June 1812, its heavily divided votes (19 to 13 in the Senate and 79 to 49 in the
House) suggest that the republic entered the war as a divided nation.

21d. Native American Resistance in the Trans-Appalachian West

In the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the first white settlers in America inhabited the eastern
seaboard. There the whites either made treaties with the Native American groups to buy land or they
forcibly took Indian land. By the Revolution's end and on into the early 19th century, Native
Americans were being displaced across the Appalachians and toward what is today the Midwest.
For these exiled groups, there were few places left to go.
Outright military conflict with native groups in the northwest preceded the formal declaration of
war in 1812. In fact, the "western war" in many ways represented a continuation of the American
Revolution with many autonomous Indian nations again choosing to ally with the British against
Americans who fundamentally threatened their survival.
The American invasion from the east deeply disrupted native groups and generally caused a sharp
division within Indian nations between "accommodationists," who chose to adopt some EuroAmerican ways versus "traditionalists," who called for native purity by rejecting contact with
whites. Both sides were authentically Native American, but they each chose different routes to deal
with a terrible situation.
Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, Shawnee brothers, were leading Indian traditionalists, and together
they crafted a novel resurgence among native peoples in the west. Tecumseh, a political and military
leader, is the better known of the two, but it was their combined skills that made them especially
powerful. Tecumseh had fought at Fallen Timbers in 1794, but refused to participate in the peace
negotiations that produced the Treaty of Grenville the following year. Instead, he removed to eastcentral Indiana where he led a band of militant young warriors.
His younger brother Tenskwatawa provided the essential vision to launch a much broader Indian
social movement. Also known as the Prophet, Tenskwatawa combined traditional native beliefs with
some aspects of Christianity to call for a pan-Indian resistance against American intruders from the
east. He explained that when native peoples joined together and rejected all contact with Americans
and their ways (from alcohol to private property), God would restore Indian power by "overturning
the land so that all the white people will be covered and you alone shall inhabit the land."

Tecumseh gradually converted to the Prophet's vision and together they built a broad movement that
revived the Western Confederacy of the 1790s and even reached out to southern tribes with stronger
accommodationist factions. In 1808 they founded Prophetstown at the sacred junction of the
Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers, from which they built a strong Indian alliance that directly
challenged the U.S. government.
This growing Indian force threatened American plans to move west and seemed especially
dangerous since it received economic and military support from the British in Canada. In November
1811 the U.S. destroyed Prophetstown during the Battle of Tippecanoe, under the leadership of
future president William Henry Harrison. Tecumseh was away at the time recruiting southern
Creeks to the confederacy.
Tecumseh's successful military resistance continued and threatened white settlements throughout
the northwest. Tecumseh had so profoundly challenged U.S. plans in the northwest that when he
was finally killed at the Battle of the Thames in October 1813 it was seen as a major American
victory even though it meant quite little strategically.

21e. The Second War for American Independence

In the War of 1812 the United States once again fought against the British and their Indian allies.
Some historians see the conflict as a Second War for American Independence.
Furthermore, the three-year war marks a traditional boundary between the early republic and early
national periods. The former period had strong ties to the more hierarchical colonial world of the
18th century, while post-war developments would move in dynamic new directions that contributed
to a more autonomous American society and culture. Although the War of 1812 serves as an
important turning point in the development of an independent United States, the war itself was
mostly a political and military disaster for the country.
The U.S. Congress was far from unanimous in its declaration of war. America's initial invasion of
Canada (then ruled by England) in the summer of 1812 was repulsed by Tecumseh and the British.
Although Tecumseh would be killed in battle the following fall, the U.S. was unable to mount a
major invasion of Canada because of significant domestic discord over war policy. Most
importantly, the governors of most New England states refused to allow their state militias to join a
campaign beyond state boundaries. Similarly, a promising young Congressman from New
Hampshire, Daniel Webster, actually discouraged enlistment in the U.S. army.
British military dominance was even clearer in the Atlantic and this naval superiority allowed it to
deliver a shaming blow to the fragile United States in the summer of 1814. With Napoleon's French

forces failing in Europe, Britain committed more of its resources to the American war and in August
sailed up the Potomac River to occupy Washington D.C. and burn the White House. On the edge of
national bankruptcy and with the capital largely in ashes, total American disaster was averted when
the British failed to capture Ft. McHenry that protected nearby Baltimore.
Watching the failed attack on Ft. McHenry as a prisoner of the British, Francis Scott Key wrote a
poem later called "The Star-Spangled Banner" which was set to the tune of an English drinking
song. It became the official national anthem of the United States of America in 1931.
The most critical moment of the War of 1812, however, may not have been a battle, but rather a
political meeting called by the Massachusetts legislature. Beginning in December 1814, 26
Federalists representing New England states met at the Hartford Convention to discuss how to
reverse the decline of their party and the region. Although manufacturing was booming and
contraband trade brought riches to the region, "Mr. Madison's War" and its expenses proved hard to
swallow for New Englanders.
Holding this meeting during the war was deeply controversial. Although more moderate leaders
voted down extremists who called for New England to secede from the United States, most
Republicans believed that the Hartford Convention was an act of treason.
Federalist New England's opposition to national policies had been demonstrated in numerous ways
from circumventing trade restrictions as early as 1807, to voting against the initial declaration of
war in 1812, refusing to contribute state militia to the national army, and now its representatives
were moving on a dangerous course of semi-autonomy during war time.
If a peace treaty ending the War of 1812 had not been signed while the Hartford Convention was
still meeting, New England may have seriously debated seceeding from the Union.

21f. Claiming Victory from Defeat

The Americans were angry with the British for many reasons.
The British didn't withdraw from American territory in the Great Lakes region as they
agreed to in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
Britain kept aiding Native Americans.
Britain would not sign favorable commercial agreements with the U.S.
Impressment: Britain claimed the right to take any British sailors serving on American
merchant ships. In practice, the British took many American sailors and forced them to serve
on British ships. This was nothing short of kidnapping.
In 1807, The British ship Leopard fired on the American frigate Chesapeake. Other

American merchant ships came under harassment from the British navy.
War Hawks in Congress pushed for the conflict.
But the United States was not really ready for war. The Americans hoped to get a jump on the
British by conquering Canada in the campaigns of 1812 and 1813. Initial plans called for a threepronged offensive: from Lake Champlain to Montreal; across the Niagara frontier; and into Upper
Canada from Detroit.
The first American attacks were disjointed and failed. Detroit was surrendered to the British in
August 1812. The Americans also lost the Battle of Queenston Heights in October. Nothing much
happened along Lake Champlain and the American forces withdrew in late November.
In 1813, the Americans tried an intricate attack on Montreal by a combined land and sea operation.
That failed.
One bright spot for the Americans was Oliver Hazard Perry's destruction of the British fleet on Lake
Erie in September 1813 that forced the British to flee from Detroit. The British were overtaken in
October defeated at the battle of the Thames by Americans led by William Henry Harrison, the
future President It was here that the Shawnee chief, and British ally, Tecumseh fell.
Minor victories aside, things looked bleak for the Americans in 1814. The British were able to
devote more men and ships to the American arena after having defeated Napoleon.
England conceived of a three-pronged attack focusing on controlling major waterways. Control of
the Hudson River in New York would seal off New England; seizing New Orleans would seal up
the Mississippi River and seriously disrupt the farmers and traders of the Midwest; and by attacking
the Chesapeake Bay, the British hoped to threaten Washington, D.C. and put an end to the war and
pressure the U.S. into ceding territory in a peace treaty.
All the while, was losing support in America. Costs associated with the war skyrocketed. New
England talked of succeeding from the Union. At the Hartford Convention, delegates proposed
constitutional amendments that would limit the power of the executive branch of government.
So weak was American military opposition that the British sashayed into Washington D.C. after
winning the Battle of Bladensburg and burned most of the public buildings including the White
House. President Madison had to flee the city. His wife Dolley gathered invaluable national objects
and escaped with them at the last minute. It was the nadir of the war.
But the Americans put up a strong opposition in Baltimore and the British were forced to pull back
from that city. In the north, about 10,000 British army veterans advanced into the United States via
Montreal: their goal was New York City. With American fortunes looking their bleakest, American

Captain Thomas MacDonough won the naval battle of Lake Champlain destroying the British fleet.
The British army, fearful of not being supplied by the British navy, retreated into Canada.
The War of 1812 came to an end largely because the British public had grown tired of the sacrifice
and expense of their twenty-year war against France. Now that Napoleon was all but finally
defeated, the minor war against the United States in North America lost popular support.
Negotiations began in August 1814 and on Christmas Eve the Treaty of Ghent was signed in
Belgium. The treaty called for the mutual restoration of territory based on pre-war boundaries and
with the European war now over, the issue of American neutrality had no significance.
In effect, the treaty didn't change anything and hardly justified three years of war and the deep
divide in American politics that it exacerbated.
Popular memory of the War of 1812 might have been quite so dour had it not been for a major
victory won by American forces at New Orleans on January 8, 1815. Although the peace treaty had
already been signed, news of it had not yet arrived on the battlefront where General Andrew
Jackson led a decisive victory resulting in 700 British casualties versus only 13 American deaths.
Of course, the Battle of New Orleans had no military or diplomatic significance, but it did allow
Americans to swagger with the claim of a great win.
Furthermore, the victory launched the public career of Andrew Jackson as a new kind of American
leader totally different from those who had guided the nation through the Revolution and early
republic. The Battle of New Orleans vaunted Jackson to heroic status and he became a symbol of
the new American nation emerging in the early 19th century.

22. Social Change and National Development

The United States changed dramatically in its first half century. In 1776 the U.S. consisted of
thirteen colonies clustered together on the eastern seaboard. By 1821 eleven new states had been
added from Maine to Louisiana. This geographic growth and especially the political incorporation
of the new states demonstrated that the United States had resolved a fundamental question about
how to expand. This growth not only built upon the Louisiana Purchase, but included military
intervention in Spanish Florida which the United States then claimed by treaty in 1819.
The new shape of the nation required thinking about the United States in new ways. For instance, a
classic text on American geography in 1793 taught that the United States was composed of three
basic divisions: northern, middle, and southern. But the 1819 edition of that same book included a
new region because western states and territories needed recognition as well. By 1820, over two
million Americans lived west of the Appalachian Mountains.

The growing regional distinctiveness of American life was complex. Four basic regions with
distinct ways of life had developed along the eastern seaboard in the colonial period. Starting in the
north, they were New England (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut);
the Mid-Atlantic (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania); the Chesapeake (Delaware, Maryland,
and Virginia); and the Lower South (the Carolinas and Georgia). As people from these regions
joined new immigrants to the United States in settling the west, they established additional
distinctive regions that combined frontier conditions with ways of doing things from their previous
places of origin.
The newly settled western lands of this period can be grouped in several ways, but four basic
divisions were most evident: the border area (Kentucky and Tennessee, the first trans-Appalachian
states to join the nation), the Old Northwest (Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois), the Old Southwest
(Alabama and Mississippi), and the trans-Mississippi River west (Louisiana and Missouri).
The new shape of the nation reflected much more than just physical expansion. This period also
witnessed dramatic economic and religious changes. A new capitalist economy enormously
expanded wealth and laid the foundation for the Industrial Revolution that flourished later in the
19th century. The great opportunities of economic development also brought new hardships for
many people, especially those who toiled as slaves under the startlingly new system of cotton
slavery that boomed in the early 19th century.
A dynamic religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening also transformed the nation
in this period. Although springing from internal spiritual convictions, the new character of
American Protestantism in the early 19th century reinforced the modern economic and political
developments that created the new nation by the end of the 1820s.
The United States had claimed political independence in 1776, but its ability to make that claim a
reality required at least another fifty years to be fully settled. The War of 1812, however fitfully, had
demonstrated American military independence, but breaking free of the economic and cultural
dominance of Great Britain would prove to be longer and more complicated struggles. In 1823
when President Monroe declared that the entire western hemisphere is "henceforth not to be
considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers," it was a claim made
without the power to back it up. Although his Monroe Doctrine became a central plank of U.S.
foreign policy only at the end of the century, Americans had clearly fashioned a bold new national
identity by the 1820s.

22a. Economic Growth and the Early Industrial Revolution

The transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy took more than a century in the United

States, but that long development entered its first phase from the 1790s through the 1830s. The
Industrial Revolution had begun in Britain during the mid-18th century, but the American colonies
lagged far behind the mother country in part because the abundance of land and scarcity of labor in
the New World reduced interest in expensive investments in machine production. Nevertheless,
with the shift from hand-made to machine-made products a new era of human experience began
where increased productivity created a much higher standard of living than had ever been known in
the pre-industrial world.
The start of the American Industrial Revolution is often attributed to Samuel Slater who opened the
first industrial mill in the United States in 1790 with a design that borrowed heavily from a British
model. Slater's pirated technology greatly increased the speed with which cotton thread could be
spun into yarn. While he introduced a vital new technology to the United States, the economic
takeoff of the Industrial Revolution required several other elements before it would transform
American life.
Another key to the rapidly changing economy of the early Industrial Revolution were new
organizational strategies to increase productivity. This had begun with the "outwork system"
whereby small parts of a larger production process were carried out in numerous individual homes.
This organizational reform was especially important for shoe and boot making. However, the chief
organizational breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution was the "factory system" where work was
performed on a large scale in a single centralized location. Among the early innovators of this
approach were a group of businessmen known as the Boston Associates who recruited thousands of
New England farm girls to operate the machines in their new factories.
The most famous of their tightly controlled mill towns was Lowell, Massachusetts, which opened in
1823. The use of female factory workers brought advantages to both employer and employee. The
Boston Associates preferred female labor because they paid the young girls less than men. These
female workers, often called "Lowell girls," benefited by experiencing a new kind of independence
outside the traditional male-dominated family farm.
The rise of wage labor at the heart of the Industrial Revolution also exploited working people in
new ways. The first strike among textile workers protesting wage and factory conditions occurred in
1824 and even the model mills of Lowell faced large strikes in the 1830s.
Dramatically increased production, like that in the New England's textile mills, were key parts of
the Industrial Revolution, but required at least two more elements for widespread impact. First, an
expanded system of credit was necessary to help entrepreneurs secure the capital needed for largescale and risky new ventures. Second, an improved transportation system was crucial for raw
materials to reach the factories and manufactured goods to reach consumers. State governments

played a key role encouraging both new banking institutions and a vastly increased transportation
network. This latter development is often termed the Market Revolution because of the central
importance of creating more efficient ways to transport people, raw materials, and finished goods.
Alexander Hamilton's Bank of the United States received a special national charter from the U.S.
Congress in 1791. It enjoyed great success, which led to the opening of branch offices in eight
major cities by 1805. Although economically successful, a government-chartered national bank
remained politically controversial. As a result, President Madison did not submit the bank's charter
for renewal in 1811. The key legal and governmental support for economic development in the early
19th century ultimately came at the state, rather than the national, level. When the national bank
closed, state governments responded by creating over 200 state-chartered banks within five years.
Indeed, this rapid expansion of credit and the banks' often unregulated activities helped to
exacerbate an economic collapse in 1819 that resulted in a six-year depression. The dynamism of a
capitalist economy creates rapid expansion that also comes with high risks that include regular
periods of sharp economic downturns.
The use of a state charter to provide special benefits for a private corporation was a crucial and
controversial innovation in republican America. The idea of granting special privileges to certain
individuals seemed to contradict the republican ideal of equality before the law. Even more than
through rapidly expanded banking institutions, state support for internal transportation
improvements lay at the heart of the nation's new political economy. Road, bridge, and especially
canal building was an expensive venture, but most state politicians supported using governmentgranted legal privileges and funds to help create the infrastructure that would stimulate economic
development.
The most famous state-led creation of the Market Revolution was undoubtedly New York's Erie
Canal. Begun in 1817, the 364-mile man-made waterway flowed between Albany on the Hudson
River and Buffalo on Lake Erie. The canal connected the eastern seaboard and the Old Northwest.
The great success of the Erie Canal set off a canal frenzy that, along with the development of the
steamboat, created a new and complete national water transportation network by 1840.

22b. Cotton and African-American Life

The American Industrial Revolution, concentrated in the northeast, would ultimately prove to be the
most significant force in the development of the modern United States. This economic innovation
sprung primarily from necessity. New England's agricultural economy was the poorest in the
country and that helped to spur experimentation there. Meanwhile, the far more fertile southern
states remained fully committed to agriculture as the central source of its wealth, here, too, dramatic

changes created a wholly new economy that would have been unrecognizable to late-18th century
Americans.
The slave-based tobacco economy that sustained the Chesapeake region was in deep crisis in the
late-18th century and some Virginia leaders even talked about ending slavery. But technological
innovations to process cotton soon gave new life to slavery, which would flourish in the new nation
as never before.
Eli Whitney was among the first to develop a cotton gin (short for "engine") that separated seeds
from short-staple cotton. This hardier cotton variety thrived in the new land of the Old Southwest,
and could now be processed far more efficiently than had been possible by hand. Indeed, the gin
increased by fifty times what a single person could process in a day. This new cotton production, in
turn, provided the raw material for the booming industrial textile mills of the American northeast
and Great Britain. Technological innovation and geographic expansion made the south the world's
largest producer and exporter of cotton in the 19th century.
This economic triumph, however, was accompanied by an immeasurable human tragedy. By 1820
all of the northern states had outlawed slavery, but the rise of cotton made the enormous profits of
the slave system irresistible to most white southerners. Distinctive northern and southern sections of
the United States were emerging with the former more urban and industrial and the latter more
agricultural, but the new economies of each section were deeply intertwined. Not only did southern
cotton feed northern textile mills, but northern insurers and transporters played a major part in the
growth of the modern slave economy of the cotton south.
The rise of "King Cotton" as the defining feature of southern life revitalized slavery. The promise of
cotton profits encouraged a spectacular rise in the direct importation of African slaves in the years
before the trans-Atlantic trade was made illegal in 1808. 250,000 new slaves arrived in the United
States from 1787 to 1808, a number equal to the entire slave importation of the colonial period.
After 1808, the internal slave trade forced African Americans from the border states and
Chesapeake into the new cotton belt, which ultimately stretched from upcountry Georgia to eastern
Texas. In fact, more than half of the Americans who moved to the Southwest after 1815 were
enslaved blacks.
With a growing free black population in northern and border states, 95 percent of the country's
African American population was enslaved in 1820. Generalizing about African American
experience under slavery is especially difficult because the oppressive slave system all but entirely
eliminated the avenues for slaves to honestly express themselves in public. There can be absolutely
no doubt, however, that enslaved people rejected their status and that their constant resistance in
small ways and large made white masters resort to terrifying violence in order to make the slave

system work.
Enslaved people's greatest act of collective resistance lay in the constant ways that they
demonstrated their humanity and challenged the legitimacy of slavery. In the face of abominable
conditions, enslaved African Americans created communities that gave meaning and purpose to
their lives. At the heart of black communities lay two central institutions: family and religion. Slave
marriages were not legally recognized in slave societies and as many as a third of all slave
marriages were broken up by masters. In spite of this, enslaved African Americans formed longterm marital bonds.
Furthermore, the severity of slave life encouraged the development of extended kin relations. Since
young adults were especially likely to be sold, parents and children were frequently separated
leading most slave communities to act collectively by respecting all elders and nurturing all children
like one large family.
Religion also provided a major source of support to enslaved African Americans. It was only in the
early 19th century that significant numbers of slaves became Christians. Partly this represents an
increasing Americanization among African Americans, many of whom had now lived in the New
World for several generations.
But to be a black Christian was not necessarily to have the same values as a white Christian. Slaves
undoubtedly adjusted Christianity to fit their own life experiences and there is little doubt that
Moses' leading the enslaved Israelites to the Promised Land had special resonance among American
slaves. Black spirituals like "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel ... and why not every man" had similar
subversive messages.

22c. Religious Transformation and the Second Great Awakening

The American Revolution had largely been a secular affair. The Founding Fathers clearly
demonstrated their opposition to the intermingling of politics and religion by establishing the
separation of church and state in the first amendment to the Constitution.
In part because religion was separated from the control of political leaders, a series of religious
revivals swept the United States from the 1790s and into the 1830s that transformed the religious
landscape of the country. Known today as the Second Great Awakening, this spiritual resurgence
fundamentally altered the character of American religion. At the start of the Revolution the largest
denominations were Congregationalists (the 18th-century descendants of Puritan churches),
Anglicans (known after the Revolution as Episcopalians), and Quakers. But by 1800, Evangelical
Methodism and Baptists, were becoming the fasting-growing religions in the nation.

The Second Great Awakening is best known for its large camp meetings that led extraordinary
numbers of people to convert through an enthusiastic style of preaching and audience participation.
A young man who attended the famous 20,000-person revival at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1802,
captures the spirit of these camp meetings activity:
The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be
agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers, all preaching at one time, some on
stumps, others on wagons ... Some of the people were singing, others praying, some
crying for mercy. A peculiarly strange sensation came over me. My heart beat
tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lips quivered, and I felt as though I must fall to
the ground.
This young man was so moved that he went on to become a Methodist minister. As this quotation
suggests, evangelical ministers reached their audience at an emotional level that powerfully moved
large crowds.
The evangelical impulse at the heart of the Second Great Awakening shared some of the egalitarian
thrust of Revolutionary ideals. Evangelical churches generally had a populist orientation that
favored ordinary people over elites. For instance, individual piety was seen as more important for
salvation than the formal university training required for ministers in traditional Christian churches.
The immense success of the Second Great Awakening was also furthered by evangelical churches
innovative organizational techniques. These were well suited to the frontier conditions of newly
settled territories. Most evangelical churches relied on itinerant preachers to reach large areas
without an established minister and also included important places for lay people who took on
major religious and administrative roles within evangelical congregations.
The Second Great Awakening marked a fundamental transition in American religious life. Many
early American religious groups in the Calvinist tradition had emphasized the deep depravity of
human beings and believed they could only be saved through the grace of God. The new
evangelical movement, however, placed greater emphasis on humans' ability to change their
situation for the better. By stressing that individuals could assert their "free will" in choosing to be
saved and by suggesting that salvation was open to all human beings, the Second Great Awakening
embraced a more optimistic view of the human condition. The repeated and varied revivals of these
several decades helped make the United States a much more deeply Protestant nation than it had
been before.
Finally, the Second Great Awakening also included greater public roles for white women and much
higher African-American participation in Christianity than ever before.

22d. Institutionalizing Religious Belief: The Benevolent Empire

The breadth and success of the Second Great Awakening meant that it had multiple dimensions. Its
origins in the 1790s had been especially radical and included strong commitments to anti-slavery
among Methodists and Baptists. This radicalism quickly passed and even its populist elements
tended to fade, or was most fully expressed in more egalitarian western locations. In urban areas the
social movement also had a major impact, but here it tended to have a more conservative and
institutional character that grew from the increasing distance between rich and poor created by the
rapid economic growth of the early Industrial Revolution.
At the heart of this aspect of the Second Great Awakening was a religious commitment to social
reform by elite and middle-class urban dwellers. Motivated by a concept of religious benevolence
that encouraged them to try and improve the condition of spiritually impoverished people, these
religious reformers created a national network of religious institutions in the decade after 1815.
Although typically headquartered in the major cities of the northeast, groups like the American
Bible Society, American Sunday School Union, and the American Tract Society, were among the
very first institutions to organize on a national scale.
These institutions cooperated on an interdenominational basis to form what is often called the
Benevolent Empire. Leaders of these organizations hoped to overcome the great pluralism within
American Protestantism by downplaying denominational differences in favor of promoting a
general Christian vision that would support national greatness and individual moral reform, causes
which they believed to be deeply intertwined.
Among the most famous leaders of the Second Great Awakening was a Presbyterian minister named
Charles Grandison Finney who led a series of revivals in the newly developed areas along the Erie
Canal in upstate New York. His work climaxed with a six-month campaign in Rochester in 1830
where he preached daily and developed important new techniques such as group prayer meetings
within family homes. He also relied centrally on women, including his wife Lydia, as key forces in
drawing others to convert.
Finney's efforts in Rochester, like the work of the Benevolent Empire more generally, had its
greatest impact among business leaders and middle-class people who had benefited from the
increased standard of living brought about by the early Industrial Revolution. These groups
recognized the rewards to be secured from hard work and self-discipline which they combined with
a commitment to Christian morality that often included strong opposition to drinking alcohol.
On the other hand, for unskilled workers, who were largely excluded from the benefits of the
Industrial Revolution, the new call for moral reform seemed to intrude on private family matters.

Instead of seeing religion as the answer to social problems, some opponents of the Benevolent
Empire began to call for workingmen's associations that could secure higher wages for ordinary
laborers. The gulf between Protestant reformers and common laborers was especially great when
those workers were Irish Catholics who entered the United States in large numbers starting in the
1830s.
Religious clashes were not far off.

22e. New Roles for White Women

Who would wear the pants in most American families men or women? The social change
dictated by the Second Great Awakening, to some degree, tailored the answer to that question.
The social forces transforming the new nation had an especially strong impact on white women
who, of course, could be found in families of all classes throughout the nation. As we have seen, the
early Industrial Revolution began in the United States by taking advantage of young farm girls'
labor. Meanwhile, the Second Great Awakening was largely driven forward by middle-class women
who were its earliest converts and who filled evangelical churches in numbers far beyond their
proportion in the general population. Furthermore, the Benevolent Empire included an institutional
place for respectable women who formed important women's auxiliaries to almost all of the new
Christian reform organizations.
Gender implications intertwined with these religious and economic changes. The republican
emphasis on equality and independence as fundamental principles of the United States challenged
traditional concepts of family life where the male patriarch ruled commandingly over his wife and
children. In place of this dominating father-centered standard, a new notion of more cooperative
family life began to spread where husband and wife worked as partners in raising a family through
love and kindness rather than sheer discipline. A transition of this magnitude occurred over a long
period of time and with an uneven impact throughout the country. Middle-class women in the
northeast, however, were at the forefront of this new understanding of family life and women's
roles. As with the economic expansion of the Industrial Revolution and the reforms of the
Benevolent Empire, the northeast was at the leading edge of major social changes in the new nation.
Assessing the benefits and limitations of these changes for white women has been the source of a
great deal of disagreement among historians in recent years, but it is clear that the new
developments of the early-19th century helped to establish gender patterns that have remained
strong up to the present day. For example, it was only in the 1820s and 1830s that women began to
displace men as the overwhelming majority of schoolteachers. This development brought clear
advantages to women who increasingly received advanced education to become teachers.

Furthermore, teaching brought high moral status and an acknowledged public role in improving
American society. On the other hand, the rise of female school teaching also suggests the limited
choices available even to middle-class women. They had almost no other options for public
employment and were chiefly attractive to employers because they could be paid less than men.
Ultimately, we need to recognize how the rapid changes of this period included both positive and
negative qualities. White women came to possess a new social power as moral reformers and were
thought to possess more Christian virtue than men, but this idealization simultaneously limited
white middle-class women to a restricted domestic sphere. Furthermore, this new standard of
womanhood could be achieved neither by working-class women nor by enslaved African
Americans.

22f. Early National Arts and Cultural Independence

Surprisingly, cultural independence proved to be the hardest area for Americans to break free from
European models and standards.
American intellectuals and artists recognized the need for American cultural independence. In
1780s, Noah Webster declared that "America must be as independent in literature as she is in
politics" His own major contribution to American cultural independence came through an
immensely influential spelling book to standardize the American language. By the 1830s over 60
million copies had been sold and its descendent, Webster's dictionary, remains a mainstay of
American bookshelves.
Despite the significance of Webster's dictionary, other early national authors were far less
successful. The most popular writers of the post-Revolutionary era wrote strongly patriotic
accounts, like Mercy Otis Warren's "History of the Revolution" (1805) and Mason Weems'
fantastically popular (and distorted) account of George Washington's life that sped through
countless editions starting in 1800. Although popular in their day, and responding to a central need
to celebrate the greatness of the new country and its leaders, their artistic and scholarly quality
suffered from a simplistic patriotic impulse.
On the other hand, the Philadelphia writer Charles Brockden Brown, arguably the most
sophisticated novelist of the new republic, reached only a very limited audience with six
psychologically-troubling novels published from 1798 to 1801. The first American writer to receive
both popular and lasting acclaim was the New Yorker Washington Irving. His most famous stories
drew on Dutch-American popular culture in his native state, and gave audiences such classic
characters as Rip Van Winkle and the Headless Horseman. Interestingly, however, Irving lived
much of his life in Europe and enjoyed a very strong reputation outside the United States.

American landscape painting provided the earliest and most distinctively American contribution to
the fine arts. Thomas Cole, an English immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1818, began a
painting style that celebrated the American wilderness as a powerful and frightening force that
distinguished the United States from the corruption of European civilization. Cole helped to found
the Hudson Valley school of landscape painting that frequently painted in that region of upstate
New York, a tradition built upon later in the century by men like Frederick Church and Albert
Bierstadt who painted further west.
Ironically, this celebration of American novelty through the wilderness occurred at a time when
massive western migration threatened the natural beauty that these artists sought to capture. In fact,
artists' need for wealthy patrons and their need to be near these benefactors meant that painters
rarely experienced the actual wilderness that they portrayed on canvas.
The most celebrated American writer of the new nation was James Fenimore Cooper whose bestknown work also emphasized the wilderness and its central role creating America. Natty Bumppo,
Cooper's most famous character who appeared in several novels including The Last of the Mohicans
(1826), was a heroic frontiersman who recognized the nobility of Native Americans even as he
participated in their conquest by settling the west. One painter who addressed this crisis more
directly than most was George Catlin. He used Indian portraits to try and raise money and political
interest to help Native Americans avoid the destruction of their way of life.
American cultural innovation was both original and thoughtful during the early republic and early
national periods. Its most influential contributions generally focused on subjects that distinguished
the United States from Europe, like the work of the great naturalist painter and engraver John James
Audubon. Nevertheless, landmark American contributions to western creative arts were mostly
reserved for a later generation when major figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson,
Walt Whitman, Thomas Eakins, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and John Singer Sargent would make
their marks in the mid- and late-19th century.
At the beginning of the 19th century, All Americans particularly painters and writers were
struggling with the notion of what it meant to be an America.

23. Politics and the New Nation

The social forces that reshaped the United States in its first half century were profound. Western
expansion, growing racial conflict, unprecedented economic changes linked to the early Industrial
Revolution, and the development of a stronger American Protestantism in the Second Great
Awakening all overlapped with one another in ways that were both complementary and
contradictory.
Furthermore, these changes all had a direct impact on American political culture that attempted to
make sense of how these varied impulses had transformed the country.
The changing character of American politics can be divided into two time periods separated by the
War of 1812. In the early republic that preceded the war, "republicanism" had been the guiding
political value. Although an unquestioned assault on the aristocratic ideal of the colonial era,
republicanism also included a deep fear of the threat to public order posed by the decline of
traditional values of hierarchy and inequality.
While it seems surprising today, at the start of the early republic many people, and almost all public
leaders, associated democracy with anarchy. In the early national period following the War of 1812,
democracy began to be championed as an unqualified key to improving the country. The formerly
widespread fear of democracy was now held only by small and increasingly isolated groups in the
1820s.
Although a belief in democratic principles remains at the center of American life today, the growth
of democracy in the early national period was not obvious, easy, or without negative consequences.
The economic boom of the early Industrial Revolution distributed wealth in shockingly unequal
ways that threatened the independence of working-class Americans. Similarly, western expansion
drove increased attacks on Native American communities as well as the massive expansion of
slavery.
Finally, even within white households, the promise of Jacksonian Democracy could only be fully
attained by husbands and sons. The changes American society underwent in the early national
period, including many of its troubling problems, created a framework of modern American life that
we can still recognize today.

23a. The Era of Good Feelings and the Two-Party System

The War of 1812 closed with the Federalist Party all but destroyed. The 1816 presidential election
was the last one when the Federalists' ran a candidate. He lost resoundingly.

The 1818 Congressional election brought another landslide victory for Democratic-Republicans
who controlled 85 percent of the seats in the U.S. Congress. James Monroe, yet another Virginian,
followed Madison in the Presidency for two terms from 1817 to 1825. Although this period has
often been called the Era of Good Feelings due to its one-party dominance, in fact, DemocraticRepublicans were deeply divided internally and a new political system was about to be created from
the old Republican-Federalist competition that had been known as the First Party System.
Although Democratic-Republicans were now the only active national party, its leaders incorporated
major economic policies that had been favored by Federalists since the time of Alexander Hamilton.
President Monroe continued the policies begun by Madison at the end of his presidency to build an
American System of national economic development. These policies had three basic aspects: a
national bank, protective tariffs to support American manufactures, and federally-funded internal
improvements.
The first two elements received strong support after the War of 1812. The chartering of the Second
Bank of the United States in 1816, once again headquartered in Philadelphia, indicates how much of
the old Federalist economic agenda the Democratic-Republicans now supported. Whereas Jefferson
had seen a national bank as a threat to ordinary farmers, the leaders of his party in 1816 had come to
a new understanding of the need for a strong federal role in creating the basic infrastructure of the
nation.
The cooperation among national politicians that marked the one-party Era of Good Feelings lasted
less than a decade. A new style of American politics took shape in the 1820s and 1830s whose key
qualities have remained central to American politics up to the present. In this more modern system,
political parties played the crucial role building broad and lasting coalitions among diverse groups
in the American public. Furthermore, these parties represented more than the distinct interests of a
single region or economic class. Most importantly, modern parties broke decisively from a political
tradition favoring personal loyalty and patronage. Although long-lasting parties were totally
unpredicted in the 1780s, by the 1830s they had become central to American politics.
The New York politician Martin Van Buren played a key role in the development of the Second
Party System. He rose to lead the new Democratic party by breaking from the more traditional
leadership of his own Democratic-Republican party. He achieved this in New York by 1821 and
helped create the system on a national scale while serving in Washington D.C. as a senator and later
as president.
Van Buren perceptively responded to the growing democratization of American life in the first
decades of the 19th century by embracing mass public opinion. As he explained, "Those who have
wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting

the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is
the resort of genius and transforms the face of the universe." Rather than follow a model of elite
political leadership like that of the Founding Fathers, Van Buren saw "genius" in reaching out to the
"multitude" of the general public.
Like other new party leaders of the period, Van Buren made careful use of newspapers to spread the
word about party positions and to ensure close discipline among party members. In fact, the growth
of newspapers in the new nation was closely linked to the rise of a competitive party system. In
1775 there had been just 31 newspapers in the colonies, but by 1835 the number of papers in the
nation had soared to 1200. Rather than make any claim to objective reporting, newspapers existed
as propaganda vehicles for the political parties that they supported. Newspapers were especially
important to the new party system because they spread information about the party platform, a
carefully crafted list of policy commitments that aimed to appeal to a broad public.

23b. The Expansion of the Vote: A White Man's Democracy

The rise of political parties as the fundamental organizing unit of the Second (Two) Party System
represented a sharp break from the values that had shaped Republican and Federalist political
competition. Leaders in the earlier system remained deeply suspicious that parties could corrupt and
destroy the young republic. At the heart of the new legitimacy of parties, and their forthright
celebration of democracy, was the dramatic expansion of voting rights for white men.
Immediately after the Revolution most states retained some property requirements that prevented
poor people from voting. Following republican logic, citizens were believed to need an economic
stake in society in order to be trusted to vote wisely. If a voter lacked economic independence, then
it seemed that those who controlled his livelihood could easily manipulate his vote.
Ironically, just as industrial wage labor began to create dependent laborers on a large new scale, the
older republican commitment to propertied voters fell out of favor. As property requirements for
voting were abolished, economic status disappeared as a foundation for citizenship. By 1840 more
than 90 percent of adult white men possessed the right to vote.
Not only that, voters could now cast their opinion for more offices. Previously, governors and
presidential electors had usually been selected by state legislatures as part of a republican strategy
that limited the threat of direct democratic control over the highest political offices. The growing
democratic temper of the first decades of the 19th century changed this and increasingly all offices
were chosen by direct vote. The United States was the world leader in allowing popular
participation in elections. This triumph of American politics built upon, but also expanded, the
egalitarian ideals of the American Revolution.

This democratic triumph, however, also had sharp limitations that today seem quite shocking. At the
same time that state legislatures opened suffrage (that is, the right to vote) to all white men, they
simultaneously closed the door firmly on white women and free African Americans. This movement
was especially disappointing since it represented a retreat from a broader sense of political rights
that had been included in some early state constitutions.
For example, New Jersey revised its state constitution to abolish property requirements in 1807, but
at the same time prevented all women from voting (even wealthy ones who had been allowed to
vote there since 1776) as well as all free blacks. New York acted similarly in 1821 when its
legislature extended the franchise to almost all white men, but simultaneously created high property
requirements for free blacks. As a result, only 68 of the 13,000 free African Americans in New York
City could vote in 1825. When Pennsylvania likewise denied free blacks the right to vote in the late
1830s, a state legislator explained that "The people of this state are for continuing this
commonwealth, what it has always been, a political community of white persons." While he was
correct about the prevailing racist sentiment among white voters, free blacks with property had not
been excluded from the franchise by the earlier Revolutionary state constitution.
Tragically, the democratization of American politics to include nearly universal white manhood
suffrage also intensified discrimination by race and gender. The idea of total democracy remained
too radical for full implementation.

23c. The Missouri Compromise

Most white Americans agreed that western expansion was crucial to the health of the nation. But
what should be done about slavery in the West?
The contradictions inherent in the expansion of white male voting rights can also be seen in
problems raised by western migration. The new western states were at the forefront of more
inclusive voting rights for white men, but their development simultaneously devastated the rights of
Native American communities. Native American rights rarely became a controversial public issue.
This was not the case for slavery, however, as northern and southern whites differed sharply about
its proper role in the west.
The incorporation of new western territories into the United States made slavery an explicit concern
of national politics. Balancing the interests of slave and free states had played a role from the very
start of designing the federal government at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The crucial
compromise there that sacrificed the rights of African Americans in favor of a stronger union among
the states exploded once more in 1819 when Missouri petitioned to join the United States as a slave
state.

In 1819, the nation contained eleven free and eleven slave states creating a balance in the U.S.
senate. Missouri's entrance threatened to throw this parity in favor of slave interests. The debate in
Congress over the admission of Missouri was extraordinarily bitter after Congressman James
Tallmadge from New York proposed that slavery be prohibited in the new state.
The debate was especially sticky because defenders of slavery relied on a central principle of
fairness. How could the Congress deny a new state the right to decide for itself whether or not to
allow slavery? If Congress controlled the decision, then the new states would have fewer rights than
the original ones.
Henry Clay, a leading congressman, played a crucial role in brokering a two-part solution known as
the Missouri Compromise. First, Missouri would be admitted to the union as a slave state, but
would be balanced by the admission of Maine, a free state, that had long wanted to be separated
from Massachusetts. Second, slavery was to be excluded from all new states in the Louisiana
Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri. People on both sides of the controversy saw
the compromise as deeply flawed. Nevertheless, it lasted for over thirty years until the KansasNebraska Act of 1854 determined that new states north of the boundary deserved to be able to
exercise their sovereignty in favor of slavery if they so choose.
Democracy and self-determination could clearly be mobilized to extend an unjust institution that
contradicted a fundamental American commitment to equality. The Missouri crisis probed an
enormously problematic area of American politics that would explode in a civil war. As Thomas
Jefferson observed about the Missouri crisis, "This momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night,
awakened and filled me with terror."
African Americans obviously opposed slavery and news of some congressional opposition to its
expansion circulated widely within slave communities. Denmark Vesey, a free black living in
Charleston, South Carolina, made the most dramatic use of the white disagreement about the future
of slavery in the west. Vesey quoted the Bible as well as congressional debates over the Missouri
issue to denounce slavery from the pulpit of the African Methodist Episcopal church where he was a
lay minister. Along with a key ally named Gullah Jack, Vesey organized a slave rebellion in 1822
that planned to capture the Charleston arsenal and seize the city long enough for its black
population to escape to the free black republic of Haiti.
The rebellion was betrayed just days before its planned starting date and resulted in the execution of
thirty-five organizers as well as the destruction of the black church where Vesey preached.
Slaveholders were clearly on the defensive with antislavery sentiment building in the north and
undeniable opposition among African Americans in the south. As one white Charlestonian
complained, "By the Missouri question, our slaves thought, there was a charter of liberties granted

them by Congress."
African Americans knew that they could not rely upon whites to end slavery, but they also
recognized that the increasing divide between north and south and their battle over western
expansion could open opportunities for blacks to exploit. The most explosive of these future black
actions would be Nat Turner's Virginia slave revolt in 1831.

24f. The Trail of Tears The Indian Removals

Not everyone was included in the new Jacksonian Democracy. There was no initiative from
Jacksonian Democrats to include women in political life or to combat slavery. But, it was the Native
American who suffered most from Andrew Jackson's vision of America. Jackson, both as a military
leader and as President, pursued a policy of removing Indian tribes from their ancestral lands. This
relocation would make room for settlers and often for speculators who made large profits from the
purchase and sale of land.
Indian policy caused the President little political trouble because his primary supporters were from
the southern and western states and generally favored a plan to remove all the Indian tribes to lands
west of the Mississippi River. While Jackson and other politicians put a very positive and favorable
spin on Indian removal in their speeches, the removals were in fact often brutal. There was little the
Indians could do to defend themselves. In 1832, a group of about a thousand Sac and Fox Indians
led by Chief Black Hawk returned to Illinois, but militia members easily drove them back across the
Mississippi. The Seminole resistance in Florida was more formidable, resulting in a war that began
under Chief Osceola and lasted into the 1840s.
The Cherokees of Georgia, on the other hand, used legal action to resist. The Cherokee people were
by no means frontier savages. By the 1830s they developed their own written language, printed
newspapers and elected leaders to representative government. When the government of Georgia
refused to recognize their autonomy and threatened to seize their lands, the Cherokees took their
case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won a favorable decision. John Marshall's opinion for the Court
majority in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia was essentially that Georgia had no jurisdiction over the
Cherokees and no claim to their lands. But Georgia officials simply ignored the decision, and
President Jackson refused to enforce it. Jackson was furious and personally affronted by the
Marshall ruling, stating, "Mr. Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it!"
Finally, federal troops came to Georgia to remove the tribes forcibly. As early as 1831, the army
began to push the Choctaws off their lands to march to Oklahoma. In 1835, some Cherokee leaders
agreed to accept western land and payment in exchange for relocation. With this agreement, the
Treaty of New Echota, Jackson had the green light to order Cherokee removal. Other Cherokees,

under the leadership of Chief John Ross, resisted until the bitter end. About 20,000 Cherokees were
marched westward at gunpoint on the infamous Trail of Tears. Nearly a quarter perished on the way,
with the remainder left to seek survival in a completely foreign land. The tribe became hopelessly
divided as the followers of Ross murdered those who signed the Treaty of New Echota.
The Trail of Tears is the most sorrowful legacy of the Jacksonian Era.

25. The Rise of American Industry

During the first 30 years of the 1800s, American Industry was truly born.
Household manufacturing was almost universal in colonial days, with local craftsmen providing for
their communities. This new era introduced factories, with machines and predetermined tasks,
producing items to be shipped and sold elsewhere.
In 1790, Samuel Slater built the first factory in America, based on the secrets of textile
manufacturing he brought from England. He built a cotton-spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode
Island, soon run by water-power. Over the next decade textiles was the dominant industry in the
country, with hundreds of companies created.
In the iron industry, Pennsylvania's furnaces and rolling mills were fast supplanting small local
forges. In 1804, Oliver Evans of Philadelphia developed a high-pressure steam engine that was
adaptable to a great variety of industrial purposes. Within a few years it powered ships, sawmills,
flour mills, printing presses as well as textile factories. In 1798, Eli Whitney, who had invented the
cotton gin in 1792, contributed one of the most important elements of the industrial age. He came
up with the idea of making guns using interchangeable parts. The idea of interchangeable parts had
been raised in Europe, but it took an American to successfully commercialize the concept.
The concept was seized by industry after industry. Canal and railway construction played an
important role in transporting people and cargo west, increasing the size of the US marketplace.
With the new infrastructure even remote parts of the country gained the ability to communicate and
establish trade relationships with the centers of commerce in the East.
The new industrialization was very expensive. Out of the need for money grew the corporation.
Chartered under state laws, corporations could accumulate capital from as many investors as were
interested in them, each of them enjoying some stock or stake in the corporation's success. There
was no limit to how much investors could earn, yet each with "limited liability" whereby they were
financially responsible for the corporation's debts only to the extent of their investment.
Yet, the Industrial Revolution would not have been possible without one further ingredient
people. Canals and railways needed thousands of people to build them. Business schemes required

people to execute them. The number of projects and businesses under development was enormous.
The demand for labor was satisfied, in part, by millions of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and
elsewhere. As is often the case when there is a mass immigration, there was a great deal of
resistance. Old and new political parties took strong positions on the rights of immigrants.
Ultimately these positions hardened, leading to major political changes in America.

25a. The Canal Era

Ever since the days of Jamestown and Plymouth, America was moving West. Trail blazers had first
hewn their way on foot and by horseback. Homesteaders followed by wagon and by either keelboat
or bargeboat, bringing their possessions with them. Yet, real growth in the movement of people and
goods west started with the canal.
For over a hundred years, people had dreamed of building a canal across New York that would
connect the Great Lakes to the Hudson River to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean. After
unsuccessfully seeking federal government assistance, DeWitt Clinton successfully petitioned the
New York State legislature to build the canal and bring that dream to reality. "Clinton's Ditch," his
critics called it.
Construction began in 1817 and was completed in 1825. The canal spanned 350 miles between the
Great Lakes and the Hudson River and was an immediate success. Between its completion and its
closure in 1882, it returned over $121 million in revenues on an original cost of $7 million. Its
success led to the great Canal Age. By bringing the Great Lakes within reach of a metropolitan
market, the Erie Canal opened up the unsettled northern regions of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. It also
fostered the development of many small industrial companies, whose products were used in the
construction and operation of the canal.
New York City became the principal gateway to the West and financial center for the nation. The
Erie Canal was also in part responsible for the creation of strong bonds between the new western
territories and the northern states. Soon the flat lands of the west would be converted into largescale grain farming. The Canal enabled the farmers to send their goods to New England.
Subsistence farmers in the north were now less necessary. Many farmers left for jobs in the
factories. The Erie Canal transformed America.
Pennsylvanians were shocked to find that the cheapest route to Pittsburgh was by way of New York
City, up the Hudson River, across New York by the Erie Canal to the Great Lakes with a short
overland trip to Pittsburgh. When it became evident that little help for state improvements could be
expected from the federal government, other states followed New York in constructing canals. Ohio
built a canal in 1834 to link the Great Lakes with the Mississippi Valley. As a result of Ohio's

investment, Cleveland rose from a frontier village to a Great Lakes port by 1850. Cincinnati could
now send food products down the Ohio and Mississippi by flatboat and steamboat and ship flour by
canal boat to New York.
The state of Pennsylvania then put through a great portage canal system to Pittsburgh. It used a
series of inclined planes and stationary steam engines to transport canal boats up and over the
Alleghenies on rails. At its peak, Pennsylvania had almost a thousand miles of canals in operation.
By the 1830s, the country had a complete water route from New York City to New Orleans. By
1840, over 3,000 miles of canals had been built. Yet, within twenty years a new mode of
transportation, the railroad, would render most of them unprofitable.

25b. Early American Railroads

The development of railroads was one of the most important phenomena of the Industrial
Revolution. With their formation, construction and operation, they brought profound social,
economic and political change to a country only 50 years old. Over the next 50 years, America
would come to see magnificent bridges and other structures on which trains would run, awesome
depots, ruthless rail magnates and the majesty of rail locomotives crossing the country.
The railroad was first developed in Great Britain. A man named George Stephenson successfully
applied the steam technology of the day and created the world's first successful locomotive. The
first engines used in the United States were purchased from the Stephenson Works in England. Even
rails were largely imported from England until the Civil War. Americans who had visited England to
see new steam locomotives were impressed that railroads dropped the cost of shipping by carriage
by 60-70%.
Baltimore, the third largest city in the nation in 1827, had not invested in a canal. Yet, Baltimore
was 200 miles closer to the frontier than New York and soon recognized that the development of a
railway could make the city more competitive with New York and the Erie Canal in transporting
people and goods to the West. The result was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first railroad
chartered in the United States. There were great parades on the day the construction started. On July
4, 1828, the first spadeful of earth was turned over by the last surviving signer of the Declaration of
Independence, 91-year-old Charles Carroll.
New railroads came swiftly. In 1830, the South Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Company was
formed to draw trade from the interior of the state. It had a steam locomotive built at the West Point
Foundry in New York City, called The Best Friend of Charleston, the first steam locomotive to be
built for sale in the United States. A year later, the Mohawk & Hudson railroad reduced a 40-mile
wandering canal trip that took all day to accomplish to a 17-mile trip that took less than an hour. Its

first steam engine was named the DeWitt Clinton after the builder of the Erie Canal.
Although the first railroads were successful, attempts to finance new ones originally failed as
opposition was mounted by turnpike operators, canal companies, stagecoach companies and those
who drove wagons. Opposition was mounted, in many cases, by tavern owners and innkeepers
whose businesses were threatened. Sometimes opposition turned to violence. Religious leaders
decried trains as sacriligious. But the economic benefits of the railroad soon won over the skeptics.
Perhaps the greatest physical feat of 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental
railroad. Two railroads, the Central Pacific starting in San Francisco and a new railroad, the Union
Pacific, starting in Omaha, Nebraska, would build the rail-line. Huge forces of immigrants, mainly
Irish for the Union Pacific and Chinese for the Central Pacific, crossed mountains, dug tunnels and
laid track. The two railroads met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869, and drove a last, golden
spike into the completed railway.

25c. Inventors and Inventions

A nation becomes great because of great people. Often the people that make the greatest impact on
progress are not national leaders, but brilliant men and women of ideas. A handful of individuals
developed inventions in the first half of the nineteenth century that, not only had a direct impact on
everyone's lives, but also affected the destiny of the American nation.
In the second decade of the nineteenth century, roads were few and poor. Getting to the frontier and
instituting trade with settlers was difficult. In 1807, Robert Fulton sailed the first commercially
viable steamboat, the Clermont, from New York City to Albany. Within 4 years, regular steamboat
service from Pittsburgh took passengers and cargo down the Ohio into the Mississippi. Within 20
years, over 200 steamboats were plying these routes.
While New England was moving to mechanize manufacturing, others were working to mechanize
agriculture. Cyrus McCormick wanted to design equipment that would simplify farmers' work. In
1831, he invented a horse-drawn reaper to harvest grain and started selling it to others in 1840. It
allowed the farmer to do five times the amount of harvesting in a day than they could by hand using
a scythe. By 1851, his company was the largest producer of farm equipment in the world.
In 1837, John Deere made the first commercially successful riding plow. Deere's steel plow allowed
farmers to turn heavy, gummy prairie sod easily, which stuck to the older wooden and iron plows.
His inventions made farm much less physically demanding. During the Civil War, 25 years later,
even women and young children of the South would use these devices allowing the men to be away
at war.

Another notable American inventor was Samuel F.B. Morse, who invented the electric telegraph
and Morse Code. Morse was an artist having a great deal of difficulty making enough money to
make ends meet. He started pursuing a number of business opportunities which would allow him to
continue his work as an artist. Out of these efforts came the telegraph. With the completion of the
first telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington in 1844, almost instant communication
between distant places in the country was possible. The man who was responsible for building this
first telegraph line was Ezra Cornell, later the founder of Cornell University.
Charles Goodyear invented one of the most important chemical processes of the century. Natural
rubber is brittle when cold and sticky when warm. In 1844, Goodyear received a patent for
developing a method of treating rubber, called vulcanization, that made it strong and supple when
hot or cold. Although, the process was instrumental in the development of tires used on bicycles and
automobiles, the fruit of this technology came too late for Goodyear. He died a poor man.
Perhaps no one had as great an impact on the development of the industrial north as Eli Whitney.
Whitney raised eyebrows when he walked into the US Patent office, took apart ten guns, and
reassembled them mixing the parts of each gun. Whitney lived in an age where an artisan would
handcraft each part of every gun. No two products were quite the same. Whitney's milling machine
allowed workers to cut metal objects in an identical fashion, making interchangeable parts. It was
the start of the concept of mass production. Over the course of time, the device and Whitney's
techniques were used to make many others products. Elias Howe used it to make the first workable
sewing machine in 1846. Clockmakers used it to make metal gears. In making the cotton gin, Eli
Whitney had played a major part in expanding slavery. In making the milling machine to produce
precision guns and rifles in a very efficient and effective way, he set the industrial forces of the
North in motion.

25d. The First American Factories

There was more than one kind of frontier and one kind of pioneer in early America.
While many people were trying to carve out a new existence in states and territories continually
stretching to the West, another group pioneered the American Industrial Revolution. They
developed new, large forms of business enterprise that involved the use of power-driven machinery
to produce products and goods previously produced in the home or small shop. The machinery was
grouped together in factories.
Part of the technology used in forming these new business enterprises came from England,
however, increasingly they came from American inventors and scientists and mechanics.

The first factory in the United States was begun after George Washington became President. In
1790, Samuel Slater, a cotton spinner's apprentice who left England the year before with the secrets
of textile machinery, built a factory from memory to produce spindles of yarn.
The factory had 72 spindles, powered by by nine children pushing foot treadles, soon replaced by
water power. Three years later, John and Arthur Shofield, who also came from England, built the
first factory to manufacture woolens in Massachusetts.
From these humble beginnings to the time of the Civil War there were over two million spindles in
over 1200 cotton factories and 1500 woolen factories in the United States.
From the textile industry, the factory spread to many other areas. In Pennsylvania, large furnaces
and rolling mills supplanted small local forges and blacksmiths. In Connecticut, tin ware and clocks
were produced. Soon reapers and sewing machines would be manufactured.
At first, these new factories were financed by business partnerships, where several individuals
invested in the factory and paid for business expenses like advertising and product distribution.
Shortly after the War of 1812, a new form of business enterprise became prominent the
corporation. In a corporation, individual investors are financially responsible for business debts
only to the extent of their investment, rather than extending to their full net worth, which included
his house and property.
First used by bankers and builders, the corporation concept spread to manufacturing. In 1813,
Frances Cabot Lowell, Nathan Appleton and Patrick Johnson formed the Boston Manufacturing
Company to build America's first integrated textile factory, that performed every operation
necessary to transform cotton lint into finished cloth.
Over the next 15 years they charted additional companies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Others copied their corporation model and by 1840 the corporate manufacturer was commonplace.
Lowell and his associates hoped to avoid the worst evils of British industry. They built their
production facilities at Massachusetts. To work in the textile mills, Lowell hired young, unmarried
women from New England farms. The "mill girls" were chaperoned by matrons and were held to a
strict curfew and moral code.
Although the work was tedious (12 hours per day, 6 days per week), many women enjoyed a sense
of independence they had not known on the farm. The wages were about triple the going rate for a
domestic servant at the time.
The impact of the creation of all these factories and corporations was to drive people from rural
areas to the cities where factories were located. This movement was well underway by the Civil

War. During the 1840s, the population of the country as a whole increased by 36%. The population
of towns and cities of 8,000 or more increased by 90%. With a huge and growing market,
unconstrained by European traditions that could hamper their development, the corporation became
the central force in America's economic growth.

25e. The Emergence of "Women's Sphere"

Chaos seemed to reign in the early 1800s. Cities swelled with immigrants and farmers' sons and
daughters seeking their fortunes. Disease, poverty, and crime were rampant. Factory cities were
being built almost overnight and the frontier was reaching to the Pacific Coast. The public
institutions schools, hospitals, orphanages, almshouses, and prisons were expected to handle
these problems, but were overwhelmed. Somewhere there must be safe haven from the hubbub and
confusion of business and industry, a private refuge. That place was the home.
Money equaled status, and increased status opened more doors of opportunity for the upwardly
mobile. The home was the perfect location to display the wealth. The husband had to be out in the
public sphere creating the wealth, but his wife was free to manage the private sphere, the "women's
sphere." Together, a successful husband and wife created a picture of perfect harmony. As he
developed skills for business, she cultivated a complementary role. This recipe for success was so
popular that all who could adopted it. In short order the newly created roles for men and women
were thought to reflect their true nature. A true man was concerned about success and moving up
the social ladder. He was aggressive, competitive, rational, and channeled all of his time and energy
into his work. A true woman, on the other hand, was virtuous. Her four chief characteristics were
piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. She was the great civilizer who created order in the
home in return for her husband's protection, financial security and social status.
Women's virtue was as much a hallmark of Victorian society as materialism. As long as women
functioned flawlessly within the domestic sphere and never ventured from it, women were held in
reverence by their husbands and general society. But this was carried to ridiculous extremes. To
protect women's purity, certain words could not be spoken in their presence. Undergarments were
"unmentionables." A leg or an arm was called a "limb." Even tables had limbs, and in one especially
delicate household, the "limbs" of a piano were covered in little trousers!
The cult of true womanhood was not simply fostered by men. In fact, the promotion of women's
sphere was a female obsession as well. Writers like Sarah Hale published magazines that detailed
the behaviors of a proper lady. Godey's Lady's Book sold 150,000 copies annually. Catherine
Beecher advocated taking women's sphere to the classroom. Women as teachers, she said, could
instill the proper moral code into future generations.

It was a fragile existence for a woman. One indiscretion, trivial by today's standards, would be her
downfall, and there was no place in polite society for a fallen woman. But a fallen woman was not
alone. The great majority of women never met the rigorous standard of "True Womanhood" set by
the Victorian middle class, nor could they ever hope to. Sojourner Truth drove that point home in
1851. "That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over
ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mudpuddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?" Only white women of European
descent, and very few of them, could be "True Women." For immigrant women, the wives and
daughters of farmers, and the women who followed their husbands to the frontier, the necessities of
daily life overshadowed the niceties. Nevertheless, the ideal of True Womanhood affected every
facet of American culture in the 19th century.

25f. Irish and German Immigration

In the middle half of the nineteenth century, more than one-half of the population of Ireland
emigrated to the United States. So did an equal number of Germans. Most of them came because of
civil unrest, severe unemployment or almost inconceivable hardships at home. This wave of
immigration affected almost every city and almost every person in America. From 1820 to 1870,
over seven and a half million immigrants came to the United States more than the entire
population of the country in 1810. Nearly all of them came from northern and western Europe
about a third from Ireland and almost a third from Germany. Burgeoning companies were able to
absorb all that wanted to work. Immigrants built canals and constructed railroads. They became
involved in almost every labor-intensive endeavor in the country. Much of the country was built on
their backs.
In Ireland almost half of the population lived on farms that produced little income. Because of their
poverty, most Irish people depended on potatoes for food. When this crop failed three years in
succession, it led to a great famine with horrendous consequences. Over 750,000 people starved to
death. Over two million Irish eventually moved to the United States seeking relief from their
desolated country. Impoverished, the Irish could not buy property. Instead, they congregated in the
cities where they landed, almost all in the northeastern United States. Today, Ireland has just half
the population it did in the early 1840s. There are now more Irish Americans than there are Irish
nationals.
In the decade from 1845 to 1855, more than a million Germans fled to the United States to escape
economic hardship. They also sought to escape the political unrest caused by riots, rebellion and
eventually a revolution in 1848. The Germans had little choice few other places besides the

United States allowed German immigration. Unlike the Irish, many Germans had enough money to
journey to the Midwest in search of farmland and work. The largest settlements of Germans were in
New York City, Baltimore, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee.
With the vast numbers of German and Irish coming to America, hostility to them erupted. Part of
the reason for the opposition was religious. All of the Irish and many of the Germans were Roman
Catholic. Part of the opposition was political. Most immigrants living in cities became Democrats
because the party focused on the needs of commoners. Part of the opposition occurred because
Americans in low-paying jobs were threatened and sometimes replaced by groups willing to work
for almost nothing in order to survive. Signs that read NINA "No Irish Need Apply" sprang
up throughout the country.
Ethnic and anti-Catholic rioting occurred in many northern cites, the largest occurring in
Philadelphia in 1844 during a period of economic depression. Protestants, Catholics and local
militia fought in the streets. 16 were killed, dozens were injured and over 40 buildings were
demolished. "Nativist" political parties sprang up almost overnight. The most influential of these
parties, the Know Nothings, was anti-Catholic and wanted to extend the amount of time it took
immigrants to become citizens and voters. They also wanted to prevent foreign-born people from
ever holding public office. Economic recovery after the 1844 depression reduced the number of
serious confrontations for a time, as the country seemed to be able to use all the labor it could get.
But Nativism returned in the 1850s with a vengeance. In the 1854 elections, Nativists won control
of state governments in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and California.
They won elections in Maryland and Kentucky and took 45% of the vote in 5 other states. In 1856,
Millard Fillmore was the American Party candidate for President and trumpeted anti-immigrant
themes. Nativism caused much splintering in the political landscape, and the Republicans, with no
platform or policies about it, benefited and rode to victory in the divisive election of 1860.

27. The Peculiar Institution

"The Peculiar Institution" is slavery. Its history in America begins with the earliest European
settlements and ends with the Civil War. Yet its echo continues to reverberate loudly. Slavery
existed both in the north and in the South, at times in equal measure. The industrialization of the
north and the expansion of demand for cotton in the south shifted the balance so that it became a
regional issue, as the southern economy grew increasingly reliant on cheap labor. As is always true
in history, cultures grow and thrive in all conditions. Two interdependent cultures emerged in the
American south before the Civil War the world the slaveholders created for themselves and the
world of their slaves. Even though slaves were not permitted to express themselves freely, they

were able to fight back even though enchained.

Although African-Americans had been brought to British America since the time of Jamestown
colony, American slavery adopted many of its defining characteristics in the 19th century. The
cotton gin had not been invented until the last decade of the 1700s. This new invention led the
American south to emerge as the world's leading producer of cotton. As the south prospered,
southerners became more and more nervous about their future. Plantation life became the goal of all
the south, as poor yeoman farmers aspired to one day become planters themselves. Rebellions and
abolitionists led southerners to establish an even tighter grip on the enslaved.
Even amidst the bondage in the south, there was a significant population of free African-Americans
who were creating and inventing and being productive.
The Peculiar Institution refused to die. Great Britain had outlawed the slave trade long before its
former American colonies.
New nations in the Western Hemisphere, such as Mexico, often banned slavery upon achieving
independence.
But in America, political, religious, economic and social arguments in favor of the continuation of
slavery emerged. Slavery became a completely sectional issue, as few states above the MasonDixon Line still permitted human bondage. These arguments also revealed the growing separation
in the needs and priorities of the northern industrial interests versus the southern planting society, all
of which culminated in the Civil War.

27a. The Crowning of King Cotton

Removing seeds from newly picked cotton is not as simple as it sounds. Cotton is sticky when
removed from the plant, and pulling the seeds from its grasp is difficult. Throughout the 1700s,
cotton production was expensive because of the huge amount of labor necessary to remove the
seeds. All was changed with the invention of the cotton gin. What once was painstakingly slow was
now relatively fast. By the end of the 18th century, demand for cotton was increasing as power
looms were able to turn out great quantities of cloth. With the cotton gin, southern cotton
plantations could now supply the world's demand.
Ironically, the man who would make cotton king was born to a Massachusetts farmer. Almost
immediately after graduating from Yale University, Eli Whitney traveled south. While staying at the
Savannah plantation of Mrs. Nathanael Green in 1792, the widow of the Revolutionary War general,
Whitney created the device that changed the world. Whitney built a machine that moved stiff,
brushlike teeth though the raw cotton. To his delight, the teeth removed a very high percentage of

the nettlesome seeds. Up to this point, it took up to 10 hours to produce a pound of cotton, with very
little profit. The cotton gin ultimately grew to produce a thousand pounds of cotton per day with
relatively little expense.
As an indication of the impact of this invention, the total amount of cotton being exported was
about 138,000 pounds in the year the cotton gin was invented. Two years later, the amount of cotton
being exported rose ten-fold, to 1,600,000 pounds. Before the gin, the prevailing thinking of the
leaders of the country was that slavery would gradually disappear. This all changed when slaves
could be used to cultivate millions of pounds of cotton for markets all over the world. Eli Whitney
never made a cent on his invention because it was widely reproduced before it could be patented.
Determined to duplicate his inventive success, he developed the milling machine, which led to the
development of interchangeable parts and the northern factory system. This one individual played a
great part in creating the industrial north, as well as the plantation south.
This phenomenal and sudden explosion of success of the cotton industry gave slavery a new lease
on life. Prior to this, most thoughtful Southerners, including Washington and Jefferson, had seen
slavery as an evil that must eventually be swept away. But with the southern economy now reliant
on cotton, these beliefs were seen as old-fashioned, and slavery now was seen as an institution to be
cherished. That Cotton was King was now well understood in the south. It became the foundation of
southern economy, southern culture, and southern pride.

27b. Slave Life and Slave Codes

Slave life varied greatly depending on many factors.
Life on the fields meant working sunup to sundown six days a week and having food sometimes not
suitable for an animal to eat. Plantation slaves lived in small shacks with a dirt floor and little or no
furniture. Life on large plantations with a cruel overseer was oftentimes the worst. However, work
for a small farm owner who was not doing well could mean not being fed.
The stories about cruel overseers were certainly true in some cases. The overseer was paid to get the
most work out of the slaves; therefore, overseers often resorted to whatever means was necessary.
Sometimes the slaves would drive the overseer off the plantation in desperation. When slaves
complained that they were being unfairly treated, slaveholders would most often be very protective
of their "property" and would release the overseer.
In some cases, a driver was used rather than an overseer. The difference between the overseer and
the driver was simple: drivers were slaves themselves. A driver might be convinced by a master to
manage the slaves for better privileges. Drivers were usually hated by the rest of the slaves. These

feelings often led to violence.

Large plantations often required some slaves to work in the plantation home. These slaves enjoyed
far better circumstances. Domestic slaves lived in better quarters and received better food. They
sometimes were able to travel with the owner's family. In many cases, a class system developed
within the slave community. Domestic slaves did not often associate themselves with plantation
slaves. They often aspired to arrange courtships for their children with other domestic slaves.
As the Peculiar Institution spread across the South, many states passed "slave codes," which
outlined the rights of slaves and the acceptable treatment and rules regarding slaves. Slave codes
varied from state to state, but there were many common threads. One could not do business with a
slave without the prior consent of the owner. Slaves could be awarded as prizes in raffles, wagered
in gambling, offered as security for loans, and transferred as gifts from one person to another.
A slave was not permitted to keep a gun. If caught carrying a gun, the slave received 39 lashes and
forfeited the gun. Blacks were held incompetent as witnesses in legal cases involving whites. The
education of slaves was prohibited. Anyone operating a school or teaching reading and writing to
any African-American in Missouri could be punished by a fine of not less than $500 and up to six
months in jail. Slaves could not assemble without a white person present. Marriages between slaves
were not considered legally binding. Therefore, owners were free to split up families through sale.
Any slave found guilty of arson, rape of a white woman, or conspiracy to rebel was put to death.
However, since the slave woman was chattel, a white man who raped her was guilty only of a
trespass on the master's property. Rape was common on the plantation, and very few cases were
ever reported.

27c. The Plantation & Chivalry

Southern belles, gentlemen, and hospitality.
During the 1600s, patterns of life were borrowed from the English countryside and transplanted
onto America's southern shores. These included a glorification of riding, hunting, and etiquette.
Tobacco played the central role in defining social class, local politics, the labor system; in fact, it
shaped the entire life of the region. The planter was essentially a country gentleman, looking to
England for political and economic guidance as well as for its literature, manner of dress, and
etiquette. In the 1700s the Virginia gentry established a code of behavior that can still be seen in
parts of the south today. Aristocrats had certain rights and privileges, and, in return, had certain
responsibilities for their "inferiors." By around 1825, the dominance of Virginia was fading and the
emergence of King Cotton shifted the center of Southern influence to South Carolina, Georgia,

Alabama and Mississippi.

The southern code addressed the behaviors of both men and women. Gentlemen must be courteous,
truthful and honorable. Sins of the flesh were forgiven. He should have a broad understanding of the
humanities, including the Greek and Roman classics. Hospitality and generosity were of utmost
importance. The ideal man respected his family and treated women with high regard. Strength and
courage were glorified. A man was to defend the family name, with his life if necessary. A personal
insult to an individual or his family would necessitate a fight, if not a duel.
The southern woman was genteel and gracious. She knew how to entertain guests and tenaciously
defended her husband and children. She was not outspoken and was pure of mind and body.
A proper gentleman, it was believed, should be a lawyer, politician, planter, or military man, rather
than be a businessman or other occupation. Because plantation owners had their money tied up in
property and slaves, many of the generation could not afford to send their children to prestigious
colleges, but were able to send them to the esteemed military schools. This created a generation of
very able and talented military officers. Many were trained at West Point and Virginia Military
Institute. They held to old-fashioned ideals of what honorable warfare meant. When the Civil War
arrived, most of the military leadership talent was southern.

27d. Free(?) African-Americans

When Americans think of African-Americans in the Deep South before the Civil War, the first
image that invariably comes to mind is one of slavery. However, many African-Americans were
able to secure their freedom and live in a state of semi-freedom even before slavery was abolished
by war. Free blacks lived in all parts of the United States, but the majority lived amid slavery in the
American South. It is estimated that by 1860 there were about 1.5 million free blacks in the
southern states.
How did African-Americans become free? Some slaves bought their own freedom from their
owners, but this process became more and more rare as the 1800s progressed. Many slaves became
free through manumission, the voluntary emancipation of a slave by a slaveowner. Manumission
was sometimes offered because slaves had outlived their usefulness or were held in special favor by
their masters. The offspring of interracial relations were often set free. Some slaves were set free by
their masters as the abolitionist movement grew. Occasionally slaves were freed during the master's
lifetime, and more often through the master's will. Many African-Americans freed themselves
through escape. A few Americans of African descent came to the United States as immigrants,
especially common in the New Orleans area.

Were free blacks offered the same rights as free whites? The answer is quite simply no. For
example, a Virginia law, passed in the early 1830s, prohibited the teaching of all blacks to read or
write. Free blacks throughout the South were banned from possessing firearms, or preaching the
Bible. Later laws even prohibited Negroes who went out of state to get an education from returning.
In many states, the slave codes that were designed to keep African-Americans in bondage were also
applied to free persons of color. Most horrifically, free blacks could not testify in court. If a slave
catcher claimed that a free African-American was a slave, the accused could not defend himself in
court.
The church often played a central role in the community of free blacks. The establishment of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church represents an important shift. It was established with black
leadership and spread from Philadelphia to Charleston and to many other areas in the South, despite
laws which forbade blacks from preaching. The church suffered brutalities and massive arrests of its
membership, clearly an indication of the fear of black solidarity. Many of these leaders became
diehard abolitionists.
Free blacks were highly skilled as artisans, business people, educators, writers, planters, musicians,
tailors, hairdressers, and cooks. African-American inventors like Thomas L. Jennings, who invented
a method for the dry cleaning of clothes, and Henry Blair Glenn Ross, who patented a seed planter,
contributed to the advancement of science. Some owned property and kept boarding houses, and
some even owned slaves themselves. Prominent among free persons of color of the period are
Frederick Douglass, Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and Harriet Tubman.

27e. Rebellions on and off the Plantation

Starting as early as 1663, slaves were organizing revolts to regain their freedom. Hundreds of minor
uprisings occurred on American plantations during the two and a half centuries of slavery. Most of
the uprisings were small in scope and were put down easily. Some were larger in ambition and sent
a chill down the spines of countless Southern planters. Two of the most famous revolts were in the
early nineteenth century. One was led by Denmark Vesey and the other was led by Nat Turner.
Denmark Vesey earned his freedom by winning a lottery and purchasing his freedom. He worked as
a carpenter in South Carolina as a respected artisan for years and was quite satisfied with his life.
He was an educated man, fluent in several languages, which he learned while he was enslaved to a
widely traveled slave trader. But a profound repulsion to slavery, plus encouragement from the
successful slave revolt in Haiti led him to plan to murder every white in the South, with the help of
thousands of slaves and supporters. The date was set for Sunday, July 24, 1822. Before the uprising
began, his plan was revealed and he was captured, tried, and hanged. Forty-seven African-

Americans were condemned to death for alleged involvement in the plot. An estimated 9,000
individuals were involved.
Nat Turner was somewhat of a mystic. He frequently was said to have religious visions, and he
claimed at times to have spoken with God. In 1831, Turner claimed to be responding to one of these
visions and organized about 70 slaves who went from plantation to plantation and murdered about
75 men, women and children. As they continued on their rampage they gathered additional
supporters but when their ammunition was exhausted, they were captured. Turner and about 18 of
his supporters were hanged. This was even more shocking than any previous uprising. Turner had
done what others had not. He actually succeeded in killing a large number of white Southerners.
The South responded by increasing slave patrols and tightening their ever more repressive slave
codes.
Rebellion would often find voice in less dramatic ways and more personal ways. The slave codes
bear witness to the growing fear of slave insurrection and revolt. Slaves ran away in droves,
following the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada and the Northern states. They fled to the
Indians and joined them in their wars against the white settlers. Some accounts tell of slaves
poisoning their masters and mistresses. Some slaves banded together and stopped working, while
others deliberately slowed down their pace. The history of slave resistance and revolts is the story
of the desperate and sometimes successful attempt of people to gain their liberty in the face of
systematic repression and bondage.

27f. The Southern Argument for Slavery

Those who defended slavery rose to the challenge set forth by the Abolitionists. The defenders of
slavery included economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even humanitarianism, to
further their arguments.
Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound
and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their
economy. The cotton economy would collapse. The tobacco crop would dry in the fields. Rice
would cease being profitable.
Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread
unemployment and chaos. This would lead to uprisings, bloodshed, and anarchy. They pointed to
the mob's "rule of terror" during the French Revolution and argued for the continuation of the status
quo, which was providing for affluence and stability for the slaveholding class and for all free
people who enjoyed the bounty of the slave society.

Defenders of slavery argued that slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural state of
mankind. The Greeks had slaves, the Romans had slaves, and the English had slavery until very
recently.
Defenders of slavery noted that in the Bible, Abraham had slaves. They point to the Ten
Commandments, noting that "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, ... nor his manservant, nor
his maidservant." In the New Testament, Paul returned a runaway slave, Philemon, to his master,
and, although slavery was widespread throughout the Roman world, Jesus never spoke out against
it.
Defenders of slavery turned to the courts, who had ruled, with the Dred Scott Decision, that all
blacks not just slaves had no legal standing as persons in our courts they were property,
and the Constitution protected slave-holders' rights to their property.
Defenders of slavery argued that the institution was divine, and that it brought Christianity to the
heathen from across the ocean. Slavery was, according to this argument, a good thing for the
enslaved. John C. Calhoun said, "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn
of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically,
but morally and intellectually."
Defenders of slavery argued that by comparison with the poor of Europe and the workers in the
Northern states, that slaves were better cared for. They said that their owners would protect and
assist them when they were sick and aged, unlike those who, once fired from their work, were left
to fend helplessly for themselves.
James Thornwell, a minister, wrote in 1860, "The parties in this conflict are not merely Abolitionists
and slaveholders, they are Atheists, Socialists, Communists, Red Republicans, Jacobins on the one
side and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other."
When a society forms around any institution, as the South did around slavery, it will formulate a set
of arguments to support it. The Southerners held ever firmer to their arguments as the political
tensions in the country drew us ever closer to the Civil War.

28. Abolitionist Sentiment Grows

As the cotton industry took hold and slavery became more and more entrenched across the
American south, the opposition to the Peculiar Institution began to grow.
The first widely accepted solution to the slavery question in the 1820s was colonization. In effect,
supporters of colonization wanted to transplant the slave population back to Africa. Their
philosophy was simple: slaves were brought to America involuntarily. Why not give them a chance

to enjoy life as though such a forced migration had never taken place? Funds were raised to
transport freed African-Americans across the Atlantic in the opposite direction. The nation of
Liberia was created as a haven for former American slaves.
But most African-Americans opposed this practice. The vast majority had never set foot on African
soil. Many African-Americans rightly believed that they had helped build this country and deserved
to live as free citizens of America. By the end of the decade, a full-blown Abolitionist movement
was born.
These new Abolitionists were different from their forebears. Anti-slavery societies had existed in
America since 1775, but these activists were more radical. Early Abolitionists called for a gradual
end to slavery. They supported compensation to owners of slaves for their loss of property. They
raised money for the purchase of slaves to grant freedom to selected individuals.
The new Abolitionists thought differently. They saw slavery as a blight on America. It must be
brought to an end immediately and without compensation to the owners. They sent petitions to
Congress and the states, campaigned for office, and flooded the south with inflammatory literature.
Needless to say, eyebrows were raised throughout the north and the south. Soon the battle lines
were drawn. President Andrew Jackson banned the post office from delivering Abolitionist
literature in the south. A "gag rule" was passed on the floor of the House of Representatives
forbidding the discussion of bills that restricted slavery. Abolitionists were physically attacked
because of their outspoken anti-slavery views. While northern churches rallied to the Abolitionist
cause, the churches of the south used the Bible to defend slavery.
Abolitionists were always a minority, even on the eve of the Civil War. Their dogged determination
to end human bondage was a struggle that persisted for decades. While mostly peaceful at first, as
each side became more and more firmly rooted, pens were exchanged for swords. Another seed of
sectional conflict had been deeply planted.

28a. William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator

Every movement needs a voice.
For the entire generation of people that grew up in the years that led to the Civil War, William Lloyd
Garrison was the voice of Abolitionism. Originally a supporter of colonization, Garrison changed
his position and became the leader of the emerging anti-slavery movement. His publication, The
Liberator, reached thousands of individuals worldwide. His ceaseless, uncompromising position on
the moral outrage that was slavery made him loved and hated by many Americans.
In 1831, Garrison published the first edition of The Liberator. His words, "I am in earnest I will

not equivocate I will not excuse I will not retreat a single inch AND I WILL BE HEARD,"
clarified the position of the new Abolitionists. Garrison was not interested in compromise. He
founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society the following year. In 1833, he met with delegates
from around the nation to form the American Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison saw his cause as
worldwide. With the aid of his supporters, he traveled overseas to garner support from Europeans.
He was, indeed, a global crusader. But Garrison needed a lot of help. The Liberator would not have
been successful had it not been for the free blacks who subscribed. Approximately seventy-five
percent of the readers were free African-Americans.
Garrison saw moral persuasion as the only means to end slavery. To him the task was simple: show
people how immoral slavery was and they would join in the campaign to end it. He disdained
politics, for he saw the political world as an arena of compromise. A group split from Garrison in
the 1840s to run candidates for president on the Liberty Party ticket. Garrison was not dismayed.
Once in Boston, he was dragged through the streets and nearly killed. A bounty of $4000 was
placed on his head. In 1854, he publicly burned a copy of the Constitution because it permitted
slavery. He called for the north to secede from the Union to sever the ties with the slaveholding
south.
William Lloyd Garrison lived long enough to see the Union come apart under the weight of slavery.
He survived to see Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.
Thirty-four years after first publishing The Liberator, Garrison saw the Thirteenth Amendment to
the Constitution go into effect, banning slavery forever. It took a lifetime of work. But in the end,
the morality of his position held sway.

28b. African-American Abolitionists

The abolition of slavery was the cause of free African-Americans.
Once the colonization effort was defeated, free African-Americans in the North became more active
in the fight against slavery. They worked with white abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and
Wendell Phillips to spread the word. They developed publications and contributed money. Many,
such as Robert Purvis, dedicated their lives to freeing individual slaves from bondage. Although
many pledged their lives to the cause, three African-American abolitionists surpassed others in
impact. They were David Walker, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth.
While Garrison is considered the prime organizer of the abolitionist movement, David Walker
published his Appeal two years before The Liberator. In 1829, Walker declared slavery a
malignancy, calling for its immediate termination. He cited the four evils causing the greatest harm
to African Americans as slavery, ignorance, Christianity, and colonization. Even white abolitionists

decried the violent nature of his text. In the South, an award was raised for his capture, and nine
months after publishing his Appeal he died mysteriously. Walker originated radical abolitionism.
The best known African American abolitionist was Frederick Douglass. Douglass escaped from
slavery when he was 21 and moved to Massachusetts. As a former house servant, Douglass was able
to read and write. In 1841, he began to speak to crowds about what it was like to be enslaved. His
talents as an orator and writer led people to question whether or not he had actually been born a
slave.
All this attention put him at great risk. Fearful that his master would claim him and return him to
bondage, Douglass went to England, where he continued to fight for the cause. A group of
abolitionists eventually bought his freedom and he was allowed to return to the United States. He
began publishing an anti-slavery newspaper known as the North Star. Douglass served as an
example to all who doubted the ability of African Americans to function as free citizens.
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York, but was freed when the state outlawed the
practice in 1827. She was born Isabella Baumfree, but changed her name because she believed God
wanted her to travel about the country and spread the word. Truth was one of the best known
abolitionists, renowned for her stirring oratory. Also concerned with women's rights, she joined the
campaign for female suffrage. When slavery was ended, she continued to fight for equality by
protesting segregation laws.

28c. The Underground Railroad

Any cause needs speakers and organizers. Any mass movement requires men and women of great
ideas.
But information and mobilization are not enough. To be successful, revolutionary change requires
people of action those who little by little chip away at the forces who stand in the way. Such
were the "conductors" of the Underground Railroad. Not content to wait for laws to change or for
slavery to implode itself, railroad activists helped individual fugitive slaves find the light of
freedom.
The Underground Railroad operated at night. Slaves were moved from "station" to "station" by
abolitionists. These "stations" were usually homes and churches any safe place to rest and eat
before continuing on the journey to freedom, as faraway as Canada. Often whites would pretend to
be the masters of the fugitives to avoid capture. Sometimes lighter skinned African Americans took
this role. In one spectacular case, Henry "Box" Brown arranged for a friend to put him in a wooden
box, where he had only a few biscuits and some water. His friend mailed him to the North, where

bemused abolitionists received him in Philadelphia.

Most of the time, however, slaves crept northward on their own, looking for the signal that
designated the next safe haven. This was indeed risky business, because slave catchers and sheriffs
were constantly on the lookout. Over 3,200 people are known to have worked on the railroad
between 1830 and the end of the Civil War. Many will remain forever anonymous.
Perhaps the most outstanding "conductor" of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman. Born
a slave herself, she began working on the railroad to free her family members. During the 1850s,
Tubman made 19 separate trips into slave territory. She was terribly serious about her mission. Any
slave who had second thoughts she threatened to shoot with the pistol she carried on her hip. By the
end of the decade, she was responsible for freeing about 300 slaves. When the Civil War broke out,
she used her knowledge from working the railroad to serve as a spy for the Union.
Needless to say, the Underground Railroad was not appreciated by the slaveowners. Although they
disliked Abolitionist talk and literature, this was far worse. To them, this was a simple case of stolen
property. When Northern towns rallied around freed slaves and refused compensation, yet another
brick was set into the foundation of Southern secession.

28d. Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin

"So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war."
This was Abraham Lincoln's reported greeting to Harriet Beecher Stowe when he met her ten years
after her book Uncle Tom's Cabin was published. Although the President may have been
exaggerating a bit, few novels in American history have grabbed the public spotlight and caused as
great an uproar as Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Across the north, readers became acutely aware of the horrors of slavery on a far more personal
level than ever before. In the south the book was met with outrage and branded an irresponsible
book of distortions and overstatements. In such an explosive environment, her story greatly
furthered the Abolitionist cause north of the Mason-Dixon Line and promoted sheer indignation in
plantation America.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born into a prominent family of preachers. Her father, Lyman Beecher,
was one of the most renowned ministers in his generation. Her brother Henry Ward Beecher was
already an outspoken Abolitionist, and by the mid 1850s would become the driving force behind
aiding the Free-Soil cause in "bleeding Kansas" (not permitting slavery in the new territory). While
living for a short while in Cincinnati, Stowe became exposed to actual runaway slaves. Her heart
ached at the wretched tales she heard. She began to write a series of short stories depicting the

plight of plantation slaves.

Encouraged by her sister-in-law, Stowe decided to pen a novel. First published as a series in 1851, it
first appeared as a book the following year. The heart-wrenching tale portrays slave families forced
to cope with separation by masters through sale. Uncle Tom mourns for the family he was forced to
leave. In one heroic scene, Eliza makes a daring dash across the frozen Ohio River to prevent the
sale of her son by slave traders. The novel also takes the perspective that slavery brings out the
worst in the white masters, leading them to perpetrate moral atrocities they would otherwise never
commit.
The reaction was incredible. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold 300,000 copies in the North alone. The
Fugitive Slave Law, passed in 1850, could hardly be enforced by any of Stowe's readers. Although
banned in most of the south, it served as another log on the growing fire.
The book sold even more copies in Great Britain than in the United States. This had an
immeasurable appeal in swaying British public opinion. Many members of the British Parliament
relished the idea of a divided United States. Ten years after the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin,
the British people made it difficult for its government to support the Confederacy, even though there
were strong economic ties to the South. In the end, Mr. Lincoln may not have been stretching the
truth after all.

29. Manifest Destiny

Expansion westward seemed perfectly natural to many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century.
Like the Massachusetts Puritans who hoped to build a "city upon a hill, "courageous pioneers
believed that America had a divine obligation to stretch the boundaries of their noble republic to the
Pacific Ocean. Independence had been won in the Revolution and reaffirmed in the War of 1812.
The spirit of nationalism that swept the nation in the next two decades demanded more territory.
The "every man is equal" mentality of the Jacksonian Era fueled this optimism. Now, with territory
up to the Mississippi River claimed and settled and the Louisiana Purchase explored, Americans
headed west in droves. Newspaper editor John O'Sullivan coined the term "manifest destiny" in
1845 to describe the essence of this mindset.
The religious fervor spawned by the Second Great Awakening created another incentive for the
drive west. Indeed, many settlers believed that God himself blessed the growth of the American
nation. The Native Americans were considered heathens. By Christianizing the tribes, American
missionaries believed they could save souls and they became among the first to cross the
Mississippi River.

Economic motives were paramount for others. The fur trade had been dominated by European
trading companies since colonial times. German immigrant John Jacob Astor was one of the first
American entrepreneurs to challenge the Europeans. He became a millionaire in the process. The
desire for more land brought aspiring homesteaders to the frontier. When gold was discovered in
California in 1848, the number of migrants increased even more.
At the heart of manifest destiny was the pervasive belief in American cultural and racial superiority.
Native Americans had long been perceived as inferior, and efforts to "civilize" them had been
widespread since the days of John Smith and Miles Standish. The Hispanics who ruled Texas and
the lucrative ports of California were also seen as "backward."
Expanding the boundaries of the United States was in many ways a cultural war as well. The desire
of southerners to find more lands suitable for cotton cultivation would eventually spread slavery to
these regions. North of the Mason-Dixon line, many citizens were deeply concerned about adding
any more slave states. Manifest destiny touched on issues of religion, money, race, patriotism, and
morality. These clashed in the 1840s as a truly great drama of regional conflict began to unfold.

29a. The Lone Star Republic

At the time Spain granted independence to Mexico in 1821, the land now comprising the state of
Texas was very sparsely populated. The Mexican government actually encouraged the settlement of
the area by American pioneers.
In 1823, Stephen Austin led 300 American families onto land granted to his father by the Mexican
government. A prosperous province was greatly in the interest of Mexico, so no alarm was raised.
Mexico was also interested in creating a buffer zone between the Mexican heartland and the
Comanche tribe.
There were, however, strings attached.
The American settlers were expected to become Mexican. All immigrants from the United States
were by law forced to become Catholic. When the Mexican government outlawed slavery in 1829,
it expected the Texans to follow suit. None of the conditions were met, and a great cultural war was
underway.
In the hopes of easing tensions, Stephen Austin journeyed to Mexico City in 1833. But Mexico's
dictator, Santa Anna, was not the negotiating type. Austin was simply thrown in jail. Although he
was released after 18 months, relations between the Texans and the Mexicans deteriorated. Finally
in 1835, war broke out between Santa Anna's troops and a ragtag group of Texan revolutionaries.
On March 2, 1836, representatives from Texas formally declared their independence. Four days

later, Santa Anna completed an infamous siege on the Alamo mission.

Despite a 13-day holdout, the 187 Texans were crushed by Santa Anna's forces, which numbered
5000 strong. The deaths of commander William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett angered
Americans as cries of "Remember the Alamo!" rang throughout the land. Americans flocked to
Texas, and, led by commander Sam Houston, defeated Santa Anna's forces. On May 14, 1836, Santa
Anna grudgingly recognized Texan independence.
Texan-Americans were not the only ones fighting for independence. The Tejano people, Spanishspeaking settlers of Texas, also supported the Texas Revolution. They had hoped for greater control
over their local affairs. They fought side-by-side with Houston's troops against Santa Anna's
soldiers. After the war, there was quite a bit of disillusionment. The Americans who swarmed into
Texas did not distinguish between Tejanos and Mexicans. In the decade that followed, the Tejanos
found themselves shut out of the new Texas government as well.
Most Texan-Americans wanted to be annexed by the United States. They feared that the Mexican
government might soon try to recapture their land. Many had originally come from the American
south and had great interest in becoming a southern state. President Andrew Jackson saw trouble.
Many Whigs and Abolitionists in the North refused to admit another slave state to the Union. Rather
than risk tearing the nation apart over this controversial issue, Jackson did not pursue annexation.
The Lone Star flag flew proudly over the Lone Star Republic for nine years.
Texas was an independent country.

29b. 54 40' or Fight

The southern boundary of the United States with Mexico was not the only western territory under
dispute. The Oregon Territory spanned the modern states of Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, as well
as the western coast of Canada up to the border of Russian Alaska. Both Great Britain and America
claimed the territory. The Treaty of 1818 called for joint occupation of Oregon a solution that
was only temporary. Led by missionaries, American settlers began to outnumber British settlers by
the late 1830s. But Britain was not Mexico. Its powerful navy was still the largest in the world.
Twice before had Americans taken up arms against their former colonizers at great expense to each
side. Prudence would suggest a negotiated settlement, but the spirit of manifest destiny dominated
American thought. Yet another great showdown loomed.
Oregon fever swept the nation in the 1840s. Thousands of settlers, lured by the lush Willamette
Valley headed west on the Oregon Trail. Families in caravans of 20 or 30 braved the elements to
reach the distant land. Poor eastern families could not generally make the trip, as outfitting such an

expedition was quite expensive. The Conestoga wagon, oxen and supplies comprised most of the
cost. The families fought Native Americans at times, but often they received guidance from the
western tribes. It took six months of travel at the speed of fifteen miles per day to reach their
destination.
In the east, the subject of Oregon was less personal and more political. In 1844 the Democrats
nominated James K. Polk, an unknown candidate from Tennessee. It appeared as though the Whig
Party candidate, Henry Clay, would win in a landslide. Very few Americans had ever heard the
name Polk, but Clay's illustrious career was widely known. However, Polk was an excellent
strategist. He tapped into the public mood and realized that manifest destiny was the very issue that
could lead him to victory. Polk called for expansion that included Texas, California, and the entire
Oregon territory. The northern boundary of Oregon was the latitude line of 54 degrees, 40 minutes.
"Fifty-four forty or fight!" was the popular slogan that led Polk to victory against all odds.
Claiming the territory in an election campaign was one thing. Acquiring it from the powerful British
was another. Although Polk blustered about obtaining the entire territory from Britain, he was
secretly willing to compromise. Trouble was brewing with Mexico in the south. Surely the new
nation could ill afford to fight Mexico in the southwest and the British in the northwest
simultaneously. Nevertheless, Polk boldly declared to Great Britain that joint occupation would end
within one year. The British were confident they could win, but by 1846 they were vastly
outnumbered in Oregon by a margin of greater than six to one. In June of that year, Britain proposed
splitting Oregon at the 49th parallel. Polk agreed to the compromise, and conflict was avoided.

29c. "American Blood on American Soil"

While Polk awaited the Presidency, the trouble of Texas resurfaced.
Congress admitted Texas to the Union in a joint resolution passed the day before Polk's
inauguration. Mexico was outraged. Inclusion in the United States would forever rule out the
possibility of re-acquiring the lost province.
Furthermore, the boundary was in dispute. Mexico claimed that the southern boundary of Texas was
the Nueces River, the Texan boundary while under Mexican rule. Americans, as well as the
incoming President, claimed that the boundary of Texas was the Rio Grande River. The territory
between the two rivers was the subject of angry bickering between the two nations. Soon it would
serve as the catalyst for an all-out war.
President Polk's true goal was to acquire the rich ports of California. He envisioned a lucrative trade
with the Far East that would revolve around San Francisco and Monterey. Great Britain also had

designs on the territory, so Polk thought he would have to act fast. He sent John Slidell to Mexico
with an offer. The United States would pay Mexico a combined sum of $30 million for the Texan
boundary of the Rio Grande, New Mexico territory, and California.
The Mexican government was livid. They were not interested in selling the valuable territory.
Instead they issued the highest diplomatic rebuke. They refused even to receive Slidell to hear his
offer. The American President was enraged. He resolved to fight Mexico.
In July of 1845, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to cross the Nueces River with his command
of 4,000 troops. Upon learning of Slidell's rejection, Polk sent word that Taylor should advance his
troops to the Rio Grande River. From the standpoint of Mexico, the United States had invaded their
territory. Polk hoped to defend the disputed area with armed force. He also knew that any attack on
American troops might provide the impetus Congress was lacking to declare war.
Sure enough, in May of 1846, Polk received word that the Mexican army had indeed fired on
Taylor's soldiers. Polk appeared before Congress on May 11 and declared that Mexico had invaded
the United States and had "shed American blood on American soil!" Anti-expansionist Whigs had
been hoping to avoid conflict, but news of the "attack" was too much to overlook. Congress passed
a war declaration by an overwhelming majority. President Polk had his war.

29d. The Mexican-American War

When war broke out against Mexico in May 1846, the United States Army numbered a mere 8,000,
but soon 60,000 volunteers joined their ranks. The American Navy dominated the sea. The
American government provided stable, capable leadership. The economy of the expanding United
States far surpassed that of the fledgling Mexican state. Morale was on the American side. The war
was a rout.
Polk directed the war from Washington, D.C. He sent a 4-prong attack into the Mexican heartland.
John Fremont and Stephen Kearny were sent to control the coveted lands of California and New
Mexico. Fremont led a group of zealous Californians to declare independence even before word of
hostilities reached the West. The "Bear Flag Republic" was not taken seriously, but Fremont and his
followers did march to Monterey to capture the Mexican presidio, or fort. By 1847, California was
secure.
Meanwhile, Kearny led his troops into Santa Fe in August of 1846 causing the governor of New
Mexico to flee. The city was captured without a single casualty. Soon he marched his army
westward across the desert to join Fremont in California.
The attack on Mexico proper was left to two other commanders. Zachary Taylor crossed the Rio

Grande with his troops upon Polk's order. He fought Santa Anna's troops successfully on his
advance toward the heart of Mexico. Winfield Scott delivered the knockout punch. After invading
Mexico at Vera Cruz, Scott's troops marched to the capital, Mexico City. All that remained was
negotiating the terms of peace.
At home, the Whigs of the north complained bitterly about the war. Many questioned Polk's
methods as misleading and unconstitutional. Abolitionists rightly feared that southerners would try
to use newly acquired lands to expand slavery. Antiwar sentiment emerged in New England much
as it had in the War of 1812. Writer Henry David Thoreau was sentenced to prison for refusing to
pay the taxes he knew were used to fund the war effort. His essay, Civil Disobedience, became a
standard of peaceful resistance for future activists.
The Mexican-American War was formally concluded by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The
United States received the disputed Texan territory, as well as New Mexico territory and California.
The Mexican government was paid $15 million the same sum issued to France for the Louisiana
Territory. The United States Army won a grand victory. Although suffering 13,000 killed, the
military won every engagement of the war. Mexico was stripped of half of its territory and was not
consoled by the monetary settlement.

29e. Gold in California

In January of 1848, a man named James Marshall innocently noticed a few shiny flecks in a
California stream at Sutter's Mill. Word spread of gold and soon people from all over California
flocked inland seeking instant fortune. By autumn, word had reached the east, and once again
Americans earned their reputation as a migratory people. During the year that followed, over 80,000
"forty-niners" flocked to California to share in the glory. Some would actually strike it rich, but
most would not.
Life in a mining town was not easy. Often the towns consisted of one main street. It is in these
towns that the mythical "Old American West" was born. The social center of these new
communities was the saloon. Here, miners might spend some of their meager earnings after a hard
day's work. Gambling, drinking, and fighting were widespread, and justice was often determined by
the hardest punch or the fastest draw. About 95% of the mining population was young and male.
Female companionship was in high demand. Sometimes the saloon doubled as a brothel, and as
many as 20% of the female population earned their living as prostitutes. Many other women were
shopkeepers and businesswomen, and some were panning for gold side by side with the men.
If a nearby mine became exhausted or turned out to be a hoax, there was no reason for the town to
exist. The abandoned ghost towns began to dot the region.

Although predominantly young and male, the population of California was very diverse. In addition
to the white American settlers who comprised the majority of the mining populace, free AfricanAmericans could also be found among their ranks. More numerous were Mexicans who were
hoping to strike it rich. Word reached European shores and immigrants headed to America's west.
German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss invented trousers for the miners his blue jeans became
an American mainstay. Another significant segment of the diversity was the Chinese, who hoped to
find gold and return to their homeland. Over 45,000 immigrants swelled the population between
1849 and 1854. Diversity did not bring harmony. The white majority often attacked the Mexican
and Chinese minorities. The miners ruthlessly forced the California Native Americans off their
lands. Laws were passed to restrict new land claims to white Americans.
The California Gold Rush soon peaked, and by the mid-1850s California life stabilized. But the
pattern established there was repeated elsewhere in Colorado, South Dakota, and Nevada, among
others. As in California, ambition merged with opportunity and ruthlessness ethnic and racial
discrimination was part of the legacy of the American West.

32. From Uneasy Peace to Bitter Conflict

Between 1856 and 1860, America would see a breakdown in many of its political processes that had
developed over the last eight decades. The great compromisers of the early 19th century Daniel
Webster, Henry Clay and John Calhoun were gone, and their leadership in avoiding disunion
were gone as well. Forces on the extremes were becoming more and more powerful, reducing the
influence of moderates and crippling the spirit of reconciliation. Front and center was the issue of
slavery. Could the country be saved, or was it on an irrevocable path toward disunion?
The Congress and the Presidents of the past decade had failed to resolve the burning issue of
slavery in the territories. Could the Supreme Court, the highest law in the land, put the issue to rest?
Politicians and the American public hoped it could determine some long term framework for
settlement of the slavery issue. An opportunity was presented when the Dred Scott case reached the
High Court. As a slave having lived in a free territory, was he now free when he returned to a slave
state? No. And more neither a state nor Congress had the right to outlaw slavery.
The Dred Scott decision was unacceptable in the north. This prompted a young lawyer from Illinois
to return to politics, seeking Stephen Douglas's seat in Congress he was Abraham Lincoln. A
series of debates between the two foreshadowed the issues of the election 1860.
John Brown returned. He organized a daring attack on slavery by attempting to incite a mass
uprising of slaves, at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. While he failed in his effort to cause a slave rebellion,

he succeeded in causing an insurrection of conscience in the north as well as grave misgivings in

the south about its future in the Union.
The results of these events and the forces that caused them became hot spots in the cauldron of
electoral politics. The north could never accept a President who planned to protect or extend
slavery. The south would never accept a President who refused to do so. The nomination of
candidates and the election of the President in 1860 were among the most divisive events in the
history of this nation. Abraham Lincoln was President, and within weeks, 7 states left the Union to
form the Confederate States of America.

32a. The Dred Scott Decision

From the 1780s, the question of whether slavery would be permitted in new territories had
threatened the Union. Over the decades, many compromises had been made to avoid disunion. But
what did the Constitution say on this subject? This question was raised in 1857 before the Supreme
Court in case of Dred Scott vs. Sandford. Dred Scott was a slave of an army surgeon, John Emerson.
Scott had been taken from Missouri to posts in Illinois and what is now Minnesota for several years
in the 1830s, before returning to Missouri. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had declared the area
including Minnesota free. In 1846, Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had lived in a
free state and a free territory for a prolonged period of time. Finally, after eleven years, his case
reached the Supreme Court. At stake were answers to critical questions, including slavery in the
territories and citizenship of African-Americans. The verdict was a bombshell.
The Court ruled that Scott's "sojourn" of two years to Illinois and the Northwest Territory
did not make him free once he returned to Missouri.
The Court further ruled that as a black man Scott was excluded from United States
citizenship and could not, therefore, bring suit. According to the opinion of the Court,
African-Americans had not been part of the "sovereign people" who made the Constitution.
The Court also ruled that Congress never had the right to prohibit slavery in any territory.
Any ban on slavery was a violation of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibited denying
property rights without due process of law.
The Missouri Compromise was therefore unconstitutional.
The Chief Justice of the United States was Roger B. Taney, a former slave owner, as were four other
southern justices on the Court. The two dissenting justices of the nine-member Court were the only
Republicans. The north refused to accept a decision by a Court they felt was dominated by
"Southern fire-eaters." Many Northerners, including Abraham Lincoln, felt that the next step would
be for the Supreme Court to decide that no state could exclude slavery under the Constitution,

regardless of their wishes or their laws.

Two of the three branches of government, the Congress and the President, had failed to resolve the
issue. Now the Supreme Court rendered a decision that was only accepted in the southern half of the
country. Was the American experiment collapsing? The only remaining national political institution
with both northern and southern strength was the Democratic Party, and it was now splitting at the
seams. The fate of the Union looked hopeless.

32b. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

n 1858, as the country moved ever closer to disunion, two politicians from Illinois attracted the
attention of a nation. From August 21 until October 15, Stephen Douglas battled Abraham Lincoln
in face to face debates around the state. The prize they sought was a seat in the Senate. Lincoln
challenged Douglas to a war of ideas. Douglas took the challenge. The debates were to be held at 7
locations throughout Illinois. The fight was on and the nation was watching.
The spectators came from all over Illinois and nearby states by train, by canal-boat, by wagon, by
buggy, and on horseback. They briefly swelled the populations of the towns that hosted the debates.
The audiences participated by shouting questions, cheering the participants as if they were
prizefighters, applauding and laughing. The debates attracted tens of thousands of voters and
newspaper reporters from across the nation.
During the debates, Douglas still advocated "popular sovereignty," which maintained the right of
the citizens of a territory to permit or prohibit slavery. It was, he said, a sacred right of selfgovernment. Lincoln pointed out that Douglas's position directly challenged the Dred Scott
decision, which decreed that the citizens of a territory had no such power.
In what became known as the Freeport Doctrine, Douglas replied that whatever the Supreme Court
decided was not as important as the actions of the citizens. If a territory refused to have slavery, no
laws, no Supreme Court ruling, would force them to permit it. This sentiment would be taken as
betrayal to many southern Democrats and would come back to haunt Douglas in his bid to become
President in the election of 1860.
Time and time again, Lincoln made that point that "a house divided could not stand." Douglas
refuted this by noting that the founders, "left each state perfectly free to do as it pleased on the
subject." Lincoln felt that blacks were entitled to the rights enumerated in the Declaration of
Independence, which include "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Douglas argued that the
founders intended no such inclusion for blacks.
Neither Abraham Lincoln nor Stephen Douglas won a popular election that fall. Under rules

governing Senate elections, voters cast their ballots for local legislators, who then choose a Senator.
The Democrats won a majority of district contests and returned Douglas to Washington. But the
nation saw a rising star in the defeated Lincoln. The entire drama that unfolded in Illinois would be
played on the national stage only two years later with the highest of all possible stakes.

32c. John Brown's Raid

On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a small army of 18 men into the small town of Harper's
Ferry, Virginia. His plan was to instigate a major slave rebellion in the South. He would seize the
arms and ammunition in the federal arsenal, arm slaves in the area and move south along the
Appalachian Mountains, attracting slaves to his cause. He had no rations. He had no escape route.
His plan was doomed from the very beginning. But it did succeed to deepen the divide between the
North and South.
John Brown and his cohorts marched into an unsuspecting Harper's Ferry and seized the federal
complex with little resistance. It consisted of an armory, arsenal, and engine house. He then sent a
patrol out into the country to contact slaves, collected several hostages, including the great
grandnephew of George Washington, and sat down to wait. The slaves did not rise to his support,
but local citizens and militia surrounded him, exchanging gunfire, killing two townspeople and
eight of Brown's company. Troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived
from Washington to arrest Brown. They stormed the engine house, where Brown had withdrawn,
captured him and members of his group, and turned them over to Virginia authorities to be tried for
treason. He was quickly tried and sentenced to hang on December 2.
Brown's strange effort to start a rebellion was over less than 36 hours after it started; however, the
consequences of his raid would last far longer. In the North, his raid was greeted by many with
widespread admiration. While they recognized the raid itself was the act of a madman, some
northerners admired his zeal and courage. Church bells pealed on the day of his execution and
songs and paintings were created in his honor. Brown was turned into an instant martyr. Ralph
Waldo Emerson predicted that Brown would make "the gallows as glorious as the cross." The
majority of northern newspapers did, however, denounce the raid. The Republican Party adopted a
specific plank condemning John Brown and his ill-fated plan. But that was not what the south saw.
Southerners were shocked and outraged. How could anyone be sympathetic to a fanatic who
destroyed their property and threatened their very lives? How could they live under a government
whose citizens regarded John Brown as a martyr? Southern newspapers labeled the entire north as
John Brown sympathizers. Southern politicians blamed the Republican Party and falsely claimed
that Abraham Lincoln supported Brown's intentions. Moderate voices supporting compromise on

both sides grew silent amid the gathering storm. In this climate of fear and hostility, the election
year of 1860 opened ominously. The election of Abraham Lincoln became unthinkable to many in
the south.

32d. The Election of 1860

The Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860 to select their candidate for
President in the upcoming election. It was turmoil. Northern democrats felt that Stephen Douglas
had the best chance to defeat the "Black Republicans." Although an ardent supporter of slavery,
southern Democrats considered Douglas a traitor because of his support of popular sovereignty,
permitting territories to choose not to have slavery. Southern democrats stormed out of the
convention, without choosing a candidate. Six weeks later, the northern Democrats chose Douglas,
while at a separate convention the Southern Democrats nominated then Vice-President John C.
Breckenridge.
The Republicans met in Chicago that May and recognized that the Democrat's turmoil actually gave
them a chance to take the election. They needed to select a candidate who could carry the North and
win a majority of the Electoral College. To do that, the Republicans needed someone who could
carry New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania four important states that remained
uncertain. There were plenty of potential candidates, but in the end Abraham Lincoln had emerged
as the best choice. Lincoln had become the symbol of the frontier, hard work, the self-made man
and the American dream. His debates with Douglas had made him a national figure and the
publication of those debates in early 1860 made him even better known. After the third ballot, he
had the nomination for President.
A number of aging politicians and distinguished citizens, calling themselves the Constitutional
Union Party, nominated John Bell of Tennessee, a wealthy slaveholder as their candidate for
President. These people were for moderation. They decided that the best way out of the present
difficulties that faced the nation was to take no stand at all on the issues that divided the north and
the south.
With four candidates in the field, Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote and 180 electoral
votes enough to narrowly win the crowded election. This meant that 60% of the voters selected
someone other than Lincoln. With the results tallied, the question was, would the South accept the
outcome? A few weeks after the election, South Carolina seceded from the Union.

32e. The South Secedes

The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. South Carolina acted first,

calling for a convention to secede from the Union. State by state, conventions were held, and the
Confederacy was formed.
Within three months of Lincoln's election, seven states had seceded from the Union. Just as
Springfield, Illinois celebrated the election of its favorite son to the Presidency on November 7, so
did Charleston, South Carolina, which did not cast a single vote for him. It knew that the election
meant the formation of a new nation. The Charleston Mercury said, "The tea has been thrown
overboard, the revolution of 1860 has been initiated."
South Carolina Ordinance of Secession

Within a few days, the two United States Senators from South Carolina submitted their resignations.
On December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0, the South Carolina legislature enacted an "ordinance"
that "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'The
United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." As Grist had hoped, South Carolina's action
resulted in conventions in other southern states. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
and Texas all left the Union by February 1. On February 4, delegates from all these states except
Texas met in Montgomery, Alabama, to create and staff a government called the Confederate States
of America. They elected President Jefferson Davis. The gauntlet was thrown. How would the
North respond?
A last ditch effort was made to end the crisis. Senator James Henry Crittenden proposed to amend
the Constitution to extend the old 3630' line to the Pacific. All territory North of the line would be
forever free, and all territory south of the line would receive federal protection for slavery.
Republicans refused to support this measure. What was the President doing during all this furor?
Abraham Lincoln would not be inaugurated until March 4. James Buchanan presided over the
exodus from the Union. Although he thought secession to be illegal, he found using the army in this
case to be unconstitutional. Both regions awaited the arrival of President Lincoln and wondered
anxiously what he would do.

33. A House Divided

The most destructive war in America's history was fought among its own people.
The CIVIL WAR was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. For four long and bloody years,
Americans were killed at the hands of other Americans. One of every 25 American men perished in
the war. Over 640,000 soldiers were killed. Many civilians also died in numbers often
unrecorded.
At the battle of Antietam, more Americans were killed than on any other single day in all of
American history. On that day, 22,719 soldiers fell to their deaths four times the number of
Americans lost during the D-Day assault on Normandy in WWII. In fact, more American soldiers
died in the Civil War than in all other American wars combined.
he war was fought in American fields, on American roads, and in American cities with a ferocity
that could be evoked only in terrible nightmares. Nearly every family in the nation was touched by
this war. Scarcely a family in the South did not lose a son, brother, or father.
Four long years of battle changed everything. No other event since the Revolutionary War altered
the political, social, economic, and cultural fabric of the United States. In the end, a predominantly
industrial society triumphed over an agricultural one. The Old South was forever changed. The
blemish of slavery was finally removed from American life, though its legacy would long linger.
In 1861, everyone predicted a short war. Most believed that one battle of enormous proportion
would settle a dispute at least 90 years in the making. But history dictated a far more destructive
course.

33a. Fort Sumter

It all began at Fort Sumter.
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Five days later, 68 federal troops
stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, withdrew to FORT SUMTER, an island
in CHARLESTON HARBOR. The North considered the fort to be the property of the United
States government. The people of South Carolina believed it belonged to the new Confederacy.
Four months later, the first engagement of the Civil War took place on this disputed soil.
The commander at Fort Sumter, MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON, was a former slave owner who
was nevertheless unquestionably loyal to the Union. With 6,000 South Carolina militia ringing the
harbor, Anderson and his soldiers were cut off from reinforcements and resupplies. In January 1861,
as one the last acts of his administration, President James Buchanan sent 200 soldiers and supplies
on an unarmed merchant vessel, STAR OF THE WEST, to reinforce Anderson. It quickly departed
when South Carolina artillery started firing on it.

In February 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the provisional president of the Confederate
States of America, in Montgomery, Alabama. On March 4,1861, Abraham Lincoln took his oath of
office as president of the Union in Washington, DC. The fate of Fort Sumter lay in the hands of
these two leaders.
As weeks passed, pressure grew for Lincoln to take some action on Fort Sumter and to reunite the
states. Lincoln thought of the Southern secession as "artificial." When Jefferson Davis sent a group
of commissioners to Washington to negotiate for the transfer of Fort Sumter to South Carolina, they
were promptly rebuffed.
Lincoln had a dilemma. Fort Sumter was running out of supplies, but an attack on the fort would
appear as Northern aggression. States that still remained part of the Union (such as Virginia and
North Carolina) might be driven into the secessionist camp. People at home and abroad might
become sympathetic to the South. Yet Lincoln could not allow his troops to starve or surrender and
risk showing considerable weakness.
At last he developed a plan. On April 6, Lincoln told the governor of South Carolina that he was
going to send provisions to Fort Sumter. He would send no arms, troops, or ammunition unless,
of course, South Carolina attacked.
Now the dilemma sat with Jefferson Davis. Attacking Lincoln's resupply brigade would make the
South the aggressive party. But he simply could not allow the fort to be resupplied. J.G.
GILCHRIST, a Southern newspaper writer, warned, "Unless you sprinkle the blood in the face of
the people of Alabama, they will be back in the old Union in less than ten days."
Davis decided he had no choice but to order Anderson to surrender Sumter. Anderson refused.
The Civil War began at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery, under the
command of GENERAL PIERRE GUSTAVE T. BEAUREGARD, opened fire on Fort Sumter.
Confederate batteries showered the fort with over 3,000 shells in a three-and-a-half day period.
Anderson surrendered. Ironically, Beauregard had developed his military skills under Anderson's
instruction at West Point. This was the first of countless relationships and families devastated in the
Civil War. The fight was on.

33b. Strengths and Weaknesses: North vs. South

Within days of the fall of Fort Sumter, four more states joined the Confederacy: Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The battle lines were now drawn.

On paper, the Union outweighed the Confederacy in almost every way. Nearly 21 million people
lived in 23 Northern states. The South claimed just 9 million people including 3.5 million slaves
in11 CONFEDERATE STATES. Despite the North's greater population, however, the South
had an army almost equal in size during the first year of the war.
The North had an enormous industrial advantage as well. At the beginning of the war, the
Confederacy had only one-ninth the industrial capacity of the Union. But that statistic was
misleading. In 1860, the North manufactured 97 percent of the country's firearms, 96 percent of its
railroad locomotives, 94 percent of its cloth, 93 percent of its pig iron, and over 90 percent of its
boots and shoes. The North had twice the density of railroads per square mile. There was not even
one rifleworks in the entire South.
All of the principal ingredients of GUNPOWDER were imported. Since the North controlled the
navy, the seas were in the hands of the Union. A blockade could suffocate the South. Still, the
Confederacy was not without resources and willpower.
The South could produce all the food it needed, though transporting it to soldiers and civilians was
a major problem. The South also had a great nucleus of TRAINED OFFICERS. Seven of the eight
military colleges in the country were in the South.
The South also proved to be very resourceful. By the end of the war, it had established armories and
foundries in several states. They built huge gunpowder mills and melted down thousands of church
and plantation bells for bronze to build cannon.
The South's greatest strength lay in the fact that it was fighting on the defensive in its own territory.
Familiar with the landscape, Southerners could harass Northern invaders.
The military and political objectives of the Union were much more difficult to accomplish. The
Union had to invade, conquer, and occupy the South. It had to destroy the South's capacity and will
to resist a formidable challenge in any war.
Southerners enjoyed the initial advantage of morale: The South was fighting to maintain its way of
life, whereas the North was fighting to maintain a union. Slavery did not become a moral cause of
the Union effort until Lincoln announced theEMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION IN 1863.
When the war began, many key questions were still unanswered. What if the slave states of
Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Delaware had joined the Confederacy? What if Britain or
France had come to the aid of the South? What if a few decisive early Confederate victories had
turned Northern public opinion against the war?
Indeed, the North looked much better on paper. But many factors undetermined at the outbreak of

war could have tilted the balance sheet toward a different outcome.

33c. First Blood and Its Aftermath

When the war began in April 1861, most Americans expected the conflict to be brief.
When President Lincoln called upon the governors and states of the Union to furnish him with
75,000 soldiers, he asked for an enlistment of only 90 days. When the Confederacy moved its
capital to Richmond, Virginia, 100 miles from Washington, everyone expected a decisive battle to
take place on the ground between the two cities.
In the spring of 1861, 35,000 Confederate troops led by General Pierre Beauregard moved north to
protect Richmond against invasion. Lincoln's army had almost completed its 90-day enlistment
requirement and still its field commander, GENERAL IRVIN MCDOWELL, did not want to
fight. Pressured to act, on July 18 (three months after the war had begun) McDowell marched his
army of 37,000 into Virginia.
Hundreds of reporters, congressional representatives, and other civilians had traveled from
Washington in carriages and on horses to see a real battle. It took the Northern troops two and a half
days to march 25 miles. Beauregard was warned of McDowell's troop movement by a Southern
belle who concealed the message in her hair. He consolidated his forces along the south bank of
Bull Run, a river a few miles north of MANASSAS JUNCTION, and waited for the Union troops
to arrive.
Early on July 21, the FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN began. During the first two hours of battle,
4,500 Confederates gave ground grudgingly to 10,000 Union soldiers. But as the Confederates were
retreating, they found a brigade of fresh troops led by Thomas Jackson waiting just over the crest of
the hill.
Trying to rally his infantry, GENERAL BERNARD BEE of South Carolina shouted, "Look, there
is Jackson with his Virginians, standing like a stone wall!" The Southern troops held firm, and
Jackson's nickname, "Stonewall," was born.
During the afternoon, thousands of additional Confederate troops arrived by horse and by train. The
Union troops had been fighting in intense heat many for 14 hours. By late in the day, they were
feeling the effects of their efforts. At about 4 p.m., when Beauregard ordered a massive
counterattack, Stonewall Jackson urged his soldiers to "yell like furies." The rebel yell became a
hallmark of the Confederate Army. A retreat by the Union became a rout.
Over 4,800 soldiers were killed, wounded, or listed as missing from both armies in the battle. The
next day, Lincoln named MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN to command the

new ARMY OF THE POTOMAC and signed legislation for the enlistment of one million troops
to last three years.
The high esprit de corps of the Confederates was elevated by their victory. For the North, which had
supremacy in numbers, it increased their caution. Seven long months passed before McClellan
agreed to fight. Meanwhile, Lincoln was growing impatient at the timidity of his generals.
In many ways, the Civil War represented a transition from the old style of fighting to the new style.
During Bull Run and other early engagements, traditional uniformed lines of troops faced off, each
trying to outflank the other. As the war progressed, new weapons and tactics changed warfare
forever. There were no civilian spectators during the destructive battles to come.

33d. Sacred Beliefs

The Civil War was fought with awe-inspiring passion.
On the Union side, President Lincoln believed that failure to preserve the Union was a betrayal of
the founders of the republic and the promise of the Declaration of Independence. He would not see
it "perish from this earth."
Many others in the North echoed similar thoughts. On the day before the first battle of Bull Run,
Major Sullivan Ballou of Rhode Island wrote to his wife: "I know how strongly American
Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those
who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution." He died one week later in
battle.
The cause of union did not drive all Northerners. Abolitionists believed they were acting with
divine guidance to fulfill God's will. They would tolerate neither compromise nor legal obstacle.
Majority consent was not necessary. WENDELL PHILLIPS, a well-known abolitionist, declared,
"One, on God's side, is a majority." Abolitionists saw slavery as an affront to God to be ended by
any means necessary. Abolitionists incited riots throughout the South that resulted in hundreds of
deaths.
Passions raged as hot in the South. Like Lincoln, Jefferson Davis also believed in the Declaration of
Independence. He insisted that governments existed with the consent of the governed. Northern
interference with popular Southern law was an affront to this ideals.
ROBERT E. LEE, who did not favor secession, felt that the North was seeking to wrest from the
South its dearest rights. THOMAS "STONEWALL" JACKSON, a devout Presbyterian, believed
that the Southern cause was a sacred one. He ascribed his successes to God's will, and preached that
religious certitude to his troops.

Many Southerners believed the Northern position was an outright attack on the Southern way of
life. They observed that the poverty suffered by Northern industrial workers created living
conditions worse than those endured by Southern slaves. They also cited the Bible in defense of
plantation life.
Southern legalists believed that the North was undermining the original intent of the Founding
Fathers. The cornerstone of the American system was the state government, for which Confederates
believed the Northerners had little respect.
Such fiery passions were difficult to reconcile. After decades of compromise attempts, these sacred
beliefs finally raged against each other in the cauldron of war.

33e. Bloody Antietam

The South was on the move.
In August 1862, a Confederate Army invaded Kentucky from Tennessee. They
seized FRANKFORT and seated a Confederate governor. During that same month, Robert E.
Lee's ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA had defeated the Union Army again at the SECOND
BATTLE OF BULL RUN.
Lee and Jefferson Davis believed that one more successful campaign might bring British and
French recognition of the Confederacy. Foreign powers are reluctant to enter a conflict on the losing
side. Although Britain and France both saw advantages of a split United States, neither country was
willing to support the Confederacy without being convinced the South could win. Lee and Davis
were desperately seeking that decisive victory.
Lee wanted to attack the North on its own territory. His target was the federal rail center at
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but the Union General George McClellan was pursuing him. Lee decided
to stop and confront the Union Army atSHARPSBURG, Maryland. In front of the town ran a little
creek called Antietam.
On September 15, Lee deployed his 30,000 soldiers on some four miles of rising ground
behind ANTIETAM CREEK. He utilized the cover of rock outcroppings, rolling farmland, stone
walls, fields of standing corn, and a sunken road in the center of his line.
Two days earlier, a Union corporal had found a copy of Lee's special orders wrapped around three
cigars. But McClellan refused to act because he thought Lee's troops outnumbered his own. When
McClellan started deploying his troops on September 16, he had 60,000 active soldiers and 15,000
in reserve. Had he thrust his complete force against the Confederates on September 15 or 16, he
might have smashed Lee's army.

The battle began early on the morning of September 17 when Union troops under the command
of GENERAL JOSEPH HOOKERattacked the forces of Stonewall Jackson across a cornfield
that lay between them. The fighting was ferocious. The battle surged back and forth across the
cornfield 15 times, costing each side nine generals. Within five hours, 12,000 soldiers lay dead or
wounded, and the weary opponents stopped fighting for the day.
By midday, the struggle had shifted to a sunken country road between two farms. Two Confederate
brigades stood their ground repeatedly as Union soldiers attacked and fell back. Finally, Union
attackers assumed a position from which they could shoot down on the Confederate soldiers
occupying the road. It was quickly filled with the dead and dying, sometimes two and three deep.
The road earned a new name: BLOODY LANE. The Confederates fell back, and McClellan again
had the opportunity to cut Lee's army in two and ruin it. But McClellan did not follow through, and
the battlefield fell silent.
This day sits in history as the bloodiest single day America has ever suffered. Over 22,000 soldiers
were killed, wounded, or missing more than all such casualties during the entire American
Revolution. Lee lost a quarter of his army; the survivors headed back to Virginia the next night.
The horror of Antietam proved to be one of the war's critical events. Lee and Davis did not get their
victory. Neither Britain nor France was prepared to recognize the Confederacy. Five days after the
battle, Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. On November 5, Lincoln,
impatient with McClellan's hesitancy, relieved him of command, and replaced him withGENERAL
AMBROSE BURNSIDE.
Antietam changed everything.

33f. Of Generals and Soldiers

The battles that caused the loss of so much life in the Civil War were the results of decisions made
by the military commanders of the North and the South. Who were these people? Why did they
order the kinds of attacks that characterized this war? How could they follow orders that in many
cases seemed like sheer suicide? Many of the opposing officers were actually friends, who had been
classmates at West Point and having fought at each other's sides in the US-MEXICAN WAR OF
1848.
Robert E. Lee was offered the position of commander in chief of the Union Army by President
Lincoln before Virginia seceded from the United States. Lee was born into one of the South's most
prominent families, and was the son of a Revolutionary War hero. His wife was the granddaughter
of Martha Washington.

Lee did not favor either slavery or secession, but joined the Confederate army out of duty to
Virginia, which he would not dishonor. Although he was the unquestioned military leader of the
South, he was not given charge of the entire Confederate Army until the war's outcome had already
been decided. He was a brilliant military strategist, continually outsmarting and defeating opponents
with armies much larger than his own.
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was an intensely religious man. A former teacher at Virginia Military
Institute, he believed the Southern cause was sacred. He was totally fearless in battle. He would
drive troops to the point of total exhaustion, seemingly insensitive to their hardship and suffering.
After Jackson won five battles in one month, an aura of invincibility surrounded him. It lasted until
his death, in the spring of 1863, during one of his most dramatic victories, the BATTLE OF
CHANCELLORSVILLE.
The Union had outstanding officers, but for the first three years of the war, the Union Army had five
different commanders. As Lincoln grew impatient with each one's caution or inflexibility, he'd
replace him. They simply did not win the decisive battle that Lincoln needed. ULYSSES S.
GRANT was chosen as the general who could finish the job. He had fought in the US-Mexican War
and won battles at FORT HENRY and FORT DONELSON in Tennessee during the winter of
1862. Grant had also led the Union troops during the pivotal VICKSBURG VICTORY.
For his strategy in those battles, he earned the nickname "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER"
GRANT. After he became commander in chief of the Union Army, he doggedly pursued Lee. Grant
fought Lee measure for measure and continued to advance, even as Union casualties soared and
despite suffering great criticism for those losses.
Grant's most trusted officer,WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN, had fought with Grant earlier
in the war. Sherman's job was to take Atlanta, an action that was a key part of Lincoln's strategy to
conclude the war.
Sherman was a nervous, talkative master strategist, who understood how difficult the war was going
to be to win. He felt that the North would have to make life very difficult on civilians in the South
in order to weaken the resolve of the Confederate Army. His ruthless and destructive drives across
the South first to Atlanta, then to the sea at Savannah, and finally through South Carolina, are his
legacy.

33g. Gettysburg: High Watermark of the Confederacy

Robert E. Lee had a vision.

He proposed to take the offensive, invade Pennsylvania, and defeat the Union Army in its own
territory. Such a victory would relieve Virginia of the burden of war, strengthen the hand of PEACE
DEMOCRATSin the North, and undermine Lincoln's chances for reelection. It would reopen the
possibility for European support that was closed at Antietam. And perhaps, it would even lead to
peace.
The result of this vision was the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent. This
was GETTYSBURG, where more than 170,000 fought and over 40,000 were casualties.
Lee began his quest in mid-June 1863, leading 75,000 soldiers out of Virginia into south-central
Pennsylvania. Forty miles to the south of Lee, the new commander of the Union Army of the
Potomac, GENERAL GEORGE MEADE, headed north with his 95,000 soldiers. When Lee
learned of the approach of this concentrated force, he sent couriers to his generals with orders to
reunite near Gettysburg to do battle. As sections of the Confederate Army moved to join
together, CSA GENERAL A.P. HILL, heard a rumor that that there was a large supply of shoes at
Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, he sent one of his divisions to get those shoes. The battle of
Gettysburg was about to begin.
As Hill approached Gettysburg from the west, he was met by the Union cavalry ofJOHN
BUFORD. Couriers from both sides were sent out for reinforcements. By early afternoon, 40,000
troops were on the battlefield, aligned in a semicircle north and west of the town. The Confederates
drove the outnumbered Union troops toCEMETERY HILL, just south of town, where Union
artillery located on the hill halted the retreat.
At noon on July 2, the second day of the battle, Lee ordered his divisions to attack, hoping to
crumble both sides of the Union line and win the battle. The BIG ROUND TOP and LITTLE
ROUND TOP were nearby hills that had been left unprotected. If the Confederates could take these
positions, they could surround the Union forces.
Union troops under COLONEL JOSHUA CHAMBERLAIN arrived just in time to meet
Confederate troops charging up the hill to Little Round Top. In some of the most ferocious fighting
of the battle, Chamberlain's 20th Maine held on to Little Round Top and perhaps saved the Union
from defeat.
Lee was determined to leave Pennsylvania with a victory. On the third day of battle, he ordered a
major assault against the center of the Union line on CEMETERY RIDGE. Confederate batteries
started to fire into the Union center. The firing continued for two hours. At 3 p.m., 14,000
Confederate soldiers under the command of GENERAL GEORGE PICKETT began their famous
charge across three-quarters of a mile of open field to the Union line.

Few Confederates made it. Lee's attempt for a decisive victory in Pennsylvania had failed. He had
lost 28,000 troops one-third of his army. A month later, he offered his resignation to Jefferson
Davis, which was refused. Meade had lost 23,000 soldiers.
The hope for Southern recognition by any foreign government was dashed. The war continued for
two more years, but Gettysburg marked the end of Lee's major offensives. The Confederacy tottered
toward its defeat.

33h. Northern Plans to End the War

Only one day after their victory at Gettysburg, Union forces captured Vicksburg, the last
Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Lincoln and Union commanders began to make
plans for finishing the war.
The Union strategy to win the war did not emerge all at once. By 1863, however, the Northern
military plan consisted of five major goals:
1.

Fully blockade all Southern coasts. This strategy, known as the ANACONDA PLAN,
would eliminate the possibility of Confederate help from abroad.

2.

Control the Mississippi River. The river was the South's major inland waterway. Also,
Northern control of the rivers would separate Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the other
Confederate states.

3.

Capture RICHMOND. Without its capital, the Confederacy's command lines would be
disrupted.

4.

Shatter Southern civilian morale by capturing and destroying ATLANTA,SAVANNAH,

and the heart of Southern secession, South Carolina.

5.

Use the numerical advantage of Northern troops to engage the enemy everywhere to break
the spirits of the Confederate Army.

By early 1864, the first two goals had been accomplished. The blockade had successfully prevented
any meaningful foreign aid. General Ulysses Grant's success at Vicksburg delivered the Mississippi
River to the Union. Lincoln turned to Grant to finish the job and, in the spring of 1864, appointed
Grant to command the entire Union Army.
Grant had a plan to end the war by November. He mounted several major simultaneous offensives.
General George Meade was to lead the Union's massive Army of the Potomac against Robert E.
Lee. Grant would stay with Meade, who commanded the largest Northern army. GENERAL
JAMES BUTLERwas to advance up the JAMES RIVER in Virginia and attack Richmond, the

capital of the Confederacy. General William Tecumseh Sherman was to plunge into the heart of the
South, inflicting as much damage as he could against their war resources.
Meade faced Lee's army in Virginia. Lee's strategy was to use terrain and fortified positions to his
advantage, thus decreasing the importance of the Union's superiority in numbers. He hoped to make
the cost of trying to force the South back into the Union so high that the Northern public would not
stand for it. He almost accomplished this. From May 5 to May 24, the full force of Grant's and Lee's
armies fought continually with enormous casualties.
But, unlike the Union commanders of the past, Grant had the determination to press on despite the
cost. Twenty-eight thousand soldiers were casualties of the BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. A
few days later, another 28,000 soldiers were casualties in theBATTLE OF SPOTSYLVANIA
COURT HOUSE. More than two-thirds of the casualties of these battles were Union soldiers.
At COLD HARBOR the following week, Grant lost another 13,000 soldiers 7,000 of them in
half an hour. In the 30 days that Grant had been fighting Lee, he lost 50,000 troops a number
equal to half the size of the Confederate army at the time. As a result, Grant became known as
"THE BUTCHER." Congress was appalled and petitioned for his removal. But Lincoln argued that
Grant was winning the battles and refused to grant Congress's request.
Butler failed to capture Richmond, and the Confederate capital was temporarily spared. On May 6,
one day after Grant and Lee started their confrontation in the Wilderness, Sherman entered Georgia,
scorching whatever resources that lay in his path. By late July, he had forced the enemy back to
within sight of Atlanta. For a month, he lay siege to the city. Finally, in early September he entered
Atlanta one day after the Confederate army evacuated it.
Sherman waited until seven days after Lincoln's hotly fought reelection before putting Atlanta to the
torch and starting his MARCH TO THE SEA. No one stood before him. His soldiers pillaged the
countryside and destroyed everything of conceivable military value as they traveled 285 miles to
Savannah in a march that became legendary for the misery it created among the civilian population.
On December 22, Savannah fell.
Next, Sherman ordered his army to move north into South Carolina. Their intent was to destroy the
state where secession began. Exactly a month later, its capital, Columbia, fell to him. On the same
day, Union Forces retook Fort Sumter.

The war was almost over.

33i. The Road to Appomattox

The end was in sight.
Only Lee's Army of Northern Virginia remained as a substantial military force to oppose the Union
Army. For nine months, Grant and Lee had faced each other from 53 miles of trenches during
the SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. Lee's forces had been reduced to 50,000, while Grant's had grown
to over 120,000.
The Southern troops began to melt away as the end became clear. On April 2, Grant ordered an
attack on Petersburg and broke the Confederate line. Lee and his shrinking army were able to
escape.
Lee sent a message to Jefferson Davis saying that Richmond could no longer be defended and that
he should evacuate the city. That night Jefferson Davis and his cabinet set fire to everything of
military value in Richmond, then boarded a train to Danville, 140 miles to the south. Mobs took
over the streets and set more fires. The next day, Northern soldiers arrived. And one day after that,
Lincoln visited the city and sat in the office of Jefferson Davis.
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, now reduced in size to 35,000 troops, had escaped to the west.
They were starving, and Lee had asked the CONFEDERATE COMMISSARY
DEPARTMENT to have rations for his infantry waiting at the AMELIA COURTHOUSE. But
when he arrived there, no rations awaited his troops, and they were forced to forage the countryside
for food. The delay caused by his need to acquire food proved fatal to the Confederate effort.
Now 125,000 Union soldiers were surrounding Lee's army, whose numbers had been reduced to
25,000 troops and were steadily falling. Still, Lee decided to make one last attempt to break out. On
April 9, the remaining Confederate Army, under JOHN GORDON, drove back Union cavalry
blocking the road near the village of APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE. But beyond them were
50,000 Union infantry, and as many or more were closing in on Lee from his rear. It was over.
Lee sent a note to Grant, and later that afternoon they met in the home ofWILMER MCLEAN.
Grant offered generous terms of surrender. Confederate officers and soldiers could go home, taking
with them their horses, sidearms, and personal possessions. Also, Grant guaranteed their immunity
from prosecution for treason. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the two men saluted each other
and parted. Grant then sent three day's worth of food rations to the 25,000 Confederate soldiers. The
official surrender ceremony occurred three days later, when Lee's troops stacked their rifles and
battle flags.

President Lincoln's will to save the Union had prevailed. He looked with satisfaction on the survival
of his country and with deep regret on the great damage that had been done. These emotions did not
last long, however.
Lincoln had only five days left to live.

34. The War Behind the Lines

Modern wars are not confined to the battlefield. Americans in the North and South contributed to
the war effort unlike civilians of any previous conflict. The political leaders in the Union and
Confederacy each had battles of their own to wage. The Civil War would also require a complete
revolution in the economies of both regions. The results of such changes would not only determine
the outcome of the war, but would utterly transform the new nation politically, socially, and
economically.
In the North, President Lincoln had been elected by a minority of voters in his first election and had
to continually battle to win reelection. COPPERHEADS, also known as "Peace" Democrats
repeatedly thwarted the President's leadership initiatives. In the South, Jefferson Davis was in no
easier position. How could a government formed on the basis of states' rights provide the strong,
centralized leadership necessary to prevail in war? Davis constantly had to fight with individuals
and state legislatures for the power he needed to run the Confederate government.
One of the most important challenges for each leader was foreign relations. If the South could get
Britain to support the Confederacy, then maybe, with the most powerful navy in the world, the
British could break the Union blockade of Southern ports. This would provide the South with large
markets for its cotton and perhaps a source of money large enough to finance the war. Lincoln's job,
of course, was to prevent this at all costs. A great game of diplomacy was under way.
As the war progressed, a stark contrast between the two economies emerged. Both the North and the
South experienced high rates of inflation, but the South's rate was 80 times greater than in the
North. Labor shortages occurred on both sides, as did increasing class conflict between the wealthy
and the poor. Since most of the battles in the Civil War took place in the South, great physical
destruction was wrought throughout the region, causing mass poverty and despair.
The war also brought significant new roles for Northern and Southern women at home and at work
as they replaced almost two million men going off to war. They plowed the fields and did jobs
previously done only by the men. Through organization and sheer tenacity they broadened their
influence on many problems facing society.
Men were military nurses before this time. It was not considered proper for women to tend to

injured and dying men, assisting in operations and care. In fighting for this right, women earned
respect and admiration of generals, politicians, and husbands. They would use this success to
continue to enlarge their role in the evolving fabric of the nation.
The Civil War presents a struggle between two societies, not merely two armies. It showed how a
predominantly industrial society could prevail over an agricultural one. It demonstrated like no
previous war that the efforts of all individuals matter. Lastly, although he would not live to see the
results, the handling of the Civil War is a testament to the wisdom, determination and leadership of
Abraham Lincoln, arguably America's greatest President.

34a. The Emancipation Proclamation

Americans tend to think of the Civil War as being fought to end slavery. Even one full year into the
Civil War, the elimination of slavery was not a key objective of the North. Despite a vocal
Abolitionist movement in the North, many people and many soldiers, in particular, opposed slavery,
but did not favor emancipation. They expected slavery to die on its own over time. In theBORDER
STATES Union states that still permitted slavery the situation was full of problems. When a
Union officer in Kentucky freed local slaves after a major victory, Union soldiers threw down their
arms and disbanded. Lincoln intervened and "unfreed" those slaves. He did this to prevent a
military backlash.
The Emancipation Proclamation
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing,
among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixtythree, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof
shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free;
and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to
repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States
and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion

against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in
good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections
wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence
of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people
thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me
vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed
rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war
measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly
proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and
designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in
rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John,
St.Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and
Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia,
and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and
Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts, are for the
present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons
held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free;
and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in
necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor
faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into
the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to
man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon
military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of
Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be
affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eightyseventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

By mid-1862 Lincoln had come to believe in the need to end slavery. Besides his disdain for the
institution, he simply felt that the South could not come back into the Union after trying to destroy
it. The opposition Democratic Party threatened to turn itself into an antiwar party. Lincoln's military
commander, General George McClellan, was vehemently against emancipation. Many Republicans
who backed policies that forbid black settlement in their states were against granting blacks
additional rights. When Lincoln indicated he wanted to issue a proclamation of freedom to his
cabinet in mid-1862, they convinced him he had to wait until the Union achieved a significant
military success.
That victory came in September at Antietam. No foreign country wants to ally with a potential
losing power. By achieving victory, the Union demonstrated to the British that the South may lose.
As a result, the British did not recognize the Confederate States of America, and Antietam became
one of the war's most important diplomatic battles, as well as one of the bloodiest. Five days after
the battle, Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863.
Unless the Confederate States returned to the Union by that day, he proclaimed their slaves "shall be
then, thenceforward and forever free."
It is sometimes said that the Emancipation Proclamation freed no slaves. In a way, this is true. The
proclamation would only apply to the Confederate States, as an act to seize enemy resources. By
freeing slaves in the Confederacy, Lincoln was actually freeing people he did not directly control.
The way he explained the Proclamation made it acceptable to much of the Union army. He
emphasized emancipation as a way to shorten the war by taking Southern resources and hence
reducing Confederate strength. Even McClellan supported the policy as a soldier. Lincoln made no
such offer of freedom to the border states.
The Emancipation Proclamation created a climate where the doom of slavery was seen as one of the
major objectives of the war. Overseas, the North now seemed to have the greatest moral cause.

Even if a foreign government wanted to intervene on behalf of the South, its population might
object. The Proclamation itself freed very few slaves, but it was the death knell for slavery in the
United States. Eventually, the Emancipation Proclamation led to the proposal and ratification of
the THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT to the Constitution, which formally abolished slavery
throughout the land.

34b. Wartime Diplomacy

Rebellions rarely succeed without foreign support. The North and South both sought British and
French support. Jefferson Davis was determined to secure such an alliance with Britain or France
for the Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln knew this could not be permitted. A great chess match was
about to begin.
Cotton was a formidable weapon in Southern diplomacy. Europe was reliant on cotton grown in the
South for their textile industry. Over 75% of the cotton used by British came from states within the
Confederacy.
By 1863, the Union blockade reduced British cotton imports to 3% of their pre-war levels.
Throughout Europe there was a "COTTON FAMINE." There was also a great deal of money being
made by British shipbuilders. The South needed fast ships to run the blockade, which British
shipbuilders were more than happy to furnish.
France had reasons to support the South.NAPOLEON III saw an opportunity to get cotton and to
restore a French presence in America, especially in Mexico, by forging an alliance.
But the North also had cards to play. Crop failures in Europe in the early years of the war increased
British dependency on Union wheat. In 1862, over one-half of British grain imports came from the
Union. The growth of other British industries such as the iron and shipbuilding offset the decline in
the textile industry. British merchant vessels were also carrying much of the trade between the
Union and Great Britain, providing another source of income.
The greatest problem for the South lay in its embrace of slavery, as the British took pride in their
leadership of ending the trans-Atlantic slave trade. To support a nation that had openly embraced
slavery now seemed unthinkable. After the Emancipation Proclamation, Britain was much less
prepared to intervene on behalf of the South.
The key for each side was to convince Europe that victory for its side was inevitable. Early
Southern victories convinced Britain that the North couldn't triumph against a foe so large and so
opposed to domination. This was a lesson reminiscent of the one learned by the British themselves
in the Revolutionary War. Yet, despite all its victories, the South never struck a decisive blow to the

North. The British felt they must know that the South's independence was certain before
recognizing the Confederacy. The Southern loss at Antietam loomed large in the minds of European
diplomats.
Yet efforts did not stop. Lincoln, his SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM SEWARD,
andAMBASSADOR CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS labored tirelessly to maintain British
neutrality. As late as 1864, Jefferson Davis proposed to release slaves in the South if Britain would
recognize the Confederacy.

34c. The Northern Homefront

After initial setbacks, most Northern civilians experienced an explosion ofWARTIME
PRODUCTION.
During the war, coal and iron production reached their highest levels. Merchant ship tonnage
peaked. Traffic on the railroads and the Erie Canal rose over 50%.
Union manufacturers grew so profitable that many companies doubled or tripled their dividends to
stockholders. The newly rich built lavish homes and spent their money extravagantly on carriages,
silk clothing and jewelry. There was a great deal of public outrage that such conduct was
unbecoming or even immoral in time of war. What made this lifestyle even more offensive was that
workers' salaries shrank in real terms due to inflation. The price of beef, rice and sugar doubled
from their pre-war levels, yet salaries rose only half as fast as prices while companies of all
kinds made record profits.
Women's roles changed dramatically during the war. Before the war, women of the North already
had been prominent in a number of industries, including textiles, clothing and shoe-making. With
the conflict, there were great increases in employment of women in occupations ranging from
government civil service to agricultural field work. As men entered the Union army, women's
proportion of the manufacturing work force went from one-fourth to one-third. At home, women
organized over one thousand soldiers' aid societies, rolled bandages for use in hospitals and raised
millions of dollars to aid injured troops.
Nowhere was their impact felt greater than in field hospitals close to the front. Dorothea Dix, who
led the effort to provide state hospitals for the mentally ill, was named the first superintendent of
women nurses and set rigid guidelines. CLARA BARTON, working in a patent office, became one
of the most admired nurses during the war and, as a result of her experiences, formed
the AMERICAN RED CROSS.
Resentment of the draft was another divisive issue. In the middle of 1862, Lincoln called for

300,000 volunteer soldiers. Each state was given a quota, and if it could not meet the quota, it had
no recourse but to DRAFT men into the state militia. Resistance was so great in some parts of
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana that the army had to send in troops to keep order.
Tempers flared further over the provision that allowed exemptions for those who could afford to
hire a substitute.
In 1863, facing a serious loss of manpower through casualties and expiration of enlistments,
Congress authorized the government to enforce CONSCRIPTION, resulting in riots in several
states. In July 1863, when draft offices were established in New York to bring new Irish workers
into the military, mobs formed to resist. At least 74 people were killed over three days. The same
troops that had just triumphantly defeated Lee at Gettysburg were deployed to maintain order in
New York City.

34d. The Southern Homefront

After the initial months of the war, the South was plagued with shortages of all kinds. It started with
clothing. As the first winter of the war approached, the Confederate army needed wool clothing to
keep their soldiers warm. But the South did not produce much wool and the Northern blockade
prevented much wool from being imported from abroad. People all over the South donated their
woolens to the cause. Soon families at home were cutting blankets out of carpets.
Almost all the shoes worn in the South were manufactured in the North. With the start of the war,
shipments of shoes ceased and there would be few new shoes available for years. The first meeting
of Confederate and Union forces at Gettysburg arose when Confederates were investigating a
supply of shoes in a warehouse.
Money was another problem. The South's decision to print more money to pay for the war simply
led to unbelievable increases in price of everyday items. By the end of 1861, the overall rate of
inflation was running 12% per month. For example, salt was the only means to preserve meat at this
time. Its price increased from 65 for a 200 pound bag in May 1861 to $60 per sack only 18 months
later. Wheat, flour, corn meal, meats of all kinds, iron, tin and copper became too expensive for the
ordinary family. PROFITEERS frequently bought up all the goods in a store to sell them back at a
higher price. It was an unmanageable situation. FOOD RIOTS occurred in Mobile, Atlanta and
Richmond. Over the course of the war, inflation in the South caused prices to rise by 9000%.
Women's roles changed dramatically. The absence of men meant that women were now heads of
households. Women staffed the Confederate government as clerks and became schoolteachers for
the first time. Women at first were denied permission to work in military hospitals as they were
exposed to "sights that no lady should see." But when casualties rose to the point that wounded men

would die in the streets due to lack of attention, female nurses such as SALLY LOUISA
TOMPKINS and KATE CUMMING would not be denied. Indeed, by late 1862, the Confederate
Congress enacted a law permitting civilians in military hospitals, giving preference to women.
The most unpopular act of the Confederate government was the institution of a draft. Loopholes
permitted a drafted man to hire a substitute, leading many wealthy men to avoid service. When the
Confederate Congress exempted anyone who supervised 20 slaves, dissension exploded. Many
started to conclude that it was "A RICH MAN'S WAR AND A POOR MAN'S FIGHT." This
sentiment and the suffering of their families led many to desert the Confederate armies.
By November 1863, JAMES SEDDON, the Confederate Secretary of War said he could not
account for 1/3 of the army. After the fall of Atlanta, soldiers worried more about their families then
staying to fight for their new country. Much of the Confederate army started home to pick up the
pieces of their shattered lives.

34e. The Election of 1864

It is hard for modern Americans to believe that Abraham Lincoln, one of history's most beloved
Presidents, was nearly defeated in his reelection attempt in 1864. Yet by that summer, Lincoln
himself feared he would lose. How could this happen? First, the country had not elected an
incumbent President for a second term since Andrew Jackson in 1832 nine Presidents in a row
had served just one term. Also, his embrace of emancipation was still a problem for many Northern
voters.
Despite Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg a year earlier, the Southern armies came back
fighting with a vengeance. During three months in the summer of 1864, over 65,000 Union soldiers
were killed, wounded, or missing-in-action. In comparison, there had been 108,000 Union
casualties in the first three years. General Ulysses S. Grant was being called The Butcher. At one
time during the summer, Confederate soldiers under JUBAL EARLY came within five miles of the
White House.
Lincoln had much to contend with. He had staunch opponents in the Congress. Underground
Confederate activities brought rebellion to parts of Maryland. Lincoln's suspension of the WRIT OF
HABEAS CORPUS was ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
an order Lincoln refused to obey. But worst of all, the war was not going well.
Meanwhile the DEMOCRATIC PARTY SPLIT, with major opposition from Peace Democrats,
who wanted a negotiated peace at any cost. They chose as their nominee George B. McClellan,
Lincoln's former commander of the Army of the Potomac. Even Lincoln expected that McClellan

would win.
The South was well aware of Union discontent. Many felt that if the Southern armies could hold out
until the election, negotiations for Northern recognition of Confederate independence might begin.
Everything changed on September 6, 1864, when General Sherman seized Atlanta. The war effort
had turned decidedly in the North's favor and even McClellan now sought military victory.
Two months later, Lincoln won the popular vote that eluded him in his first election. He won the
electoral college by 212 to 21 and the Republicans had won three-fourths of Congress. A second
term and the power to conclude the war were now in his hands.

34f. The Assassination of the President

On April 11, 1865, two days after LEE'S SURRENDER at Appomattox, Lincoln delivered a
speech outlining his plans for peace and reconstruction. In the audience was JOHN WILKES
BOOTH, a successful actor, born and raised in Maryland. Booth was a fervent believer in slavery
and white supremacy. Upon hearing Lincoln's words, he said to a companion, "Now, by God, I'll put
him through. That is the last speech he will ever make."
After failing in two attempts earlier in the year to kidnap the President, Booth decided Lincoln must
be killed. His conspiracy was grand in design. Booth and his collaborators decided to assassinate
the President, Vice President ANDREW JOHNSON, and Secretary of State William Seward all in
the same evening. Lincoln decided to attend a British comedy, OUR AMERICAN COUSIN, at
Ford's Theater, starring the famous actress LAURA KEENE. Ulysses S. Grant had planned to
accompany the President and his wife, but during the day he decided to see his son in New Jersey.
Attending the play that night with the Lincolns were MAJOR HENRY RATHBONE and his
fiance, CLARA HARRIS, the daughter of a prominent Senator.
In the middle of the play that night, Booth slipped into the entryway to the President's box, holding
a dagger in his left hand and a Derringer pistol in his right. He fired the pistol six inches from
Lincoln and slashed Rathbone's arm with his knife. Booth then vaulted over the front of the
President's box, caught his right leg in a flag and landed on the stage, breaking his leg. He waved
his dagger and shouted what is reported to be SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS Latin for "thus be it
ever to tyrants." Some reported that he said, "The South is avenged." He then ran limpingly out of
the theater, jumped on his horse, and rode off towards Virginia.
The bullet entered Lincoln's head just behind his left ear, tore through his brain and lodged just
behind his right eye. The injury was mortal. Lincoln was brought to a nearby boarding house, where

he died the next morning. The other targets escaped death. Lewis Powell, one of Booth's
accomplices, went to Seward's house, stabbed and seriously wounded the Secretary of State, but
Seward survived. Another accomplice, GEORGE ATZERODT, could not bring himself to attempt
to assassinate Vice President Johnson.
Two weeks later, on April 26, Union cavalry trapped Booth in a Virginia tobacco barn. The soldiers
had orders not to shoot and decided to burn him out of the barn. A fire was started. Before Booth
could even react, SERGEANT BOSTON CORBETT took aim and fatally shot Booth. The dying
assassin was dragged to a porch where his last words uttered were, "Useless ... useless!"
A train carried Lincoln's body on a circuitous path back home for burial in Springfield, Illinois. A
mourning nation turned out by the hundreds of thousands to say good-bye to their President, the
first to fall by an assassin's bullet.

35. Reconstruction
RECONSTRUCTION refers to the period following the Civil War of rebuilding the United States.
It was a time of great pain and endless questions. On what terms would the Confederacy be allowed
back into the Union? Who would establish the terms, Congress or the President? What was to be the
place of freed blacks in the South? Did Abolition mean that black men would now enjoy the same
status as white men? What was to be done with the Confederate leaders, who were seen as traitors
by many in the North?
Although the military conflict had ended, Reconstruction was in many ways still a war. This
important struggle was waged by radical northerners who wanted to punish the South and
Southerners who desperately wanted to preserve their way of life.
Slavery, in practical terms, died with the end of the Civil War. Three Constitutional amendments
altered the nature of African-American rights. The Thirteenth Amendment formally abolished
slavery in all states and territories. The FOURTEENTH AMENDMENTprohibited states from
depriving any male citizen of equal protection under the law, regardless of race. The FIFTEENTH
AMENDMENT granted the right to vote to African-American males. Ratification of these
amendments became a requirement for Southern states to be readmitted into the Union. Although
these measures were positive steps toward racial equality, their enforcement proved extremely
difficult.
The period of PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION lasted from 1865 to 1867. Andrew
Johnson, as Lincoln's successor, proposed a very lenient policy toward the South. He pardoned most
Southern whites, appointed provisional governors and outlined steps for the creation of new state

governments. Johnson felt that each state government could best decide how they wanted blacks to
be treated. Many in the North were infuriated that the South would be returning their former
Confederate leaders to power. They were also alarmed by Southern adoption of Black Codes that
sought to maintain white supremacy. Recently freed blacks found the postwar South very similar to
the prewar South.
The CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS OF 1866brought RADICAL REPUBLICANS to power.
They wanted to punish the South, and to prevent the ruling class from continuing in power. They
passed the MILITARY RECONSTRUCTION ACTS OF 1867, which divided the South into five
military districts and outlined how the new governments would be designed. Under federal
bayonets, blacks, including those who had recently been freed, received the right to vote, hold
political offices, and become judges and police chiefs. They held positions that formerly belonged
to Southern Democrats. Many in the South were aghast. President Johnson vetoed all the Radical
initiatives, but Congress overrode him each time. It was the Radical Republicans who impeached
President Johnson in 1868. The Senate, by a single vote, failed to convict him, but his power to
hinder radical reform was diminished.
Not all supported the Radical Republicans. Many Southern whites could not accept the idea that
former slaves could not only vote but hold office. It was in this era that the Ku Klux Klan was born.
A reign of terror was aimed both at local Republican leaders as well as at blacks seeking to assert
their new political rights. Beatings, lynchings, and massacres, were all in a night's work for the
clandestine Klan. Unable to protect themselves, Southern blacks and Republicans looked to
Washington for protection. After ten years, Congress and the radicals grew weary of federal
involvement in the South. The WITHDRAWAL OF UNION TROOPS IN 1877 brought renewed
attempts to strip African-Americans of their newly acquired rights.

35a. Presidential Reconstruction

In 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson, a Democratic senator from
Tennessee, as his Vice Presidential candidate. Lincoln was looking for Southern support. He hoped
that by selecting Johnson he would appeal to Southerners who never wanted to leave the Union.
Johnson, like Lincoln, had grown up in poverty. He did not learn to write until he was 20 years old.
He came to political power as a backer of the small farmer. In speeches, he railed against
"SLAVEOCRACY" and a bloated "Southern aristocracy" that had little use for the white working
man.
The views of the Vice President rarely matter too much, unless something happens to the President.

Following Lincoln's assassination, Johnson's views now mattered a great deal. Would he follow
Lincoln's moderate approach to reconciliation? Would he support limited black suffrage as Lincoln
did? Would he follow the Radical Republicans and be harsh and punitive toward the South?
Johnson believed the Southern states should decide the course that was best for them. He also felt
that African-Americans were unable to manage their own lives. He certainly did not think that
African-Americans deserved to vote. At one point in 1866 he told a group of blacks visiting the
White House that they should emigrate to another country.
He also gave amnesty and pardon. He returned all property, except, of course, their slaves, to former
Confederates who pledged loyalty to the Union and agreed to support the 13th Amendment.
Confederate officials and owners of large taxable estates were required to apply individually for a
Presidential pardon. Many former Confederate leaders were soon returned to power. And some even
sought to regain their Congressional seniority.
Johnson's vision of Reconstruction had proved remarkably lenient. Very few Confederate leaders
were persecuted. By 1866, 7,000 Presidential pardons had been granted. Brutal beatings of AfricanAmericans were frequent. Still-powerful whites sought to subjugate freed slaves via harsh laws that
came to be known as the BLACK CODES. Some states required written evidence of employment
for the coming year or else the freed slaves would be required to work on plantations.
In South Carolina, African-Americans had to pay a special tax if they were not farmers or servants.
They were not even allowed to hunt or fish in some areas. Blacks were unable to own guns and
even had their dogs taxed. African-Americans were barred from orphanages, parks, schools and
other public facilities. The FREEDMAN'S BUREAU, a federal agency created to help the
transition from slavery to emancipation, was thwarted in its attempts to provide for the welfare of
the newly emancipated. All of these rules resulted in the majority of freed slaves remaining
dependent on the plantation for work.
Andrew Johnson's policies were initially supported by most Northerners, even Republicans. But,
there was no consensus as to what rights African-Americans received along with Emancipation. Yet
a group of Radical Republicans wanted the rights promised in the Declaration of Independence
extended to include all free men, including those who were formerly slaves. A political power
struggle was in the offing.

35b. Radical Reconstruction

The Radical Republicans believed blacks were entitled to the same political rights and opportunities
as whites. They also believed that the Confederate leaders should be punished for their roles in the

Civil War. Leaders like PennsylvaniaREPRESENTATIVE THADDEUS STEVENSand

Massachusetts SENATOR CHARLES SUMNER vigorously opposed Andrew Johnson's lenient
policies. A great political battle was about to unfold.
Americans had long been suspicious of the federal government playing too large a role in the affairs
of state. But the Radicals felt that extraordinary times called for direct intervention in state affairs
and laws designed to protect the emancipated blacks. At the heart of their beliefs was the notion that
blacks must be given a chance to compete in a free-labor economy. In 1866, this activist Congress
also introduced a bill to extend the life of the Freedmen's Bureau and began work on a CIVIL
RIGHTS BILL.
President Johnson stood in opposition. He vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, claiming that it
would bloat the size of government. He vetoed the Civil Rights Bill rejecting that blacks have the
"same rights of property and person" as whites.
Moderate Republicans were appalled at Johnson's racism. They joined with the Radicals to overturn
Johnson's Civil Rights Act veto. This marked the first time in history that a major piece of
legislation was overturned. The Radicals hoped that the Civil Rights Act would lead to an active
federal judiciary with courts enforcing rights.
Congress then turned its attention to amending the Constitution. In 1867 they approved the farreaching Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibited "states from abridging equality before the law."
The second part of the Amendment provided for a reduction of a state's representatives if suffrage
was denied. Republicans, in essence, offered the South a choice accept black enfranchisement or
lose congressional representation. A third clause barred ex-Confederates from holding state or
national office.
Emboldened by the work of the Fourteenth Amendment and by local political victories in the 1866
elections, the Republicans went on to introduce the Reconstruction Act of 1867. This removed the
right to vote and seek office by "leading rebels." Now theSOUTHERN UNIONISTS
Southerners who supported the Union during the War became the new Southern leadership. The
Reconstruction Act also divided the South into five military districts under commanders empowered
to employ the army to protect black property and citizens.

The first two years of Congressional Reconstruction saw Southern states rewrite their Constitutions
and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress seemed fully in control. One thing
stood in the way it was President Johnson himself. Radical leaders employed an extraordinary
Constitutional remedy to clear the impediment Presidential impeachment.

35c. A President Impeached

In the spring of 1868, Andrew Johnson became the first President to be IMPEACHED. The heavily
Republican House of Representatives brought 11 articles of impeachment against Johnson. Many
insiders knew that the Congress was looking for any excuse to rid themselves of an uncooperative
President.
Impeachment refers to the process specified in the Constitution for trial and removal from office of
any federal official accused of misconduct. It has two stages. The House of Representatives charges
the official with articles of impeachment. "TREASON, BRIBERY, OR OTHER HIGH CRIMES
AND MISDEMEANORS" are defined as impeachable offenses. Once charged by the House, the
case goes before the Senate for a trial.
In 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act, which EDWIN STANTON, as Secretary of War,
was charged with enforcing. Johnson opposed the Act and tried to remove Stanton in direct
violation of the TENURE OF OFFICE ACT. Nine of the articles of impeachment related to
Johnson's removal of Stanton. Another two charged Johnson with disgracing Congress.
Johnson's defense was simple: only a clear violation of the law warranted his removal.
But as with politics, things are rarely simple. Other factors came into play. Since there was no Vice
President at the time, the next in line for the Presidency was BENJAMIN WADE, a Radical
unpopular with businessmen and moderates. And along with legal wrangling, assurance was given
from Johnson's backers that the Radicals' Southern policies would be accepted.
In May of 1868, 35 Senators voted to convict, one vote short of the required 2/3 majority. Seven
Republican Senators had jumped party lines and found Johnson not guilty. Johnson dodged a bullet
and was able to serve out his term. It would be 130 years before another President BILL
CLINTON would be impeached.

35d. Rebuilding the Old Order

Many Southerners, whether white or black, rich or poor, barely recognized the world in which they
now lived. Wealthy whites, long-accustomed to plush plantation life and the perks of political

power, now found themselves barred from voting and holding office. Their estates were in
shambles. African-Americans were loathe to return to work for them. Poor white farmers now
found blacks competing with them for jobs and land.
For the freed slave, Reconstruction offered a miraculous window of hope. Those born into slavery
could now vote and own land. In parts of the South, blacks could ride with whites on trains and eat
with them in restaurants. Schools, orphanages, and public relief projects aimed at improving the
lives of blacks were emerging all over the South. Perhaps most stunning of all, African-Americans
were holding political office. Blacks were becoming sheriffs and judges. They were elected to
school boards and city councils. Sixteen blacks sat in Congress from 1867-77.HIRAM REVELS of
Mississippi became the first African-American Senator in 1870. In December 1872 P.B.S.
PINCHBACK of Louisiana became the first African-American Governor. All in all, about 600
blacks served as legislators on the local level. But as the saying goes, the more things change, the
more they remain the same.
Economically, African-Americans were disadvantaged. Most had skills best suited to the plantation.
By the early 1870s sharecropping became the dominant way for the poor to earn a living. Wealthy
whites allowed poor whites and blacks to work land in exchange for a share of the harvest. The
landlord would sometimes provide food, seed, tools, and shelter.SHARECROPPERS often found
themselves in debt, for they had to borrow on bad terms and had to pay excessively for basic
supplies. When the harvest came, if the debt exceeded harvest revenues, the sharecropper remained
bound to the owner. In many ways, this system resembled slavery.
Many whites resented and rejected the changes taking place all about them. Taxes were high. The
economy was stagnant. Corruption ran rampant. Carpetbaggers and scalawags made matters
worse. CARPETBAGGERS were Northerners who saw the shattered South as a chance to get rich
quickly by seizing political office now barred from the old order. After the war these Yankees
hastily packed old-fashioned traveling bags, called carpetbags, and rushed south. "SCALAWAGS"
were southern whites, who allied themselves with the Carpetbaggers, and also took advantage of the
political openings.
Out of a marriage of hatred and fear, the KU KLUX KLAN, the KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE
CAMELIA, and the WHITE BROTHERHOOD were born. They are all supremacy groups who
aimed at controlling African-Americans through violence and intimidation. Massacres, lynching,
rape, pillaging and terror were common. In essence, these groups were paramilitary forces serving
all those who wanted white supremacy. And it was not only ex-Confederate soldiers and poor
whites. Ministers, merchants, military officers and other professionals donned hoods, burned
crosses, and murdered those who interfered with their vision.

Emancipated blacks began finding the new world looking much like the old world. Pressure to
return to plantations increased. Poll taxes, violence at the ballot box, and literacy tests kept AfricanAmericans from voting sidestepping the 15th Amendment.
Slavery was over. The struggle for equality had just begun.

36. The Gilded Age

From the ashes of the American Civil War sprung an economic powerhouse.
The factories built by the Union to defeat the Confederacy were not shut down at the war's end.
Now that the fighting was done, these factories were converted to peacetime purposes. Although
industry had existed prior to the war, agriculture had represented the most significant portion of the
American economy.
After the war, beginning with the railroads, small businesses grew larger and larger. By the century's
end, the nation's economy was dominated by a few, very powerful individuals. In 1850, most
Americans worked for themselves. By 1900, most Americans worked for an employer.
The growth was astounding. From the end ofRECONSTRUCTION in 1877 to the
disastrous PANIC OF 1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size. New technologies and
new ways of organizing business led a few individuals to the top. The competition was ruthless.
Those who could not provide the best product at the cheapest price were simply driven into
bankruptcy or were bought up by hungry, successful industrialists.
The so-called captains of industry became household names: John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil,
Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel, and J. Pierpont Morgan, the powerful banker who controlled a
great many industries. Their tactics were not always fair, but there were few laws regulating
business conduct at that time.
Industrial Strength
Nevertheless, the American economy grew and grew. By 1914, the small nation once seen as a
playground for European empires had now surpassed them all. The United States had become the
largest industrial nation in the world.
However, the prosperity of America did not reach everyone. Amid the fabulous wealth of the new
economic elite was tremendous poverty. How did some manage to be so successful while others
struggled to put food on the table? Americans wrestled with this great question as new attitudes
toward wealth began to emerge.

What role did the government play in this trend? Basically, it was pro-business. Congress, the
Presidents, and the Courts looked favorably on this new growth. But leadership was generally
lacking on the political level. CORRUPTION spread like a plague through the city, state, and
national governments. Greedy legislators and "forgettable" Presidents dominated the political scene.
True leadership, for better or for worse, resided among the magnates who dominated the Gilded
Age.

36a. Binding the Nation by Rail

The LOCOMOTIVE was not an invention of the GILDED AGE. Indeed Americans had traveled by
rail in the decades that preceded the Civil War. But such travel was risky.
Passengers often sat in the same room as a wood burner and had to be watchful of wayward sparks
landing on their clothing. Braking systems were not always trustworthy. Several engines even
exploded while trying to reach a destination.
Traveling also represented a tremendous investment in time. Rail passengers often had to change
trains frequently because the width between tracks varied from company to company. Such a
journey could be uncomfortable, boring, and dangerous.
Give Me a Brake
After the Civil War many rail problems were solved. GEORGE WESTINGHOUSEinvented the
air brake and trains could stop more reliably as a result. Railroad firms agreed on a standard width
between tracks to reduce transfers. ThePULLMAN CAR COMPANY produced sleeper cars and
dining cars to make travel more comfortable.
The Transcontinental Railroad
Soon after the railroad made its appearance in the U.S. in the 1830s, Americans dreamed of linking
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by rail. ATRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROADwould allow for
settlement of the west, open new markets for eastern manufacturers, and bring relief to overcrowded
eastern cities.
Some even believed that it was divinely intended that Americans should control the whole of the
continental U.S. In 1845, a Democratic journalist named JOHN L. O'SULLIVANcoined the phrase
"MANIFEST DESTINY."

Manifest Destiny
"... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which
Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federaltive
development of self government entrusted to us....
Steaming locomotives would hasten western settlement, spread democratic values, and increase the
size of the United States (Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico etc., were not yet states,
only TERRITORIES). Western SETTLEMENT was a paramount national interest. As such, the
federal government awarded the contract to link the coasts by rail to two companies, the UNION
PACIFIC and theCENTRAL PACIFIC.
I've Been Working on the Railroad
Union Pacific workers, many of whom were Irish and Chinese immigrants, started at Omaha,
Nebraska, and hammered their way westward. From Sacramento, California, the Central Pacific
made its way eastward with the assistance of thousands of Chinese immigrants.
Those working on the railroad gave their sweat and sometimes their lives blasting through the often
unforgiving terrain. Other dangers that workers faced were disease, searing summer heat, freezing
temperatures in the mountains, Native American raids and the lawlessness and violence of pioneer
towns.
The Golden Spike
The government declared that the two lines would merge at PROMONTORY SUMMIT near
Ogden, Utah. On May 10, 1869, LELAND STANFORD, representing the Central Pacific Railroad,
was provided the honor to hammer a golden spike into the ground that marked the completion of the
coast-to-coast line. Celebrations erupted across the land. Even the Liberty Bell tolled once again to
commemorate the occasion.
Soon, other transcontinental lines were constructed and travel across the continent became worlds
simpler, less expensive, and much faster, than by the old Conestoga wagon.
On the Right Track
The engineering achievement was monumental. The costs of the operation to railroads were
enormous. Tens of thousands of workers had to be paid, sheltered, and fed. Tons of steel and wood
were required.
However, the economic incentives to railroads were enormus. The government offered generous

loans to companies who were willing to assume the risk. The greatest reward was land. For each
mile of track laid by the Central and Union Pacific Railroads, the companies received 640 acres of
public land. In other rail projects, state governments often kicked in additional acres for a growing
number of rail companies.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
All in all, the railroads received nearly 200 million acres of land from the U.S. government for
fulfilling contracts. Directors of some railroads made fortunes. Foremost among the RAILROAD
TYCOONS were CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, JAMES J. HILL, and JAY GOULD.
But freight railroad abuses grew rampant. Money lined the pockets of greedy public officials who
awarded generous terms to the railroads. Railroad companies set their own shipping rates.
Sometimes it was more expensive for a small farmer to ship goods to a nearby town than to a
faraway city. Because the companies kept their rates secret, one farmer could be charged more than
another for the same freight transport.
To reduce competition, railroad companies established pools. These were informal arrangements
between companies to keep rates above a certain level. Consequently, the public suffered. Finally, in
1887, Congress responded to public outcry by creating the INTERSTATE COMMERCE
COMMISSION to watch over the rail industry. This was the nation's first REGULATORY
AGENCY. Due to inconcise wording in its enabling legislation, the ICC was largely ignored until
the early 20th century.
But the public also reaped great benefits. Eastern businessmen could now sell their goods to
California citizens. As a result of improved transportation all Americans had access to more goods
at a cheaper price. The westward movement was greatly accelerated. Those seeking a new start in
life could much more easily "go west.".
No industrial revolution can occur without a transport web. The nation was now bound together by
this enormous network and its citizens were ready to reap the rewards.

36b. The New Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller

He was America's first billionaire.
In a pure sense, the goal of any capitalist is to make money. And JOHN D.
ROCKEFELLER could serve as the poster child for CAPITALISM. Overcoming humble
beginnings, Rockefeller had the vision and the drive to become the richest person in America.
At the turn of the century, when the average worker earned $8 to $10 per week, Rockefeller was

worth millions.
Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?
What was his secret? Is he to be placed on a pedestal for others as a "CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY?"
Or should he be demonized as a "robber baron." A ROBBER BARON, by definition, was an
American capitalist at the turn of the 19th century who enriched himself upon the sweat of others,
exploited natural resources, or possessed unfair government influence.
Whatever conclusions can be drawn, Rockefeller's impact on the American economy demands
recognition.
Rockefeller was born in 1839 in Moravia, a small town in western New York. His father practiced
herbal medicine, professing to cure patients with remedies he had created from plants in the area.
John's mother instilled a devout Baptist faith in the boy, a belief system he took to his grave. After
being graduated from high school in 1855, the family sent him to a Cleveland business school.
Young John Rockefeller entered the workforce on the bottom rung of the ladder as a clerk in a
Cleveland shipping firm. Always thrifty, he saved enough money to start his own business in
produce sales. When the Civil War came, the demand for his goods increased dramatically, and
Rockefeller found himself amassing a small fortune.
He took advantage of the loophole in the Union draft law by purchasing a substitute to avoid
military service. When EDWIN DRAKE discovered oil in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania,
Rockefeller saw the future. He slowly sold off his other interests and became convinced that
refining oil would bring him great wealth.
Waste Not...
Rockefeller introduced techniques that totally reshaped the OIL INDUSTRY. In the mid-19th
century, the chief demand was for kerosene. In the refining process, there are many by-products
when CRUDE OIL is converted toKEROSENE. What others saw as waste, Rockefeller saw as
gold. He sold one byproduct paraffin to candlemakers and another byproduct petroleum jelly to
medical supply companies. He even sold off other "waste" as paving materials for roads. He
shipped so many goods that railroad companies drooled over the prospect of getting his business.
Rockefeller demanded REBATES, or discounted rates, from the railroads. He used all these
methods to reduce the price of oil to his consumers. His profits soared and his competitors were
crushed one by one. Rockefeller forced smaller companies to surrender their stock to his control.

Standard Oil a Trust-worthy Company?

This sort of arrangement is called a trust. ATRUST is a combination of firms formed by legal
agreement. Trusts often reduce fair business competition. As a result of Rockefeller's shrewd
business practices, his large corporation, the STANDARD OIL COMPANY, became the largest
business in the land.
As the new century dawned, Rockefeller's investments mushroomed. With the advent of the
automobile, gasoline replaced kerosene as the number one petroleum product. Rockefeller was a
bona fide billionaire. Critics charged that his labor practices were unfair. Employees pointed out
that he could have paid his workers a fairer wage and settled for being a half-billionaire.
Before his death in 1937, Rockefeller gave away nearly half of his fortune. Churches, medical
foundations, universities, and centers for the arts received hefty sums of oil money. Whether he was
driven by good will, conscience, or his devout faith in God is unknown. Regardless, he became a
hero to many enterprising Americans.

36c. The New Tycoons: Andrew Carnegie

Oil was not the only commodity in great demand during the Gilded Age. The nation also needed
steel.
The railroads needed STEEL for their rails and cars, the navy needed steel for its new naval fleet,
and cities needed steel to build skyscrapers. Every factory in America needed steel for their physical
plant and machinery. Andrew Carnegie saw this demand and seized the moment.
Humble Roots
Like John Rockefeller, ANDREW CARNEGIEwas not born into wealth. When he was 13, his
family came to the United States from Scotland and settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, a small
town near Pittsburgh. His first job was in a cotton mill, where he earned $1.20 per week.
His talents were soon recognized and Carnegie found himself promoted to the bookkeeping side of
the business. An avid reader, Carnegie spent his Saturdays in the homes of wealthy citizens who
were gracious enough to allow him access to their private libraries. After becoming a telegrapher for
a short while, he met the head of a railroad company who asked his services as a personal secretary.
During the Civil War, this man, THOMAS SCOTT, was sent to Washington to operate
transportation for the Union Army. Carnegie spent his war days helping the soldiers get where they
needed to be and by helping the wounded get to hospitals. By this time, he had amassed a small sum

of money, which he quickly invested. Soon iron and steel caught his attention, and he was on his
way to creating the largest steel company in the world.
Vertical Integration: Moving on Up
The Bessemer Process
When WILLIAM KELLY and HENRY BESSEMER perfected a process to convert iron to steel
cheaply and efficiently, the industry was soon to blossom.
Carnegie became a tycoon because of shrewd business tactics. Rockefeller often bought other oil
companies to eliminate competition. This is a process known as HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION.
Carnegie also created a VERTICAL COMBINATION, an idea first implemented by GUSTAVUS
SWIFT. He bought railroad companies and iron mines. If he owned the rails and the mines, he
could reduce his costs and produce cheaper steel.
Carnegie was a good judge of talent. His assistant, HENRY CLAY FRICK, helped manage
the CARNEGIE STEEL COMPANY on its way to success. Carnegie also wanted productive
workers. He wanted them to feel that they had a vested interest in company prosperity so he
initiated a profit-sharing plan.
All these tactics made the Carnegie Steel Company a multi-million dollar corporation. In 1901, he
sold his interests to J.P. Morgan, who paid him 500 million dollars to create U.S. Steel.
Giving Back
Retirement did not take him out of the public sphere. Before his death he donated more than $350
million dollars to public foundations. Remembering the difficulty of finding suitable books as a
youth, he helped build three thousand libraries. He built schools such as CARNEGIE-MELLON
UNIVERSITY and gave his money for artistic pursuits such as CARNEGIE HALL in New York.
Andrew Carnegie was also dedicated to peace initiatives throughout the world because of his
passionate hatred for war. Like Rockefeller, critics labeled him a robber baron who could have used
his vast fortunes to increase the wages of his employees. Carnegie believed that such spending was
wasteful and temporary, but foundations would last forever. Regardless, he helped build an empire
that led the United States to world power status.

36d. The New Tycoons: J. Pierpont Morgan

Child of Privilege
Not all of the tycoons of the Gilded Age were rags-to-riches stories. J. PIERPONT
MORGAN was born into a family of great wealth. His father had already made a name for himself
in the banking industry. With Morgan's family resources, he enjoyed the finest business education
money could buy.
He did not scratch and claw his way to the top of any corporate ladder. His father arranged for an
executive track position at one of New York's finest banks. Regardless of his family's advantages,
Morgan had a great mind of his own. He set out to conquer the financial world, and conquer it he
did.
Morgan the Banker
Morgan's first business ventures were in banking. By 1860, he had already established his own
foreign exchange office. He knew the power of investment. Not content to control just the banking
industry, he bought many smaller ventures to make money.
During the Civil War, he paid the legally allowed fee to purchase a substitute soldier and evaded
military service. Morgan made handsome profits by providing war materials. One of his enterprises
sold defective rifles to the Union army. Upon later investigations, he was declared ignorant of the
poor quality of his guns and was cleared of all charges.
After the war, he set out to corner the nation's financial markets. When the Panic of 1873 rocked the
nation's economy, Morgan protected himself wisely and emerged in the aftermath as the king of
American finance.
Despite his label as a robber baron, Morgan felt his investments benefited America. His railroad
dealings helped consolidate many smaller, mismanaged firms, resulting in shorter trips and more
dependable service. Two times during financial panics he allowed the federal government to
purchase his vast gold supplies to stop the spiral of deflation.
He owned a bridge company and a tubing company. His most renowned purchase was in 1901,
when he bought the Carnegie Steel Company for $500 million to create U.S. Steel. Within ten years
U.S. Steel was worth over a billion dollars.
Morgan's actions marked a shift in thinking among American industrialists. He proved that it was
not necessary to be a builder to be successful. Smart investment and efficient consolidation could
yield massive profits. YoungENTREPRENEURS shifted their goals to banking in the hopes of

mirroring Morgan's success.

Trouble with the Government
For all his accomplishments, he was harshly criticized. The first decade of the twentieth century
brought challenges to Morgan from the government. HisNORTHERN SECURITIES
RAILROAD company was deemed illegal under federalANTITRUST LAW, the first such action
by the national government. He was investigated by Congress for his control of the financial
markets. Even U.S. Steel was forced to relinquish its MONOPOLY.
Jaded by the criticism, Morgan moved to Europe, where he lived his final days. He was a favorite
target of intellectuals who claimed that such tycoons robbed the poor of their deserved wealth. He
was a hero to enterprising financiers across the land who dreamed of following his example. That is,
of course, unless they were destroyed by his shrewd, fierce tactics.

36e. New Attitudes Toward Wealth

Not everybody was getting rich. The new wealthy class, although more prominent, larger, and richer
than any class in American history, was still rather small.
People soon began to ask fundamental questions. How did one get rich in America? Was it because
of a combination of hard work and intelligence? Was it because of inheritance? Did education and
skill play a role? Or was it simply luck?
Old attitudes about the importance of inheritance were still prevalent, but new ideas also emerged.
Among the most popular were Social Darwinism, the Gospel of Wealth, and Algerism.
Surivival of the Fittest
When a popular conception of "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST" grew from CHARLES
DARWIN's idea of the process of NATURAL SELECTION in the wild, the world was forever
changed. Church leaders condemned him as a heretic, and ordinary people everywhere cringed at
the idea that humans may have evolved from apes. It was inevitable that intellectuals would soon
point Darwin's concepts at human society.
These SOCIAL DARWINISTS, led by HERBERT SPENCER and WILLIAM GRAHAM
SUMNER, believed that the humans who were the most fit became the most successful. Whatever
people had the necessary skills to prosper perhaps talent, brains, or hard work would be the
ones who would rise to the top. Why were some people poor? To the Social Darwinist, the answer
was obvious. They simply did not have the required skills.

Social Darwinists went further in their application of Darwin. Darwin stated that the weaker
members of a species in nature would die and that over time only the stronger genes would be
passed on. Social Darwinists believed the same should happen with humans. They opposed
government handouts, or safety regulations, or laws restricting child labor. Such actions would
coddle the weak, and the unfit would be allowed to survive.
Gospel of Wealth
Some Americans tried to reconcile their Christian beliefs with Social Darwinism. Because the
Church had been such an opponent of Darwin's ideas, it was difficult for religious folks to accept
Social Darwinism.
Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller both agreed that the most successful people were the ones
with the necessary skills. But they each believed that God played a role in deciding who got the
skills.
Because God granted a select few with the talent to be successful, Christian virtue demanded that
some of that money be shared. This is where the difference lies between the hardcore Social
Darwinist and the proponent of theGOSPEL OF WEALTH. Carnegie and Rockefeller became
philanthropists wealthy citizens who donated large sums of money for the public good.
Horatio Alger's American Dream
A third influence American thinking wasHORATIO ALGER. Alger was not an intellectual; rather,
he wrote DIME NOVELSfor the hordes of immigrant masses rushing to America's shores.
Although he penned many stories, each book answered the question of how to get rich in America.
Alger believed that a combination of hard work and good fortune pluck and luck, in his words
was the key.
A typical Alger story would revolve around a hardworking immigrant who served on the bottom
rung of the corporate ladder, perhaps as a stock boy. One day he would be walking down the street
and see a safe falling from a tall building. Our hero would bravely push aside the hapless young
woman walking below and save her life. Of course, she was the boss's daughter. The two would get
married, and he would become vice-president of the corporation.
This is what the masses wished to believe. Success would not come to a select few based on nature
or divine intervention. Anyone who worked hard could make it in America if they caught a lucky
break. This idea is the basis for the "AMERICAN DREAM."
Is Alger's dream a reality or just folklore? There simply is no answer. Thousands of Americans have

found this idyllic path, but as many or more have not.

36f. Politics of the Gilded Age

The Gilded Age will be remembered for the accomplishments of thousands of American thinkers,
inventors, entrepreneurs, writers, and promoters of social justice. Few politicians had an impact on
the tremendous change transforming America. The Presidency was at an all-time low in power and
influence, and the Congress was rife with corruption. State and city leaders shared in the graft, and
the public was kept largely unaware. Much like in the colonial days, Americans were not taking
their orders from the top; rather, they were building a new society from its foundation.
The American Presidents who resided in the White House from the end of the Civil War until the
1890s are sometimes called "THE FORGETTABLE PRESIDENTS." A case-by-case study helps
illustrates this point.
ANDREW JOHNSON was so hated he was impeached and would have been removed from office
were it not for a single Senate vote.
A Soldier in the White House
ULYSSES S. GRANT was a war hero but was unprepared for public office. He had not held a
single elected office prior to the Presidency and was totally naive to the workings of Washington.
He relied heavily on the advice of insiders who were stealing public money. His secretary of war
sold Indian land to investors and pocketed public money. His private secretary worked with officials
in the Treasury Department to steal money raised from the tax on whiskey.
Many members of his Administration were implicated in the CRDIT MOBILIER SCANDAL,
which defrauded the American public of common land. Grant himself seemed above these scandals,
but lacked the political skill to control his staff or replace them with officers of integrity.
Electoral Woes
His successor was RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. Hayes himself had tremendous integrity, but his
Presidency was weakened by the means of his election. After the electoral votes were counted, his
opponent,SAMUEL TILDEN, already claimed a majority of the popular vote and needed just one
electoral vote to win. Hayes needed twenty. Precisely twenty electoral votes were in dispute because
the states submitted double returns one proclaiming Hayes the victor, the other Tilden. A
Republican-biased electoral commission awarded all 20 electoral votes to the Republican Hayes,
and he won by just one electoral vote.

While he was able to claim the White House, many considered his election a fraud, and his power to
rule was diminished.
Assassination
JAMES GARFIELD succeeded Hayes to the Presidency. After only four months, his life was cut
short by an assassin's bullet. CHARLES GUITEAU, the killer, was so upset with Garfield for
overlooking him for a political job that he shot the President in cold blood on the platform of the
Baltimore and Potomac train station.
Vice-President CHESTER ARTHUR became the next leader. Although his political history was
largely composed of appointments of friends, the tragedy that befell his predecessor led him to
believe that the system had gone bad. He signed into law the PENDLETON CIVIL SERVICE
ACT, which opened many jobs to competitive exam rather than political connections. The
Republican Party rewarded him by refusing his nomination for the Presidency in 1884.
One President impeached, one President drowning in corruption, one President elected by possible
fraud, one President assassinated, and one disgraced by his own party for doing what he thought
was right. Clearly this was not a good time in Presidential history.
Congressional Supremacy
This was an era of CONGRESSIONAL SUPREMACY. The REPUBLICAN PARTYdominated
the Presidency and the Congress for most of these years. Both houses of Congress were full of
representatives owned by big business.
Laws regulating campaigns were minimal and big money bought a government that would not
interfere. Similar conditions existed in the states. City governments were dominated by political
machines. Members of a small network gained power and used the public treasury to stay in power
and grow fabulously rich in the process.
Not until the dawn of the 20th century would serious attempts be made to correct the abuses of
Gilded Age government.

38. From the Countryside to the City

The AGE OF INDUSTRY brought tremendous change to America. Perhaps the single greatest
impact of industrialization on the growing nation was urbanization. THOMAS JEFFERSON had
once idealized America as a land of small, independent farmers who became educated enough to
participate in a republic. That notion was forever a part of history.

As large farms and improved technology displaced the small farmer, a new demand grew for labor
in the American economy. Factories spread rapidly across the nation, but they did not spread evenly.
Most were concentrated in urban areas, particularly in the Northeast, around the Great Lakes, and
on the West Coast. And so the American workforce began to migrate from the countryside to the
city.
The speed with which American cities expanded was shocking. About 1/6 of the American
population lived in urban areas in 1860. URBAN was defined as population centers consisting of at
least 8000 people, only a modest-sized town by modern standards. By 1900 that ratio grew to a
third. In just 40 years the urban population increased four times, while the rural population doubled.
In 1900, an American was twenty times more likely to move from the farm to the city than viceversa. The 1920 census declared that for the first time, a majority of Americans lived in the city.
The Best and Worst of American Life
These new cities represented both the best and the worst of American life. Never before in
American history had such a large number of Americans lived so close to each other. The ease with
which these people could share ideas was never greater. Although these cities produced many
products, they were also a huge market. Now, in one small area, citizens could enjoy better and
cheaper products. TECHNOLOGYcreated possibilities as the skyscraper changed the skyline, and
electric cars and trolleys decreased commuting time. The light bulb and the telephone transformed
every home and business.
There was also a darker side. Beneath the magnificent skylines lay slums of abject poverty.
Immigrant neighborhoods struggled to realize the American dream. Overcrowding, disease, and
crime plagued many urban communities. Pollution and sewage plagued the new metropolitan
centers. Corruption in local leadership often blocked needed improvements.
American values were changing as a result. Urban dwellers sought new faiths to cope with new
realities. Relations between men and women, and between adults and children also changed. As the
20th century approached, American ways of life were not necessarily better or worse than before.
But they surely were different.

38a. The Glamour of American Cities

They spread like wildfire. For a new factory to beat the competition, it had to be built quickly.
Laborers needed fast, cheap housing located close to work. Roads would be hastily built to connect
the factory with the market. There was no grand design, and consequently, the new American city
spread unpredictably. Urban sprawl had begun. But the growing beast brought benefits that raised

the standard of living to new heights.

Going Up
As surely as the city spread outward across the land, it also spread upward toward the sky. Because
urban property was in great demand, industrialists needed to maximize small holdings. If additional
land was too expensive, why not increase space by building upward? The critical invention leading
to this development was of course the fastELEVATOR, developed by ELISHA OTIS in 1861.
Steel provided a plentiful, durable substance that could sustain tremendous weight. Chicago
architect LOUIS SULLIVAN was the foremost designer of the modern SKYSCRAPER. His
designing motto was "FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION." In other words, the purpose of a
structure was to be highlighted over its elegance. Beginning with the WAINWRIGHT
BUILDING of St. Louis in 1892, Sullivan's steel-framed colossus became the standard for the
American skyscraper for the next twenty years. CHICAGO was the perfect site for this new
development, because much of the city had been destroyed by a great fire in 1871.
Seeing, Talking, Shopping, and Moving
Few inventions allowed humans to challenge nature more than the light bulb. No longer dependent
on the rising and setting of the sun, city dwellers, with their ample supply of ELECTRICITY,
could now enjoy a night life that candles simply could not provide. Developed by THOMAS
EDISON in 1879, urban areas consumed them at a staggering rate.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL added a new dimension to communications with
hisTELEPHONE in 1876. The implications for the business world were staggering, as the volume
of trade skyrocketed with faster communications. In addition to the telephone, many urban denizens
enjoyed electric fans, electric sewing machines, and electric irons by 1900.
The farm could not compete. Most of these new conveniences were confined to the cities because of
the difficulties of sending electric power to isolated areas. Indoor plumbing and improved sewage
networks added a new dimension of comfort to city life. Department stores such
asWOOLWORTH'S, JOHN WANAMKER'S, andMARSHALL FIELD'S provided a large
variety of new merchandise of better quality and cheaper than ever before.
People could reach their destinations faster and faster because of new methods of mass
transit. CABLE CARS were operational in cities such as San Francisco and Chicago by the mid1880s. Boston completed the nation's first underground SUBWAY system in 1897. Middle-class
Americans could now afford to live farther from a city's core. Bridges such as theBROOKLYN
BRIDGE and improved regional transit lines fueled this trend.

The modern American city was truly born in the Gilded Age. The bright lights, tall buildings,
material goods, and fast pace of urban life emerged as America moved into the 20th century.
However, the marvelous horizon of urban opportunity was not accessible to all. Beneath the
glamour and glitz lay social problems previously unseen in the United States.

38b. The Underside of Urban Life

Lights, trolleys, skyscrapers, romance, action. These were among the first words to enter the minds
of Americans when contemplating the new urban lifestyle. While American cities allowed many
middle- and upper-class Americans to live a glamorous lifestyle, this was simply a fantasy to many
poorer urban dwellers. Slums, crime, overcrowding, pollution, disease. These words more
accurately described daily realities for millions of urban Americans.
Tenements
Much of the urban poor, including a majority of incoming immigrants, lived in tenement housing. If
the skyscraper was the jewel of the American city, the tenement was its boil. In 1878, a publication
offered $500 to the architect who could provide the best design for MASS-HOUSING. JAMES E.
WARE won the contest with his plan for a DUMBBELL TENEMENT. This structure was thinner
in the center than on its extremes to allow light to enter the building, no matter how tightly packed
the tenements may be. Unfortunately, these "vents" were often filled with garbage. The air that
managed to penetrate also allowed a fire to spread from one tenement to the next more easily.
Because of the massive overcrowding, disease was widespread. CHOLERA andYELLOWFEVER epidemics swept through the slums on a regular basis.TUBERCULOSIS was a huge
killer. Infants suffered the most. Almost 25% of babies born in late-19th century cities died before
reaching the age of one.
The Stench of Waste, the Stench of Crime
The cities stank. The air stank, the rivers stank, the people stank. Although public sewers were
improving, disposing of human waste was increasingly a problem. People used private cesspools,
which overflowed with a long, hard rain. Old sewage pipes dumped the waste directly into the
rivers or bays. These rivers were often the very same used as water sources.
Trash collection had not yet been systemized. Trash was dumped in the streets or in the waterways.
Better sewers, water purification, and trash removal were some of the most pressing problems for
city leadership. As the 20th century dawned, many improvements were made, but the cities were far
from sanitary.

POVERTY often breeds crime. Desperate people will often resort to theft or violence to put food
on the family table when the factory wages would not suffice. Youths who dreaded a life of
monotonous factory work and pauperism sometimes roamed the streets in GANGS. VICES such as
gambling, prostitution, and alcoholism were widespread. Gambling rendered the hope of getting
rich quick. Prostitution provided additional income. Alcoholism furnished a false means of escape.
City police forces were often understaffed and underpaid, so those with wealth could buy a better
slice of justice.
The glamour of American cities was real indeed. As real was the sheer destitution of its slums. Both
worlds plenty and poverty existed side by side. As the 20th century began, the plight of the
urban poor was heard by more and more reformers, and meaningful change finally arrived.

38c. The Rush of Immigrants

IMMIGRATION was nothing new to America. Except for Native Americans, all United States
citizens can claim some immigrant experience, whether during prosperity or despair, brought by
force or by choice. However, immigration to the United States reached its peak from 1880-1920.
The so-called "OLD IMMIGRATION" brought thousands of Irish and German people to the New
World.
This time, although those groups would continue to come, even greater ethnic diversity would grace
America's populace. Many would come from Southern and Eastern Europe, and some would come
from as far away as Asia. New complexions, new languages, and new religions confronted the
already diverse American mosaic.
The New Immigrants
Most immigrant groups that had formerly come to America by choice seemed distinct, but in fact
had many similarities. Most had come from Northern and Western Europe. Most had some
experience with representative democracy. With the exception of the Irish, most
werePROTESTANT. Many were literate, and some possessed a fair degree of wealth.
The new groups arriving by the boatload in the Gilded Age were characterized by few of these
traits. Their nationalities included Greek, Italian, Polish, Slovak, Serb, Russian, Croat, and others.
Until cut off by federal decree, Japanese and Chinese settlers relocated to the American West Coast.
None of these groups were predominantly Protestant.
The vast majority were ROMAN CATHOLIC or EASTERN ORTHODOX. However, due to
increased persecution of JEWS in Eastern Europe, many Jewish immigrants sought freedom from

torment. Very few newcomers spoke any English, and large numbers were illiterate in their native
tongues. None of these groups hailed from democratic regimes. The American form of government
was as foreign as its culture.
The new American cities became the destination of many of the most destitute. Once the trend was
established, letters from America from friends and family beckoned new immigrants to ethnic
enclaves such as CHINATOWN,GREEKTOWN, or LITTLE ITALY. This led to an urban ethnic
patchwork, with little integration. The dumbbell tenement and all of its woes became the reality for
most newcomers until enough could be saved for an upward move.
Despite the horrors of tenement housing and factory work, many agreed that the wages they could
earn and the food they could eat surpassed their former realities. Still, as many as 25% of the
European immigrants of this time never intended to become American citizens. These so-called
"BIRDS OF PASSAGE" simply earned enough income to send to their families and returned to
their former lives.
Resistance to Immigration
Not all Americans welcomed the new immigrants with open arms. While factory owners greeted the
rush of cheap labor with zeal, laborers often treated their new competition with hostility. Many
religious leaders were awestruck at the increase of non-Protestant believers. RACIAL
PURISTSfeared the genetic outcome of the eventual pooling of these new bloods.
Gradually, these "NATIVISTS" lobbied successfully to restrict the flow of immigration. In 1882,
Congress passed theCHINESE EXCLUSION ACT, barring this ethnic group in its entirety.
Twenty-five years later, Japanese immigration was restricted by executive agreement. These two
Asian groups were the only ethnicities to be completely excluded from America.
Criminals, contract workers, the mentally ill, anarchists, and alcoholics were among groups to be
gradually barred from entry by Congress. In 1917, Congress required the passing of a literacy test to
gain admission. Finally, in 1924, the door was shut to millions by placing an absolute cap on new
immigrants based on ethnicity. That cap was based on the United States population of 1890 and was
therefore designed to favor the previous immigrant groups.
But millions had already come. During the age when the STATUE OF LIBERTYbeckoned the
world's "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," American diversity mushroomed. Each brought
pieces of an old culture and made contributions to a new one. Although many former Europeans
swore to their deaths to maintain their old ways of life, their children did not agree. Most enjoyed a
higher standard of living than their parents, learned English easily, and sought American lifestyles.

At least to that extent, America was a MELTING POT.

39. New Dimensions in Everyday Life

City life or country life? The typical farmer rose with the sun, tended the animals, worked the fields,
broke bread with the family, and retired when the sun went down. With the exceptions of the
Sabbath and holiday observances, life remained constant, changing only with the seasons.
While this bucolic lifestyle was and still is romanticized by many, it simply bore no resemblance to
big city existence. The city promised conveniences, nightlife, excitement and variety. Despite its
darker side, many were willing to sample cosmopolitan life. The contrast and struggle between rural
and urban America raged throughout the last half of the 19th century. Although each side had its
proponents, by 1900 one fact was clear. The city was winning.
Cities Change America
URBANIZATION brought greater change to postwar America than any other single factor. As
America modernized, pressures to reform education from early childhood through adulthood
brought marked improvements. Increased worker productivity and labor demands for a shorter work
day enabled many urban residents to engage in newly popular sports and leisure activities unknown
in the countryside.
Simply put, such a concentration of people enabled the flourishing of ideas and enterprises, from
professional sports to elite clubs. The opportunities were there for the taking for those who had the
means. Metropolitan residents became more worldly as they had greater access to the explosion of
new forms of printed materials such as more extensive newspapers and a wider variety of
periodicals.
City life also redefined gender roles. The average size of the American family dropped from seven
children in 1800 to approximately four a century later. Crude birth control methods contributed
somewhat to this decline, but large families simply were not as desirable in the city as on the farm.
A farm child promised additional agricultural labor, but an urban child was simply an extra mouth
to feed.
As women slowly became more educated and independent, traditional Victorian values were
challenged. New jobs were available in the city, especially for single women. Demands
for NATIONAL REFORM such as prohibition of alcohol, regulation of CHILD LABOR, and the
right to vote were brought into public discourse by educated women.
Daily life was changed forever. Although the rural population of America remained an absolute

majority until 1920, city life permeated American culture. Critics condemned the slums and vices of
urban life, but the cities grew and grew as the American farmer struggled for survival.

39a. Education
Demands for better PUBLIC EDUCATIONwere many. Employers wanted a better educated
workforce, at least for the technical jobs. Classical liberals believed that public education was the
cornerstone of any democracy. Our system of government could be imperiled if large numbers of
uneducated masses voted unwisely.
Teaching America's Youth
Church leaders and modern liberals were concerned for the welfare of children. They believed that a
strong education was not only appropriate, but an inalienable right owed to all. Furthermore, critics
of child labor practices wanted longer mandatory school years. After all, if a child was in school, he
or she would not be in the factory.
In 1870, about half of the nation's children received no formal education whatsoever. Although
many states provided for a free public education for children between the ages of 5 and 21,
economic realities kept many children working in mines, factories, or on the farm. Only six states
had compulsory education laws at this point, and most were for only several weeks per year.
Massachusetts was the leader in tightening laws. By 1890, all children in Massachusetts between
the ages of 6 and 10 were required to attend school at least twenty weeks per year. These laws were
much simpler to enact than to enforce. TRUANT OFFICERS would be necessary to chase down
offenders. Private and religious schools would have to be monitored to ensure quality standards
similar to public schools. Despite resistance, acceptance of mandatory elementary education began
to spread. By the turn of the century such laws were universal throughout the North and West, with
the South lagging behind.
Under the laws of JIM CROW, the public schools in operation in the South were
entirely SEGREGATED by race in 1900. Mississippi became the last state to require elementary
education in 1918.
Other reforms began to sweep the nation. Influenced by German
immigrants,KINDERGARTENS sprouted in urban areas, beginning with St. Louis in 1873.
Demands for better trained teachers led to an increase in "normal" schools, colleges that specialized
in preparation to teach. By 1900, one in five public school teachers had a degree.
More and more high schools were built in the last three decades of the 19th century. During that

period the number of public high schools increased from 160 to 6,000, and the
nation's ILLITERACY rate was cut nearly in half. However, only 4% of American children
between the ages of 14 and 17 were actually enrolled.
Higher Education for All
Higher education was changing as well. In general, the number of colleges increased owing to the
creation of public land-grant colleges by the states and private universities sponsored by
philanthropists, such as Stanford and Vanderbilt.
Opportunities for women to attend college were also on the rise. MT.
HOLYOKE,SMITH, VASSAR, WELLESLEY, and BRYN MAWR Colleges provided a liberal
arts education equivalent to their males-only counterparts. By 1910, 40% of the nation's college
students were female, despite the fact that many professions were still closed to women.
Although nearly 47% of the nation's colleges accepted women, African American attendance at
white schools was virtually nonexistent. BLACK COLLEGES such as HOWARD, FISK,
and ATLANTA UNIVERSITY rose to meet this need.

39b. Sports and Leisure

A sports craze was sweeping the nation. Work weeks were still long, averaging about sixty hours
per week in 1890. But the average worker notched 66 hours in 1860, giving the typical American
six extra hours of free time each week. Three more decades would see an additional 10 hours of
average working time turn into free time.
What did Americans do with all this time? Participation in sports, leisure, and amusement activities
multiplied.
Take Me out to the Ball Game
BASEBALL was quickly becoming the national pastime. It had graduated from a gentleman's
game to a form of mass entertainment. As cities and towns dedicated more and more public land for
recreational purposes, baseball became more and more popular. Those who did not enjoy playing
were given the opportunity to watch.
The NATIONAL LEAGUE was formed in 1876 and Americans were able to watch touring
professionals play the game. As a color barrier had been quickly established, not all athletes were
given an opportunity. The National League and its rival, the AMERICAN LEAGUE, played for
the firstWORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP in 1903. The baseball craze led to the financing of

large grandstand arenas such as FENWAY PARK in Boston, SHIBE PARK in Philadelphia,
and WRIGLEY FIELD in Chicago.
Other spectator sports were also popular.FOOTBALL had a large following, particularly on the
college level. Universities were accused of hiring ringers (professionals) to help them win games.
The rules were fairly lax, and many injuries resulted. In 1905, eighteen players were killed by
injuries related to football.
BOXING became more respectable with a new innovation gloves. BASKETBALLwas
invented in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts by JAMES NAISMITH, a YMCA instructor.
Designed as an indoor sport, basketball enabled athletic competition during the winter months.
Croquet and tennis provided the only opportunity in sport for coed play.
Vaudville
Other forms of mass entertainment also flourished. The most popular form of urban performance
was the VAUDEVILLE SHOW. An evening at vaudeville might last two or three hours, as
audiences watched nine or ten different acts, ranging from singing and dancing to stand-up comedy
and acrobatics. The first vaudeville theater was opened in 1881 by TONY PASTOR in Manhattan.
Eventually, New York had ten vaudeville theaters, and every major city could boast at least one.
For the children, PHINEAS T. BARNUM AND JAMES A. BAILEY presented "THE
GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH," a three-ring circus complete with exotic animals, trapeze
artists, and big tent.
Age of the Bicycle
On an individual level, the turn of the century was also the age of the bicycle. In 1885,
the VELOCIPEDE, a "bicycle" with one huge wheel followed by a smaller one, became instantly
obsolete when the safer, modern bicycle with two wheels of equal size made its debut.
Many became addicted to this new form of exercise. Men and women took romantic rides through
parks, and courtship took a step closer to independence from parental involvement.
The bicycle even had an impact on women's fashion. No one could ride around on a bicycle with a
big Victorian hoop dress, so designers accommodated the new trend by producing a freer, less
constrictive style.

39c. Women in the Gilded Age

The idea was to create a maternal commonwealth. Upper-middle-class women of the late 19th

century were not content with the cult of domesticity of the early 1800s. Many had become college
educated and yearned to put their knowledge and skills to work for the public good.
MATERNAL COMMONWEALTHmeant just that. The values of WOMEN'S SPHERE
caretaking, piety, purity would be taken out of the home and placed in the public life. The result
was a broad reform movement that transformed America.
Just Say No to Alcohol
Many educated women of the age felt that many of society's greatest disorders could be traced
to ALCOHOL. According to their view, alcohol led to increased domestic violence and neglect. It
decreased the income families could spend on necessities and promoted prostitution and adultery. In
short, PROHIBITION of alcohol might diminish some of these maladies.
Frances Willard was the president of the WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, the
nation's foremost prohibition organization. Although national prohibition was not enacted until
1919, the WCTU was successful at pressuring state and local governments to pass dry laws. Willard
advocated a "DO EVERYTHING" policy, which meant that chapters of the WCTU also served as
soup kitchens or medical clinics.
The WCTU worked within the system, but there were radical TEMPERANCEadvocates who did
not. CARRY NATION preferred the direct approach of taking an ax into saloons and chopping the
bars to pieces.
Homes for the Destitute
Another way women promoted the values of women's sphere into the public arena was through
the SETTLEMENT HOUSE MOVEMENT. A SETTLEMENT HOUSEwas a home where
destitute immigrants could go when they had nowhere else to turn. Settlement houses provided
family-style cooking, lessons in English, and tips on how to adapt to American culture.
The first settlement house began in 1889 in Chicago and was called HULL HOUSE. Its
organizer, JANE ADDAMS, intended Hull House to serve as a prototype for other settlement
houses. By 1900 there were nearly 100 settlement houses in the nation's cities. Jane Addams was
considered the founder of a new profession social work.
Different Backgrounds, Different Lives
Most of the advocates of maternal commonwealth were white, upper-middle-class women. Many of
these women had received a college education and felt obliged to put it to use. About half of the

women in this demographic group never married, choosing instead independence. Other college
educated women were content to join literary clubs to keep academic pursuits alive.
For women who did not attend college, life was much different. Many single, middle-class women
took jobs in the new cities. Clerical jobs opened as typewriters became indispensable to the modern
corporation. The telephone service required switchboard operators and the new department store
required sales positions. Many of these women found themselves feeling marvelously independent,
despite the lower wages they were paid in comparison with their male counterparts.
For others, life was less glamorous. Wives of immigrants often took extra tenants
called BOARDERS into their already crowded tenement homes. By providing food and laundry
service at a fee, they generated necessary extra income for the families. Many did domestic work
for the middle class to supplement income.
In the South, the lives of wealthy women changed from managing a home on a slave plantation to
one with hired work. Women who found themselves with new freedom from slavery still suffered
great difficulties. SHARECROPPING was a male and female task. Women in these conditions
found themselves doing double duty by working the fields by day and the house by night.

39d. Victorian Values in a New Age

Victorian values dominated American social life for much of the 19th century. The notion of
separate spheres of life for men and women was commonplace. The male sphere included wage
work and politics, while the female sphere involved childrearing and domestic work.
Industrialization and urbanization brought new challenges to Victorian values. Men grew weary of
toiling tireless hours and yearned for the blossoming leisure opportunities of the age. Women were
becoming more educated, but upon graduation found themselves shut out of many professions.
Immigrants had never been socialized in the Victorian mindset. As the century drew to a close, a
revolt was indeed brewing.
Victoria Battles the Victorians
At the vanguard of revolt were the young, single, middle-class women who worked in the cities.
Attitudes toward sex were loosening in private, yet few were brave enough to discuss the changes
publicly.
One exception was VICTORIA WOODHULL. In 1871, she declared the right to love the person
of her choice as inalienable. Indeed, she professed the right to free love. She and her
sister, TENNESSEE CLAFLIN, published their beliefs in the periodical WOODHULL AND

CLAFLIN'S WEEKLY.
A devout feminist, Woodhull protested the male hold on politics by running for President in 1872.
She became the first female American to do so in a time when women did not even enjoy the right
to vote.
The Comstock Law
As energetic as the rebellion may have been, the reaction was equally as forceful. Criticizing the
evils of modern urban life prostitution, gambling, promiscuity, and alcohol Victorians fought
to maintain the values they held dear.
ANTHONY COMSTOCK lobbied Congress to pass the notorious COMSTOCK LAWbanning all
mailings of materials of a sexual nature. As a special agent for theUNITED STATES POSTAL
SERVICE, Comstock confiscated thousands of books and pictures he deemed objectionable. Over
3,000 arrests were made for violations of the Comstock Law.
However valiantly Victorians fought to maintain their view of morality, they could not stop the
changes. A greater acceptance of sexual expression naturally followed especially in the new
American city. For example, regions such as the BOWERY in New York were known by city
dwellers as areas where homosexuals found community.
America was evolving, and no one could bottle up that change. The public struggle between
Victoria Woodhull and Anthony Comstock merely illustrated the underlying tensions between old
and new values.

40. Closing the Frontier

It was hard to believe the two regions were part of the same country. The rapidly industrializing
East bore no resemblance to most of the AMERICAN WEST. Except for few urban centers on the
coast, the West knew nothing of cities. Instead, the West was an emerging patchwork of homestead
farmers, miners, and cattle ranchers. While Easterners tried to make their way in these and other
professions, Native Americans desperately clung to the hopes of maintaining their tribal traditions.
Conflict between whites and NATIVE AMERICANS was as old as the earliest settlements, but
there were clear patterns of waxing and waning intensity. The transcontinental railroad became the
catalyst for much of the new conflict. Before its completion, the only Americans to venture
westward had done so on horseback or CONESTOGA WAGON. Now thousands more could
migrate much more quickly, cheaply, and comfortably. As the numbers of white settlers from the
East increased dramatically, conflicts with the native tribes did so as well.

With the massacres at Sand Creek in 1864 and Wounded Knee in 1890 as bookends, an examination
of the intervening years reveals some of the most gruesome behavior known in United States
history. Both sides committed unspeakable atrocities.
What would propel two peoples to such inhumane conduct? It all revolved around land. Native
Americans fought desperately to live on their ancestral lands as white Americans strove to claim it
for their own. Battles raged from the Dakotas to Idaho and from Montana to New Mexico.
Leaders such as Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Chief Joseph became legendary to the
Native American people for their resistance, but victory was not theirs for the taking.
Although battles were won and lost by both sides, many factors favored the United States Army.
One deciding determinant was technology. Repeating rifles were a new means of mass destruction.
The railroad system and industry of the East kept the federal troops better supplied than the Native
Americans.
The blossoming population of the East was dwarfing the numbers of Indian folk. The buffalo, once
seemingly as plentiful as the trees, were now disappearing. Perhaps the greatest killer of all was
disease. For every Native American killed by a bullet, a thousand died from European plagues.
Time proved to be on the side of the army, and soon the tribes were forced to submit to a new form
of existence on the reservation. For those that survived, life would never be the same.

40b. Custer's Last Stand

Another Broken Treaty
Gold broke the delicate peace with the Sioux. In 1874, a scientific exploration group led
by GENERAL GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER discovered the precious metal in the heart of
the BLACK HILLS OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
When word of the discovery leaked, nothing could stop the masses of prospectors looking to get
rich quick, despite the treaty protections that awarded that land to the Sioux. SITTING
BULL and CRAZY HORSE, the local Indian leaders, decided to take up arms to defend their
dwindling land supply.
Little Big Horn
Custer was perhaps the most flamboyant and brash officer in the United States Army. He was
confident that his technologically superior troops could contain the Native American fighters.
Armed with new weapons of destruction such as the rapid-firing GATLING GUN, Custer and his

soldiers felt that it was only a matter of time before the Indians would surrender and submit to life
on a smaller reservation. Custer hoped to make that happen sooner rather than later.
His orders were to locate the Sioux encampment in the BIG HORN MOUNTAINSof Montana and
trap them until reinforcements arrived. But the prideful Custer sought to engage the Sioux on his
own.
On June 25, 1876, he discovered a small Indian village on the banks of theLITTLE BIG
HORN River. Custer confidently ordered his troops to attack, not realizing that he was confronting
the main Sioux and Cheyenne encampment. About three thousand Sioux warriors led by Crazy
Horse descended upon Custer's regiment, and within hours the entire SEVENTH CAVALRY and
General Custer were massacred.
The victory was brief for the warring Sioux. The rest of the United States regulars arrived and
chased the Sioux for the next several months. By October, much of the resistance had ended. Crazy
Horse had surrendered, but Sitting Bull and a small band of warriors escaped to Canada. Eventually
they returned to the United States and surrendered because of hunger.
Reactions Back East
CUSTER'S LAST STAND caused massive debate in the East. War hawks demanded an immediate
increase in federal military spending and swift judgment for the noncompliant Sioux.
Critics of United States policy also made their opinions known. The most vocal detractor, HELEN
HUNT JACKSON, published A CENTURY OF DISHONOR in 1881. This blistering assault on
United States Indian policy chronicled injustices toward Native Americans over the past hundred
years.
The American masses, however, were unsympathetic or indifferent. A systematic plan to end all
native resistance was approved, and the Indians of the West would not see another victory like the
Little Big Horn.

40d. Life on the Reservations

After being forced off their native lands, many American Indians found life to be most difficult.
Beginning in the first half of the 19th century, federal policy dictated that certain tribes be confined
to fixed land plots to continue their traditional ways of life.
The problems with this approach were manifold. Besides the moral issue of depriving a people of
life on their historic land, many economic issues plagued the reservation. Nomadic tribes lost their
entire means of subsistence by being constricted to a defined area. Farmers found themselves with

land unsuitable for agriculture. Many lacked the know-how to implement complex irrigation
systems. Hostile tribes were often forced into the same proximity. The results were disastrous.
The Dawes Act
Faced with disease, alcoholism, and despair on the RESERVATIONS, federal officials changed
directions with the DAWES SEVERALTY ACT of 1887. Each Native American family was
offered 160 acres of tribal land to own outright. Although the land could not be sold for 25 years,
these new land owners could farm it for profit like other farmers in the West.
Congress hoped that this system would end the dependency of the tribes on the federal government,
enable Indians to become individually prosperous, and assimilate the Indians into mainstream
American life. After 25 years, participants would become American citizens.
The Dawes Act was widely resisted. Tribal leaders foretold the end of their ancient folkways and a
further loss of communal land. When individuals did attempt this new way of life, they were often
unsuccessful. Farming the West takes considerable expertise. Lacking this knowledge, many were
still dependent upon the government for assistance.
Many 19th century Americans saw the Dawes Act as a way to "civilize" the Native Americans.
Visiting missionaries attempted to convert the Indians to Christianity, although they found few new
believers.
"Americanizing" the Indians
Land not allotted to individual landholders was sold to railroad companies and settlers from the
East. The proceeds were used to set up schools to teach the reading and writing of English. Native
American children were required to attend the established reservation school. Failure to attend
would result in a visit by a truant officer who could enter the home accompanied by police to search
for the absent student. Some parents felt resistance to "white man education" was a matter of honor.
In addition to disregarding tribal languages and religions, schools often forced the pupils to dress
like eastern Americans. They were given shorter haircuts. Even the core of individual identity
one's name was changed to "AMERICANIZE" the children. These practices often led to further
tribal divisions. Each tribe had those who were friendly to American "assistance" and those who
were hostile. Friends were turned into enemies.
The Dawes Act was an unmitigated disaster for tribal units. In 1900, land held by Native American
tribes was half that of 1880. Land holdings continued to dwindle in the early 20th century. When
the Dawes Act was repealed in 1934, alcoholism, poverty, illiteracy, and suicide rates were higher

for Native Americans than any other ethnic group in the United States. As America grew to the
status of a world power, the first Americans were reduced to hopelessness.

40e. The Wounded Knee Massacre

The armed resistance was over. The remaining Sioux were forced into reservation life at gunpoint.
Many Sioux sought spiritual guidance. Thus began a religious awakening among the tribes of North
America.
Arrival of the "Ghost Dance"
Called the "Ghost Dance" by the white soldiers who observed the new practice, it spread rapidly
across the continent. Instead of bringing the answer to their prayers, however, the "Ghost Dance"
movement resulted in yet another human travesty.
It all began in 1888 with a Paiute holy man called WOVOKA. During a total eclipse of the sun,
Wovoka received a message from the Creator. Soon an Indian messiah would come and the world
would be free of the white man. The Indians could return to their lands and the buffalo would once
again roam the Great Plains.
Wovoka even knew that all this would happen in the spring of 1891. He and his followers
meditated, had visions, chanted, and performed what became known as the GHOST DANCE. Soon
the movement began to spread. Before long, the Ghost Dance had adherents in tribes throughout the
South and West.
Although Wovoka preached nonviolence, whites feared that the movement would spark a great
Indian rebellion. Ghost Dance followers seemed more defiant than other Native Americans, and the
rituals seemed to work its participants into a frenzy. All this was disconcerting to the soldiers and
settlers throughout the South and West. Tragedy struck when the Ghost Dance movement reached
the Lakota Sioux.
Local residents of South Dakota demanded that the Sioux end the ritual of the Ghost Dance. When
they were ignored, the United States Army was called for assistance. Fearing aggression, a group of
300 Sioux did leave the reservation. Army regulars believed them to be a hostile force preparing for
attack. When the two sides came into contact, the Sioux reluctantly agreed to be tranported
to WOUNDED KNEE CREEK on PINE RIDGE RESERVATION.
A Final Tragedy
On the morning of December 29, 1890, the army demanded the surrender of all Sioux weapons.

Amid the tension, a shot rang out, possibly from a deaf brave who misunderstood his chief's orders
to surrender.
The Seventh Cavalry the reconstructed regiment lost by George Armstrong Custer opened fire
on the Sioux. The local chief, BIG FOOT, was shot in cold blood as he recuperated from
pneumonia in his tent. Others were cut down as they tried to run away. When the smoke cleared
almost all of the 300 men, women, and children were dead. Some died instantly, others froze to
death in the snow.
This massacre marked the last showdown between Native Americans and the United States Army. It
was nearly 400 years after Christopher Columbus first contacted the first Americans. The 1890
United States census declared the frontier officially closed.

41. Western Folkways

When the Native Americans were placed on reservations, one of the last barriers to western
expansion was lifted. The railroad could get people where they wanted to go, and the resources of
the West seemed boundless.
How did the typical Westerner make a living? Although migrant settlers had skills too numerous to
mention, the most dominant Western industries were mining, ranching, and farming.
"PIKES PEAK OR BUST!" was the motto of many gold-seekers who ventured west during the
1859COLORADO GOLD RUSH. Strikes of gold and silver were found in every western territory.
Eastern industry required lead and other precious metals. The inventions of the telephone, light
bulb, and DYNAMO (a massive generator that could pump electricity directly into people's homes)
all required copper wiring. New mining techniques presented the possibility for large-scale industry
to provide these necessary ores. Life in the western mining towns contributed much to the legendary
lore of the American West.
Demand for beef soared after the Civil War. Learning from the Spanish Mexican tradition, cattle
ranchers sought their fortunes in Southern Texas. The archetypal American cowboy was needed
between 1866 and 1889 to move the steer to market. Life on the open prairies became a reality for
thousands of cowhands during the American cattle boom.
By far, the most numerous of western pioneers were the farmers. Seeking a dream of stable
existence working a homestead of their own, thousands of migrant families had their dreams dashed
by the harsh realities of western life. Nature, isolation, politics, and economics all seemed to work
against the hopeful farmer.

Soon farm issues spilled into politics as new groups and political parties formed demanding a better
deal for rural America. The nation voted zealously and in larger numbers than ever before when the
1896 election proposed to shift the balance of power in America back to its agricultural roots. But it
was not to be. America's future seemed to lie in the direction of the industrial Northeast. But as the
19th century expired, millions of westerners struggled to keep the bucolic past hitched to the
present.

41a. The Mining Boom

Bonanza
BONANZA! That was the exclamation when a large vein of valuable ore was discovered.
Thousands of optimistic Americans and even a few foreigners dreamed of finding a bonanza and
retiring at a very young age.
Ten years after the 1849 CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH, new deposits were gradually found
throughout the West. Colorado yielded gold and silver at PIKES PEAK in 1859 and LEADVILLE
IN 1873.NEVADA claimed COMSTOCK LODE, the largest of American silver strikes.
From COEUR D'ALENE in Idaho to TOMBSTONE in Arizona, BOOM TOWNS flowered
across the American West. They produced not only gold and silver, but zinc, copper, and lead, all
essential for the eastern Industrial Revolution. Soon the West was filled with ne'er-do-wells hoping
to strike it rich.
Prospecting
Few were so lucky. The chances of an individual prospector finding a valuable lode were slim
indeed. The gold-seeker often worked in a stream bed. A tin pan was filled with sediment and water.
After shaking, the heavier gold nuggets would sink to the bottom. Rarely was anything found of
substantial size.
Once the loose chunks of gold were removed from the surface, large machinery was required to dig
into the earth and to split the quartz where the elusive gold was often hidden. This was too large of
an operation for an individual prospector. Eastern investors conducted these ventures and often
profited handsomely. The best case scenario for the prospector was to locate a large deposit and sell
the claim. Those who were not as lucky often eventually went to work in the mines of the Eastern
financiers.
WESTERN MINING wrought havoc on the local environment. Rock dust from drilling was often
dumped into river beds, forming silt deposits downstream that flooded towns and farmlands. Miners

and farmers were often at loggerheads over the effects of one enterprise on the other. Poisonous
underground gases, mostly containing sulfur, were released into the atmosphere. Removing gold
from quartz required mercury, the excess of which polluted local streams and rivers. Strip mining
caused erosion and further desertification. Little was done to regulate the mining industry until the
turn of the 20th century.
Life in a Mining Town
Each mining bonanza required a town. Many towns had as high as a 9-to-1 male-to-female ratio.
The ethnic diversity was great. Mexican immigrants were common. Native Americans avoided the
mining industry, but mestizos, the offspring of Mexican and Native American parents, often
participated. Many African Americans aspired to the same get-rich-quick idea as whites. Until
excluded by federal law in 1882, Chinese Americans were numerous in mining towns.
The ethnic patchwork was intricate, but the socio-economic ladder was clearly defined. Whites
owned and managed all of the mines. Poor whites, Mexicans and Chinese Americans worked the
mine shafts. A few African Americans joined them, but many worked in the service sector as cooks
or artisans.
It is these mining towns that often conjure images of the mythical American Wild West. Most did
have a saloon (or several) with swinging doors and a player piano. But miners and prospectors
worked all day; few had the luxury of spending it at the bar. By nighttime, most were too tired to
carouse. Weekends might bring folks out to the saloon for gambling or drinking, to engage in the
occasional bar fight, or even to hire a prostitute.
Law enforcement was crude. Many towns could not afford a sheriff, so vigilante justice prevailed.
Occasionally a posse, or hunting party, would be raised to capture a particularly nettlesome
miscreant.
When the bonanza was at its zenith, the town prospered. But eventually the mines were exhausted
or proved fruitless. Slowly its inhabitants would leave, leaving behind nothing but a ghost town.

41b. The Ways of the Cowboy

Mining was not the only bonanza to be found in the West. Millions could be made in the CATTLE
INDUSTRY. A calf bought for $5 in Southern Texas might sell for $60 in Chicago. The problem
was, of course, getting the cattle to market.
In 1867, JOSEPH MCCOY tracked a path known as the CHISHOLM TRAIL from Texas to
Abilene, Kansas. The Texas cowboys drove the cattle the entire distance 1500 miles. Along the

way, the cattle enjoyed all the grass they wanted, at no cost to the RANCHERS. At Abilene and
other railhead towns such as Dodge City and Ellsworth, the cattle would be sold and the cowboys
would return to Texas.
No vision of the American West is complete without the cowboy. The imagery is quintessentially
American, but many myths cloud the truth about what life was like on the long drive.
Myth vs. Reality
Americans did not invent cattle raising. This tradition was learned from thevaquero, a Mexican
cowboy. The vacqueros taught the tricks of the trade to the Texans, who realized the potential for
great profits.
The typical COWBOY wore a hat with a wide brim to provide protection from the unforgiving
sunlight. Cattle kicked up clouds of dust on the drive, so the cowboy donned a bandanna over the
lower half of his face. CHAPS, or leggings, and high boots were worn as protection from briars and
cactus needles.
Contrary to legend, the typical cowboy was not a skilled marksman. The lariat, not the gun, was
how the cattle drover showed his mastery. About a quarter of all cowboys were African Americans,
and even more were at least partially Mexican. To avoid additional strain on the horses, cowboys
were usually smaller than according to legend.
The lone cowboy is an American myth. Cattle were always driven by a group ofDROVERS. The
cattle were branded so the owner could distinguish his STEERfrom the rest. Several times
per DRIVE, cowboys conducted a roundup where the cattle would be sorted and counted again.
Work was very difficult. The workdays lasted fifteen hours, much of which was spent in the saddle.
Occasionally, shots were fired by hostile Indians or farmers. Cattle RUSTLERS sometimes stole
their steers.
One of the greatest fears was the STAMPEDE, which could result in lost or dead cattle or
cowboys. One method of containing a stampede was to get the cattle to run in a circle, where the
steer would eventually tire.
Upon reaching Abilene, the cattle were sold. Then it was time to let loose. Abilene had twenty-five
saloons open all hours to service incoming riders of the long drive.
Twilight of the Cowboy
The heyday of the long drive was short. By the early 1870s, rail lines reached Texas so the cattle
could be shipped directly to the slaughterhouses. Ranchers then began to allow cattle to graze on the

open range near rail heads. But even this did not last. The invention of BARBED
WIRE by JOSEPH GLIDDEN ruined theOPEN RANGE. Now farmers could cheaply mark their
territory to keep the unwanted steers off their lands. Overproduction caused prices to fall, leading
many ranchers out of business.
Finally, the winter of 1886-87 was one of the worst in American history. Cattle died by the
thousands as temperatures reached fifty below zero in some parts of the West. The era of the open
range was over.

41c. Life on the Farm

A homestead at last! Many eastern families who longed for the opportunity to own and farm a plot
of land of their own were able to realize their dreams when Congress passed the HOMESTEAD
ACT in 1862. That landmark piece of legislation provided 160 acres free to any family who lived
on the land for five years and made improvements. The same amount could be obtained instantly
for the paltry sum of $1.25 per acre.
Combined with the completed transcontinental railroad, it was now possible for an easterner
yearning for the open space of the West to make it happen. Unfortunately, the lives they found were
fraught with hardship.
Money Problems
There were tremendous economic difficulties associated with Western farm life. First and foremost
was overproduction. Because the amount of land under cultivation increased dramatically and new
farming techniques produced greater and greater yields, the food market became so flooded with
goods that prices fell sharply. While this might be great for the consumer, the farmer had to grow a
tremendous amount of food to recoup enough profits to survive the winter.
New machinery and fertilizer was needed to farm on a large scale. Often farmers borrowed money
to purchase this equipment, leaving themselves hopelessly in debt when the harvest came. The high
tariff forced them to pay higher prices for household goods for their families, while the goods they
themselves sold were unprotected.
The railroads also fleeced the small farmer. Farmers were often charged higher rates to ship their
goods a short distance than a manufacturer would pay to transport wares a great distance.
A Harsh and Isolating Environment
The woes faced by farmers transcended economics. Nature was unkind in many parts of the Great

Plains. Blistering summers and cruel winters were commonplace. Frequent drought spells made
farming even more difficult. Insect blights raged through some regions, eating further into the
farmers' profits.
Farmers lacked political power. Washington was a long way from the Great Plains, and politicians
seemed to turn deaf ears to the farmers' cries. Social problems were also prevalent. With each
neighbor on 160-acre plots of land, communication was difficult and loneliness was widespread.
Farm life proved monotonous compared with the bustling cities of the East. Although rural families
were now able to purchase MAIL-ORDER PRODUCTSthrough catalogs such as SEARS AND
ROEBUCK'S and MONTGOMERY WARD, there was simply no comparison with what the
Eastern market could provide.
These conditions could not last. Out of this social and economic unrest, farmers began to organize
and make demands that would rock the Eastern establishment.

42. Progressivism Sweeps the Nation

Conservatives beware! Whether they liked it or not, the turn of the 20th century was an age of
reform. Urban reformers and Populists had already done much to raise attention to the nation's most
pressing problems.
America in 1900 looked nothing like America in 1850, yet those in power seemed to be applying
the same old strategies to complex new problems. The Populists had tried to effect change by
capturing the government. The Progressives would succeed where the Populists had failed.
The Progressives were urban, Northeast, educated, middle-class, Protestant reform-minded men and
women. There was no official PROGRESSIVE PARTY until 1912, but progressivism had already
swept the nation.
It was more of a movement than a political party, and there were adherents to the philosophy in
each major party. There were three PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS Theodore Roosevelt,
William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt and Taft were Republicans and Wilson was
a Democrat. What united the movement was a belief that the laissez faire, Social Darwinist outlook
of the Gilded Age was morally and intellectually wrong. Progressives believed that people and
government had the power to correct abuses produced by nature and the free market.
The results were astonishing. Seemingly every aspect of society was touched by progressive reform.
Worker and consumer issues were addressed, conservation of natural resources was initiated, and
the plight of the urban poor was confronted. National political movements such as temperance and
women's suffrage found allies in the progressive movement. The era produced a host of national and

state regulations, plus four amendments to the Constitution.

When the United States became involved in the First World War, attention was diverted from
domestic issues and progressivism went into decline. While unable to solve the problems of every
American, the PROGRESSIVE ERA set the stage for the 20th century trend of an activist
government trying to assist its people.

42a. Roots of the Movement

The single greatest factor that fueled the progressive movement in America was urbanization. For
years, educated, middle-class women had begun the work of reform in the nation's cities.
Jane Addams was a progressive before the movement had such a name. The settlement house
movement embodied the very ideals of progressivism. Temperance was a progressive movement in
its philosophy of improving family life. "SOCIAL GOSPEL" preachers had already begun to
address the needs of city dwellers.
Progressive Writing
Urban intellectuals had ready stirred consciences with their controversial treatises. HENRY
GEORGE attracted many followers by blaming inequalities in wealth on land ownership. In his
1879 work, PROGRESS AND POVERTY, he suggested that profits made from land sales be taxed
at a rate of 100 percent.
EDWARD BELLAMY peered into the future in his 1888 novel, LOOKING BACKWARD.The
hero of the story wakes up in the year 2000 and looks back to see that all the hardships of the
Gilded Age have withered away thanks to an activist, utopian socialist government.
In THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS (1899), THORSTEIN VEBLEN cited countless
cases of "CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION." Wealthy families spent their riches on acquiring
European works of art or fountains that flowed with champagne. Surely, he argued, those resources
could be put to better use.
Pragmatic Solutions
Underlying this new era of reform was a fundamental shift in philosophy away from Social
Darwinism. Why accept hardship and suffering as simply the result of natural selection? Humans
can and have adapted their physical environments to suit their purposes. Individuals need not accept
injustices as the "law of nature" if they can think of a better way.
Philosopher WILLIAM JAMES called this new way of thinking, "PRAGMATISM." His

followers came to believe that an activist government could be the agent of the public to pursue the
betterment of social ills.
The most prolific disciple of James was JOHN DEWEY. Dewey applied pragmatic thinking to
education. Rather than having students memorize facts or formulas, Dewey proposed "LEARNING
BY DOING." The progressive education movement begun by Dewey dominated educational debate
the entire 20th century.
The Populist Influence
The Populist movement also influenced progressivism. While rejecting the call for free silver, the
progressives embraced the political reforms of SECRET
BALLOT, INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM, and RECALL. Most of these reforms were on the
state level. Under the governorship of ROBERT LAFOLLETTE, Wisconsin became a laboratory
for many of these political reforms.
The Populist ideas of an income tax and direct election of senators became theSIXTEENTH AND
SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENTS to the United States Constitution under progressive direction.
Reforms went further by trying to root out urban corruption by introducing new models of city
government. The city commission and the city manager systems removed important decision
making from politicians and placed it in the hands of skilled technicians. The labor movement
contributed the calls for workers' compensation and child labor regulation.
Progressivism came from so many sources from every region of America. The national frame of
mind was fixed. Reform would occur. It was only a matter of how much and what type.

42b. Muckrakers
The pen is sometimes mightier than the sword.
It may be a clich, but it was all too true for journalists at the turn of the century. The print
revolution enabled publications to increase their subscriptions dramatically. What appeared in print
was now more powerful than ever. Writing to Congress in hopes of correcting abuses was slow and
often produced zero results. Publishing a series of articles had a much more immediate impact.
Collectively calledMUCKRAKERS, a brave cadre of reporters exposed injustices so grave they
made the blood of the average American run cold.
Steffens Takes on Corruption
The first to strike was LINCOLN STEFFENS. In 1902, he published an article

in MCCLURE'Smagazine called "TWEED DAYS IN ST. LOUIS." Steffens exposed how city
officials worked in league with big business to maintain power while corrupting the public treasury.
More and more articles followed, and soon Steffens published the collection as a book
entitled THE SHAME OF THE CITIES. Soon public outcry demanded reform of city government
and gave strength to the progressive ideas of a city commission or city manager system.
Tarbell vs. Standard Oil
IDA TARBELL struck next. One month after Lincoln Steffens launched his assault on urban
politics, Tarbell began her McClure's series entitled "HISTORY OF THE STANDARD OIL
COMPANY." She outlined and documented the cutthroat business practices behind John
Rockefeller's meteoric rise. Tarbell's motives may also have been personal: her own father had been
driven out of business by Rockefeller.
Once other publications saw how profitable these exposs had been, they courted muckrakers of
their own. In 1905, THOMAS LAWSONbrought the inner workings of the stock market to light
in FRENZIED FINANCE. JOHN SPARGO unearthed the horrors of child labor in THE
BITTER CRY OF THE CHILDREN in 1906. That same year, DAVID PHILLIPS linked 75
senators to big business interests in THE TREASON OF THE SENATE. In 1907, WILLIAM
HARD went public with industrial accidents in the steel industry in the blistering MAKING
STEEL AND KILLING MEN. RAY STANNARD BAKERrevealed the oppression of Southern
blacks in FOLLOWING THE COLOR LINE in 1908.
The Meatpacking Jungle
Perhaps no muckraker caused as great a stir as UPTON SINCLAIR. An avowed Socialist, Sinclair
hoped to illustrate the horrible effects of capitalism on workers in the Chicago meatpacking
industry. His bone-chilling account, THE JUNGLE, detailed workers sacrificing their fingers and
nails by working with acid, losing limbs, catching diseases, and toiling long hours in cold, cramped
conditions. He hoped the public outcry would be so fierce that reforms would soon follow.
The clamor that rang throughout America was not, however, a response to the workers' plight.
Sinclair also uncovered the contents of the products being sold to the general public. Spoiled meat
was covered with chemicals to hide the smell. Skin, hair, stomach, ears, and nose were ground up
and packaged as head cheese. Rats climbed over warehouse meat, leaving piles of excrement
behind.
Sinclair said that he aimed for America's heart and instead hit its stomach. Even President
Roosevelt, who coined the derisive term "muckraker," was propelled to act. Within months,

Congress passed the PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACT and the MEAT INSPECTION ACT to
curb these sickening abuses.

42c. Women's Suffrage at Last

After the SENECA FALLS CONVENTION of 1848 demanded WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE for the
first time, America became distracted by the coming Civil War. The issue of the vote resurfaced
during Reconstruction.
The FIFTEENTH AMENDMENTto the Constitution proposed granting the right to vote to
African American males. Many female suffragists at the time were outraged. They simply could not
believe that those who suffered 350 years of bondage would be enfranchised before America's
women.
A Movement Divided
Activists such as FREDERICK DOUGLASS, LUCY STONE, and HENRY
BLACKWELLargued that the 1860s was the time for the black male. Linking black suffrage with
female suffrage would surely accomplish neither. SUSAN B. ANTHONY,ELIZABETH CADY
STANTON, and SOJOURNER TRUTH disagreed. They would accept nothing less than
immediate federal action supporting the vote for women.
Stone and Blackwell formed the AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION and
believed that pressuring state governments was the most effective route. Anthony and Stanton
formed the NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION and pressed for a constitutional
amendment. This split occurred in 1869 and weakened the suffrage movement for the next two
decades.
Anthony and Stanton engaged in high-profile, headline-grabbing tactics. In 1872, they
endorsedVICTORIA WOODHULL, the FREE LOVE CANDIDATE, for President. The NWSA
was known to show up to the polls on election day to force officials to turn them away. They set up
mock ballot boxes near the election sites so women could "vote" in protest. They continued to
accept no compromise on a national amendment eliminating the gender requirement.
The AWSA chose a much more understated path. Stone and Blackwell actively lobbied state
governments. WYOMING became the first state to grant full women's suffrage in 1869,
and UTAH followed suit the following year. But then it stopped. No other states granted full
suffrage until the 1890s.

That man over there says that women need to be

helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and
to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever
helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or
gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?
Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and
planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could
head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as
much and eat as much as a man when I could
get it and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a
woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen
most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out
with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me!
And ain't I a woman?
Sojourner Truth. "Ain't I A Woman?" Delivered
at Akron Ohio Women's Covention (1851)

The NAWSA to the Rescue

After Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell passed away, their daughter, ALICE STONE
BLACKWELL saw the need for a unified front. She approached the aging leadership of the
NWSA, and in 1890, the two splinter groups formed theNATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN
SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION (NAWSA), with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
taking turns at the presidency.
Although the movement still had internal divisions, the mood of progressive reform breathed new
life into its rank and file. Although Stanton and Anthony died before ever having accomplished their
goal, the stage was set for a new generation to carry the torch.
The fight to victory was conducted by CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT. By 1910, most states west of
Mississippi had granted full suffrage rights to women. States of the Midwest at least permitted

women to vote in Presidential elections. But the Northeast and the South were steadfast in
opposition. Catt knew that to ratify a national amendment, NAWSA would have to win a state in
each of these key regions. Once cracks were made, the dam would surely burst.
Amid the backdrop of the United States entry into World War I, success finally came. In 1917, New
York and Arkansas permitted women to vote, and momentum shifted toward suffrage. NAWSA
supported the war effort throughout the ratification process, and the prominent positions women
held no doubt resulted in increased support.
On August 26, 1920, the NINETEENTH AMENDMENT became the supreme law of the land,
and the long struggle for voting rights was over.

42d. Booker T. Washington

At the dawn of the 20th century, nine out of ten African Americans lived in the South. Jim Crow
laws of segregation ruled the land. The Supreme Court upheld the power of the Southern states to
create two "SEPARATE BUT EQUAL" societies with its 1896 PLESSY V. FERGUSON opinion.
It would be for a later Supreme Court to judge that they fell short of the "equal" requirement.
Although empowered to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment, POLL TAXES,LITERACY TESTS,
and outright violence and intimidation reduced the voting black population to almost zero.
Economically, African Americans were primarily poor sharecroppers trapped in an endless cycle of
debt. Socially, few whites had come to accept blacks as equals. While progressive reformers
ambitiously attacked injustices, it would take great work and great people before change was felt.
One man who took up the challenge was BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
Founding Tuskegee Institute
Born into slavery in 1856, Washington had experienced racism his entire life. When emancipated
after the Civil War, he became one of the few African Americans to complete school, whereupon he
became a teacher.
Believing in practical education, Washington established a TUSKEGEE INSTITUTEin Alabama
at the age of twenty-five. Washington believed that Southern racism was so entrenched that to
demand immediate social equality would be unproductive. His school aimed to train African
Americans in the skills that would help the most.
Tuskegee Institute became a center for agricultural research. The most famous product of Tuskegee
was GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER. Carver concluded that much more productive use
could be made of agricultural lands by diversifying crops. He discovered hundreds of new uses for

sweet potatoes, pecans, and peanuts. Peanut butter was one such example. Washington saw a future
in this new type of agriculture as a means of raising the economic status of African Americans.
The Atlanta "Compromise"
In 1895, Washington delivered a speech at the ATLANTA EXPOSITION. He declared that
African Americans should focus on VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. Learning Latin and Greek
served no purpose in the day-to-day realities of Southern life.
African Americans should abandon their short-term hopes of social and political equality.
Washington argued that when whites saw African Americans contributing as productive members of
society, equality would naturally follow.
For those dreaming of a black utopia of freedom, Washington declared, "Cast down your bucket
where you are." Many whites approved of this moderate stance, while African Americans were split.
Critics called his speech the Atlanta Compromise and accused Washington of coddling Southern
racism.
Still, by 1900, Washington was seen as the leader of the African American community. In 1901, he
published his autobiography, UP FROM SLAVERY. He was a self-made man and a role model to
thousands. In 1906, he was summoned to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. This
marked the first time in American history that an African American leader received such a
prestigious invitation.
Despite his accomplishments, he was challenged within the black community until his death in
1915. His most outspoken critic was W. E. B. DuBois.

42e. W. E. B. DuBois
WILLIAM EDWARD BURGHARDT DUBOIS was very angry with Booker T. Washington.
Although he admired Washington's intellect and accomplishments, he strongly opposed the position
set forth by Washington in his Atlanta Exposition Address. He saw little future in agriculture as the
nation rapidly industrialized. DuBois felt that renouncing the goal of complete integration and
social equality, even in the short run, was counterproductive and exactly the opposite strategy from
what best suited African Americans.
Early Life and Core Beliefs
The childhood of W. E. B. DuBois could not have been more different from that of Booker T.
Washington. He was born in Massachusetts in 1868 as a free black. DuBois attended FISK

UNIVERSITY and later became the first African American to receive a Ph. D. from Harvard. He
secured a teaching job at Atlanta University, where he believed he learned a great deal about the
African American experience in the South.
DuBois was a staunch proponent of a classical education and condemned Washington's suggestion
that blacks focus only on vocational skills. Without an educated class of leadership, whatever gains
were made by blacks could be stripped away by legal loopholes. He believed that every class of
people in history had a "TALENTED TENTH." The downtrodden masses would rely on their
guidance to improve their status in society.
Political and social equality must come first before blacks could hope to have their fair share of the
economic pie. He vociferously attacked the Jim Crow laws and practices that inhibited black
suffrage. In 1903, he published THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, a series of essays assailing
Washington's strategy of accommodation.
The Niagra Movement and the NAACP
In 1905, DuBois met with a group of 30 men at Niagara Falls, Canada. They drafted a series of
demands essentially calling for an immediate end to all forms of discrimination. The NIAGARA
MOVEMENT was denounced as radical by most whites at the time. Educated African Americans,
however, supported the resolutions.
Four years later, members of the Niagara Movement formed the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP). This organization sought to
fight for equality on the national front. It also intended to improve the self-image of African
Americans. After centuries of slavery and decades of second-class status, DuBois and others
believed that many African Americans had come to accept their position in American society.
DuBois became the editor of the organization's periodical called THE CRISIS, a job he performed
for 20 years. The Crisis contained the expected political essays, but also poems and stories
glorifying African American culture and accomplishments. Later, DuBois was invited to attend the
organizational meeting for the United Nations in 1946.
As time passed, DuBois began to lose hope that African Americans would ever see full equality in
the United States. In 1961, he moved to Ghana. He died at the age of 96 just before Martin Luther
King Jr. led the historical civil rights march on Washington.

43. Progressives in the White House

Hiding Teddy
THEODORE ROOSEVELT was never intended to be President. He was seen as a reckless
cowboy by many in the Republican Party leadership. As his popularity soared, he became more and
more of a threat. His success with the Rough Riders in Cuba made him a war hero in the eyes of
many Americans. Riding this wave, he was elected as governor of New York.
During the campaign of 1900, it was decided that nominating Roosevelt for the Vice-Presidency
would serve two purposes. First, his popularity would surely help President McKinley's reelection
bid. Second, moving him to the Vice-Presidency might decrease his power.
Vice-Presidents had gone on to the White House only if the sitting President died in office. The last
Vice-President elected in his own right had been Martin Van Buren in 1837. Many believed
Roosevelt could do less harm as Vice-President than as governor of New York.
McKinley and Roosevelt won the election, and all was proceeding according to plan until an
assassin's bullet ended McKinley's life in September 1901.
The Bully Pulpit
Roosevelt did not wait long to act. Before long he lashed out against the trusts and sided with
American labor. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act protected consumers.
Steps were taken to protect America's wilderness lands that went beyond any previous President.
The worst fears of conservatives were realized as Roosevelt used the White House as a "BULLY
PULPIT" to promote an active government that protected the interests of the people over big
business. The Progressive movement finally had an ally in the White House.
The Progressive lock on the Presidency did not end with Theodore Roosevelt. His popularity
secured the election in 1908 of his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft. Although Taft
continued busting America's trusts, his inability to control the conservative wing of the party led to
a Republican versus Republican war.
A Progressive Democrat
Teddy Roosevelt challenged Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912, splitting the party wide
open. Although the Republicans lost the election, it was not necessarily a loss for Progressives. The
winning Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, embraced much of the Progressive agenda himself.
Before his two terms came to a close, the federal government passed legislation further restricting

trusts, banning child labor, and requiring worker compensation. The Progressive causes of
temperance and women's suffrage were embedded into the Constitution.
Between 1901 and 1921, the Presidents were more active and powerful than any since the days of
Abraham Lincoln.

43a. Teddy Roosevelt: The Rough Rider in the White House

There had never been a President like him. He was only forty-two years old when his predecessor
William McKinley was assassinated, the youngest age ever for the chief executive.
He was graduated with the highest honors from Harvard, wrote 23 books, and was considered the
world's foremost authority on North American wildlife. He was a prizefighting championship
finalist, leader of the Rough Riders, a cowboy, a socialite, a police commissioner, a governor, and a
Vice-President.
All this was accomplished before he entered the White House. His energy was contagious, and the
whole country was electrified by their new leader.
Early Obstacles
Roosevelt was born in 1858 to a wealthy New York banker and the daughter of a prosperous
Georgia planter. He was anything but the model physical specimen. His eyesight was poor. He wore
thick glasses his entire life. As a child he was small and weak. He suffered from acute asthma,
which contributed to his frailty.
Taking his father's advice, he dedicated himself to physical fitness, without which he believed there
could be no mental fitness. His hard work paid off, and as he entered Harvard with a muscular
frame, his condition bothered him less and less.
Soon he met ALICE HATHAWAY LEE. Although he believed her to be the most unobtainable
woman around, he was determined to marry her. Again, he was successful, but his life with Alice
was short-lived. In 1884, four years after his graduation, Alice delivered a daughter. Owing to
complications, she died in childbirth on the very same day as the death of his mother.
A Rising Star
Devastated, he withdrew to North Dakota Territory, but could not live without the New York pace
for long. Returning to New York in 1886, Roosevelt remarried and dedicated his life to public
service. By 1898, he compiled an impressive resum including
Member of the Civil Service Commission

 Police Commissioner of New York City

Assistant Secretary to the Navy.

When the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR erupted, he helped form a volunteer regiment

called the ROUGH RIDERS. His success in the war led to the governor's office and then
the Vice-Presidency.

Up to this point, the Vice-President had little power, and few had gone on to the White
House unless a tragedy befell the President. Many Republican leaders supported Roosevelt
in the number-two job for this very reason. They feared his headstrong style and maverick
attitude. Their greatest fears were realized when a bullet ended President McKinley's life on
September 13, 1901.

A New Kind of President

Soon it was clear that a new type of President was in town. The Presidency had been

dormant since Lincoln's time. Congress seemed to be running the government, and big
business seemed to be running Congress.

Philosophically, Roosevelt was outraged by these realities. Although he himself hailed

from the wealthy classes, he strongly believed that no individual, no matter how rich and
powerful, should control the people's representatives.

Furthermore, Roosevelt was convinced that if abuse of workers continued to go

unchecked, a violent revolution would sweep the nation. An outspoken foe of socialism,
Roosevelt believed that capitalism would be preserved with a little restraint and common
sense. Within months he began to wield his newfound power.

Roosevelt changed the office in other important ways. He never went anywhere without
his photographer. He wanted Americans to see a rough and tumble leader who was unafraid
to get his hands dirty. He became the first President to travel out of the country while in
office and the first to win theNOBEL PRIZE.

Unlike his quieter predecessors, Roosevelt knew that if the Washington politicians
resisted change, he would have to take his case to the people directly. He traveled often and
spoke with confidence and enthusiasm. Americans received him warmly.

The country was thirsting for leadership and Roosevelt became a political and popular
hero. Merchandise was sold in his likeness, paintings and lithographs created in his honor,
and even a film was produced portraying him as a fairy-tale hero. The White House was
finally back in business.

43b. The Trust Buster

Teddy Roosevelt was one American who believed a revolution was coming.
He believed WALL STREET FINANCIERS and powerful trust titans to be acting foolishly.
While they were eating off fancy china on mahogany tables in marble dining rooms, the masses
were roughing it. There seemed to be no limit to greed. If docking wages would increase profits, it
was done. If higher railroad rates put more gold in their coffers, it was done. How much was
enough, Roosevelt wondered?
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Although he himself was a man of means, he criticized the wealthy class of Americans on two
counts. First, continued exploitation of the public could result in a violent uprising that could
destroy the whole system. Second, the captains of industry were arrogant enough to believe
themselves superior to the elected government. Now that he was President, Roosevelt went on the
attack.
The President's weapon was the SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT, passed by Congress in 1890.
This law declared illegal all combinations "in restraint of trade." For the first twelve years of its
existence, the Sherman Act was a paper tiger. United States courts routinely sided with business
when any enforcement of the Act was attempted.
For example, the AMERICAN SUGAR REFINING COMPANY controlled 98 percent of the
sugar industry. Despite this virtual monopoly, the Supreme Court refused to dissolve the corporation
in an 1895 ruling. The only time an organization was deemed in restraint of trade was when the
court ruled against a labor union
Roosevelt knew that no new legislation was necessary. When he sensed that he had a sympathetic
Court, he sprung into action.
Teddy vs. J.P.
Theodore Roosevelt was not the type to initiate major changes timidly. The first trust giant to fall
victim to Roosevelt's assault was none other than the most powerful industrialist in the country J.
Pierpont Morgan.
Morgan controlled a railroad company known as Northern Securities. In combination with
railroad MOGULS JAMES J. HILL and E. H. HARRIMAN, Morgan controlled the bulk of
railroad shipping across the northern United States.
Morgan was enjoying a peaceful dinner at his New York home on February 19, 1902, when his

telephone rang. He was furious to learn that Roosevelt's Attorney General was bringing suit against
the Northern Securities Company. Stunned, he muttered to his equally shocked dinner guests about
how rude it was to file such a suit without warning.
Four days later, Morgan was at the White House with the President. Morgan bellowed that he was
being treated like a common criminal. The President informed Morgan that no compromise could be
reached, and the matter would be settled by the courts. Morgan inquired if his other interests were at
risk, too. Roosevelt told him only the ones that had done anything wrong would be prosecuted.
The Good, the Bad, and the Bully
This was the core of Theodore Roosevelt's leadership. He boiled everything down to a case of right
versus wrong and good versus bad. If a trust controlled an entire industry but provided good service
at reasonable rates, it was a "good" trust to be left alone. Only the "bad" trusts that jacked up rates
and exploited consumers would come under attack. Who would decide the difference between right
and wrong? The occupant of the White House trusted only himself to make this decision in the
interests of the people.
The American public cheered Roosevelt's new offensive. The Supreme Court, in a narrow 5 to 4
decision, agreed and dissolved the Northern Securities Company. Roosevelt said confidently that no
man, no matter how powerful, was above the law. As he landed blows on other "bad" trusts, his
popularity grew and grew.

43c. A Helping Hand for Labor

Workers rarely found a helping hand in the White House. President Hayes ordered the army to
break the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. President Cleveland ordered federal troops to disrupt the
Pullman Strike of 1894. Governors and mayors used the National Guard and police to confront
workers on strike.
When Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike in 1902, there was no reason to believe anything had
changed. But this time things were different. Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House.
Miners and Owners at Loggerheads
JOHN MITCHELL, president of the UNITED MINE WORKERS, represented the miners. He
was soft-spoken, yet determined. Many compared his manner to Abraham Lincoln's. In the spring of
1902, Mitchell placed a demand on the coal operators for better wages, shorter hours, and
recognition of the union. The owners, led by GEORGE BAER, flatly refused. On May 12, 1902,
140,000 miners walked off the job, and the strike was on.

Mitchell worked diligently behind the scenes to negotiate with Baer, but his efforts were rejected.
According to Baer, there would be no compromise. Even luminaries such Mark Hanna and J.P.
Morgan prevailed in vain on the owners to open talks. As the days passed, the workers began to feel
the pinch of the strike, and violence began to erupt.
Soon summer melted into fall, and President Roosevelt wondered what the angry workers and a
colder public would do if the strike lasted into the bitter days of winter. He decided to lend a hand in
settling the strike.
Teddy the Arbitrator
No President had ever tried to negotiate a strike settlement before. Roosevelt invited Mitchell and
Baer to the White House on October 3 to hammer out a compromise. Mitchell proposed to submit to
an arbitration commission and abide by the results if Baer would do the same. Baer resented the
summons by the President to meet a "common criminal" like Mitchell, and refused any sort of
concession.
Roosevelt despaired that the violence would increase and spiral dangerously toward a class-based
civil war. After the mine operators left Washington, he vowed to end the strike. He was impressed
by Mitchell's gentlemanly demeanor and irritated by Baer's insolence. Roosevelt remarked that if he
weren't president, he would have thrown Baer out of a White House window.
He summoned his War Secretary, ELIHU ROOT, and ordered him to prepare the army. This time,
however, the army would not be used against the strikers. The coal operators were informed that if
no settlement were reached, the army would seize the mines and make coal available to the public.
Roosevelt did not seem to mind that he had no constitutional authority to do any such thing.
Compromise
J.P. Morgan finally convinced Baer and the other owners to submit the dispute to a commission. On
October 15, the strike ended. The following March, a decision was reached by the mediators. The
miners were awarded a 10 percent pay increase, and their workday was reduced to eight or nine
hours. The owners were not forced to recognize the United Mine Workers.
Workers across America cheered Roosevelt for standing up to the mine operators. It surely seemed
like the White House would lend a helping hand to the labor movement.

43d. Preserving the Wilderness

As America grew, Americans were destroying its NATURAL RESOURCES. Farmers were

depleting the nutrients of the overworked soil. Miners removed layer after layer of valuable topsoil,
leading to catastrophic erosion. Everywhere forests were shrinking and wildlife was becoming more
scarce.
The Sierra Club
The growth of cities brought a new interest in preserving the old lands for future generations.
Dedicated to saving the wilderness, the SIERRA CLUB formed in 1892. JOHN MUIR, the
president of the Sierra Club, worked valiantly to stop the sale of public lands to private developers.
At first, most of his efforts fell on deaf ears. Then Theodore Roosevelt inhabited the Oval Office,
and his voice was finally heard.
Roosevelt Protects Public Lands
Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman. He hunted, hiked, and camped whenever possible. He believed
that living in nature was good for the body and soul. Although he proved willing to compromise
with Republican conservatives on many issues, he was dedicated to protecting the nation's public
lands.
The first measure he backed was the NEWLANDS RECLAMATION ACT OF 1902. This law
encouraged developers and homesteaders to inhabit lands that were useless without massive
irrigation works. The lands were sold at a cheap price if the buyer assumed the cost of irrigation and
lived on the land for at least five years. The government then used the revenue to irrigate additional
lands. Over a million barren acres were rejuvenated under this program.
John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt were more than political acquaintances. In 1903, Roosevelt took a
vacation by camping with Muir in YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK. The two agreed that making
efficient use of public lands was not enough. Certain wilderness areas should simply be left
undeveloped.
Under an 1891 law that empowered the President to declare national forests and withdraw public
lands from development, Roosevelt began to preserve wilderness areas. By the time he left office
150,000,000 acres had been deemed national forests, forever safe from the ax and saw. This
amounted to three times the total protected lands since the law was enacted.
In 1907, Congress passed a law blocking the President from protecting additional territory in six
western states. In typical Roosevelt fashion, he signed the bill into law but not before protecting
16 million additional acres in those six states.

Conservation Fever
Conservation fever spread among urban intellectuals as a result. By 1916, there were sixteen
national parks with over 300,000 annual visitors. The BOY SCOUTS and GIRL SCOUTS formed
to give urban youths a greater appreciation of nature. Memberships in conservation and wildlife
societies soared.
Teddy Roosevelt distinguished himself as the greatest Presidential advocate of the environment
since Thomas Jefferson. Much damage had been done, but America's beautiful, abundant resources
were given a new lease on life.

43g. Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom

Progressives did not come only in the Republican flavor. THOMAS WOODROW WILSON also
saw the need for change.
Born in Staunton, Virginia, Wilson served as president of Princeton University and governor of
New Jersey. He combined a southern background with northern sensibilities.
Attacking the Triple Wall of Privilege
His 1912 platform for change was called the NEW FREEDOM. Wilson was an admirer of Thomas
Jefferson. The agrarian utopia of small, educated farmers envisioned by Jefferson struck a chord
with Wilson. Of course, the advent of industry could not be denied, but a nation of small farmers
and small businesspeople seemed totally possible. The New Freedom sought to achieve this vision
by attacking what Wilson called the TRIPLE WALL OF PRIVILEGE the tariff, the banks, and
the trusts.
Tariffs protected the large industrialists at the expense of small farmers. Wilson signed
the UNDERWOOD-SIMMONS ACT into law in 1913, which reduced tariff rates. The banking
system also pinched small farmers and entrepreneurs. The gold standard still made currency too
tight, and loans were too expensive for the average American. Wilson signed the FEDERAL
RESERVE ACT, which made the nation's currency more flexible.
Unlike Roosevelt, Wilson did not distinguish between "good" trusts and "bad" trusts. Any trust by
virtue of its large size was bad in Wilson's eyes. TheCLAYTON ANTITRUST ACT OF
1914 clarified the Sherman Act by specifically naming certain business tactics illegal. This same act
also exempted labor unions from antitrust suits, and declared strikes, boycotts, and peaceful
picketing perfectly legal.
In two years, he successfully attacked each "wall of privilege." Now his eyes turned to greater

concerns, particularly the outbreak of the FIRST WORLD WAr in Europe.

Appeasing the Bull Moose
When Wilson's first term expired, he felt he had to do more. The nation was on the brink of entering
the bloodiest conflict in human history, and Wilson had definite ideas about how the postwar peace
should look. But he would have to survive reelection first.
As an appeal to the Roosevelt progressives, he began to sign many legislative measures suggested
by the BULL MOOSE CAMPAIGN. He approved of the creation of a federal trade commission to
act as a watchdog over business. A child labor bill and a workers' compensation act became law.
Wilson agreed to limit the workday of interstate railroad workers to 8 hours. He signed
a FEDERAL FARM LOAN ACT to ease the pains of life on the farm.
Progressive Republicans in the Congress were pleased by Wilson's conversion to their brand of
progressivism, and the American people showed their approval by electing him to a second term.

45. America in the First World War

Isolation was a long American tradition. Since the days of George Washington, Americans struggled
to remain protected by the mighty oceans on its border. When European conflicts erupted, as they
frequently did, many in the United States claimed exceptionalism. America was different. Why get
involved in Europe's self-destruction? When the ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY was
killed in cold blood, igniting the most destructive war in human history, the initial reaction in the
United States was the expected will for neutrality. As a nation of immigrants, The United States
would have difficulty picking a side. Despite the obvious ties to Britain based on history and
language, there were many United States citizens who claimed Germany and Austria-Hungary as
their parent lands. Support of either the ALLIES or the CENTRAL POWERS might prove
divisive.
In the early days of the war, as Britain and France struggled against Germany, American leaders
decided it was in the national interest to continue trade with all sides as before. A neutral nation
cannot impose an embargo on one side and continue trade with the other and retain its neutral
status. In addition, United States merchants and manufacturers feared that a boycott would cripple
the American economy. Great Britain, with its powerful navy, had different ideas. A major part of
the British strategy was to impose a blockade on Germany. American trade with the Central Powers
simply could not be permitted. The results of the blockade were astonishing. Trade with England
and France more than tripled between 1914 and 1916, while trade with Germany was cut by over
ninety percent. It was this situation that prompted submarine warfare by the Germans against

Americans at sea. After two and a half years of isolationism, America entered the Great War.
The contributions of the United States military to the Allied effort were decisive. Since the Russians
decided to quit the war, the Germans were able to move many of their troops from the eastern front
to the stalemate in the West. The seemingly infinite supply of fresh American soldiers countered this
potential advantage and was demoralizing to the Germans. American soldiers entered the bloody
trenches and by November 1918, the war was over. Contributions to the war effort were not
confined to the battlefield. The entire American economy was mobilized to win the war. From
planting extra vegetables to keeping the furnace turned off, American civilians provided extra food
and fuel to the war effort. The United States government engaged in a massive propaganda
campaign to raise troops and money. Where dissent was apparent, it was stifled, prompting many to
question whether American civil liberties were in jeopardy. In the end, the war was won, but the
peace was lost. The Treaty of Versailles as presented by President Wilson was rejected by the
Senate. Two dangerous decades of political isolationism followed, only to end in an ever more
cataclysmic war.

45a. Farewell to Isolation

With American trade becoming more and more lopsided toward the Allied cause, many feared that
it was only a matter of time before the United States would be at war. The issue that propelled most
American fencesitters to side with the British was German submarine warfare.
The British, with the world's largest navy, had effectively shut down German maritime trade.
Because there was no hope of catching the British in numbers of ships, the Germans felt that
theSUBMARINE was their only key to survival. One "U-BOAT" could surreptitiously sink many
battleships, only to slip away unseen. This practice would stop only if the British would lift their
blockade.
Sinking the Lusitania.
The isolationist American public had little concern if the British and Germans tangled on the high
seas. The incident that changed everything was the sinking of the LUSITANIA. The Germans felt
they had done their part to warn Americans about the danger of overseas travel.
The German government purchased advertisement space in American newspapers warning that
Americans who traveled on ships carrying war contraband risked submarine attack. When
the Lusitania departed New York, the Germans believed the massive passenger ship was loaded
with munitions in its cargo hold. On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the ship without
warning, sending 1,198 passengers, including 128 Americans, to an icy grave. The Lusitania, as it

turned out, was carrying over 4 million rounds of ammunition.

President Wilson was enraged. The British were breaking the rules, but the Germans were causing
deaths.
Wilson's Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, recommended a ban on American travel on
any ships of nations at war. Wilson preferred a tougher line against the German Kaiser. He
demanded an immediate end to submarine warfare, prompting Bryan to resign in protest. The
Germans began a 2-year practice of pledging to cease submarine attacks, reneging on that pledge,
and issuing it again under U.S. protest.
Wilson had other reasons for leaning toward the Allied side. He greatly admired the British
government, and democracy in any form was preferable to German authoritarianism. The historical
ties with Britain seemed to draw the United States closer to that side.
Many Americans felt a debt to France for their help in the American Revolution. Several hundred
volunteers, appropriately named the LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLES, already volunteered to fight
with the French in 1916. In November of that year, Wilson campaigned for re-election with a peace
platform. "He kept us out of war," read his campaign signs, and Americans narrowly returned him
to the White House. But peace was not to be.
The Zimmermann Telegram
In February 1917, citing the unbalanced U.S. trade with the Allies, Germany announced a policy of
unrestricted submarine warfare. All vessels spotted in the war zone would be sunk immediately and
without warning. Wilson responded by severing diplomatic relations with the German government.
Later that month, British intelligence intercepted the notorious ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM.
The German foreign minister sent a message courting support from Mexico in the event the United
States should enter the war. Zimmermann promised Mexico a return of Texas, New Mexico, and
Arizona territories it had lost in 1848.
Relations between the U.S. and Mexico were already strained. The U.S. had sent troops across the
border in search of PANCHO VILLA, who had conducted several cross-border raids of American
towns. Failing to find Villa, the troops had been withdrawn only in January 1917. Despite the recent
souring between Mexico and its Northern neighbor, the United States, the Mexican government
declined the offer. In a calculated move, Wilson released the captured telegram to the American
press.

War Declared on Germany

A tempest of outrage followed. More and more Americans began to label Germany as the true
villain in the war. When German subs sank several American commercial ships in March, Wilson
had an even stronger hand to play. On April 2, 1917, he addressed the Congress, citing a long list of
grievances against Germany. Four days later, by a wide margin in each house, Congress declared
war on Germany, and the U.S. was plunged into the bloodiest battle in history.
Still, the debate lived on. Two Senators and fifty Representatives voted against the war resolution,
including the first female ever to sit in Congress, JEANNETTE RANKIN of Montana. Although a
clear majority of Americans now supported the war effort, there were large segments of the
populace who still needed convincing.

45b. Over There

The United States was developing a nasty pattern of entering major conflicts woefully unprepared.
When Congress declared war in April 1917, the army had enough bullets for only two days of
fighting. The army was small in numbers at only 200,000 soldiers. Two-fifths of these men were
members of theNATIONAL GUARD, which had only recently been federalized. The type of
warfare currently plaguing Europe was unlike any the world had ever seen.
The Western front, which ran through Belgium and France, was a virtual stalemate since the early
years of the war. A system of trenches had been dug by each side. Machine-gun nests, barbed wire,
and mines blocked the opposing side from capturing the enemy trench. Artillery shells, mortars,
flamethrowers, and poison gas were employed to no avail.
The defensive technology was simply better than the offensive technology. Even if an enemy trench
was captured, the enemy would simply retreat into another dug fifty yards behind. Each side would
repeatedly send their soldiers "over the top" of the trenches into the no man's land of almost certain
death with very little territorial gain. Now young American men would be sent to these killing
fields.
Feeling a Draft
The first problem was raising the necessary number of troops. Recruitment was of course the
preferred method, but the needed numbers could not be reached simply with volunteers.
Conscription was unavoidable, and Congress passed theSELECTIVE SERVICE ACT in May
1917.
All males between the ages of 21 and 30 were required to register for military service. The last time

a DRAFT had been used resulted in great rioting because of the ability of the wealthy to purchase
exemptions. This time, the draft was conducted by random lottery.
By the end of the war, over four and a half million American men, and 11,000 American women,
served in the armed forces. 400,000 African Americans were called to active duty. In all, two
million Americans fought in the FrenchTRENCHES.
The first military measures adopted by the United States were on the seas. Joint Anglo-American
operations were highly successful at stopping the dreaded submarine. Following the thinking that
there is greater strength in numbers, the U.S. and Britain developed an elaborate convoy system to
protect vulnerable ships. In addition, mines were placed in many areas formerly dominated by
German U-boats. The campaign was so effective that not a single American soldier was lost on the
high seas in transit to the Western front.
The AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE began arriving in France in June 1917, but the
original numbers were quite small. Time was necessary to inflate the ranks of the United States
Army and to provide at least a rudimentary training program. The timing was critical.
When the Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1917 in a domestic revolution, Germany signed a peace
treaty with the new government. The Germans could now afford to transfer many of their soldiers
fighting in the East to the deadlocked Western front. Were it not for the fresh supply of incoming
American troops, the war might have followed a very different path.
The addition of the United States to the Allied effort was as elevating to the Allied morale as it was
devastating to the German will. Refusing to submit to the overall Allied commander, GENERAL
JOHN PERSHING retained independent American control over the U.S. troops.
Paris: Ooh, La La
The new soldiers began arriving in great numbers in early 1918. The "DOUGHBOYS," as they
were labeled by the French were green indeed. Many fell prey to the trappings of Paris nightlife
while awaiting transfer to the front. An estimated fifteen percent of American troops in France
contracted venereal disease from Parisian prostitutes, costing millions of dollars in treatment.
The African American soldiers noted that their treatment by the French soldiers was better than their
treatment by their white counterparts in the American army. Although the German army dropped
tempting leaflets on the African American troops promising a less-racist society if the Germans
would win, none took the offer seriously.
By the spring of 1918, the doughboys were seeing fast and furious action. A German offensive came
within fifty miles of Paris, and American soldiers played a critical role in turning the tide

atCHATEAU-THIERRY andBELLEAU WOOD. In September 1918, efforts were concentrated

on dislodging German troops from the MEUSE RIVER. Finding success, the Allies chased the
Germans into the trench-laden ARGONNE FOREST, where America suffered heavy casualties.
But the will and resources of the German resistance were shattered. The army retreated and on
November 11, 1918, the German government agreed to an armistice. The war was over. Over 14
million soldiers and civilians perished in the so-called GREAT WAR, including 112,000
Americans. Countless more were wounded.
The bitterness that swept Europe and America would prevent the securing of a just peace,
imperiling the next generation as well.

45c. Over Here

The First World War was a total war. In previous wars, the civilian population tried to steer clear of
the war effort. Surely expectations were placed on civilians for food and clothing, and of course,
since the 19th century, troops were conscripted from the general population. But modern
communication and warfare required an all-out effort from the entire population. New weapons
technology required excess fuel and industrial capacity. The economic costs of 20th century warfare
dwarfed earlier wars, therefore extensive revenue raising was essential. Without the support of the
whole population, failure was certain. Governments used every new communications technology
imaginable to spread pro-war propaganda. American efforts geared to winning World War I
amounted to nothing less than a national machine.
Rallying the Country
Once Congress declared war, President Wilson quickly created the COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC
INFORMATION under the direction of GEORGE CREEL. Creel used every possible medium
imaginable to raise American consciousness. Creel organized rallies and parades. He
commissioned GEORGE M. COHAN to write patriotic songs intended to stoke the fires of
American nationalism. Indeed, "OVER THERE" became an overnight standard. JAMES
MONTGOMERY FLAGG illustrated dozens of posters urging Americans to do everything from
preserving coal to enlisting in the service. Flagg depicted a serious UNCLE SAM staring at young
American men declaring "I Want You for the U.S. Army." His powerful images were hard to resist.
An army of "FOUR-MINUTE MEN" swept the nation making short, but poignant, powerful
speeches. Films and plays added to the fervor. The CREEL COMMITTEE effectively raised
national spirit and engaged millions of Americans in the business of winning the war.

Dealing With Dissenters

Still there were dissenters. The American Socialist Party condemned the war effort. Irish-Americans
often displayed contempt for the British ally. Millions of immigrants from Germany and AustriaHungary were forced to support initiatives that could destroy their homelands. But this dissent was
rather small. Nevertheless, the government stifled wartime opposition by law with the passing of
the ESPIONAGE AND SEDITION ACTS OF 1917. Anyone found guilty of criticizing the
government war policy or hindering wartime directives could be sent to jail. Many cried that this
was a flagrant violation of precious civil liberties, including the right to free speech. The Supreme
Court handed down a landmark decision on this issue in the SCHENCK V. UNITED
STATES verdict. The majority court opinion ruled that should an individual's free speech present a
"clear and present danger" to others, the government could impose restrictions or penalties. Schenck
was arrested for sabotaging the draft. The Court ruled that his behavior endangered thousands of
American lives and upheld his jail sentence. Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned
and ran for President from his jail cell in 1920. He polled nearly a million votes.
Frankfurters to Hot Dogs
There was a sinister side to the war hysteria. Many Americans could not discern between enemies
abroad and enemies at home. German-Americans became targets for countless HATE CRIMES.
On a local level, schoolchildren were pummeled on schoolyards, and yellow paint was splashed on
front doors. One German-American was lynched by a mob in Collinsville, Illinois, only to be found
innocent by a sympathetic jury. Colleges and high schools stopped teaching the German language.
The city of Cincinnati banned pretzels, and esteemed city orchestras refused to play music by
German composers. Hamburgers, sauerkraut, and frankfurters became known as liberty meat,
liberty cabbage, and hot dogs. The temperance movement received a boost by linking beer drinking
with support for Germany. These undeserved crimes against innocent German-Americans went
completely unpunished.
Why Victory Gardens?
Once support for the war was in full swing, the population was mobilized to produce war materiel.
In 1917, the WAR INDUSTRIES BOARD was established to coordinate production of munitions
and supplies. The board was empowered to allocate raw materials and determine what products
would be given high priority. Women shifted jobs from domestic service to heavy industry to
compensate for the labor shortage owing to military service. African Americans flocked northward
in greater and greater numbers in the hope of winning industry jobs. Herbert Hoover was appointed

to head the FOOD ADMINISTRATION. Shortages of food in the Allied countries had led to
shortages and rationing all across Western Europe. Hoover decided upon a plan that would raise the
necessary foodstuffs by voluntary means. Americans were encouraged to participate in
"MEATLESS MONDAYS" and "WHEATLESS WEDNESDAYS." Additional food could be
raised by planting "VICTORY GARDENS"in small backyard patches or even in window boxes
on fire escapes. President Wilson showed his support by allowing a flock of sheep to graze on the
White House lawn. Similar measures were employed by the Fuel Administration. The government
also adopted DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME to conserve energy.
World War I was the most expensive endeavor by the United States up to that point in history. The
total cost to the American public amounted to over $110 billion. Five successful LIBERTY BOND
DRIVES raised about two-thirds of that sum. Of course, bonds are loans to be paid by future
generations. The firstINCOME TAX under the Sixteenth Amendment was levied. The tax rate at
the top level was 70%. All in all, great sacrifices were made on behalf of the United States people in
their venture to make the world safe for democracy.
45d. The Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations
As the war drew to a close, Woodrow Wilson set forth his plan for a "JUST PEACE." Wilson
believed that fundamental flaws in international relations created an unhealthy climate that led
inexorably to the World War. His FOURTEEN POINTS outlined his vision for a safer world.
Wilson called for an end to secret diplomacy, a reduction of armaments, and freedom of the seas.
He claimed that reductions to trade barriers, fair adjustment of colonies, and respect for national
self-determination would reduce economic and nationalist sentiments that lead to war. Finally,
Wilson proposed an international organization comprising representatives of all the world's nations
that would serve as a forum against allowing any conflict to escalate. Unfortunately, Wilson could
not impose his world view on the victorious Allied Powers. When they met in Paris to hammer out
the terms of the peace, the European leaders had other ideas.
The Paris Peace Conference
Most of the decisions made at the PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE were made by theBIG FOUR,
consisting of President Wilson, DAVID LLOYD GEORGE of Great Britain,GEORGES
CLEMENCEAU of France, and VITTORIO ORLANDO of Italy. The European leaders were not
interested in a just peace. They were interested in retribution. Over Wilson's protests, they ignored
the Fourteen Points one by one. Germany was to admit guilt for the war and pay unlimited
reparations. The German military was reduced to a domestic police force and its territory was
truncated to benefit the new nations of Eastern Europe. The territories of ALSACE AND

LORRAINE were restored to France. German colonies were handed in trusteeship to the victorious
Allies. No provisions were made to end secret diplomacy or preserve freedom of the seas. Wilson
did gain approval for his proposal for a LEAGUE OF NATIONS. Dismayed by the overall results,
but hopeful that a strong League could prevent future wars, he returned to present theTREATY OF
VERSAILLES to the Senate.
Defeating the League of Nations
Unfortunately for Wilson, he was met with stiff opposition. The Republican leader of the
Senate, HENRY CABOT LODGE, was very suspicious of Wilson and his treaty. ARTICLE X
OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS required the United States to respect the territorial integrity of
member states. Although there was no requirement compelling an American declaration of war, the
United States might be bound to impose an economic embargo or to sever diplomatic relations.
Lodge viewed the League as a supranational government that would limit the power of the
American government from determining its own affairs. Others believed the League was the sort of
entangling alliance the United States had avoided since GEORGE WASHINGTON'S
FAREWELL ADDRESS. Lodge sabotaged the League covenant by declaring the United States
exempt from Article X. He attached reservations, or amendments, to the treaty to this effect. Wilson,
bedridden from a debilitating stroke, was unable to accept these changes. He asked Senate
Democrats to vote against the Treaty of Versailles unless the Lodge reservations were dropped.
Neither side budged, and the treaty went down to defeat.
Why did the United States fail to ratify the Versailles Treaty and join the League of Nations?
Personal enmity between Wilson and Lodge played a part. Wilson might have prudently invited a
prominent Republican to accompany him to Paris to help ensure its later passage. Wilson's fading
health eliminated the possibility of making a strong personal appeal on behalf of the treaty. Ethnic
groups in the United States helped its defeat. German Americans felt their fatherland was being
treated too harshly. Italian Americans felt more territory should have been awarded to Italy. Irish
Americans criticized the treaty for failing to address the issue of Irish independence. Diehard
American isolationists worried about a permanent global involvement. The stubborness of President
Wilson led him to ask his own party to scuttle the treaty. The final results of all these factors had
mammoth longterm consequences. Without the involvement of the world's newest superpower, the
League of Nations was doomed to failure. Over the next two decades, the United States would sit
on the sidelines as the unjust Treaty of Versailles and the ineffective League of Nations would set
the stage for an even bloodier, more devastating clash.

46. The Decade That Roared

The 1920s saw the culmination of fifty years of rapid American industrialization. New products
seemed to burst from American production lines with the potential of revolutionizing American life.
Other products that had previously been toys for the rich were now available to a majority of
Americans. The standard of living increased as the economy grew stronger and stronger. The results
were spectacular. The America of 1929 was vastly different from the America of 1919.
The automobile was first and foremost among these products. The practices of Henry Ford made
these horseless carriages affordable to the American masses. Widespread use of the automobile
ushered in changes in work patterns and leisure plans. A host of support industries were launched.
Dating and education were changed by the automobile. Radio usage brought further changes. For
the first time, a national popular culture was supplanting regional folkways. Americans across the
continent were sharing the same jokes, participating in the same fads, and worshipping the same
heroes. Housework was minimized with the introduction of labor saving devices. As a result, leisure
time was increased.
The bleak outlook and large sacrifices of the wartime era were now a part of the past. Young
Americans were looking to cut loose and have a good time. Prohibition did not end alcohol usage.
The romantic subculture of the speakeasy kept the firewater flowing. Organized crime flourished as
gangland violence related to bootlegged liquor plagued America's cities. Flapper women strove to
eliminate double standard values. Young females engaged in behaviors previously reserved for men
including smoking and drinking. Sigmund Freud's assertion that sexual behavior was a natural
instinct brought down more barriers as young Americans delved into sexual experimentation. The
Harlem Renaissance brought a new form of entertainment. The sounds of jazz bands had appeal that
transcended African American audiences, as thousands flocked to hear the new sounds.
The 1920s ushered in more lasting changes to the American social scene than any previous decade.
Escapism loomed large as many coped with change by living in the present and enjoying
themselves. The economic boom that unleashed the transformation and its consequences made the
Roaring Twenties an era to remember.
46a. The Age of the Automobile
Perhaps no invention affected American everyday life in the 20th century more than the automobile.
Although the technology for theAUTOMOBILE existed in the 19th century, it took HENRY
FORD to make the useful gadget accessible to the American public. Ford used the idea of
the ASSEMBLY LINEfor automobile manufacturing. He paid his workers an unprecedented $5 a
day when most laborers were bringing home two, hoping that it would increase their productivity.
Furthermore, they might use their higher earnings to purchase a new car.

Ford reduced options, even stating that the public could choose whatever color car they wanted
so long as it was black. The MODEL T sold for $490 in 1914, about one quarter the cost of the
previous decade. By 1920, there were over 8 million registrations. The 1920s saw tremendous
growth in automobile ownership, with the number of registered drivers almost tripling to 23 million
by the end of the decade.
Economic Spin-offs
The growth of the AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY caused an economic revolution across the United
States. Dozens of spin-off industries blossomed. Of course the demand for vulcanized rubber
skyrocketed. Road construction created thousands of new jobs, as state and local governments
began funding highway design.
Even the federal government became involved with the FEDERAL HIGHWAY ACT OF
1921. GAS STATIONS began to dot the land, and mechanics began to earn a living fixing the
inevitable problems. Oil and steel were two well-established industries that received a serious boost
by the demand for automobiles. Travelers on the road needed shelter on long trips,
so MOTELS began to line the major long-distance routes.
Even cuisine was transformed by the automobile. The quintessential American foods
hamburgers, french fries, milk shakes, and apple pies were hallmarks of the new
roadside DINER. Drivers wanted cheap, relatively fast food so they could be on their way in a
hurry. Unfortunately, as new businesses flourished, old ones decayed. When America opted for the
automobile, the nation's rails began to be neglected. As European nations were strengthening mass
transit systems, individualistic Americans invested in the automobile infrastructure.
Effects of the Automobile
The social effects of the automobile were as great. Freedom of choice encouraged many family
vacations to places previously impossible. Urban dwellers had the opportunity to rediscover pristine
landscapes, just as rural dwellers were able to shop in towns and cities. Teenagers gained more and
more independence with driving freedom. Dating couples found a portable place to be alone as the
automobile helped to facilitate relaxed sexual attitudes.
Americans experienced TRAFFIC JAMS for the first time, as well as traffic accidents and
fatalities. Soon demands were made for licensure and safety regulation on the state level. Despite
the drawbacks, Americans loved their cars. As more and more were purchased, drivers saw their
worlds grow much larger.

46b. The Fight Against "Demon Rum"

Saloons were closed, bottles were smashed, and kegs were split wide open. When the states ratified
the EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT in 1919, the manufacture, sale, and transportation of
alcoholic beverages was outlawed. Protestant ministers and progressive politicians rejoiced and
proclaimed a holier and safer America. It was predicted that worker productivity would increase,
families would grow closer, and urban slums would disappear. Yet for all its promise, prohibition
was repealed fourteen years later, after being deemed a dismal failure.
Advantages to Prohibition
In fairness, there were advantages to prohibition. Social scientists are certain that actual
consumption of alcohol actually decreased during the decade. Estimates indicate that during the first
few years of prohibition, alcohol consumption declined to a mere third of its prewar level. Although
no polls or surveys would be accurate, health records indicate a decrease in alcoholism and alcoholrelated diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver. Family savings did increase during the decade, but it
was difficult to determine whether the increase was due to decreased alcohol consumption or a
robust economy.
Disadvantages to Prohibition
The minuses seemed to outweigh the pluses. First, federal allocation of funds to enforce prohibition
were woefully inadequate. Gaping loopholes in theVOLSTEAD ACT, the law implemented to
enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, encouraged abuse. Alcohol possession was permitted for
medical purposes, and production of small amounts was permitted for home use. The manufacturing
of NEAR BEER regular beer without the alcohol was also permitted. The problem was that
to make near beer, it was first necessary to brew the real variety, so illegal breweries could insist
their product was scheduled to have the alcohol removed. Soon a climate of lawlessness swept the
nation, as Americans everywhere began to partake in illegal drink. Every city had
countlessSPEAKEASIES, which were not-so-secret bars hidden from public view.
While the number of drinkers may have decreased, the strength of the beverages increased. People
drank as much as they could as fast as they could to avoid detection. Because alcoholic production
was illegal, there could be no regulation. Desperate individuals and heartless profiteers distilled
anything imaginable, often with disastrous results. Some alcohol sold on the black market caused
nerve damage, blindness, and even death. While women of the previous generation campaigned to
ban alcohol, the young women of the twenties consumed it with a passion.

Organized Crime
The group that profited most from the illegal market was ORGANIZED CRIME. City crime
bosses such as AL CAPONEof Chicago sold their products to willing buyers and even intimidated
unwilling customers to purchase their illicit wares. Crime involving turf wars among mobsters was
epidemic. Soon the mobs forced legitimate businessmen to buy protection, tainting those who tried
to make an honest living. Even city police took booze and cash from the likes of Al Capone. After
several years of trying to connect Capone to BOOTLEGGING, federal prosecutors were able to
convict him for income tax evasion.
The Eighteenth Amendment was different from all previous changes to the Constitution. It was the
first experiment at social engineering. Critics pointed out that it was the only amendment to date
that restricted rather than increased individual rights. Civil liberties advocates considered
prohibition an abomination. In the end, economics doomed prohibition. The costs of ineffectively
policing the nation were simply too high. At the deepest point of the Great Depression, government
officials finally ratified the TWENTY-FIRST AMENDMENT, repealing the practice once and for
all.

46c. The Invention of the Teenager

In the 19th century, the American world consisted of children and adults. Most Americans tried their
best to allow their children to enjoy their youth while they were slowly prepared for the trials and
tribulations of adulthood. Although child labor practices still existed, more and more states were
passing restrictions against such exploitation. The average number of years spent in school for
young Americans was also on the rise. Parents were waiting longer to goad their youngsters into
marriage rather than pairing them off at the tender age of sixteen or seventeen. In short, it soon
became apparent that a new stage of life the TEENAGE phase was becoming a reality in
America. American adolescents were displaying traits unknown among children and adults.
Although the word teenager did not come into use until decades later, the teenage mindset dawned
in the 1920s.
From Courtship to Dating
The single greatest factor that led to the emergence of the independent teenager was the automobile.
Teens enjoyed a freedom from parental supervision unknown to previous generations. The courtship
process rapidly evolved into dating. In earlier times, young boys and girls spent their first dates at
home. The boy would meet the girl's parents, they would have a sitting in the parlor, followed by
dinner with the entire family. Later in the evening, the couple might enjoy a few moments alone on

the front porch. After several meetings, they could be lucky enough to be granted permission for an
unchaperoned walk through town. The automobile simply shattered these old-fashioned traditions.
Dating was removed from the watchful eyes of anxious parents. Teenagers were given privacy, and
a sexual revolution swept America. Experimentation with sexual behaviors before marriage became
increasingly common. Young Americans were now able to look beyond their own small towns at an
enlarged dating pool.
Impact of the Automobile
Automobile technology led directly to the other major factor that fostered a teenage culture: the
consolidated HIGH SCHOOL. Buses could now transport students farther from their homes,
leading to the decline of the one-room schoolhouse. Furthermore, Americans were realizing the
potential of a longer education, and states were adding more years to their compulsory schooling
laws. As a result, a larger number of teenagers were thrown into a common space than ever before.
It was only natural that discussions about commonalties would occur. Before long, schools
developed their own cultural patterns, completely unlike the childhood or adult experience. School
athletics and extracurricular activities only enhanced this nascent culture. The American teenager
was born.

46d. Flappers
The battle for suffrage was finally over. After a 72-year struggle, women had won the precious right
to vote. The generations of suffragists that had fought for so long proudly entered the political
world. Carrie Chapman Catt carried the struggle into voting awareness with the founding of the
League of Women Voters. Alice Paul vowed to fight until an EQUAL RIGHTS
AMENDMENTwas added to the Constitution. MARGARET SANGER declared that female
independence could be accomplished only with properBIRTH CONTROL methods. To their
dismay, the daughters of this generation seemed uninterested in these grand causes. As the 1920s
roared along, many young women of the age wanted to have fun.
Life of the Flappers
FLAPPERS were northern, urban, single, young, middle-class women. Many held steady jobs in
the changing American economy. The clerking jobs that blossomed in the Gilded Age were more
numerous than ever. Increasing phone usage required more and more operators. The consumeroriented economy of the 1920s saw a burgeoning number of department stores. Women were
needed on the sales floor to relate to the most precious customers other women. But the flapper
was not all work and no play.

By night, flappers engaged in the active city nightlife. They frequented jazz clubs and vaudeville
shows. Speakeasies were a common destination, as the new woman of the twenties adopted the
same carefree attitude toward prohibition as her male counterpart. Ironically, more young women
consumed alcohol in the decade it was illegal than ever before. Smoking, another activity
previously reserved for men, became popular among flappers. With the political field leveled by the
Nineteenth Amendment, women sought to eliminate social double standards. Consequently, the
flapper was less hesitant to experiment sexually than previous generations. SIGMUND FREUD's
declaration that the libido was one of the most natural of human needs seemed to give the green
light to explore.
The Flapper Look
The flapper had an unmistakable look. The long locks of Victorian women lay on the floors of
beauty parlors as young women cut their hair to shoulder length. Hemlines of dresses rose
dramatically to the knee. The cosmetics industry flowered as women used make-up in large
numbers. Flappers bound their chests and wore high heels. CLARA BOW, Hollywood's "It" Girl,
captured the flapper image for the nation to see.
Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a female declaration of independence.
Experimentation with new looks, jobs, and lifestyles seemed liberating compared with the socially
silenced woman in the Victorian Age. The flappers chose activities to please themselves, not a
father or husband. But critics were quick to elucidate the shortcomings of flapperism. The political
agenda embraced by the previous generation was largely ignored until the feminist revival of the
1960s. Many wondered if flappers were expressing themselves or acting like men. Smoking,
drinking, and sexual experimentation were characteristic of the modern young woman. Short hair
and bound chests added to the effect. One thing was certain: Despite the potential political and
social gains or losses, the flappers of the 1920s sure managed to have a good time.

46e. The Harlem Renaissance

It was time for a cultural celebration. African Americans had endured centuries of slavery and the
struggle for abolition. The end of bondage had not brought the promised land many had envisioned.
Instead, WHITE SUPREMACYwas quickly, legally, and violently restored to the New South,
where ninety percent of African Americans lived. Starting in about 1890, African Americans
migrated to the North in great numbers. This GREAT MIGRATIONeventually relocated hundreds
of thousands of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. Many discovered they
had shared common experiences in their past histories and their uncertain present circumstances.
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, the recently dispossessed ignited an explosion of cultural pride.

Indeed, African American culture was reborn in the HARLEM RENAISSANCE.

The Great Migration
The Great Migration began because of a "push" and a "pull." Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow
laws led many African Americans to hope for a new life up north. Hate groups and hate crimes cast
alarm among African American families of the Deep South. The promise of owning land had not
materialized. Most blacks toiled as sharecroppers trapped in an endless cycle of debt. In the 1890s,
a boll weevil blight damaged the cotton crop throughout the region, increasing the despair. All these
factors served to push African Americans to seek better lives. The booming northern economy
forged the pull. Industrial jobs were numerous, and factory owners looked near and far for sources
of cheap labor.
Unfortunately, northerners did not welcome African Americans with open arms. While the legal
systems of the northern states were not as obstructionist toward African American rights, the
prejudice among the populace was as acrimonious. White laborers complained that African
Americans were flooding the employment market and lowering wages. Most new migrants found
themselves segregated by practice in run down urban slums. The largest of these was Harlem.
Writers, actors, artists, and musicians glorified African American traditions, and at the same time
created new ones.
Writers and Actors
The most prolific writer of the Harlem Renaissance was LANGSTON HUGHES. Hughes cast off
the influences of white poets and wrote with the rhythmic meter of blues and jazz. CLAUDE
MCKAY urged African Americans to stand up for their rights in his powerful verses. JEAN
TOOMER wrote plays and short stories, as well as poems, to capture the spirit of his times. Book
publishers soon took notice and patronized many of these talents. ZORA NEALE HURSTON was
noticed quickly with her moving novel, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD. Music met prose
in the form of musical comedy. The 1921 production of SHUFFLE ALONG is sometimes credited
with initiating the movement. Actor PAUL ROBESONelectrified audiences with his memorable
stage performances.
Musicians
No aspect of the Harlem Renaissance shaped America and the entire world as much as
jazz. JAZZ flouted many musical conventions with its syncopated rhythms and improvised
instrumental solos. Thousands of city dwellers flocked night after night to see the same

performers. IMPROVISATION meant that no two performances would ever be the same.
Harlem's COTTON CLUB boasted the talents of DUKE ELLINGTON. Singers such as BESSIE
SMITH and BILLIE HOLIDAYpopularized blues and jazz vocals. JELLY ROLL
MORTON and LOUIS ARMSTRONGdrew huge audiences as white Americans as well as
African Americans caught jazz fever.
The continuing hardships faced by African Americans in the Deep South and the urban North were
severe. It took the environment of the new American city to bring in close proximity some of the
greatest minds of the day. Harlem brought notice to great works that might otherwise have been lost
or never produced. The results were phenomenal. The artists of the Harlem Renaissance
undoubtedly transformed African American culture. But the impact on all American culture was
equally strong. For the first time, white America could not look away.

46f. A Consumer Economy

The 1920s was a decade of increasing conveniences for the middle class. New products made
household chores easier and led to more leisure time. Products previously too expensive became
affordable. New forms of financing allowed every family to spend beyond their current
means. ADVERTISING capitalized on people's hopes and fears to sell more and more goods.
Changing Housework
By the end of the 1920s,HOUSEHOLD WORK was revolutionized. A typical work week for a
housewife before the twenties involved many tedious chores. All the furniture was moved off the
carpets, which were rolled up and dragged outside to beat out the week's dirt and dust. The ice in
the icebox was replaced and the waterpan that lay beneath was repeatedly changed. The clothes
were scrubbed in a washing tub on a washboard. An iron was heated on the stove to smooth out the
wrinkles. Women typically spent the summer months canning food for the long winter. Clothes
were made from patterns, and bread was made from scratch. Very few of these practices were
necessary by the end of the decade. Vacuum cleaners displaced the carpet beater. Electric
refrigerators, washing machines, and irons saved hours of extra work. New methods of canning and
freezing made store-bought food cheap and effective enough to eliminate this chore. Off-the-rack
clothing became more and more widespread. Even large bakeries were supplying bread to the
new SUPERMARKETS. The hours saved in household work were countless.
Buying on Credit
"BUY NOW, PAY LATER" became the credo of many middle class Americans of theROARING

TWENTIES. For the single-income family, all these new conveniences were impossible to afford
at once. But retailers wanted the consumer to have it all. DEPARTMENT STORES opened up
generous LINES OF CREDIT for those who could not pay up front but could demonstrate the
ability to pay in the future. Similar INSTALLMENT PLANS were offered to buyers who could
not afford the lump sum, but could afford "twelve easy payments." Over half of the nation's
automobiles were sold on CREDIT by the end of the decade. America's consumers could indeed
have it all, if they had an iron stomach for debt. Consumer debt more than doubled between 1920
and 1930.
Advertising
Fueling consumer demand were new techniques in advertising. This was not a new business, but in
the increasingly competitive marketplace, manufacturers looked to more and more aggressive
advertising campaigns. One major trend of the decade was to use pop psychology methods to
convince Americans that the product was needed. The classic example was the campaign for
Listerine. Using a seldom heard term for bad breath halitosis Listerine convinced thousands
of Americans to buy their product. Consumers might not have known what halitosis was, but they
surely knew they did not want it.
Advertisers were no longer simply responding to demand; they were creating demand. Radio
became an important new means of communicating a business message. Testimonials from
Hollywood film stars sold products in record numbers.
The advertising business created demand for the gadgets and appliances being manufactured by
American factories.

46g. Radio Fever

COMMERCIAL RADIO in America had humble beginnings. FRANK CONRAD, an engineer
for Westinghouse, set up an amateur radio station above his garage in a Pittsburgh suburb. Since the
wireless technology was developed by GUGLIELMO MARCONI in the late 19th century,
thousands of enthusiasts across the world experimented with the new toy. After World War I,
Conrad began broadcasting a variety of programming from his "station." High school music groups
performed, phonograph records were played, and news and baseball scores were reported. Conrad
had dramatically improved theTRANSMITTER, and soon hundreds of people in the Pittsburgh
area were sending requests for air time. The bosses of Westinghouse knew that Conrad was on to
something and convinced him to make his hobby commercially profitable.

KDKA on the Air

On the night of November 2, 1920, Conrad and his Westinghouse associates announced
that WARREN G. HARDING had defeated JAMES COX to become the next President. The
message was heard as far north as New Hampshire and as far south as Louisiana. The federal
government granted the call letters KDKA to the Pittsburgh station and a new industry was born.
For nearly a year, KDKA monopolized the airwaves. But competition came fast and furious; by the
end of 1922, there were over 500 such stations across the United States. The federal government
excercised no regulation over the nascent enterprise, and the result was complete chaos. Stations
fought over call letters and frequencies, each trying to outbroadcast the closest competitor. Finally
in 1927, Congress created the FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION to restore order.
Ad Time
One of the great attractions to the radio listener was that once the cost of the original equipment was
covered, radio was free. Stations made money by selling air time to advertisers. The possibility of
reaching millions of listeners at once had advertising executives scrambling to take advantage. By
the end of the decade advertisers paid over $10,000 for an hour of premium time.
The RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICAcreated a new dimension to the venture in 1926.
By licensing telephone lines, RCA created America's first radio network and called it
the NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY. For the first time, citizens of California and
New York could listen to the same programming simultaneously. Regional differences began to
dissolve as the influence of network broadcasting ballooned. Americans listened to the same
sporting events and took up the same fads. Baseball games and boxing matches could now reach
those far away from the stadiums and arenas. A mass national entertainment culture was flowering.

46h. Fads and Heroes

The Roaring Twenties was a time of great change. As exciting as dynamic times may seem, such
turmoil generates uncertainty. Sometimes, in an effort to obscure tensions, people seek outlets of
escape. FADS sometimes entertaining, sometimes senseless swept the nation. Another coping
strategy in a time of great uncertainty is to find role models who embody tried and true values.
National heroes heretofore unknown to peacetime America began to dominate American
consciousness.
New Fads
The radio created the conditions for national fads. Without such a method of live and immediate

communication, fads could amount only to local crazes. Roaring Twenties fads ranged from the
athletic to the ludicrous. One of the most popular trends of the decade was the dance marathon.
New dance steps such as THE CHARLESTON swept the nation's dance halls, and young
Americans were eager to prove their agility. In a typical dance marathon, contestants would dance
for forty-five minutes and rest for fifteen. The longest marathons lasted thirty-six hours or more.
Beauty pageants came into vogue. The first MISS AMERICA PAGEANT was staged in Atlantic
City in 1921. One of the most bizarre fads was FLAGPOLE SITTING. The object was simple: be
the person who could sit atop the local flagpole for the longest period of time. Fifteen-yearold AVON FOREMAN of Baltimore set the amateur standard ten days, ten hours, ten minutes,
and ten seconds.
MAH-JONGG is a Chinese tile game. Colored tiles with different symbols were randomly
arranged geometrically. The object is to remove all the game pieces.CROSSWORD
PUZZLE fever swept the nation when Simon and Schuster published America's first crossword
puzzle book. The BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB drew thousands of readers into literary
circles. Two new periodicals began to grace American coffee tables. The nation's first weekly news
magazine, TIME, was founded by HENRY LUCE and BRITON HADDEN. Their punchy writing
on timely stories and eye-grabbing pictures hit the newsstands in 1923. DEWITT
WALLACE made a business out of condensing articles from other periodicals. His
publication, READER'S DIGEST, began in 1921 and boasted a half million subscriptions a decade
later.
New Heroes
No individual personified the All-American hero more than CHARLES LINDBERGH. His
courage was displayed to the nation when he flew his SPIRIT OF ST. LOUISfrom New York to
Paris, becoming the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. National and international news
was hidden in the back pages of the major newspapers while Lindbergh stole the front pages.
Confetti flew and bugles sounded in New York City when he returned successfully, and President
Coolidge hosted a gala celebration. There was more to Lindbergh's appeal than his bravery.
Throughout the ordeal, Lindbergh maintained a hometown modesty. He declined dozens of
endorsement opportunities, ever refusing to sell out. Spectator sports provided opportunities for
others to grab the limelight.TY COBB and BABE RUTH were role models for hundreds of
thousands of American boys. Fortunately, Cobb's outward racism and Ruth's penchant for drinking
and womanizing were shielded from admiring youngsters. Football hadRED GRANGE, and
boxing had JACK DEMPSEY. GERTRUDE EDERLE impressed Americans by becoming the

first woman to swim the English Channel. These heroes gave Americans, anxious about the
uncertain future and rapidly fading past, a much needed sense of stability.

47e. Domestic and International Politics

Despite all the verve of the American social scene in the 1920s, the Presidential leadership of the
decade was quite unremarkable. WARREN HARDING won his bid for the White House in 1920
with the campaign slogan "RETURN TO NORMALCY." Republicans believed Americans had
grown weary of the turmoil caused by World War I and promised tranquility. Harding found himself
mired in scandals unknown in America since the Grant Administration. Although Harding himself
was above the graft, his friends were more than willing to dip into the public treasury. Fraud and
bribery plagued the Veterans Bureau and the Justice Department. The TEAPOT DOME
SCANDAL exposed Secretary of the Interior ALBERT FALL for accepting bribes for allowing
private oil companies to lease public lands. Harding fell ill in 1923 and died shortly thereafter.
The Progressives
CALVIN COOLIDGE brought no significant change to Harding's laissez faire, pro-business style.
Progressives bemoaned the end of activist Presidents protecting the public good,
prompting FIGHTING BOB LAFOLLETTE to launch an unsuccessful run for the Presidency
under the Progressive Party banner in 1924. The only successul progressive reforms occurred on the
state and local levels. Politics became interesting in the election year of 1928. The Democrats
nominated AL SMITH, the first Catholic ever to earn the nomination of a major party. Smith raised
eyebrows with an open opposition to the Prohibition amendment. As a result, the South broke with
a long tradition of supporting Democrats and helped Herbert Hoover to continue Republican
domination of the Presidency.
The International Scene
On the international scene, two themes dominated American diplomacy. The first was to take steps
to avoid the mistakes that led to World War I. To this end, President Harding convened
theWASHINGTON NAVAL ARMS CONFERENCE in 1921. The United States, Great Britain,
and Japan agreed to a ten-year freeze on the construction of battleships and to maintain a capital
ship ratio of 5:5:3. They also agreed to uphold the OPEN DOOR POLICY and to respect each
other's holdings in the Pacific. In 1928, the United States and France led an initiative called
theKELLOGG-BRIAND PACT, in which 62 nations agreed to outlaw war. These two measures
showed the degree to which Americans hoped to forestall another disastrous war. The second
priority dealt with outstanding international debt. While practicing political isolation, the United

States was completely entangled with Europe economically. The Allies owed the United States an
enormous sum of money from World War I. Lacking the resources to reimburse America, the Allies
relied on German reparations. The German economy was so debased by the Treaty of Versailles
provisions that they relied on loans from American banks for support. In essence, American banks
were funding the repayment of the foreign debt. As Germany slipped further and further into
depression, the United States intervened again. The DAWES PLAN allowed Germany to extend
their payments on more generous terms. In the end, when the GREAT DEPRESSION struck, only
Finland was able to make good on its debt to the United States.

48. The Great Depression

"Once I built a railroad, I made it run.
I made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad, now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?"
At the end of the 1920s, the United States boasted the largest economy in the world. With the
destruction wrought by World War I, Europeans struggled while Americans flourished. Upon
succeeding to the Presidency, Herbert Hoover predicted that the United States would soon see the
day when poverty was eliminated. Then, in a moment of apparent triumph, everything fell apart.
The stock market crash of 1929 touched off a chain of events that plunged the United States into its
longest, deepest economic crisis of its history.
It is far too simplistic to view the stock market crash as the single cause of the Great Depression. A
healthy economy can recover from such a contraction. Long-term underlying causes sent the nation
into a downward spiral of despair. First, American firms earned record profits during the 1920s and
reinvested much of these funds into expansion. By 1929, companies had expanded to the bubble
point. Workers could no longer continue to fuel further expansion, so a slowdown was inevitable.
While corporate profits, skyrocketed, wages increased incrementally, which widened the
distribution of wealth.
The richest one percent of Americans owned over a third of all American assets. Such wealth
concentrated in the hands of a few limits economic growth. The wealthy tended to save money that
might have been put back into the economy if it were spread among the middle and lower classes.
Middle class Americans had already stretched their debt capacities by purchasing automobiles and
household appliances on installment plans.
There were fundamental structural weaknesses in the American economic system. Banks operated
without guarantees to their customers, creating a climate of panic when times got tough. Few

regulations were placed on banks and they lent money to those who speculated recklessly in stocks.
Agricultural prices had already been low during the 1920s, leaving farmers unable to spark any sort
of recovery. When the Depression spread across the Atlantic, Europeans bought fewer American
products, worsening the slide.
When President Hoover was inaugurated, the American economy was a house of cards. Unable to
provide the proper relief from hard times, his popularity decreased as more and more Americans
lost their jobs. His minimalist approach to government intervention made little impact . The
economy shrank with each successive year of his Presidency. As middle class Americans stood in
the same soup lines previously graced only by the nation's poorest, the entire social fabric of
America was forever altered.

48a. The Market Crashes

It was a boom time for the STOCKHOLDER.STOCK PRICES soared to record levels.
Millionaires were made overnight. Sound like the stock market of the 1990s? Try the New York
Stock Exchange on the eve of the GREAT CRASH in 1929.
Although the 1920s were marked by growth in stock values, the last four years saw an explosion in
the market. In 1925, the total value of the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE was $27 billion.
By September 1929, that figure skyrocketed to $87 billion. This means that the average stockholder
more than tripled the value of the stock portfolio he or she was lucky enough to possess.
In his LADIES' HOME JOURNAL article, "Everyone Ought to Be Rich," wealthy
financier JOHN J. RASKOB advised Americans to invest just $15 dollars a month in the market.
After twenty years, he claimed, the venture would be worth $80,000. Stock fever was sweeping the
nation, or at least those that had the means to invest.
Fueling the rapid expansion was the risky practice of buying stock on margin. AMARGIN
PURCHASE allows an investor to borrow money, typically as much as 75% of the purchase price,
to buy a greater amount of stock. Stockbrokers and even banks funded the
reckless SPECULATOR. Borrowers were often willing to pay 20% interest rates on loans, being
dead certain that the risk would be worth the rewards. The lender was so certain that the market
would rise that such transactions became commonplace, despite warnings by the Federal Reserve
Board against the practice. Clearly, there had to be a limit to how high the market could reach.
What causes stock prices to fall? Although the workings of the New York Stock Exchange can be
quite complex, one simple principle governs the price of stock. When investors believe a stock is a
good value they are willing to pay more for a share and its value rises. When traders believe the
value of a security will fall, they cannot sell it at as high of a price. If all investors try to sell their

shares at once and no one is willing to buy, the value of the market shrinks.
On October 24, 1929, "BLACK THURSDAY," this massive sell-a-thon began. By the late
afternoon, wealthy financiers like J.P. Morgan pooled their resources and began to buy stocks in the
hopes of reversing the trend.
But the bottom fell out of the market on Tuesday, October 29. A record 16 million shares were
exchanged for smaller and smaller values as the day progressed. For some stocks, no buyers could
be found at any price. By the end of the day, panic had erupted, and the next few weeks continued
the downward spiral. In a matter of ten short weeks the value of the entire market was cut in half.
Suicide and despair swept the investing classes of America.

48b. Sinking Deeper and Deeper: 1929-33

When the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, few Americans believed that a decade long
depression was underway. After all, only 4 million Americans had money invested on Wall Street.
90% of American households owned precisely zero shares of stock. President Herbert Hoover
quickly addressed the nation, professing his faith in the soundness of the American economy. But
soothing words were clearly not enough to stop the shrinking of a deeply flawed national economic
system.
The stock market crash had many short-term consequences. Banks that improvidently lent money to
futures traders to buy stock on margin found that many of those loans would go unpaid.
Consequently, a rash of BANK FAILURESswept the nation. This had a tremendous ripple effect
on the economy. If a working-class family was unfortunate enough to have their savings held in
trust by a failed bank too bad for them, all their money was lost.
As Americans saw banks close and savings disappear, less money was spent on goods and services.
Many consumers who had bought the new conveniences of the GOLDEN TWENTIES on the
installment plan were unable to make their payments. Businesses began to lay off workers to offset
new losses. Many manufacturers had overproduced and created huge inventories.
Unemployment brought even less savings and spending, and the economy slowed yet another notch.
The downward spiral continued into 1933. The $87 billion 1929 New York Stock Exchange was
worth a mere $15 billion in 1932. UNEMPLOYMENTrose from 1.5 million Americans in 1929 to
a debilitating 12 million in 1932.
Despair swept the nation. In addition to the nationwide 25% unemployment rate, many laborers
were forced to choose between wage cuts and a PINK SLIP. Most people who retained their jobs
saw their incomes shrink by a third. SOUP KITCHENS andCHARITY LINES, previously
unknown to the middle class, were unable to meet the growing demand for food.

Desperate for income, thousands performed odd jobs from taking in laundry to collecting and
selling apples on the street. College professors in New York City drove taxicabs to make ends meet.
Citizens of Washington State lit forest fires in the hopes of earning a few bucks extinguishing them.
Millions of backyard gardens were cultivated to grow vegetables.
Americans prowled landfills waiting for the next load of refuse to arrive in the hopes of finding a
few table scraps among the trash.
The strife was uneven across the land. Oklahoma was particularly hard hit, as
aDROUGHT brought dry winds, kicking up a"DUST BOWL" that forced thousands to migrate
westward. African Americans endured unemployment rates of nearly twice the white communities,
as African American workers were often the last hired and the first fired. Mexican Americans in
California were offered free one-way trips back to Mexico to decrease job competition in the state.
The Latino population of the American Southwest sharply decreased throughout the decade, as
ethnic violence increased.
As the days and weeks of the GREAT DEPRESSION turned into months and years, Americans
began to organize their discontent.

48c. The Bonus March

Many in America wondered if the nation would survive.
Although the United States had little history of massive social upheaval or coup attempts against the
government, hunger has an ominous way of stirring those passions among any population. As bread
riots and shantytowns grew in number, many began to seek alternatives to the status quo.
Demonstrations in the nation's capital increased, as Americans grew increasingly weary with
President Hoover's perceived inaction. The demonstration that drew the most national attention was
the BONUS ARMY MARCH of 1932.
In 1924, Congress rewarded VETERANS of WORLD WAR I with certificates redeemable in
1945 for $1,000 each. By 1932, many of these former servicemen had lost their jobs and fortunes in
the early days of the Depression. They asked Congress to redeem their BONUS
CERTIFICATES early.
Led by WALTER WATERS of Oregon, the so-called Bonus Expeditionary Force set out for the
nation's capital. Hitching rides, hopping trains, and hiking finally brought the Bonus Army, now
15,000 strong, into the capital in June 1932. Although President Hoover refused to address them,
the veterans did find an audience with a congressional delegation. Soon a debate began in the
Congress over whether to meet the demonstrators' demands.

As deliberation continued on Capitol Hill, the Bonus Army built a SHANTYTOWN across the
Potomac River inANACOSTIA FLATS. When the Senate rejected their demands on June 17, most
of the veterans dejectedly returned home. But several thousand remained in the capital with their
families. Many had nowhere else to go. The Bonus Army conducted itself with decorum and spent
their vigil unarmed.
However, many believed them a threat to national security. On July 28, Washington police began to
clear the demonstrators out of the capital. Two men were killed as tear gas and bayonets assailed the
Bonus Marchers. Fearing rising disorder, Hoover ordered an army regiment into the city, under the
leadership of General Douglas MacArthur. The army, complete with infantry, cavalry, and tanks,
rolled into Anacostia Flats forcing the Bonus Army to flee. MacArthur then ordered the shanty
settlements burned.
Many Americans were outraged. How could the army treat veterans of the Great War with such
disrespect? Hoover maintained that political agitators, anarchists, and communists dominated the
mob. But facts contradict his claims. Nine out of ten Bonus Marchers were indeed veterans, and
20% were disabled. Despite the fact that the Bonus Army was the largest march on Washington up
to that point in history, Hoover and MacArthur clearly overestimated the threat posed to national
security. As Hoover campaigned for reelection that summer, his actions turned an already sour
public opinion of him even further bottomward.
America sank deeper in Depression.

48d. Hoover's Last Stand

PRESIDENT HERBERT HOOVER had the distinction of stepping into the White House at the
height of one of the longest periods of growth in American history. Less than seven months after his
inauguration, the worst depression in American history began.
Undoubtedly, the fault of the Great Depression was not Hoover's. But as the years of his Presidency
passed and the country slipped deeper and deeper into its quagmire, he would receive great blame.
Urban shantytowns were dubbed HOOVERVILLES. Newspapers used by the destitute as
bundling for warmth became known as Hoover blankets. Pockets turned inside out were called
Hoover flags. Somebody had to be blamed, and many Americans blamed their President.
Running for President under the slogan "RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM" made it difficult for
Hoover to promote massive government intervention in the economy. In 1930, succumbing to
pressure from American industrialists, Hoover signed the HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF which was
designed to protect American industry from overseas competition. Passed against the advice of
nearly every prominent economist of the time, it was the largest TARIFF in American history.

The amount of protection received by industry did not offset the losses brought by a decrease in
foreign trade. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff proved to be a disaster. Believing in a balanced budget,
Hoover's 1931 economic plan cut federal spending and increased taxes, both of which inhibited
individual efforts to spur the economy.
Finally in 1932 Hoover signed legislation creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This act
allocated a half billion dollars for loans to banks, corporations, and state governments. Public works
projects such as the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE and the Los Angeles Aqueduct were built as a
result of this plan.
Hoover and the RFC stopped short of meeting one demand of the American masses federal aid to
individuals. Hoover believed that government aid would stifle initiative and create dependency
where individual effort was needed. Past governments never resorted to such schemes and the
economy managed to rebound. Clearly Hoover and his advisors failed to grasp the scope of the
Great Depression.
The stage was set for the ELECTION OF 1932. New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt won
the Democratic nomination on the fourth ballot of their national convention. Roosevelt promised "a
new deal for the American people" that included a repeal of the prohibition amendment. The
Republicans renominated Hoover, perhaps because there were few other interested GOP candidates.
Election day brought a landslide for the Democrats, as Roosevelt earned 58% of the popular vote
and 89% of the electoral vote, handing the Republicans their second-worst defeat in their history.
Bands across America struck up Roosevelt's theme song "HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE
AGAIN" as millions of Americans looked with hope toward their new leader.

48e. Social and Cultural Effects of the Depression

No nation could emerge from the cauldron of national crisis without profound social and cultural
changes. While many undesirable vices associated with hopelessness were on the rise, many family
units were also strengthened through the crisis. MASS MIGRATIONSreshaped the American
mosaic. While many businesses perished during the Great Depression, others actually emerged
stronger. And new forms of expression flourished in the culture of despair.
The Great Depression brought a rapid rise in the CRIME RATE as many unemployed workers
resorted to petty theft to put food on the table. Suicide rates rose, as did reported cases of
malnutrition. Prostitution was on the rise as desperate women sought ways to pay the bills. Health
care in general was not a priority for many Americans, as visiting the doctor was reserved for only
the direst of circumstances. Alcoholism increased with Americans seeking outlets for escape,
compounded by the repeal of prohibition in 1933. Cigar smoking became too expensive, so many

Americans switched to cheaper cigarettes.

Higher education remained out of reach for most Americans as the nation's universities saw their
student bodies shrink during the first half of the decade. High school attendance increased among
males, however. Because the prospects of a young male getting a job were so incredibly dim, many
decided to stay in school longer. However, public spending on education declined sharply, causing
many schools to open understaffed or close due to lack of funds.
Demographic trends also changed sharply. Marriages were delayed as many males waited until they
could provide for a family before proposing to a prospective spouse. Divorce rates dropped steadily
in the 1930s. Rates of abandonment increased as many husbands chose the "poor man's divorce"
option they just ran away from their marriages. Birth rates fell sharply, especially during the
lowest points of the Depression. More and more Americans learned about birth control to avoid the
added expenses of unexpected children.
Mass migrations continued throughout the 1930s. Rural New England and upstate New York lost
many citizens seeking opportunity elsewhere. The GREAT PLAINS lost population to states such
as California and Arizona. The Dust Bowl sent thousands of "OKIES" and "ARKIES" looking to
make a better life. Many of the MIGRANTS were adolescents seeking opportunity away from a
family that had younger mouths to feed. Over 600,000 people were caught hitching rides on trains
during the Great Depression. Many times offenders went unpunished.
Popular culture saw new trends as well. Despite the costs of an evening out, two out of every five
Americans saw at least one movie per week.
Classic films like FRANKENSTEIN, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, and GONE WITH THE
WIND debuted during the Great Depression. Radio flourished as those who owned a radio set
before the crash could listen for free. President Roosevelt made wide use of radio technology with
his periodic "fireside chats" to keep the public informed. Dorothea Lange depicted the sadness of
Depression farm life with her stirring photographs.
And an apt musical form the blues gained popularity during the decade.

49. The New Deal

When America hit rock bottom, Americans expected bold leadership.
Herbert Hoover was perceived as doing nothing to help when the nation was in its darkest hour.
When the votes were tallied in 1932, Americans made a strong statement for change, and sent
Franklin D. Roosevelt to the White House. Ironically, Roosevelt made few concrete proposals
during the campaign, merely promising "a new deal for the American people." The plan that

ultimately emerged during his Presidency was among the most ambitious in the history of the
United States.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELTwas born in 1882 to a wealthy New York industrialist. The fifth cousin
of THEODORE ROOSEVELT, FDR became involved in politics at a young age. A strong
supporter of WOODROW WILSONand the LEAGUE OF NATIONS, Roosevelt became the
unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Vice-President in 1920. The following year he contracted
polio, and learned that he could never walk without crutches again.
Roosevelt campaigned hard for fellow New Yorker AL SMITH's 1924 and 1928 Presidential bids
and then received Smith's support to run for governor of New York. In his two terms as governor of
New York, Roosevelt earned a reputation as a progressive reformer. He then threw his hat into the
ring of Presidential politics.
Roosevelt had no grand strategy to fix the Depression. He was a bold experimenter. FDR liked to
examine an idea and evaluate it on its philosophical merits. The details could be negotiated later. If
it worked, fine. If not, he was more than willing to start over with a new plan. He surrounded
himself with competent advisors, and delegated authority with discretion and confidence. As a
master of the radio, his confidence was contagious among the American populace.
Before his first term expired, Roosevelt signed legislation aimed at fixing banks and the stock
market. He approved plans to aid the unemployed and the nations farmers. He began housing
initiatives and ventures into public-owned electric power. New Deal programs aided industrialists
and laborers alike. His friends and enemies grew with every act he signed into law.
The NEW DEAL sparked a revolution in American public thought regarding the relationship
between the people and the federal government.

49a. A Bank Holiday

In days past, depositing money in a savings account carried a degree of RISK. If a bank made bad
investments and was forced to close, individuals who did not withdraw their money fast enough
found themselves out of luck. Sometimes a simple rumor could force a bank to close.
WhenDEPOSITORS feared a bank was unsound and began removing their funds, the news would
often spread to other customers. This often caused a panic, leading people to leave their homes and
workplaces to get their money before it was too late.
These runs on banks were widespread during the early days of the Great Depression. In 1929 alone,
659 banks closed their doors. By 1932, an additional 5102 banks went out of business. Families lost
their life savings overnight. Thirty-eight states had adopted restrictions on withdrawals in an effort
to forestall the panic. Bank failures increased in 1933, and Franklin Roosevelt deemed remedying

these failing financial institutions his first priority after being inaugurated.
Roosevelt, unlike Hoover, was quick to act. Two days after taking the oath of office, Roosevelt
declared a "BANK HOLIDAY." From March 6 to March 10, banking transactions were suspended
across the nation except for making change. During this period, Roosevelt presented the new
Congress with the EMERGENCY BANKING ACT. The law empowered the President through
theTREASURY DEPARTMENT to reopen banks that were solvent and assist those that were not.
The House allowed only forty minutes of debate before passing the law unanimously, and the
Senate soon followed with overwhelming support.
Banks were divided into four categories. Surprisingly, slightly over half the nation's banks were
deemed first category and fit to reopen. The second category of banks was permitted to allow a
percentage of its deposits to be withdrawn. The third category consisted of banks that were on the
brink of collapse. When the holiday was ended, these banks were only permitted to accept deposits.
Five percent of banks were in the final category unfit to continue business.
On the Sunday evening before the banks reopened, Roosevelt addressed the nation through one of
his signature "FIRESIDE CHATS." With honest words in soothing tones, the President assured
sixty million radio listeners that the crisis was over and the nation's banks were secure. On the first
day back in business, deposits exceeded withdrawals. By the beginning of April, Americans
confidently returned a billion dollars to the banking system. The bank crisis was over.
But the legislation was not. On June 16, 1933, Roosevelt signed the GLASS-STEAGALL
BANKING REFORM ACT. This law created the FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE
CORPORATION. Under this new system, depositors in member banks were given the security of
knowing that if their bank were to collapse, the federal government would refund their losses.
Deposits up to $2500, a figure that would rise through the years, were henceforth 100% safe. The
act also restricted banks from recklessly speculating depositors' money in the stock market. In 1934,
only 61 banks failed .
Letters poured in to the White House from grateful Americans. Workers and farmers were thrilled
that their savings were indeed now safe. Bankers breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Roosevelt
did not intend to nationalize the banking system as many European countries had already done.
Although radical in speed and scope, Roosevelt's banking plan strengthened the current system,
without fundamentally altering it. One of his advisors quipped, "Capitalism was saved in eight
days."

49b. Putting People Back to Work

Out of work Americans needed jobs. To the unemployed, many of whom had no money left in the

banks, a decent job that put food on the dinner table was a matter of survival.
Unlike Herbert Hoover, who refused to offer direct assistance to individuals, Franklin Roosevelt
knew that the nation's unemployed could last only so long. Like his banking legislation, aid would
be immediate. Roosevelt adopted a strategy known as "priming the pump." To start a dry pump, a
farmer often has to pour a little into the pump to generate a heavy flow. Likewise, Roosevelt
believed the national government could jump start a dry economy by pouring in a little federal
money.
The first major help to large numbers of jobless Americans was the FEDERAL EMERGENCY
RELIEF ACT. This law gave $3 billion to state and local governments for direct relief payments.
Under the direction of HARRY HOPKINS, FERA assisted millions of Americans in need. While
Hopkins and Roosevelt believed this was necessary, they were reticent to continue this type of aid.
Direct payments might be "narcotic," stifling the initiative of Americans seeking paying jobs.
Although FERA lasted two years, efforts were soon shifted to "work-relief" programs. These
agencies would pay individuals to perform jobs, rather than provide handouts.
The first such initiative began in March 1933. Called the CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS,
this program was aimed at over two million unemployed unmarried men between the ages of 17 and
25. CCC participants left their homes and lived in camps in the countryside. Subject to militarystyle discipline, the men built reservoirs and bridges, and cut fire lanes through forests. They
planted trees, dug ponds, and cleared lands for camping. They earned $30 dollars per month, most
of which was sent directly to their families. The CCC was extremely popular. Listless youths were
removed from the streets and given paying jobs and provided with room and shelter.
There were plenty of other opportunities for the unemployed in the New Deal. In the fall of 1933,
Roosevelt authorized theCIVIL WORKS ADMINISTRATION. Also headed by Hopkins, this
program employed 2.5 million in a month's time, and eventually grew to a multitudinous 4 million
at its peak.
Earning $15 per week, CWA workers tutored the illiterate, built parks, repaired schools, and
constructed athletic fields and swimming pools. Some were even paid to rake leaves. Hopkins put
about three thousand writers and artists on the payroll as well. There were plenty of jobs to be done,
and while many scoffed at the make-work nature of the tasks assigned, it provided vital relief
during trying times.
The largest relief program of all was the WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION. When the
CWA expired, Roosevelt appointed Hopkins to head the WPA, which employed nearly 9 million
Americans before its expiration. Americans of all skill levels were given jobs to match their talents.
Most of the resources were spent on public works programs such as roads and bridges, but WPA

projects spread to artistic projects too.

The FEDERAL THEATER PROJECT hired actors to perform plays across the land. Artists such
as BEN SHAHN beautified cities by painting larger-than-life murals. Even such noteworthy
authors as JOHN STEINBECK andRICHARD WRIGHT were hired to write regional histories.
WPA workers took traveling libraries to rural areas. Some were assigned the task of transcribing
documents from colonial history; others were assigned to assist the blind.
Critics called the WPA "We Piddle Around" or "We Poke Along," labeling it the worst waste of
taxpayer money in American history. But most every county in America received some service by
the newly employed, and although the average monthly salary was barely above subsistence level,
millions of Americans earned desperately needed cash, skills, and self-respect.

49c. The Farming Problem

Farmers faced tough times. While most Americans enjoyed relative prosperity for most of the
1920s, the Great Depression for the American farmer really began after World War I. Much of the
Roaring '20s was a continual cycle of debt for the American farmer, stemming from falling farm
prices and the need to purchase expensive machinery. When the stock market crashed in 1929
sending prices in an even more downward cycle, many American farmers wondered if their
hardscrabble lives would ever improve.
The first major New Deal initiative aimed to help farmers attempted to raise farm prices to a level
equitable to the years 1909-14. Toward this end, theAGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT
ADMINISTRATION was created. One method of driving up prices of a commodity is to create
artificial scarcity. Simply put, if farmers produced less, the prices of their crops and livestock would
increase.
The AAA identified seven BASIC FARM PRODUCTS: wheat, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice, hogs,
and milk. Farmers who produced these goods would be paid by the AAA to reduce the amount of
acres in cultivation or the amount of LIVESTOCKraised. In other words, farmers were paid to
farm less!
The press and the public immediately cried foul. To meet the demands set by the AAA, farmers
plowed under millions of acres of already planted crops. Six million young pigs were slaughtered to
meet the subsidy guidelines. In a time when many were out of work and tens of thousands starved,
this wasteful carnage was considered blasphemous and downright wrong.
But farm income did increase under the AAA. Cotton, wheat, and corn prices doubled in three
years. Despite having misgivings about receiving government subsidies, farmers overwhelmingly
approved of the program. Unfortunately, the bounty did not trickle down to the lowest economic

levels. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers did not receive government aid; the subsidy went to the
landlord. The owners often bought better machinery with the money, which further reduced the
need for farm labor. In fact, the Great Depression and the AAA brought a virtual end to the practice
of sharecropping in America.
The Supreme Court put an end to the AAA in 1936 by declaring it unconstitutional. At this time the
Roosevelt administration decided to repackage the agricultural subsidies as incentives to save the
environment. After years and years of plowing and planting, much of the soil of the Great Plains
and become depleted and weak. Great winds blew clouds of dust that fell like brown snow to cover
homes across the region as residents of the "Dust Bowl" moved west in search of better times.
The SOIL CONSERVATION AND DOMESTIC ALLOTMENT ACT paid farmers to plant
clover and alfalfa instead of wheat and corn. These crops return nutrients to the soil. At the same
time, the government achieved its goal of reducing crop acreage of the key commodities.
Another major problem faced by American farmers was mortgage foreclosure. Unable to make the
monthly payments, many farmers were losing their property to their banks. Across the CORN
BELT of the Midwest, the situation grew desperate. Farmers pooled resources to bail out needy
friends. Minnesota and North Dakota passed laws restricting FARM FORECLOSURES. Vigilante
groups formed to intimidate bill collectors. In Le Mars, Iowa, an angry mob beat a foreclosing
judge to the brink of death in April 1933.
FDR intended to stop the madness. The FARM CREDIT ACT, passed in March 1933 refinanced
many mortgages in danger of going unpaid. The FRAZIER-LEMKE FARM BANKRUPTCY
ACT allowed any farmer to buy back a lost farm at a law price over six years at only one percent
interest. Despite being declared unconstitutional, most of the provisions of Frazier-Lemke were
retained in subsequent legislation.
In 1933 only about one out of every ten American farms was powered by electricity. The RURAL
ELECTRIFICATION AUTHORITY addressed this pressing problem. The government embarked
on a mission of getting electricity to the nation's farms. Faced with government competition, private
utility companies sprang into action and by sending power lines to rural areas with a speed
previously unknown. By 1950, nine out of every ten farms enjoyed the benefits of electric power.

49d. Social Security

PENSIONS for the retired or the notion of Social Security was not always the domain of the
federal government. Individuals were expected to save a little of each paycheck for the day they
would at last retire. Those who were aggressive enough to negotiate a pension plan with an
employer were few indeed. The majority of working Americans, however, lived check to check,

with little or nothing extra to be saved for the future. Many became a drag on the rest of the family
upon retirement. The SOCIAL SECURITY ACT OF 1935 aimed to improve this predicament.
Many nations in Europe had already experimented with pension plans. Britain and Germany had
found exceptional success. The American plan was a bit different in its design. SOCIAL
SECURITY was described as a "contract between generations." The current generation of workers
would pay into a fund while the retirees would take in a monthly stipend. Upon reaching the age of
65, individuals would start receiving payments based upon the amount contributed over the years.
Employees would have one percent of their incomes automatically deducted from their paychecks, a
rate that was originally envisioned to reach 3%. Employers would also contribute for their
employees. The plan was mandatory except for individuals in exempted professions. Roosevelt
knew that this reform would be permanent. He guessed that once workers had paid into a system for
decades, they would expect to receive their checks. Woe to the politician who tried to end the
system once it was in place.
A committee of staffers led by SECRETARY OF LABOR FRANCES PERKINS, the first female
ever to hold a Cabinet position, penned the Social Security Act. In addition to providing old- age
pensions, the legislation created a safety net for other Americans in distress. Unemployment
insurance was part of the plan, to be funded by employers. The federal government also offered to
match state funds for the blind and for job training for the physically disabled. Unmarried women
with dependent children also received funds under the Social Security Act.
Roosevelt and his advisers knew that the Social Security Act was not perfect. Like other
experiments, he hoped the law would set the groundwork for a system that could be refined over
time. Social Security differed from European plans in that it made no effort to provide universal
health insurance. The pensions that retirees received were extremely modest below poverty level
standards in most cases. Still, Roosevelt knew the plan was revolutionary. For the first time, the
federal government accepted permanent responsibility for assisting people in need. It paved the way
for future legislation that would redefine the relationship between the American people and their
government.

49e. FDR's Alphabet Soup

The New Deal was clearly the most ambitious legislative program ever attempted by Congress and
an American President.
Progressive politicians saw their wildest dreams come alive. The Great Depression created an
environment where the federal government accepted responsibility for curing a wide array of
society's ills previously left to individuals, states, and local governments. This amount of regulation

and involvement requires a vast upgrading of the government bureaucracy. An armada of

government bureaus and regulatory agencies was erected to service the programs of the New Deal.
Collectively, observers called them the "ALPHABET AGENCIES."
While the CCC, CWA, and WPA were established to provide relief for the unemployed, the New
Deal also provided a program intended to boost both industries and working Americans. The
National Industrial Recovery Act contained legislation designed to spark business growth and to
improve labor conditions. The National Recovery Administration attempted to create a managed
economy by relieving businesses of antitrust laws to eliminate "wasteful competition." The NRA,
like the AAA for farmers, attempted to create artificial scarcity with commodities. The hope was
that higher prices would yield higher profits and higher wages leading to an economic recovery.
To avoid charges of SOCIALISM, the NRA allowed each industry to draw up a code setting
production quotas, limiting hours of operation, or restricting construction of new factories. Once the
President approved each code, pressure was put on each business to comply.
APROPAGANDA campaign reminiscent of World War I ensued. Firms that participated in the
NRA displayed blue eagles reminding consumers of a company's apparent patriotism.
To enlist the support of LABOR UNIONS, the NRA outlawed child labor, set maximum hours, and
required a MINIMUM WAGE. The greatest victory for labor unions was the guarantee of the right
to collective bargaining, which led to a dramatic upsurge in union membership. Unfortunately, the
NRA did little to improve the economy. The increase in prices actually caused a slight slowdown in
the recovery. Workers complained that participating industries found loopholes to violate minimum
wage and child labor obligations. When the Supreme Court finally declared the NRA
unconstitutional in 1936, many had taken to calling it the "National Run Around."
The government blazed other new trails by creating the TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITYin
May 1933. The geography of the Tennessee River Valley had long been a problem for its residents.
Centuries of resource exploitation contributed to soil erosion and massive, unpredictable floods that
left parts of seven states impoverished and underutilized.
Funds were authorized to construct 20 new dams and to teach residents better soil management. The
hydroelectric power generated by the TVA was sold to the public at low prices, prompting
complaints from private power companies that the government was presenting unfair competition.
Soon FLOOD CONTROL ceased to be a problem and FDR considered other regional projects.
There seemed to be no end to the alphabet soup. The SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION (SEC) was created to serve as a watchdog on the stock market. The FEDERAL
HOUSING AUTHORITY (FHA) provided low interest loans for new home construction.

The HOME OWNERS LOAN CORPORATION (HOLC) allowed homeowners to refinance

mortgages to prevent foreclosure or to make home improvements. The UNITED STATES
HOUSING AUTHORITY (USHA) initiated the idea of government-owned low-income housing
projects. The PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION (PWA) created thousands of jobs by
authorizing the building of roads, bridges, and dams. The NATIONAL YOUTH
ADMINISTRATION (NYA) provided college students with work-study jobs. The NATIONAL
LABOR RELATIONS BOARD(NLRB) was designed to protect the right of collective bargaining
and to serve as a liaison between deadlock industrial and labor organizations.
Critics bemoaned the huge costs and rising national debt and spoon-feeding Americans. Regardless,
many of the programs found in FDR's "alphabet soup" exist to this day.

49f. Roosevelt's Critics

FDR was a President, not a king. His goals were ambitious and extensive, and while he had many
supporters, his enemies were legion. Liberals and radicals attacked from the left for not providing
enough relief and for maintaining the fundamental aspects of capitalism. Conservatives claimed his
policies were socialism in disguise, and that an interfering activist government was destroying a
proud history of self-reliance.
Despite big numbers at the ballot booth, Roosevelt needed to temper his objectives with the spirit of
compromise and hope that his plans were popular enough to weather criticism. Friends and enemies
alike had to admit that FDR was a political genius.
One major threat to FDR came from FATHER CHARLES E. COUGHLIN, a radio priest from
Detroit. Originally a supporter of the New Deal, Coughlin turned against Roosevelt when he
refused to nationalize the banking system and provide for the free coinage of silver. As the decade
progressed, Coughlin turned openly anti-Semitic, blaming the Great Depression on an international
conspiracy of Jewish bankers. Coughlin formed the NATIONAL UNION FOR SOCIAL
JUSTICE and reached a weekly audience of 40 million radio listeners.
Another reformer who felt the New Deal had not gone far enough was FRANCIS TOWNSEND, a
doctor from Long Beach, California. Townsend proposed the OLD AGE REVOLVING
PENSION. This plan called for every American over the age of sixty to retire to open up jobs for
the younger unemployed. The retirees would receive a monthly check for $200, a considerable
income during the Depression. There was one catch. The recipients had to agree to spend the entire
sum within a month. Townsend argued that this plan would ignite the economy, as well as provide
for a proper pension for those who had worked so hard for so long.
The person considered the greatest threat to Roosevelt politically was HUEY "THE KINGFISH"

LONG of Louisiana. Long was a rollicking country lawyer who became governor of Louisiana in
1928. As governor, Long used strong-arm tactics to intimidate the legislature into providing roads
and bridges to the poorest parts of the state. He emerged onto the national scene with his election to
the United States Senate in 1930. In 1934, he started a movement called "SHARE OUR
WEALTH." With the motto "EVERY MAN A KING," Long proposed a 100% tax on personal
fortunes exceeding a million dollars. The elderly would receive pensions. The poorest Americans
were promised an estate worth no less than $5000, with a $2500 yearly minimum income
guaranteed. Democrats worried that a Long bid for the Presidency might steal votes from FDR in
1936, but an assassin's bullet ended the Kingfish's life in 1935.
Despite his reelection landslide, Roosevelt's mainstream opponents gained steam in the latter part of
the decade. Frustrated by a conservative Supreme Court overturning New Deal initiatives, FDR
hatched a "COURT PACKING" scheme. He proposed that when a federal judge reached the age
of seventy and failed to retire, the President could add an additional justice to the bench. This thinly
veiled scheme would immediately enable him to appoint six justices to the high court.
Conservative Democrats and Republicans charged FDR with abuse of power and failed to support
the plan. During the 1938 Congressional elections, Roosevelt campaigned vigorously against antiNew deal Democrats. In nearly every case, the conservatives won. This COALITION OF
SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS dominated the Congress until the 1960s and
effectively ended the reform spirit of the New Deal.

49g. An Evaluation of the New Deal

How effective was the New Deal at addressing the problems of the Great Depression?
No evaluation of the New Deal is complete without an analysis of Roosevelt himself. As a leader,
his skills were unparalleled. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and FDR responded
with a bold program of experimentation that arguably saved the capitalist system and perhaps the
American democracy. As sweeping as his objectives were, they still fundamentally preserved the
free-market economy. There was no nationalization of industry, and the social safety net created by
Social Security paled by European standards.
Observers noted that his plan went far enough to silence the "lunatic fringe," but not far enough to
jeopardize capitalism or democracy. FDR's confidence was contagious as millions turned to him for
guidance during their darkest hours. His mastery of the radio paved the way for the media-driven
20th-century Presidency. His critics charged that he abused his power and set the trend for an
imperial Presidency that would ultimately endanger the office in future decades.
The New Deal itself created millions of jobs and sponsored public works projects that reached most

every county in the nation. Federal protection of bank deposits ended the dangerous trend of bank
runs. Abuse of the stock market was more clearly defined and monitored to prevent collapses in the
future. The Social Security system was modified and expanded to remain one of the most popular
government programs for the remainder of the century. For the first time in peacetime history the
federal government assumed responsibility for managing the economy. The legacy of social welfare
programs for the destitute and underprivileged would ring through the remainder of the 1900s.
Laborers benefited from protections as witnessed by the emergence of a new powerful union,
the CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS. African Americans and women
received limited advances by the legislative programs, but FDR was not fully committed to either
civil or women's rights. All over Europe, fascist governments were on the rise, but Roosevelt
steered America along a safe path when economic spirits were at an all-time low.
However comprehensive the New Deal seemed, it failed to achieve its main goal: ending the
Depression. In 1939, the unemployment rate was still 19 percent, and not until 1943 did it reach its
pre-Depression levels. The massive spending brought by the American entry to the Second World
War ultimately cured the nation's economic woes.
Conservatives bemoaned a bloated bureaucracy that was nearly a million workers strong, up from
just over 600,000 in 1932. They complained that Roosevelt more than doubled the national debt in
two short terms, a good deal of which had been lost through waste. Liberals pointed out that the gap
between rich and poor was barely dented by the end of the decade. Regardless of its shortcomings,
Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal helped America muddle through the dark times strong enough
to tackle the even greater task that lay ahead.

50. The Road to Pearl Harbor

Storm clouds were darkening around the world. While Americans struggled to make ends meet
during the Great Depression, fascism swept Italy and Germany. Elsewhere, militarists consolidated
their hold on the Japanese government. Soon fears of fascist domination were realized as nations
fell, hapless victims to new aggressive leaders. Remembering the scars caused by WORLD WAR
I, Americans hoped against hope to remain aloof from the increasingly dangerous world.
Japan struck first, plunging into Chinese Manchuria. Next Italy struck at Ethiopia. Germany, under
the leadership of Adolf Hitler, was the greatest fear. The industrial potential of Germany was
awesome, and the power of the German army to inflict great damage was all too fresh in the minds
of Europeans and Americans alike. Like dominoes, the nations surrounding Germany began to fall.
First Austria was annexed, then Czechoslovakia. As Hitler set his sights on Poland, the world
braced itself for another great conflict.

Meanwhile, Americans clung to their time-tested philosophy of isolationism. A series of Neutrality

Acts sought to avoid the entrapments that plunged the nation into World War I. Poll after poll
showed an unwillingness to become diplomatically involved in international disputes. Isolationist
clubs spread across the land.
Yet when Great Britain became the last bastion of freedom standing against a Nazi-controlled
Europe, Americans reluctantly began to act. Led by President Roosevelt, the United States used its
industrial might to become the arsenal of democracy for the Allied war effort.
In the end, it was Japan who provoked the United States into war. The United States was the only
nation standing against Japanese domination of the entirePACIFIC RIM. When economic
sanctions against Japan produced a diplomatic stalemate, Japan launched a ruthless surprise attack
against American naval bases at Pearl Harbor. Faced with an assault on its own forces, the United
States finally entered the Second World War.

50c. War Breaks Out

On July 7, 1937, a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops broke out at the MARCO POLO
BRIDGE near Beijing. The cause of the fracas is unknown, but the Japanese government used it as
a pretext to launch a full-scale invasion of China. Hoping to deliver a quick knockout punch, the
Japanese furiously bombed Chinese cities and advanced with their better-equipped army. Despite
enduring heavy losses, the Chinese regrouped in the interior of their vast land and mounted an
entrenched resistance.
Reports of the "RAPE OF NANKING," the sacking of the Chinese capital reached the American
mainland in the summer of 1937. The brutalities prompted President Roosevelt to abandon
cooperation with Congressional isolationists to pursue a more forceful approach against the
Japanese.
In October 1937, he delivered his famousQUARANTINE SPEECH in Chicago. For the first time,
Roosevelt advocated collective action to stop the epidemic aggression. But his hopes of igniting
American sensibilities failed. Even when a Japanese plane bombed the USS PANAY on December
12, there was no cry for a response. The Panayhad been stationed in China on the Yangtze River.
Japan apologized and paid an indemnity and the incident was soon forgotten, despite the loss of
three American lives. Compared to the public response to the sinking of the MAINE in 1898, the
American people hardly mustered a whisper.
Emboldened by western inaction, Hitler's troops marched into Austria in 1938 and annexed the
country. Then Hitler set his eyes upon the SUDETENLAND, a region in western Czechoslovakia
inhabited by 3.5 million Germans. In September the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy

met in Munich attempting to diffuse a precarious situation.

Britain and France recognized Hitler's claim to the Sudetenland and Mussolini's conquest of
Ethiopia in exchange for the promise of no future aggressions.PRIME MINISTER NEVILLE
CHAMBERLAIN returned to Great Britain triumphantly proclaiming that he had achieved "peace
in our time." It would be one of the most mocked statements of the 20th century.
European appeasement failed six months later, as Hitler mockingly marched his troops into the rest
of Czechoslovakia.
In May 1939, Roosevelt urged Congressional leaders to repeal the arms embargo of the earlier
Neutrality Acts. Senators from both parties refused the request. Another bombshell crossed the
Atlantic on August 24. Adolf Hitler and JOSEF STALIN agreed to put their mutual hatred aside.
Germany and the Soviet Union signed a ten-year NONAGGRESSION PACT. Hitler was now free
to seize the territory Germany had lost to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. On
September 1, 1939, Nazi troops crossed into Poland from the west.
Finally, on September 3, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. World War II had
begun.

50d. The Arsenal of Democracy

War had finally come.
Two days after Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany, President Roosevelt issued a
proclamation of neutrality and ordered the suspension of munitions sales to all belligerents. But
Roosevelt stopped short of asking that Americans remain emotionally neutral in the European
conflict. FDR knew that the only chance Britain and France would have to defeat the German Reich
was to have ample supplies of weaponry. He immediately began to press Congress to repeal
the ARMS EMBARGO.
The request was simple. Allow trade of MUNITIONS with belligerent nations on a "cash and
carry" basis. There would be no danger to American shipping if the Allies had to carry the supplies
on their own ships. Isolationists were concerned, but support for the President's initiative was strong
enough. TheNEUTRALITY ACT OF 1939 ended the arms embargo and permitted the sales of
munitions on a "cash and carry" basis.
Meanwhile, the European war seemed to be more talk than action. Throughout the fall and winter of
1939-40, Stalin moved Soviet troops into sovereign Eastern European states including eastern
Poland, but Hitler's WEHRMACHT was silent. Europeans nervously joked of a "phony war" as
the winter drew to a close.

Suddenly on April 9, 1940, the German BLITZKRIEG moved rapidly into Denmark and Norway.
As the weeks passed, the German war machine steadily advanced through the Netherlands,
Belgium, Luxembourg and into northern France. Hitler arrived in France to sign the terms of French
surrender. The hapless French were forced to submit to the Germans in the very same railroad car
the Germans surrendered twenty-two years previously at the end of World War I. Britain was the
only democracy in Europe in open opposition to Germany.
New PRIME MINISTER WINSTON CHURCHILL desperately pleaded with Roosevelt for
assistance. In the summer of 1940, Hitler launched OPERATION SEA LION, an all-out assault on
the British mainland. The ROYAL AIR FORCE of Britain battled the German Luftwaffe in the
greatest air battle in history as Americans watched nervously.
Slowly but surely American public opinion shifted toward helping the British. The COMMITTEE
TO DEFEND AMERICA BY AIDING THE ALLIES launched a propaganda campaign to
mobilize the American public. Groups like the AMERICA FIRST COMMITTEE, which
contained prominent Americans such as CHARLES LINDBERGH, insisted a hemispheric defense
was the wisest choice for the United States to follow. A great debate was on.
Miraculously Britain held its own with Germany while America deliberated. In September 1940, the
United States agreed to the transfer of 50 old destroyers to the British fleet in exchange for naval
bases in the Western Hemisphere. By directly aiding the ALLIES, America could no longer hide
behind the shield of neutrality. At Roosevelt's urging, Congress authorized the construction of new
planes to defend America's coast. Congress also enacted the first peacetime draft in the nation's
history in September 1940. The interventionist argument seemed to be prevailing, but debate
continued into 1941.
The DESTROYER DEAL was helpful, but Britain simply did not have the financial reserves to
pay for all the weapons they needed. Roosevelt feared another postwar debt crisis so he hatched a
new plan called Lend-Lease. Roosevelt publicly mused that if a neighbor's house is on fire, nobody
sells him a hose to put it out. Common sense dictated that the hose is lent to the neighbor and
returned when the fire is extinguished. The United States could simply lend Great Britain the
materials it would need to fight the war. When the war was over, they would be returned. The
Congress hotly argued over the proposal.SENATOR ROBERT TAFT retorted: "Lending war
equipment is a good deal like lending chewing gum. You don't want it back."
In March 1941 after a great deal of controversy, Congress approved the LEND-LEASE ACT,
which eventually appropriated $50 billion of aid to the Allies. Meanwhile Roosevelt began an
unprecedented third term.

Neutrality was no longer a faade behind which America could hide. Hitler saw Lend-Lease as
tantamount to a war declaration and ordered attacks on American ships.
Roosevelt urged Congress and Americans to take action. In his famous FOUR FREEDOM
SPEECH he enumerates what the rights of any citizen of the world are and why it is important for
America to lead the way:
The first is freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of
every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from
want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to
every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants everywhere in the world. The fourth is
freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments
to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act
of physical aggression against any neighbor anywhere in the world.
Congress still vacillated. Roosevelt met with Churchill in the summer of 1941 and agreed to
the ATLANTIC CHARTER, a statement that outlined Anglo-American war aims. At this point,
the United States was willing to commit almost everything to the Allied war machine money,
resources, and diplomacy.
The only thing missing was American troops.

50e. Pearl Harbor

While the international picture in Europe was growing increasingly dimmer for the United States,
relations with Japan were souring as well. Japan's aggression was literally being fueled by the
United States. The Japanese military machine relied heavily on imports of American steel and oil to
prosecute its assault on China and French Indochina.
Placing a strict embargo on Japan would have seemed obvious, but Roosevelt feared that Japan
would strike at the resource-laden Dutch East Indies to make up the difference. Beginning in late1940, the United States grew less patient with Japanese atrocities and began to restrict trade with
the Empire.
Just prior to Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, Japan signed a nonaggression pact with Stalin.
This removed the threat of a Russian attack on Japan's new holdings. With Europe busy fighting
Hitler, the United States remained the only obstacle to the establishment of a huge Japanese empire
spanning East Asia.
By the end of 1940, the United States had ended shipments of scrap metal, steel, and iron ore to
Japan. Simultaneously, the United States began to send military hardware to CHIANG KAI-

SHEK, the nominal leader of the Chinese forces resisting Japanese takeover.
Negotiations between Japan and the U.S. began in early 1941, but there was little movement. By
midsummer, FDR made the fateful step of freezing all Japanese assets in the United States and
ending shipments of oil to the island nation. Negotiations went nowhere. The United States was as
unwilling to accept Japanese expansion and Japan was unwilling to end its conquests.
American diplomats did, however, have a hidden advantage. With the help of "MAGIC," a
decoding device, the United States was able to decipher Japan's radio transmissions. Leaders in
Washington knew that the deadline for diplomacy set by Japan's high command was November 25.
When that date came and passed, American officials were poised for a strike. The prevailing view
was that the attack would focus on British Malaya or the Dutch East Indies to replenish dwindling
fuel supplies.
Unbeknown to the United States, a Japanese fleet of aircraft carriers stealthily steamed toward
Hawaii.
The goals for the Japanese attack were simple. Japan did not hope to conquer the United States or
even to force the abandonment of Hawaii with the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States was
too much of a threat to their newly acquired territories. With holdings in the Philippines, Guam,
American Samoa, and other small islands, Japan was vulnerable to an American naval attack. A
swift first strike against the bulk of the UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET would seriously
cripple the American ability to respond. The hopes were that Japan could capture
the PHILIPPINES and American island holdings before the American navy could recuperate and
retaliate. An impenetrable fortress would then stretch across the entire Pacific Rim. The United
States, distracted by European events, would be forced to recognize the new order in East Asia.
All these assumptions were wrong. As the bombs rained on PEARL HARBOR on the infamous
morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, almost 3,000 Americans were killed. Six battleships were
destroyed or rendered unseaworthy, and most of the ground planes were ravaged as well. Americans
reacted with surprise and anger.
Most American newspaper headlines had been focusing on European events, so the Japanese attack
was a true blindside. When President Roosevelt addressed the Congress the next day and asked for
a declaration of war, there was only one dissenting vote in either house of Congress. Despite two
decades of regret over World War I and ostrichlike isolationism, the American people plunged
headfirst into a destructive conflict.

51. America in the Second World War

For the second time in the 20th century, the United States became involved in a devastating world
conflict.
The mobilization effort of the government in WORLD WAR IIeclipsed even that of World War I.
With major operations in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, American industries literally fueled
two wars simultaneously. The social and economic consequences were profound. The GREAT
MIGRATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS from the rural South to the industrial North was
accelerated. New opportunities opened for women. Americans finally enjoyed a standard of living
higher than the pre-Depression years.
But the war effort also had a darker side. Civil liberties were compromised, particularly for the
110,000 Japanese Americans who were forcibly uprooted from their West Coast homes to be sent to
remote relocation camps.
In both Europe and Asia, the Axis powers had established a firm foothold prior to American entry
into the conflict. Slowly, but surely the Allies closed the ring on Nazi Germany after turning points
at El Alamein andSTALINGRAD. Once Italy quit the Axis and the Allies landed successfully
at NORMANDY, it was only a matter of time before the Nazi machine was smashed. Similar
failures marked the early war in the Pacific, as the Japanese captured the Philippines. But once
Japanese offensive capabilities were damaged at Midway, the United States"ISLAND
HOPPED" its way to the Japanese mainland.
New technologies emerged during the war as well. RADAR helped the British locate incoming
German planes, and SONAR madeSUBMARINE detection much more feasible.GERMAN V-1
AND V-2 ROCKETS ushered in a new age of long-range warfare. But no weapon compared in
destructive capacity to the atomic bomb, developed after a massive, secret research project
spearheaded by the United States government.
World War II was fought over differences left unresolved after World War I. Over 400,000
Americans perished in the four years of involvement, an American death rate second only to the
Civil War. Twelve million victims perished from Nazi atrocities in theHOLOCAUST. The deaths
of twenty million Russians created a defensive Soviet mindset that spilled into the postwar era.
After all the blood and sacrifice, the Axis powers were defeated, but the GRAND ALLIANCE that
emerged victorious did not last long. Soon the world was involved in a 45-year struggle that
claimed millions of additional lives the Cold War.

51a. Wartime Strategy

Three days after Congress declared war on Japan, Germany responded by declaring war on the
United States.

Japan had an advance pledge of support from Hitler in the event of war with the United States. Now
President Roosevelt faced a two-ocean war a true world war. Despite widespread cries for
revenge against Japan, the first major decision made by the President was to concentrate on
Germany first. The American Pacific Fleet would do its best to contain Japanese expansion, while
emphasis was placed on confronting Hitler's troops.
Roosevelt believed that a Nazi-dominated Europe would be far more impregnable that any defenses
Japan could build in the Pacific. American scientists worried that, with enough time, German
scientists might develop weapons of mass destruction. Once Hitler was defeated, the combined
Allied forces would concentrate on smashing Japanese ambitions.
American military leaders favored a far more aggressive approach to attacking Germany than their
British counterparts. A cross-channel invasion of France from Britain would strike at the heart of
Nazi strength, but the British command was dubious. Winston Churchill feared that should such an
operation fail, the loss of human life, military resources, and British morale could be fatal.
Instead, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to implement an immediate blockade of supplies to
Germany and to begin bombing German cities and munitions centers. The army would attack
Hitler's troops at their weakest points first and slowly advance toward German soil. The plan was
known as "CLOSING THE RING." In December 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to attack
German holdings in North Africa first.
That maneuver was finally executed in October 1942. Nazi troops were occupying much of the
African Mediterranean coast, which had been controlled by France prior to the war. Led
by BRITISH GENERAL BERNARD MONTGOMERY, British forces struck at German and
Italian troops commanded by the "DESERT FOX," German FIELD MARSHAL ERWIN
ROMMEL, at EL ALAMEIN in Egypt. As the British forced a German retreat, Anglo-American
forces landed on the west coast of Africa on November 8 to stage a simultaneous assault. Rommel
fought gamely, but numbers and positioning soon forced a German surrender. The Allies had
achieved their first important joint victory.
Simultaneously, the Soviets turned the tide against Nazi advances into the Soviet Union by
defeating the German forces at Stalingrad. When springtime came in 1943, the Allies had indeed
begun to close the ring.
Once Northern Africa was secured, the Allies took the next step toward Germany by launching
invasions of Sicily and Italy. American and British leaders believed that when the Italian people
faced occupation of their homeland, they would rise up and overthrow Mussolini. Fearing that the
Allies would have a free road up to the border of Austria, German forces began to entrench

themselves in Italy.
Despite German presence in Italy, Mussolini was arrested and the Italians surrendered to the Allies
on September 3. There was no free road to Austria, however. German forces defended the peninsula
ferociously, and even when the European war ended in May 1945, the Allies had failed to capture
much of Italy.

51b. The American Homefront

America was the largest military power in the world in theory.
The large population, generous natural resources, advanced infrastructure, and solid capital base
were all just potential. Centralization and mobilization were necessary to jump-start this unwieldy
machine. Within a week of Pearl Harbor, Congress passed the WAR POWERS ACT, granting wide
authority to the President to conduct the war effort. Throughout the war hundreds more alphabet
agencies were created to manage the American homefront.
First the United States needed to enlarge its armed forces. Because of the peacetime draft,
the UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES boasted over 1.5 million members. By the end of the
war, that number rose to 12 million. A more expansive draft and a vigorous recruitment campaign
produced these results. Prodded by ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, FDR created women's auxiliary
forces for the army (WACS), navy (WAVES), air force (WASPS), and Coast Guard (SPARS). The
colossal ranks of the armed services created a huge labor shortage.
Toward this end a "WORK OR FIGHT" propaganda campaign was waged. "ROSIE THE
RIVETER" posters beckoned housewives to leave the home and enter the nation's factories. About
6.5 million females entered the workforce during the war years, many for the first time. African
Americans continued the Great Migration northward, filling vacated factory jobs. Mexican
Americans were courted to cross the border to assist with the harvest season in
the BRACEROGUEST-WORKER PROGRAM. Thousands of retirees went back on the job, and
more and more teenagers pitched in to fill the demand for new labor.
The United States government spent over twice as much money fighting World War II as it had
spent on all previous programs since its creation. Tax rates were raised to generate revenue and
control inflation. Some people paid 90% of what they earned toward taxes!
Still, more money was needed so the government again launched Liberty andVICTORY LOAN
DRIVES like those that helped finance the First World War. In addition, the size of the federal
government more than tripled from about a million workers in 1940 to almost 3.5 million in 1945.
The United States managed to raise enough food and raw materials in the First World War through

voluntary measures. This time, federal officials agreed that only through RATIONING could the
demands be met. Americans were issued books of stamps for key items such as gasoline, sugar,
meat, butter, canned foods, fuel oil, shoes, and rubber. No purchase of these commodities was legal
without a stamp. VICTORY SPEED LIMITS attempted to conserve fuel by requiring Americans
to drive more slowly. Rotating blackouts conserved fuel to be shipped overseas. Groups such as the
Boy Scouts led scrap metal drives. Consumer goods like automobiles and refrigerators simply were
not produced. Women drew lines down the backs of their legs to simulate nylon stockings when
there were such shortages. Backyard gardens produced about 8 million tons of food.
Additionally, the Office of War Information sponsored posters and rallies to appeal to patriotic
heartstrings. Songs like BING CROSBY's "JUNK WILL WIN THE WAR" and"GOODBYE
MAMA, I'M OFF TO YOKOHAMA"were on the lips of many Americans. Propaganda movies
shot by famed directors such as FRANK CAPRA inspired millions.
The accomplishments of the American public were nothing short of miraculous. The navy had
fewer than 5,000 vessels prior to the bombing at Pearl Harbor. By 1945, they had over 90,000. In
addition, over 80,000 tanks and nearly 300,000 aircraft were produced during the war years.
Millions of machine guns and rifles and billions of ammunition cartridges rolled off American
production lines. New industries like synthetic rubber flourished, and old ones were rejuvenated.
At tremendous cost to the American taxpayer, the American people vanquished two evils: the AXIS
POWERS and the Great Depression.

51c. D-Day and the German Surrender

The time had finally come. British and American troops had liberated North Africa and pressed on
into Italy. Soviet troops had turned the tide at Stalingrad and were slowly reclaiming their territory.
The ENGLISH CHANNEL was virtually free of Nazi submarines, and American and British
planes were bombing German industrial centers around the clock.
Still, Hitler refused to surrender and hid behind his ATLANTIC WALL. Since the outbreak of war,
Stalin was demanding an all-out effort to liberate France from German occupation. An invasion
force greater than any in the history of the world was slowly amassing in southern Britain toward
that end.
A great game of espionage soon unfolded. If the Germans could discover when and where the attack
would occur, they could simply concentrate all their efforts in one area, and the operation would be
doomed to failure. The Allies staged phony exercises meant to confuse German intelligence. Twodimensional dummy tanks were arranged to distract air surveillance. There was considerable reason
to believe the attack would come at CALAIS, where the English Channel is narrowest. In

actuality, OPERATION OVERLORD was aiming for the NORMANDY PENINSULA on the
morning of June 4, 1944.
Foul weather postponed the attack for two days. Just after midnight on June 6, three airborne
divisions parachuted behind enemy lines to disrupt paths of communications. As the German
lookout sentries scanned the English Channel at daybreak, they saw the largest armada ever
assembled in history heading toward the French shore. There were five points of attack. GOLD
AND SWORD BEACHES were taken by the British, and JUNO BEACH was captured by
Canadian forces. The American task was to capture UTAH AND OMAHA BEACHES. The troops
at Omaha Beach met fierce resistance and suffered heavy casualties. Still, by nightfall a beachhead
had been established. Eventually, German troops retreated.
After D-DAY, the days of the German resistance were numbered. Paris was liberated in August
1944 as the Allies pushed slowly eastward. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was moving into German
territory as well. Hitler, at the BATTLE OF THE BULGE, launched a final unsuccessful
counteroffensive in December 1944. Soon the Americans, British, and Free French found
themselves racing the Soviets to Berlin.
Along the way they encountered the depths of Nazi horrors when they discovered concentration
camps. American soldiers saw humans that looked more like skeletons, gas chambers,
crematoriums, and countless victims. Although American government officials were aware of
atrocities against Jews, the sheer horror of the Holocaust of 12 million Jews, homosexuals, and
anyone else Hitler had deemed deviant was unknown to its fullest extent.
When the Allies entered Berlin, they discovered that the mastermind of all the destruction Adolf
Hitler had already died by his own hand. With little left to sustain any sort of resistance, the
Germans surrendered on May 8, 1945, hereafter known as V-E (VICTORY IN EUROPE) DAY.

51d. War in the Pacific

Defeating Germany was only part of America's mission.
Pearl Harbor was only the beginning of Japanese assaults on American holdings in the Pacific. Two
days after attacking Pearl Harbor, they seized Guam, and two weeks after that they captured WAKE
ISLAND. Before 1941 came to a close, the Philippines came under attack.
Led by GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, the Americans were confident they could hold
the islands. A fierce Japanese strike proved otherwise. After retreating to strongholds at BATAAN
AND CORREGIDOR, the United States had no choice but to surrender the Philippines. Before
being summoned away by President Roosevelt, General MacArthur promised: "I SHALL
RETURN."

Before he returned however, the Japanese inflicted the BATAAN DEATH MARCH, a brutal 85mile forced on American and Filipino POWs. 16,000 souls perished along the way.
In June 1942, Japan hoped to capture Midway Island, an American held base about 1000 miles from
Hawaii. Midway could have been used as a staging point for future attacks on Pearl Harbor. The
United States was still benefiting from being able to decipher Japanese radio messages. American
naval commanders led by CHESTER NIMITZ therefore knew the assault was coming.
Airplane combat decided the BATTLE AT MIDWAY. After the smoke had cleared, four Japanese
aircraft carriers had been destroyed. The plot to capture Midway collapsed, and Japan lost much of
its offensive capability in the process. After the Battle of Midway, the Japanese were forced to fall
back and defend their holdings.
Island hopping was the strategy used by the United States command. Rather than taking every
Japanese fortification, the United States selectively chose a path that would move U.S. naval forces
closer and closer to the Japanese mainland. In October 1944, MacArthur returned to the Philippines
accompanied by a hundred ships and soon the islands were liberated. The capture of IWO
JIMA and OKINAWA cleared the way for an all-out assault on Japan. Despite heavy losses, the
Japanese refused to surrender. They intensified the attacks on American ships with suicide
missionKAMIKAZE flights.
In April 1945, President Roosevelt died of a brain hemorrhage, and HARRY TRUMAN was
unexpectedly left to decide the outcome of the war in the Pacific.

51e. Japanese-American Internment

Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of
Japanese ancestry.
Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, Japanese Americans were suspected of remaining loyal
to their ancestral land. ANTI-JAPANESE PARANOIA increased because of a large Japanese
presence on the West Coast. In the event of a Japanese invasion of the American mainland, Japanese
Americans were feared as a security risk.
Succumbing to bad advice and popular opinion, President Roosevelt signed an executive order in
February 1942 ordering the RELOCATION of all Americans of Japanese ancestry
toCONCENTRATION CAMPS in the interior of the United States.
Evacuation orders were posted in JAPANESE-AMERICAN communities giving instructions on
how to comply with the executive order. Many families sold their homes, their stores, and most of
their assets. They could not be certain their homes and livelihoods would still be there upon their
return. Because of the mad rush to sell, properties and inventories were often sold at a fraction of

their true value.

Until the camps were completed, many of the evacuees were held in temporary centers, such as
stables at local racetracks. Almost two-thirds of the interns wereNISEI, or Japanese Americans born
in the United States. It made no difference that many had never even been to Japan. Even JapaneseAmerican veterans of World War I were forced to leave their homes.
Ten camps were finally completed in remote areas of seven western states. Housing was spartan,
consisting mainly of tarpaper barracks. Families dined together at communal mess halls, and
children were expected to attend school. Adults had the option of working for a salary of $5 per day.
The United States government hoped that the interns could make the camps self-sufficient by
farming to produce food. But cultivation on arid soil was quite a challenge.
Evacuees elected representatives to meet with government officials to air grievances, often to little
avail. Recreational activities were organized to pass the time. Some of the interns actually
volunteered to fight in one of two all-Nisei army regiments and went on to distinguish themselves
in battle.
On the whole, however, life in the relocation centers was not easy. The camps were often too cold in
the winter and too hot in the summer. The food was mass produced army-style grub. And the interns
knew that if they tried to flee, armed sentries who stood watch around the clock, would shoot them.
FRED KOREMATSU decided to test the government relocation action in the courts. He found
little sympathy there. In KOREMATSU VS. THE UNITED STATES, the Supreme Court justified
the executive order as a wartime necessity. When the order was repealed, many found they could
not return to their hometowns. Hostility against Japanese Americans remained high across the West
Coast into the postwar years as many villages displayed signs demanding that the evacuees never
return. As a result, the interns scattered across the country.
In 1988, Congress attempted to apologize for the action by awarding each surviving intern $20,000.
While the American concentration camps never reached the levels of Nazi death camps as far as
atrocities are concerned, they remain a dark mark on the nation's record of respecting civil liberties
and cultural differences.

51f. The Manhattan Project

Early in 1939, the world's scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the
secrets of splitting a uranium atom. Fears soon spread over the possibility of Nazi scientists
utilizing that energy to produce a bomb capable of unspeakable destruction.
Scientists ALBERT EINSTEIN, who fled Nazi persecution, and ENRICO FERMI, who escaped

Fascist Italy, were now living in the United States. They agreed that the President must be informed
of the dangers of atomic technology in the hands of the Axis powers. Fermi traveled to Washington
in March to express his concerns on government officials. But few shared his uneasiness.
Einstein penned a letter to President Roosevelt urging the development of an atomic research
program later that year. Roosevelt saw neither the necessity nor the utility for such a project, but
agreed to proceed slowly. In late 1941, the American effort to design and build an ATOMIC
BOMBreceived its code name the MANHATTAN PROJECT.
At first the research was based at only a few universities Columbia University, the University of
Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley. A breakthrough occurred in December 1942
when Fermi led a group of physicists to produce the first controlled NUCLEAR CHAIN
REACTION under the grandstands of STAGG FIELD at the University of Chicago.
After this milestone, funds were allocated more freely, and the project advanced at breakneck speed.
Nuclear facilities were built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington. The main assembly
plant was built at LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER was put in
charge of putting the pieces together at Los Alamos. After the final bill was tallied, nearly $2 billion
had been spent on research and development of the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project employed
over 120,000 Americans.
Secrecy was paramount. Neither the Germans nor the Japanese could learn of the project. Roosevelt
and Churchill also agreed that the Stalin would be kept in the dark. Consequently, there was no
public awareness or debate. Keeping 120,000 people quiet would be impossible; therefore only a
small privileged cadre of inner scientists and officials knew about the atomic bomb's development.
In fact, Vice-President Truman had never heard of the Manhattan Project until he became President
Truman.
Although the Axis powers remained unaware of the efforts at Los Alamos, American leaders later
learned that a Soviet spy named KLAUS FUCHS had penetrated the inner circle of scientists.
By the summer of 1945, Oppenheimer was ready to test the first bomb. On July 16, 1945,
at TRINITY SITE nearALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO, scientists of the Manhattan Project
readied themselves to watch the detonation of the world's first atomic bomb. The device was affixed
to a 100-foot tower and discharged just before dawn. No one was properly prepared for the result.
A blinding flash visible for 200 miles lit up the morning sky. A mushroom cloud reached 40,000
feet, blowing out windows of civilian homes up to 100 miles away. When the cloud returned to
earth it created a half-mile wide crater metamorphosing sand into glass. A bogus cover-up story was
quickly released, explaining that a huge ammunition dump had just exploded in the desert. Soon

word reached President Truman in Potsdam, Germany that the project was successful.
The world had entered the nuclear age.

51g. The Decision to Drop the Bomb

America had the bomb. Now what?
When Harry Truman learned of the success of the Manhattan Project, he knew he was faced with a
decision of unprecedented gravity. The capacity to end the war with Japan was in his hands, but it
would involve unleashing the most terrible weapon ever known.
American soldiers and civilians were weary from four years of war, yet the Japanese military was
refusing to give up their fight. American forces occupied Okinawa and Iwo Jima and were intensely
fire bombing Japanese cities. But Japan had an army of 2 million strong stationed in the home
islands guarding against invasion.
For Truman, the choice whether or not to use the atomic bomb was the most difficult decision of his
life.
First, an Allied demand for an immediate unconditional surrender was made to the leadership in
Japan. Although the demand stated that refusal would result in total destruction, no mention of any
new weapons of mass destruction was made. The Japanese military command rejected the request
for unconditional surrender, but there were indications that a conditional surrender was possible.
Regardless, on August 6, 1945, a plane called the ENOLA GAY dropped an atomic bomb on the
city of HIROSHIMA. Instantly, 70,000 Japanese citizens were vaporized. In the months and years
that followed, an additional 100,000 perished from burns and radiation sickness.
Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. On August 9, a second atomic bomb was
dropped on NAGASAKI, where 80,000 Japanese people perished.
On August 14, 1945, the Japanese surrendered.
Critics have charged that Truman's decision was a barbaric act that brought negative long-term
consequences to the United States. A new age of nuclear terror led to a dangerous arms race.
Some military analysts insist that Japan was on its knees and the bombings were simply
unnecessary. The American government was accused of racism on the grounds that such a device
would never have been used against white civilians.
Other critics argued that American diplomats had ulterior motives. The Soviet Union had entered
the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb could be read as a strong message for the Soviets to
tread lightly. In this respect, Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have been the first shots of the Cold War

as well as the final shots of World War II. Regardless, the United States remains the only nation in
the world to have used a nuclear weapon on another nation.
Truman stated that his decision to drop the bomb was purely military. A Normandy-type amphibious
landing would have cost an estimated million casualties. Truman believed that the bombs saved
Japanese lives as well. Prolonging the war was not an option for the President. Over 3,500 Japanese
kamikaze raids had already wrought great destruction and loss of American lives.
The President rejected a demonstration of the atomic bomb to the Japanese leadership. He knew
there was no guarantee the Japanese would surrender if the test succeeded, and he felt that a failed
demonstration would be worse than none at all. Even the scientific community failed to foresee the
awful effects of RADIATION SICKNESS. Truman saw little difference between atomic bombing
Hiroshima and FIRE BOMBING Dresden or Tokyo.
The ethical debate over the decision to drop the atomic bomb will never be resolved. The bombs
did, however, bring an end to the most destructive war in history. The Manhattan Project that
produced it demonstrated the possibility of how a nation's resources could be mobilized.
Pandora's box was now open. The question that came flying out was, "How will the world use its
nuclear capability?" It is a question still being addressed on a daily basis.

54. A New Civil Rights Movement

In 1950, the United States operated under an apartheid-like system of legislated white supremacy.
Although the Civil War did bring an official end to slavery in the United States, it did not erase the
social barriers built by that "PECULIAR INSTITUTION."
Despite the efforts of RADICAL RECONSTRUCTIONISTS, the American South emerged from
the CIVIL WAR with a system of laws that undermined the freedom of African Americans and
preserved many elements of white privilege. No major successful attack was launched on the
segregation system until the 1950s.
Beginning with the Supreme Court's school integration ruling of 1954, the American legal system
seemed sympathetic to African American demands that their FOURTEENTH
AMENDMENT CIVIL RIGHTS be protected. Soon, a peaceful equality movement began under
the unofficial leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A wave of marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and
freedom rides swept the American South and even parts of the North.
Public opinion polls across the nation and the world revealed a great deal of sympathy for African
Americans. The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations gave the Civil Rights
Movement at least tacit support. Although many obstacles to complete racial equity remained, by

1965 most legal forms of discrimination had been abolished.

Legal equality did not bring economic equality and social acceptance. Gains made by civil rights
activists did not bring greater unity in the movement. On the contrary, as the 1960s progressed, a
radical wing of the movement grew stronger and stronger. Influenced by Malcolm X, the Black
Power Movement rejected the policy of nonviolence at all costs and even believed integration was
not a desirable short-term goal. Black nationalists called for the establishment of a nation of African
Americans dependent on each other for support without the interference or help of whites.
Race-related violence began to spread across the country. Beginning in 1964, a series of "long, hot
summers" of rioting plagued urban centers. More and more individuals dedicated to African
American causes became victims of assassination. Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther
King Jr. were a few of the more famous casualties of the tempest.
Hope and optimism gave way to alienation and despair as the 1970s began. Many realized that
although changing racist laws was actually relatively simple, changing racist attitudes was a much
more difficult task.

54a. Separate No Longer?

During the first half of the 20th century, the United States existed as two nations in one.
The Supreme Court ruling in PLESSY V. FERGUSON (1896) decreed that the legislation of two
separate societies one black and one white was permitted as long as the two were equal.
States across the North and South passed laws creating schools and public facilities for each race.
These regulations, known as Jim Crow laws, reestablished white authority after it had diminished
during the Reconstruction era. Across the land, blacks and whites dined at separate restaurants,
bathed in separate swimming pools, and drank from separate water fountains.
The United States had established an American brand of apartheid.
In the aftermath of World War II, America sought to demonstrate to the world the merit of free
democracies over communist dictatorships. But its segregation system exposed fundamental
hypocrisy. Change began brewing in the late 1940s. President Harry Truman ordered the end of
segregation in the armed services, andJACKIE ROBINSON became the first African American to
play Major League Baseball. But the wall built by JIM CROW legislation seemed insurmountable.
The first major battleground was in the schools. It was very clear by mid-century that southern
states had expertly enacted separate educational systems. These schools, however, were never equal.
The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED
PEOPLE (NAACP), led by attorney THURGOOD MARSHALL, sued public schools across the

South, insisting that the "SEPARATE BUT EQUAL" CLAUSE had been violated.
In no state where distinct racial education laws existed was there equality in public spending.
Teachers in white schools were paid better wages, school buildings for white students were
maintained more carefully, and funds for educational materials flowed more liberally into white
schools. States normally spent 10 to 20 times on the education of white students as they spent on
African American students.
The Supreme Court finally decided to rule on this subject in 1954 in the landmarkBROWN V.
BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKAcase.
The verdict was unanimous against segregation. "Separate facilities are inherently unequal," read
Chief Justice EARL WARREN's opinion. Warren worked tirelessly to achieve a 9-0 ruling. He
feared any dissent might provide a legal argument for the forces against integration. The united
Supreme Court sent a clear message: schools had to integrate.
The North and the border states quickly complied with the ruling, but the Browndecision fell on
deaf ears in the South. The Court had stopped short of insisting on immediate integration, instead
asking local governments to proceed "with all deliberate speed" in complying.
Ten years after Brown, fewer than ten percent of Southern public schools had integrated. Some
areas achieved a zero percent compliance rate. The ruling did not address separate restrooms, bus
seats, or hotel rooms, so Jim Crow laws remained intact. But cautious first steps toward an equal
society had been taken.
It would take a decade of protest, legislation, and bloodshed before America neared a truer equality.

54b. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

On a cold December evening in 1955, ROSA PARKS quietly incited a revolution by just sitting
down.
She was tired after spending the day at work as a department store seamstress. She stepped onto the
bus for the ride home and sat in the fifth row the first row of the "COLORED SECTION."
In Montgomery, Alabama, when a bus became full, the seats nearer the front were given to white
passengers.
Montgomery bus driver JAMES BLAKEordered Parks and three other African Americans seated
nearby to move ("Move y'all, I want those two seats,") to the back of the bus.
Three riders complied; Parks did not.
The following excerpt of what happened next is from Douglas Brinkley's 2000 Rosa Park's

biography.

"Are you going to stand up?" the driver demanded.

Rosa Parks looked straight at him and said: "No."
Flustered, and not quite sure what to do, Blake
retorted, "Well, I'm going to have you arrested."
And Parks, still sitting next to the window, replied
softly, "You may do that."

After Parks refused to move, she was arrested and fined $10. The chain of events triggered by her
arrest changed the United States.
King, Abernathy, Boycott, and the SCLC
In 1955, a little-known minister named MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. led the DEXTER
AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH in Montgomery.
Born and educated in Atlanta, King studied the writings and practices of Henry David Thoreau
andMOHANDAS GANDHI. Their teaching advocated civil disobedience and nonviolent
resistance to social injustice.
A staunch devotee of nonviolence, King and his colleague RALPH ABERNATHY organized
aBOYCOTT OF MONTGOMERY'S BUSES.
The demands they made were simple: Black passengers should be treated with courtesy. Seating
should be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis, with white passengers sitting from front to back
and black passengers sitting from back to front. And African American drivers should drive routes
that primarily serviced African Americans. On Monday, December 5, 1955 the boycott went into
effect.
Don't Ride the Bus
In 1955, the Women's Political Council issued a leaflet calling for a boycott of Montgomery buses.
Don't ride the bus to work, to town, to school, or any place Monday, December 5.

Another Negro Woman has been arrested and put in jail because she refused to give up her bus seat.
Don't ride the buses to work to town, to school, or any where on Monday. If you work, take a cab,
or share a ride, or walk.
Come to a mass meeting, Monday at 7:00 P.M. at the Holt Street Baptist Church for further
instruction.
Montgomery officials stopped at nothing in attempting to sabotage the boycott. King and Abernathy
were arrested. Violence began during the action and continued after its conclusion. Four churches
as well as the homes of King and Abernathy were bombed. But the boycott continued.
King and Abernathy's organization, theMONTGOMERY IMPROVEMENT
ASSOCIATION (MIA), had hoped for a 50 percent support rate among African Americans. To
their surprise and delight, 99 percent of the city's African Americans refused to ride the buses.
People walked to work or rode their bikes, and carpools were established to help the elderly. The
bus company suffered thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Finally, on November 23, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the MIA. SEGREGATED
BUSING was declared unconstitutional. City officials reluctantly agreed to comply with the Court
Ruling. The black community of Montgomery had held firm in their resolve.
The Montgomery bus boycott triggered a firestorm in the South. Across the region, blacks resisted
"moving to the back of the bus." Similar actions flared up in other cities. The boycott put Martin
Luther King Jr. in the national spotlight. He became the acknowledged leader of the nascent CIVIL
RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
With Ralph Abernathy, King formed the SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP
CONFERENCE (SCLC).
This organization was dedicated to fighting Jim Crow segregation. African Americans boldly
declared to the rest of the country that their movement would be peaceful, organized, and
determined.
To modern eyes, getting a seat on a bus may not seem like a great feat. But in 1955, sitting down
marked the first step in a revolution.

54c. Showdown in Little Rock

Three years after the Supreme Court declared race-based segregation illegal, a military showdown
took place in LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS. On September 3, 1957, nine black students
attempted to attend the all-white Central High School.

Under the pretext of maintaining order, Arkansas Governor ORVAL FAUBUS mobilized
the ARKANSAS NATIONAL GUARD to prevent the students, known as the LITTLE ROCK
NINE, from entering the school. After a federal judge declared the action illegal, Faubus removed
the troops. When the students tried to enter again on September 24, they were taken into the school
through a back door. Word of this spread throughout the community, and a thousand irate citizens
stormed the school grounds. The police desperately tried to keep the angry crowd under control as
concerned onlookers whisked the students to safety.
The nation watched all of this on television. President Eisenhower was compelled to act.
Eisenhower was not a strong proponent of civil rights. He feared that the Brown decision could lead
to an impasse between the federal government and the states. Now that very stalemate had come.
The rest of the country seemed to side with the black students, and the Arkansas state government
was defying a federal decree. The situation hearkened back to the dangerous federal-state conflicts
of the 19th century that followed the end of the Civil War.
On September 25, Eisenhower ordered the troops of the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock,
marking the first time United States troops were dispatched to the South since Reconstruction. He
federalized the Arkansas National Guard in order to remove the soldiers from Faubus's control. For
the next few months, the African American students attended school under armed supervision.
Can You Meet the Challenge?
This editorial by JANE EMERY appeared in Central High student newspaper,The Tiger, on
September 19, 1957.
You are being watched! Today the world is watching you, the students of Central High. They want
to know what your reactions, behavior, and impulses will be concerning a matter now before us.
After all, as we see it, it settles now to a matter of interpretation of law and order.
Will you be stubborn, obstinate, or refuse to listen to both sides of the question? Will your
knowledge of science help you determine your action or will you let customs, superstition, or
tradition determine the decision for you?
This is the chance that the youth of America has been waiting for. Through an open mind, broad
outlook, wise thinking, and a careful choice you can prove that America's youth has not "gone to the
dogs" that their moral, spiritual, and educational standards are not being lowered.
This is the opportunity for you as citizens of Arkansas and students of Little Rock Central High to
show the world that Arkansas is a progressive thriving state of wide-awake alert people. It is a state
that is rapidly growing and improving its social, health, and educational facilities. That it is a state

with friendly, happy, and conscientious citizens who love and cherish their freedom.
It has been said that life is just a chain of problems. If this is true, then this experience in making up
your own mind and determining right from wrong will be of great value to you in life.
The challenge is yours, as future adults of America, to prove your maturity, intelligence, and ability
to make decisions by how you react, behave, and conduct yourself in this controversial question.
What is your answer to this challenge?
The following year, Little Rock officials closed the schools to prevent integration. But in 1959, the
schools were open again. Both black and white children were in attendance.
The tide was slowly turning in favor of those advocating civil rights for African Americans. An
astonished America watched footage of brutish, white southerners mercilessly harassing clean-cut,
respectful African American children trying to get an education. Television swayed public opinion
toward integration.
In 1959, Congress passed the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT, the first such measure since Reconstruction.
The law created a permanent civil rights commission to assist black suffrage. The measure had little
teeth and proved ineffective, but it paved the way for more powerful legislation in the years to
come.
Buses and schools had come under attack. Next on the menu: a luncheonette counter.

54d. The Sit-In Movement

By 1960, the Civil Rights Movement had gained strong momentum. The nonviolent measures
employed by Martin Luther King Jr. helped African American activists win supporters across the
country and throughout the world.
On February 1, 1960, a new tactic was added to the peaceful activists' strategy. Four African
American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the
local WOOLWORTH'Sstore in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee. When service
was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and
waited to be served.
The civil rights sit-in was born.
No one participated in a sit-in of this sort without seriousness of purpose. The instructions were
simple: sit quietly and wait to be served. Often the participants would be jeered and threatened by
local customers. Sometimes they would be pelted with food or ketchup. Angry onlookers tried to
provoke fights that never came. In the event of a physical attack, the student would curl up into a
ball on the floor and take the punishment. Any violent reprisal would undermine the spirit of the sit-

in. When the local police came to arrest the demonstrators, another line of students would take the
vacated seats.
SIT-IN organizers believed that if the violence were only on the part of the white community, the
world would see the righteousness of their cause. Before the end of the school year, over 1500 black
demonstrators were arrested. But their sacrifice brought results. Slowly, but surely, restaurants
throughout the South began to abandon their policies of segregation.
In April 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. sponsored a conference to discuss strategy. Students from the
North and the South came together and formed the STUDENT NONVIOLENT
COORDINATING COMMITTEE(SNCC). Early leaders included STOKELY
CARMICHAEL and FANNIE LOU HAMER. The CONGRESS ON RACIAL
EQUALITY (CORE) was a northern group of students led by JAMES FARMER, which also
endorsed direct action. These groups became the grassroots organizers of future sit-ins at lunch
counters, wade-ins at segregated swimming pools, and pray-ins at white-only churches.
Bolstered by the success of direct action, CORE activists planned the first freedom ride in 1961. To
challenge laws mandating segregated interstate transportation, busloads of integrated black and
white students rode through the South. The first freedom riders left Washington, D.C., in May 1961
en route to New Orleans. Several participants were arrested in bus stations. When the buses reached
Anniston, Alabama, an angry mob slashed the tires on one bus and set it aflame. The riders on the
other bus were violently attacked, and the freedom riders had to complete their journey by plane.
New ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT KENNEDY ordered federal marshals to protect future
freedom rides. Bowing to political and public pressure, the INTERSTATE COMMERCE
COMMISSION soon banned segregation on interstate travel. Progress was slow indeed, but the
wall between the races was gradually being eroded.

54e. Gains and Pains

Civil rights activists in the early 1960s teemed with enthusiasm. The courts and the federal
government seemed to be on their side, and the movement was winning the battle for public
opinion. Under the protection of federal troops, in 1962 JAMES MEREDITH became the first
African American to attend the UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI.
As sit-ins and freedom rides spread across the South, African American leaders set a new, ambitious
goal: a federal law banning racial discrimination in all public accommodations and in employment.
In the summer of 1963, President Kennedy indicated he would support such a measure, and
thousands marched on Washington to support the bill.
Blacks and whites sang "WE SHALL OVERCOME" and listened to Martin Luther King Jr.

deliver his "I HAVE A DREAM" speech. The Civil Rights Movement seemed on the brink of
triumph.
As equality advocates notched more and more successes, the forces against change grew more
active as well. Groups such the Ku Klux Klan increased hate crimes.
Earlier in 1963, the nation watched the Birmingham police force under the direction of BULL
CONNOR unleash dogs, tear gas, and fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators.
NAACP leader Medgar Evers was murdered in cold blood that summer in Mississippi as he tried to
enter his home.
Church burnings and bombings increased. Four young girls were killed in one such bombing in
Birmingham as they attended Sunday school lessons.
Many who had looked to JOHN F. KENNEDYas a sympathetic leader were crushed when he fell
victim to assassination in November 1963. But Kennedy's death did not derail the Civil Rights Act.
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON signed the bill into law in July 1964. As of that day, it
became illegal to refuse employment to an individual on the basis of race. Segregation at any public
facility in America was now against the law.
The passage of that act led to a new focus. Many African Americans had been robbed of the right to
vote since southern states enacted discriminatory poll taxes and literacy tests. Only five percent of
African Americans eligible to vote were registered in Mississippi in 1965. The24TH
AMENDMENT banned the POLL TAXin 1964. A new landmark law, theVOTING RIGHTS
ACT of 1965, banned the literacy test and other such measures designed to keep blacks from
voting. It also placed federal registrars in the South to ensure black suffrage. By 1965, few legal
barriers to racial equality remained.
But centuries of racism could not be erased with the pen. Many African Americans continued to
languish in the bottom economic strata. Civil rights activists fought on to achieve economic as well
as legal equality. It is a fight that continues to this day.
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We
hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of
former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, a state sweltering with the
heat of injustice, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of

freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
Full text of "I Have a Dream"
On August 28, 1963, over 250,000 people gathered in Washington, DC hoping to turn the nation's
eyes to the problems of racial injustice and inequality. It was at this massive rally that Martin
Luther King Jr. gave his best-known address. It has become known as the "I Have a Dream" speech.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for
freedom in the history of our nation.
Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to
millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a
joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One
hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and
the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty
in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still
languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we
have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic
wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were
signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all
men would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." It
is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color
are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a
bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are
insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And we have come to cash this
check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no
time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is
the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of
brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of
the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and
equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro
needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns
to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted
his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation
until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads
into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of
wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and
discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and
again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous
new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white
people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to
realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their
freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There
are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"
We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police
brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot
gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as
long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied
as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for
whites only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in
New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be
satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of
you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest
for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police
brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that
unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South

Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our
northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in
the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still
have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We
hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of
former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of
injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and
justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his
lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification," one day right there in Alabama
little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as
sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day "every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made
low; the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to
hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the
jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be
able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for
freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's
children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of
thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let
freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true.
So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and
every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of
God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able
to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God
Almighty, we are free at last!"

54f. Martin Luther King Jr.

As the unquestioned leader of the peaceful Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, DR. MARTIN
LUTHER KING JR. was at the same time one of the most beloved and one of the most hated men
of his time. From his involvement in the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 until his untimely death
in 1968, King's message of change through peaceful means added to the movement's numbers and
gave it its moral strength. The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is embodied in these two simple
words: equality and nonviolence.
King was raised in an activist family. His father was deeply influenced by MARCUS
GARVEY's BACK TO AFRICA MOVEMENT in the 1920s. His mother was the daughter of one
of Atlanta's most influential African American ministers. As a student, King excelled. He easily
moved through grade levels and entered Morehouse College, his father's alma mater, at the age of
fifteen. Next, he attended Crozer Theological Seminary, where he received a Bachelor of Divinity
degree. While he was pursuing his doctorate at Boston University, he met and married CORETTA
SCOTT. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1955, King accepted an appointment to the Dexter Street
Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
After his organization of the bus boycott, King formed the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, which dedicated itself to the advancement of rights for African Americans. In April
1963, King organized a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, a city King called "the most thoroughly
segregated city in the United States." Since the end of World War II, there had been 60 unsolved
bombings of African American churches and homes.

Boycotts, sit-ins and marches were conducted. When Bull Connor, head of the Birmingham police
department, used fire hoses and dogs on the demonstrators, millions saw the images on television.
King was arrested. But support came from around the nation and the world for King and his family.
Later in 1963, he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to thousands in Washington, D.C.
After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, King turned his efforts to registering African
American voters in the South. In 1965, he led a march in Selma, Alabama, to increase the
percentage of African American voters in Alabama. Again, King was arrested. Again, the marchers
faced attacks by the police. Tear gas, cattle prods, and billy clubs fell on the peaceful demonstrators.
Public opinion weighed predominantly on the side of King and the protesters. Finally, President
Johnson ordered the National Guard to protect the demonstrators from attack, and King was able to
complete the long march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery. The action in Selma led to
the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Early in the morning of April 4, 1968, King was shot by JAMES EARL RAY. Spontaneous
violence spread through urban areas as mourners unleashed their rage at the loss of their leader.
Rioting burst forth in many American cities.
RFK on MLK
The day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning for the
presidency in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kennedy made this speech in remembrance of Dr. King's
tireless efforts.
I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the
world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died
because of that effort.
In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of
a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black
considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible
you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that
direction as a country, in great polarization black people amongst black, white people amongst
white, filled with hatred toward one another.
Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to
replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to
understand with compassion and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice
of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of
feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make
an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather
difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by
drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful
grace of God."
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred;
what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and
compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our
country, whether they be white or they be black.
So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King,
that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love a
prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past;
we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of
lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to
live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who
abide in our land.
Let us dedicate to ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of
man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
But the world never forgot his contributions. Time magazine had named him "Man of the Year" in
1963. In 1964, he won the Nobel Peace Prize and was described as "the first person in the Western
world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence." In 1977, he was
posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian American
can earn. In the 1980s, his birthday became a national holiday, creating an annual opportunity for
Americans to reflect on the two values he dedicated his life to advancing: equality and nonviolence.

54g. The Long, Hot Summers

On August 11, 1965, the atmosphere in the WATTS district of Los Angeles turned white hot. A

police patrol stoppedMARQUETTE FRYE, suspecting he was driving while intoxicated. A crowd
assembled as Frye was asked to step out of his vehicle. When the arresting officer drew his gun, the
crowd erupted in a spontaneous burst of anger.
Too many times had the local citizens of Watts felt that the police department treated them with
excessive force. They were tired of being turned down for jobs in Watts by white employers who
lived in wealthier neighborhoods. They were troubled by the overcrowded living conditions in
rundown apartments. The Frye incident was the match that lit their fire. His arrest prompted five
days of rioting, looting, and burning. The governor of California ordered the National Guard to
maintain order. When the smoke cleared, 34 people were killed and property damage estimates
approached $40 million.
The urban uprising, part of what was often called "THE LONG, HOT SUMMER," had actually
begun in 1964. When a white policeman in Harlem shot a black youth in July 1964, a similar
disturbance flared (though on a lesser scale than the Watt's riots.) Rochester, Jersey City, and
Philadelphia exploded as well. From 1964 to 1966, outbreaks of violence rippled across many other
northern urban areas, including Detroit, where 43 people were killed.
As youths of the counterculture celebrated the famed Summer of Love in 1967, serious racial
upheaval took place in more than 150 American cities. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
in 1968 touched off a wave of violence in 125 more urban centers.
At the behest of President Johnson, theKERNER COMMISSION was created to examine the
causes behind the rioting. After a six-month study, the committee declared that the source of unrest
was white racism. Despite legislative gains against discriminatory policies, America was moving
toward two distinct societies divided along racial lines.
As the great migration of blacks from the South to northern cities continued, white northerners
began deserting the cities for the suburbs.
African Americans had been victimized by poor education, the unavailability of quality
employment, slum conditions, and police brutality. The average income of a black household was
only slightly more than half the income of its white counterpart. The Kerner Commission
recommended a wide array of social spending programs, including housing programs, job training,
and welfare. Civil rights legislation became the cornerstone of Lyndon Johnson's GREAT
SOCIETY PROGRAM.

54h. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam

When MALCOLM LITTLE was growing up in Lansing, Michigan, he developed a mistrust for
white Americans. Ku Klux Klan terrorists burned his house, and his father was later murdered an

act young Malcolm attributed to local whites. After moving to Harlem, Malcolm turned to crime.
Soon he was arrested and sent to jail.
The prison experience was eye-opening for the young man, and he soon made some decisions that
altered the course of his life. He began to read and educate himself. Influenced by other inmates, he
converted to Islam. Upon his release, he was a changed man with a new identity.
Believing his true lineage to be lost when his ancestors were forced into slavery, he took the last
name of a variable: X.
WALLACE FARD founded the NATION OF ISLAMin the 1930s. Christianity was the white
man's religion, declared Fard. It was forced on African Americans during the slave experience.
Islam was closer to African roots and identity. Members of the Nation of Islam read the Koran,
worship Allah as their God, and accept Mohammed as their chief prophet. Mixed with the religious
tenets of Islam were BLACK PRIDE andBLACK NATIONALISM. The followers of Fard
became known as BLACK MUSLIMS.
When Fard mysteriously disappeared,ELIJAH MUHAMMAD became the leader of the
movement. The Nation of Islam attracted many followers, especially in prisons, where lost African
Americans most looked for guidance. They preached adherence to a strict moral code and reliance
on other African Americans. Integration was not a goal. Rather, the Nation of Islam wanted blacks
to set up their own schools, churches, and support networks. When Malcolm X made his personal
conversion, Elijah Muhammad soon recognized his talents and made him a leading spokesperson
for the Black Muslims.
Martin and Malcolm
Although their philosophies may have differed radically, Malcolm X believed that he and Martin
Luther King Jr. were working toward the same goal and that given the state of race relations in the
1960s, both would most likely meet a fatal end. This excerpt is taken from THE
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X, which was cowritten with
famed ROOTS author ALEX HALEY.
The goal has always been the same, with the approaches to it as different as mine and Dr. Martin
Luther King's non-violent marching, that dramatizes the brutality and the evil of the white man
against defenseless blacks. And in the racial climate of this country today, it is anybody's guess
which of the "extremes" in approach to the black man's problems might personally meet a fatal
catastrophe first "non-violent" Dr. King, or so-called '"violent" me.
As Martin Luther King preached his gospel of peaceful change and integration in the late 1950s and
early 1960s, Malcolm X delivered a different message: whites were not to be trusted. He called on

African Americans to be proud of their heritage and to set up strong communities without the help
of white Americans. He promoted the establishment of a separate state for African Americans in
which they could rely on themselves to provide solutions to their own problems. Violence was not
the only answer, but violence was justified in self-defense. Blacks should achieve what was
rightfully theirs "by any means necessary."
Malcolm X electrified urban audiences with his eloquent prose and inspirational style. In 1963, he
split with the Nation of Islam; in 1964, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Later that year, he
showed signs of softening his stand on violence and even met with Martin Luther King Jr. to
exchange remarks. What direction he might have ultimately taken is lost to a history that can never
be written. As Malcolm X led a mass rally in Harlem on February 21, 1965, rival Black Muslims
gunned him down.
Although his life was ended, the ideas he preached lived on in the Black Power Movement.

54i. Black Power

On June 5, 1966, JAMES MEREDITH was shot in an ambush as he attempted to complete a
peaceful march from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Meredith had already made
national headlines in 1962 by becoming the first African American to enroll at the University of
Mississippi.
Civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., FLOYD MCKISSICK of CORE, and Stokely
Carmichael of SNCC rushed to Meredith's hospital bed. They determined that his march must be
completed. As Carmichael and McKissick walked through Mississippi, they observed that little had
changed despite federal legislation. Local townspeople harassed the marchers while the police
turned a blind eye or arrested the activists as troublemakers.
At a mass rally, Carmichael uttered the simple statement: "What we need is black power." Crowds
chanted the phrase as a slogan, and a movement began to flower.
Carmichael and McKissick were heavily influenced by the words of Malcolm X, and rejected
integration as a short-term goal. Carmichael felt that blacks needed to feel a sense of racial pride
and self-respect before any meaningful gains could be achieved. He encouraged the strengthening
of African American communities without the help of whites.
Chapters of SNCC and CORE both integrated organizations began to reject white
membership as Carmichael abandoned peaceful resistance. Martin Luther King Jr. and the NAACP
denounced black power as the proper forward path. But black power was a powerful message in the
streets of urban America, where resentment boiled and tempers flared.

Soon, African American students began to celebrate African American culture boldly and publicly.
Colleges teemed with young blacks wearing traditional African colors and clothes. Soul
singer JAMES BROWN had his audience chanting "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud."
Hairstyles unique to African Americans became popular and youths proclaimed, "BLACK IS
BEAUTIFUL!"
That same year, HUEY NEWTON AND BOBBY SEALE took Carmichael's advice one step
further. They formed the BLACK PANTHER PARTY in Oakland, California. Openly brandishing
weapons, the Panthers decided to take control of their own neighborhoods to aid their communities
and to resist police brutality. Soon the Panthers spread across the nation. The Black Panther Party
borrowed many tenets from socialist movements, including Mao Zedong's famous creed "Political
power comes through the barrel of a gun." The Panthers and the police exchanged gunshots on
American streets as white Americans viewed the growing militancy with increasing alarm.
Black Panther Party
In 1966, the Black Panther Party offered a list of their wants and beliefs. Drawing from the
language of the Declaration of Independence, the document made a powerful statement about the
state of race relations in the United States at the time.
THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY
Platform & Program
October 1966
WHAT WE WANT
WHAT WE BELIEVE
1. WE WANT freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
WE BELIEVE that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.
2. WE WANT full employment for our people.
WE BELIEVE that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man
employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American businessmen will not
give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and
placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its
people and give a high standard of living.
3. WE WANT an end to the robbery by the CAPITALIST of our Black Community.
WE BELIEVE that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue
debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as

restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment in currency
which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel
for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American
racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million black people; therefore, we feel that this is
a modest demand that we make.
4. WE WANT decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.
WE BELIEVE that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to our black community, then
the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government
aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.
5. WE WANT education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American
society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.
WE BELIEVE in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man
does nothave knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little
chance to relate to anything else.
6. WE WANT all black men to be exempt from military service.
WE BELIEVE that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a
racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the
world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. We
will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, by
whatever means necessary.
7. WE WANT an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of black people.
WE BELIEVE we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing black self-defense
groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist police oppression and
brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear
arms. We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselves for self- defense.
8. WE WANT freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
WE BELIEVE that all black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because
they have not received a fair and impartial trial.
9. WE WANT all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group
or people from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
WE BELIEVE that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that black people will
receive fair trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by

his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical,
environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury
from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have been, and are being tried
by all-white juries that have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the black
community.
10. WE WANT land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major
political objective, a United Nations supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in
which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate, for the purpose of determining the
will of black people as to their national destiny.
WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation.
WE HOLD these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. **That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new
government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.** Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and,
accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. **But,
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design
to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
The peaceful Civil Rights Movement was dealt a severe blow in the spring of 1968. On the morning
of April 4, King was gunned down by a white assassin named James Earl Ray. Riots spread through
American cities as African Americans mourned the death of their most revered leader. Black power
advocates saw the murder as another sign that white power must be met with similar force. As the
decade came to a close, there were few remaining examples of legal discrimination. But across the
land, de facto segregation loomed large. Many schools were hardly integrated and African
Americans struggled to claim their fair share of the economic pie.