Before Democracy

2. Before Democracy • With the Treaty of Ghent (1814), the US began a new phase • 1828 (actually, March 4, 1829): enter President Andrew Jackson • 1820s: • spread of market relations; • westward movement of the population; • rise of a vigorous political democracy (parties)

3. October 12, 1492

4. The Continent: seen from Europe Imagination: Europeans envisioned the new continent as a religious refuge, a source of power and glory, a new political beginning The reality: 1. Native Americans had no immunity to germs; 2. there were so many forms of unfree labor, including indentured servitude

5. The Continent: seen from the p.o.v. of its inhabitans About 10 million people crossed the Ocean between 1492 and 1820; 7.7 million were African slaves Upon the “discovery” of the New World, millions were already living there: Incas (South America), Aztecs (Mexico), and countless of American Indians Hundreds of languages were spoken, different settled societies had been established

6. Native Americans (Eastern North America) In the Southeast: Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chickasaw In present-day New York and Pennsylvania: Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, Onondaga (the Five Iroquois Nations) Near the Great Lakes: Chippewa, Sioux, Cheyenne, Potawatomi, Winnebago, etc.

9. Native Americans: Cultural Cohordinates Theysharedcertaincharacteristics (an importantolisticfeature): a. spiritual power, theybelieved, suffused the world; b. no sharpdistintionbetweennatural and supernatural; c. women-centered gender relations; d. propriety (in land) wasdefinedas a communalasset (a common resource, not an economiccommodity)

10. Beginnings of English America On April 26, 1607, three small ships landed in the Chesapeake Bay: Jamestown was founded The first permanent English settlement Unlike the Spanish “conquistadores,” English settlers did not want to exert control over the population; they did not want to “convert” them They remained largely separate from their neighbors (displacement vs conquest and assimilation)

11. Jamestown Fort

12. The Settlement 1607-1699

13. Plymouth, Mass. By 1642, some 21,000 puritans had emigrated to Massachusetts (older and more prosperous than the people emigrating to Virginia) The Puritan way: emphasis on independent local congragations (Congregationalism), not established Church (Anglicanism) No elaborate ceremonies: instead, reading the Bible and listening to Sermons (a new genre)

14. Plymouth, Mass.

15. Pennsylvania Willian Penn (1644-1718): his father was a creditor of Charles II and, to get rid of his debt, Charles granted the Penn family a vast tract of land (Pennsylvania, South and West of NY, Delaware) William was a Quaker: he believed in the equality of all persons, including women, backs, and Indians. Quakers were known for their refusal to participate in wars, plain dressing, the use of “thou,” opposition to alcohol, refusal to swear oaths, etc. The theological foundation: the priesthood of all believers

16. Mercantilism By the midde of 17th-century, England (the Mother Country) seized control of the trans-Atlantic commerce Mercantilism: government should regulate economic activity, should encourage manufacturing (at home) and trading, in order to make sure that exports of goods always exceed imports Within such a framework: the colonies should supply raw material and import manufactured goods from home

17. Origins of Slavery Indians were sold into slavery in the Carribean (but it’s difficult to enslave a people on their native soil) Slavery thrived (and still does) on uprootedness In 1645, Barbados counted some 11,000 white farmers and indentured servants and 5,000 slaves; by 1660, the island’s population had grown to 40,000, half European and half African; by 1670, white population stagnated, and slave population rised to 82,000

18. Chesapeake The first Africans (20) arrived in Virginia in 1619: some managed to become free after serving a term of years As late as 1680, there were only 4,500 blacks in the Chesapeake (5% of the population) By 1700, blacks made 10% of the pop. in Virginia; by the 1750s, they rose to 50% Historical records of the 1640s begin to register blacks with no term of service associated to their names Blacks were more expensive than indentured servants, but by 1680 slave labor began to supplant indentured servitude

19. Bacon’s Rebellion (1676): an Interesting case study Governor William Berkeley had for 30 years run a corrupt regime in alliance with his friends, the wealthiest planters: they took over the best land Free whites (small farmers) had two choices: 1. work as tenants, with no right to vote; 2. move to the frontier (and facing Indians) Nathaniel Bacon called for 1. a policy of Indian removal; 2. a new style of politics, cultivating the support of poorer (white) neighbors

20. The Fate of Native Americans A common misconception: despite occasional skirmishes, by the 18th century Indian societies were well integrated into the British system They became accustomed to using European products (knives, needles, kettles, pots, firearms, etc.) But farmers and planters saw them as a hindrance: they were not interested in deerskinsor furs The (in)famous Walking Purchase of 1737: Delaware Indians, in Pennsylvania, agreed to cede a tract of land measured by the distance a man could walk in 36 hours. But Gov. James Logan hired a team of runners!

22. Anglicization and Upper Classes American elites tried to mold their lives on British etiquette and behavior The reason: colonies had more regular trade and communication with Britain than among themselves In New England: a powerful class of merchants In the Chesapeake and Lower South: slave plantations (the planter) producing staple crops (rice and tobacco) In the South: upper class was tight-knit and intermarried, and prominence was achieved via family connections

23. Elijah Boardman, 1789, Ralph Earl

24. Life in the South In the South, aristocratic style flourished: imported furniture, silk clothing, fine wines, conspicuous consumption The household as the center of the economic life: “My family…” (William Byrd) A strong sense of hierarchy and politics centered on deference

25. British America as a “Rising Empire” The first three-quarters of the 18th century were not a prelude to Independence (Whiggism) The Atlantic was a bridge, not a barrier between Old and New World Laborers, sailors, artisans, farmers, planters, they all spoke the language of “British freedom” Freedom was increasingly perceived as a right (to resist tyranny), and not a privilege depending on the membership to a given group, club, guild, order, etc.

26. Liberty: Two Meanings Republicanism: looking back republican Rome, leaders claimed that only “propertied” citizens possessed virtue (willingness to subordinate self-interest to the pursuit of public good) Liberalism: the body politics formed by a mutual agreement (contract) among equals; by entering the social compact, individuals surrender some of their rights, while retaining others (the natural rights to life, liberty, and property)

27. The Public Sphere In 18th-century Colonial America between 50 and 80% could vote (5% in Britain); in some towns in Massachusetts, propertied widows cast ballots (not yet a party competition; rather, better-offs seeking public office distributed food and liquor at the courthouse) As the “Consumer Revolution” wore on, the “public sphere” expanded considerably (debates at the pubs, the printing industry, clubs—the Junto—circulating libraries).

28. Some Were Excluded About 7.7 million Africans had been transported to America between 1492 and 1820 (more than half arrived between 1700 and 1800); only a small proportion, about 5%, was destined to the colonies of North America 1713: Treaty of Utrecht (at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession), and the British acquisition of the asiento (Spain subcontracted to a foreign powers the right to supply slaves to the Spanish empire) from the Dutch A slave could be sold in America for twenty to thirty times the price in Africa (one out of five died during the “passage”)

32. Three Distinct Slave Systems Tobacco-based plantation slavery in the Chesapeake Rice-based plantation slavery in South Carolina and Georgia (and, in the 1740s, indigo) Nonplantation slavery in New England and Middle Colonies (in 1770, about 27,000 slaves lived in New York and New Jersey, 10% of the total population; in Maryland 32%; )

33. The Seven Years War In 1754, the British tried to dislodge the French from western Pennsylvania (they had built some forts) An alliance between the French and Indians resulted in the death of hundreds of colonists When Prime Minister William Pitt took office in 1757, the tide of the war turned (he began pouring money and men) In 1763, with the Peace of Paris, France cede Canada to Britain and the vast Louisiana colony to Spain: France’s 200-year-old empire came to an end

34. Consequences of the War A stronger sense of both collective identity, and pride in being members of the British empire With France gone, the balance between Indians and whites was gone also (British lusted for land!) In the spring and summer of 1763, Ottawas, Hurons, and many others, besieged Detroit and killed hundreds of whites With the Proclamation of 1763, the British hoped to stop further western settlements As a matter of fact, the decades-old rule of the Quakers was shattered

35. Toward the Revolution British needed money (to repay the loans, £150 million) and reverted to a new policy Sugar Act: in 1764, PM George Grenville reduced the existing tax on molasses (from 6 to 3 pence per gallon) but enforced measures to prevent smuggling: colonial merchants felt threatened Stamp Act: in 1765, the PM issued for the first time a direct tax (not a tax raised through the regulation of trade) Nearly all colonial leaders perceived the Stamp Act as a betrayal of their idea of the empire as an association of equals

36. Politics in the Streets In October 1765, a Stamp Act Congress (27 delegates from 9 colonies) convened in NY: the first cooperative action seeking uniformity among the colonies In late 1765, a group of talented lesser merchants (note: not the elite) began a boycott of British imports: they were called the Sons of Liberty The Sons of Liberty took politics in the streets on NY: they rallied at people and, a.o.t., a crowd also attacked the home of Major Thomas James The Stamp Act was lifted in 1766

37. Precisely When Did the Revolution Begin? In 1767, the Financial Minister, Charles Townshend, devised new taxes on good imported into the colonies The Townshend Duties triggered “homespun virtue” Meanwhile, in Boston a confrontation between a crowd and British troops escalated into an armed confrontation: 5 Bostonians died Paul Revere, a silversmith and engraver, invented the Boston Massacre

39. Party Gone Bad: Another Symbol PM Lord North imposed a new tax on tea sold in the colonies. Tea had by now become a drink consumed by all social classes On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded three ships at anchor in Boston Harbor and dumped 300 chests of tea into the water As a retaliation, North issued new measures, known as the Intolerable Acts

42. Imagining the Revolution (I) In September 1774, a convention of delegates from Massachusetts towns approved a series of resolutions (Suffolk Resolves) urging Americans to refuse obedience to the new laws The same month, a Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to coordinate resistance “I am not a Virginian,” thundered orator Patrick Henry, “but an American”

43. Imagining the Revolution (II) On April19, 1775, British troops marched from Boston to Concord, seeking to seize arms being stockpiled there; riders from Boston, among them Paul Revere, warned local leader of troops’ approach Skirmishes were exchanged between British and Americans at Lexington and Concord In May 1775, a Second Continental Congress convened; it authorized the raising of an army, and appointed George Washington its commander

44. Imagining the Revolution (III) British general, John Burgoyne, advanced South from Canada hoping to link up with General William Howe and isolate New England; he was defeated at Saratoga at the hand of (a.o.) Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold (October 1777) In October 1781, Lord Charles Cornwallis, the British commander in the South, encamped at Yorktown; General Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette launched the decisive attack; Cornwallis surrendered on October 19.

46. Shall We Break with Britain? Many colonists shied away from the idea of independence (fear of social unrest and anarchy) The elites of Massachusetts and Virginia felt confident they could retain authority at home, and thus worked out a consensus In New York and Pennsylvania the diversity of the population hindered the prospectus of an agreement

47. The Long Way to Democracy In the aftermath of Independence, every State adopted a new Constitution (Vermont’s Constitution was the only one to sever voting from financial considerations, both property and the requirement that constituents pay taxes) Religious toleration was part of the common cause of freedom; throughout the nation, states disestablished their established churches (Massachusetts retained Congregationalism)

48. The Closing of Imagination In 1776, black population had grown to 500,000 (one-fifth of the entire population And yet, in the era’s debates, “slavery” largely remained a political category, a metaphor pointing out Europe as a “kingdom of slaves” and the US a “country of free men” Blacks sought, to no avail, to make white Americans understand slavery as a concrete reality, not merely as a metaphor for the loss of political self-determination

49. Obstacles to Abolition Virtually every Founding Father owned slaves (John Adams and Thomas Paine notable exceptions); the most influential whites owned slaves Since slaves were property, since property was essential to freedom, since the protection of property was essential to freedom, any measure from the government would necessarily turn into an infringement on liberty Property rights impeded emancipation

50. Abolition in the North Between 1777 (Vermont Constitution banning slavery) and 1804 (when New Jersey acted), every state north of Maryland took steps toward emancipation But even here, where slavery was peripheral to the economy, abolition law never provided for the liberation of living slaves They provided for the liberty of any child born in the future to a slave mother, and only after he or she had served the mother’s master until adulthood