The Revolutionary War

1. The Revolutionary War • England, late 1500’s: Puritans – a peaceful, pure, simple, religious people. Their church = benches and Bibles • 1599: King James I (King James version of Bible) creates Anglican Church (The Church of England) = very ornate: cathedrals, stained-glass windows, music and singing, dressing up, etc. • Everything the Puritans were against b/c they believed it was a sin (Hell)

2. Puritans refused to participate in this showiness • KJ said “my way or no way!” Still, they quietly refused. • KJ punished them: death, imprisonment, starvation, torture. He made an example of them. • By 1620 many of them fled England b/c of religious persecution

3. The Pilgrims (Puritans who made a religious journey) arrived in Holland, Virginia, and Plymouth, MA • Some die on the Mayflower, ½ the survivors die w/in the 1st winter, the rest create a colony • Their literary contribution = pamphlets advertising America: a place of freedom; they sent these to the friends and family they left behind in England

4. King James does not approve! • He taxes the Colonists (the surviving Pilgrims) • arbitrary rule = England is governing them from another continent! And taxing them on their own land and goods! • Fast forward about 100+ years: the Colonists are finally fed up! • A revolution is brewing…and England hears about it

5. The Colonists refuse to pay taxes and England sends troops to assert their power and collect their $ • Paul Revere (among others) ride to warn the Colonists of England’s arrival • April, 1775, Am. Revolution begins with the Boston Massacre • Colonists win and we become the United States of America – free from England’s control

6. 1860: HWL writes PRR in an attempt to • 1. preserve the feelings of unity and pride in America (so people would not forget) • 2. to create an American legend in PR • He does NOT intend to teach the history (inaccuracies and “mistakes”)

7. Paul Revere’s Rideby Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: The Truth What is it really about?

8. What was going on in America? • Written in 1860 and 1st published in 1861 • America was on the verge of the Civil War

9. The Civil War • Abraham Lincoln was President • Fought between April, 1861 and 1865 • Between the Northern and Southern states of America (N vs S) • Over the issue of the South’s secession (separation) from the union… • (And slavery…kind of)

10. A Comparison The North The South Farming very wide-spread (think acres and acres) 1 family per farm Slow-paced Independent, each family on its own • Education (many colleges) • “cities” • “fast-paced,” businesses, etc. • Communities, groups

11. What was the issue? The North The South Not educated, not “worldly” They “need” slaves to run their huge farms Farms are their livelihood and they could not function without them (or they would have to pay people to work for them) • Lots of authors, speakers, etc. are from the N and they travel and see the world • People became educated and “worldly” • They feel slavery is unjust, inhumane, and cruel • Arguments ensue…

12. How did we get to the Civil War? • Lincoln was elected President (and he vowed not to allow slavery to spread) • This upset the South and they seceded from the Union: 7 states initially announce their independence (The Confederate[joined by an agreement or treaty].States of America) • That upset the North and they refuse to acknowledge the secession: no-one should be able to just remove themselves from the Union and govern themselves

13. Lincoln hesitates to get involved (If he chooses sides, he is automatically eliminating an entire section of the country’s support) • The Confederates took over a U.S. fort and demanded they lower the American flag and surrender; then they opened fire. The war began.

14. In short… • For the N, the war was over keeping the S in the Union. Why should they just get to do whatever they want? • For the S, the war was over each state having its own right to choose/govern itself/create its own laws. Why should they tell us what to do? • Slavery was an issue, but the war wasn’t truly fought over slavery.

15. A Snapshot of the Civil War • “By the end of 1861 nearly a million armed men confronted each other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri.” • By the spring of 1865 all the principal Confederate armies surrendered, their “president” was captured, and the war ended. • 625,000 died - nearly as many American soldiersas in all the other wars in which this country has fought combined. • “The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between 1815 and World War I in 1914.” Source: www.civilwar.org

16. What does this have to do with Longfellow? • Longfellow was from the N and he was an abolitionist (did not believe in slavery). • He also did not believe in the S’s “right” to separate from the Union. • He was highly respected and influential and used his power to spark an uprising. • PRR is not really (only) about the Revolutionary War, but, rather, the events leading up to the Civil War and his fears regarding what would happen.

17. “Mistakes” in PRR • Longfellow’s purpose was to generate a movement and… • To get people to remember what we fought so hard to accomplish during the Revolutionary War (to BE a Union). • He also wanted to create an “American legend” in PR – which he did…

18. His “mistakes” were purposeful • Unfortunately, people depend on his poem to teach them the history • PR was really captured after only 19 miles • Israel Bissel (a postal worker) rode for 345 miles (4 days and 6 hours)