Lincoln, War, and the Slaughter of the American Working Class.docx

Lincoln, War, and the Slaughter of the American Working Class
The American Civil War 1861-1865
The American Civil War is still, without doubt, the most
traumatic experience in American History. Far more so than the
American Revolution, the World Wars, and 9/11.
New estimates put the number of soldier deaths at 750,000 or
above. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/civil-war-
toll-up-by-20-percent-in-new-estimate.html
This does not include the many civilian deaths through disease,
starvation, heartbreak, etc.
About 22 million lived in the North and 9 million in the South
at the time of the war. There was about a 3.5 to 2.5 ratio of
deaths North to South, but this means that the South lost a
greater percentage of its population.
About 36,000 African American soldiers were killed.
In the following slides, we’ll recount the seminal events leading
up to the war.
2

We can go back to the very foundations of the United States
when the Fugitive Slave Clause (Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3)
and the 3/5th Clause (Article 1, Section 2. Par. 3) of the
Constitution effectively legalized slavery without explicitly
mentioning slavery.
Also, Amendment 10 “The powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” leaves the
issue of slavery and other legal, commercial, and social matters
up to the states.
Arguments and ill feelings regarding these issues began almost
immediately, and tensions almost led to violence in 1820 when
the Missouri Compromise staved off revolt and kept the balance
between slave state and free state representation.
Texas independence from Mexico followed by its attempt to
join the U.S. created tensions before and after the delayed
admission in December of 1845, during the Polk
Administration.
Polk’s (murderous?) manipulation of international politics led
to massive gains in U.S. territory. He gave Mexico little
chance to a avoid war that resulted in the loss of the that
nations northern half, and he negotiated for the acquisition and
consolidation of the Northwest, completing the U.S. march to
the Pacific.
This created all kinds of problems for the slavery balance. The
Wilmot Proviso, which might have solved the problem, though

admittedly in the non-extentionist favor, was rejected. When
California asked to join the Union as a free state, it engendered
yet another crisis. Half of the state was below the Missouri
Compromise line. There was a call in Congress to split
California into one free and one slave state.
Then Clay (again) proposed a compromise that delayed
secession, but may have ensured it at the same time.
Battle of San Jacinto
April 21, 1836
1845
O’Sullivan
Popularizes Term
Manifest Destiny
Clays Compromise 1850
California Enters Union as a Free State
Territories to Have No Restrictions on Slavery
Enforce Fugitive Slave Law
No Slaves in D.C.
Recall from the last presentation that Clay’s 1850 Compromise
brought California in as a free state and ended the D.C. slave

market on the one hand, and intensified enforcement of the
Fugitive Slave Act and (opposite of the Wilmot Proviso) made
slavery possible in all of the newly acquired territories on the
other.
Four years later, the Stephen Douglas bill, that would make
slavery possible in all of the U.S. territories, was passed. This
Kansas-Nebraska Act would be the death knell for any prospect
of a peaceful resolution to sectionalism. The North and the
South were at this point likely polarized beyond reconciliation.
Pro-slavery and anti-slavery advocates began to stream into the
Kansas territory to try to assure that their faction would prevail.
This led to extreme violence and atrocities by both sides.
The radical abolitionist John Brown became notorious for his
brutal retaliations against the pro-slavery contingent.
Newspapers began to use the term “Bleeding Kansas” to
describe the horrors.
In retrospect, this might be considered the beginning of the
Civil War that would break out officially half a decade later.
Sack of Lawrence Kansas May 21, 1856

Pottawatomie Creek
Osawatomie
Bleeding Kansas
In 1857, the Taney Supreme Court confused the slavery
situation to the point that there was no clear distinction
between a slave state and a free state. The United States had
become a nation whose priority seemed to be the protection of
private property in the form of slavery above all other
considerations.
Dred Scott Decision
Some abolitionists began to feel that violent conflict was the
only possible route to a free society.
Harper’s Ferry Oct. 1859
John Brown left Kansas and brought a small army of
abolitionists to invade the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Va.
His intent was to arm slaves and foment a Nat Turner type
rebellion that would in turn ignite slave rebellions throughout
the South. Pro-slavery Southerners became highly agitated at
what appeared to be Northern sympathy for Brown’s terrorist
tactics.

Lincoln- Douglas Debates
1858
16
The Kansas-Nebraska Act had awakened Abraham Lincoln to
the slavery issue. He had been a non-extentionist and an
advocate of a back to Africa movement, but had never been an
abolitionist. In the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign he
decided to challenge incumbent Stephen Douglas in a series of
debates, largely over slavery, that brought Lincoln national
attention. These debates were taking place a year after the
Dred Scott decision and during the “Bleeding Kansas” violence.
Two years later, after giving a particularly rousing speech at
New York’s Cooper Union meeting hall, he became the surprise
candidate as the Republican presidential nominee.
Lincoln’s Cooper Union Speech 1860
18

Lincoln
1861-1865
Elected President of the United States in November 1860 with
180 of 303 electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote
(defeating three other candidates including Douglas).
South Carolina secedes from the Union in December of 1860.
Followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. These were soon followed by
Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
South Carolina militia laid siege to the federal armory at Ft.
Sumter in the Charleston Harbor. This opened hostilities
between South and North immediately after the election. The
war had begun then in the last months of the Buchanan
presidency.
Lincoln had gone from being a self-educated Kentucky farm boy
to the pinnacle of American politics in its moment of grave
crisis. In many quarters, he was expected to be a failure. Even
hos own Executive Cabinet doubted his abilities at first.

From laborer to lawyer.
1832 Black Hawk War
Lincoln served as an Illinois militia officer during the Black
Hawk War. He was in his early twenties at the time. While, by
his own later recollections, he never saw combat, he see some
of the more horrid affects of war.
Politics
1832 — Ran for the Illinois legislature; defeated.
1834 — Ran for the Illinois legislature and was elected
Representative for Sangamon County.
1836 — Re-elected Representative to the Illinois legislature.
1846 — Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
1854 — Elected to the Illinois legislature; resigned to run for
U.S. Senate; defeated.
1858 — Ran for U.S. Senate; defeated.
1860 — Ran for President of the United States and was elected.
1864 — Re-elected President of the United States.
Salmon Chase
Treasury
William Seward
State
Edwin Stanton

War
Gideon Welles
Navy
Lincoln’s Cabinet
The Southern states that had seceded formed a new government
know as the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis, a
former U.S. Senator (Mississippi), became its president.
The new government was loosely modelled on the united States
under the Articles of Confederation.
Feb. 1861
The Confederate States of America
Jefferson Davis
With Tad. Son Willie dies Feb. 1862
After Lincoln’s son died, his wife Mary suffered debilitating
depression and Lincoln himself had to struggle with depression
throughout the war.
Throughout the war, Lincoln and the North were handicapped
by a lack of military leadership. Many of the finest American
military men were from the South.
The North, on the other hand, had a far larger population of
fighting age men and a much greater industrial capacity.

Bull Run
July 1861
Almost immediately, the South demonstrated its military
superiority in its somewhat unexpected victory at Bull Run
(Manassas).
Antietam
Sep 1862
The following year, the North had the opportunity to delivering
a crushing blow to General Lee’s Virginia army, but failed.
Still, the horrifically bloody encounter and near Southern
victory scared the North and Lincoln.
Emancipation Proclamation
January 1863
Soon after Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation that freed the slaves only in areas not controlled
by the Union. It was a calculated and bold propaganda move
meant to terrorize the rebel states but to keep the loyal slave
states in the fold.

Habeas Corpus Act
March 3, 1863.
In the face of riots and other disruptions by dissenters in the
border states, Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus and the
Congress supported him a few months later.
The Federal Government not only jailed without those who
seemed to be Southern operatives, it also jailed journalists who
spoke in opposition to the Lincoln administration’s policies.
March 1863 -- The First Conscription Act.
Because of recruiting difficulties, an act was passed making all
men between the ages of 20 and 45 liable to be called for
military service. Service could be avoided by paying a fee or
finding a substitute. The act was seen as unfair to the poor, and
riots in working-class sections of New York City broke out in
protest. A similar conscription act in the South provoked a
similar reaction.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1863.html
John Summerfield, Lincoln’s Substitute
When those living in squalid conditions, most of whom were
Irish, learned that they would be drafted and that the rich could
buy their way out of the draft, they rioted. Many died, although
probably not as many as the more than 1000 reported at the
time.
Draft Riots Summer of ‘63

Vicksburg
May-July 1863
The Union finally got a much needed victory at the siege of
Vicksburg with the command of Union forces under Ulysses
Grant. After the failure of a string of Union commanders,
especially General McClellan, Grant caught Lincoln’s eye.
With the capture of Vicksburg, the Union had control of the
Mississippi River.
Gettysburg
July 1863
At about the same time, General Meade met General Lee at the
Battle of Gettysburg, which devastated both sides. It was the
bloodiest confrontation of the war. Lee and his Confederates
would never again press the war into the North.
February 25, 1863 - Signs a Bill establishing a
National Banking System,
which among other things created a national currency (green
backs), and provided new methods the fund the war.
Order of Retaliation Lincoln orders the killing of Confederate
POWs in retaliation for the South’s killing of black POWs
fighting for the Union.
July 30, 1863
“It is the duty of every government to give protection to its
citizens, of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially
to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public

service. The law of nations and the usages and customs of war
as carried on by civilized powers, permit no distinction as to
color in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies. To
sell or enslave any captured person, on account of his color, and
for no offence against the laws of war, is a relapse into
barbarism and a crime against the civilization of the age.
The government of the United States will give the same
protection to all its soldiers, and if the enemy shall sell or
enslave anyone because of his color, the offense shall be
punished by retaliation upon the enemy's prisoners in our
possession.
It is therefore ordered that for every soldier of the United States
killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be
executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into
slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the
public works and continued at such labor until the other shall be
released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war.”
By this point in the war, many mothers from both the North and
South had lost entire families.
In the highly charged religious environment spawned during the
2d Great Awakening, both sides claimed that they were fighting
to preserve Christian values.
Medicine was still very primitive and couldn’t keep up with the
slaughter. Injured or wounded men would often develop
infections. At the first sight of gangrene, doctors would opt for
amputation.

Late in 1863 Lincoln delivered what is surely one of the
greatest propaganda (recruiting) speeches of all time. Meant
ostensibly to honor the dead at Gettysburg, it was a call to
redouble the efforts of the North despite the carnage.
As Lincoln says here, the very possibility of democracy in the
world was at stake. Whether true or not, Lincoln seems to have
believed it and it was this that motivated his continued
prosecution of the war.
Lincoln visited battlefields, at great risk to himself and to the
consternation of those attempting to protect him.
Despite his lack of military experience, Lincoln was a hands-on
Commander-in-Chief, often sitting for hours and days by his
telegraph waiting for war news. He would make suggestions
and demands of his Generals that they ignored to their peril.
Lincoln fired many of his generals when he deemed them
ineffective.
Lincoln finally hired Grant and his close friend General
Sherman to lead the war effort. Grant was tenacious and single
minded. While not the tactical equal of Robert E. Lee, he was
aware of his resources and used them to end the war.
Sherman would become famous for expositing the notion of

Total War. You do not win wars by engaging enemy forces,
said Sherman, you win by destroying the means to wage war.
Sherman led his army through the South destroying crops and
manufacture and perhaps most importantly, civilian morale.
Grant – Sherman and
Total War
Lincoln’s re-election was not a certainty and in an attempt to
secure the votes of pro-Union Southern Democrats in the loyal
border states, as well as to send a message to martially
ambivalent Democrats in the deep South, Lincoln replaced
Northern abolitionist Republican Hannibal Hamlin with
Southern Democrat Andrew Johnson.
Hannibal Hamlin
Maine
Andrew Johnson
Tennessee
Lincoln was looking to future and already attempting to win the
hearts of what was certain to be a defeated people. Knowing
that it was going to be a gargantuan and delicate task to reform
the union, he went to the South’s former capital after the Battle
of Richmond to talk to Southern civilians and to hear their
stories.

April 4, 1865
The President Tours Richmond
Atlanta
Nov. 64
Appomattox
April 9, 1865
Following Grants tactical losses, but strategic victory in the
South, and Sherman’s destruction of Georgia, Grant finally
caught Lee and his troops at Appomattox. When Lee
surrendered, the war was essentially over.
Six days later, Lincoln was dead. In a plot hatched by actor
John Wilkes Booth, he and a group of co-conspirators planned
to kill Lincoln, Johnson, Seward, Stanton, and several others, to
throw the government into disarray and to re-ignite the war.
Lincoln was the only one killed.
Lincoln was shot on the evening of April 14th 1865 and died
early the next day.
It is one of great “what if”s of history (what Historians call a
counterfactual). How would the process of reconstructing the
nation have gone had Lincoln lived. How different might the
nation be today?
Remember, Lincoln was a corporate lawyer at one point and was
firmly pro-business. One can imagine that he might very well

have become an anti-labor president in the early phases of the
Gilded Age. He was, after all, willing to sacrifice as many
young working class men as was necessary to secure the
boundaries of pre-secession America.
April 14, 1865
With the exception of Booth, who was reportedly killed by a
soldier a week and a half after the assassination, the
conspirators were rounded up, tried, and executed. This
included Mary Surratt, whose son was a conspirator. Her guilt
is debated by historians to this day.

Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracies, Religious Re-
Awakenings, and the Roots of American Self-Confidence
Washington warned against the creation of political parties
while Jefferson claimed that parties and political debate were at
the very heart of democracy.
Parties formed almost as soon as the first administration stepped
into power.
The Federalists, Democratic-Republicans, Whigs, Democrats,
Know-Nothings, Free Soilers, and Republicans do not exist
today as they were once constituted in the antebellum world.
Post-Civil War we became a two-party system with little chance
for minority voices to prevail (or even be heard in many cases).
Late 18th and Early 19th Century Politics
The following slide runs you through the years as the United
States expands. Note the expansion of slavery or at least of the
slavery debate.

While other sectional disagreements, including many states
rights issues, will arise over the years, slavery is always the
key.
Washington had warned against the divisiveness of political
parties…
…but they become part of the American political landscape
almost immediately.
http://www.posterenvy.com/servlet/the-1646/2-Poster-Set--dsh-
/Detail
The election of 1800 almost led to session or civil war. The
Constitution’s election rule were so poorly articulated that
mistakes were inevitable.
Jefferson was running against Adams again, but they had new
running mates. The states would vote for two men for
president. The man with the most votes would be President
while the runner-up would be Vice-President. In the 1800
election however, Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican running
mate Aaron Burr garnered the same number of winning votes as
Jefferson. The election, as dictated by the Constitution, went to
the House to decide who would be President. The House was
weighted toward the Federalists who hated Jefferson (remember
the Alien and Sedition Acts, etc.).

Ultimately, Jefferson was granted the Presidency after many tie
votes. This was clearly what the people had intended, but
partisanship almost sank the union, as Washington had warned.
Largely due to the 3/5th Clause, that gave the South greater
electoral power, the Presidency was dominated by Democratic-
Republicans for the next 7 presidential terms. Four of the five
initial presidents were Virginians.
The Democratic-Republicans dominate for almost 30 years.
Jefferson 1801-1809
Madison 1809-1817
Monroe 1817-1825
Adams 1825-1829
The election of 1824 was another highly controversial election.
Despite the clear plurality for Jackson, nobody had a majority
of the electoral votes. When Crawford died after the election
was sent to Congress to be decided, Clay gave his votes to
Adams. Adams then had the majority of votes and became
America’s sixth President.

An angry Jackson called this the ”Corrupt Bargain”. He would,
however, win the presidency four years later.
Jackson
leads his new
Democratic Party
to victory in 1828.
The Whig Party formed in 1833. It is a pro-industry, anti-
slavery group that included a young Abraham Lincoln. It
coalesced as a challenge to what was seen as Jackson’s
dangerous populism.
Henry Clay and John Quincy-Adams form the National
Republican Party in response to Jackson’s Democratic Party in
1830.
The National Republicans morph into the Whig Party in 1833.
As the Whigs bickered among themselves, the new Republican
Party would arise as the main challenger to the Democrats. It’s
first candidate for President was John C. Fremont, a popular
figure with a romantic background as a frontiersman. He lost to

Buchanan in the 1856 elections.
The second Republican to run for the presidency was Abraham
Lincoln. He’d become President in 1861. His election in 1860
ignited the Civil War.
In 1854 the Whigs dissolve into several factions, one being the
new Republican Party
Fremont
Two parties arose in the late 1850s with somewhat narrow
agendas. One was the Nativist or Know-Nothing Party, that
extolled the virtues of being born in the United states while
expressing a revulsion for immigrants and particularly whose
who were Catholic..
The second was a party that opposed slavery in the territories. It
was also a Whig Party offshoot known as the Free Soil Party.
The abolitionist ‘s
Free Soil Party to a large extent joined the Republicans …
…and the Nativist or Know-Nothing party takes root and is
extremely effective in the mid-1850s.
Now we’ll go back to 1800 and briefly introduce some the more
important events of the early 19th Century.
We begin with the ultimate winner of that highly contested

election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson 1801-1809
Virginia
Democratic-Republican
Wealthy Plantation Owner
Jefferson inherited a problem from Adams. The Haitian
Revolution had been supported by the Federalists, due largely to
their hatred of the French (whose slave plantations belied their
core Revolutionary values).
Jefferson, however, was a French supporter and a slave owner
himself. While he may have had sympathy for the rebellious
slaves, he was more concerned with recovering good relations
with the French. Therefore, he abandoned the policy of support
for the slave rebels.
Haiti would win its independence despite Jefferson’s position.
We would not recognize, nor help this fledgling republic and
this would have repercussions for the small country throughout
its history.
Haitian Revolution 1791-1804
The Muslim societies of North Africa demanded tribute of

merchants ships that sailed near their shores. The U.S. followed
standard trade routes into the Mediterranean and were subjected
to the North African demands.
The so-called Barbary pirates sailing out of Tunis, Algiers,
Tripoli, and other African coastal ports captured American
vessels and kidnapped the sailors. The United states declared
war and sent naval vessels to patrol the area.
The Marine officer Stephen Decatur became famous for leading
a daring raid on Tripolitan ships and another unit soon captured
a Tripolitan town. The war ended in 1805, but the U’S.
ultimately ended up paying tribute nevertheless.
Tripolitan Wars
1801-1805
Religion
in
19th Century America
American reaction to the Enlightenment paralleled Europe’s
Romantic era. The expansion of Christian churches was
explosive, with huge numbers of Americans returning to the
religious fold. This included the establishment of hundreds of
new denominations.

The Cane Ridge Revival
Kentucky 1801
Often referred to as the largest gathering of the so-called
Second Great Awakening with upwards of 10,000 participants.
The Supreme Court of the United States was not well delineated
in the Constitution and it got off to a rocky start. John Jay was
the first Chief Justice, but resigned after five years largely
because there wasn’t enough to do. Also in these days (and, in
fact, until the 1880s) the Justices were forced to “ride circuit”,
that is to travel across the country to serve as appellate courts
justices for much of the year.
John Rutledge and Oliver Ellsworth would each take a turn
before 1800, but then everything changed. John Adams
appointed John Marshall to the Court during his final weeks in
office. Marshall would reshape the Court and set precedents
that continue to this day.
The Court first met in the old Royal Exchange in New York.
Gets this home in 1935.
Read your text for a more detailed account of the Marbury v.
Madison case. It was this case that is often credited with
establishing “judicial review”, that is, the Court’s right to
determine the Constitutionality of laws.

Marbury
v.
Madison
1801
While Jefferson lost to his old nemesis (and cousin) John
Marshall in the Marbury case (remember, Jefferson said states
had the right to determine any laws Constitutionality), he was
nevertheless considered to be one of the stars of the
Enlightenment.
He was a renowned architect, a brilliant scientific expositor,
and an admired political philosopher. He designed much of the
University of Virginia and his own house at Monticello which is
still considered to be one of the wonders of colonial
architecture.
University of Virginia
An early American archaeologist and paleontologist.
Monticello
In 1803 Jefferson would negotiate with Napoleon to double the
territory of the United states with the Louisiana Purchase. No

nation would ever again be able to shut off the Mississippi
River trade.
Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark expedition to survey the
Louisiana Territory, as well as lands father West in the hope
and anticipation that these would become part of the United
States in the near future.
Many protested the purchase, caliming that this would lead to
disputes over slavery in the new territories. These protestors
were, of course, right.
Ft. Clatsop Winter 1805
On the Oregon coast.
In 1804, the former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander
Hamilton, and the sitting Vice-President of the United States,
Aaron Burr would duel.

Burr killed Hamilton and then ran from prosecution.
1804
In 1807 Jefferson imposed an embargo on Britain, who had
continued to harass and kidnap American merchants as well as
providing guns and other support to indigenous peoples in the
Northwest Territories.
The embargo would do little to the British, but it sent the
American economy into a downward spiral.
1807 Embargo
Jefferson did little to deal with slavery issues, despite his
claims that these were among the most important problems of
the day. He never did free his own slaves and, in fact, would be
accused of fathering children with one of his slaves, Sally
Hemings.
This accusation would be largely corroborated with DNA
evidence in the late 20th century.

James Madison, the driving force behind the Constitution,
became President in 1809. A shy man by nature, he met his
wife Dolly through Jefferson and her gregarious nature altered
the scope of First Ladies forever after.
Madison
1809-1817
Virginia
He would be talked into invading Canada and declaring war on
Britain, largely by wealthy merchants. It was a disaster that
would define his presidency.
War of 1812
Hull Surrenders Fort Detroit

Tecumseh
Early on, the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh helped the British
take Ft. Detroit. He died a year later at the Battle of the
Thames.
The British kept most the American fleet locked in Boston
Harbor, although the relatively new frigate U.S.S. Constitution
won a handful of victories for the U.S. and Commodore Perry
succeeded dramatically in battle on Lake Erie. These were
among only a few bright spots of the war for the Americans.
Despite Victory Off Massachusetts Coast
U.S. Can’t Break Blockade
The British captured and burned the brand new capital at
Washington, D.C. forcing Madison to escape and to fight a
guerrilla war.
The British do, however, fail to capture Baltimore, inspiring
Francis Scott Key to pen the Star Spangled Banner.
Washington Burns
Ft. McHenry
1814

The one soldier who does find success in the war is Andrew
Jackson, who defeats indigenous people who have seen their
opportunity to rise up during this time of Anglo-American
conflict.
Jackson’s army wipes out the Creeks at Horsehoe Bend.
Creek War and Battle of Horshoe Bend
1812-1814
Neither side wanted to be fighting the war after the Americans
had come to their senses. A negotiation team was sent to Ghent
to hammer out a treaty which was signed Dec. 24th, 1814.
Treaty of Ghent 1814
Article X “Wheras the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the
principles of humanity and justice, and wheras bith His Majesty
and the United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to
promote its entire abolition…”.
Ironically, the Americans won their only major land victory
against the British at the Battle of New Orleans after the treaty
was signed.

Battle of New Orleans
Dec. 1814-Jan. 1815
Yet another Virginian became President in 1817. He had the
good sense to appoint a yankee (i.e. a Northerner) as Secretary
of State, John Quincy Adams.
Monroe 1817-1825
Virginia
After Monroe had sent Andrew Jackson to Florida to attack the
Seminole and to eliminate or disrupt the base for runaway
slaves, Spain realized it couldn’t stop this incursion.
Soon after, Secretary of State Adams will negotiate a treaty
with Spain that will give Florida to the U.S. and establish a
border at what is then the southwestern corner of the country.
This would be known as the Adams-Onis Treaty.
Monroe sends Jackson after the Seminole

1817
Spain Cedes Florida to U.S.
1819
After the original charter for Hamilton’s Bank of the United
States had lapsed, Congress renewed the charter. The Southern
states were livid. They felt that their own state banks were
being undercut by the Federal government and its big money
allies in the North.
The state of Maryland tried to tax the federal bank. Chief clerk
of the bank, James McCulloch, refused to pay, at which point
Maryland brought suit. The case went all the way to the
Supreme Court, who ruled that states cannot impose laws on the
federal government and that the implied powers of the federal
government were authorized in the Constitution to enforce it’s
“necessary and proper” duties to sustain a vibrant economy.
McCulloch v. Maryland
1819
McCulloch v. Maryland highlighted the contest over states’
rights, that is, a strong central government versus local
rule…but the major states’ rights issue was slavery. This issue
would eventually break the United States apart.
Slavery Issues Dominate American Politics In The Early 19th
Century

In the late 18th century, many had predicted that the institution
of slavery would collapse under its own weight, but the
invention of the Cotton Gin would inadvertently give it new
life.
“King Cotton” became the staple crop of the South and this was
seen by plantation owners to require an increase in slavery.
Cotton Gin 1792
In 1820, the fears of those who opposed the Louisiana Purchase
came to seem prescient. Settlers had carved an area out of the
western territories and applied to enter the union as the slave
state of Missouri. Northerners, complaining that this would
throw out the balance of representation between free and slave
states, voted to reject the application.
Henry Clay, of Kentucky, came up with a plan to mediate.
Missouri would come into the union as a slave state, but then
Massachusetts would be cut in half, the northern half coming
into the union as the free state of Maine. Also, at the line above
the southern border of Missouri (36 degrees, 30 minutes), all
future states would come in free.
In 1822, the Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy furthered fanned
the flames of fear in the South. The Carolinas had huge slave

populations (and in South Carolina) outnumbered whites. There
was a constant fear of uprising. This and anger over restrictions
on slavery in the territories led Southerners to virulent anti-
Northern sentiments.
July 1822
Many Latin American colonies were fighting for and winning
independence from Spain.
Other European powers were now looking to capitalize on
Spain’s losses. The U.S. had its own reginal interests, both in
Latin America and the continental northwest.
John Quincy Adams wrote a speech for James Monroe’s 1823
State of the Union address that warned the Europeans to cease
any new aggressive policies in the Western Hemisphere. This
“Monroe Doctrine” would be invoked by U.S. presidents
throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to justify its own
incursions.
Work in the Early Republic
Work in the Early Republic became very different once steam
powered factory work became prevalent. While the unskilled

poor had always lived rough lives, even the artisan classes were
now being forced into factories where they would become wage
workers (what Marx called “wage slaves”). Until then, the
artisans largely kept their own hours and commanded decent
salaries.
Industrial Revolution
Artisans have relatively high levels of independence,
determining working hours and work pace.
“Mechanics” mostly supported the Federalists and were
solicited for votes.
Federalists disdained and abused the poor.
Child Labor
Poor, working class children in the Northern industrial sectors
were little more than slaves.

Subsistence Farmers and Westward Expansion
As shown earlier in this presentation, the 1824 election was
highly contested and turned on what Jackson called “the Corrupt
Bargain” between J.Q. Adams and Henry Clay.
But, now Adams was president. He was a highly qualified man,
having been an ambassador, senator, representative, and
Secretary of State. He had left the Federalist Party and joined
the Democratic-Republicans and still later would become a
Whig. He seemed more interested in the health of the country
than partisanship. Still, his presidency was largely ineffective,
in some measure due to Jacksonian opposition.
John Quincy Adams
1825-1829
Massachusetts
Wealthy Lawyer
Still, Adams had some successes. In 1825 the Erie Canal
opened. Adams had earlier lobbied for such a canal and now it
was complete.
The canal connected Lake Erie with the Hudson River and
dramatically improved trade. It did, however, result in the
deaths of thousands of working men who built the canal. While
the investors and politicians were feted, the workers were
buried without fanfare.
Soon after, railroads began to appear, making the canal projects

obsolete.
Erie Canal
1825
363 miles from Lake Erie to Albany
Usually canal building uses slave or convict labor. The Erie use
Irish, Welsh, & German immigrant workers.
“Workers were housed in shanties like animals in barns.”
Sheriff 1996.
“Accidents, fever, cholera, fights, and snakebite exacted a
heavy toll on the workforce, many of whom were buried as they
fell on the towpath.”
http://www.wabashanderiecanal.org/Canal_History.html
1827 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is reputed to be the first

commercial freight line in operation.
By 1826, the United States was ready to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Many,
throughout the world, that the country had lasted this long. The
celebration would be known as the American Jubilee.
One of the most bizarre occurrences in American history took
place on July 4th, 1826, the day of the Jubilee. Both John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson, members of the committee to
write the Declaration of Independence, died.
July 4, 1826
Along the Eastern seaboard, much work was related to the sea.
While this offered opportunities for greater wealth, it also often
offered a quick death.
Both fishing and whaling took men far from shore and in some
cases around the world.
Whaling was among the most lucrative and most dangerous of
the professions. Entire communities (e.g. New Bedford and
Nantucket) devoted themselves to the whaling profession. Men
would go to sea for years at a time. Many never returned.
Some returned empty handed. Others came with home with
prize of whale products that would give them money to provide

for their families for years at a time.
1820 Sinking of the Whaleship Essex
Their whaleship’s hull was crushed by a giant sperm whale.
Herman Melville would base his novel Moby Dick on a
newspaper serialization written by one of the Essex survivors,
Owen Chase.
Constituting a Democracy
Without the Demos
Slaves, Women, Workers, and Virtual Representation

As you can tell, we’re going to explore not only the “genius” of
the founding, we’ll explore those members of the public whose
interests were excluded. While there was a ratification process
for the Constitution that was, in many ways remarkably
democratic, the rights of women, Indians, African Americans,
unpropertied whites, and others were ignored. As you can
likely surmise, this leaves only a relatively small minority who
were, in fact, fully represented.
The authors of the Constitution did ultimately provide
protections for many outside the represented minority, although
these were often a secondary effect. The founders were as
afraid of each other as they were of foreign powers and the
general public (the masses, in Marxian terminology).
Newburgh Conspiracy 1783
Gen. Alexander McDougall
Maj. Gen Henry Knox
Alexander Hamilton
Horatio Gates
While waiting for a peace treaty to be signed, soldiers became
restless. Officers, not being paid, began to conspire to take
over the government. They hoped that George Washington

would lead them in this coup. They went so far as to ask
Washington’s friend and aide Alexander Hamilton to approach
the general with this idea.
That Washington did reject the aims of the conspiracy is a
major reason why a United States exists today. The, in some
ways astonishing integrity (if that was the reason) of this leader
to walk away from power, is one of the unique aspects of the
American creation story.
Treaty of Paris
September 3, 1783
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay negotiate the
treaty.
Thomas Jefferson and Henry Laurens were also appointed to
the commission, but didn’t make it.
After the war, Spain fearing the obvious intentions of the
Americans to move West, closed off the Mississippi to
American traffic. This caused tremendous damage to the
economic prospects of frontier farmers and to the food stores in
the East.
The Spanish could do this because they controlled New Orleans,
the outlet to the Gulf of Mexico.
Not being able to take the sea route, the farmers had to get their
crops to market via the Appalachians.

1783 Spain Closes Mississippi to American Traffic
Impact on Western Farmers and Markets
8
This idyllic, romanticized painting doesn’t readily indicate the
Appalachian route’s difficulties.
The United
States
of
America
under the Articles of Confederation
One of the most important pieces of legislation produced by the
new Congress under the Articles of Confederation was the
Northwest Ordinance pf 1787.
It established U.S. territory that was independent of any state

(giving administrative control to the centralized Congress of the
Confederation), outlawed slavery in the territory, and specified
how lands within the territory would be admitted into the
Confederation as new states.
....Teaching MaterialsHistory 11Transcript of Northwest
Ordinance.docx
Northwest Ordinance 1787
The Northwest Ordinance legitimized American settlements in
lands that had been promised to indigenous peoples by the
British. Tribes were forced even farther West and conflicts
arose in what would become a hundred year war between the
United States and the indigenous people of North America.
Continued Disaster for American Indians
While the rise in the colonial, and then U.S population, must
have seemed relatively dramatic, at the time of country’s
creation there were fewer than 4 million people counted More
than 700,000 of these were slaves (1790 Census).
Compare this to the almost 320 million living in the U.S. today.
Growth of the Colonies
1607 Jamestown: 210 Settlers
1620-1629 Plymouth: 2,500 Settlers

1650 Colonial Population as a Whole: 28,000 Settlers
1690 Colonial Population: 214,000
1750 Colonial Population: 1.2 million
1780 Colonial Population: 2.8 million
1790 1st U.S. Census: 3,929,214
After the war, debt was rampant. May returned home to find
their families gone ad their farms taken over by others. The
states themselves were also deeply inn debt.
As often happens, post-war inflation was devastating to the
working classes.
Post – War Poverty
Debt and Inflation
Women’s Committees Demand Price Controls
But even Paine suggests that free markets will eventually solve
the problems.
The women respond that their children are dying now.
The states, ruled almost entirely by wealthy merchants or

landowners, began to impose taxes on the commoners in order
to pay off the war debt.
In Massachusetts, taxed farmers saw parallels between their
situation and the situation with the British that led to war in the
first place. They would rise up against the Boston elites in
what was called Shay’s Rebellion. The Massachusetts state
government eventually squashed it, but it scared leading men
throughout the Confederation. They began to fear that such
uprisings might take place in their own states and that no others
could come to their aid since each state was sovereign.
Shays’ Rebellion August ‘86-June ‘87
Sam Adams
John Hancock
Massachusetts Assembly
It wasn’t only yeoman framers and working class elements who
were dissatisfied with the situation under the Articles of
Confederation. Many large landowners and merchants felt that
interstate commerce led to too many conflicts and loss of
profits.
Each state had it’s own tax and tariff system as well as its own
system of weights and measures, its own money, and its own
understanding of contracts. The overall economy of the
Confederation was, to put it mildly, a mess.

Commerce Under the Articles
Is difficult at best, and often wholly dysfunctional. Who is there
to efficiently and effectively solve disputes between citizens of
the various states?
A small group (12) of the Confederation’s leading citizens,
including James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, met at
Annapolis in 1786 to amend the Article of Confederation to
make it more commerce friendly.
Very few showed up and the convention itself was largely
unsuccessful. It did however produce a document requesting a
larger convention to pursue more than commercial issues. This
time they would get Washington on board and many others who
were concerned with the state of the Confederation (and
especially with the rebellious nature of the working classes as
evidenced by Shay’s Rebellion).
Annapolis Convention September 1786
Over the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, a convention of
mostly wealthy and certainly otherwise prominent men, created
the United States as a single nation rather as a perpetual union
of 13 separate nations.
It was contentious and often rowdy. Washington maintained the

requisite decorum and Franklin brought the sensibilities of an
elder ( although he may have been too far gone by then. As the
Constitutional Convention began, he was suffering from a
variety of maladies that may have left him without his usual
sharp wit and incisive intellect).
Many, like Washington’s friend George Mason and Virginia
governor William Randolph, will leave the convention without
signing the document that was produced.
Jefferson, himself in France t the time, said he would not have
signed the document as written. He felt that, on the one hand, it
took too much autonomy from the states, and on the other hand,
failed to resolve the slavery issue.
Constitutional Convention
May 14 to September 17, 1787
Constitutional Issues
Great Compromise
3/5th Clause
Bicameralism
Weak Executive
Standing Armies
Best Men, Popular Consent
Strong Central Government
Electoral College
Big states and small states had to compromise on methods of
representation in a bicameral Congress. In the so-called Great

Compromise, the House would be represented proportionally
and the Senate equally. (Today, California with a population of
39 million gets two Senators as does Wyoming with fewer than
600,000.)
The southern states demanded that slaves be counted but the
north refused to allow full representation for the slaves
(knowing full well that the slaves would not actually be
represented). They came to another compromise, which in
effect legalized slavery and gave southern states a bump in
representation based on 3/5th of their respective slave
populations. This gave the South a disproportionate electoral
power.
The rather bizarre, but creative, Electoral College was designed
to undercut what the elite Constitutional authors saw as the
potential disasters of direct democracy.
The fear of monarchy led them to create a relatively weak
executive with no standing army to impose its will upon the
people.
“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among
the several States which may be included within this Union,
according to their respective Numbers, which shall be
determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons,
including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and
excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”
The 3/5th Clause
Article 1, Section 2
After tempers had flared and many had retreated in disgust,

Gouverneur Morris wrote a preamble to the Constitution and it
was signed by 39 of the original 55 delegates.
It was then sent to the states for ratification (approval). The
Constitution would go into effect if at least 9 of the 13 states
signed. Each state held a convention to debate the merits and
flaws of the document.
In New York, newspaper editorials by three men (Alexander
Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay) writing under the
name Publius, extolled the virtues of the Constitution. The 85
so-called Federalist Papers were later collected and today make
up one of our best primary sources to understand what the
participants actually thought at the time.
Eventually, the 9th state, New Hampshire, ratified and the
nation came into to being in theory in the summer of 1788. The
new government actually took over in March of 1789. Either, I
suppose, could be seen as the date for the birth of a new nation.
Ratification
Patrick Henry

George Mason
Virginia
Mercy Otis Warren
Massachusetts
Melancton Smith
New York
The Anti-Federalists were generally for state’s rights and a
weak central government, some were anti-slavery, some felt the
common man and individual rights were ignored.
Many, including Thomas Jefferson, demanded a Bill of Rights,
since the Constitution itself only laid the rights, duties, and
responsibilities of the new Federal government.
Some states ratified the Constitution only on the condition that
such a listing of rights would be forthcoming.
Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia ratify only on condition
that a Bill of Rights is forthcoming.
Madison proposed nineteen amendments of which twelve were
passed by Congress. Only ten were ratified by the states. We
now know these ten amendments as the Bill of Rights.

The Federalists concede to popular demand and include a Bill of
Rights
The Preamble to The Bill of Rights
Congress of the United States
begun and held at the City of New-York, on
Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred
and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time
of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order
to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further
declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as
extending the ground of public confidence in the Government,
will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of
both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed
to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the
Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles,
when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be
valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said
Constitution; viz.
ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution
of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and
ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the
fifth Article of the original Constitution.
The First Amendment gave us the Establishment Clause,
restricting the Federal Government from identifying a preferred
religion, and the right of free speech, particularly meant to
allow disagreements with the government without fear of
prosecution.

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.
Read the Second Amendment carefully and determine whether
or not you think this gives each individual the right to carry a
weapon.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall
not be infringed.
Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house,
without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a
manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon
probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and

particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons
or things to be seized.
The Patriot Act increases the government's surveillance powers
in four areas:
Records searches. It expands the government's ability to look at
records on an individual's activity being held by third parties.
(Section 215)
Secret searches. It expands the government's ability to search
private property without notice to the owner. (Section 213)
Intelligence searches. It expands a narrow exception to the
Fourth Amendment that had been created for the collection of
foreign intelligence information (Section 218).
"Trap and trace" searches. It expands another Fourth
Amendment exception for spying that collects "addressing"
information about the origin and destination of communications,
as opposed to the content (Section 214).
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/surveillance-under-usa-
patriot-act
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/surveillance-under-usa-
patriot-act
The Evisceration of the Fourth Amendment
Unchecked power
The result [of the Patriot Act] is unchecked government power
to rifle through individuals' financial records, medical histories,
Internet usage, bookstore purchases, library usage, travel
patterns, or any other activity that leaves a record. Making
matters worse:

The government no longer has to show evidence that the
subjects of search orders are an "agent of a foreign power," a
requirement that previously protected Americans against abuse
of this authority.
The FBI does not even have to show a reasonable suspicion that
the records are related to criminal activity, much less the
requirement for "probable cause" that is listed in the Fourth
Amendment to the Constitution. All the government needs to do
is make the broad assertion that the request is related to an
ongoing terrorism or foreign intelligence investigation.
Judicial oversight of these new powers is essentially non-
existent. The government must only certify to a judge - with no
need for evidence or proof - that such a search meets the
statute's broad criteria, and the judge does not even have the
authority to reject the application.
Surveillance orders can be based in part on a person's First
Amendment activities, such as the books they read, the Web
sites they visit, or a letter to the editor they have written.
A person or organization forced to turn over records is
prohibited from disclosing the search to anyone. As a result of
this gag order, the subjects of surveillance never even find out
that their personal records have been examined by the
government. That undercuts an important check and balance on
this power: the ability of individuals to challenge illegitimate
searches.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a

Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces,
or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public
danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to
be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled
in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of
law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without
just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to
a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and
district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which
district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be
confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory
process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the
Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be
preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-
examined in any Court of the United States, than according to
the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Who determines what is cruel or unusual?
Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson debated over the
need for a Bill of Rights. Hamilton said he feared that such a
list would be construed to mean that these were the only rights a
citizen had.
Jefferson countered that all they had to do was to say that these
were not the only rights. This is what the Ninth Amendment
does.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
The Tenth Amendment would lay the foundation of debates
between the respective powers of the United States and of the
individual states. It is still a bone of contention today, but in
1861 it led to a Civil War.
Slavery was one of those issues that would be left to the states
until the 13th and 14th Amendments.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the

Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to
the States respectively, or to the people.
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the
Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of
any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service
or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to
whom such Service or Labour may be due.
Article 4, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the
United States of America
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
SEC. 3. And be it also enacted, That when a person held to
labor in any of the United States, or in either of the Territories
on the Northwest or South of the river Ohio, under the laws
thereof, shall escape into any other part of the said States or
Territory, the person to whom such labor or service may be due,
his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest
such fugitive from labor
Signed into law by George Washington in Feb. 1793.
Proposed by Butler and Pinckney of S.C.
Washington, the first president of the new republic, was
painfully aware that everything that he did would be seen as a
precedent.
He gathered a group of brilliant men around him, including John

Adams (Vice-President), Thomas Jefferson (Secretary of State),
and Alexander Hamilton (Secretary of the Treasury). Each
would have a tremendous impact on the creation of the country,
and each was a profoundly capable yet deeply flawed character.
The Constitution was only the half of it. That document now
had to be interpreted and enacted. It was now that the country
began to see what the real possibilities and limitations were.
Neutrality 1793 Resignation
1796
Washington warns the younger American leaders to be
everyone’s friend and nobodies ally.
Amidst scandal, constant bickering, and sheer fatigue,
Washington decides to go home, where he dies just a few years
later.
One of the first orders of business in the new republic was to
control the Northwest Territories. This meant the elimination
or at least the domination of indigenous peoples.
Little Turtle’s War
Miami and Shawnee
1786-1795
Wayne

Battle of Fallen Timbers
France had begun its own Revolution demanding a more
equalitarian society and espousing the Rights of Man against
monarchical tyranny.
After years of bloody civil war and wars to liberate others under
monarchical rule, Napoleon Bonaparte would take control of
France and brandish his own form of totalitarianism.
Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, believed in
strong central control, both politically and financially. He
would largely create modern American capitalism.
He had two big early schemes. One: he wanted to assume the
vast debt from the states and pay it back with Federal taxes.
This Assumption Plan would serve to confirm the right of the
Fed to tax and would establish credit domestically and abroad.
Two: he wanted to establish a central Bank of the United States
to direct financial actions among the states.

Both were opposed by Jefferson and Hamilton, although they
both agreed to limited versions of the plans if the Federal
capitol would be relocated to the South. This would become
Washington, D.C.
Debt
D.C.
Hamilton’s Central Bank
The Southern states oppose it. They see it as an imposition and
a violation of state’s rights.
At the expense of soldiers who had been forced to sell the war
bonds that they had earned (often as wages) were forced to sell
them cheap to speculators who had more resources to wait for
more favorable terms.
Hamilton gave these speculators the terms they wanted, helping
to create a capitalist class.
The very first U.S. bond issue was steeped in corruption.
Hamilton was intent on creating a capitalist class and dedicated
to conditions conducive to wealth creation.

Pennies on the dollar to soldiers… face value to speculators.
William Duer
Asst. Sec. of Treasury
Insider trading bond scandal leads to Panic of `1792
Hamilton decided to levy a tax on alcohol and other perceived
vices.
The problem for western farmers was that they had hit upon a
scheme to profit on their crops now that the Mississippi was no
longer available to them as a waterway to get to market. They
turned the grain into alcohol, which allowed them much more
latitude in their choice of markets.
The new taxes cut into their potential profits. They rebelled,
but this is just what Washington wanted to demonstrate that the
federal government now had the legal power to deploy an army
to shut down rebellions within states.
Whiskey Rebellion 1794
The British maintained many of their forts in the Northwest
Territory and continued to supply the indigenous population
with weapons.
They also continued to disrupt American trade and kidnap
American sailors. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court, was sent to discuss these issues with the British
government. He was treated within disdain and came home with
a treaty that many Americans saw as an abusive insult. They
would not give any guarantees, but for consideration of the
issues they demanded that the U.S. make them a most favored
trading partner.
This upset revolutionary France which lost revenues because of
America’s treaty with Britain, who they were currently at war
with.
Jay’s Treaty 1794
After Washington left office and Adams was now President
(with his political rival Jefferson as Vice-President … more on
this later), three diplomats, Charles Pinckney, Eldridge Gerry,
and John Marshall (Adam’s Secretary of State) were sent to
soften the blow.
Talleyrand, France’s foreign minister sent three low level
ministers to meet them, but refused to meet with them himself
unless they agreed to pay a fee and supply a large loan. This
led to poor relations between the two former allies. It was later
dubbed the X,Y,Z Affair.
It also led to the construction of a new American navy to
support its merchant ships who were now being attacked by both
the British and the French. It also almost led to civil war and
secession I the United States when Adam’s Federalists and
Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican’s engaged in a war
of words over the issue.

XYZ Affair 1797
“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!"
Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry to France
Quasi War
The Congress, dominated by the Federalists, passed a set of
laws meant to stifle Republican opposition. They made it more
difficult to become a citizen, which was aimed at Jefferson’s
French immigrant friends, they made it easier to deport aliens
who spoke against the Federalist government, and made it
illegal for anyone (read Republicans) to speak against the
government policy or any government official.
A handful of Republicans spent a significant amount of time in
jail for offenses that we (and the Republicans) consider the
right of free speech.
Jefferson responded by authoring the Kentucky Resolution that
claimed that states had the right to determine a federal law’s
constitutionality and to nullify the law if it did not meet
constitutional standards. Madison wrote the Virginia
Resolution that simply called for Congress to repeal the
Sedition Act.
Naturalization Act
Alien Act

Sedition Act
1798
80
While white citizens were grappling with the very notions of
freedom, many were slaveholders.
Slaves, often fought back. In 1800 Gabriel Prosser led a band
of slaves in a bloody Virginia revolt. He asked poor whites to
join him, correctly seeing the slave situation as an economic
issue as well as a racial issue. No whites join him in the
rebellion.
It failed on the surface, but brought the conditions of slavery
into view for many in America who were dealing with other
problems of rule.
The survival of the United States was not a foregone conclusion
and the issue of slavery led to its near dissolution. [It might still
ultimately lead to the dissolution of American as we fail to
grapple with the problems of ethnic minorities, especially
African Americans who continue to suffer from the iniquities of
a racist social order.]
Gabriel Prosser
Aug. 1800

The American Revolution
Commoner’s War, Aristocratic Triumph
Are we all better off because we had a Revolution?
Who actually fought? What were their motives?
Who benefited? Who did not?
To understand the American Revolution beyond the sustaining
myths, these are some of the questions we have to ask.
The working classes certainly had complaints against the
British, including lack of legal support, the fear of getting
drafted to fight in one of Britain’s commercial wars, the fear of
impressment into the British Navy to support its merchant fleet
and control its colonies, taxes, etc.
The rich had their own dissatisfactions. One was the British
control of land that the wealthier colonists felt should be theirs
to dispose of as they saw fit.
George Washington’s interests in land acquisition would bring

him to the West in both civilian and military capacities.
George Washington’s interest in trans-Appalachian lands
ultimately led him to become a major participant in the French
and Indian War and the Revolution. While there were certainly
other issues, as we’ll see, that pushed Washington and many of
his peers to rebel, land acquisition was a big one.
He’ was given command of a Virginia militia unit that was sent
to Western Pennsylvania to dislodge the French. He ended up
starting a war…The French and Indian War. Costs of this war
and British bungling of colonial relationships in its aftermath
resulted in the independence movement.
Washington Starts a War?
Ft. Necessity and Ambush
After Washington’s men slaughtered a French encampment, the
French forced Washington to surrender.
Washington would go back to the frontier with General
Braddock and witness the annihilation of British troops. Soon
after, as tensions escalated, France and Britain would declare
war on each other.
The Braddock Disaster
British General Edward Braddock was sent West with a large
force to convince the French to leave disputed territories.

George Washington went with him, having already had
experience in the Ohio River Valley. Washington apparently
went along reluctantly. He also seems to have warned Braddock
that traditional tactics would fail against the Experienced
French and their Indian allies.
Braddock failed to heed the advice, was ambushed and soundly
defeated. Washington would rally the survivors and make an
impressive escape.
Royal Recruits
Colonial Militias
Rangers
“Mountain Boys”
American Colonial Soldiers During the French and Indian War
During the war, the British made use of armed local colonists.
Members of organized militias and gangs of “mountain boys”
and frontiersmen would also be recruited by General Amhurst to
form non-traditional fighting units. These units were charged
with roaming far and wide through rough terrain in order to
attack the French and their Indian allies, who had been raiding
into British colonial areas with impunity.
These units were referred to as Rangers. Some, like Roger’s
Rangers became known for atrocities that forced the public to
wonder about the moral aspects of their fight.

Roger’s Rangers attacked St. Francis on the St. Lawrence River
in Canada and purportedly engaged in acts of cannibalism
against enemy women and children.
After the war, gangs of white settlers, enraged by what they saw
as Indian atrocities, committed unprovoked atrocities
themselves.
1764 The Paxton Boys Massacre 20 Peaceful Susquehannock
Indians
Following the war, which dangerously depleted the British
treasury, attempts at financial recovery using colonial resources
led to the American Revolution.
The British had already been restricting trade, aiming to
monopolize the benefits of colonial economics.
King George III
Englishmen All? War Costs and Joint Fiscal Responsibility ?

Many merchants who were affected by such restrictions formed
black markets and smuggling networks to take advantage of
trade opportunities outside of the British monopolies. This of
course, made them criminals in British eyes.
Navigation Acts 1730s-1760s Restrict Colonial Trade to Britain
~ Outlawing Colonial Trade with France, Spain, and the
Netherlands
Roots of vast smuggling operations.
Molasses Act 1733 and Sugar Act 1764 are taxes on sugar
imports and meant to draw revenue from the colonies.
Effective colonial smuggling circumvents the taxes. British
attempts to enforce the laws lead to tremendous colonial
resentment.
British laws protected British merchants at the expense of the
colonial economies. This was a main feature of Mercantilism,
where the British government supported their own merchants,
creating monopolies and supporting them both militarily and
with monetary policies.
Currency Act
Meant to Protect British Merchants
Colonial issues of paper money can be used to pay taxes, but

not to pay private debt (i.e. to merchants) due to inflation.
Colonial women organize boycotts of British goods.
When colonial resistance arose, the British government imposed
laws meant to demonstrate who held the power. Lacking
garrisons to house an influx of soldiers, an act was passed to
house them with local colonists.
This was tantamount to having a police force living under your
roof as you went about your daily activities.
1764 Quartering Act
At their own expense, colonists must house British soldiers.
In a revenue enhancement project, the British government
imposed a new tax upon colonists that called for a fee for any
public transaction. It required stamps of various costs,
depending on the nature of the transaction.
The Stamp Act was rejected by many colonists who claimed
that, without representation in Parliament, the taxes were both
unjust and illegal. Unwittingly the British government had
united the colonists in protest, since North and South, city and
country, and rich and poor alike were subjected to the taxes.
For the first time, even after fighting a series of wars in
common, there was a sense of geographical and class unity
(although these pan-colonial sympathies only went so far, as
we’ll see in later presentations.)

1765
Rich and poor alike.
Stamp Act
25
Benjamin Franklin had tried to form a colonial union with his
Albany Plan during the French and Indian War, but this was
rejected both by the colonial elete who feared a centralized rule
and by the British government who feared colonial unity.
The 1765 legislation brought the colonial elite together at New
York City in what was called the Stamp Congress. Their
agenda was to analyze the current situation and to explore the
possibilities of collective protest. The precedence set at these
meetings later led to the Continental Congresses as the
relationship between the British government and it’s colonies
deteriorated.
Stamp Act Congress
Foundations of Inter-Colonial Cooperation
Organizations of protest began to proliferate. Among them
were the Son’s of Liberty whose members included an inter-
class group affected not only by the Stamp Act, but by the
continued embarrassment of impressment and kidnapping on the
high seas, along with the various Navigation Acts.

Samuel Adams was long considered to be a leader of the Sons,
but recent scholarship has brought me to reasses his
involvement (see for example Pauline Maier’s article Coming to
Terms With Samuel Adams in the American Historical Review.
It is available through our library in the JSTOR Arts and
Sciences database.
The Sons of Liberty
A multi-city, inter-class “secret society.”
A rural group of protestors calling themselves the Regulators,
continued to harass the colonial elite while adding the British
government as objects of scorn.
The Regulators
Against the British taxes and the corruptions of the colonial
elite.
1766
The Stamp Act is repealed…

….but Parliament passes the Declaratory Act which is meant to
undermine claims of “taxation without representation.” It says
that Parliamentary rule is universal among English peoples.
Although Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, they did so in
arrogant and alienating fashion. The Declaratory Act was a slap
in the face of the protestors and this was followed by an even
more oppressive act than the Stamp Act had been. The new
taxes were imposed in the Townshend Acts (names after the new
Prime Minister).
The Townshend Acts (1767) taxing glass, lead, paints, paper,
and tea, inflames already volatile colonial passions against
Parliament.
The trade restrictions, tax laws, and Quartering Act created
economic devastation, including mass unemployment, in the
port cities. The Quartering Act included a provision giving
active British soldiers in the occupying army the few available
jobs as an off-duty enhancement to their meager incomes.
In 1770 Boston, angry unemployed mobs would gather the
streets, leading to a deadly confrontation with patrolling
soldiers on March 5th. Five working class Bostonians were
killed. The soldiers were put on trial for murder, but through
the brilliant efforts of John Adams as their lawyer, they were
acquitted.
Adams convinced an all colonial jury that the soldiers acted in
self defense, and went on to blame the British government for

placing them all in the volatile situation in the first place.
Adams gained notoriety throughout the colonies.
Boston Massacre
1770
In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act which gave the East
India company more control over tea based income, but also
lowered the price of tea in the colonies. This seriously undercut
the smuggling profits of colonial merchants.
The act also imposed a slight tax on tea. The colonists rejected
this tax, reasoning that if they did so they would be
acknowledging the right of Parliament to do so despite a lack of
colonial representation.
The Tea Act of 1773
Intended to Protect the East India Company’s Colonial Tea
Monopoly
In an act of sabotage, the Son’s of Liberty organized the
dumping of 45 tons of East Indian Company tea into Boston
Harbor. This action seemed to be the final straw, leading the
British government to impose a set of Draconian laws on the
people of New England.

1773
Boston Tea Party
As mentioned before, the colonial elite as well as the working
poor who wanted settlement land, were deeply angered by the
Proclamation Act of 1763 which forbade settlement in Western
lands.
Now the Quebec Act seemed like salt in the wound, giving their
very enemies in the French and Indian War concessions in
religion and territory. It also created a centralized model of
colonial government that would be imposed in the 13 lower
colonies.
…but why were rich landowners and poor farmers seeking
homesteads so upset?
The Royal Proclamation of 1763
Quebec Act of 1774
At the same session of Parliament that saw the passage of the
Quebec Act, the British imposed a set of Coercive Act meant to
punish for their insubordination.
The colonists would call these the Intolerable Acts.
The Coercive (aka Intolerable) Acts of 1774

Washington calls the Administration of Justice Act “the Murder
Act
More troops were sent to Boston under General Gage and they
began to hunt down the suspected ringleaders of the protests.
They accused these leaders of a variety of crimes, many of
which were true.
Gage and Troops to Boston
April ‘74
John Adams
Sam Adams
John Hancock
Paul Revere
Instigators
Spies
Conspirators
Messengers
Gun Runners
Merchants
Smugglers
Statesmen
Patriots

Leaders from throughout the colonies (except Georgia) gathered
in Philadelphia in the fall of 1774 to discuss what should be
done. While all were concerned and even angry at the laws
passed to suppress independent thinking, many, if not most,
were reluctant to see violent reaction as an option.
They did agree to boycott British goods, hoping to damage the
British economy and thus persuade Parliament to lift the
Coercive Acts.
First Continental Congress
12 Colonies agree to boycott and to meet again.
September 5, 1774 to October 26, 1774,
Meanwhile, New Englanders were arming for rebellion. Much
of the a available armory was financed by John Hancock, who
would be the object of a British march from Boston to Concord.
Hancock
Paul Revere organized the messenger/spy network. His actions
were overly romanticized by early 19th century poet Henry

Wadsworth Longfellow in his Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,
but as the historian David Hackett Fisher maintains, he was
nonetheless worthy of a strong historical reputation.
(The Long Island teenager Sybil Ludington is probably more
worthy of the romantic esteem given her own midnight ride.)
Israel Bissell
Paul Revere
Sybil Ludington
The British occupation force marched toward Concord on April
19th, 1775, but were confronted by so-called minutemen at a
bridge in Lexington. Shots were fired and these would go down
in traditional histories as the first shots of the Revolution.
Many have argued, however, that the war had already begun in
earlier years. Nevertheless, this confrontation stirred the fears
and ambitions of colonists from north to south.
The colonists would retreat from Lexington but regroup in
Concord, a few miles west. They gained an unexpected victory
at Concord prompting Gage to send word to England that this
was all out rebellion and that he required additional military
resources to get it under control.
Lexington

Concord
Breed’s Hill
The colonists surrounded the British in Boston and later, in the
early summer, fought a pitched battle with them on the
Charleston Peninsula referred to as the Battle of Bunker Hill.
While the British ultimately won, they were convinced that the
Americans had become a formidable enemy.
June 17th 1775
The battle took place as colonial leaders were meeting in
Philadelphia at the Second Continental Congress. The Congress
issued a half-hearted peace Proposal known as the Olive Branch
Petition, but it was too little, too late. (The colonists had
already invaded Canada.)
The Second Continental Congress will remain in sessions until a
new governing body is formed by ratification of the Articles of
Confederation toward the end of the Revolutionary War.
Second Continental Congress
May 10, 1775 – Feb. 1781

Olive Branch Petition July 5th, 1775
after invasion of Canada
They also drew up a document explain to the rest of the
colonists why they were going to war. This was, of course,
upsetting to most Americans…even to many of those who
supported the cause.
Second Continental Congress
(Convenes May 1775 and Stays in session for over a decade.)
Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (July
1775)
June 1775
Washington is appointed Commander –in-Chief
of the
Revolutionary Forces
New Hampshire ratifies a State Constitution in January, 1776.
The other colonies follow suit.
Despite declarations from the Continental Congress and from
each of the states, the purposes and motivations behind the
rebellion were poorly articulated. This changed with the
publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Paine’s little
pamphlet excited Americans and pushed then toward further
action and toward better explanations of their rebellion.

January 1776
A simple, direct democracy.
Declaration of Independence
July 1776
John Adams Massachusetts
Benjamin Franklin Pennsylvania
Roger Sherman Connecticut
Robert Livingston New York
Thomas Jefferson
Virginia
66
Steeped in the traditions of the Enlightenment, Thomas
Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of
Independence. It is a combination of poetic determination and a
prosaic listing of grievances.
Read the entire document. We’ll be reviewing it in some detail
in our next discussion.
http://www.ushistory.org/DECLARATION/document/

Newton
Locke
Smith
Hume
Still, it is a statement of universal freedom that excludes women
and African Americans.
“he [the king of Britain] has waged cruel war against human
nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in
the persons of a distant people who never offended him,
captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere,
or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this
piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the
warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to
keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has
prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative
attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and
that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of
distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in
arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has
deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also
obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against
the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to

commit against the lives of another. “
The war had been raging since “74, but there was no unifying
document until the 2d Continental Congress wrote the Articles
Of Confederation for Perpetual Union in ‘77, which was debated
and not ratified until 1881 at the end of the war.
It was a patchwork document that failed to address many of the
concerns Americans had bout the so-called unity. Under the
Articles, the individual colonies were to remain independent
states (i.e. countries).
Approved by Congress
Nov. 15, 1777
Ratified
March 1, 1781
Americans were split into at least three mentalities or outlooks:
1) Pro-Revolutionary Patriots; 2) Pro-British Loyalists; and 3)
the largest sensibility, neutrality.
Patriots
Loyalists
Neutralists

Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys initially fight for the
Patriots. They take Ft. Ticonderoga in 1775.
Later, without Allen, the “Boys” will be a significant factor in
the war’s most important battle at Saratoga and at several other
key battles.
Vermont will eventually become Neutralist.
The Revolution quickly becomes a civil war. Many urban
workers and mountain settlers fight for the Patriots.
Slaves and freedmen are caught in the middle.
One of the bloodiest battles of the war is fought between two
factions of colonists at King’s Mountain, S.C. in 1780.
Many loyalists like Landon Carter think that the world is
coming to and end…that the rebellion portends the end of civil
society.
Class distinctions are exacerbated during the war.
Working class soldiers often don’t understand what the war is
about and their initial enthusiasms recede into profound
grievances.

The Continental Congress will use a number of desperate
measures to fund the war. Robert Morris will do this rather
brilliantly after 1781.
But, soldiers pay is devalued monthly because of rampant
inflation, and they are “encouraged” to buy war bonds that
many cannot afford to hold onto after the war in order to get
full value.
Many working class soldiers returning home after the war will
find their families gone, farms repossessed, and if wounded they
may be unemployable.
While words like “freedom” were used by all (including
Loyalists), working class common soldiers were fighting for the
radicalism of social reform, while the officer elite were
generally fighting for the radicalism of economic freedom from
British mercantilist demands.
Early in the war, the Americans will attempt to annihilate the
Indians or at least to remove them from the Ohio Valley. This
is land coveted by American commercial interests, including a
number of the so-called founding fathers.
Destruction of the Six Nations

Washington couldn’t maintain control of New York against a
superior British force, so he retreated. Had he not done so, the
war would have been over.
His recruitment efforts their ran into a number of glitches and
the Continental forces were ragtag army at best.
August 1776
Battle of New York
On their way to Philadelphia they had to cross the Delaware
River. Look at the following picture and see if you can pick out
the flaws in this highly romantic and patriotic portrayal.
Crossing the Delaware
Dec. 25-26, 1776
Washington will get his first, much needed victories against the
Hessian troops at Trenton and Princeton. The Hessians are
German mercenaries hired by George III to fight the Americans.
(Remember, the Hanovers, were Germans themselves.)

December, 1776
But, it was a almost a year later that the Americans once
perhaps their most significant victory of the war at Saratoga in
the Hudson River Valley.
The battle was ostensibly won by General Horatio Gates, who
got the credit, but later historians point out that Benedict
Arnold was the true hero of the battle.
After this, the French were convinced that the Americans could
win and they began to support the American efforts both
financially and militarily.
Saratoga
Fall 1777
Burgoyne
Gates
Arnold
After giving up Philadelphia, Washington was forced to regroup
for the winter of 77-78 at Valley Forge. Contrary to popular
histories, it was not a particularly cold winter. This fact
allowed the troops, who would eventually get supplies from the
Congress and training, from the likes of a German soldier
named von Steuben, to prepare for the next season’s campaigns.

Valley Forge
Winter 1777-78
Washington hires
von Steuben
By Fall of 78, French armies had arrived in America. Despite
his youth, LaFayette became a general in Washington’s army,
while a couple of years later his French counterpart
Rochembaud would lead the French troops.
May 1778
Louis XVI
While Washington fought in the North or Middle states, the
South was more of a guerrilla war. These tactics proved
effective as Francis Marion “the Swamp Fox” kept British
General Cornwallis’ troop frustrated. The when northerner
Daniel Morgan brought his troops to South Carolina and
defeated Cornwallis, the British general decided to give up the
South.

Cornwallis settled his troops in at Yorktown on a coastal
peninsula in Virginia. He expected to be picked up there by the
British navy.
It was a race, since Washington and his Generals Greene and
LaFayette were all converging on Yorktown.
Yorktown
1781
LAFAYETTE
ROCHAMBEAU
Washington
Greene
A French fleet, under the command of the Marquis de Grasse,
turned back the British squadron headed to Yorktown, thus
sealing the fate of Cornwallis and his troops.
Colonial Economies and Lifeways

Mercantilism and the Colonial Wars
Who Were the Invading Cultures and Why Did Europeans
Dominate in North America?
Why Did the European Immigrants Come in the First Place?
Why Were Africans and Mexicans in the North and How Did
They Survive the Northern European Onslaught?
Who Came
to the
Southern Colonies?
Often, upper class and upper middle class folks had a downturn
of fortunes. While they still thought of themselves as member
of the higher classes, they’re wealth might have been at a low
ebb.
Some of the younger member of this group might strike out for
the “New World” in the hope of getting rich quick.
On the other end of the scale, the poor might be facing debtor’s
prison or work farms or starvation and choose to indebt
themselves to colonial investors. They would give themselves
up to a virtual slavery for a period of years in order to pay off
their transportation debts. They would be know as indentured
servants.

“Distressed Cavaliers”
Indentured Servants
David Hackett Fischer of Brandies University claims that many
of the migrants to the Southern Colonies came from the South
and Southwest of England – Especially during the English Civil
War. they were largely from Loyalist regions.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke 1587
1584 Raleigh’s Charter
1585 First Colony Lands
1586 All go home with Drake after he destroyed St. Augustine
Reported Lost in 1590
Englishmen began to colonize North America during the reign
of Queen Elizabeth. The first attempt was at Roanoke in 1584,
which ended in disaster as mentioned in the last presentation.
The first “successful” English colony was at Jamestown in
1607. Bring gentry and indentured servants who were looking

for quick riches, it was a mess of ineptitude. The gentry
refused to work initially and the servants then refused to work
for them.
Jamestown 1607
The Englishmen weren’t farmers and spent time looking for
gold instead of growing crops. They also began to die because
of diseases that permeated the swamplands along the James
River (not to mention a rather wicked variety of poisonous
snakes).
They also began to murder each other. The Powhatan (the local
Indian culture) looked on in bemusement.
1607
Jamestown
When the English realized they had too little food to survive,
they stole grain from the Powhatan, killing several of them in
the process.
First priority is gold, later it’s tobacco – but never enough food.

A variety of folks with different professions made the trip, but
it was not a well conceived mix.
Indentured Servants
40% Don’t Survive the Contract Period
Master Edward Maria Wingfield
Captaine Bartholomew Gosnoll
Captaine John Smyth
Captaine John Ratliffe
Captaine John Martin
Captaine George Kendall
Councell
Name
Occupation
Master Robert Hunt
Preacher
From: Jamestown Rediscovery List of Settler by Occupation
http://apva.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=30
Council
--person chosen by the king to advise and assist in the
governing the colony.
Preacher
--person responsible for the spiritual health of the colony. He
conducted services and performed religious rites for settlers.
From : Occupations in Jamestown

http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/teaching/jamestown/jobs_1.html
Master George Percie
Anthony Gosnoll
Captaine Gabriell Archer
Robert Ford
William Bruster
Dru Pickhouse
John Brookes
Thomas Sands
John Robinson
Ustis Clovill
Kellam Throgmorton
Nathaniell Powell
Robert Behethland
Jeremy Alicock
Thomas Studley
Richard Crofts
Nicholas Houlgrave
Thomas Webbe
John Waler
William Tanker
Francis Snarsbrough
Edward Brookes
Richard Dixon
John Martin
George Martin
Anthony Gosnold
Thomas Wotton, Surgeon
Thomas Gore
Francis Midwinter
Gentlemen
Gentleman

--a man of the upper-middle class (below the royal family, titled
and lesser nobility) who was entitled to display arms (that is,
had been granted a heraldic shield by the College of Heralds).
The gentlemen settlers were all men who could afford and
bought shares in the Virginia Company while still in London. A
gentleman might hire laborers to work for him or pay the
passage of others in hopes of building an estate in the New
World.
William Laxon
Edward Pising
Thomas Emry
Robert Small
Anas Todkill
John Capper
Carpenters
James Read
Blacksmith
Jonas Profit
Sailer
Thomas Couper
Barber
John Herd
William Garret
Bricklayers
Edward Brinto
Mason
Carpenter
--craftsman who built furniture, tools, farm implements,
wagons, and houses. The carpenter also took care of the wooden
hull of a ship and repaired damage. The carpenter's skills were
crucial because the primary route for transportation in the
colony was by water.

Blacksmith
--fashioned iron tools for farming and building in a hot forge.
Sailor (Sailer)
--knew workings of ship and had navigational skills. Sailors
were important to the Jamestown settlement even after they
arrived because the major form of transportation was still by
water up and down the James river.
Barber
--not only trimmed beards and hair but performed or assisted
surgeries and dental operations.
Bricklayer
--craftsman who made and arranged bricks for buildings.
Mason
--a builder and worker in stone; cut stone to fit buildings.
William Love
Taylor
Nicholas Skot
Drum
John Laydon
William Cassen
George Cassen
Thomas Cassen
William Rods
William White
Ould Edward
Henry Tavin
George Golding
John Dods
William Johnson
William Unger

William Wickinson, Surgeon
Labourers
Samuell Collier
Nathaniel Peacock
James Brumfield
Richard Mutton
Boyes
The first supply ship in 1608 brought more gentlemen and
general labourers, but also , a perfumer, a pipe-maker, an
apothecary, and various other skilled workers…
….but , while these skills are valuable to the
Maintenance of a society, few would be
Knowledgeable about building a society from the
wilderness.
Coupers
Traders
Tailor (Taylor/Tailers)
--made clothes from cloth material and leather for gentlemen of
fashion.
Laborer (Labourers)
--worked to grow whatever their gentleman masters wanted,

generally corn or tobacco; worked building houses and other
essential tasks.
Fueller
--person who supplied wood for fires. Wood was the major fuel
source in the colony and was burned for heat, light, cooking,
forging, and probably defense.
Refiner
--(probably) person who refined gold. The refiner would take
gold in its rough natural state, remove any rocks or other debris,
and mold it into a pure form. The Virginia Company thought
they would find gold in the New World because the Spaniards
had found it there. But there was no gold to be found in
Virginia, so the Jamestown refiner would not have been very
busy!
Gunner
--an officer under the Crown, responsible for artillery and
ammunition.
Apothecary
--person who kept a store or shop of non-perishable items like
spices, drugs, preserved fruits and vegetables. Apothecaries
were like pharmacists because they make powders, syrups,
tinctures, and pills to medicate illness or prevent it.
Surgeon
--medical man, often on a ship, who practiced healing by
manual operation. Surgeons treated wounds, fractures,
deformities, disorders through surgery.
Cooper (Couper)
--craftsman who made and repaired wooden vessels of storage
such as casks, buckets, tubs, and barrels. Coopers made barrels
to store a variety of foodstuffs, water, wine, and other goods as
well. The cooper's task was a difficult art which is passed down
from master to apprentice.
Tobacco-Pipe-maker
--artisan who made pipes for the smoking of tobacco.
Tradesman
--person who went into the interior of the colony to trade

British items for Indian furs and goods, often food. For many
years, Jamestown survived solely on the food Indians gave or
traded with them.
Captain John Smith had been hired to train the men for any
military operation that might be needed. He was on an
exploration down the river systems and hunting for meat when
the Jamestown stooges perpetrated they’re theft.
It was up to Smith to make things right. He sought out Chief
Powhatan and convinced him to spare the colonists.
The John Smith Legend
Powhatan (the name of the chief or sachem) decided to adopt
Smith. This process include a somewhat elaborate ceremony
where Smith ritually died and was then reborn as a Powhatan.
It involved the ritual guidance of a young maid, in this case
Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas.
Pocahontas was a real person…a rather brilliant one at that.
For those of you who have bought into the romantic mythology
about Pocahontas and Smith, remember that he was a hardened
warrior/explorer in his thirties and she was about nine. While
they likely had a friendship, that was as far as it went.

Pocahontas would go on to marry John Rolfe, an enterprising
tobacco farmer. Her knowledge of both cultures kept them from
killing each other, but she unfortunately died in England, after
capturing the hearts of British socialites.
Her uncle Opechancenough was convinced that she had been
murdered and waged two decade long wars against the settlers.
Failing to find gold, the settlers turned to cash crops (and still
relied on the Indians for food).
Indigo, rice, and tobacco.
Eventually, Jamestown became a thriving trading port, but not
without continuous immigration from the motherland. The
death rates were extraordinary and without this constant influx,
the colony would likely have failed.

1619 An English pirate ship captures a Portuguese slaver and
brings 40 slaves to Jamestown.
From Indentured Servitude
To Slavery
As more and more indentured servants began to outlive their
contracts, they required land per their agreements. The
landowners, refusing to give up prime lands near the coast, sent
them to the foothills of the Appalachians.
Unfortunately, for the former servants, the English had pushed
the Indians to the piedmont as well. Conflicts inexorably arose.
Opechancanough and Powhatan Wars In Virginia 1622 & 1644
Indians and Indentured Servants from Tidewater to Piedmont
Tidewater region.

Piedmont…beautiful, but deadly.
Nathaniel Bacon and the Piedmont Militias
Another “gentleman” came to Virgina in 1674 to try his luck at
plantation life in the now well established colony of Virginia.
He had significant family ties in the land with a major
landowning cousin, also Nathaniel, and a cousin by marriage,
William Berkeley. Berkeley was also the governor. Bacon
came from England expecting a warm welcome from the
Virginia elite. Personality conflicts ended the warmth quickly.
Bacon purchased a plantation near Jamestown and also one
farther into the wilderness, closer to Indian territory. The local
tribes had been moved out of tidewater region into the region
where Bacon was to acquire land. Against Berkeley’s wishes,
Bacon formed a militia, largely of former indentured servants
and went to war with Indians. Berkeley’s syndicate had
lucrative trading arrangements with these Indians, so he branded
Bacon a rebel in 1676.
Bacon and his men would take over Jamestown and force
Berkeley to flee, but Bacon soon died of dysentery (at age 29)
and the rebellion ended.

Some scholars consider Bacon to be a hero, going so far as dub
him America’s first democratic revolutionary. Others suspect
he was a self interested, racist, killer of indigenous families.
The Effect of Bacon’s Rebellion on Slavery 1676
By 1648 there are 300 slaves in the Jamestown Colony
Of 2000 African-Americans in Jamestown in 1660, many are
free and some own slaves themselves.
All this changes after Bacon’s Rebellion.
Plantation owners become convinced that the reliance on
indentured servitude is more trouble than it is worth and move
toward a race based slavery as the new labor model.
The colonists begin to purchase Africans from Spanish, English,
Dutch, and English slavers who in turn had purchased African
villagers from slave trading West African empires.
The Europeans took the Africans on a deadly voyage across the
Atlantic (referred to as the Middle Passage) and sold the
Africans in slavery throughout the Western Hemisphere.

It is impossible to comprehend the horror of the slave
experience. The utter brutality and hopelessness of being
owned by another human is not something that free men and
women can fathom.
(It is horrific to note, however, that many human rights activists
have calculated that more slaves exist in the world today than
ever before. Someone might want to tackle the verification of
these claims for a research paper.)
Slavery Expands Exponentially
New Slave Laws Passed
1662 A Child of a Slave Mother is a Slave
1667 Baptism No Longer a Claim for Freedom
1669 A Slaveholder Who Kills a Slave Cannot Be Charged With
a Crime
1670 Free Blacks Cannot Hold White Indentured Servants
Those designated as slaves are slaves for life.
By the year of the first census there are 757,000 slaves in the
United States out of total population of just under 4 million.
By early 1700s slaves outnumber whites in the Carolinas. 65%
of South Carolina’s population is slave.

South Carolina and Georgia
(Begin as prorietary colonies, but quickly become a crown
colonies.)
Slave Quarters
African horticulturalists are enslaved and brought to South
Carolina specifically for rice cultivation.
Slavery is legalized in Massachusetts in 1641, although most of
the slaves are Indians who will be sold to sugar plantations in
the Caribbean.
New Amsterdam and later New York will be the largest of slave
entry points until Charleston, S.C. and Washington D.C. build
huge slave markets.
In 1620, a group of disgruntled Congregationalists (Puritans)
left England during a time of intensifying religious conflict.
They’re intent was to establish a colony in the “northern parts
of Virginia that would allow them to worship in a faith
segregated utopia. They were no tolerant of other faiths.
The settlers were financed for commercial purpose by a group
of investors who called themselves the “adventurers” (think of
venture capitalists), but the Puritans clearly saw this as a
practical necessity.

Lincoln, War, and the Slaughter of the American Working Class.docx

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