Patrick Henry

1736-1799

DATE:

• lived from 1736-1739
• 1775 when he wrote "Give Liberty or Give death speech" to convince Virginia to sign up for the revolution
• During enlightenment era
  

WHO, WHAT, WHERE,WHEN:

• Anti-federalist, pbolitical leader  who forged revolutionary identity against british crown

• Member of Virginia House of Burgesses
• Speech included prominent rhetoric part of evolutionary identity.
• We had to seperate for econmic reasons, and if we didn't revolt we were no more than slaves under british rule
• Links to slavery and religion

IMPORTANCE:

•  it reaffirms social hierarchy in colonies

Lord Dunmore Proclamation

(1775)

DATE:

• November of 1775

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE:

• Offered by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, royal Governor of Virginia
  
• Offered freedom to those who would flee rebel masters and served crown
• Hoped to bolster his own forces
• Hoped to  create panic amongst colonists and would force them to abandon revolution.

IMPORTANCE:

• More slaves found their freedom through this than any other way until the Civil War.
  

Jehu Grant

DATE:

• In 1777, he ran away from master, and in 1832 the 1st Pension Act was established.

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE:

• Slave in Rhode Island. 
• Ran away from his master and served Continental Army.
  
•  Master found him 8 months later, and was reclaimed.
• In 1832, Congress enacted 1st Pension Act, that granted annual stipend for veterans of the Revolutionary War who could prove service.
• After war, he was sold to new master, who let Grant earn his freedom.
• At age 80 he applied for the pension but was his application was denied because he had remained, technically, a slave during the time of his service.

IMPORTANCE:

• Shows that governent laws only apply to white males. . .separation of races/color.
  

Federalists Papers

(1787-1789)

DATE:

• 1787-1789

WHO, WHAT,WHEN,WHERE:

• authored by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay
• 85 essays oulining how the govt would operate under a constitution as a federal entity
• promoted strong central government
  
• Few stand out:
  • Federalist paper #10 Madison--> Factions (prevent tyranny of majority)
  • Federalist paper #51 Madison- Check and Balances

IMPORTANCE:

• foundation of constitutional theory in the United States
• Feferalism then becomes a political view and a politica party

Debora Samson

(1760-1827)

DATE:

• Lived from 1760-1827

WHO,WHAT,WHEN,WHERE:

• American women who wanted to serve in the Continental Army but as a women she could not.
  
• She impersonated a man called "Robert Shurtlefft" to serve during the American Revolution.
• Fought in many battles and when wounded she tended her own wounds; she did not seek medical help.
  
• She prefered to die in battle field than be discovered.
• Came down with a fever and was attended by a doctor who discovered she was a woman, but promised to keep secret.
  
• Fuller sense of citizenship for those who have served the war, which made ppl want to get that full entittlement by serving in the military (not only women but men of color)
• She later came public with her secret and shared her experience.
• She died in 1827 at the age of 67 of yellow fever.

IMPORTANCE:

• It shows the extent to which ppl sense patriotism, but also the social barriers they have to cross to get that fulfilment of citizenship.
  

Yeoman Farmer

DATE:

• Around 1776, shortly after Declaration.

WHO, WHAT, WHEN , WHERE:

• Thomas Jefferson's  idea of ideal american
  
• "chosen people of god"

• farmer who was rooted in the soil, tied to the land that was able to be virtuous by labor as well as his natural surroundings.

IMPORTANCE:

• "incorruptable and best citizents for a republic"

Manufactory

DATE:

• Early years of the 19th century

WHO, WHAT, WHEN WHERE:

• Technology brings rise to manufactory

• Manufactories grow after 1810
• Prior to these, the businesses were at home with only a few employees.
• These business' and labor was then taken into a bigger space, added a few more employees, and was stream lined in different ways.
• Children and women were brought into these manufactories
  
• Wage labor
• Reasons why this early mason-factory system shift happened:
  • Following the revolution, the revolutionary rhetoric bout the enslaved colonists freeing themselves from their master "Britain", brought a rethinking about rights and priviledges specifically for white european men.
    • Indentured servitude becomes connected to the old way of thinking
    • Indentured servitude was just as brutal as slavery.
      
    • Revolutionary influence of why it moved toward waged labor.
  • Economic pressure: as more ppl are coming and more shops are competing, they need more labor and the best way to get labor is to pay ppl for it.
    • Indentured servant are not as reliable as ppl who are gettin a wage.

IMPORTANCE:

• Important because it is a founding of unions/ working class populations and gave white men a sense of freedom from britain slavery.
  

Naturalization Act of 1790

DATE:

• 1790
• Same year as the 1st census

WHO,WHAT, WHEN,WHERE:

• Naturalization: the ability to become a citizen
• Any white adult, male or female, who has resided in the United States for two years could become a citizen (had to be in good moral standing)
• Whiteness is connected to citizenship; your ability to become a citizen was your ability to be socially/scientifically definable as white until 1950s.
• This was the only statute that ever purported to grant the status of natural born citizen

Lousiana Purchase

(1803)

• Thomas Jefferson as elected a Democratic republican and against strong fedreal government.
  • He faced alot of opposition---> Timothy Dwight
  • Saw expansion west as a must for the U.S.
• Theory in 18 century that if a country got bigger, it got weaker because it was more difficult to preserve a national cohesion if you expanded----> Jeferson and others wanted to challenge theory.
• Acted upon it by purchasing Louisiana in 1803, from France for 15 million dollars, since it  burdensome to maintain for France.
  
• No constitutional provision for it
• Borrowed money from Great Britain to buy it.
• Contracted Louis and Clark (1804) to explore Lousiana
• Early instance of manifest destiny which was an umbrella of ideology of westward expansion.
  

Neoclassicism

• In early 19 century, much of governemnt architecture in Washington, DC is in neoclassical style
• Neopclassical Architecture is a micxture of greek and roman styles
• Imported into the united states from 1760-1860s and beyond (greek and roman architecture style and visual arts)
• A reaction against the Rococo style of the French--->excessive and gaudy in style and a return to a more square and geometrical lines
• Iit was not only for the style, but also for the ideology---> making a connection to Greek government and politics, and a connection to European Culture
  
• Others argued it portrayed Americans as this white european figure.
  

Impressment

(Early 1800s)

• British authorities would board an American ship and seize English citizens.
  
• During peace time officers in the British Navy would quit or desert and look for better pay elsewhere.
  
• Many worked on US ships---> So British came and took them back.
  
• They didn't recognize those who had become naturalized US citizens, and took them back as well.
  
• This was an attack on the US's economy and sovereignty not recognizing them as independent.
  
•  A big reason for US declaring war on Britain in 1812.
  

Era of Good Feelings

(1817-1825)

• Rise of patriotism after the war of 1812.
  
• During this time there was little party division.
  
• After fighting a second war with Britain (second independence), American's felt very independent.
  
• Rise in patriotic songs.
  
• Term coined by journalist Benjamin Russell.
  
• Allowed for rise in American identity and unity.

• Participation of those who would become leaders
• Little political division---->strong support for James Monroe

Francis Johnson

(1792-1844)

• Free Black.
  
• Famous bugler, played the bugle.
  
• Played for integrated audiences, very famous composer and musician, traveled around, even toured in Europe.
•  Was fined for going into Missouri as a free black, as it was a slave state.
  
• He played "euthiopian" music, or black music.
  
• Began the musical tradition that would later be parodied and popularized through minstrelsy.
  
• Incorporate religious and patriotic music, would later be known as folk music.

• Played for integrated audiences which caused a lot of problems

Missouri Compromise (1820)

• Redrew the line between free and slave states
• Missouri requests for statehood.Would it be a free state or a slave state?
• When Missouri entered the Union it would have tipped the balance between free and slave states
• Maine also applied for statehood which entered as a free state,  so Missouri entered as a slave state despite the Mason Dixon Line
• Escalating anxiety over slavery
• Seen as a compromise for the moment, but not a lasting solution and would lead to problems later
• It is important because it shows the first instances of the civil war

Catherine Beecher

(1800-1878)

• Daughter of outspoken religious figure
• Self-taught to read and write---> campaigned for more schools
• Beecher’s education reform --->ardent defender of women’s education
• Promoted history, Latin, Grammar, Rhetoric, and P.E.
• Started the Hartford Seminary for Women (1820s)
  
• Women are the purveyors of education, NOT men
• With education, comes a push towards the status quo ( rights)
• In oerder to have strong democracy, women should be educated.
  
• Importante because she brought the education movement of women.

Catherine "Katy" Ferguson

(1779-1854)

• Slave in Virginia
• Sold to farm in NY
• At age 16, she purchased her freedom and lived in NY
• She was illiterate all her life
• Started a sunday school for both black and white children ----> became a homeless shelter for orphans and later an adoption agency

Nullification

• a legal theory that a U.S. State has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional.  

• highly volatile issue of tariffs --->the tariff of 1828 passed by John Quincy Adams
• John C. Calhoun, a powerful senator from South Carolina
  • did NOT like this tariff
  • the South was hurt by this tariff

Alexis de Tocqueville

• French political thinker who got funding in the 1820s to come to America and study american prisons

• Wrote in 1835 & 1840,  “Democracy In America”, a 2 volume assessment which was an early assessment of how Europeans viewed America
•  It was a sort of “democratic experiment” that was the United States
• said one of America’s greatest features was “the ability to commit faults, and then repair them” à produce something new out of failure
• thought it interesting that “inferiors” (poor people and people of low class) could work their way up and hold office, you didn’t have to be born royal
  
• He was struct about how volunteer association was the way people lived their every day life.
• Believed "Too much democracy might be dangerous"

Hymn Metre

• Indicates the number of syllables for the lines in each stanza of a hymn. This provides a means of marrying the hymn's text with an appropriate hymn tune for singing.
• Part of religious influence in America and poetry througout the 19th century

Edgar Allen Poe

(1809-1849)

• New Englander who lived in Boston
• Died at age 40 in Baltimore
• Living successful poet
• was influenced by tales of murder and violence almanacs--->"gothic" style
• Part of american romantic movement in the 19th century
  
• "The Raven" was his most famours poem
• He was interested in the penny press business, although he did not llike it---> he thought it showed american superficiality, "tabloid news"
• He capitalized on it and used it conciously so people who were facinated by mayham and murder would buy it, and they did.
• All of his novels became serial publications first and later novels.
  

Leatherstocking Tales

(1830-1840)

• 5 books puclished in 1830s and 1840s by James Fenimore Cooper

• Stories about the frontier, romanticized portraits of White-Indian relations

• The main character is Maddie Bumppo ---> a white man raised by Indians

   

• Shows experince of violence, but harmony between Indians and whites

   

• The narrative of the West becomes an important metaphor in American history and identity

• James Fenimore wokerd his way up socially and got admitted into Yale, but got kicked out because of a prank
• Climbed social ladder to become a well respected novelist
• Important because he became a fictional author of what would become the pioneer experience and influence future generations

Paul Cuffee

(1759-1817)

• Devout Quaker of African (Ashanti ppl) and Native American ancestry  
• Built shipping empire in Massachusetts  
• Began working with British colonization projects in Sierra Leone because of shipping connections
• Began taking ppl to Sierra Leone in 1816 
• Spokes person for the American Colonization Society
• Died in 1817 before he could really partake in the movement
• Roughly between 1820-1860, 20,000-30,000 Africans traveled to Sierra Leone
  

Liberator

(1831-1866)

• Newspaper founded by Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison in 1831.
• Weekly issues published from 1831-1866.
• Advocated "immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves" in the US.
• Continued through the end of the American Civil War.
• Garrison ended the newspaper's run when the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States.

Jenny Lind

(1820-1887)

• Born Johanna Maria Lind, she was a swedish opera singer with a  career that spread out through Europe
• She was invited everywhere to singer
  
• Known to have well-know suitors in the classical music world
• One of the most highly regarded singers in the 19th century
• Invited to tour america by P.T. Barnum from 1850-1852 and he would pay her.
• She hosted 93 concerts
• 10, 000 people showed up to see her arrive america.
• She is important because is shows the different kind of performance  people are seeing now; How ppl are now interested in attending and watching spectacles for entertainment.
  

Astor Place Riot

(1849)

• Most violent conflict in urban america in terms of theatrical experience
• Took lace in the production of a shakespeare play
• Famous english actor, William Charles Macready came to NY to play the role of Macbeth---> detested by American actor Edward Forrest because of artictic rivalry
  
• Edward Forrest was an American actor who played all the leading roles in NY
• During one of the early Macbeth performances, Edwin Forrest supporters (anti-macready) rioted because they began charging higher admission because it was considered a place of "respectabilit" which discouraged attendance by the middle-class. (tried to cultivate a more prestigious image)
• 22 ppl are killed, over 100 injured
• this shows separation of class (some sort of sam patch)
  
• By 1850s and 1860s, theatre becomes much more respectable and pushed for legislations laws
• Much more priviledged social experiece: No more alcohol, no more shouting, "respectable" place for families, began charging more for quality.
  

Minstrel Shows

• Popular entertainment performed both by blacks and whites
• Burnt black cork was applied to the face to embody a black persona
• Burlesque, parody, exaggerated ridicule of the black personhood that represent southern idealized plantation experience
• They contain music and dancing
• Keeps on going in the 1820s, 1830s as a hugely popular form of entertainment in NY, Boston (the industrialized north), but began to minute  after 1880s-1890s.
• reflects complicated social, racial and psychological development in modern Jacksonian america
• Drew on flor theme, nostalgia for the rural and pastoral, so that northern industrialized white working class in the north would watch this as a form of entertainment but also for locating the southern role of idealized life--->depicted slavery as this lazy, easy, not-horrendous system.
• Most people in north got was slavery was through minstrelsy-->although not depicted correctly cause it was indeed horrendous and cruel.
  
• Made fun of class, gender, and racial ethnic parody.
• Used to elevate one's racial/ethnic identity by masking it with another.
  

Whigs

• Took the name from a 1700s British group: The British Whigs
• National Party that formed in 1830s out of Anti-Masons, National Republicans, and disenchanted Democrats--->northerns that wanted to leave the party of Jackson
  
• They were southerns, proffesionals and manufcturers, free blacks, aolitionist legion leaders, business ppl, germans, unitarians, methodists, immigrants

• Party was formed in opposition to the policies of PresidentAndrew Jackson and the Democratic  Party
• Played strongly in local and state politics
  

William Walker

(1824-1860)

• Embodied notion of America as a female figure and as part of american identity
• Born in Nashville, Tennessee
• Young scholar who studied medicine in Edingburg in Europe
  
• Comes back to America in 1940s, and becomes editor of the New Orleans Crescent
• Then moves to San Francisco and begins thinking bout colonizing South America
• He begins raising money and became a free-booter (1840s)----> wanted to set up shops, white colonies, defend the US from Mexico.
• He gets support and beecomes a military leader
• Goes from Baja California into Sonora, Mexico----> Mexican gov did not like this, so he was sent back to Cali to be tried for diplomatic infringement
• He is aquitted, so then he goes to Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica with the support of powerful people.
  
• He then runs into problems with the british who are interested in reorganizing their possesions in Latin America, specifically in Honduras.
• Brits do not like walters agression so tey and him over to the Honduran Gov ad they execute him.
• Important because he embodied the notion of manifest Destiny
  

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

(1848)

• Peace treaty that ended the Mexican American War
• Treaty seeed 50% of its territoty to the US in exchange of 15 million
• All the citizens residing in that land be given the oppportunity to become american citizens so that land could not simply be taken by Am. Gov
• Provided the Rio Grande as the boundary between Texas and Mexico
• Important because slavery in the new aquired land would become an issue---> how many states would be free, how many would be slave?
  

Oneidas

(1848-1881)

• led by John Humphrey Noyes.
  
• Communal religious group that believed in striving for perfection.
  
• One of the many communal experiments of the time, as many branches of Christianity popped up that focused on the book of Revelations, and believed they lived very close to the second coming (millennialists).   
• Stressed the idea of communal ownership, and advocated complex marriage.
  
• Members were free to participate in intercourse with any other member of the commune, but men were expected to practice the withdrawal method, and permission was necessary for procreation.
  
• The Oneidas lasted for decades, but after their leader Noyes had to flee to Canada to avoid persecution for adultery, they dissipated.

Declaration of Sentiments

(1848)

• Document advocating for women's rights.
  
• Written in 1848, in New York at the Seneca Falls Convention.
• The declaration uses the same language as employed in the Declaration of Independence.
  
• It is meant to remind society of the American democratic creed, and point out the same inequality that had spurred them into the revolution.
  
• It included a list of grievances, pointing out that even immigrant, and ignorant men were allowed the right to vote, and that once a women is married she is civilly dead, and has very few rights.
  
• Representative of the growing women's movements in antebellum America, and the growing influence of women in reform, greater presence in politics, though they would not get the right to vote for another 72 years after the declaration was written.

Sojourner Truth

(1797-1883)

• She was born into slavery, escaped, and became an abolitionist.
  
• She gave the famous, "Ain't I a Woman" speech.
  
• She represents the merger of women's rights and abolition.
  
• At the time the fight for women's rights did not necessarily include rights for black women.
  
• She was born a slave by the name, Isabella Baumfree.
  
• She was owned by a Dutch family.
  
• In 1815 she fell in love with another slave, Robert. Robert's owner forbade the relationship, because he didn't want slave children that he didn't own, beat Robert to death.
• In 1826 she took her freedom with her youngest daughter.
  
• She worked as a domestic servant.
  
• Sent for the rest of her children.
  
• Became a Methodist and began preaching in Ohio and Michigan.
  
• Preached about abolition and women's rights.