The Revolutionary War and the new Republic (1763-1825)

Patrick Henry, "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Paul Revere's Ride"

Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence"

Benjamin Franklin, "Autobiography" and "Poor Richard's Almanac", selections

Francis Scott Key, "The Star-Spangled Banner"

1763: Proclamation Line was declared.

1765: Stamp Act and Protest

1770: Boston Massacre

1773: Tea Act and Boston Tea Party

1774: Intolerable Acts; first Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia

1775: Paul Revere’s Ride; Battles of Lexington and Concord; Washington appointed as Commander-in-Chief

1776: Declaration of Independence

1777: Articles of Confederation

1778: French Alliance

1781: Articles of Confederation ratified; Cornwallis surrenders

1783: Treaty of Paris

1789: US Constitution; French Revolution begins; Washington elected President of USA01

1789-1797: Washington, first President of the USA for two terms

1793: Proclamation of Neutrality

1800: Washington, D.C. becomes the capital of the US

1801: Jefferson becomes 3^rd President

1803: Louisiana Purchase, Lewis & Clark Expedition

1805: British seize American ships, impress American sailors.

1811: First steamboat of Ohio and Mississippi rivers

1812: War of 1812 against the British, called “The Second War of Independence”

1814: British burn Washington D.C.; National Anthem composed at the Battle of Fort McHenry

Patrick Henry argues for independence before the Virginia Congressional delegates in 1775. He equates being under the rule of the British to “slavery” and “being in chains.” His most famous line, “Give me liberty or give me death,” argued that there could be no compromise with the British anymore; that full independence was worth dying for. He was persuasive, and the Virginia delegates all voted for independence.

This is a poem commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in1865. The British soldiers merely wanted to go up to Concord and collect the ammunition form the arms depot there and bring it back to Boston. But the American militia thought it was an attack, and fought, fought back, as they thought. These battles started the Revolutionary War. The poem describes how Paul Revere, a silversmith and militiaman, rode from Boston on April 18, 1775 to warn the towns that the British were coming. At midnight he was, “Ready to ride and spread the alarm / to every Middlesex village and farm, / For the country folk to be up and to arm.” No one knows who fired the first shot, but Emerson, in his poem “Concord Hymn”, called it “the shot heard round the world.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote the original draft, and it was edited by Ben Franklin and John Adams. It is a logical document, laying the philosophical foundations for American political ideals and values. It is also a literary masterpiece, due to its rhetoric and style.

The most important of these have to do with human rights in general, and political rights in particular. The right of self- government is there, along with the principle that any valid government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. Tyranny, despotism, and the like are not valid forms of government. In other words, Might does NOT make right; and it is the right of any people to overthrow a government who takes control without their consent. Other rights are found in the document’s most famous sentence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography (selections):

Ben Franklin (1706-1790) is often called “The First American.” His father was a soap and candle maker in Boston, and his brother was a printer and published a newspaper. Ben worked for his brother until the age of 17, then left and came to Philadelphia and opened his own print shop and started his own newspaper. By the time he was 23, he owned his own print shop and was publishing his own newspapers and “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” At 42, he was able to retire from the printing trade, and left the business in the hands of his manager, who paid him 50% of the income. He then turned scientist, inventor and diplomat. He became America’s first millionaire. Because of his ‘rags-to-riches’ story, his genius, hard work ethic, and practicality, he is called “The First American”.

As a scientist, Franklin was very interested in storms, waterspouts, and currents. He asked his cousin, a sea captain, to keep data on the Gulf Stream, and published a map of it in 1786. Tired of having to change his glasses all the time, he invented bifocals. He invented the odometer, to keep track of how far he travelled. He designed the first copperplate press in America for printing paper currency, which was almost impossible to counterfeit. He invented a musical instrument called the armonica, which both Mozart and Beethoven wrote pieces for. He invented a closed cast-iron wood-burning stove that was much more efficient in producing heat than an open fireplace, and greatly reduced the risk of fire in houses made of wood.

The invention that brought him the most acclaim was in the field of electricity. He did experiments in collecting and storing electrical charges in “Leyden jars”. He also invented a way to produce and store static electricity. These experiments were the basis for the future invention of the battery.

His most famous experiment was the one in which he went out in a thunderstorm and flew a kite with wire coming out of it and a brass key attached to the end of the string. He did this to prove that the electrical sparks people played games with, and the “electrical fire” in lightning, were actually the same thing. He had proposed an experiment to prove this, which involved setting up a metal pole on a high building such as a church steeple. If an electrical storm passed overhead, the pole would attract the electrical fire in the clouds, and if the pole were grounded, the electricity would pass harmlessly into the ground. But instead of going public with his hypothesis, and trying it out on a church, he did it in secret with a kite, just in case it didn’t work. It did work, and Franklin had just invented the lightning rod, an invention that profoundly lessened the chances of fire in tall buildings. He did this experiment in June of 1752, and by August, some scientists had duplicated his experiment in France. Franklin became the world’s most famous scientist, and very popular with the French people, a popularity that would serve him well in his later years as a diplomat.

As a civil servant, Franklin made many improvements for the City of Philadelphia, for Pennsylvania, and the colonies. He was made Postmaster General, and established the US Postal system. He founded the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Hospital, the latter by persuading the Pennsylvania Assembly (the government) to contribute 2000 lbs, if that could first be raised by private donations. He started the first subscription library, the American Philosophical Society, and the systems for cleaning and lighting the streets of Philadelphia.

As a statesman and diplomat is where Franklin made is most important mark on history. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751, and for the next 20 years spent more time in England than in America, doing scientific investigations and representing Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. His efforts to get the British to modify their stance towards the colonies with regard to taxes and self-rule were eventually defeated, and in 1775 he came back to an America on the verge of war.

He was appointed by the Continental Congress to the committee (along with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson) to produce the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Then he was appointed the first Ambassador of the new United States of America to France. He was very successful in persuading the French to financially support the American effort, and France even voluntarily joined America’s fight for independence with troops under the leadership of the Marquis de Lafayette. Franklin was one of the main negotiators at the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, which established the peace between Britain and the US. Then he came back to the US and helped negotiate and sign the US Constitution of 1788-89. He died in 1790. Even though he was never President of the US, he is one of its primary Founding Fathers.

The Treaty of Versailles established the western boundary of the United States to be the Mississippi River, and immediately people started moving west. The US Constitution required that any territory wishing to be made a state had to have 60,000 inhabitants and a legal justice system in place.

Highlights of the readings:

The selections of Franklin’s Autobiography begin with his account of running away from Boston at17. His pride and humility are curiously mixed in this account. He had written an article anonymously and slid it under the door of his brother’s printing house where it was received with approval. His brother’s friends “read it commented on it in my hearing, and I had the exquisite pleasure of finding it met with their approbation, . . . I suppose now that I was rather lucky in my judges.” Another quote that shows the same character describes his attempt to find work in New York: “But, having a trade, and supposing myself a pretty good workman, I offered my service to the printer in the place.” This offer did not get Franklin a job, but it did get him a letter of introduction to a printer in Philadelphia. He describes his “unlikely beginnings” of his arrival in Philadelphia: “I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come round by sea; I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings; I knew no soul nor where to look for lodging. I was fatigued with traveling, rowing, and want of rest; I was very hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar and about a shilling in copper.”(61-62) We don’t have the account of how he found solutions to all these problems, but we do know that he owned his own printing house and was publishing his own newspaper by age 23.

The next impressive thing about Franklin is the list of 13 virtues he wanted to improve himself in. They are listed on p. 63 of the reading. “Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquillity, Chastity, Humility.” Many readers of his Autobiography read this list, admired it and tried also to practice these virtues, so much so that they became the qualities known for the American character. After the 1960s these virtues were not so admired anymore, but for 200 years they were presented to schoolchildren and to the public as those most to be emulated. They capture a good deal of what is known as “the Protestant work ethic.”

Franklin did not try to achieve them all at once; he worked on them one at a time. He also admitted that he felt he came very far from the ideal he wanted to be when he started out. But in spite of his failures, he did practice them in some form all of his life. As an old man, he said, “though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man . . .” (65).

In addition to being both brilliant and persuasive, Franklin was also humorous. He was a funny man, with a reputation of being cheerful, even in the most adverse circumstances. This humour showed itself in the anonymous articles he wrote lampooning others, and especially in Poor Richard’s Almanac, which was published annually for 25 years, and sold over 10,000 copies every year. He was a master of the witty saying, the proverb or aphorism. “Early to bed, and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” He was resourceful, adaptable, and the epitome of those highly American values, self-reliance and independence.

Jefferson was elected 3^rd President of the US.at the beginning of the 19^th century. France had just acquired the territory of Louisiana from Spain. They knew it went from New Orleans in the south to the Great Lakes in the north, and the its eastern boundary was the Mississippi River. But nobody knew how far west it went. For that matter, no one knew how far west the continent went! Napoleon needed a lot of money for his wars in Europe, so he agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory to Jefferson for $15 million. This is known as the Louisiana Purchase.

In1804, Jefferson appointed an expedition led by Lewis and Clark go explore the territory, and send back reports of the terrain, the flora and fauna, and whatever else they found. They took 40 men and one woman, an Indian named Sacagawea, who was married to one of the men. She brought her baby along with her. Because she spoke both the Shoshone and Hidatsa languages, she was very useful as an interpreter, negotiating for horses and food along the way. She also was able to advise the expedition as to the best passes through the Rocky Mountains. But her greatest value was simply her presence. No Indians considered them to be hostile, or attacked them during both expeditions of 1804 and 1806. Clark wrote in his journal, "The Indian woman confirmed those people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a war party of Indians in this quarter," and, "the wife of Shabono our interpeter we find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions a woman with a party of men is a token of peace." The journal was published right away and was widely used as a resource for the pioneers moving west.

The Star-Spangled Banner

Context – The Flag:

When the war of 1812 began, The Commander of Fort McHenry near the port city of Baltimore (40 miles from Washington, DC) knew they would be attacked at some point. SO he commissioned a flag-maker, Mary Pickersgill to make a very large flag, large enough “that the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance.” She and her 13-year-old daughter, Caroline, worked on the flag for several weeks, measuring, cutting, and sewing parts of it together. When it came time to assemble the whole flag, she got permission to use the floor of a nearby brewery and worked there in the evenings after hours, because her own house wasn’t big enough. Because there were 15 states at that time, the flag had 15 white 5-point stars that measured 2 feet from point to point, and 15 stripes, eight of them red and seven white, that were two feet wide. The whole flag measured 30 feet by 42 feet, approximately 9 x 12 meters. It was made from the best quality wool fabric available, and cost $405.90. It was finished in the summer of 1813, but wasn’t needed until the Battle of Fort McHenry, in September of 1814.

The original flag had 13 stars and 13 stripes, representing the original 13 states. In 1795, two stars and two stripes were added, representing Kentucky and Vermont, the next two states added to the union, bringing the total number of stars and stripes to 15. This was the only U.S. flag to have fifteen stripes. Even though 5 new states were added to the union after 1795, the flag was not changed accordingly, so Mary Pickersgill made the flag for Fort McHenry with 15 stars and stripes. In 1818, Congress decided that one star for each new state would be added on the 4th of July following the state's admission to the union and there would be only thirteen stripes representing the thirteen original colonies. Now the American flag has 50 stars and 13 stripes.

Context – the battle:

The British had attacked and burned Washington, DC in August, and then returned to their ships around in the Chesapeake Bay, planning to attack Baltimore next. Dr. William Beanes, an elderly physician, had helped to jail some British deserters who had been attacking and robbing American farms. The British captured him and took him back to their ships. The Americans sent Francis Scott Key, a Baltimore lawyer, and Col. John Skinner, who was experienced in negotiating prisoner exchanges, to go to the British ships and try to get Dr. Beanes released. The negotiations were successful, but the British would not allow the 3 Americans to go back to land right away, because they knew too much about the plans for the battle that would soon be fought. So the three Americans had to watch the battle from a small sailing vessel (a sloop) from behind the British warships.

The British had bombs that were shot from cannons on the ships, which were supposed to explode on contact. But they weren’t very reliable, and many of them exploded in mid-air, allowing the onlookers to see what was happening during the night. They also had the new Congreve rockets, which left a red streak across the sky in their wake. Both of them are included in the poem. The battle started early in the morning of September 13, and lasted until 2 or 3 am of September 14. At 3 am, the Americans watching didn’t know what had been the outcome; they really feared that Fort McHenry had fallen to the British; and they couldn’t see if the flag was still flying over Fort McHenry because the bombs and rockets had quit. But early in the dawn of Sept 14, they could see “the flag was still there!” and that the battle had not been lost. It turned out that the British gave up; they decided that trying to take Fort McHenry and Baltimore wasn’t worth it.

Francis Scott Key found the back of an envelope and began writing the first lines of the poem on it. It was later published, set to music, and often sung at public gatherings. It was officially made the national anthem in 1931.

The American values of freedom and courage are emphasized in the refrain: “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave / O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” A line in the last stanza refers to the Declaration of Independence in acknowledging God as the source of human rights, and the source of the existence of America: “Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.” Drawing on references to trust or confidence in God in important American documents, Key included such trust is two more lines from the last stanza: Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, / And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.” During the Civil War, there were many calls to Congress to acknowledge trust in God as the motto of the US. It appeared on some coins as in 1864. In 1955, during the height of the Cold War, President Eisenhower decreed “In God we trust” to be our national motto, and that the motto appear on all US currency, both coin and paper.

As early as 1898 the national anthem was played at sporting events. The idea caught on, and now it is played or sung at all sorts of public events: political, military, sports, and national celebratory events. Almost every American knows the first stanza by singing along, but it is very rare to find someone who knows any of the other stanzas, since the first is the only one performed at these events.

3. 
   Cultural Development, Human Rights, and the Growth of America (1826-1928)
   

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, 1848"

Frederick Douglas, "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"

Ralph Waldo Emerson, excerpts from “Self-Reliance”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Letter to President van Buren on Behalf of the Cherokee Indians",

Chief Joseph, "An Indian's View of Indian Affairs"

Abraham Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address" and "Emancipation Proclamation"

O. Henry, "One Thousand Dollars"

Since it is impossible to cover all the important events of American History in the 19^th century in only a couple of weeks, I will focus on the cultural developments, and just leave out the details of the wars and politics. Thus I won’t include details of the Civil War, World War I or World War II, or subsequent wars. It is easy enough to get that information elsewhere. The focus is instead on the fight for civil rights, especially citizenship, voting rights, and property rights for all adults born in the United States.

There are 3 themes to be discussed in this section. The first is the theme of self-reliance and how it grew out of the theme of independence. A theme in partnership with it is that of the voluntary way. The second is the theme of human rights for minorities, and how that grew from the “inalienable rights” of the Declaration of Independence. The third has to do with the creativity and inventiveness of 19^th century America.

1814 – George Stevenson invented the steam engine.

1815 – The first steamboat went up the Mississippi River in 25 days; it used to take 100 days.

1829 – The typewriter is invented.

1838 – The Trail of Tears (the forced march of the Cherokee from their home in Georgia to the Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma), Emerson’s Letter of Protest

1839 – Samuel Morse invents the telegraph and the Morse Code.

1841 – Emerson’s Essay “Self-Reliance”

1848 – The Seneca Falls Convention; California becomes a state; The Gold Rush begins.

1852 – Frederick Douglass delivers an address in Rochester, NY, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

1860-1865 – Civil War

1863 – Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all the slaves; he delivers the Gettysburg Address

1869 – The Transcontinental railroad is finished.

1871 – Jeans are invented, patented in 1873 by Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone

1879 – Chief Joseph’s narrative is published

1880 – Scranton, PA introduced electricity for outdoor lighting, called “the electric city”; electric powered streetcars introduced in 1886.

1886 – Coca cola is invented in Atlanta, GA. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, is dedicated in New York harbor.

1888 – Thomas Alva Edison is often credited with inventing the electric light bulb (two others were involved in the race with him)

1890s – Electricity brought indoors, for lighting and home appliances.

Other inventions: the zipper, plastic, the dishwasher, the vacuum cleaner, the roller coaster, etc.

1903-4 – The Wright brothers fly the first airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC; Henry Ford manufactures the Model T automobile.

1913 – Henry Ford opened the first automobile factory, mass-producing automobiles using the conveyor belt.

1920 – The19^th Amendment is passed; women have the right to vote and participate in public office.

1924 – All Indians born in the United States are granted full citizenship, with all the rights of citizens.

The concept of self-reliance has always been prominent in American History, but Emerson’s essay brought it into prominence in the culture. Alan Hodder calls it “America’s most famous essay.” This essay stresses individualism, nonconformity, independence of mind, and strong self-confidence. Its offshoots are entrepreneurship, creativity, and resistance to following the crowd (or the rules). It also bolstered the idea that since authentic government is by the consent and authority of the governed, that citizens have the final authority over their lives, not the government.

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  Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
  
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  Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
  
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  Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
  
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  Nothing has authority over the self.
  
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  What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.
  
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  A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
  
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  Insist on yourself; never imitate.
  
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  The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.
  
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  Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.
  
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  And so the reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance.
  
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  Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
  

These pages from Carson’s book highlight the fact that there has been a long tradition in America of voluntarily supporting public services such as schools, hospitals, the performing arts, medical research, etc., instead of expecting the government to pay for those things. It began in colonial times, when neighbors would get together to help a person raise a barn, build a house, or a church, or a schoolhouse for a newly founded town. In most small towns even now the fire companies are volunteer, and equipment is paid for by voluntary donations. Many Americans regard dependence on the government as demeaning, losing self-respect. So America has had a long tradition of giving privately to charities such as the Red Cross, and all kinds of other good causes. Many of these started at the grass-roots level and are privately run now, such as all the Ivy-league universities, churches, private schools, arts, and science research projects. America is still one of the most generous countries in the world when it comes to disaster relief, much of the donations coming out of the pockets of private citizens.

The Trail of Tears is the name given to the forced march of the Cherokee tribe from their ancestral lands in Georgia out to the “Indian Territory, which is now in Oklahoma. Due to the Indian Removal Act passed by Congress in1830, most of the Indians in 5 tribes in the southern states were marched by force west of the Mississippi River. About one third of the Indians died on the march, resulting in the name “Trail of Tears”. The act was fiercely debated in Congress, with many Senators and Congressmen opposed to it, including Davy Crockett, an explorer and frontiersman of Tennessee, and John Quincy Adams. Many Christian missionaries were also opposed, as well as prominent people such as Emerson. The Supreme Court ruled that the forced removal of the Cherokee from Georgia was illegal, but Presidents Jackson and Van Buren got the Army and local militias together and did it anyway.

George Washington had argued that the Indians ought to be treated like any foreign country, as sovereign states on their own. He also thought that Indians should be educated, taught European reading, literature, science, and democratic politics. He thought they were more likely to receive liberty and justice at the hands of the US that way. The Cherokee thought so too. Already they had developed their own written alphabet and had set up their own printing house. By 1928 they had begun publishing their own newspaper in their own language, and quite a lot of their oral history and literature. They had established a republican form of government for themselves, and had elected their leaders, without any white influence in these processes. Some of them had been educated in American universities. The Cherokee and the other 4 tribes were collectively known as “The Five Civilized Tribes.”

Emerson wrote a letter to Van Buren protesting the removal of the Cherokee, but it didn’t deter him. He called the removal “ a needless act of terror” and “a terrific injury which threatens the Cherokee tribe.” It fell on deaf ears.

The Seneca Falls Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19-20, 1848. It was the first women’s rights convention held in the US. This is considered to be the beginning of the women’s rights movement, and the feminism it encouraged is now called “classic equality feminism” or “first wave feminism.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and the others were not the first in history to attempt something of this sort. In 1791, Olympe de Gouges wrote a document entitled Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. She hoped the National Assembly would take it into consideration when establishing a new regime in France, but it was ignored. She also was a defender of better conditions for slaves and pleaded their cause. She greeted the French Revolution with hope and joy, but quickly became disillusioned, when it became clear, that “liberty, equality, fraternity” did not include women. She was executed by guillotine in 1793. Women in France did not receive universal suffrage until 1945.

The Declaration of Sentiments is modeled on the same pattern as the Declaration of Independence. It has three parts, a declaration, a list of grievances, and a list of resolutions. In the first part, many of Jefferson’s phrases are used verbatim, with small changes made to indicate that this is about women at the hands of men, rather than about colonies at the hands of Great Britain. The list of grievances is parallel to the list of abuses in the Declaration of Independence. The list of resolutions at the end deviates from the ending of the Declaration of Independence considerably, since women were not empowered to simply declare independence from men. The convention lasted two full days, with morning, afternoon, and evening sessions on both days. Every item was debated, and of the 300 people attending the convention, 100 of them signed the Declaration of Sentiments at the end of the convention, 68 women and 32 men. The list of grievances gives a clear indication of the legal status of women at the time. Although the Married Women’s Property Act had already been put into effect, it still took until 1924 for women to get the right to vote.

Frederick Douglass was born sometime near 1818 and died in1895. He was born a slave in Maryland, learned the alphabet from the slave owner’s wife, but then forbidden to learn to read. He secretly taught himself reading and writing. In 1838, he escaped to New York. He became a licensed preacher in 1849, and then in the 1840s became a well-known orator, delivering anti-slavery speeches all over the northern states. Hi published his first autobiography in 1845,which allowed him to raise the money to buy his freedom in 1846.

“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” is a speech delivered on the 5^th of July, 1852 in Rochester, NY. Biographers William McFeely and David Chesebrough call this speech “the greatest anti-slavery oration ever given.”

He starts by pointing to the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal” and then goes into the question of whether slaves are men, or human beings. He conclusively proves they are, and therefore the Declaration should apply to them also. He shows the inconsistency of thought in his accusation that, “You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or Ireland, but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America.”

These were issued in the middle of the Civil Was in 1863. The “Emancipation Proclamation” declared all slaves to be free, but it wasn’t effective until the war was won and the Union preserved. More people died at the Battle of Gettysburg, than at any other Battle during the war. The battlefield was dedicated as a cemetery, so the dead soldiers would not have to be transported anywhere else for burial. There was a ceremony, and the main speaker gave a two-hour address, which nobody remembers anymore. Then Lincoln stood up and gave a 2-minute farewell, which schoolchildren still memorize. It is moving, eloquent, and is known as a prose poem, due to its many poetic elements. The first sentence recalls the Declaration of Independence: “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The last phrase recalls that the justification for independence lies in the all authority for government lies in the people: “ – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Chief Joseph was the leader of the Nez Perces who were forced from their homeland in the Wallowa Valley in Oregon due to war and white settlers. They were moved from place to place, given many promises that were broken, and never did return to their ancestral home. Now the Nez Perce Reservation is in north central Idaho. Chief Joseph wrote his narrative in 1879, and chronicled the plight of his people, and the severe injustices they received at the hands of the government and the army. After the Civil War, a Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in Washington DC, but it was not very effective in defending the Indians and looking after their interests. Indians did not get full citizenship with all its rights until 1924. One of the main reasons Indians were forced off their land was the discovery of gold there. It happened to the Cherokee in Georgis; it also happened to the Nez Perce in Oregon.

The period between the end of the Civil War to the turn of the century is called the “Gilded Age”, from the title of a book by Mark Twain about those times. This was the age of great economic growth, westward expansion, skyscrapers, factories, and the age of invention. The United States became a world leader in applied technology. From 1860 to 1890, 500,000 patents were issued for new inventions—over ten times the number issued in the previous seventy years.

In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad made the areas in the west accessible for selling the products of mining and ranching. Travel from New York to San Francisco now took six days instead of six months. Cowboys drove their cattle to the railroad, where they would be shipped live to the butcheries in Chicago and New York.

During the Gilded Age, approximately 20 million immigrants came to the United States, mostly from Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Eastern Europe (Poles and Jews). This was the birth of the “American Dream”, the idea that one could rise ‘from rags to riches’ through good sense and hard work, and maybe a little luck thrown in. It was also an age of serious inequalities between the rich and the poor, and saw the rise of both criminal gangs in the cities and labor union. There were no child labor laws, no safety regulations, and no workman’s compensation for death or injury on the job. All of these came later through the unions.

This story is set in the latter part of the Gilded Age, called the Progressive Era, at the turn of the century. I include it because the main character, Gillian, loses nearly everything in the course of the story, and yet remains cheerful, smiling and whistling throughout. The question, ‘Why do Americans smile so much?’ has its answer rooted in the culture of self-reliance and optimism drawn from Ben Franklin and Emerson, also in the voluntary way. Which encourages collaboration and friendliness between neighbours and colleagues. But this story also shows that it is a way of facing the future with courage and not giving in to depression or despair. It is an illustration of starting out on the road to the American Dream.

4. 
   20^th Century America (1901-2001)
   

Zona Gale, "Nobody Sick, Nobody Poor"

Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"

John F. Kennedy, "Inaugural Address"

George C. Marshall, “The Marshall Plan”
Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”

Time Line:
1903 – Emma Lazarus’s poem (1883) inscribed on the Statue of Liberty

1906 – Zona Gale’s starts writing the village of Friendship stories; receives Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1921 (first woman to receive it).

1914-1918 – World War I

1914 – Panama Canal is opened

1920 – XIX Amendment is ratified; women can vote.

1927 – Charles Lindbergh makes the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

1929 – The Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression Era begins

1931 – “Star-Spangled Banner” is adopted as the national anthem.

1940 – The first McDonald’s restaurant opened.

1939-1945 – World War II

1948-1951 – The Marshall Plan becomes the European Recovery Program.

1955 – Rosa Parks refuses to go to the back of the bus

1958 – Explorer I, America’s first satellite is launched

1960 – JF Kennedy is elected President; Ruby Bridges goes to school & prays for enemies.

1963 – Martin Luther King’s speech at the march on Washington; Kennedy is assassinated.

1969 – Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.

1976 – Steve Jobs co-founded Apple, Inc.

1989 – The Berlin Wall comes down; the end of the Cold War

2001 – (9/11) Planes crash into the Twin Towers in New York City, and into the Pentagon.

Zona Gale, "Nobody Sick, Nobody Poor"

This story is set in a small town at Thanksgiving time. The main characters look for someone sick or someone poor that they can reach out to and give a dinner for on Thanksgiving Day. But they can’t find anybody “suitable”. Calliope, the main character, comments that because the town has “nobody sick, and nobody poor” in it, “It looks like God had afflicted us by not givin’ us anybody to do for.” They do cook up a Thanksgiving dinner and find people to eat it. This story illustrates several things about the culture of Thanksgiving: first, that it is a holiday meant for fellowship and good cheer, thankfulness, and it is difficult to commercialize it; second, that in many families charity is a part of it; and third, that it is an example of the voluntary way.

This poem captures the feeling about America and the American Dream at the beginning of the century, both from the point of view of residents, and that of immigrants. With the arrival of 20 million immigrants during the Gilded Age, and their fairly quick assimilation into American life, it is no wonder America became widely known as “the Land of Opportunity.” Lady Liberty cries in the poem, “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / . . . Send, these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me”.

The broad context is the devastation of Europe after World War II. The immediate context is that this is the commencement address at Harvard University in the spring of 1947. He points out that the entire infrastructure of the economy of Europe has broken down, and that this is a dire situation not only for Europe, but also for America and the world. He did not appeal to American generosity; instead he appealed to American interests in preventing a future world war and bolstering the American economy. “It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.” In the end, a highly successful European Recovery Program was carried out, and $13 billion of US assistance was infused into the European economies. Paul Johnson, the historian, remarks that, “it must be regarded as perhaps the most successful scheme of its kind in history. It was particularly effective in reinvigorating the economies of Germany, France, and Italy.” (Johnson, 1997, 813)

JFK was inaugurated as president when he was just 43 years old, the youngest president America has had, and the first Catholic. He became president in 1961, in the middle of the Cold War, and let the world know what America stands for with thee words: “[W]e shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any for, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” He also issued an inspiring call to self-reliance and public service: “[A]sk not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. / My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” He was assassinated in 1963.

King was the acknowledged leader of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Slaves had been freed since 1865, but there was widespread discrimination against black people. Jim Crow laws segregated the society in the southern states, and black people were not allowed to eat in the same restaurants, ride in the same passenger cars on the trains, sleep in the same hotels, or even drink from the same water fountains as white people. They had to enter by the back door and sit in the balcony at movie theaters; they had to sit at the back of the city buses. Rosa Parks one day refused to sit in the back of the bus, and sparked a year-long boycott of the city public transportation system. In 1960, the Supreme Court ordered schools to integrate, but they were very slow about it. Finally, Ruby Bridges, a six-year old girl was brave enough to go to a white school all by herself for first grade, starting in November 1960. All her classmates boycotted the school for that whole year; there were angry mobs outside the building every day, and federal troops had to give her an escort to and from the school because the city and state police wouldn’t do it. She received death threats, and ugly invective before and after school every day that year.

President Kennedy realized that a strong Civil Rights bill was needed, but it kept getting blocked in Congress. So all the different civil rights groups agreed to cooperate and planned a march on Washington in August 1963, hoping that this would lead to the bill being passed. On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people, 50,000 of the white, rallied at the Washington Monument in Washington DC. There was a long list of speakers and musicians, each of whom were allotted 15 minutes. King gave his “I Have A Dream” speech that became the hallmark of the civil rights movement –that gave the vision of a dream of a free and democratic America that was for all people, of any race, religion or ethnicity.

The speech begins by recalling the Emancipation Proclamation of 100 years earlier, and likened it to a promissory note which had still not been redeemed. King also quotes the Declaration of Independence: “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed – we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” There are many quotations and allusions to the Bble as well as to some of America’s patriotic songs. This has also been called a prose poem, due to the repetitions and parallel structures in it.

The rally and King’s speech were so effective that the Civil Rights bill passed through Congress and was signed into law in 1964.

21^st Century topics:

9/11, the War on Terror, America and Afganistan, Iraq, international security/European v. American ideas.

After the end of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a period of hopefulness and optimism about the future. It didn’t last long. When plane crashed into the twin Towers in New York City, into the Pentagon in Washington DC, and into a field in Pennsylvania (heading toward the Capitol Building or the White House in Washington) the enemy number one of the US became, not any country, but the radical, terrorist Islamicist groups such as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Boka Haram, and Hezbollah. Operations carried out in Afghanistan and Iraq and Iran have not proved successful in curtailing these movements, not even including the death of Osama bin Laden, one of the ringleaders of the 9/11 attack. US has not recently been targeted so much, but attackes in the Middle East and in Europe have highly increased. As soon as one group is defeated, another rises to take its place. Now the big problems are in Syria, with ISIL. In the early part of the 21^st century, Europe seriously preferred to meet these threats with negotiation, with “soft power”. But now it is seen that soft power without military backing is useless, and European countries are increasing their military spending, and sending troops to fulfil their NATO commitments.

American History & Culture – Homework Rules and Directions – Dr. Robbins

1. 
   Grading is objective. The grades will be calculated according to the percentages given in the course description.
   
   
   
2. 
   The marks: a ! means something like WOW! Or Impressive!
   

A ? means confusion; what you are attempting to write or say is unclear.

An X means this is just wrong.

3. 
   All homework assignments must have your name, the course, and the number of the assignment on them. They must be printed from a computer, not handwritten. The must be either 1.5 spaced. Single spacing is not acceptable.
   
4. 
   Late assignments will get one grade subtracted from the score: if it normally would get an 8; if it is late, it gets a 7. Any assignment that is more than two weeks late will get two grades subtracted.
   

I. Theoretical Justifications

A. Dissolving bonds – decent respect requires them to declare the causes

B. Take Separate and Equal Political Power and Status (like other Nations)

1. Entitled by Laws of Nature
2. Entitled by Nature’s God

C. Self-evident Truths

1. All men are created equal.

2. All are endowed by God with inalienable rights.

3. Governments are there to protect these rights.

4. When the government doesn’t protect the inalienable rights, the people have another right to abolish or alter it.

5. They also have the right to make a new government for themselves:

a. According to their own principles and Organization

b. According to their own ideas of producing Safety and Happiness

D. Objections and Replies

1. Governments that have lasted a long time should not be changed for light and short-term reasons.

2. The people should continue to suffer, so long as the evils are sufferable.

3. Absolute despotism is an insufferable evil.

4. It is the right and the duty of a people to throw off an absolute Tyranny.

II. Facts Supporting the Conclusion that the British government embodied in the King is an Absolute Tyranny

5. 
   Abuses of the King of Great Britain
   

1. 
   Legal Abuses
   
2. 
   Administrative Abuses
   
3. 
   Population Abuses
   
4. 
   Judicial Abuses
   
5. 
   Military Abuses
   
6. 
   Economic and Financial Abuses
   
7. 
   Business and Trade Abuses
   
8. 
   Property Abuses
   
9. 
   Human Relations Abuses
   

6. 
   Peaceful Complaints and Appeals
   

1. 
   Petitions were answered only by repeated injury
   
2. 
   Warnings and reminders of colonial history were ignored
   
3. 
   Appeals to justice and ties of kinship were ignored
   

1. 
   Who and How – We, the Representatives
   

1. 
   Appealing to God as witness of good intentions
   
2. 
   In the Name and by the Authority of the People
   

2. 
   What – Declare the Colonies are now Free and Independent States
   

1. 
   Absolved from allegiance to Great Britain
   
2. 
   All political connection is dissolved
   
3. 
   They have full power
   

1. 
   To levy war
   
2. 
   To conclude peace
   
3. 
   To contract alliances
   
4. 
   To establish commerce
   
5. 
   To exercise all their other rights
   

3. 
   In support of the declaration
   

1. 
   Rely on God’s protection
   
2. 
   Promise to each other
   

1. 
   Life
   
2. 
   Fortune
   
3. 
   Sacred Honour
   

Movie and Story Study Sheet

1. 
   Western vocabulary list: marshall, posse, raise a posse, the Pacific Flyer, two-bit outlaws, rustling, shake them, sheriff, affable, on the dodge, crib sheet, lawman, ambush, morons, give over
   

2. 
   About what year is it? Hint: “the war with the Spanish”
   

3. 
   What technology is available in this time? What things are new?
   

4. 
   Why did the sheriff called “ray” insist on being tied up?
   

5. 
   Who are Lord Baltimore and Joe LeFors?
   

6. 
   What details indicate that Butch and Sundance are operating in territories and not in states?
   

Interpretive questions:

7. 
   “Most of what follows is true.” What did the film makers mean by this?
   

8. 
   Why is being accused of cheating such a serious insult that men will fight gun battles over it?
   

9. 
   Why is Woodcock so loyal to Mr. E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad?
   

10. 
    How do the scenery and landscapes contribute to American culture?
    

11. 
    What makes Butch and Sundance so likeable? Why would people think of them as heroes rather than villains?
    

12. 
    Can you find instances of these kinds of verbal humor in the dialogue?
    Contradiction, Exaggeration, Understatement
    

Story – “Nobody Sick, Nobody Poor”

1. 
   There are some unusually spelled words in this story. For example, ‘real’ is spelled ‘rill’. Find some more examples. What does this unusual spelling indicate?
   

2. 
   Compare this story with “The Voluntary Way” reading assignment. What corresponding attitudes do you find?
   

3. 
   Compare this story with the parable of Jesus found in Matthew 25:31-46. How does this story illustrate how the religious roots of the colonists have spread through American culture, even to those who may not be Christians themselves?
   

4. 
   What does this story tell you about Thanksgiving of over 100 years ago?
   

Story – “One Thousand Dollars”

1. 
   List all the terms that indicate that the protagonist, Bobby Gillian, has a positive approach toward life. What do these terms tell you about his character?
   

2. 
   What things does Bobby lose in the story?
   

3. 
   What does the good mood show about American attitudes towards life in the face of all these losses?
   

4. 
   What connections between romantic love and money does this story illustrate? Would Bobby Gillian be a romantic hero in today’s Lithuania?