mastlawrence – U.S. to 1877

December 9, 2013

A reflection upon the class

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Taking a survey history course opened up my view on the history department and what a history major would mean at Davidson College. From this course I have taken an appreciation for not only American History, but for insightful, provocative, and researched discussions surrounding the topic. This being my first collegiate level history course, I have had an incredible and personally unique experience learning the subject material. However, the material itself felt like it stayed railed on the track of White Anglo Saxon male US history, and only occasionally addressing Slavery and especially Native American relation, while conversations in class tended to drift towards these topics. Overall I had a fantastic time in this class and am very happy I chose it to be my first experience with History at Davidson College!!!

December 4, 2013

The re-birth of a nation

In the final chapter of Inhuman Bondage, Davis discusses the end of the civil war, and the many multitudes of changes which come out of its conclusion. He addresses the ending of the Civil War as a re-birth of America, and the various economic, social, and political changes which were born of this this event. He first discusses the birth of the free Black male, who came riding into Richmond on Horseback with Lincoln to emancipate more slaves. Although this is unquestionably a positive social change, the romanticized language of Davis may stretch the truth as to how the heroic emancipation actually took place. By talking about his immanent death, Davis’s language portrays Lincoln as a selfless, Christlike figure, despite davis’s statement that he does not mean to do this. Davis addresses the social changes which came out of this horrific war, which is shown records of New-Engenders that believed that destructive war was only the first step in purifying the country from non-Godly things. Its getting real crusadish up in here.

speaking of war….

as JUHILL pointed out, this was an especially bad one. The Civil war is depicted by Davis as the birth of the modern, mechanical war, where not only soldiers but Gatling guns, more aerodynamic and heavier bullets, trains, telecommunications, and medical advances both prolonged the war and made it even more bloody and gruesome.

Overall, for a man doing a case study on Slavery, Davis’s view on the end of the Civil War can be considered well rounded, addressing not only the emancipation of slaves, but also many only social and political factors which would push forward civil rights in America for the coming years.

December 2, 2013

The Negotiation cat is in the bag, and the bag’s in the river

In the final chapters of Willentz , he discusses several of the volatile figures at the end of the Era of Secession which contributed to pushing the country towards civil war. The first is Chief Justice Taney, who was a staunch southerner, who held a strong affinity for southern culture and didnt not believe that black people, free or slaves, had any part in it or in being an american citizen. He also made the controversal ruling on the Dredd Scott case. This and other rulings within government, including the admission on Kansas as a slave state, worked to strengthen sectionalism in government. By this time, factionalism in government and the disdain each faction had for one another began spilling out past the point of negotiation, and even into violence on the house floor, as was the case during the Kansas state vote. As Malandini pointed out, Tensions rose eve further as civilian radicals such as John Brown began to surface during a time of already high tension and a government which could not handle domestic affairs effectively. The use of the sword from John Brown would push american media into a frenzy and send America down a path to war which was nigh impossible to diverge from.

November 11, 2013

The Adventures of Andrew Jackson and the Invisible Hand

We find much of WIllentz’s commentary on Andrew Jackson and the American economic system within his description of the battle between Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States (BUS) and the following aftermath. Generally, this chapter describes Andrew Jackson as a man of contradiction, especially in his populist stance. WIllentz tells us that Jackson fought for the liberation of the people and the government from the national bank, so that citizens could have the most direct access to a monetary system which funded a domestic economic system that was held accountable by the people. However, to reach these goals which are almost indicative of classical liberalism, Jackson engaged in major political manipulation which even led him to a censure. For someone who calls himself populist, this was a very realist maneuver.

Willentx goes on to state all of the problems which came about after the national bank was slain, which the changeover to coin currency from paper money and the massive levels of speculation which swept over the country before any benefit from the new system could take effect. Using the town of Woodberry, where ‘economic trauma’ took place due to land speculations and the new currency, many of Jackson’s supporters during the war on the bank began to criticize him for his ‘economic experiments’ but this whole debawkle just raises the question of just how much control does the president have over the economy? In most cases one could argue that the president has almost no control. In Jackson’s case, one could argue that the combination of taking land from the Native Americans and screwing with the currency was a perfect storm caused by Jackson himself. Some could argue that there was no way that speculation could get s out of control and there was no way for Jackson to know that. Magilland makes a good point in that this type of history tends to repeat itself, and by extension of parties fighting all the time always the misconception that the president is solely responsible for the state of the economy has arisen because the issue is almost constantly being politicized.

October 10, 2013

Good luck everyone!

October 2, 2013

What is this, Europe?

For real, though.

I’ve scrolled through the other blog posts and I see I might be the first to write about this so here’s my chance to bias everyone’s opinion! (Just like Thomas Paine)

The stance which the author of The Rise of American Democracy Wilentz takes on the American Revolution can almost be classified as Marxist. He prefaces his talk on the American Revolution with outlining of both the country and urban democracy, and defines the development of both as class struggle, with in each respective case the Rural farmers struggling against the aristocratic landowners or the Urban working class and petty merchants struggling against intelligentsia, Enlightenment era political leaders. Wilentz essentially outlines the causes of the American Revolution in the same manner that one would outline a revolution in Europe, with an extremely focus not on The British domination of Americans, and draws attention to the socio-economic conditions which existed within the colonies at the time. He makes his case by citing famous writings like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense as driving factors which increased antagonism towards both the British and the ruling elite as a whole.

So far I’m finding the new perspective very interesting and I’m honestly very excited to read on and see where Wilentz is going with this.

September 25, 2013

The Verbal Worship of the British Empire by Taylor

The Chapter 18 reading of American Colonies presents an alternative view of the New World. Whereas up until this point Taylor has described the New World in terms of settlement and development of political structures and economic systems, he now describes it as a battlefield to set the stage for the seven years war. He opens the history of war in the 18th century by stating that, despite having a well-funded army in the area, the French managed to lose a fortress at Louisberg to what was essentially a New English militia. After initial battles, both the French and the British realized that they needed to pay more attention to the New World as a theatre for warfare. However, as both colonial areas developed into the mid 18th century, population dynamics shifted so that the British found themselves at a massive advantage. They enjoyed areas of centralized, high density population, whereas the French found themselves dispersed along hundreds of miles of land that frankly was unsustainable and nobody could really live on. This lead to a particular point where Taylor refers to the French as “more restrained and civil” during the seven years war.

Really?

He goes on to explain himself by stating that since the French had such a dispersed population, they knew that the only way to win the seven years war was to gain the help of the Indian population, and become their puppeteers so that the Indian nations between the French and British Borders would die for the French. I completely agree with Jelaws post stating that The British, in this and several other instances, are painted in far too kind a light.

However, this does not excuse the indignation of the colonists that is described in later chapters. In exchange for fighting for and successfully defending the colonies, The British began to raise taxes on the colonists that were minuscule compared to taxes in England, and extremely affordable in the economy of the New World. However, the Colonists believed that they were being oppressed by their mother country because they were being asked to pay in VERY small part for a war which the British fought for them. Taylor describes the taxes being viewed as an “attack on liberty”, but, as always, in reality there is always a much more simple and pragmatic cause for government actions. Like trying to pay for two imperial wars at once.

September 18, 2013

Inhuman Bondage: Chapter 6

In chapter 6, Davis discusses slave culture and social norms along the Atlantic coast. Rather than the arguements Taylor put forth, showing the similarities and differences between the three geographical regions, Davis makes the case that slave culture and treatment differed along lines that were by no means geographical. The differences between how black slaves were treated, he points out, is far too complex to be grouped into distinct categories, and even within small regions slave social norms take on unique identities. He points out an example from the mid atlantic colonies, where a graveyard of 23,000 dead slaves were found buried, but within the same community slaves were allowed to eat the same food at the same table with their white masters. As in the nature of the text, Inhuman Bondage dives deeper into the story of African American’s lives as slaves, and how many of them worked the system to become free men. Davis discusses how slaves would spend time learning about christian culture, and use it to their advantage in order to bargain to for their freedom, or in most cases half-freedom. Davis also makes the argument that a major reason for the difference in the number of slaves was due to the number of indentured servants available to work in the particular region. He states that many of the northern areas had less slaves because many vagrants and criminals from Britain were being shipped over in order to work,and that slavery boomed when the labor pool of indentured servants dries up. Overall, I enjoy the more focused writing of Davis, and his ability to condense large ideas into concrete writing that paint an alternative picture of slavery in colonial america

September 9, 2013

Week 3 Chapter 4 and 5

This being the first non-American Colonies reading assigned, I found the change in perspective extremely refreshing. The author brought the issue of slavery in the American colonies to a much more grandiose scale, comparing it with instances of human domination which occurred in Europe’s past and describing how these instances created the social climate which allowed for the mass trafficking of African Slaves. One unique argument made by Davis in chapter 4 was that if it could have ever become culturally Legitimate, Europeans colonizers would have enslaved the vagabonds and criminals within Europe and avoided the expense of Trafficking from Africa all together.

Although I’m sure that all of us have have heard a description of the conditions which slaves were shipped to America in, the one put forth in Inhuman Bondage resonated with me and projected a lasting image by prefacing the few details put forth with a sentence stating that no human words can describe the horror of the transport vessels, and that only the Holocaust and Roman Slavery were even on par.

Davis also does an excellent job of outlining the details of the trade, such as the route which slaves were taken and their various stops which connect to create an extremely complex mass transit system developed by the Europeans, especially in the New World, where control was constantly being lost and gained. The nature of these two chapters show a complexity and denseness which is not found in American Colonies, but does an effective job of describing a horrific system which played an incredibly significant role in the development of the colonies.

Davis also makes MUCH more effective use of maps.